White House lasers suggest now is the future...

In 1927, when the sci-fi genre began to take shape with movies such as Fritz Lang's Metropolis, it was imagined that by the year 2000 man would have colonised the moon, robots would replace people as workers, and that the world would be ruled by just one government. The future was envisaged as a network of metallic dystopian cities to be populated by machinery and automatons, spaceships and laser beams, and, although we may not have yet reached this stage of refinement, it does appear that we may slowly but surely be getting there. But is this a case of life imitating art again or is it just a coincidence?

A new report on one of today's blogs over at Wired suggests that U.S. presidential dwelling the White House may secretly be equipped with defensive laser beams on its roof, proving not only that the American government likes to always be one step ahead of the rest of us, but also that man likes to copy the things he's seen in the movies. Though the details of the lasers have not been confirmed by White House officials, the details of the project do present a case towards their presence that is quite interesting.

According to a 1998 report by Human Rights Watch, Pennsylvania Avenue may be protected by a laser weapon which is meant to ward of 9/11 style terrorist attacks:

Lasers originally developed for dazzling and blinding missions are being offered to law enforcement agencies and potentially for commercial sale. In one notable example, a California-based company, Light Solutions, is reportedly developing a dazzling counter-terrorism "green laser" for the Army on behalf of the U.S. Secret Service. A secret "black" program, this laser is intended to defend the White House and other government buildings in Washington from someone who might employ a light plane or helicopter in an attack.

Technical details of the lasers can be read over at the Wired blog. What Westmonster finds most interesting about the whole thing is that it appears technology that we've seen over and over again in the movies is slowly becoming a part of our everyday lives. Do we really need such technology though, or does our desire to follow dreams of the future laid out in works of artistic expression simply say something about the emptiness of our lives alone in the universe? It seems that the majority of technology that we aspire to in fiction eventually becomes reality thanks to scientists - who are essentially just a bunch of sci-fi geeks and want to make real their childhood play things. It's quite scary when you think that this may be what's driving the human race forwards...

The article also references an article from a Chicago newspaper that claims the Secret Service recently invested in a new hand-held laser-based weapon, suggesting that we really are heading down a Star Wars style path to the future.

So how long will it be until the UK follows suit??

Written by Oli Anderson on 2 Jun 2008 3:00 PM. Permalink