The Unbelieveable with Dan Aykroyd (2023-…): Season 1, Episode 4 - Weird Weapons - full transcript

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Imagine military superpowers
around the world

Enlisting beloved sea creatures
to search and destroy.

they're very loving,

They're very friendly.

- But then, pop.

- The dolphins would ram
any suspected enemy.

- How about building a
swarm of robot assassins?

- We've armed these robots,
we've taught them to think.



We've taught them
to work together.

- It's not that hard to imagine

Having your own private
drone swarm army.

- Or turning corpses
into killers.

- Men in the mongol army
are dying in droves.

- They're bloated bodies.

When they hit,

They're exploding on impact.

- These are the
weapons so surprising,

They are truly unbelievable.

It's 1941 and britain is getting
hammered by nazi germany.

The luftwaffe is
reigning bombs down

On london and other cities,

As u-boats wreak havoc along
allied shipping routes.



Desperate for something that
can turn the tide of war,

British special ops come up with

Something we can
only call unusual.

- They procure
rats with the idea

That they can use these rodents,
that will usually go unnoticed,

As weapons of mass destruction.

- They take the bodies of
recently departed rats,

They fill them with explosives,

And then stitch their
little bodies back together.

- They would make sure
that these explosive rats

Would end up in the coal piles
of a steam train, of a ship,

Of a factory, and then when
the shovel full of coal

Would be thrown
into the furnace,

The explosives would ignite,
causing death, causing damage,

Causing problems for
the german war machine.

- So the plan is launched.

They have the rat bombs, they
have the supply ready to go,

And they just need to
ship them into germany

Where they have an agent on
the inside who's to ensure

That they're distributed in ways

That'll cause the
maximum amount of damage.

off goes the
shipment of rigged rats.

Everything seems to
be going to plan.

That is, until the
germans smell a rat.

- The nazis intercept
the rat bombs,

But it's not a total loss.

- The german army is now
paranoid and every possible rat,

Every possible rat
haven environment,

Becomes a potential
explosive threat.

- The fear of this threat
is so extensive that

They even display what one
of these rat bombs looks like

At german military schools.

Ultimately, british
special ops determined

That this is a far
better consequence

Than they had ever intended
with the rat bombs themselves.

- An inordinate and
disproportionate

Amount of attention
is now directed

Toward the cadavers of rats,

When maybe what the
enemy should be doing

Is looking out for
something else.

- Not to be outdone by britain,

The us deploys their own
exploding mammal to end the war.

Oddly enough, this one flies.

- The japanese
bomb pearl harbor,

The united states
enters world war ii,

And we're trying to come up
with any, any clever idea

To end the war as
quickly as possible.

- In pennsylvania, this
dental surgeon by the name

Of dr. Lytle adams thinks
that he has the ideal remedy,

The ideal weapon for
the united states.

- Adams is a part-time inventor

And he is also a man who
enjoys exploring caves.

And one day he's touring
around caves in new mexico

And he sees bats hanging
everywhere, and he thinks,

"what if we weaponize them?"

- His idea? Strap
explosives to bats

And release them
into enemy territory.

- This is absolutely
a stroke of genius.

Dr. Adams knows that
bats can carry more

Of their body weight than birds.

They fly faster than birds.

- The way this can work is that
you can chill the bats down

To around 40 degrees and they
enter a hibernation state.

- Each hibernating bat is fitted

With a little incendiary
device of napalm.

These hibernating,
bomb laden bats

Can then be loaded
into a canister

And that could be carried
up aloft in a b-25.

Once released, the bats
would naturally wake up

When they hit warmer air.

- They will then flutter off

And find whatever building
they possibly can and roost.

- So these bats make their way
into the eaves of buildings,

Into attics, into crawl spaces,

And then when the timer goes
off, the napalm is ignited

And then kabam, they explode.

- How did this plan
even get greenlit?

Dr. Adams has friends
in very high places.

- Adams knows the first
lady, eleanor roosevelt.

He writes her a letter
describing what he wants to do.

