Re: near anything boxes allowed to br in the hands of the public?

From: GBurch1@aol.com
Date: Sun Mar 12 2000 - 10:32:28 MST


[ 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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