Our Lives Are About to Become a Living Hell

[YellowTail]

The following link is just one of several articles I’ve read about a horrific new technology that will enable advertisers to beam their commercial messages right into your head:

Forbes Magazine - Christopher Helman - 09/15/03

Am I being a Chicken Little? I’m imagining that there will be nowhere you can go where you won’t be barraged with a non-stop stream of commercials. There will be no way to turn it off since somebody else controls it.

No more conversations, no more phone calls. You won’t be able to listen to the radio. You won’t be able to read. You won’t be able to sleep. There will always be one or more commercials playing in your head 24 hours a day.

Is there any hope?

[ParentalAdvisory]

Yes. When available, buy the HSS off eBay and use it against them with some Dre or Eminem.

[lno]

Well, not really.

1. This isn’t a radio broadcast right into everyone’s head. It’s (allegedly) a tight beam of ultrasound to a specific location - you can aim it at someone in a crowd, but if they walk away, they ain’t gonna hear it any more.

2. If I’m walking down the street and hear a commercial for a product in this manner, I’m going to a) never buy the product again, b) advocate others not to buy the product, c) make my feelings known very loudly to the executives of the company, and d) bleed from my ears. I suspect other people will probably do a-c as well. It’s one thing to see billboards, commercials, ads on the radio, popups online, but damned if I’m gonna react positively to an ad that I can’t turn off. I’m just funny that way.

Color me very skeptical.

[Ringo]

Time for the tin-foil hats!

[Master_Wang-Ka]

This is the sort of mindset that says, “If we create popups that scream ADVERTISING, ADVERTISING ADVERTISING every time a web surfer tries to look at something, he will wind up buying our product instead of developing a pathological hatred for it.”

You will notice they haven’t wised up yet.

[DreadCthulhu]

*Originally posted by Ringo *
**Time for the tin-foil hats! **

Aluminum Foil! Aluminum foil works much better, and is more reliable than tin, not to mention cheaper. And for a guide to making aluminum hats, well http://zapatopi.net/afdb.html is a good place to start.

[chattywine]

*Originally posted by DreadCthulhu *
**Aluminum Foil! Aluminum foil works much better, and is more reliable than tin, not to mention cheaper. And for a guide to making aluminum hats, well http://zapatopi.net/afdb.html is a good place to start. **

WHAHAHAHA they have a smiley with the hat! Can we have there here AND a pirate one oh pleeeease.

;j humm aluminum kippah??

[Fredge]

*Originally posted by lno *
**If I’m walking down the street and hear a commercial for a product in this manner, I’m going to a) never buy the product again, b) advocate others not to buy the product, c) make my feelings known very loudly to the executives of the company, and d) bleed from my ears. **

I agree with you, but I’ve tried the same tactics for years with e-mail spam but somebody must be buyin’ the crap or the spam machines would be winding down by now.

[Jodi]

OHMIGOD. DREADCTHULU, that is the funniest damn thing I’ve seen in weeks! I laughed my ass off. Thanks for the link.

[withaK]

From the article

Even cooler, but scarier, is HSS’ amped-up cousin, the Long Range Acoustic Device. A ship seeking to warn off a suspicious dinghy can use the device to loudly hail the vessel from 500 yards away. If it gets closer, sailors can target it with 120 earsplitting decibels of siren sounds that cause spontaneous diarrhea, long-lasting migraines or nausea.

(emphasis added)
Does this mean there really is a brown note?

[Already_in_Use]

Ugh, I hate intrusive advertising. I hope they illegalize this (at least for advertising purposes) ASAP.

BTW, there was also an article about it a couple of months ago in the New York Times Magazine.

[pencilpusher]

Talk about hearing voices… Sounds like therapists are going to be in HIGH demand soon…
Wife: do you hear that?
hubby: what?
Wife:That voice…
hubby: nooooo
Wife:Someone is telling me to buy Coke
hubby: but we NEVER drink Coke
Wife:… you still have that doctors number?

[Taran]

General Dynamics is installing HSS gear on Navy ships, including one over the captain’s chair on the bridge of the U.S.S. Winston S. Churchill. The speaker cuts through the din to beam messages to the captain’s ears only. Even cooler, but scarier, is HSS’ amped-up cousin, the Long Range Acoustic Device. A ship seeking to warn off a suspicious dinghy can use the device to loudly hail the vessel from 500 yards away. If it gets closer, sailors can target it with 120 earsplitting decibels of siren sounds that cause spontaneous diarrhea, long-lasting migraines or nausea. Says Norris:“It’s cleaner than the 50-caliber solution.”

Stunners are on their way. Awesome.