How to Disable a Cyborg

[Aggie]

Good idea, if perhaps a little beyond DIY guerrilla capacity. 

What about (for close range) a less focused microwave source, such as a array of magnetron tubes?  I've heard anecdotal evidence that hacked microwave ovens were used to draw fire in the Balkans because they 'looked' like radar stations.  Not sure how close a cyborg would have to be to a 1000 W tube to have it mess with circuitry, but perhaps they'd be good communications scramblers.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I dunno... that 1000 watt tube is designed to generate 1000 watts inside a closed metal box-- which concentrates it's energy.

Remember that radiation dissipates following the inverse-square law, thus you'd have to get really close to have any noticeable effect.

[Aggie]

Maybe it could be directed with a dish, but I agree.  1000W is presumably the energy consumption, not output, and it's surely not 100% efficient. 

Messing with IR-detecting night vision is easier (presumably cyborgs would have IR augmented vision and sneak up at night).  Thermite flares might be enough to blind the system, at least temporarily. One could probably concoct a flash-steam generator that would send up bright (to the night vision) plumes of hot steam that might make it tough to track a human in the confusion.

I don't suppose one could actually create a significantly fluctuating magnetic field with rare-earth magnets moving mechanically, eh?  Not without some bloidy big magnets... 

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

OOooh... thermite.... that stuff's nasty.

If you don't mind killing the 'borg outright?

Make an air-cannon that sprays thermite powder over'em... then hit'em with a magnesium flare...  that stuff'll melt nearly anything.   Remember the Myth Busters episode where they messed around with it?

Jaimie used a strip of thermite to cut a car in half... and not all that much, either.  

It's cool stuff.. and apparently quite easy to make at home too... basically rust plus ground aluminum.   Some formulas have a "getter" charge of a small percentage of magnesium powder, but that's not required if you have a hot enough starter-flame.   I've also heard of mixing black powder into it, but I've never had the stones to make up any... [so I don't know if the black powder mix will even work]

... it [thermite] scares the bejezus outta me, it does...



Edit: Proofreading what I just wrote?   I thought of this:  keep the basic thermite pure (Fe+Al) and make a tiny charge of black powder (also easy to home-make) wrapped in a small bag in the center.. the a simple fuse will set off the black powder, which ought to fire off the thermite... you'd want to not confine the black powder, you're looking for intense heat, not an explosion, so the bag should be exposed at the top of your mix.

Phosphorous also burns quite hot, and it might work as a fuse too.  But making it is a boat-load more difficult than black powder-- more dangerous too, as phosphorous tends to self-ignite in the pure state.   But one of the primary ingredients (to make it) is urine, available in copious amounts, just for the asking....

Another easy to make 'splosive is gun-cotton... but getting the requisite acid can be problematic.    Remember celluloid?   I'll leave the details to the student, for safety's sake...  

And, of course, no discussion of home-made "boom"s is complete with out the two classics:   nitro glycerin and try-nitro toluene.   Both are dirt-simple to make... both can be made relatively safe to handle... and both pack a largish punch.

For the former, I'll again leave it up to the student.  For the latter?  I will direct you to one of Robert Heinlein's lessor-known novels, Farnham's Freehold, where the how-2 is outlined in lovely detail.

[Aphos]

Why do people fear the Borg?

[Aggie]

Na or K chlorate and sugar, set off with a drop of H₂SO₄ make a hot enough flame to fire thermite.  That's how we used to set it off (outdoors) in chem class.  We badgered our teacher over the course of a semester into letting us try it; I remember us demonstrating it for a Grade 8 class afterwards.  The right flavour of FeOx is required...  probably Fe³⁺?  I can't recall offhand.

'We/Us' being the smart-arse kids in the back of science classes that tended to get bored with the pace of the lessons (but not the subjects), and plot new applications for them.  



The premise of the thread is largely that once cybernetics become standard equipment for developed-world humans, there will eventually be a push to round up and augment any remaining nonaugmented natural-organism 'wild' humans*.  If one was a pacifist and humanist, one would like to be able to escape a cyborg offensive by disabling their augmentations without killing the human platform. A disaugmented cyborg would be no match for a free-range natorg, IMHO.

_{*Actually, that's false.  It's much more likely that the elite will be augmented, and nonaugs will be relegated to servitude. Nobody's going to spend good money to augment a hillbilly, but they may resent people living outside the reach of advertising.}

[Swatopluk]

I still have the lump of iron we produced by the thermite reaction from my early university days. The difficulty is in a fine enough mixture of the iron oxide and the aluminium powder. It took some time with pistill and mortar. The flower pot we did the reaction in (in the inner courtyard behind a mound of sand) got torn to pieces.

Not sure about the easiness of producing tea and tea. The acids have to be at maximum concentration and temperature control can be tricky. For beginners using feign ol' may be advisable but keep the product away from metal. It forms salts easily and those are, let's say, easily angered.

Beim Feuerwerk zur falschen Zeit vom Chemiker nichts übrig bleibt.

[Sibling DavidH]

The biological bit of these cyborgs has to get oxygen somehow.  If that's from air drawn in by some mechanism, one might try spraying an anaesthetic gas at the intake.  If that's not filtered, cyborg would pass out and the mechanical bit could be disabled at leisure.

[Swatopluk]

I fear advanced cyborgs would have a closed cycle breathing option and powerful filters.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Na or K chlorate and sugar, set off with a drop of H₂SO₄ make a hot enough flame to fire thermite.

Electrolysed table salt plus sugar? And on top you get free H₂? I need to learn more of those.

[Aggie]

Chlorate, not chloride. Possibly perchlorate, which is a better oxidizer.   You get H₂ out of NaOH and aluminum, too.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

According to wiki

NaCl + 3H₂O → NaClO₃ + 3H₂

[Aggie]

Huh, really that easy? Two propellants from one electrolysis reaction?  Hmm...

[Swatopluk]

Alternatively produce chlorine (most households have the raw materials without knowing it) and dissolve it in hot caustic (also available from the same common sources).

[Darlica]

As I recall it there's a cookbook for all sorts of happy fun time guerilla war activities compiled by a certain intelligence activitygroup. 
Like how to make a timer device out of a lidded glass jar, dry peas or beans, water, 2 nails, a battery and some wire or cook your own napalm... I came a cross it some time in the early 90' I think, some methods where downright crude, but undeniable effective.

I suppose it was meant to be an instruction if Big Red decided to invade or something.