Introducing the Non-Lethal Pain Gun

Three years ago, I was shot by the U.S. Air Force. It hurt like hell, but it didn't kill me. Nor were there any residual effects. In fact, five seconds after they shot me, I could barely tell that anything had happened at all. The weapon they hit me with was the Active Denial System—a microwave pain beam. I volunteered as a test subject for a story on nonlethal weapons, and the Air Force saw no reason not to shoot a journalist with the thing. You can read about my superhuman pain-endurance capabilities here. (Actually, I sprang into the air like a ballerina the second they turned it on.)

After several years of further development and miniaturization, it looks like the Air Force is about to deploy the pain beam to Iraq as a crowd-control device. It remains controversial, because the implications of its strategic use are still unknown, and some think the long-term residual effects on victims have yet to be fully assessed. I can tell you from experience, though, that apart from my newfound ability to heat up cups of tea simply by staring intensely at them for 15 seconds, I've suffered no ill effects. [Side note: In the Wired article below, the writer's being a bit dramatic. The truth is, you don't actually feel like you've been dipped in molten lava, and you don't almost faint from shock and pain. Your body acts faster than you can think, so you don't stick around long enough to get even close to fainting. Deployed versions would have built-in cutoffs to prevent the beam from lingering long enough on an individual to have such effects.] Also, watch for our February feature on nonlethal weapons being adopted by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. —Eric Adams

Link via Wired

Comments

[Soni]

So, how long do you think it will take for those "aggressive interrogation" folks to hack the auto-shutoff safety mechanism? I'm thinking not too long.

Disturbing thought, no?

[Tac]

Disturbing thought? NO. The fact that we could use this technology to harmlessly pry life-SAVING information out of terrorist scum is a COMFORTING thought. And yet, some folks will still whine about the rights of the poor downtrodden terrorist nutcases who want to kill them. QFT.

[Soni]

Yeah, because if you're in soul-searing pain that you know can and very well may be never-ending simply because it's non-fatal enough to be made never-ending, you'll only tell the truth about what you know and never, ever implicate ANYONE, EVERYONE, WHOEVER THE FRAK YOU WANT ME TO SIGN OFF ON JUST GIVE ME THE PEN FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SHUT IT OFF SHUTITOFFSHUTITOFF!!!!!

Because the specter of never ending, crippling pain that overwhelms every physical, emotional, ethical and mental function but the single need to make it stop really does bring out the truthiness in us all.

[IMAS2]

Soon they will build this into helicopters so they can use it whenever and wherever they need. Seems a much better alternative to using up ammo and doing more harm to people. So far, nobody has been able to withstand it for more than a couple of seconds. It triggers them to voluntarily clear out. Very smart!

[G]

What if you are tied down and can't clear out?

[G]

Tac is right. We should use this on US leadership to make them stop commiting acts of terror in Iraq.

[dmm]

I'm thinking that interrogators who torture people already have many choices. A device like this would be needlessly expensive. Not to mention that if the Pentagon is considering fielding this, then the genie is already out of the bottle.

[zsolmanz]

Look on the good side: If it's finally going to be proved that microwave radiation this intense doesn't have any lasting effects, then perhaps everyone can put the gripes about mobile phone masts behind them?

[heikki]

You Americans who endorse this kind of torture weapons are considered barbaric by your European ex-allies. Along with the death penalty.. get over it and move your medieval society forward !

[justin]

i like how you assume everyone is guilty.

"Disturbing thought? NO. The fact that we could use this technology to harmlessly pry life-SAVING information out of terrorist scum is a COMFORTING thought. And yet, some folks will still whine about the rights of the poor downtrodden terrorist nutcases who want to kill them. QFT."

[Dave]

So how long until our enemies reverse engineer this or until China starts inserting them into McDonalds toys?

[Trav]

"we could use this technology to harmlessly pry life-SAVING information out of terrorist scum is a COMFORTING thought"

Wait until you're suspected of something and see how much comfort it is...

[M Hirsch]

To QFT:
The US govt has yet to come forth with any concrete, detailed examples of when torture "saved American lives."

Meanwhile, fanaticism against 'the terrorists' has justifie the slaying of 100,000 civilians in Iraq (even if 10% of them were your "terrorists," that's still 90,000 corpses of people who weren't a part of this war and have done no wrong for our 2800 (not 3k as you can assume that the 200 or so people killed in the pentagon strike are combatants.))

[John Rambo]

Read some science, people:

http://www.physorg.com/news172766365.html

Also, torture is against your constitution due to you signing anti-torture and human rights treaties.

You need to live up to your word and put torturers to prison.

[dot tilde dot]

this machine might even end filibuster speeches in the house.

.~.

[Jimbo Jones (yeah right).]

I've worked for 12 years in counter-terrorism. It's PROVEN FACT that torture gives you no more intelligence than when you use non-violent, non-pharmaceutical methods.

Standard interrogation techniques have been well groomed over many many decades and are very effective.

Humans are humans, some will always lie, some will always stay quiet, some will always rat out their friends. It's human nature. The best solution is to gather your intelligence from another source if your mark doesn't spill the beans. Time's a wastin' and torture takes waaaaay too much time. Seriously, a bucket of piss-water and saran wrap just isn't as intimidating as it used to be.

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