A new form of terrorism

Posted on by Khannea Sun'Tzu

Synthetic Panic: The New Face of Non-Lethal Catastrophe

There will be no bomb. There will be no shooter, no pathogen, no manifesto. No demands. No group claiming credit. Just the smell of rot, the sound of screaming, and the sight of something wrong shambling through a crowd. And then — people running. Pushing. Falling. Dying. And no one will know why.

This is not the future of warfare. It’s the present of performative disruption, weaponized belief, and cheap synthetic terror. A form of psychological judo — using non-lethal stimuli to provoke lethal reactions. You don’t need to be violent. You only need to be uncanny, ambiguous, and strategic.

This article outlines how, where, and why this can happen.

It is not advocacy.
It is not fantasy.
It is a fire drill for a system that has never stress-tested its own crowds.

Let’s go Step By Step

The scene is rendered entirely in terms of direct human perception, panic response, and lived terror as it would unfold in real-time from the crowd’s point of view — raw, immediate, and unfiltered.

Scene: The Amsterdam Incident
1. The Crowd

It’s a warm Saturday evening. The sun hangs low. The final blessing of a major religious conference has just concluded at RAI Amsterdam. Thousands are filtering out onto the plaza.

They’re tired. Emotionally softened. Fathers holding jackets. Mothers guiding strollers. Children whining. Elderly leaning into the arms of companions. A general, satisfied exhaustion clings to the crowd — the spiritual and the sun-warmed indistinguishable.

Public transit is patchy. The nearest metro is closeby. Taxis are overbooked. People are waiting. Wandering. Glancing at phones. Half-present. 

2. The First Sound

Then, from some direction — unclear where — comes a scream. Sharp. High. Cutting through the ambient drone of the city. It’s a real scream. Not dramatic. Not playful. Someone afraid of dying. 
Then another. Then more — a cluster of screams, overlapping, like several people are being attacked. Far off, but undeniably real. People pause. Some look toward the sound, squinting. A child covers his ears. Someone laughs uneasily and mutters “what the hell…”

A few already begin to move faster, shepherding loved ones. The majority stay, uncertain. Watching. Listening.

3. The Smell

Next: a sudden stench. Subtle at first, but wrong. A rot, thick in the air, carried on a gust. Organic. Like hot garbage soaked in something dead. Not intense, but disturbing. A sensory wrongness that triggers instinct.

People wrinkle noses. Cover mouths.
A man pulls his child closer and says, “Let’s go.”
But no one can tell where it’s coming from.
It just… arrives.

4. The Shapes Appear

Across the open plaza, at the far tram line, figures emerge. Walking oddly. Not drunk, not injured — just wrong. They move with deliberate imbalance. A stumble, a jolt, a twisted gait. One seems to crouch, then lurch up violently. Another turns its head sharply — too sharply. People freeze.

There’s a ripple through the crowd. Some reach for phones. A few start filming. A woman says, “Is this a protest?” Another says, “That’s not acting.” Children begin to cling to parents’ legs. The crowd, once loose and chatty, has gone silent.

5. The Screams Get Closer

The sounds — those screams — are now within earshot. From behind buildings, near the taxi stand, down the metro stairs. One scream turns into sobbing. Then a voice yelling for help. “Stop them! Someone help her!” Then more screaming. Now some people are running. No explanation. Just motion — fast, chaotic, erratic. Panic jumps like electricity. Others see the running and join, not knowing why. 

6. The Girl

Near the center of the plaza, a teenage girl trips. Her ankle rolls. She falls hard. Two of the figures reach her first. They descend on her without hesitation — jerking, grabbing, silent. She tries to crawl away — her face twisted in pure terror. She screams. The kind of scream that cleaves the air.

And from where the crowd is standing, what they see is this: A young woman overtaken by things not quite human, crying out as they close in on her. Some say they saw blood. Others say she stopped moving. One man runs forward, then stops — stares — then turns and bolts in the opposite direction, screaming “They’re killing people!”

7. The Shapes Close In

More figures appear. From the left side, near the food kiosks. From behind parked vans. From the metro stairs. They move with strange coordination — spreading out, herding the people. Not rushing. Just approaching with intent. Some raise arms at odd angles. Some twitch. One appears to follow specific people. Another stops suddenly, tilts its head, and jerks forward. They say nothing.

