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Itar-Tass / Reuters
Russian leader Vladimir Putin stands with a gun at a shooting gallery of the new GRU military intelligence headquarters building in Moscow during a 2006 visit. Last month, Putin said nations would eventually develop new types of weapons, including "psychophysical" weapon systems.
Are we on the brink of an arms race over zombie ray guns? You might think so, based on the alarms being rung over Russia's potential to create mind-scrambling weapons. But the reality is that it'll be a long time before we have to worry about super-soldiers taking over our brains.
The Americans as well as the Russians have been looking into psychotronic weapons for more than 15 years. You can find ample references to the subject on the Internet, including a feature published by U.S. News and World Report in 1997 and a report written for a U.S. Army publication in 1998.
Such weapons purport to take advantage of the effect that pulsed microwaves can have on brain activity. Some researchers have reported an effect known as microwave hearing, in which a directed beam of radiation produces a sensation of buzzing, clicking or hissing in the head. "This technology in its crudest form could be used to distract individuals," according to a declassified Army review of non-lethal weapons.
Theoretically, electromagnetic beams could cause an epileptic-type seizure, or involuntary eye motion leading to dizziness and nausea. Military researchers have also looked into using infrasound or laser beams to confuse or incapacitate a foe — but when you start going down this road, before you know it, you're talking about remote viewing, ESP and all the way-out concepts chronicled in "The Men Who Stare at Goats."
The Russian connection
The Russians have looked into these potential technologies at least as deeply as the Pentagon has, and you're hearing about zombie ray guns now because top Russian officials started talking about psychotronic weapons a couple of weeks ago. That has brought the subject back from the dead like a ... well, you know.
Moscow is planning to set up an advanced military research agency similar to the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, and Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov referred to those plans on March 22. Here's what the RIA Novosti news agency quoted him as saying during a meeting with Prime Minister (and President-elect) Vladimir Putin:
"The development of weaponry based on new physics principles — direct-energy weapons, geophysical weapons, wave-energy weapons, genetic weapons, psychotronic weapons, etc. — is part of the state arms procurement program for 2011-2020 ... We will draft the proposals for the next program by December 2012."
Putin, who begins his presidential term next month, pledged during the campaign that he would beef up Russia's military. In February, he laid out his national security plan in an article published by Rossiiskaya Gazeta. At the time, most of the news reports picked up on Putin's call for almost $770 billion in spending over the course of a decade to modernize the armed forces. But Putin also observed that the current balance of power, held in place by nuclear arsenals, could well shift in the future due to new technologies. It was in that context that he brought up the psychotronic angle:
"The military capability of a country in space or information countermeasures, especially in cyberspace, will play a great, if not decisive, role in determining the nature of an armed conflict. In the more distant future, weapons systems based on new principles (beam, geophysical, wave, genetic, psychophysical and other technology) will be developed. All this will, in addition to nuclear weapons, provide entirely new instruments for achieving political and strategic goals. Such high-tech weapons systems will be comparable in effect to nuclear weapons but will be more 'acceptable' in terms of political and military ideology. In this sense, the strategic balance of nuclear forces will play a gradually diminishing role in deterring aggression and chaos."
In the wake of Serdyukov's comments, folks dredged up Putin's reference to "psychophysical" weapons, added in some background about the research into electromagnetic mind control, and voila: the zombie ray gun. Last week, Britain's Daily Mail suggested that the guns "could be used against Russia's enemies and, perhaps, its own dissidents by the end of the decade."
The Mail also quoted Anatoly Tsyganov, head of the Military Forecasting Center in Moscow, as saying microwaves could make for "a highly serious weapon":
"When it was used for dispersing a crowd and it was focused on a man, his body temperature went up immediately as if he was thrown into a hot frying pan. Still, we know very little about this weapon and even special forces guys can hardly cope with it."
Based on that comment, Tsyganov was apparently talking about a different kind of non-lethal weapon, an analog to the millimeter-wave "pain ray" that the U.S. military has been working on for years. As we noted a couple of weeks ago, the beam of radiation can be directed at a crowd, producing a severe burning sensation on the skin that forces the target to jump away instinctively.
How fast can mad scientists work?
There are a few problems with the pain-ray technology: It takes hours to build up enough power for the beam generator, and the system reportedly works only in clear atmospheric conditions. Nevertheless, testing of the "Silent Guardian" system is continuing, not only for military applications but also for use against oceangoing pirates and rioting prisoners.
The bottom line is that Russia certainly seems to be on track to set up its own DARPA-like "Department of Mad Scientists," working on heat rays, mind-altering electromagnetic beams and heaven knows what else. But there's nothing in the comments from Putin and Serdyukov to suggest that the Russians are anywhere close to having psychotronic weapons. In fact, Putin makes it sound as if the next frontier in warfare won't be the zombie ray gun but the coordinated cyber-attack. And that's scary enough for me.
What do you think? Please feel free to register your opinion in the unscientific poll above, and the comment space below.
Update for 11 p.m. ET: A couple of commenters noted that the zombielike picture that originally accompanied this item had a caption that didn't quite square with the lore for the "Left 4 Dead" video game. The more I learned about the game, the more I saw that the picture really didn't fit. So I've put in the picture of a gun-toting Putin instead. Thanks to the gamers who pointed out the problem. If I ever play "Left 4 Dead," I'll want you on my side.
