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mk  ·  4733 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Laser weapons at sea
I have this impression that being killed by a laser might not be as painful. There would be no force or bruising. I know that exit bullet wounds look much worse than entrance wounds. The laser would either cut you in half, or leave a freaky cartoon hole, which might be cauterized.

Damn, according to Wikipedia: The free-electron laser has the widest frequency range of any laser type, and can be widely tunable, currently ranging in wavelength from microwaves, through terahertz radiation and infrared, to the visible spectrum, to ultraviolet, to X-rays. That makes it pretty tough to make an effective reflector shield. :/