Nikola Tesla Books
IN SEARCH OF NIKOLA TESLA would have an effect on human beings. But did all this have a connection with international spying? Although the cold war belonged to an earlier time, the seventies was a decade of new weapons - weapons which could think. All the research which had been directed towards machine intelligence and computers which could see and recognize objects had a military spin-off. Post-war research had initially been directed towards bigger and better rockets, delivery systems which could carry more destructive power over greater distances. The new generation of weapons are able to think and see, they are capable of avoiding radar early warning systems by travelling at high speeds close to the ground and their electronic intelligence enables them to recognize terrain, avoid obstacles and direct themselves towards a target. Wars of the future will also take place in space. Already a number of military satellites have been placed in orbit and a new generation of spacecraft makes it possible to pluck a satellite from space and return it to earth. Along with the intelligent missile and space warfare comes the gas dynamic laser and the particle beam weapon. With an output of several million watts, a military laser can cut through the metal shielding of a missile in flight. Since the beam of energy moves at the speed of light there is little room for any manoeuvre of avoidance. The beam can be aimed almost directly at a military satellite or high-speed missile to shoot down or ignite its payload. Even more dramatic in its effect is the hypothetical particle beam weapon. Research in modern particle physics has led to the building of elementary particle accelerators of higher and higher energy. Not only can elementary particles such as high-energy electrons, protons and neutrons be produced by such machines but heavier nuclei and ions can be whipped up to speeds approaching that of light. The kinetic energy contained in such a beam is enormous. The beam itself can be focused into a narrow path and directed almost at the speed of light towards a missile. Beside such weapons, what significance could a late nineteenth-century invention hold and what use would âparanormal' powers be to national security? I found the answer one day when I was discussing safe levels of radiation with another scientist. It turned out that my scientific colleague had once been involved in weapons research. 133
