Good Lord! What In Heaven's Name Is That?/b> Source: The Sydney Morning Herald February 5, 2000
We are in Baghdad in 1991, and something strange is
happening. A hush falls over the city as a huge shimmering face
materialises in the sky. Soldiers and citizens prostrate themselves as
each hears the voice of Allah, commanding them to overthrow the evil
and treacherous Saddam Hussein. Within
minutes an angry mob is storming the palace as the guards flee ...
This highly imaginative scenario was proposed by US Air
Force (USAF) planners for a bloodless victory in the Gulf conflict.
The idea of putting words in God's mouth is not new. In the second
century AD Lucian described a statue of the god Aesculapius that spoke
to believers, aided by a hidden priest with a speaking tube.
The Baghdad plan involved projecting a giant hologram
over Iraq. This kind of projection requires a mirror behind it. The
scale of the project dictated a mirror several kilometres across up in
space. So far the largest mirror developed has been 30 metres wide and
present versions are too small to produce a convincing image at ground
level.
Another approach would be to make a mirror out of thin
air. When warm air lies on top of cold air, the difference in density
is enough to bend light. At higher altitudes, a mirage can make whole
landscapes appear in the sky. An artificial mirage could in theory be
made by heating the atmosphere with radio waves or microwaves.
The military certainly appears to believe in the
potential use of holograms. A USAF think-tank has devised uses ranging
from deceptive holographic imaging to the Star Trek-sounding
distortion field projector. These are described as useful for
strategic deception purposes, particularly against
an unsophisticated adversary. They would be projected by a special
aircraft, an airborne hologram projector.
Perhaps the nearest current equivalent is the Commando
Solo, a modified Hercules festooned with aerials and antennae and
carrying pods of classified electronics. It can transmit across the
electromagnetic spectrum, including radio and television signals.
The face of God needs a voice. A new technique using
microwaves could produce this. When a high-power microwave pulse
strikes the human body, a small temperature disturbance occurs,
causing an expansion of tissue that can create an acoustic wave. A
report from the USAF scientific advisory board says: "With a pulse
stream, an internal acoustic field of 5-15KHz can be created which is
audible. Thus it may be possible to 'talk' to adversaries in a way
which would be most disturbing to them."
The practical difficulties in microwave transmission are
formidable. The exact sound perceived depends on the size and shape of
the hearer's skull and orientation to the source. Microwaves can be
reflected or dampened by solid objects, so God's voice could have the
underwater quality of
poor radio reception. And would you believe in a God whose voice drops
off when you walk behind a lamp-post?
But there were other problems with the plan. Images of
Allah are forbidden in Islam. How can you project an image of God when
nobody knows what He is supposed to look like?
And the citizens of Baghdad are not superstitious
savages, prone to fleeing at the sound of a disembodied voice from a
gramophone. They have been exposed to years of computer-generated
imagery and flashy special effects. If God's image did appear in the
heavens, someone would be bound to suggest it was all done with
mirrors.
The Guardian
by David Hamling in London
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0002/05/world/world17.html