Someone yells, “Don’t let them touch you!” Another: “Back! Get back!” Pushing begins. Someone falls. Screaming.

8. The Ground Is No Longer Safe

As the crowd surges toward the only apparent exit — the main street — people begin stumbling over things on the pavement. Bodies. That’s what they look like. Human shapes. Lying twisted. Arms torn. Legs at wrong angles. The first few people stop dead. Others crash into them. A woman shrieks and collapses, thinking she’s stepped on a corpse. There are more. Spaced unevenly. All down the sidewalk.

One appears to be a child, facedown, unmoving.

No one knows if they’re real.

No one waits to find out.

9. The Road

There’s nowhere else to go.

The plaza is wide open but sealed by panic. Behind: the attackers. To the sides: locked gates, parked cars, construction fencing. Forward: a six-lane arterial road, traffic heavy and fast, brake lights blinking through the dusk.

And the crowd moves into it.

10. The Collapse

They are no longer a group. They are a wave. Running. Pushing. Collapsing over one another. A man slips on a fallen bag. Someone stomps on his hand. A child disappears under three adults trying to jump a barrier. Two people run straight into traffic — one is clipped by a delivery van, spins onto the curb, motionless.

The figures — those things — are still walking.
Still coming.
No explanation. No end.

And somewhere in the crowd, a woman whispers:

“We were warned. We didn’t listen.”

Scene ends.
Aftermath begins.

Synthetic Panic: Anatomy of a Non-Lethal Urban Horror Event

Overview

In this scenario analysis, we dissect a carefully orchestrated synthetic panic incident staged in a crowded urban space. The goal was not destruction, but disruption: to create a psychological rupture, a trauma vector that would spread far beyond the event itself. The event simulates an attack, but in reality, no physical harm is inflicted by the orchestrators — all casualties arise from panic, crowd behavior, and the weaponization of perception.

Context

The event takes place at the close of a major faith-based conference at the RAI Convention Centre in Amsterdam. The crowd is large (estimated 7,000+), predominantly composed of religious, family-oriented attendees: mothers with young children, elderly churchgoers, emotionally vulnerable believers who have just exited a multi-day ritualized experience.

The time is Saturday evening, around 19:30. The weather is warm, the plaza partially enclosed by commercial facades, with a major arterial road bordering one edge. The conditions are ripe for emotional suggestibility: fatigue, spiritual openness, logistical pressure, sensory overload.

 

Execution Plan

1. Atmospheric Conditioning: Stench Dispersal

From four discrete directions, battery-powered odor dispersal units are placed earlier in the day. These units release synthetic rot compounds — derived from realistic decay training kits used by EMTs and military personnel — at pre-coordinated times.

These chemicals are dispersed low and warm, carried by wind. The crowd begins to notice the smell roughly two minutes before the primary event sequence, ensuring subconscious cues of biological threat are already priming their nervous systems.

2. Auditory Psyops: High-Fidelity Hidden MP3 Units

From ten hidden locations, concealed MP3 playback devices (Bluetooth, long-range sync) are activated simultaneously.

Each is loaded with:

  • Screams of various types: female, child, multiple overlapping voices

  • Pleas for help

  • Wet organic sounds (tearing, moaning, retching)

  • Religious utterances distorted digitally

  • Echoing footsteps, gunshots in the distance

The placement is staggered — above, below, embedded in trash cans, planters, kiosks. The result is a phantom sound field, impossible to triangulate, creating maximum cognitive confusion.

3. Robotic Actors: Ten Humanoid Horror Constructs

Ten bipedal robots are deployed from within service vans and construction zones. These are lightweight, agile robots — prototypes commercially available or adapted from entertainment industry stunt bots.

Each robot is:

  • Outfitted with a full-body horror exoskin, made from hyperrealistic silicone and latex

  • Dressed to simulate intense bodily trauma: exposed rib cages, degloved limbs, skulls with open craniums

  • Rigged with detached body parts (hanging entrails, partial limbs)

  • Programmed with erratic locomotion patterns — stutters, lunges, spirals, sprints

  • Equipped with embedded speakers for groaning, whispers, distorted screams

The robots move in coordinated semi-randomized formations, approaching the crowd from staggered directions, simulating encirclement behavior.

