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"The trouble with too much genre SF is that it's so obviously the product of the conscious mind."
- William Gibson
 |
| Garbage-can Banger | ||
| An elaborate noise-based weapon. |
This non-lethal weapon was dreamed up by PKD in 1965.
| "...Frankly, I think we ought to drop a Garbage-can Banger on New Moscow.
"It's a missile that wide-cracks in the atmosphere... above the popcen - the population center - which it's aimed at. We place the Judas Iscariot IV above New Moscow, set to wide-crack at half a mile, and it rains down minned - miniaturized - h'd, that means homeostatic -" "...They're about the size of gum wrappers. They drift throughout the city... "They're cam - that is, chameleon; they blend, colorwise, with whatever they land on. So you can't detect them. There they lie, until nightfall, say around ten o'clock at night... "they start. Each pellet, fully cammed, begins to emit a sound... a horrid sneering sound. Buzzing... The point is, it keeps you awake... I mean wide-awake. Once the noise of a Garbage-can Banger gets to you, for example... you never sleep again... You can't perform your job. You're no good to anyone, yourself included." |
| From The Zap Gun,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Galaxy Publishing in 1965 Additional resources -
|
As it turns out, our government is hard at work on the Garbage-can Banger. The long range acoustic device sonic weapon developed by American Technology Corporation is a non-lethal means of crowd dispersal. The device weighs about forty-five pounds and emits its beam from a 33 inch diameter pad (not yet minned). At its maximum volume of 105 dB at 300 meters, it creates an intolerable noise similar to that of a smoke detector.
(LRAD Long Range Acoustic Device on USS Typhoon)
The LRAD device has been tested in Baghdad, Fallujah and New York City. The luxury cruise ship Seabourn Spirit used an LRAD to repel pirates who attacked the ship off the coast of Somalia in November, 2005.
Found this connection here.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Zap Gun
More Ideas
and Technology by Philip K. Dick
Tech news articles related to The Zap Gun
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Garbage-can Banger-related
news articles:
- Cognitive Enhancement (For Us) Vs. Degradation (For The Enemy)
| Musk's Boring Flamethrower |
| Poland Starts With 1000 Warmate 'Suicide Drones' |
| TIKAD Armed Drone Ready To Fight |
| LaWS Laser Can Take Out Rogue Drones |
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'A worker replaced by a nubot... had to be compensated.'
'... forcing the energy transfer which allowed him to regrow his lost fingers.'
'The car surged and lifted, clearing its top by a negligible margin.'
Science fiction authors are serious about sleep, too.
'I had explained," said Nessus, "that our civilisation was dying in its own waste heat.'
'Just what did I want Flexible Frank to do? - any work a human being does around a house.'
SF writers have thought about this since the 19th century.
