"Alien 'Dessication' ray...is that a HEAT ray?" Topic

Old news…sort of?

In the Tom Cruise 'War of the Worlds' movie…the ALIENS…(we ASSUMED they were 'Martians' but never reall became an issue, I guess)…an 'beam weapon' was used against humans and structures, vehicals, etc. Buildings/flamables etc exploded…but humans sorta 'poofed' into powder/flakes…but their CLOTHING didn't seem to BURN? (eerie scene of tom and folks running thru 'snow' of human 'flakes/powder/ashes'…with clothing floating down too??)

My 'take' on that 'weapon' for whatever it's worth…is some sort of 'dessication/freeze-dry process with microwave???'

IF it was strictly 'heat'…everything would just 'burn'…period…with some things taking longer to burn/melt etc??? (this movie was more sci than fi when compared to Mars Attacks…IMHO)

The aliens were 'chumming' humans as fertilizer for their 'red weed'…(THEIR 'foodstuff', not the humans THEMSELVES…or so it seemed vs 'original martians')..so just burning humans would leave 'ash'…but not the same as freeze-drying…per se.

Think 'potato buds' vs 'potato flakes' in dehydrated foods perhaps???

The 'ray', if it had just 'removed' water by HEAT…should have caused humans to 'burst' like a 'sausage in a microwave'…but instead…they 'popped' like…popcorn into flakes/dustish materials…WHICH…I 'assume' would then become 'fertilizer' for the 'red weed'…

IF 'water' had been added…you would have gotten 'mush' (sorta like instant potatoes ala' long pig), but not a complete human being. But the 'fertilizer' for the red weed would have been more than just 'cremation/ash/basic chemicals'…(otherwise why would they have 'chummed' captive humans instead of just 'vaporizing' them as they did most of them in the INVASION etc…

No, I think they 'needed' more than JUST 'human ash' or what would have been left from 'cremation'…for their NEW 'ecosystem'…and would have eventually done the same to all HIGHER lifeforms on earth..(they only got about 1 BILLION…according to the end-titles, out of 6.5???)

So…let the 'dissection' begin…hard science vs 'fuzzy/pulp-sf science'…

The aliens had force shields and some kind of microwave/EMP equipment to knock out equipment/vehicals that were OPERATING at the time of the 'beam-down' into their machines??? (remember, the solenoids replaced in a van, 'fixed' the problem???)

Would 'passive/non-used/attached equipment be 'protected' from EMP pulse…(like shutting your computer/all electrics down before a storm/atomic blast???)

And would a 'freeze-dry' ray…'dessication ray' be able to 'potato-bud' a human into re-hydrateable 'mush'…WITHOUT BURNING the human/clothing? still be able to 'knock out' a vehical/cause wood and other combustibles to BURN???

Could an 'energy beam'…combo microwave/heat/gamma-laser? turn humans INSTANTLY into 'potato buds'…be 'multi-phased'…so not to burn humans/cloth, but destroy structures/vehicals…?

Another 'aspect' for GAMING…(you KNOW I'd tie it into here, somehow…8-)…

Earth WITHOUT Humans…Earth AFTER humans…from History/Natl Geo…could such an 'alien weapon'…ELIMINATE all HUMANS/higher intelligence beings…without 'destroying' the infrastructures…(like selective 'freeze-drying/potato-budding'…??

Remember..(if you can) the scene from 'Martian Chronicles' where Rock Hudson returned to earth to 'save' his brother and saw the last few moments of his life. Where the 'nukes'…(assumed to be NEUTRON? bombs)..hit and the brother and two other staffers in underground command center…just 'phased out'…(looked rather painful!)…including their clothes…but left EVERYTHING else 'untouched/unburnt'…even his watch…which he'd taken off just before impact?

