Star Trek Phaser 1,2,3 - Reverse Engineered

[Maximm]

As a fan of TOS very many years, I consider what my interests are with this 45+ year old TV series. I would have to say between the story lines, acting, music and special effects / props it would have to be the engineering that went into the designs. Since the props were intended to look interesting from a distan

 

[Altoidian]

The descriptions of the weapons you came up with are interesting. It gave me the thought that there may actually need to be a limitation to the amount of destructive power in one man carry weapon system such as this. Imagine one warrior who goes nuts or a weapon is captured by your enemy. The 3 would basically be unstoppable, especially in the hands of a highly skilled person. The ability of one warrior to control more than 3 million square meters of battle space to an altitude of a thousand meters would reduce the manpower of an army to just a small squad of warriors. Give them high mobility via jet-packs or "transporter" support, giving them instant location of any place on the battle area and you have an unstoppable system. Of course, in sci-fi, anything is possible, such as the Borg who can re-phase to surpass your weapons as fast as you can reconfigure them. Yikes!

But, realistically, think of these weapons in the hands of any modern day terrorists! How do you stop that?

 

[Maximm]

[between firings on a Phaser 2 and a 10 second delay on a Phaser 3. I also feel a phaser device would be incapable of continuous firing like we have seen on many occassion, nor do I see the purpose. Meaning you have either vaporized your target after the first second or at least the desired effect depending on your power setting. This Again, thanks for your comments.

 

[Altoidian]

Yes, agreed, we do have weapons of mass destruction today- you could even call a machine gun such a weapon. But, a nuclear weapon requires a vast array of people to get it to function- though that may be changing. No just one person has the power to set one off. And other such weapons are very difficult to apply without being harmed yourself. You are probably aware of the movie (the old one not the new one) The Day The Earth Stood Still. A rather jejune script, but a complex idea. The alien culture has suffered terribly at the application of such powerful weapons. So, they decided to build a "race" of robots, programmed to annihilate anyone who threatens violence. The threat is directed at mankind and planet Earth for becoming “wild men with machine guns” so-to-speak. Once we joined the nuclear club, we also joined the culture of responsibility for using them properly. The protagonist of the movie, “Gort” has what the alien calls, “Unlimited Power”- or more correctly, “There is no limit to what he could do.” Gort the Robot with the weapons is indestructible and can turn Earth into a burned out cinder. But, I am trying to imagine that kind of power in the hands of a human.

What if there were a special breed of humans- a kind of DNA altered species (Have you ever read “The Horars of War” by Gene Wolfe? Humans develop a kind of “Warrior” class that are built to withstand the trials men suffer in combat. They have tremendously strong bodies, double bone rib cages, and extra thick skulls. They are huge, able to carry the most dreadful weapons. But, they are highly disciplined, and want to serve under human command. They will obey any order. The story is about a human who wants to get the journalistic inside story on what it is like to be a Horar- so he has himself altered to look like one and joins a small squad of these super soldiers who get trapped behind enemy lines and one by one are killed- but only after inflicting tremendous damage against the enemy. The writer guy finds out although the Horars are tough, they still have human hearts and suffer emotional pain on losing comrades just like everyone else. Pretty cool story. Perhaps a kind of genetic mutation can evolve or be developed to where “Super” humans have these weapons (Phaser III’s) and are destined as protectors of the rest of us. And heaven help anyone who gets across their goals of keeping us “safe”.
Or what if people evolve to a point mental illness is eradicated? I always kind of felt this was a under-theme in Star Trek- but, they had plenty of nuts running lose (Kirk was one of them hahah). Perhaps the weapon would have a kind of “smart-center” that would tell when the user was trying to use it for nefarious purposes? That’s an interesting thought- Guns that are semi-alive that can discern human emotions and intent- and even moral values. Man- that’s a whole Sci-Fi story there.

 

[Maximm]

If you have not watched Fahrenheit 451 in a while, watch it agai

 

[Altoidian]

Imagine if a lone "tinkerer" fiddled around and accidentally came up with your Phaser III type weapon. The decisions that person would be faced with. What to do with that kind of power? If he/she presents it to the government, there is no question how it will be used, and it could actually threaten the continued existence of everyone on the planet. It could be kept secret, only to be given over to the government in a time of dire emergency- like an alien invasion. Or the inventor might decide to just take over the whole world. He/she would be as powerful as any two armies combined. Would the government make a deal. submit, surrender, fight to the bitter end? Hard to be a one person army, though. You have to sleep sometime. I think that's the main reason super heroes have to keep their identity a secret.

You make an excellent point about the unpredictability of the future. I remember when I first saw B&W TV. I had never seen a color movie. So, I thought it was like a "movie" right there in the home. I had to stand outside this person's house to watch it (she would not let kids inside, and yet, would let us watch the Lone Ranger and Roy Rodgers through an open window). I thought you would have to be very, very rich to afford a TV set. When I saw my first color TV, I was just astounded. I would not have ever believed such a thing possible (I was about 14 yrs. old). At the time, I never even allowed myself to dream of owning one for myself.

I saw the "fantasy" of cell phones (called car phones in those days) I was about 24. I boldly predicted they were pure fiction- that such a thing would never ever be possible - and I had a degree in metallurgy and was working on one in electronics at the time!

I used my first "computer” (it was only a sort of word processor) and took up half my office- and put out more heat than a floor furnace. I confidently predicted, the thing had some limited potential for keeping telephone listings- that would be all.

But, I absolutely believed we would see the end of highways- all people would get around in flying cars and jet packs by 1980! Highways would all become farm land or parks.

I thought we would have solved overpopulation and see the end of all starvation by 1985! I also was totally convinced all disease would be cured (except death - although I can not know what I thought would bring on death if all diseases were cured...) by 1990.

I was an avid Sci-Fi fan. I loved all things "space", a devout "Trekkie". - now look at the world of human. In truth, it has not changed but very little since 1960. Disease is a marketable commodity for the drug and medical industry- who would have predicted that? Cars still use internal combustion engines as a rule and roll on rubber tires (same as when they first were invented 1in 1890). There is no new energy source- still the same old crude oil Drake first discovered in Pennsylvania. I thought everyone would have their own personal nuclear reactor in their home by now. I never counted on oil becoming so endangered by the nuclear power development they would assemble whole armies of misguided citizens to stamp it into extinction. I should have foreseen that- look what the canal boat men did to steam powered canal boats!

 

[Maximm]

Anyway, back to Phaser 3, I think phaser 1 & 2 are just as menacing with their abilities to vaporize organic mater