I wholeheartedly believe the ClA/NSA can hack into a smartphone and give its user cancer by emitting high radiation. This is based purely off vibes. Can any actual engineers chime in on this?
I wholeheartedly believe the ClA/NSA can hack into a smartphone and give its user cancer by emitting high radiation. This is based purely off vibes. Can any actual engineers chime in on this?
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Cell phones use really low power non-ionizing radiation to communicate. Cancer is caused by particularly unlucky mutations to genes. To get those mutations you need ionizing radiation. Cell phone antenna and transmitters are physically incapable of producing the type of energy required to alter genes. Generally, improvements in power draw to make batteries last longer keep making the signals transmit less energy- we have been getting better at using things like the spatial diversity of multiple antenna to get sufficient signal with more bandwidth and less power.
But, hey, every time you are exposed to sunlight, that is ionizing radiation (hence things like melanoma). Taking a plane flight increases your risks because gaining altitude removes some of the protective atmosphere between you and our local star.
The CIA revealed that they used to have a heart attack gun. If they are willing to admit that, then they almost certainly have something much better. Rest assured it isn't your cellphone antenna.
A heart attack gun makes sense though because you can induce many ailments with the right amount of chemicals/drug cocktails and it can be fatal instantly. Giving someone cancer is doable, but just doesn’t make any sense from a strategic view.
Giving someone cancer is also typically incredibly slow as a way to kill people. A heart attack inducer would be more useful, since it kills people right away, while a cancer-gun would kill people over several months/years.
Not only would it take a long time, I imagine the results would be extremely random to the point it would be unreliable as an execution method. Carcinogens, and the way each person's body reacts to them, are highly unpredictable. That's why health disclaimers on carcinogenic products say "may cause cancer" and not "will cause cancer."
It would be far easier to just shoot or stab the target and make it look like a robbery gone bad or something.
Reminds me of that scene from Austin Powers where they parody those intricate death traps in James Bond films...
Dr. Evil: I'm going to kill Mr. Powers by putting him in an overly elaborate and easily escapable contraption and assume it all went according to plan.
Scott: Why don't you just get a gun and shoot him? He's right there!