She then shows that
letter to her husband,

The president of
the united states,

The commander-in-chief
of the american military.

- Fdr hands the idea over
to the us army air force,

Along with the $2
million check and says,

"go develop bat bombs."

- There have to be those
who think if the president,

President roosevelt wants this,

Then there's gotta
be some science here,

This there's gotta be something
here that's worth pursuing.

There also has to be those folks
who are thinking to themselves,

"this is literally bat
crazy, how can this work?"

to pull this off,
dr. Adams needs bats,

A whole lot of them.

- Adams chooses the
carlsbad air base

Because it's right
near a system of caves

That have a population of
roughly nine million bats.

So it's perfect, they'll be able

To have an unlimited
supply of bats

And be able to test them
using air force airplanes.

there's just
one question now.

Do these flying mammals have
what it takes to win a war?

- The day arrives
to do the first test

Without incendiary devices.

So they take thousands of bats

And then drop them over a farm.

They fly down to the ground
and they fly into the barn,

They fly into hay bales,
fly into the house.

They're doing exactly what
they hoped that they would do.

- After the successful
test with the unarmed bats,

The army gets a
little bit ambitious

And that same day,
decides to do a mini test

With six armed bats.

six unlucky bats

Strapped with timer-rigged
napalm capsules.

Again, what could
possibly go wrong?

- They're getting ready to
put them into the casing

When suddenly the bats wake up,

They come out of hibernation
mode and they fly away.

These bats fly all over
the air force base.

They get into a control
tower, they get into a hangar,

They go under a fuel tank.

Some of them fly into
an automobile nearby.

Turns out it's the
general's automobile.

And they detonate.

- The test of the bat
bomb is such a success,

It demolishes the military base,

But it means it works,
it works perfectly.

unsurprisingly,
there is one person

Who is not very happy
with the outcome.

- Our army air corps general
is pretty much fed up

With this project because
it blows up his car.

It sort of puts a
blemish on his record.

So it's handed off to
the united states navy.

- But the us navy
has other priorities.

And the navy, uninterested

In developing this
program further,

Turns it over to the
united states marine corps.

- When the marines
take over this project,

They move the operation
eventually to utah,

Where they build a
model japanese village,

And they're able to
destroy this model village

Using these incendiary bats.

despite this
initial success,

The marines quickly learn bats
aren't always cooperative.

- Sometimes they don't
wake up from hibernation,

So when they're
dropped out of a plane,

They just kind of fall
and land wherever.

- They find that when
females are pregnant

And males are in the vicinity
of the pregnant females,

That the males become
agitated to such a degree

That they're no longer
predictably capable

Of delivering the
explosives as intended.

And there's really only
about a five month period

In the calendar
year during which

The bat can be reliably used
for the delivery of explosives.

And the big problem there

Is that the war goes
on 12 months a year.

- As the team is working
through all these difficulties,

In parallel, there's
another effort underway

To shorten the war, and that
is the atomic bomb project.

So eventually the bat
bomb is simply discarded.

more than
a decade later,

France dreams up a different
type of aerial weapon.

- The year is 1954.

France has just lost the
first indo-china war

And they're trying to figure
out what can we do in future

To mobilize our troops so
that they are transported

To places faster,
while at the same time,

Having some type of weaponry

That can take out heavy
ordinance on the opposing side.

- So what they come
up with is this idea

Of mounting an anti-tank gun,
a massive gun onto a scooter,

But not just any scooter,
an iconic scooter.

the very word vespa
evokes visions of scooting

Through sun-kissed
italian hills,

Not these two wheeled
killing machines.

- In 1956, the french debuted

Their heavily militarized
vespa complete with the bazooka

That is able to take out a tank.

Here's the thing, it only
costs about $500 to make,

Whereas a tank costs
around $200,000 to make.

So if your $500 weapon can
take out a $200,000 weapon,

I'd say it pays for
itself after one usage.

cost effective for sure,

But does it actually
work on the battlefield?

- The french actually
used the bazooka

In the french algerian war.

What they do is they
parachute the scooter out

Of a plane along
with two soldiers.

