I was watching this sad video where an idiot kid attacks a giant old viking, and gets the shit kicked out of him. Apparently it’s gone viral
http://www.urlesque.com/2010/02/19/epic-beard-man/
I assume it’s popular because the modern American idiot wonders what fist fights look like.
The tragedy here, methinks (aside from this being a hugely popular video), is that the kid likely will not be going home and learning how to fight. What dweeb cares about such non-lethal human interaction, when you can just send away for the Charles Atlas hand gun? Disgusting. (though it makes me want to mock up an fake advert)
This morning I lay awake staring at the walls, unable to stop thinking about : advancing the equation to a new level. I’m tired of worrying that every idiot walking around at night might have a gun. Why has no one improved on this technology? How could you reliably counter being held at gun point?
At first I wondered if there was a gas or liquid you could spray at the gunner, to interfere with their firing mechanism. Guns don’t fire under water right? so if you could… well, ok, some do fire underwater. Plus it would take too long to squirt water down the barrel, or all over the firing pin, even with a kick ass aiming system. no go.
I figured you’d need something faster than a bullet, and easy to carry around. And I recalled seeing something cool in a recent Connections episode (james burke’s awesome BBC history-journey, which I’m watch each night while working out). He noted that when the world was experimenting with discovering gases, some fellow developed an “electric gun”. which was basically a silly blown glass water pistol with 2 wires and a cork in the barrel. you zap a wire, and the cork fires. neat. (frankly pretty damned futuristic, in appearance at least). Anywho, i’m drifting.
It occured to me that you could douse the gun in electricity a lot faster than water or gas. Tasers might have actually filled this need in a way, though they’re hard to pull out in a subtle fashion, and you don’t want to miss. Maybe i’m overlooking a huge flaw here, in that electrified people tend to clench their muscles. So this might be more of a “shoot me instantly!” idea.
Still, i think there’s something very compelling to the idea of firing lighting basically. I remember hearing that Tesla discovered if you raise the voltage high enough, electricity no longer carves pathways through your body – just just skims over the skin. How awesome would that be? somebody tries to mug you only to realize they can’t touch you. Even if they shot you? the body would be too charged to touch? well. maybe that’s not a great solution. I doubt it would fly off shelves. (though… if you sold it as “the first will and testament”, which only activates the moment your heart stops. Thus interfering with those who would kill you so they could steal your possessions. People might enjoy that aspect).
My wandering thoughts turn to the idea of how to whip out this lightning defense so that gunners don’t see it coming. I can’t help but thinking a taser which you fire like spider man would be hugely popular. (Make the sign for “devil” and flick your wrist back, and the taser wires fired from your inner wrist). Or maybe it’d be more realistic to sell tasters that fire from belt buckles, in front and behind.
And then I shifted into daydreaming about releasing a mist (of ionized particles? or simple water? or whatever you’d need to carry a current) and having a super charged battery which can discharge into the mist. so anyone in a 3 foot radius will experience an electrical storm. Perhaps constantly, when in public? or a two stage process, triggered by some subtle gesture.
Eventually, I’d bet we’ll either be bathing in mists all the time (thinking of an old article i read about using light to kill small animals who’d been coated in some chemical, and thinking it was possible mists of this chemical would replace metal detectors in buildings/vehicles of the future), or some of us will be able to carry anti-bullet tech which targets and countermeasures any incoming projectiles (like the recent anti-missile tech they’re mounting on Hum Vees, or the lazer system which was were recently demonstrated on a flying airplane to disabled a missile).
Then I daydreamed about have lazers that will blind anyone looking at you. Which i guess special sunglasses could counter…
Anywho none of this is a solution. just ideas I wanted to jot down. I assume any countermeasure you come up will be countered. I’m just surprised no one’s found a way to counter the cheap power of the gun, because it’s fucking up our society.