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"[Science fiction] is the only kind of writing that allows you to look at the world we live in and change one piece at a time."
- Frederik Pohl

Neuronic Whip  
  A weapon that stimulated the nerve endings to cause extreme discomfort.  

And then the guard's gurgle dissolved into words. He yelled, 'I'll get you all!' and the very pale, almost invisible shimmer of the ionized air in the path of the whip's energy beam made its appearance. It swept wide through the air, and the path of the beam intersected Biron's foot. It was as though he had stepped into a bath of boiling lead. Or as if a granite block had toppled upon it. Or as if it had been crunched off by a shark. Actually, nothing had happened to it physically. It was only that the nerve endings that governed the sensation of pain had been universally and maximally stimulated. Boiling lead could have done no more.
From The Stars, Like Dust, by Isaac Asimov.
Published by Doubleday in 1951
Additional resources -

Readers might also be reminded of the pain box from Frank Herbert's 1965 novel Dune; it also caused pain by nerve induction.

This item was contributed by Winchell Chung.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Stars, Like Dust
  More Ideas and Technology by Isaac Asimov
  Tech news articles related to The Stars, Like Dust
  Tech news articles related to works by Isaac Asimov

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