- Suddenly, you have
french paratroopers

Who, once they land on a
drop zone with their vespas

And their m-20 anti-tank
recoilless rifles,

They can move from place
to place very rapidly

And they constitute
a significant threat

On the battlefield.

- Even though the bazooka
vespa looks awesome,

It still isn't really much of a
match for the guerilla warfare

That's happening on the
streets of algeria.

- In the end, the bazooka vespa
puts up a pretty good fight,

But the algerians put up a
better one and win the war.

But the algerians put up a
better one and win the war.

But I still want
a bazooka vespa.

- The bazooka vespa is
honorably discharged

After a production
run of just over 600.

- It's 1942, deep
into world war ii,

The nazi u-boats are blowing
winston churchill's ships

Out of the water.

It's time for an
unconventional plan of attack,

Ice the nazis.

- The most effective way to
destroy all of these u-boats

Is through air cover.

Unfortunately,
it's world war ii.

We don't have planes that
can really fly very far

And those that can fly far,
can't carry much armament.

Well, we could build
aircraft carriers.

- The problem is
there is a scarcity

Or shortage of metals
like steel and aluminum.

These are the structural
materials that you would use

To build a traditional
aircraft carrier.

then, scientist
and inventor geoffrey pyke

Has an unusual proposal.

- As crazy as it sounds,

Geoffrey pyke ultimately
develops this idea

That we could introduce the
unsinkable aircraft carrier

And that it could be an iceberg.

how can a floating
iceberg possibly function

As an aircraft carrier?

Incredibly, inspiration comes
from the titanic disaster.

- The titanic was supposed
to be an unsinkable ship

And an iceberg took
it down in minutes.

So everyone, the navy,
passenger ship liners,

Every maritime entity is
terrified of icebergs.

The international
ice patrol is born

And their job is basically

To just torpedo the
hell outta icebergs.

- What they find is that ships

Are really not good
at sinking icebergs.

You can direct the biggest guns

That a navy has
toward an iceberg

And you're barely going to
chip a little chunk off of it.

thinking
outside the box,

Pyke creates a plan
to convert icebergs

To aircraft carriers.

Somehow. The project is
green lit by churchill.

- Of course, this idea has to
have a really good code name

And pyke calls it
the hms habakkuk,

Which is a play on
the prophet habakkuk

From the old testament, who
was able to do the impossible.

and just what does
the impossible look like?

- Pyke draws up the blueprints
for his aircraft carrier,

Which is made almost
entirely of ice.

He flattens out the top
of it to use as a runway

And hollows it out

So there's a big cavern
in the middle to serve

As a shelter for the planes.

more than four times
the size of the titanic,

It will be the largest
warship ever built.

- It's not going anywhere fast,

We're talking about
eight miles an hour,

But it's torpedo proof,

And it's got
anti-aircraft guns on it,

And you can launch
fighters off of it.

So how cool is that?

building a huge
warship from ice is one thing.

Keeping it from melting
is another challenge.

- Pyke creates this kind
of indestructible material.

It's 14% wood pulp, 86%
ice, he calls it pykrete.

And this is going to reinforce
the hull of what he believes

Is going to be an
indestructible floating airstrip

For the allied forces
to retake u-boat alley

From the german war machine.

- If the allies can pull this
off, churchill will have

The most incredible
secret weapon in the war.

- They decide that they're
gonna build a prototype

Of the habakkuk on lake
patricia in canada.

They have kind of an
endless supply of ice.

Ultimately, it's about
60 feet in length.

It's not the most
attractive thing.

It is described as sort of
a floating, frozen shoebox.

However, when they shoot
a ton of torpedoes at it,

It stays afloat and is
relatively unscathed,

Further proving this could
potentially be a game changer

In the allied war effort.

after the
successful test,

Churchill decides it's time to
build the mile-long habakkuk,

But that's much
easier said than done.

- The entire
operation demands more

In the way of raw
materials and resources

Than ever dreamed of.

It requires steel, steel as
a part of this cooling system

That will make it possible

For the iceberg
to survive longer.