Could a 'ray/energy' weapon just 'phase out' HUMANS…with or without their clothing…WITHOUT 'burning' the surroundings/damaging other structures…other LIFE…like plants, etc???? (converting humans to potato-buds/fertilizer, not just base chemicals???)…

Think of all the 'water' and heat and gases? released in the conversion of a single human body into 'potato-buds' vs just 'burnt ashes'…(which is harder than it sounds)…

But WHAT a 'cool' weapon…for 'alienforming' a planet…?

yep, destroying all of humanity would cause some damage as human-controlled equipment would malfunction, etc…but if the aliens were 'smart'…they'd phase it in…and could keep 're-fertilizing' the garden while taking over what equipment/facilities they wanted and controling/shutting down the ones they didn't need/want?

Now THERE would be a real science fiction story…and I toss it out for your consideration and 'what-if's?'..

Is it realistic/feasible to 'take over' the earth…like the aliens started to in WOW/TC version…and not destroy all the infrastructure…(humans would hide…for decades???)…

and now…*slish away!
Sgt DWW-bartentacle on a rainy day…

That's why it's called science *fiction*.

On Friday, I was quizzing my urologist on the physics behind the laser lithotripsy he had done the week before: breaking up a slew of kidney stones up inside my right kidney.

It was cool to watch on the monitor; I had a spinal instead of general anaesthesia, so I was watching the whole thing. The laser is sort-ranged; it has to be almost in contact with the surface to be affected, and does not have the same effect as a cautery laser.

We established that the laser is engineered to affaect a specific range of materials that are likely to comprise kidney stones, in order to minimize damage to the surrounding area. But the doc did have to admt that what looked like "boiling" at the tip of the laser each time he pulsed it was in fact boiling the fluids and tissue as well.

Had lunch yet?

Allen

The visible part of the ray might be nothing more than an aiming device. There might had been a secondary stream of ???? that caused the dessication effect.

This is not fiction at all. The writers simply stole the manufacturing process of Instant Pototoes.

The technology existed thanks to stolen tech from a death ray the Nazi Germans were developing during WWII.

So the 'Martians' were turning human beings into 'potato buds?'….with stolen Nazi WWII tech????

As someone said, it IS 'science fiction'…but the 'haunting effect' of the 'visible' part of the BEAM hitting people who just went 'poof' and left their clothing UNTOUCHED and 'dust blowing in the wind…like snowflakes/potato flakes???'…made me 'wonder' HOW would it be possible to design a weapon that would 'convert' a human being into 'flakes' without apparent 'heat'/burning?

And if such a weapon or 'multiphasic beams' could selectively just vaporize HUMANS or animal matter vs ALL organic matter, (dead or alive) or PLANTS of any kind?

The 'catch' seems to be that the beam has to ACTUALLY 'hit' have contact with the body/persons. It can't penetrate 'hard cover'…buildings etc…there is no 'wounding'…if it HITS you, you're 'converted'/enveloped by the beam/energy/field? and 'poof'…with a 'popping sound'…

So would that be the instant 'mash' beam of doom? 8-0

Think of it…a weapon that without BURNING? converts higher level intelligent beings, (the only ones who could apparently 'interfere' in the Alien's conquest plans)…into fertilizer for the ALIEN's apparent food source??

But not apparently the bacteria, virues and other organic materials…(alive or not)…So could the beam(s) somehow be linked to the 'intelligence' of the target? Beams hit humans and other 'things'…but only the humans 'poofed'…so could mental activity be somehow PART of the 'trigger' process???

Just pondering some ideas for total, TENTACLULAR world dominiation in my 'spare' time…*slish!
Sgt DWW-intrigued by the concept of potatos as weapons

Maybe its a carbon-based disintegrator and they are wearing synthetic fiber clothing.

No, not carbon, calcium.

DWW,

Shame on you. It is a well known fact that polyester is impervious to Martian death-rays. Once again Hollywood writers blow it. Anyone as tentacular as you should have known this.

Microwaves work by emitting radiation at a wavelength that excites (heats up) water molecules.

