Ray Gun Puts Voices Inside Your Head 517
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."
Comment removed (Score:1, Insightful)
That's Ironic (Score:5, Insightful)
scary. (Score:5, Insightful)
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:Ha! See! I told you! (Score:5, Insightful)
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:That's Ironic (Score:5, Insightful)
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...
Re:scary. (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't react. If they believe they can't contact you, then they'll try something else to get whatever they want out of you before killing your wife. It will at least give you some awareness of the situation and probably buy your wife some more time.
Re:That's Ironic (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
You already have this. The right to free speech is NOT the right to be heard by everyone, despite what a lot of people think.
Be great for parents of teenagers... (Score:5, Insightful)
Heck, combine it with some prerecorded messages and parents will snap these up "for the children".
Top sellers could be:
All with constant repetition which only ends when the desired action is performed.
Just what we need (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Ha! See! I told you! (Score:5, Insightful)
1) Subliminal messages don't work. It's a sham that a psychologist made with fake data that scared the crap out of politicians so that a law was implemented quickly and people fear it to this day (though I still do fear spammers using this, as they have no morals).
So... Why exactly do you fear it if it doesn't work?
Re:I AM laughing at you! (Score:3, Insightful)
I've been saying this all along. Tinfoil hats,and Faraday cage like devices in general, can't be relied upon unless they're grounded.
In many cases, you'll get significant attenuation without grounding, as in the case of foil shields for protecting passport RFIDs, but grounding, even imperfect grounding, would improve shielding tremendously.
Obviously, you should run a wire from your tinfoil hat to a conductive grounding strip attached to the heel of your shoe. Then you replace your floors with carbon impregnated panels, and for the final touch connect them to a six foot copper rod driven into the earth.
Re:Ha! See! I told you! (Score:5, Insightful)
1) Subliminal messages don't work. It's a sham that a psychologist made with fake data that scared the crap out of politicians so that a law was implemented quickly and people fear it to this day (though I still do fear spammers using this, as they have no morals).
So... Why exactly do you fear it if it doesn't work?
Because audible spam in my head would be even worse than the e-mailed spam in my in-box or the visible spam on billboards (and bus stops, sides of buildings/cars, etc.)
Re:Ha! See! I told you! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Ha! See! I told you! (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, that'll stop this from widespread use.
Like how they banned Tasers, because attaining the necessary pain might involve power levels that could cause cardiac arrhythmia.
Oh, wait, no they don't... All those people died of "excited delerium" [slashdot.org], not Taser-induced arrhythmia. Slip o' the tongue there, don't sue me bro...
Re:Ha! See! I told you! (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, that sure worked for Stalin and Mao Tse Tung. They never committed any atrocities at all.
The reality is that there are a few nutballs out there in every religion, including atheism.
I think the (tinfoil hat) joke is on us this time. (Score:5, Insightful)
Massive wiretapping? Check.
Ubiquitous surveillance? Check.
Substantial expansion of state power? Check.
Secret prisons and disappearances? Check.
Directed energy weapons (both pain and sound)? Check.
Classified laws? Check.
Mercenaries who answer to no law?? Check.
Seriously. They still have some really wacky ones about reptoids and masons and things; but much of conspiracy lore is so common that it doesn't even make the front pages anymore. The joke is on us.
Re:And we wonder why people are paranoid? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you are so crazy that you think Santa Clause is an FBI agent out to kill you and you strike out that does not meet the standard for legal insanity here.
That's OK with me. Sorry if it seems callous, but a mentally ill murderer is still a murderer. Criminal law serves to protect the public. It sucks to have mental illness and to be locked up, but it sucks more to get stabbed to death on a subway train.
Re:Use for the Deaf. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ha! See! I told you! (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, and as an aside, don't you just love how when you read a report on any Taser incident, the police never mention the LAW, it's always about POLICY. Think about that, they are concerned with POLICY over LAW, something you would expect from a for-profit industry trying to maximize gains, but from a government agency specifically designed to uphold the LAW?
I know, some people are going to say that they follow policy which is more strict than the law, to which I call bullshit. If -I- were to taser you for noncompliance, I go to jail, because of my lack of a State Authorized shiny piece of tin on my chest. It's really that simple, just because you're a cop, doesn't mean you can break the law, the only instances of special treatment allowed by law are those bits that are actually CODIFIED into the law, anything else is abusing your position (that position being that it's far less likely to be arrested). I highly doubt that there are laws allowing you to physically harm someone who is not breaking any laws, but it seems that many police officers mistakenly think that whatever they tell you to do IS law.
Re:And we wonder why people are paranoid? (Score:2, Insightful)
Wouldn't the money be better spent treating people prior to problems cropping instead of keeping them locked up afterwards?
A criminal justice system is not designed to help sick people.
Re:Ha! See! I told you! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:scary. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ha! See! I told you! (Score:3, Insightful)
> If -I- were to taser you for noncompliance, I go to jail, because of
> my lack of a State Authorized shiny piece of tin on my chest.
One definition of 'government' is that it is the entity which claims a monopoly on the 'legitimate' use of force. Something to keep in mind when considering giving it additional authority, especially if the task can possibly be done by a private entity.
But thankfully our form of government (US) doesn't give a monopoly on teh use of force to the State. You CAN tase a bro if he is attempting to use force against you and in most jurisdictions (i.e those that are lawless) you will not be punished. The 2nd Amendment was recently affirmed to protect an individual right to the possession, bearing and yes the lawful use thereof. Our government gets it's powers from We the People and thus in theory doesn't any powers we didn't have to give it and we kept a generous portion.
Re:Ha! See! I told you! (Score:3, Insightful)
2. Rocking out to the loudest concert in history without anyone outside the venue hearing a whisper of it (on second thought, the RIAA might require this, so maybe it's not so good)
Followed by a dead-black spaceship plummeting into a nearby sun.
Behind The Curve(s) (Score:3, Insightful)
"...a damned scary ray gun that uses the 'microwave audio effect' to implant sounds and perhaps even specific messages inside people's heads."
A little late to be crying "damned scary" wolf. The effects was proven about 25 years ago.
Yes, specific messages. In the original research the test was to beam spoken numbers (one at a time, 1 through 20) at the subject and have them guess which number it was. Results were 80% to 100% correct.
It's not subliminal in the denotation of 'below the level of conscious awareness'. The perception is that of a "heard" sound.
I'm surprised it took this long for someone to come out with this. The original works was, after all, done on commercially technology of the time.
Re:One step closer to Futurama (Score:2, Insightful)
True, but completely offtopic. If the topic or a comment quotes Romeo and Juliet, I just might point that out.
The difference, of course, is that it's unlikely that Shakespeare read the Italian poem, but very likely that Futurama's writers have read Dreaming Is A Private Thing (the story is a commentary about writers). It's even likely that the Asimov reference was put there on purpose; that would be my assumption and I would applaud Futurama's writers for it if so.
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