Raise Sheilds - Real life force field for troops

[DarthTom]

This is awesome. It's amazing how fast technology is moving forward. For critics of funding Defense Department agencies like DARPA - this is the kind of stuff is where your money is going.

CNN

CNN)Raise shields! Boeing has been granted a patent for a force field-like defense system, leading excited sci-fi fans to herald the advent of something previously seen only in the realms of "Star Wars" or "Star Trek."
Filed in 2012, the USPTO has granted the aerospace giant a patent for a "method and system for shockwave attenuation via electromagnetic arc."
On first look, it seems that they're onto something similar to "Star Wars'" deflector shields. The patent describes a system that would detect the shockwave from a nearby explosion and create an area of ionized air -- a plasma field -- between the oncoming blast and the vehicle it was protecting.
The method works, says the patent, "by heating a selected region of the first fluid medium rapidly to create a second, transient medium that intercepts the shockwave and attenuates its energy density before it reaches a protected asset."
By creating a temporary, superheated parcel of air with a laser, microwave or electrical arc, researchers believe that the shockwave would, in theory -- it hasn't been determined how far along Boeing's research into this has got -- dissipate once it hit the plasma field, leaving whatever was on the other side unaffected, or for the blast to at least be mitigated.
"Explosive devices are being used increasingly in asymmetric warfare to cause damage and destruction to equipment and loss of life. The majority of the damage caused by explosive devices results from shrapnel and shock waves," the patent says.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

For critics of funding Defense Department agencies like DARPA - this is the kind of stuff is where your money is going.

Is this intended as a serious comment?

Are you suggesting the billions and billions of dollars we spent on ways to kill people are worth it because we throw a few bucks at things like this?

What a disgusting attitude, and extremely dismissive of the multitude of people our war machine has brutalized and killed.

I don't even have anything to say about the shield technology because your comment left such a bad taste in my mouth.

Great job poisoning the well with that one, Tom.

 

[DarthTom]

Great job poisoning the well with that one, Tom.

Not trying to , poison the well Robert Maxwell. Just saying not everything out of defense is bad, albeit I agree there isa lot of waste.

Do you have any comments on this technology? I think it's amazing. Also, we are just learning about a patent filed in 2012 - so presumably Boeing has made progress on this tech that is likely classified.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Aside from the criticism that in the end this is just another way to make it easier to kill people, which is certainly distasteful, this is nothing like "deflector shields."

I really don't think that "force field" is accurate either, since it requires more than the presence of a field of force carriers to operate as a shield; it requires the presence of a medium that can be excited by that field into plasma, and that plasma is what counteracts the incoming shock wave, which means that it will not work in a vacuum.

Hyping it as either a deflector shield or force-field is also distasteful, since it spins the technology for gee-whiz appeal. "Plasma field" is the accurate description, and the application is clearly to gain military advantage.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Great job poisoning the well with that one, Tom.

Not trying to , poison the well Robert Maxwell. Just saying not everything out of defense is bad, albeit I agree there isa lot of waste.

Do you have any comments on this technology? I think it's amazing. Also, we are just learning about a patent filed in 2012 - so presumably Boeing has made progress on this tech that is likely classified.

My qualms are not about "waste," as you put it, but an extremely expensive industrial complex whose entire purpose is making it easier to kill people.

Aside from the criticism that in the end this is just another way to make it easier to kill people, which is certainly distasteful, this is nothing like "deflector shields."

I really don't think that "force field" is accurate either, since it requires more than the presence of a field of force carriers to operate as a shield; it requires the presence of a medium that can be excited by that field into plasma, and that plasma is what counteracts the incoming shock wave, which means that it will not work in a vacuum.

Hyping it is either a deflector shield or force-field is also distasteful, since it spins the technology for gee-whiz appeal. "Plasma field" is the accurate description, and the application is clearly to gain military advantage.

I should have known the whole thing was hyped just to make it sound cool. As you say, that's really distasteful since the purpose is just to normalize spending scads of money on means of mass murder.

 

[Admiral2]

My qualms are not about "waste," as you put it, but an extremely expensive industrial complex whose entire purpose is making it easier to kill people.

As long as the people getting killed are the ones plotting to kill my people, it's an expenditure I've got no problem with.

Semper Fi, DARPA, carry on.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

My qualms are not about "waste," as you put it, but an extremely expensive industrial complex whose entire purpose is making it easier to kill people.

As long as the people getting killed are the ones plotting to kill my people, it's an expenditure I've got no problem with.

Semper Fi, DARPA, carry on.

Yes, I'm sure the random villagers in Afghanistan whose mosques we bomb (while they are full of people) represent a clear and present danger to the United States.

 

[{ Emilia }]

My qualms are not about "waste," as you put it, but an extremely expensive industrial complex whose entire purpose is making it easier to kill people.

As long as the people getting killed are the ones plotting to kill my people, it's an expenditure I've got no problem with.

Semper Fi, DARPA, carry on.

Because America only ever kills people that are genuinely plotting to kill Americans.

Oh wait, no. That's bullshit.

 

[Kemaiku]

My qualms are not about "waste," as you put it, but an extremely expensive industrial complex whose entire purpose is making it easier to kill people.

As long as the people getting killed are the ones plotting to kill my people, it's an expenditure I've got no problem with.

Semper Fi, DARPA, carry on.

That is one of the most inhuman things I have ever heard uttered on this board.

 

[Admiral2]

Yes, I'm sure the random villagers in Afghanistan whose mosques we bomb (while they are full of people) represent a clear and present danger to the United States.

