
US Military Scientists Generate Voices Remotely via Laser - domevent
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/19568/us-military-scientists-are-building-a-laser-cannon-that-shoots-disembodied-voices
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azernik
"Both the U.S. military and the U.S. Intelligence Community would undoubtedly
love to have the ability to direct disconcerting or false messages out of thin
air at the enemy or even a particular individual, such as a terrorist leader.
They might mistake the experience for some sort of divine intervention or a
deteriorating mental condition."

This is total BS. Successful terrorists leaders, even religious ones, are not
clueless primitives - they've grown up with the usual array of technology
(even if it's the cheap versions affordable in poor countries), and often make
sophisticated user of it when planning and executing their missions. usually
sophisticated users of technology, and . Once this project is common
knowledge, they'll be reminded that the US knows where they are, but they
won't jump to supernatural explanations.

~~~
doyoulikeworms
People aren’t machines. Imagine yourself as a terrorist leader.

The US Army is combing the area you’re hiding in and you’re just waiting for
an opportunity to slip away to fight another day. The isolation and paranoia
are mounting, and you’re wondering why you decided to put yourself and your
compatriots through this terrifying time. News from the field: they raided one
of your supply caches and captured your closest co-conspirator. What about my
family? What would my father think of me right now?

And then a disembodied voice gently beckons you to surrender.

~~~
azernik
Sure, it could have an emotional effect - same as loudspeakers, only more
intimate. But proposing that someone would "mistake the experience for some
sort of divine intervention or a deteriorating mental condition" is a
statement about a person's view of the factual reality you live in, which
tends to remain intact even in stressful situations.

My issue is not with the funding of this project or with its use in
counterinsurgency operations; it's with journalism that paints (mostly Muslim)
terrorists as superstitious primitives, when in fact they are thoroughly
products of modern society.

~~~
daveFNbuck
Typical members of modern society wouldn't assume that voices in their heads
are being beamed in by the government. It's much more rational to think you
have a deteriorating mental condition. If you believe in a personal god that
communicates directly with people, that's also a viable option. That's a very
common belief in the US.

~~~
TeMPOraL
> _Typical members of modern society wouldn 't assume that voices in their
> heads are being beamed in by the government._

Of course they would, if a) it was common, factual knowledge that the
government actively uses such technology, and b) if they were a target for
such government. a) and b) will immediately be true for terrorists, if this
tech gets deployed.

~~~
jryle70
>> Typical members of modern society wouldn't assume that voices in their
heads are being beamed in by the government.

> Of course they would, if a) it was common, factual knowledge that the
> government actively uses such technology, and b) if they were a target for
> such government. a) and b) will immediately be true for terrorists, if this
> tech gets deployed.

Governments use propaganda, sure, but "beaming voices into people's head",
without their knowledge? I haven't heard of it, definitely not common
knowledge. Do you have a source?

~~~
daveFNbuck
I believe the source is this article.

~~~
jryle70
Yes. My reading comprehension failed. I read it as something that had been
going on.

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kosei
The idea of sending the sound of gunfire into a peaceful rally with armed cops
nearby is frightening.

~~~
partiallypro
How so? It can already be done with anything, like a firecracker. Cops at
protests are use to it loud noises. I'm not saying cops are good or bad, just
that I don't see how this in particular is all that troubling. Cops aren't
generally (in the West) going to fire live ammunition into an open crowd.
Generally they will use rubber bullets or things that disperse the crowd.

~~~
scentoni
What happens when 3 cops know it and 10 cops don’t? Warrior mentality + sudden
noises = dead civilians, particularly PoC

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goldenkey
Keep in mind that these "Active Denial Systems" have been abused in torturing
prisoners in LA county, in some cases to near death.

[https://youtu.be/t4lS7nlR_BY](https://youtu.be/t4lS7nlR_BY)
[https://www.courthousenews.com/man-says-l-a-jailers-shot-
him...](https://www.courthousenews.com/man-says-l-a-jailers-shot-him-with-
heat-ray/)

~~~
John_KZ
And they will get abused in the future. It's freaking me out when there's so
little resistance or even negative comments on the development and adoption of
such systems.

This is something you'd expect the Nazis or Franco to celebrate, not United
States.

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aj7
Know why this is released to the public? Because the work is garbage. And it
wasn’t cheap to do it either. Just see what it costs to purchase a KM Labs
Dragon laser system. At any one time, there’s a huge amount of military
research done at scattered, small labs. A guy gets good at writing contract
proposals. He hangs out a shingle and gets a $250k-$1M contract. He hires some
down-in-their-luck laser physicist(s) or the equivalent who had weak thesis
topics, or who want to learn how to do this business themselves. A few people
make nice salaries. The work is quickly forgotten. Rinse and repeat.

