Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdcad!decwrl!ucbvax!zion.Berkeley.EDU!max
From: max@zion.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: Future Police Speculations Needed
Message-ID: <21752@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Thu, 12-Nov-87 21:40:32 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.21752
Posted: Thu Nov 12 21:40:32 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 14-Nov-87 15:45:28 EST
References: <21598@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <4415@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> <15790@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: max@trinity (Max Hauser)
Organization: U.C. Berkeley
Lines: 29
Summary: Hypnotic nostalgia

In article <4415@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> erc@tybalt.caltech.edu.UUCP (Eric R. Christian) writes:
>In article <21598@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> max@trinity (Max Hauser) writes:
>>In article <23473AE4@PSUVMA> AE4@PSUVMA.BITNET (Jon Acheson) writes:

>>> ... Anti-terrorist techniques would also improve: in a hostage situation,
>>>fast-acting anesthetic gas would be shot into the room: before the thug can
>>>do anything, they are waking up in jail.

>>Fast-acting anesthetics have been a staple soft weapon in science 
>>fiction at least since _Brave New World_ but despite massive
>>research they seem no more practical today than fifty years ago.

>It seems to me that much easier than a fast-acting anesthetic gas would be
>a bacteria or virus that causes unconciousness very quickly, yet can still
>be cured for several minutes (or more)...

I guess when all is said and done I still favor the "old-fashioned"
approach of a hunchback with a bottle of chloroform. Not cyberpunk,
to be sure, but not without a certain timeless panache...

Max Hauser / max@eros.berkeley.edu / ...{!decvax}!ucbvax!eros!max





"Warning: You are entering a nuclear-free zone. Possession or
discharge of nuclear weapons within city limits may be subject
to police citation."