And steel is a valued commodity

At this stage during
the second world war.

- The cost of building
the full habakkuk ship

Will be two and a
half million pounds.

- That's where churchill
just says it's not worth it.

He cancels development
of the hms habakkuk

And stops all testing in canada.

think water-based
weapons can't get more weird

Than an iceberg
aircraft carrier?

How about weaponizing flipper?

- Dolphins are kind of
the hippies of the sea.

They're very loving,
they're very friendly.

We don't think of them
as helping a war effort.

but from the cuban
missile crisis onwards,

Trained dolphins are
successfully deployed in vietnam

And iraq to complete missions
no human would dare take on.

- Dolphins show an
incredible acuity

In terms of spotting mines
below the surface of the water.

Essentially, they use
their echo location

To determine where the mine is.

- If the dolphin finds a mine,

The dolphin will ascend to
the surface and tap a buoy,

At which point the animal
will be given a reward.

next, the navy tries
using dolphins as assassins.

- So in vietnam, these dolphins

Have a hypodermic needle
attached to their snout.

Gas is inside of it.

The diver who gets poked
by the gas, they don't die.

They just float to the surface.

- It might seem like the
dolphin is being friendly,

But then pop, you get stabbed
with this hypodermic needle

And you're rocketing
to the surface

Where they can be apprehended.

incredibly, dolphins
are still being used

As secret weapons today

And the us isn't the only
superpower relying on them.

- The russian navy
has two dolphin pens

Near the sevastopol harbor in
the entrance to the black sea.

- Famously, the russians
move these dolphins

To patrol this key tactical
harbor in sevastopol

To protect the ships that
are incredibly high value

To the russian war effort.

- The ukrainians
are using divers

That can conduct attacks
against russian naval bases.

And in response to
that, the russians

Have introduced
weaponized dolphins.

- They are tasked with
anti-diver operations

To stop any potential sabotage.

The belief is that the dolphins

Would ram any potential
human being below the water,

Thinking they were
a suspected enemy.

and it's
not just dolphins

Serving their countries.

Can you imagine a whale
in the role of 007?

- The russian navy has spy
whales patrolling the arctic,

Running surveillance,
protecting its ports,

Protecting its ships,

And letting it know
where the enemy is.

this russian
secret weapon

Is about to become not so secret
and you won't believe how.

- A bunch of norwegian
fishermen are out

And a friendly beluga
whale just kind of swims up

To their boat and they
realize it's wearing some kind

Of a strappy harness thing,
sort of like a gopro rig.

- And when they
look closer at it,

They find that in
cyrillic characters,

It says, "property
of st. Petersburg."

It provides evidence that
the animal has been equipped

With this package of
equipment that was made

By the russian federation.

as for the fate
of the beluga whale spy

That the norwegian
fishermen found.

- The funny thing is, that
whale essentially defects

And goes to norway where
it is renamed hvaldimir,

As an homage and maybe
poking fun at vladimir putin.

- This beluga james bond

Is certainly living his
best life in norway.

If the idea of whales

If the idea of whales

As a weapon strikes
you as truly strange,

Wait 'til you see our
next unbelievable weapon.

- In the late 1950s, the
us is looking for a way

To take down communism.

Their solution?

A weird weapon that
might be too explosive.

- At one of the peaks
of the cold war,

The us navy and the us air force

Are the two services
leading the way

In america's nuclear arsenal.

But the army wants
to find some way

To use nuclear devices
in its own activities,

Notably in the field.

- What if, on the battlefield,

A confrontation
with soviet russia,

We have a portable
nuclear weapon,

A nuclear bomb attached
to the end of a bazooka?

That is a battle winning idea.

they call it
the davy crockett

And it packs a potent punch.

- The davy crockett
weapon system

Fires a 20-ton nuclear warhead.

Anything in its
immediate vicinity

Is gonna be reduced
to ash, rubble.

- It's great at
eradicating your enemies.

It's also great at
eradicating your allies.

therein lies the king

Of the wild frontier's
little problem.

