http://news.yahoo.com/us-military-unveils-non-lethal-heat-ray-weapon-032512781.html

In one of Asimov’s stories, his characters use a non-lethal weapon called a “neural whip”, to discourage attacks by hostile aliens or beasts. It causes intense pain at a distance, but no injury.

“Non-lethal weapons” is an oxymoron. Everything which stops short of killing, such as fire hoses, tear gas, incapacitating agents, rubber bullets, cattle prods, etc, is to be preferred to gunfire from a humane standpoint, but even panic in a crowd can cause death. And anything that incapacitates a healthy young adult has the potential to hurt the old, young, or the seriously wounded. Even if the potential for injury is reduced, it is made up for by the increased temptation to use the weapon because it is “harmless”. Our experience with tasers has already shown abuses.

I guess it always come down to whether the unruly target is a dangerous mob, or peacefully assembled citizen demonstrators. Unfortunately, its always the side with the guns who gets to make that judgement.

All the technology in the world doesn’t free you from the responsibility of making a moral choice. But it can make you forget that you still have the responsibility to do so.