[wnkrshm]

A UV-laser would be humane, since UV (and shorter wavelengths) will interact with the outermost portion of your eye - visible light or the near IR (up to 1500) is what your imaging system operates on and it's focused onto the retina.

Edit: Also, the blink reflex isn't fast enough to save you from damage if the Class is higher than Class 2 (and even then it's a roll of the dice, since there are some who don't have that fabled reflex).

[gambiting]

Can you expand on why that would be humane?

[wnkrshm]

Shorter wavelengths (UV, extreme UV) are absorbed at the surface of organic tissue (and many other materials) and lead to ablation or heat transfer at the surface. So with shorter wavelengths, it'll mostly scar the cornea, which can be reshaped again using short wavelengths with a LASIK.

It might also cause damage to the lens and lead to cataracts, which can also be partially compensated today by getting a lens implant.

These ways of damaging your eye are extremely more preferable than having your retina or your nerves damaged in any way, since for that, no method of remedy exists yet.

[Filligree]

At a guess, it might be possible to at least partially fix the damage afterwards, by scraping off the damaged cells.

I wouldn't call that "humane", and it is a guess; it might not work at all. Nothing to do with war is 'humane', though.

[wnkrshm]

You're right, my choice of words was poor there, I didn't want to imply that there are any humane weapons or ways to wage war.

I think what I was trying to say is that if I could choose the wavelength to hit my eye, I'd pick extreme UV.