Seven Sci-Fi Weapons from Tomorrow Are Here Today

Discussion in 'Science & Society' started by common_sense_seeker, Jun 17, 2010.

  1. common_sense_seeker Bicho Voador & Bicho Sugador Valued Senior Member

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  3. Anarcho Union No Gods No Masters Registered Senior Member

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    Dude. They have freakin lazer beams. Sweet
     
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  5. phlogistician Banned Banned

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    Number 4 being an artist's impression, how can you use the phrase 'Here today'?
     
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  7. Kernl Sandrs Registered Senior Member

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    Because it is.

    Skip to 0:35. The first half is just uphill walking.
     
  8. phlogistician Banned Banned

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    Several things, one it's not a weapon, two, that's just a prototype. Three, it's been just a prototype for quite some time now and has not gone into service.
     
  9. Kernl Sandrs Registered Senior Member

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    I agree with you there, the title said "Seven Sci-Fi weapons from tomorrow are here today." But it could have other applications other than hauling heavy loads. It could have weapons mounted on it.

    I never said it wasn't. The cloak and rail-gun are not field ready, either. Doesn't mean they're not "here today."


    Yes,most prototypes are prototypes for quite some time...That's what makes them prototypes. Otherwise they wouldn't be prototypes, they would be fully-operational weapons, wouldn't they?

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  10. madanthonywayne Morning in America Registered Senior Member

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    Death Ray:

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    Vaporizing things and folks with a powerful ray has been a staple of fervid sci-fi imaginations since the beginnings of the genre. Today, we’ve got weaponized lasers to do that for us. Boeing recently offered a powerful proof-of-concept of the lethal capabilities of airborne laser weapons when it blasted a ballistic missile into oblivion from its Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB). The modified B 747-400 is fitted with a Northrup Gruman megawatt-class laser (read higher energy) and a Lockheed Martin beam and fire control system. The ALTB uses one low-energy laser to track the target and a second one to measure and compensate for atmospheric disturbances. Then it unleashes its killer laser that heats the target to “critical structural failure.” That’s defense-speak for oblivion.
     
  11. Dywyddyr Penguinaciously duckalicious. Valued Senior Member

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    One more shoddy piece of "Gosh-wow" reporting. Maybe they couldn't think of anything actually news-worthy.
    Admittedly I skimmed the article quickly but they are either far too late or far too early.
    For example:
    Railguns - er, so why are they worth bringing up now? The British defence establishment has been working on these since at least 1980 (at Kirkudbright), as has the US.
    Likewise the walking truck - in the 60s there were prototypes built for the US Army. Meh, okay they were apparently better at falling over in swampy terrain than actually walking, but the principle holds.
    X-Ray vision? Wow, like rescue workers haven't been using thermal imagers to look through walls for trapped victims for what? 10 years? 20? More?
     
  12. Shogun Bleed White and Blue! Valued Senior Member

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    There are exoskeletons under development. I am not sure if it was inspired by Starship Troopers or not, but Mobile Infantry is slowly becoming a reality

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    . Japan already have the HAL 5, but it is not designed for military use.
     
  13. Skeptical Registered Senior Member

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    Scares the crap out of me. Especially those weapons that kill people without putting own side at risk. One of the factors inducing reluctance to go to war is the political kick-back from own casualties. Get rid of that, and the forces with the high tech weapons will have that much less disincentive to get aggressive. Bad news.
     
  14. kevwang95 Registered Member

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    Wouldn't an X-ray be more of an anti-terrorist defense?
     
  15. Kernl Sandrs Registered Senior Member

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    A laser is far more effective at destroying missiles and whatnot. If an X-day could do it better, they would be using them and not lasers, hmm?
     
  16. Dywyddyr Penguinaciously duckalicious. Valued Senior Member

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    Nah, I think he meant that the X-ray device is more of a defensive system (for locating terrorists) than a[n offensive] weapon.
     
  17. Michael 歌舞伎 Valued Senior Member

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    This thing on ice was just simply amazing. Also, that hop. Wow.

    I'm sure that if we had taken 200 of these armored into combat with some sort of Demon Hell masks incorporated into their rig and just let them walk around the villages with pretend death rays and "nuclear bomb" looking devices on th2 10 meter ones ... growling and staring at people with red death eyes - - well, the psychological effect would probably be enough to make anyone shit their pants.
     
  18. Cowboy My Aim Is True Valued Senior Member

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    That stuff is all cool, but I'm still waiting for the "sick sticks" they had in Minority Report. They look and work like cattle-prods, but make people barf when you poke them.

    Do you have any idea how much fun I could have with one of those?
     
  19. common_sense_seeker Bicho Voador & Bicho Sugador Valued Senior Member

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    WOW, I was blown away. Uncanny how the eye is fooled into thinking it's ALIVE! (which it kinda is)
     
    Last edited: Jun 18, 2010
  20. Skeptical Registered Senior Member

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    Personally I am sickened by the fact that people on this forum think it is cool.
    These items are designed to kill people. That is all. Kill people. It is not cool. it is disgusting, reprehensible and appalling.

    The fact that some of you get your jollies by looking at mass murder devices and thinking they are wonderful says terrible things about you.

    Please remember. These are not cool technologies. They are genocide devices. They are designed for one purpose only. To kill people. Lots of people. If you get a thrill from that, you belong in a psychiatric institution.
     
  21. phlogistician Banned Banned

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    Oh yes, let's abandon all military research, and make ourselves servants to any nation that don't abandon theirs.

    You are so naive.

    And yes, the technology is cool. Technology is always cool. The application of it might not be to your taste, but that doesn't change it's coolness.

    Oh, and the airborn laser? NOT a genocide device, it's designed to shoot down missiles and prevent loss of life. Oh, and the walking donkey thing? Designed to carry shit, like medical supplies, to save lives. And the X-Ray scanner? Counter-terrorism, to save lives. Oh, and the stun projectile? Non lethal alternative to deadly force, SAVING LIVES. And the Robot? Can defuse bombs, and SAVE LIVES.
     
  22. Kernl Sandrs Registered Senior Member

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    Ah, well then yes, in that case it would be extremely effective. But I thought for an X-ray to work there had to be some sort of plate behind what it was you were x-ray'ing, like at the dentist.

    "These Eagle5 scanners — an M model and a P model —use low-power, ultra-wideband radio frequency (RF) waves to produce images of what’s concealed by wood, stone, brick, concrete or dirt. The M, which looks like an oversize cell phone and weighs 3.5 pounds, is designed to detect motion and can pick up people more than 20 feet away though eight-inch concrete slabs. The larger P, which weighs 6 pounds, is designed to penetrate the ground and can detect people in tunnels and buried explosives at depths greater than 10 feet."

    It doesn't mention the use of X-rays anywhere in there. I don't even know why they called it X-ray vision.
     
  23. phlogistician Banned Banned

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    You can focus x-rays and make an image using micro channel plates. Obviously, X-Rays pass through things, so you can't use regular lenses, but MCPs use glancing angle reflections to guide the X-Ray photons towards a CCD.
     

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