[ oops -- pulled the trigger too quick!]
In a message dated 3/11/00 11:48:48 PM Central Standard Time,
klemencc@sgi.net writes:
> With the trend being to reduce "collateral damage" in military operations
> and to adopt sub-lethal weapons in police operations (because of a growing
> sensitivity on the part of an informed public?), couldn't the end result be
> the development of something with the equivalent effect of H.G.Wells' gas
of
> peace in his film Things to Come? The mode of delivery pictured there would
> be impractical, but what about a subsubmunition resembling a swarm of gnats
> (with boring capabilities) delivering a sleeping gas by injection? To be
> followed by swift occupation and disarmament of the 'bad guys'. That's
> crude, but you get the idea.
Obviously, I believe this is one underlying, genuine motivation (along with
profit and sheer geeky pursuit of cool tech) behind the development of these
kinds of weapon systems. Of course, super-smart weapons will also have the
potential to serve as weapons of mass destruction, once self-replication
arrives on the scene. Only time and a continuing effort for civil society to
control the military will tell which way they are used.
Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<gburch@lockeliddell.com>
Attorney ::: Vice President, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
ICQ # 61112550
"We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know
enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another
question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species."
-- Desmond Morris
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