Happiness in a Box? (page 2)

Satanus

Ho ig

So, it's a do it yourself ect? Electro convulsive shock therapy. Farkel, what next, do it yourself heart transplant kits? We've come a long way, dude.

SS

TheStar

elsewhere
It works on the brain. Since guys got another brain, err, you know where, it might be worth a try.
SS

LOL!!!

NeonMadman

There's been some delay in sending them out; they have to sand the words "Electronic Radio Biola" off the sides...

Kingpawn

Og,

Oh, sweet Jesus you folks are gullible. It's a website selling a little shock box that lists a lot of probably bogus recommendations and refers to zero studies or independent reviews. It's worthless.

Many times someone tinkering around with an idea originally thought "worthless" has led to scientific advances. Radio is one example. When first developed it was considered useful only for "line of sight" communications, since the Earth is curved and radio waves travelled in straight lines. But it was found they are reflected by the atmosphere (the Moon and the aurora borealis too) and the "sky was the limit" as far as potential was concerned.

A lot of work has been done in understanding the human brain. We now know there are "rivers of pleasure," strips of cells on the brain's surface that when stimulated electrically produce an indescribable pleasure, far stronger than that produced by drugs. The concept of the "elad" or "electronic addict" arose--someone so wired that they could give themselves a dose of current whenever desired. Rats wired in the same way have been observed to hit the lever that sends electricity to their brain thousands of times per hour, until they sometimes collapse and/or die from exhaustion, dehydration, etc. We've imaged the brain, discovering what areas become active under particular circumstances, and noting the differences of activity level in the brains of healthy people and those afflicted with Alzheimers, for example. That may lead to "pre-emptive" therapies designed to ward off these diseases later in life.

Even a Star Trek-like "phaser" isn't beyond possibility. The Defense Dept. found that the nervous systems of certain primates are "resonant" at about 338 or 388 MHz. What that means is:

Anyone who's ever seen a wavy line on an ocilliscope(sp?) understands the idea of "wavelength"--the distance from one peak to another on that sine wave. All radiation (light, sound, gamma rays, etc.) operated at certain frequencies, or cycles per second. As a ham radio operator, I know that my car radio operates at VHF frequencies, which on a `scope would look something like the squiggles on a seismograph, whereas the radio in the basement operates at many frequencies, and some of them would be far more flattened if shown.

I also learned how to design an antennae that would be resonant at a half-wavelength of a given freq. For instance, a ten meter antenna for the midpoint of that band (28.850 MHz) is going to be around 16' long (468/28.85). A full-length (resonant) one would be 32' long. (The interesting part's coming up.)

The higher the freq, the shorter the antenna needed. One for the 220 MHz band (full length) is about the same length as the human spinal cord. With enough power, as I recall, there could be harmful effects on people from radio frequency (RF) energy . Remember the warnings about the possibility of using cell phones and getting cancer? We get similar ones about having the antennas of H/Ts (walkie-talkie units) too close to the head.

So if you had some device that could send a concentrated beam of energy at a given frequency and power setting toward someone, possibly 180 degrees out of phase with the waves of their own nervous system, you might potentially block their system from functioning. Maybe sending power in phase would overload their system, producing unconciousness or death. I've little doubt experiments with various combinations of distances, phase angles, frequencies, and power levels have been done. If you could blanket an enemy installation with this device, slowing response times, paralyzing, or knocking out the defenders, then areas could be captured with little or no loss of life, nor would they have time to destroy bridges to slow down troop movements. Or unleash atomic or other weapons.

The human brain operates at very low frequencies--five to thirty MHz as I recall--and a handheld unit might not take much power to get the desired effect. Stun guns work, but they have to overcome electrical resistance from the body tissues. Else the voltages needn't be so high. Even defillibrators used to shock hearts back into beating leave big burns because of the voltages. But radio waves wouldn't have that limitation.

Lots of things seen as impossible earlier on have come true in the past century. And the final curtain may not've come down yet.

Introspection

Hey SS and others.

Try searching under Cranial-Electro Stimulation or CES, there's another term I can't remember now but that ought to get you started. It's not new, there are a number of devices of this nature and it has been used in clinical settings and studied. Been there, done that, got one, got bored, moved on. Oh, it's worked though, but it's just not what I would call happiness, although it has been used for substance abuse treatment.

BTW I won't be following this thread, so if you REALLY wanted to contact me try email, but... don't bug me - I mean that in the nicest way of course. Anyways the chat is here with all the numerous people. Enjoy.

Edited by - Introspection on 9 December 2002 1:8:24

Utopian_Raindrops

I think I'd prefer a few glasses of a nice merlot

Happiness in a Box?