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1.  

   

   Anonymous Coward, Dec 27th, 2011 @ 6:16pm

   
   

   why don't hypersonic vehicles set off nuclear war alarms?

   hey, so... uh, like.. if intercontinental missiles are to be avoided for conventional warheads b/c they could be mistaken for nuclear arms... why can't hypersonic missiles carry nuclear warheads and pose a really scary nuclear threat?

    

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2.  

   

   Anonymous Coward, Dec 27th, 2011 @ 6:42pm

   
   

   Re: why don't hypersonic vehicles set off nuclear war alarms?

   I'm assuming any country capable of launching a nuclear assault on the U.S can already tell if its a plane or nuclear warhead being launched at them.
   
   So basically... "Nuclear Launch detected!"

    

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3.  

   

   Michael Ho (profile), Dec 27th, 2011 @ 6:59pm

   
   

   Re: Re: why don't hypersonic vehicles set off nuclear war alarms?

   I'd guess that ICBMs are just assumed to be nuclear-armed b/c that's what the nations who have them say ICBMS are capable of... but hypersonic vehicles aren't so common, so if you're going to develop a whole new launch vehicle -- might as well say that you're developing it for non-nuclear capabilities first, so that you don't violate international treaties? (And if no one calls out the fact that hypersonic vehicles *can* be fitted with nuclear warheads, then you've got a loophole in nuclear arms agreements! yay?!?)

    

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4.  

   

   Anonymous Coward, Dec 27th, 2011 @ 10:32pm

   
   

   how about stealth hypersonic weapons

   never see em coming

    

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5.  

   

   Michael Ho (profile), Dec 28th, 2011 @ 12:17am

   
   

   Re: how about stealth hypersonic weapons

   It'd be pretty hard to mask the sonic boom, methinks. The speed alone is probably enough to guarantee the element of surprise.

    

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6.  

   

   Anonymous Coward, Dec 28th, 2011 @ 4:57am

   
   

   http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-new-age-prosthetic-technique-enables-mice.html
   
   http://www.p opsci.com/science/article/2011-11/awesome-now-what-human-laser
   
   Getting closer to frigging shark with lasers in their eyes :)
   I like how eye prosthetics needs to take into account the brain code for electrical signals, someday soldiers and law enforcement may have implanted WiFi transmitters that tap into the optic nerve to relay images of everything they see while on duty.
   
   Which reminds me of another question that will come up soon everywhere, since tech is allowing us to break barriers and do things that were not possible before we will need to find ways to limit what can be done and humans are bad at balancing things out or where those limits should be.

    

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7.  

   

   Jeffrey Nonken (profile), Dec 28th, 2011 @ 10:29am

   
   

   Wait. Where are the shark-mounted lasers?

    

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