If it were possible to shoot a beam that slowed down water molecules, it would cause rapid freezing of body tissue. Super-rapid freezing would cause the body to fracture into small chunks of snow and ice.

Since clothes have much less water in than bodies, they would not be so strongly affected.

Surely the easier way for aliens to take over an undamaged earth would be to cause mass sterility, so that human numbers would dwindle and then just go quietly away, either as a gradual decline in fertility ( as seems to be happening in developed countries at present….) or as a virus that leaves all humans sterile ( similar to children of men, although Im not sure what was meant to have caused the sterility in that). Just sit back and wait 80 or so years and walk in. Dont even need a tidy up operation.

Phil

But where is the fun in that.

I admit gaming it wouldnt be much fun ( roll 10D10, after that many years , you are dead) but it would be the sensible way of doing it.

The Spielberg WotW is a bit odd in a lot of ways. The 'dessication beam' has the same problem as every SF 'disintigrator ray': where does the mass go? If it just turns water to steam in an instant, then every person hit would explode like a bomb rather than just going 'poof'. Steam explosions are nasty things. If it's some sort of matter-to-energy beam then it's a zillion times worse :) I got the impression that the captured humans were being 'juiced' in large hydraulic cylinders, hence the red liquid spray. Ick! The whole idea of the long-buried machines struck me as very silly at first (why had not one ever been found by all those digging humans?) but after thinking about it for a while I could sort of rationalize it and the rest of the story. The aliens send out robot survey ships to find likely planets for colonization. What they are looking for is a planet with a species that is suitable for fertilizer and which will multiply relatively rapidly. When they find one with the right conditions they bury their war machines and then wait. So, we can assume that the alien survey ships decided that Cro-Magnon man was just what they were looking for. When we had multiplied to the right point they arrived and began 'alien-forming' the planet. But something went wrong. Initial scans had not discovered any harmful pathogens, but 50,000 of evolution bred some new ones that they weren't expecting. Pretty careless of them, actually.

'alien-forming'

Xeno-forming, perhaps?

the 'missing mass' question in the 'instant dessication' beam…yes, I was wondering about that!

In star-trekish shows…the 'phased' person left 'burn marks'…seemed to expand as they turned red etc and dissappeared. So you assumed heat (at least!) possibly other radiation, was being released. Great photographic effects but a real 'death ray' doesn't need to disintegrate to kill…we've seen THAT on star-trek shows too…where phasers are set to kill without making the person or object dissappear! even STUN at close range/multiple hits can 'kill' as from systemic shock etc.

IF I was to 'role-play' the 'dessication' rays…I'd make it a multi-phasic/energy field weapon…geared towards beings with 'mental activity' of the higher order/intelligence AND the 'potato buds' being the human being 'freeze-dried' at same time…releasing water vapor into the air along with other gases…(causing the clothing to 'waft away' as shown in movie…along with flakes floating all over the place.

IF put in water…you'd have gotten 'mashed human mush'…not instant people…instead of just CREMATED ashes or 'seperate chemical compounds'…all the better to feed the 'red weed!'…

but since humans are somewhat 'cockroachish' in their ability to 'survive'…I'd assume the aliens would be able to hunt them…for years…depending on how HARD they look???…so constant 're-fertilization' of red-weed would be possible?

it was a 'cool' effect though and somewhat eerily reminiscent of the scenes from 'Schindler's List' where Schindler and his lady friend were out horseback riding…when 'ashes' from the nazi 'furnaces' were drifting down on them and you realized it was HUMAN 'remains/ashes' and the true HORROR set in…

*slish!

Larry Niven wrote a story in which Human Space explorers found a planet with one large continent surrounded by ocean. The ocean had only one organism – a plankton that made excellent all-in-one food, and the continent – or the edge of the continent – was inhabited by giant humans fighting for access to the plankton. It was surmised that the whole thing was a food set up, with the aliens intending to come back when the population reached a certain point, but that they forgot to come back.