On 28 jaan, 21:31, Wildepad <noreplies> wrote:
> Thanks to all who responded to my previous post. Rather than explain
> things in that thread, where someone who has yet to respond might
> stumble across it, I think it best to post the scenario separately.
>
> I collect odd facts. I particularly love it when these tidbits combine
> to create greater oddities.
>
> One set has always intrigued me:
>
> Researchers with the penchant for sticking electrodes into rats' heads
> and seeing what they could twiddle found spots which would not put a
> rat to sleep but would keep it under once it fell asleep naturally.
>
> Some time later, other researchers fiddling around with ultrasonic
> stimulation of monkey brains found a similar effect -- they could not
> put a monkey asleep, but they could keep it there.
>
> Piling oddity upon oddity, scientists sticking electromagnets around a
> monkey's skull found they could achieve exactly the same effect.
>
> (In none of these cases was this what the researchers were looking
> for, so they're just footnotes to the primary studies.)
>
> So -- why not a weapon that induces that effect worldwide? Anyone who
> is or goes asleep will stay that way until you turn off the machine,
> and for about 12 hours more because the effect takes time to wear off.
>
> It has the benefit of limiting physical damage (no one is going to
> pass out while driving or flying, most industrial processes will be
> shut down when relief shifts don't appear, etc.)
Or they will not.
For a normal adult human to stay awake for 36 hours is unpleasant but
feasible most of time, given motivation. They would be somewhat tired,
but able to stay awake. Skipping a night is something very many people
have sometimes done.
When the effects start, and people who are due to wake up cannot be
awakened, the people already awake include some who were planning to
go to sleep soon as well as some who woke well-rested shortly before
the effect started.
When the people who said they wanted to get just a short nap cannot be
awakened when due, those still awake will get scared. They will
therefore have a powerful motive to stay awake. A few might fail...
but a large part of your hospital watch would be still awake in 26
hours.
and minimal loss of
> life. Perhaps the most important aspect is that if you want to land
> invasion troops, they'll be able to move freely since the roads won't
> be clogged with stalled cars.
>
> Since it is limitations that create tension (Superman/Kryptonite, for
> example), the weapon has to have some Achilles heel. In this case,
> it's that anyone in a Faraday cage is protected from the effect.
>
What is a good enough Faraday cage?
Assuming that iron armature in ferroconcrete is not good enough, what
about steel structure of ships?
> Someone is bound to notice this, but it will take time. Even after
> they figure it out and test it, they can't do very much except
> broadcast the information because they'll be overwhelmed trying to
> take care of their own people, leaving a considerable part of the
> world at the weapon-wielder's mercy (i.e. if the weapon is used when
> it is late evening/early night in North America, the vast majority
> won't know anything about it before they go to bed, and by the time
> those in Bangkok can tell anyone what to do to protect themselves,
> those who were awake in Denver are going to be too sleepy to use the
> information in any kind of widescale manner).
>
> You work the graveyard shift and normally awaken about ten o'clock at
> night. When your wife/girlfriend/so can't rouse you, you're taken to
> the hospital where they are already becoming overwhelmed by similar
> patients.
>
Which time in the evening did the effect start?
Since few people are due to awaken ten o=B4clock at night, the first
victims are inconspicuous. Although most people are still awake... so
they could hear radio and TV broadcasts advising them to stay awake.
> The staff can do nothing more than check for other problems and put
> you where you won't be in the way.
>
> Fortunately, you were stuffed into the MRI room. Whether that was by
> pure chance or because someone had an inkling that the room's
> isolation might help is a matter for conjecture.
>
> Unfortunately, you were the first to have the effect wear off.
Oversleeping 26 hours means midnight of the next day. 12 hours for the
effect to wear off means you were put to MRI room at noon.
If you
> were the second, third, or whatever, there would be evidence (empty
> gurneys) that others had also awakened, and you might wait a
> considerable time to see if anyone else in the room will wake up on
> their own.
>
> It is therefore important for the protag to leave the room fairly
> quickly and be out of the hospital before any/many more awaken.
>
> The problem is that I'm not sure that's a normal reaction. I'm not
> even sure it would be my reaction -- to me, hospitals represent a
> certain level of safety, and I'm uncertain how quickly I'd leave one.
> There are many motivations which could force a person out (seeking
> loved ones, wanting to find news, etc.) but they feel forced.
>
> The fact that so many indicated their first priority lies, in one
> fashion or another, outside the hospital lends credence to the impulse
> to leave.
>
> Many thanks again to those who responded and those who will.
> :)
> --
|
