--- title: War: Meet the Weapons of the Future description: The laser blasters and microwave weapons of the near future, a way to level the field for domestic violence survivors and more. canonical: https://time.com/3976761/laser-weapons/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-29T16:01:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:02:15.906Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Meet the Weapons of the Future og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/3976761/laser-weapons/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet the Weapons of the Future twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Meet the Weapons of the Future by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jul 29, 2015 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jul 29, 2015 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**This isn’t Star Wars: The military weapons of the near future are laser blasters and microwaves.**](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/28/us-usa-military-arms-idUSKCN0Q22HH20150728) By Andrea Shalal at Reuters **2\.** [**Domestic violence is about power. This idea could level the playing field for survivors.**](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/simple-idea-could-reduce-domestic-violence%5F55a97c5fe4b0d2ded39f1e68) By Melissa Jeltsen in the Huffington Post **3\.** [**Here’s how Japan made something useful out of its golf course boom.**](http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-has-started-turning-abandoned-golf-courses-into-solar-power-plants-2015-7) By Ariel Schwartz in Business Insider **4\.** [**The world needs ‘Fundraisers Without Borders.’**](http://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/fundraisers-without-borders-why-we-really-need-yet-another-without-borders-organization/) By Duncan Green in Oxfam’s From Poverty to Power **5\.** [**The next generation of superfast computers will use light instead of electricity. Here’s how.**](http://pratt.duke.edu/news/superfast-fluorescence-sets-new-speed-record) By Ken Kingery at Duke Pratt School of Engineering  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3976761/laser-weapons/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3976761/laser-weapons/"},"headline":"Meet the Weapons of the Future","datePublished":"2015-07-29T16:01:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:02:15.906Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/3976761/laser-weapons/","keywords":["Innovation","poverty","golf","domestic violence","solar"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3976761/laser-weapons/","name":"Meet the Weapons of the Future"}}]}] ```