A weapon has recently been patented, by the U.S. navy for some reason, which can record and transmit people's speech back to them, in an auditory loop. This 'non-lethal' weapon is described in articles such as the one below as aiming ' to surreptitiously render a person unable to speak.'
More than one article makes the analogy of using the internet to call someone, or being in a Zoom meeting, and getting noises bounce back at you, or lots of people speaking at once and not muting their microphones, and the confusion such a cacophony causes. The effect is often that any discussion is made incoherent, a modern tower of babble. Of course, in our recent forced isolations, we became increasingly reliant on such technological communication. Worth remembering that while our words need a synthetic medium to be transmitted to others, they are more prone to distortion.
The New Scientist recently published an article with an interview with a cognitive neuroscientist which describes how the delayed feedback impairs our ability to control our voice. The weapon can be targeted at the ears of individuals and may cause them to stammer, stop talking altogether, or distort their speech.
I'm reminded again of my novel, The Individual, where a future version of humanity never speak. This weapon is another step in the war on words: whether mainstream media propaganda and lies or big tech censorship, or restrictions on human face-to-face (unmasked) interactions, our ability to communicate freely is being eroded. Another crucial aspect of being human is being taken from us.
