Introducing the Non-Lethal Pain Gun

By popsci Posted 12.07.2006 at 1:51 pm 8 Comments

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

8 Comments

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popsci

12/07/06 at 9:21 pm

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?

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popsci

12/14/06 at 10:42 am

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.

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popsci

12/14/06 at 9:21 pm

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.

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popsci

12/18/06 at 2:11 am

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!

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popsci

12/21/06 at 3:25 pm

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

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popsci

12/21/06 at 3:30 pm

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

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popsci

12/22/06 at 11:20 am

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.

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cetok01

07/25/09 at 7:37 pm

It would make perfect sense for police to use such a non-lethal device for, say, crowd control in a riot situation. My only fear is the form of government that uses it. Our current administration, for instance, shows no reluctance to use any crisis to advance its own agenda.