- It uses radioactive material,

And the men who are
deploying this device

Are going to be
very close to it,

So they're at risk of
radiation poisoning.

- What they actually
tell them to do

Is safely fire the
weapon, hide behind cover.

Don't look at the bright flash,
get away as quickly as possible.

That way you don't suffer
from nuclear fallout.

believe it or not,

Friendly fire radiation
isn't the only issue.

- Deploying nuclear
weapons on a battlefront

Is a guaranteed way
to start an escalation

To global nuclear war.

It won't just stop
with the davy crockett.

- The army starts
recalling the weapon.

The official reason

Is that they are not
accurate enough for combat.

- Well, I think the threat of
possibly ending civilization

As we know it merits
a change of pace

To a weird weapon
of less destruction.

- The year's 1991, we are
in the somali civil war.

At the time, the united
nations is sent there solely

As a peacekeeping force.

They don't have any weapons,
nor do they want any weapons

That are going to
lead to a lethal end.

- There are very few
less-than-lethal weapons

Out there that aren't
truly less than lethal.

Rubber bullets will kill people.

You can use a taser,
that can kill people.

un forces need
a new kind of weapon

They can be 100%
sure is non-lethal.

- The un decides that
their non-lethal approach

Is going to be a
sticky foam gun.

It's kinda like the proton
pack from "the ghostbusters."

but what this
weapon discharges

Is far different from
subatomic particles.

- You have a
backpack on your back

With a hose that goes
over your shoulder

And you spray your
victim with a foam

That once it hits
air, it hardens up

And expands onto your victim.

- The gelatinous sludge hits
them, it overwhelms them

To where the person, covered
in this foam, loses the ability

To manipulate
their arms and legs

Because they can't struggle
against it any longer.

in theory, it sounds
like the perfect weapon.

In practice, not so much.

- When the sticky foam
gun is fired at someone,

It does take several seconds
for the chemical to harden

Before it finally
holds someone in place.

- So that person,
if they're dangerous

And you hit 'em with the foam,

They're gonna remain
dangerous for a few moments

Before the foam
incapacitates them.

but the
biggest issue of all?

- If you don't
aim exactly right,

You can get it in
someone's mouth or nose

And you can suffocate them.

Eventually, the plan is scrapped

And they shut down this program
for this sticky foam gun,

Mostly because it does have
the potential for lethality.

what could be weirder
than a weapon spewing foam?

How about one that
makes you spew?

- America is trying to
figure out all sorts of ways

To take out anyone that might
want to harm the security

Of these united states,
foreign or domestic.

One of these weapons is created

By the department
of homeland security

And it costs $1
million to produce,

And it is known officially
as an led incapacitator.

- It looks like a flashlight,

But instead of having one big
light bulb, it has a series

Of small led light bulbs that
flash at different colors

And different intensities
in a waving pattern.

- Let's say you have
somebody coming at you,

An unarmed attacker, so
you can't use lethal force,

But you wanna stop them.

You could hit them in the face
with this led incapacitator.

They'll stop and then
you have to worry

About cleaning them up after
you get them in handcuffs.

that's because of
the led incapacitator's

Unpleasant side effect, giving
it a rather fitting nickname.

- The puke ray gun.

- If your stomach
is not up to par,

You'll vomit on yourself.

- With these bright
led lights that are

Being targeted at an individual
or a group of people,

They're also changing
colors very rapidly

And can lead an individual
to experience a bout

Of dizziness,
vertigo, if you will,

Which could then lead
to someone puking.

in 2008, the la
county sheriff's department

Funds testing of
the puke ray gun.

Can it possibly work?

- While the led incapacitator
does get the job done,

The la county sheriff's
department also thinks about,

Well, what happens if
the nefarious people

Get their own puke ray gun

And then they in
turn use it on us?

ultimately, the
government shelves the project,

But it's not the last
we hear of the puke ray.

- A few years later, a hacker
by the name of limor fried,

Who goes by the name ladyada,

Is able to recreate
the puke gun.

