Aspects of this Idea already exist in terms of interfering with
the
functionality of pacemakers. It seems to me, though, that it
should be possible to send an electromagnetic signal that is
specifically tuned for the nervous system to directly receive it.
We know that the nervous system can
conduct small amounts of
actual electricity, which means that nerve-axons should be able
to
act like antenna....
Late last year I personally had a significant heartbeat-error
problem (more details about that in a bit), and I only have
guesses
regarding how it started to go haywire like that. Anyway, I've
been back to normal for several months now, and have reason to
think the problem won't spontaneously recur.
WHILE that problem existed, however, over the course of
several
months, I gained more than 25 kilograms of weight, all of it
fluid.
At the time I thought a dietary problem was the cause, which
could be fixed by changing my diet, but nothing worked. Note
that I basically FELT fine the whole time, except with respect
to
physical awkwardness associated with trying to move
unaccustomed weight around, and swollen legs and belly that
didn't want to bend easily, and stuff like that. When I finally
went to the hospital, they took several days to finally figure out
what the cause of the problem was. At the hospital they
literally
drained out 10 whole liters of fluid, and could have drained
more (but
they opted to use diuretics to get rid of the remainder).
Anyway, somehow 3 chambers of my heart were beating at
twice
the normal rate, and the 4th chamber was trying to beat at
twice
THAT rate. That is pretty-much a sure-fire way to wear out
one's ticker early, but the side-effect, fluid loss from the
circulatory system and consequent body-swelling, led to
catching it before it was too late.
The
heart doctor used some shock treatment to reset the heartbeat
to
the normal rate, and like I said, I've been back to normal since.
SO, I have first-hand knowledge about heartbeats getting
messed
up, and don't want to see uninformed annotations here to the
effect that I don't know what I'm talking about, in terms of that
aspect of this overall Idea. There are also, if you don't know
already, medical cases in which someone received a moderate
blow to the chest, and then died because the heart stopped (see
link).
I'm imagining a weapon designed to deliberately mess up the
heartbeat of an enemy, using an electromagnetic pulse of the
proper frequency, or possibly a specially-timed sequence of
pulses. You definitely want these pulses to be aimed/projected
away from
you!
Early versions of the weapon might need to have a sensitive
electromagnetic-energy receiver (like a remote EEG device), to
detect the heartbeat, so that the interference-pulses are
properly
mismatched with normal nervous-system beat-signals.
Later versions of the weapon might be powerful enough, to not
care what the current state of the heart is, during its beat-
cycle.
Imagine a souped-up version aimed at an entire enemy army.
When fired, every heart stops, but the soldiers won't know it
immediately. The impact of the electromagnet pules(s) is
painless. They will, however, all fall down about 15-30 seconds
later, because no fresh oxygenated blood is reaching their
brains; they will basically fall unconscious. Painlessly,
remember. About 6 minutes later, the whole enemy army is
brain dead, and will be completely dead some time after that
(muscle cells take a lot longer to die from lack of oxygen than
brain cells).
To defend against this weapon, you might have to wear a
Faraday Cage (link). Or, perhaps all you need is a pacemaker
protected by a Faraday Cage, so that if your heart is remotely
stopped, it can detect it and restart the beats.
In terms of the local scene, the investigators studying the
corpse
now have a dilemma. Did death occur because the heart
stopped?
Yes. But was the stoppage natural, or was it the result of a
remote command (murder)? How can they tell???
Probably, somebody is going to have to put some radio
receiver/recorders at every cell-phone tower in the country, to
detect and triangulate heart-stoppage pulses. Murderers won't
be
able to get away with it. But the army might like it, along with
any government looking for a painless method of executing
criminals.