4. The Accomplice: Human Trigger Event

A female actor, dressed as a civilian, is integrated into the crowd. She is wearing:

  • A body harness with concealed blood packs

  • Breakaway clothing

  • Facial and throat prosthetics to simulate a mutilation

At the precise moment the crowd’s attention is fully on the robots, she stages a fall — then is approached by two bots. As they “descend” on her, she activates the blood packs and screams.

Observers witness what appears to be a live attack. From most angles, the event appears fatal. She is then discreetly extracted via a concealed gap in the crowd and led into a service alley.

5. Scattered Horror: Cadaver Placement

Around the periphery and within the predicted flow routes of the evacuating crowd, ten pre-rigged prosthetic bodies have been hidden beneath benches, kiosks, containers.

Each corpse is:

  • Hyperrealistic

  • Positioned with extreme trauma detail (dismemberment, cranial exposure, hanging intestines)

  • Designed to be tipped or slid into view via remote activation

At the moment of crowd surge, these bodies are deployed into footpaths — directly obstructing escape vectors, increasing panic, and dispersing people toward the single major exit: the arterial road.

6. Command Vehicle: Coordination and Signal Relay

A parked van near the square acts as the operation’s command node. Inside:

  • Wireless broadcast systems control the MP3 units

  • Radio sync pulses coordinate robot behavior

  • Cameras monitor crowd movement

  • Remote kill switches and shutdown protocols are installed

From this van, an operator can execute real-time modulation of soundscape, robot pacing, corpse deployment, and emergency cutoff if needed.

Outcome Modeling

Immediate Response

Within minutes:

  • Crowd cohesion is broken

  • Panic behavior manifests in stampede conditions

  • People trip over planted bodies, flee from robots

  • Some spill into the street; vehicles attempt to brake or veer

  • Emergency services are overwhelmed with false reports of “murder,” “demonic attack,” “robots attacking children”

Casualties

  • Likely: multiple fatalities from traffic, cardiac events, or trampling

  • Dozens injured — mostly from crowd panic, falls, collisions

Psychological Fallout

  • Hundreds traumatized

  • Dozens of children with lasting psychological distress

  • Rumors spread of supernatural events, cult attacks, or demonic incursions

  • Religious groups interpret it as spiritual warfare

Legal and Social Implications

Authorities initially baffled. With no weapons used and no direct physical assault, the scenario occupies a gray area. Law enforcement may consider it a form of performance art, terrorism, or biopolitical attack.

Governments begin emergency legislation:

  • Banning realistic cadaver prosthetics in public spaces

  • Requiring registration of humanoid robots

  • Outlawing synchronized sensory disruption equipment without permit

AI and robotics industries are caught in the crossfire, with pressure for new regulatory oversight.

Final Notes

This was not violence. It was not art. It was a full-spectrum simulation of mass death in the middle of a modern city.

It demonstrates how cheaply, how easily, synthetic terror can be engineered — not to destroy structures, but to collapse trust in public space. It forces society to ask: what happens when fear itself becomes the weapon?

This is nothing new

Panic itself can be engineered, and more crucially, that the human crowd is the softest system in any urban landscape.

In Neuromancer (1984), William Gibson drops that particular scene almost casually: an engineered crowd stampede, sparked by false terror of a flesh-eating bioweapon, carefully seeded through ambient fear, rumors, media manipulation, and sensory overload. The public doesn’t know what’s real — they just know to run. They crash into riot lines, into each other, into the city’s edge — and the authorities, confused, interpret the event as collective madness.

That detached, almost cavalier disinterest you note in Gibson’s tone is itself part of the horror. He presents it not as a climax, but as background noise — just another tactic, part of the landscape of soft psychological warfare in hypermodernity. And that’s exactly the point.

It was prophetic.

What was once backdrop fiction is now a technically executable operation using commercial robotics, prosthetic effects, synthetic sound, wireless coordination, and human behavioral triggers — all available to non-state actors, protest performance cells, or even fringe sects. You don’t need a supervirus. You need a crowd that believes one is loose. The tools are cheaper. The outcomes are no less lethal.

Gibson didn’t dwell on it because, in his world, it was banal. Ordinary. That’s what makes it terrifying — when urban synthetic panic becomes a trivial line item, we’ve crossed the Rubicon.