More about weapons technologies:
- U.S. military seeks 'stunning' new weapon
- Navy's ray gun disables boat with laser light
- Railgun tests could lead to super-weapon by 2020
- Military-funded brain science sparks controversy
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
Leave a Comment:
We know it is possible because ETs have dropped people with rays. It is all part of full spectrum DEW (Directed Energy Weapon) development, and it will one day rule this planet and beyond. - Rick Carter
(PS - ETs probably use scalar waves of some type.) - RC
ah, no.....microwave beams have been well-demonstrated/documented, and they will force back anyone they're directed upon....decisive war weapon? hardly.....perhaps useful for crowd control.....
seems they've totally lost the mystique of the ussr
if you ever drove in Moscow, you would swear Russia already developed and uses the gun daily
Get rid of the zombies on Capitol Hill and maybe we can progress in something actually helpful to our economy, unemployment and national debt. The zombie ray gun may take longer than the time we have left to throw all the brain dead out.
HMMMMMM Lets see. Which would I prefer. A lead ball thru the chest or a pulse wave thru the brain. I choose the pulse wave thru the brain so I can be exactly like Putin and Obama.
This Russian RAY GUN is what the Russians used on the MUSLIMs during rhe Kemer Rouge Campaign. At this point in History the MUSLIMs civilization had advanced almost up to Neanderthal level ... When "HOLY KLASHNIKOV" the MUSLIMs were Zapped with the ULTIMATE STUPID MACHINE, thereby regressing the MUSLIMs right back to Cro-Magnon ...Unfortunately it did not supress the perpetuation of breeding within the MUSLIM community. STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES.
LOL god humans are stupid.
So Russia, always the problem child, thinks the future is about weaponry and warfare.
Maybe they can be walled in.
OMG, every day someone justifies the military expense by giving some isolated examples of technology. But you ignore that almost every military device had civilian origins. Hunting rifles, for example?? And even those that were created for military applications like GPS and internet only advanced when the public could use it. Pornography made the internet what it is today. Wake up
if the scientisrts all look like this fool, it will be along way off to these kinds of weapons!! bet he wears his hat bakwrds lik da oder fools on da hills! fak is, the burner/phaser has already bin developed. ax da sekret service??
We have extremely intelligent scientists in this country. Do you really think they would be sitting by and reading the comics or something? The whole thing probably began with J.F.K.
If we had to, we could put those ingredients together in a heartbeat. I'm sure Putin knows it too. He can't but that damned stupid.
It began with Ronald (secret operations) Reagan.
Cheap Chicken. Better to spend that cash on the search for faster than light travel. Besides, the ol' Wingmaster 870 will take care of business from a safe distance.
So-called synthetic telepathy today, when it is not a case of schizophrenia, is really demonic possession, i.e. Satan and his fallen angels playing games. Look up "Synthetic Telepathy and Demonic Possession" and "Demonic Possession" under Google. What really gets to me is why God would allow Satan and his demons that much power, when God could easily stop them. Demonic possession is often mentioned in the New Testament. Some people are both schizophrenic and at the same time subjected to demonic possession. Electrodes placed on the brain to reveal our electrochemical impulses by way of an electroencephalograph machine are distorted and diffused by our scalp and bony skull, and would have to be placed directly onto the brain by way of invasive surgery to give an accurate reading.
I HAVE a weapon like that! Right here, right now! It's an invisible gas that smells like rotten eggs. If you were trapped in an elevator, you'd be reduced to jelly.
Whatever you read about now, the military already has +20 years ahead its the way they work. BELIEVE it they have way worse/better weapons than this that would only be brought out when the crap hits the fans..
America already has similar tech. It's called a $7.00 hamburger. After your tricked into eating it, you feel stupid and broke.
Oh. For a minute there I thought the article was about Ronald Reagan.
Putin is a gangster. Stupid commies are all a bunch of sheep.
I see a new job market opening in foil armour helmet's and aluminum zoot suites to protect against the weapon ray waves.
And to think all these new weapons are going to make nuke's obsolete, never. The power to incinerate a battlefield will never be replaced. Because for all the cool new weapon's that will change the means of death and pain. When it is all said and done total destruction is still top dog once someone grow's tired of playing with all the lesser toy's in the arsenal.
Nuke's will still hold the same power no matter what type of weapon is in the field, the fear of escalation beyond field weapons remain's the same. So save the sale's pitch that all the new money on new thing's will make nuke's old new's. Unless there is something worse than complete nuclear destruction that they have in mind.
On second thought! The statement below make's me think that it is not the total destruction by nuclear weapon's that has kept them locked up. But it is the fall-out and possible fear of slowly killing one's self after completely destroying the enemy. The uncontrolled part of useing nuclear weapon's. And so it is that they seem to be in search of a nuclear devistating weapon without the fall-out that will then make it acceptible to completely wipe out an entire population. Thus making nuclear weapon's obsolete in that we can ubtain the same effect's but move in tomorrow.
''Such high-tech weapons systems will be comparable in effect to nuclear weapons but will be more 'acceptable' in terms of political and military ideology. In this sense, the strategic balance of nuclear forces will play a gradually diminishing role in deterring aggression and chaos."