I’ll take a plasma rifle in the 40 watt range.
No kidding. Where’s my damn plasma rifle?
More like 40 megawatts!
Hey, just what you see, pal!
:-)
Plasma rifles are here, in the stun-gun variety. Don’t need to wait until 2054. Should be no problem increasing the strength of the plasma beam to be lethal. 2005 article:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7077#.U4Ff5cagTnc
A nonlethal weapon designed to use a laser to induce a high energy state in gases is currently being funded by the United States military. The leading tip of the incoming beam ionized the target material, while the remainder is absorbed by this newly created plasma causing it to expand rapidly. This rapid expansion not only has an effect similar to a flash-bang grenade, but also creates an extremely strong EM field which is tunable through the output of the laser itself. This EM field stimulates nerves throughout the body triggering muscle paralysis and/or intense sensations of pain. There have been concerns that the technology may be unethically used, as it is possible to stimulate pain nerves throughout a person’s body creating unimaginable levels of agony
The US military is funding development of a weapon that delivers a bout of excruciating pain from up to 2 kilometres away…
It concerns so-called Pulsed Energy Projectiles (PEPs), which fire a laser pulse that generates a burst of expanding plasma when it hits something solid, like a person (New Scientist print edition, 12 October 2002). The weapon, destined for use in 2007, could literally knock rioters off their feet…
This appears to be the result of an electromagnetic pulse produced by the expanding plasma which triggers impulses in nerve cells…
The contract, heavily censored before release, asks researchers to look for “optimal pulse parameters to evoke peak nociceptor activation” - in other words, cause the maximum pain possible.