Ray Gun Puts Voices Inside Your Head

Sportsqs writes "The Sierra Nevada Corporation claimed this week that it is ready to begin production on the MEDUSA, a damned scary ray gun that uses the 'microwave audio effect' to implant sounds and perhaps even specific messages inside people's heads."

Ha! See! I told you!

There you guys sit, all laughing at me at pointing and jeering at my Tinfoil Hat 3000(tm), but look who's sitting pretty now! Ha! Fsckers!

Re:Ha! See! I told you!

There you guys sit, all laughing at me at pointing and jeering at my Tinfoil Hat 3000(tm), but look who's sitting pretty now! Ha! Fsckers!

You won't be sitting pretty when you shiny new hat starts to spark and arc like a fork in the microwave!

Re:Ha! See! I told you!

Somethings telling me to "Move along, there's nothing to see here".

Re:Ha! See! I told you!

1) Subliminal messages don't work. It's a sham that a psychologist made with fake data,,,

That's right! It's nothing but a load of rich creamery butter!

Equality

It's like curing Schizophrenia the backwards way!

Re:Ha! See! I told you!

I was going to make fun of you, but then my new friend Roger told me not to.

I AM laughing at you!

http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/ [mit.edu]

Conclusion
The helmets amplify frequency bands that coincide with those allocated to the US government between 1.2 Ghz and 1.4 Ghz. According to the FCC, These bands are supposedly reserved for ''radio location'' (ie, GPS), and other communications with satellites (see, for example, [3]). The 2.6 Ghz band coincides with mobile phone technology. Though not affiliated by government, these bands are at the hands of multinational corporations.

It requires no stretch of the imagination to conclude that the current helmet craze is likely to have been propagated by the Government, possibly with the involvement of the FCC. We hope this report will encourage the paranoid community to develop improved helmet designs to avoid falling prey to these shortcomings.

Ha Ha!

/Nelson

Re:Ha! See! I told you!

"all standard forms of defence against auditory input" probably means anything in or covering your ears. The tinfoil hat only blocks electromagnetic waves, which is what they are supposedly using.

The tinfoil hat might actually be one of the few ways you can block this without any special materials or equipment.

If they see someone with a tinfoil hat, they'll probably just yell at him.

Re:Ha! See! I told you!

It's more scary than cool.

The article at NewScientist [newscientist.com] says:

MEDUSA involves a microwave auditory effect "loud" enough to cause discomfort or even incapacitation. Sadovnik says that normal audio safety limits do not apply since the sound does not enter through the eardrums.

Also from NewScientist, a member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Illinois in Chicago who has also worked on the technique has commented that while feasible, attaining the necessary volume might involve power levels that could cause neural damage.

Since 1986...

...I've had the voice of Reagan inside my head.

Re:Since 1986...

Reagan? Wasn't that the name of the possessed girl in The Exorcist?

Thanks to these microwave guns, you no longer need to be schitzophrenic to hear voices. There have been a lot of tinfoil hat jokes (of course) in the comments, but it appears that if you're going to be part of a political demonstration from now on, a tinfoil hat may be necessary to keep the Secret Police out of your head.

Sierra Nevada?

I wonder how many Pale Ales you have to drink to get the same effect.

That's Ironic

that they should name it Medusa, a villain who was defeated by reflecting it's magic back at it...

Re:That's Ironic

Unfortunately, this time she's not sentient.

This goes just too far. If there were ever to be a law against free speech, this would be it, because I don't want to listen to what this thing has to say. I value silence. That ear plugs wouldn't work against this thing...

They obviously didn't consider..

.. the fact it wouldn't affect people who already hear voices.

Is this the same...

technology as the /. article a few months ago? I seem to remember a govt prototype or some such device that was trying to do the same thing. In any case, I hope this spurs the development of professionally made tin foil hats. The crude home-made variety aren't going to cut it anymore.

The Sierra Nevada Corporation?

Are they working out of Black Mesa?

Re:The Sierra Nevada Corporation?

that was a joke,
ha ha
fat chance

So will the 2.0 version use Gamma Radiation?

In my day they only had ads on TV and radio. And in magazines and movies and ball games and on buses and milk cartons and written in the sky. But not in dreams, no-siree!

Where did the development $ come from?

Is this one of DARPA's toys?

That explains it.

Microwave audio effect? That explains why I keep hearing "90% power... white rice... sensor cook" over and over again.

scary.

remote torture anybody?

imagine playing Cliff Richard to you victim incessantly. unable to sleep. unable to get away from it. all you need is somebody to point this thing at his head.

imagine doing it at just enough of a low level so he is not aware of it.

imagine jururs being threatened at long range. imagine blackmail from a distance.

what if an unverifiable, untraceable voice announces in your ear "rob the bank or I shoot your wife", what would you do?

this is damn scary, where is my magneto helmet?

Re:scary.

imagine playing Cliff Richard to you victim incessantly. unable to sleep. unable to get away from it. all you need is somebody to point this thing at his head.

Imagine the rick rolling possibilities. We're in for a world of pain if these things become available on the internet.

On a more serious note, engineering and scientific work ethics? Does that at all exist anymore? I can't imagine anyone willingly developing a technology with so many malevolent uses. Didn't we learn anything from the Manhattan project?

One step closer to Futurama

Fry: So you're telling me they broadcast commercials into people's dreams?

Leela: Of course.

Fry: But how is that possible?

Professor Farnsworth: It's very simple. The ad gets into your brain just like this liquid gets into this egg. [Holds up an egg and injects it with liquid from a syringe until the egg explodes.]

Although, in reality, it's not liquid, but gamma radiation.

Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 21st century?

Fry: Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games... and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts, and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams, no siree.

Re:Getting laid more

Toot with this i can now insert the message "Sleep with me" in the heads of attractive women everywhere!!!

Denise Richards & the olsen twins here I come..

Ok, now I'm confused.