All it takes is a
quick trip to sears

Where she buys some
cheap led lights

And she hooks them
up to a battery

And a fan she ripped
out of her pc.

- And it works.

Her homemade puke ray
gun actually works

And it only cost $250.

And somehow, it cost the
homeland security department

Almost a million to
build the same thing.

- It's 184 bce

And hannibal is an naval
battle with king eumenes ii.

At stake, control of
what is now turkey.

Luckily, hannibal
has a genius plan

That will go on to inspire
a long lineage of weapons

Designed to launch weird
things at the enemy.

- Hannibal has one ship.

Eumenes, 425 ships.

425 versus one?

Eumenes is gonna crush him.

- Hannibal has an idea.

He tells his men to create what
are essentially snake bombs.

- Hannibal and his crew,

They take these very,
very venomous snakes

And they put these
snakes in clay pots,

Then put these clay
pots on catapults

And fling these clay pots into
the air at the enemy ships.

The snakes come exploding
out of these clay pots

And immediately
they're agitated,

Which means they're gonna
start attacking anything

That's near them, which happens
to be eumenes ii's sailors.

- In a naval military conflict,
the last thing you expect

To be launched at
you are snakes.

- Hannibal wins the
day and ends up ruling

That stretch of the
sea, at least for now.

- Snakes on a boat?

Sounds like a pretty
good movie idea.

But hannibal's catapult
tactic has nothing

On one devised by the mongols.

- So it's the early
part of the 13th century

And the golden hoard, a mighty
massive military force

Led by genghis khan,
overtakes most of asia,

Is on their way to europe,

And takes over the
crimean peninsula.

- The genoese, italian
traitors from genoa,

They'd love to have power

And a trading post in crimea
from the city of caffa.

- The mongols strike a deal

Where the genoese can stay
in the walled city of caffa

And they can trade
from that city.

- All goes really
well for some time

Until we have a
new khan, jani beg.

Jani beg khan wants caffa back.

The genoese refuse.

So, what are they to
do but besiege caffa

To get rid of the
genoese traders?

two years in,

The mongols develop
a serious problem.

- Suddenly, men in the mongol
army are dying in droves.

- Jani beg is seeing his
soldiers fall left and right.

He's thinking, how are we gonna
continue a siege like this?

- At the same time, the
genoese look over this wall

And they're starting to see
this powerful mongol army

Writhing in pain on the fields,
vomiting, just bleeding.

And they think to
themselves, we've won.

They're too sick to fight.

There's no way that
they're gonna be able

To take over the city from us.

We get to keep it, the
day is ours, hurrah.

that's when
the golden hoard

Of mongols' fearless
leader devises a plan

That is both unbelievable
and, well, disgusting.

- They filled a trebuchet
with their most foul smelling,

Worst looking, rotting,
bloated corpses

And launched them into
the city in the hopes

That the smell alone will
drive the residents out.

- They're bloated
bodies, they're corpses.

So when they hit, they're
exploding on impact.

Just stuff is just oozing
from all sorts of gaps

And crevices in these bodies.

- The genoese are
inside going, man,

We know we have to do something
with all these dead bodies.

So they start loading
them into wagons

And carrying them to the
river and dumping them in.

- Problem solved, right?

Nope, turns out the genoese

Are victims of a
new form of warfare.

- As they're collecting
these bodies

And starting to dump
them, they're noticing

That they're also
starting to get sick,

And they're also starting
to have the same symptoms

That the mongols did
outside of the city.

They are now writhing in pain
and they realize, my god,

We've got the same
thing that they got.

what the genoese got

Is none other than one of
the most infectious diseases.

- The disease that jani beg

And the mongols have
hit the genoese with

Is the bubonic plague.

- So jani beg khan's
original idea

Was to just stink
these people out.

But now he's
realizing, my god,

I can get them just
as sick as my men.

So the bodies keep
coming over the wall.

He has no shame in
throwing these men,

Flinging them over the walls,

Just watching them
explode on impact

And getting these
genoese people sick.

the black
plague trebuchet

Is easily the weirdest example

Of biological weaponry
in human history

And its impact will reach far
beyond the walls of caffa.