We are  just asking the next question:

What happens when the real world catches up, and someone doesn’t treat it as fiction?

And that’s where this article lives — not in fantasy, but in the foresight zone, the edge where culture, tech, trauma, and cityspace collide before legislation catches up.

Vulnerable Targets

1. Major Train Station Concourse (e.g., Amsterdam Centraal, Paris Gare du Nord)

  • High density, enclosed structure, complex acoustics

  • Emotional mix: commuters, tourists, confused elderly, children

  • Delayed response due to layout complexity and poor line-of-sight

  • Risk: Stampedes on platforms, people falling onto tracks

2. Underground Metro Tunnels and Transfer Halls

  • Low lighting, poor ventilation, disorienting signage

  • Echo-prone spaces amplify sound-based panic

  • Risk: Tunnel surges, platform falls, emergency shutdowns, mass asphyxia in closed cars

3. Urban Street Carnival or Kermis (with rides and barricades)

  • Family-heavy, overstimulated, alcohol present

  • Tightly packed lanes, temporary infrastructure, confused escape routes

  • Risk: Crowd compression, collapse of fencing or rides, children separated/lost

4. Ferry Terminal or Dockside Pier (crowd waiting for boarding)

  • Open water creates instinctual fear when panic hits

  • Limited exits — many terminals are narrow bottlenecks

  • Risk: People jumping into water, pushing off piers, drowning

5. Highway Footbridge or Narrow Overpass

  • Trapped on elevated structure with no lateral escape

  • Induced panic can lead to people jumping or pushing

  • Risk: Multiple fatalities from falls or secondary traffic collisions below

6. Enclosed Shopping Mall Food Court (evening, pre-holiday)

  • Families, youth, enclosed space, complex exits

  • Bright lighting vs. sensory disorientation

  • Risk: Table pileups, trampling, fire alarm chaos, storefront glass shatter injuries

7. Religious Pilgrimage Site (e.g., Fatima, Lourdes, Salt Lake Tabernacle)

  • Highly suggestible population; prophecy amplification

  • Large groups acting under unified belief systems

  • Risk: Mass psychogenic illness, stampede due to perceived divine signs or satanic infiltration

8. Airport Baggage Claim or Immigration Hall

  • Tired, irritable, language-diverse travelers

  • Families mixed with high-security operations

  • Risk: TSA/Politie overreaction, structural lockdown, catastrophic crowd corralling

9. Sports Stadium Exit Corridor (post-match, mid-winter)

  • Adrenaline dump + alcohol + aggression

  • Slippery surfaces, heavy clothing, tribal crowd psychology

  • Risk: Fight-or-flight activation, crushing against barriers, widespread confusion about exits

10. Amusement Park Logistical Zone (rides + tunnels + parades)

  • Children, overstimulated teens, emotional parents

  • Ambient noise hides precursors

  • Risk: Ride shutdowns, trampling, suffocation in soft queueing systems

11.  The Hajj (Mecca, Saudi Arabia)

  • Annual attendees: 2–3 million

  • Crowd profile: Devout Muslims from all over the world; elderly, poor, and infirm included; language barriers common

  • Contextual pressure: Emotional peak of a lifetime; deep religious symbolism in every movement

  • Vulnerabilities:

    • Already known stampede sites: Mina (Jamarat Bridge), Tawaf area

    • No room for humor, disruption, or ambiguity — any break in ritual rhythm triggers mass confusion

    • Even minor disruptions (e.g., a shout, scream, false siren) can escalate to lethal outcomes

  • Max impact tactic (hypothetical):

    • Distant infrasound devices or eerie voices during Tawaf

    • Something falling from above

    • Rumors of divine wrath or prophetic warning spreading by phone/text

    • Any suggestion of “jinn” or satanic infiltration

12. Kumbh Mela (India)

  • Attendance (2021): Estimated 9–12 million per day during peak

  • Crowd profile: All ages, many from remote or illiterate communities; massive barefoot rural flows

  • Cultural state: Deeply religious trance-like behavior; belief in spiritual transformation through ritual bathing

  • Vulnerabilities:

    • Incredibly narrow ghats (riverbanks)

    • Zero personal space; strong crowd fluidity

    • Easy to manipulate directionality or stampede onset

  • Max impact tactic:

    • Distant scream loops or simulated divine cries

    • Visible (fake) corpse floating past in the river

    • Planted “dying holy man” figure declaring apocalypse

    • Rumors of poisoning or cursed waters

13. Karbala (Arba’een, Iraq)

  • Attendance: Over 20 million (world’s largest annual peaceful gathering)

  • Crowd profile: Shia Muslims from across the region, including conflict zones; high political tension

  • Tone: Mourning, grief, sacrifice; people already crying, bleeding (through self-flagellation)

  • Vulnerabilities:

    • Highly charged emotional base

    • Easily tipped into martyrdom panic or doomsday framing

    • Paranoia from years of terrorist attacks

  • Max impact tactic:

    • Inserted figure convulsing and shouting “the Mahdi has returned!”

    • Fake divine lightning or smoke projection

    • Disembodied voice accusing the crowd of betrayal

    • Pre-planted false “martyr” body causing mass lamentation

14. Sabarimala (Kerala, India)

  • Attendance: Tens of millions over several weeks

  • Profile: Male-only pilgrimage (women 10–50 years old traditionally restricted); steep mountain trek

  • Cultural context: Deeply hierarchical, symbolically charged

  • Vulnerabilities:

    • Narrow paths, cliffs, and forests

    • People barefoot and fasting, physically weak

  • Max impact tactic:

    • Synthetic growls or shrieks from forested areas

    • Disoriented pilgrims mistaking a fallen peer for divine punishment

    • Planted rumors of supernatural encounter or snake omen

    • Movement of crowd away from trailhead in fear

15. Ajmer Sharif Dargah (India)

  • Profile: Sufi Muslim shrine; attracts Hindus and Muslims

  • Tone: Peaceful, interfaith, musical — but extremely crowded in chokepoints

  • Risk: Emotionally symbolic — a disruption here risks igniting sectarian tension

Shared Characteristics Across These Events

  • Superstition-compatible: Easy to seed false signs or omens

  • Mass fatigue: Long travel, heat, dehydration

  • Language fragmentation: Slows rumor control, fosters misunderstanding

  • Ritual trance state: Crowd is mentally elsewhere, less critical

  • No exit logic: Movement is collective and often symbolic — not escape-optimized

 

Postscript: Read This Again, Slowly

Is this incitement? No.
Is this giving bad people awful ideas? No.
Is this article irresponsible? Absolutely not.

This is a warning.

A forecast. A fire drill for the conscience.

What you’ve read is a speculative scenario based on technologies that already exist, behavioral phenomena long documented, and cultural conditions now visibly fraying. These are not inventions — they are extrapolations. The public is not prepared. Law enforcement is not trained. Urban infrastructure is not designed for synthetic panic. And governance is behind the curve, as always.

This article explores how a non-lethal, theatrically synthetic event could produce lethal, irreversible consequences, simply by exploiting instinct, belief, and crowd behavior. If reading this made you uneasy — good. Unease is the immune response of a society seeing its own blind spots.

I do not advocate terror.
I do not enable it.
I am sounding the alarm — not ringing the dinner bell.

There is a line between fear and foresight. We must learn to walk it now, before someone else walks it first. And doesn’t come back.

Postscript for Agencies, Analysts, and Interested Professionals

If you are reading this from a government agency, intelligence service, security consultancy, university, think tank, or newsroom:

Yes, this article is intense by design. That’s because the future rarely knocks politely.

What you’ve read is part of a broader effort to model emergent threats, technologically enabled disruptions, and underexplored societal vulnerabilities — especially those not yet codified in doctrine or legislation.

I am available to consult, brief, or collaborate on:

  • Scenario modeling and stress-testing for civil and institutional systems

  • Synthetic panic simulations

  • Behavioral cascade dynamics in urban spaces

  • New and repurposed technologies with destabilization potential

  • “Tenth Man” contrarian analysis for planning or foresight groups

  • Narrative frameworks for public resilience building

My work is speculative, but informed. Lateral, but grounded. It is intended to provoke preparation, not panic. I believe society deserves a heads-up before it’s staring at headlines written in hindsight.

If you’d like to initiate a conversation — quietly, publicly, or off-the-record — I’m open. You can reach out through appropriate channels or use the contact details listed on this site.

Preparation is not paranoia. It’s what separates reaction from readiness.

—Khannea Sun’Tzu