the military are the Death Eaters from the Harry Potter books

[miriam_e]

Maximum pain is aim of new US weapon

How saddening. How do these people get research dollars when there are people starving in their own country?

Comments

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

By saying the starving have only themselves to blame. That was easy.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Ah yes. The morality of scarcity. Greedily take control of most of a limited resource like money then attach a high moral character to what is that greed and blame others for not having any.

Even worse, set things up so that the only way to survive is to be a part of that treadmill and make available just a small enough dribble of money that they can keep their heads above water and constantly dangle pictures of the rich and famous in front of them. It almost guarantees obedient wage-slaves for the rest of their frantic lives.

It is all set to change soon though.
http://marshallbrain.com/robotic-freedom.htm

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

I have thought a good deal about this, and support it, certainly.

[usuakari.livejournal.com]

Interesting article. I agree with the ethical concerns, but pragmatically, pain's is a whole lot better than being dead. Armed forces are increasingly frequently undertaking what is essentially police work. They're not equipped or prepared for it, and this is their response to the experiences that they've had. Anything that provides options to bullets is going to be looked on favourably by an increasingly stressed military.

Conversely, cops are being forced to act in ways more like that of the armed forces these days. I imagine some of them would be in favour of chain guns and air-support...

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Initially you might think a pain weapon is better than a killing weapon, but when you think of how it would be used it becomes clear that it is a lot scarier. They will not be able to use a killing weapon indiscriminately because of the outcry, but a pain weapon... think of the potential for dispersing peaceful protests! And if you think they won't use it remember what they did recently in New York, rounding up people (bystanders too) and stuffing them into a temporary lockup on a wharf.

They control the media already. With this they can control the "right" to peaceful assembly. The only remaining hurdle is the internet, and Microsoft is working on plugging that particular leak soon with its "trusted computing" (code for your computer no longer trusting you).

[usuakari.livejournal.com]

I was looking at specifically from the narrow, tactical point of view. I agree with the wider concerns expressed though.

Non-lethal options are a two-edged sword (if you'll excuse the tenuous pun). We've seen similar problems with the use of tear-gas and water-cannons, especially in other countries. But I don't think that not having a range of options that spans from yelling "You've all been very naughty" to lethal force is a better situation to be in.

I'll take the risks to civil rights and deal with the problems that non-lethal weapons present, rather than have soldiers put in untenable positions and/or people dead, any day.

Figures

[exileinparadise.livejournal.com]

We paid for it.

We obviously supported it by giving them the only mandate they care about: cash.

I can already imagine the commercial applications:
Coupled with the directional sound systems being designed for vending machines to be able to whisper directly to you over range, you could create a system that advertises itself, and if you don't buy the advertised product, wham, some pain. Neat. It practically sells itself. And, you can just SEE the vendors lining up at the expo to buy in (or else, wham!)

Somehow we need to figure out how to couple RFID in it... maybe by making it the only accepted form of payment, so they have a record, and since its RFID, they can track you even if you don't buy.

Yeah, thats the future that we're letting get built. Go us!

And I paid for it

[revbob2.livejournal.com]

Almost as bad as the cruelty and the indiscriminate way it'll be used is that once the populace has been subdued, they're gonna be pissed. And they'll be perfectly capable of fighting. And they'll organize. Just like they're doing in Iraq.

So we're gonna pay for this thing that will leave us worse off than if we hadn't used it at all.

When are we gonna organize and stop this crap?

Re: And I paid for it

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was thinking about that very point just recently, trying to put my thoughts into some kind of structure.

It goes like this:

Many actions have small, positive results in the short term, but much larger negative results in the long term. Unfortunately most people don't see beyond the immediate gain and become mystified when more doesn't work the way intended.

Here are a few examples:

When people are impatient and drive close behind another car at night, it might initially cause the driver in front to speed up a little, but driving even closer will have the opposite effect, because the glare of headlights in the mirror reduces visibility and causes the first driver to slow to a safer speed.

When people wait at the baggage conveyer belts at airport terminals many of them cluster close to the luggage conveyer, watching for their bags. This makes it hard for others to see their bags so more people push closer to the conveyer to see. As the wall of people at the conveyer becomes denser, less people can see and even those at the conveyer find it difficult to manoeuvre. If everybody stood back a meter or so from the conveyer everybody would be able to see and easily step in to pick up their bags when they need to, but there is this counterproductive push to keep moving closer.

Bullying works in the short term, and people obey because they are afraid of the consequences, but it never works in the longer term. The bullies get their comeuppance in a rebellion. Or they lose the respect of those around them who leave at the first opportunity. Perplexed, most bullies will simply become more ferocious when they start to lose their power, never realising that any small gains simply hasten the end.

I am sure there are many more examples. And I am sure it has a proper name, because I doubt I'm the first to think of the connection. It is like a combination of negative feedback and positive feedback that switches in catastrophic fashion.