- The mongols retreat
south of caffa

And all the genoese
abandoned the city,

Board boats towards europe.

And what they begin
to do in their retreat

Is spread the black
plague through europe.

- Is jani beg kahn responsible
for infecting most of europe

And killing 25 million people?

And killing 25 million people?

Hard to say.

One thing's for certain,

By flinging diseased
bodies over a wall,

He devised an impressive
weapon of mass destruction.

- Inflatable tanks,
dummy military camps,

It's all part of a
bold operation aimed

At defeating hitler
during world war ii.

- During the buildup that
precedes the d-day invasion

In June 1944,
allied forces engage

In a significant
psychological operation,

We create a ghost army,

An army that does
not actually exist.

- The us army wants to
lead the nazis to believe

That their numbers are far
greater than they actually are.

Make it look one
way to provide cover

For the real troop movements
that are taking place

In other spaces,
more critical spaces.

- We create encampments that
are populated by no one.

We play recordings of the
sound that would be a part

Of a regular military camp.

We famously create
inflatable tanks,

Tanks that on the ground,

If you looked at them
from 10 feet away,

You'd realize that's an
inflatable tank, what is that?

But to a german photo
reconnaissance aircraft

At 25,000 feet above, looking
down and taking photos,

It's gonna look
like a real tank.

- And so, they are a
masterful deception unit,

Which actually does in
fact, fool the nazis

And gets the nazis to
divert resources away

From the real operations.

but the most
unconventional use

Of ghost warfare happens much
later, during the vietnam war.

It's perhaps the us military's

Weirdest psychological
weapon ever.

- The war in vietnam in the
early 1970s is guerilla warfare

And you can't always
fight fire with fire.

- Bullets and bombs are not
demoralizing your enemy enough.

You need something more.

So you call up your
psychological warfare friends

In that battalion and
they give you a few ideas.

In this case,
recordings of souls.

could an enemy,
unfazed by superior firepower,

Be vulnerable to something
more supernatural?

- American military
officials believed

That they can capitalize on
some of the superstitions

Of the vietnamese people,
particularly around death,

And this idea that if a
person dies in a space

That's not their homeland,
that they'll be condemned

To wander for all eternity.

What if they were to come up
with a psychological operation

That would play on those fears?

- Well, a bunch of naval sound
engineers gather in saigon

And they hire south
vietnamese voice actors

And they create
these very eerie,

Spooky sounding recordings
that will trigger these fears

Among north vietnamese soldiers.

- What they do, is put
these little speakers

Throughout the jungle, up
in trees, all camouflaged,

And run the wires back to base.

on the night
of February 10th, 1970,

Just after dark, the us
forces hit the play button

On what they call,
operation wandering soul.

- In the first tape,
a young girl is heard

Calling to her father
and a man answers,

"who is that, who's calling me?"

it's like "good
morning, vietnam," only haunted.

Another recording features
the crying, screaming,

And laughing of
women and children.

It's designed to be
impossible to sleep through.

The aptly named tape, "no doze."

- The north vietnamese soldiers
know that they're speakers

And they start using
'em for target practice,

Not 'cause they're scared
by them, that they feel

That their ancestors are
calling them back home

To not die far afield.

They're firing at them 'cause
they're annoyed by them.

- As the program seems to
be found not really working

As intended, they double
down and they say,

You know what we
really need to do?

We need to broadcast
these sounds

And spooky things
from helicopters.

Helicopters that are
simultaneously dropping

Leaflets urging
people to surrender,

Urging people to give up.

screeching cries
of vietnamese women

And children blasting
from armed choppers

Do prove terrifying, just
not to the intended targets.

- It doesn't really have
an effect on the vietcong.

What it does do is scare
and really affect the locals,

And the villagers,
and the farmers.

They're hearing these sounds
and they're deeply disturbed.

They're scared to
leave the house.

It shuts down civilian life.

eventually,
operation wandering soul

Becomes an invisible
footnote of the vietnam war,

But all is not lost.