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jcims
Isn't this just an audio modulated version of this:
[http://www.physicscentral.com/explore/action/femtosecond-
hol...](http://www.physicscentral.com/explore/action/femtosecond-hologram.cfm)
(it's hard to find a version of this with the original audio intact, it makes
a crackling sound just like the video above)

Here's one from 10 years ago:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HHJhpStza0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HHJhpStza0)

So not really new tech, just a weird application of it.

~~~
jcims
haha -
[https://youtu.be/ML79u9zPZu4?t=2m47s](https://youtu.be/ML79u9zPZu4?t=2m47s)

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chestervonwinch
Not looking forward to this being combined with targeted advertising.

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LifeLiverTransp
Wow- one step closer - two Laser interacting generate Plasma. Now you can
print 3dimensional plasma into mid air- now all you need is a lightning, and
you printed a space-gun coil-gun/launchloop into mid air.

Who cares about crowdcontroll if we can go to space for cheap.

~~~
loup-vaillant
The energies required may not be cheap…

~~~
LifeLiverTransp
Wasnt there this spot on the planet with constant thunderstorms?

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYVWb_QgQwU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYVWb_QgQwU)

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pcf
Kate Bush sang about this in 1986, in "Experiment IV":
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTUcoR8_pyE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTUcoR8_pyE)

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booleandilemma
Combine this with tech that can mimic your own voice and it gets _really_
weird.

[https://www.technologyreview.com/the-
download/610386/a-new-a...](https://www.technologyreview.com/the-
download/610386/a-new-algorithm-can-mimic-your-voice-with-just-snippets-of-
audio/)

~~~
Thibodeau
Or anyone else’s voice. Someone on the phone waiting for nuclear launch code
verification never gets the right code, even though it’s a familiar voice on
the line.

Or damaging a competitor’s business relationships with opportunistically
broadcasted lewd comments, when people aren’t looking at each other’s faces
enough to see their mouths move.

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scandox
The Inaudible Man from BBC4’s The Mausoleum Club:

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007k1w6](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007k1w6)

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MR4D
Wonder what will happen to this technology when Facebook gets hold of it.

Voices from all the friends you’ve ever called or texted appearing out of
nowhere?

Scary stuff.

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syshum
Ohh Goody... This will not be abused at all. No No...

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ineedasername
So pretty soon it will be cheap and easy to shoot voices into people's
heads... what could go wrong!

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yorby
non-lethal, but it can burn your retina or even your shirt...

~~~
syshum
I thought developing weapons for maiming (which Blinding is) was considered
Unethical and Bared by many international treaties...

~~~
stevenwoo
Blinding can't be the primary objective - so make sure your laser weapons are
strong enough to burn a hole in your military target's head to abide by my non
lawyer reading of this.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Certain_Conventi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Certain_Conventional_Weapons)

------
throwawaylalala
Check out the Dolphin attack recently discussed RE Cuba.

~~~
bitumen
Lasers are strictly line-of-sight, and don’t go through walls. Laser would
make a poor candidate, and wouldn’t cause brain damage.

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alphastar010
From what I saw in the video, there was nothing really impressive about this
technology (shooting a laser at a log). Tech Readiness level 4 at the MOST.

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woweeeee
Okay, I don’t like the future anymore. Can we go backwards through time yet?

We’re supposed to be the country that’s against the cruel and unusual shit.

~~~
bigbluedots
Sorry, you stopped being the 'good guys' sometime shortly after WW2.

~~~
ende
Yeah too bad the baton was handed off to those darling Soviets, eh comrade?

~~~
dang
Please don't respond to a bad comment by making the thread even worse.

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bitumen
I’m still pretty sure that they’re mostly paranoid schizophrenics, but this is
more or less what “targeted individuals” claim is being done to them.
Technology makes it harder and harder to reach delusional people, when their
delusions become technically possible. How bizarre!

~~~
FeepingCreature
If you're mentally healthy, and the government is genuinely beaming voices in
your ears, what happens if you take antipsychotics?

~~~
zeofig
That's when you see through the grand illusion and achieve total masterful
ascendency. But not before committing a number of felonies.

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looeee
What did those disembodied voices do to deserve being shot?

~~~
jessaustin
The title has serious issues. Why not "US Military Scientists Generate Voices
Remotely via Laser"?

~~~
dang
Yes. We'll use that. Thanks!

