so ignore the stupidity and answer the question. how hard would it be to give me laser fingers? i see it like this. transform the fingernail, through genetic engineering or surgery (GE, preferably), into a mineral deposit (let’s say ruby) surrounded by bioluminescent tissue. at the back of the ruby tube, there is a deposit of another material which acts as a mirror. i have to polich the front of the rubies every morning, as part of my getting up ritual. on my command, the lights start a-glowing with very high energies. the rubies start emitting coherent light, and voila, i got myself laser fingers.
now, i’m sure the materials can be fiddled with to make lasers that actually do something.
would this be impossible in the near future, or just very hard? many thanks.
how do you keep the laser in each finger from interfering with the others?
if you want the lasers to be powerful enough to do something, how do you avoid wreaking havoc unintentionally with beams pointing all over the place? The lightsabers were sort of bogus in that the laser stopped at a given length, which I don’t think you’d be able to do with your finger lasers.
If I were you, I’d stick to installing just a couple in my index fingers and have them work on command only. But they’d still be cool if you could activate them just by thinking them on, you know?
Having built a lo of lasers, I gotta ask what you’re going to d with the waste heat. This is not a trivial issue or a side issue – it’s THE issue. Lasers are intrinsically inefficient. Your typical laser only squirts a couple percent of is energy out the front in a beam . The rest is “sidelight” and (mostly) heat. That’s why lasers have big cooling systems, often using pumped-through water. Those little semiconductor diode lasers that they put in CD players get rid of their heat by conduction and convection, but they aren’t putting out much oomph. I assume you want your lasers to be able to DO something, not just make a spot of light a la Buzz Lightyear.
Even if you build yourself an excimer laser you’re gonna have a waste heat disposal problem.
In general, I don’t think the idea of screwing around with your bones in order to build in some technology is a good dea. Read Jack Vance’s “The Languages of Pao”, or T.J. Bass’ “The Godwhale”.
Uh-huh. I don’t think anyone has written The Physics of Star Wars as has been done with Star Trek. While both have lots of things that don’t exist ST’s devices have a veneer of pseudo science that the fantasy world of SW does not.
That said I think you’d be better off embedding semiconductor lasers in your fingertips if you want to impress the geeks at the premier of episode II. If you want to be able to slice Darth Corky open and show him his liver before he dies you’re going to need something more powerful than mere flesh and bone can contain.
Well I’m not so sure about the biotech approach - you’re a little bit limited as to materials, power levels etc.
Can you make lasers small enough to be surgically implanted into your finger tips? Sure. Little semiconductor lasers would do nicely. Work is being done to make batteries which generate power from the glucose and oxygen in blood, to power artificial hearts. So you could have a power supply built in. They’d only be weedy little “laser pointer” type lasers, though.
As to frying Luke Skywalker with them, that’s a different ball game. To do some proper damage, you want at least a few kilowatts of power. Trouble is, lasers are only 30% efficient at best, so you have several electric fires worth of heat being dumped into your fingers which you have to get rid of. And you have to generate all that power in the first place, an artificial heart battery won’t do it. Some day it’ll probably be possible, but near future, no way.
You may want to consider the somewhat lower tech “poison claw fingers”, “acid spray” fingers, or the ambitious “taser” fingers, any of which could probably be arranged for a couple of million. They might make it tough to play the piano though.
Why not tape a laser pointer to your finger? Or, if you want a complete set make a pair of gloves with lasers attached. That way you could don them with the rest of your superhero costume.
Related Questions:
How do you look in spandex?
What would be your superhero name?
What about the “Midas” effect (as noted by tomndebb)?
Would you get to hang around with Halle Berry and Famke Janssen?
How about a microwave mouth? From the freezer to your face!
Night Vision telescopic eyes.
Turbo Powered lungs.
Spring Assist legs.
GI Joe Kung Fu grip.
Hydralic pen… ummm never mind.
3. What about the “Midas” effect (as noted by tomndebb)?
pretty simple. my arms don’t go around unconsciously clotheslining people simply because i don’t like them (the people, not the arms). why would my laser fingers be any different?
4. Would you get to hang around with Halle Berry and Famke Janssen?
sweetheart, I already do.
**5. What is Natalie Portman like IRL? **
who the hell cares? I got Halle and Famke. once i get my laser fingers, i will be able to die a happy death.
jb
p.s.- a few hours ago, i shook hands with bob dole and talked to him. no lie. of course, i shook his good left hand. it’s so great as a southpaw to give a reverso every once in a while (anyway, my right hand is still smarting from a horse bite- again, i shit you all not times infinity- it’s been quite a week for old jb)
It’s not stupid, but let’s start off with a more likely initial scenario. The bioluminescent fingernail part…or bioluminescent skin for that matter is theoretically within the realm of GE because there is a lot of organic bioluminescence around but no organic lasers that I know of.
I am informed by friends of mine who are orchid growers that an orchid has been experimentally developed which luminesces very faintly. They told me that the DNS from fireflies was sequenced with orchid DNA to get this result. I have never seen one and I did not try to verify the story since it sounded a little farfetched, but I do not dismiss the premise out of hand.
Personally, I would much prefer to be able to do the extraordinarily beautiful color and design sequences that cuttlefish use while hunting, hiding and mating. If you have never seen this in color, you will be awed and amazed.
That ability would provide you with near invisibility and REALLY impress everyone else. Much better than being Edward Laserhands.
To answer the question: Nothing is impossible but it would be VERY hard because you would have to start growing mineral crystalline structures at the end of your animal fingers. Then you would have to grow silicon and dope it with Germanium or something else. And engineer diodes and heat sinks. THEN you would have to power the diodes to excite and then lase at a particular frequency. I don’t think you can do it without going the cyborg route and wearing some power packs. And then Bob Dole wouldn’t shake hands with you anymore.
And who would do your nails? “Excuse me, miss…10 Planar Epitaxial Passivated fingers are soaking in detergent over here! They’ll all be plain tunnel diodes if you don’t hurry.”