And of course terrorists and insurgents have NEVER hidden fighters and or weapons in innocent places like mosques or hospitals before right? Never? That's not what i've read...

Because America only ever kills people that are genuinely plotting to kill Americans.

Oh wait, no. That's bullshit.

Just because not everybody is out to get us doesn't mean nobody is, and yes, we've killed lots of people who were actually plotting against us. You might want to read a history book once in a while.

That is one of the most inhuman things I have ever heard uttered on this board.

So...you hear things on typewritten boards?

What's killing me here is the level of vitriol there is for an agency that's just doing its job, and it's a vital job at that. All of you act like if America just never fired a gun in anger again everything in the world would be hunky dory and everybody would have tea and sing cumbaya. I would love to know what you all are smoking.

But I'll settle for an answer to this question: The Internet started out as a Defense Research project. Why are you all using it instead of beating your breasts and writing letters complaining about it on paper?

 

[{ Emilia }]

Because America only ever kills people that are genuinely plotting to kill Americans.

Oh wait, no. That's bullshit.

Just because not everybody is out to get us doesn't mean nobody is

Who said that nobody is?
Great logical fallacy right there.

, and yes, we've killed lots of people who were actually plotting against us.

And you've also killed thousands of innocent civilians, even in countries that weren't even plotting to kill Americans.
(While you're at it, where were those Iraqi WMD again? And when did Vietnam plan to invade the US?)

You might want to read a history book once in a while.

I honestly laughed out loud. You know what I do for a living?

You're welcome to keep posting ignorant bullshit but you'll have to live with the fact that an actual historian is going to laugh her ass off at it.
I don't research, write or teach for free so you're most likely out of luck. Your condescension was amusing but it doesn't make me want to spend my time teaching you.

You wouldn't let facts get in the way of jingoism in your posts anyway, right?!

 

[Metryq]

I don't research, write or teach for free so you're most likely out of luck.

Ah, so you're on a forum to not discuss or debate topics. Could you at least recommend a book or other resource so that the ignorant could inform themselves?

 

[Admiral2]

You're welcome to keep posting ignorant bullshit but you'll have to live with the fact that an actual historian is going to laugh her ass off at it.
I don't research, write or teach for free so you're most likely out of luck. Your condescension was amusing but it doesn't make me want to spend my time teaching you.

You wouldn't let facts get in the way of jingoism in your posts anyway, right?!

So...you're an historian and researcher?

But you don't know the history of the Internet?

Or the Global Positioning System?

Or radar? Or sonar?

Or jet engines?

Or the countless other military research projects that eventually spawned peaceful applications that benefit the world?

And you don't want to spend the five minutes on Google it would take you to look this shit up unless someone pays you?

And I'm the one that won't let facts get in the way of my argument?

Yeah... always fun interacting with you, Emilia with fancy brackets...

 

[{ Emilia }]

I see you're still employing logical fallacies.

I said the American military has killed thousands of people that weren't plotting to kill Americans.

It was a reply to you claiming:

As long as the people getting killed are the ones plotting to kill my people

Which is a simplistic bullshit statement because historically many of the people that were killed weren't people plotting to kill your people.
That is the only statement I commented on so get off that cross already.

Nothing you said in your last post has anything to do with that. Nobody here claimed that the military isn't also researching stuff that ends up having civilian use. Nobody is denying that.

What we find disgusting is your jingoistic bullshit.

I'll also offer one additional advice: Don't take your knowledge about history or political science from Tom Clancy.

 

[Stoo]

Darpa's quadruped robots are pretty cool, if slightly creepy. Between that and plasma fields, it's sort of like the Department of Mad Science.

 

[Ithekro]

While you're at it, where were those Iraqi WMD again?

Being used by the ISIS in Syria last reported. Not all WMD are nuclear you know. Chemical weapons are rated as WMD, yet no one seems to ever care. Chlorine Gas is still rated as such.

 

[{ Emilia }]

While you're at it, where were those Iraqi WMD again?

Being used by the ISIS in Syria last reported. Not all WMD are nuclear you know. Chemical weapons are rated as WMD, yet no one seems to ever care. Chlorine Gas is still rated as such.

I wonder who destabilized Iraq enough to unintentionally help some Islamist group take control of a big chunk of it...

 

[Robert Maxwell]

In case it wasn't clear, we can fund interesting and useful research projects without also having to condone the operation of a massive, lethal war machine.

And as for ISIS: that's a problem America created. You know, by blowing people up and breaking stuff. Great job, America. You trashed al-Qaeda--which didn't even exist in Iraq until we went in there and opened the door--and left something much worse in its place. We now have a whole new generation of terrorists to deal with, and I'm sure we'll have learned nothing and think just killing, killing, and more killing will eventually solve the problem. Well done.

Iraq wasn't even a threat to us when we invaded. The so-called intelligence was fabricated. Saddam was a bastard, but there are a lot of bastards in this world who run countries and we don't invade all of them. Iraq was the result of Bush's personal grudge and Cheney's cynical war profiteering. We had no business going there, and we have now created a nightmare we can't control.

 

[{ Emilia }]

^ Oh hey, somebody who read a history book or just paid attention to what's happening in the world.

 

[Ithekro]

Still doesn't stop the Chlorine Gas from being a WMD. Nor it being used, repeatly in the region. No one ever seems to care about that. Not Reagan, not Bush, not Americans at large. Yet it is a WMD under international law.

:Shrug:

You asked where Iraq's WMD were. They are still there, being used. Just like they were used against the Iranians and the Kurds. And no one cares.