summary：
Alright, let's get this straight. Albuquerque, New Mexico, is apparently the next Silicon... Alright, let's get this straight. Albuquerque, New Mexico, is apparently the next Silicon Valley... for freakin' laser beams and microwave death rays? Give me a break.
The "Boom" Echoes
So, according to the hype, this "directed energy" research – which sounds suspiciously like something straight out of a bad sci-fi movie – is going to turn Albuquerque into some kind of boomtown. The city's economic development website practically orgasms over it, putting it right up there with agriculture and retail. Agriculture? Seriously? Last time I checked, lasers didn't grow corn.
They're selling this as some kind of economic miracle, a way for Albuquerque to dodge the funding bust that's supposedly hitting other towns dependent on federal cash. But let's be real: it's just shifting the dependency from one government teat to another. And this one involves weapons.
Edl Schamiloglu, the head honcho at UNM's Directed Energy Center, is all about figuring out the "basics." How to shoot energy without overheating everything, how that energy behaves. Harmless, right? Just good ol' scientific curiosity. Except, of course, the end goal is weapons that can fry drones, satellites, and maybe even ICBMs someday. You know, for peace.
And Christopher Rodriguez, Jr., the UNM student who went from the dollar store to building death-ray components? Good for him. But let's not pretend this is some heartwarming rags-to-riches story. It's a recruitment pipeline. Schamiloglu himself admits they're growing the next generation of experts for the Air Force Research Lab.
Lasers and Vodka: A Love Story?
The article mentions Schamiloglu's backstory – Bronx-born, parents from the Soviet Union, started in nuclear fusion. He even went to Siberia in '91 to buy some crazy machine called Sinus-6 after "feasts of berries, meats, caviar, and double-digit shots of vodka." Sounds like a blast, but I'm not sure what it has to do with anything?
Oh wait, I get it. It's supposed to make him seem less like a mad scientist and more like... a quirky, relatable guy who just happens to be building futuristic weapons. The optics here are offcourse.
And this whole idea that directed energy weapons are somehow "precise" and cause "little collateral damage"? Please. Sure, they might not blow up buildings like a bomb, but frying someone's electronics is still frying someone's electronics. If that "someone" happens to be running a hospital or air traffic control, "little collateral damage" goes right out the window.
The "Ethics" of Endless Funding
Then there's the ethical question – or lack thereof. Schamiloglu claims he's just interested in the physics and engineering, not what the military does with his research. "How do you make them better? How do you improve their efficiency?" he asks.
It's the classic scientist's dodge: "I'm just asking questions!" But let's not pretend there aren't consequences to those questions. As Rebecca Slayton from Cornell points out, this kind of funding sucks talent away from other fields. And when those other fields are already starving for cash, it's not just a brain drain, it's a moral one.
John Tierney, executive director at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, says it best: "If the military is where the money is, that’s probably where you’re focusing your grant application. And you’re hoping it’s going to have some spinoff great effect for society as a whole, or whatever story you tell yourself, so that you do that.”
Ain't that the truth. As Boomtown: How Futuristic Weapons Could Power Albuquerque details, the allure of military funding is hard to resist.
So, What's the Body Count on This "Boom?"
Look, I'm not saying Albuquerque is evil. And I'm not saying that scientific research is inherently bad. But let's not sugarcoat this. This "directed energy boom" isn't about creating jobs or boosting the economy. It's about building weapons. And while some folks get rich and some students get jobs, the rest of us get a world that's one step closer to becoming a real-life version of Star Wars. And honestly, I'm not sure that's a future worth celebrating.