- Cool fact, operation
wandering soul

Inspires the famous
scene in "apocalypse now"

Where the helicopters are
moving in on a position

And they've got speakers
on the outside of them

And they're broadcasting
for everyone

To hear, the famous wagner
piece, "ride of the valkyries."

To hear, the famous wagner
piece, "ride of the valkyries."

So if nothing else,
operation wandering soul

Inspired a famous
piece of filmmaking.

- We've long known

That artificial
intelligence is the future.

There's ai that can write
you a shopping list,

Park your car, or
even detect illnesses.

But did you know that soon,
there will even be robots

That can seek and destroy
by their own free will?

- The current state
of robotic weapons

Has a human in the
decision loop when it comes

To pressing the button
to kill someone.

In the future, that human will
be removed through some sort

Of ai enabled technology.

- Artificial intelligence,
machine learning,

Computer vision,
facial recognition,

All the new technology
that's out there

Could be embedded
into our weaponry

So that it could be autonomous.

A drone no longer needs a
controller, an operator to say,

"kill this person,
drop this bomb."

It's gonna figure
it out on its own.

- What we're going to
begin seeing more and more

Are the autonomous
drone attacks.

The drone is pre-programmed.

So you release the drone

And the drone flies
toward its target,

Attacks and neutralizes
that target,

And then makes its escape
from the scene of crime.

if one
killer drone capable

Of independent thought doesn't
scare you, how about a swarm

That can coordinate
without humans?

- So in the same way
that a school of fish

Or a flock of birds can
move around in space

And coordinate with each other

Without a lot of
explicit communication,

A decentralized drone swarm
can move around in space

And coordinate its behavior
with its neighbors.

- That ability to share
information at electronic speed

Is what makes them so
ridiculously powerful.

strange as it may seem,

There's already a race underway
to build drones capable of this.

- The united states,
china, russia,

They're all developing
different incarnations

Of drone swarms.

So the pentagon
has conducted tests

Where they dropped
hundreds of micro drones

Out of a fighter jet,
equipped with explosives

To carry out kamikaze attacks.

In real life, the
military is testing this.

even more frightening,

These drones can be programmed
to have a mind of their own.

- Scientists in china have
developed a swarm of drones

That can very quickly navigate
through a bamboo forest.

- The ability of the
drones to communicate

With each other allows them
to track a human target

That's walking in
the bamboo forest.

Even if the view of an
individual drone is blocked,

It is aware of the view of the
other drones at the same time.

So it is impossible
for that human

To escape the view of a swarm.

- Now, imagine we
take the same drones

And we're looking for someone.

So we give the data of
what someone looks like.

Through facial recognition,

They could then search
for this person,

And if we arm them, we can
make them search and destroy.

- So you could have a
drone swarm of 5, 10, 50,

100 drones, maybe 1,000,

And the drones will develop
a strategy for attacking

And they can improvise
within that overall strategy.

All of this not being
guided by human hands,

But by artificial intelligence.

- I don't know about
you, but this sounds

A lot like "the
terminator" to me,

Or the kind of science fiction
you hope never becomes fact.

- It's not that hard to imagine

Having your own private
drone swarm army.

If you've just had the
technological means,

You can use this
powerful technology

To do whatever you want.

it leaves us wondering,

Is it possible to create
something so powerful,

So autonomous that we
are no longer in control?

- There will be a point
where a drone swarm

That has artificial intelligence

Will become smarter than we are.

- We've armed these robots,
we've taught them to think,

We've taught them
to work together.

What happens if they turn around
and bite the hand that feeds it?

- We might be releasing
this artificial intelligence

That will eventually turn
on us, not as a result

Of some science fiction
script or screenplay.

It will kill whoever
encounters it

And we might be releasing, on
ourselves, our own undoing.

- We've seen weapons
that can stop the enemy

Through absolute destruction,
freeze them in place,

Disable them with fear,
even defect to a new home.

If history repeats itself,
as we know it often does,

Weapons of the future
will be more than weird,

They'll be unbelievable.