Like Being Splashed With Scalding Hot Water

Via Crooks and Liars:

Apparently we (and by "we" I mean our U.S. military) have a functional weapon that is capable of projecting intense waves of thermal radiation through the air towards anything that gets in its way over a significant distance. Essentially, we have the first portable (well, mounted to a truck) ray gun. Yes, ray gun.

Thermal radiation is not the most powerful form of radiation, leaving it unable to penetrate deeply into human tissue. Therefore it's unlikely to do any major damage to organs and gets trapped in the superficial layers of the skin. Conveniently enough, however, it penetrates deeply enough to stimulate the nerve endings of sensory neurons that project to our skin. In essence, we can feel intense waves of heat without actually being exposed to outright damaging thermal agents.

Some journalist dude from 60 minutes submits himself as a test subject to the ray gun. It's pretty funny looking considering you see and hear nothing in particular, nor does it elicit any obvious signs of pain we normally associated with warfare, like cringing, screaming, or gore. But it's pretty amazing that it can just stop people in their tracks and make them abandon forward progress, and that the effect lasts only as long as the neurons are being stimulated.



The lengthier version can be found here if you want to see more about the politics of the weapon. I have to say that I think this "weapon" has extreme potential in warfare and riot control in that it seems less likely to cause physical damage (although I do speculate about very prolonged exposure to the thermal radiation and what that might do to people's temperature sensation, and certainly authorities' past misuse of taser technology makes me wonder if there isn't a high potential for abuse). It is also capable of dispelling large groups of people with, again, little overt consequence if used in the proper context (i.e., it's better than bombing or gassing people)

However, there are two aspects to this that the lengthier clip raises that I find a little unsettling. First of all, when demonstrating the weapon, they had a mock peace-rally that they shot upon, which seems like a poor choice of mock targets to demonstrate upon. I think it kind of sends the wrong message to firing anything upon peace protesters. The second thing that is really disturbing is that while some Army officials are pushing heavily to implement this in war zones and use this as a standard weapon for military operations, they are facing a very difficult uphill battle. Why you might ask? Because it doesn't kill people. Yes, the military has a tool in hand to control masses without killing them and they are completely and utterly resistant to it. How fucked up is that?