From: Ross A. Finlayson (RAF@tomco.net)
Date: Wed Mar 24 1999 - 23:27:36 MST
If you ask me, "Brilliant Pebbles" is a much better defense, although the Theater
High Altitude Air Defense is not a bad thing, except it doesn't work yet and is
incredibly expensive. It's a decent prototype for anti-meteor rockets.
Guided crowbars from space can destroy any tank, and would be cheap, except for
launch costs.
A machete can be lethal, as can a stick or the bare hand or foot. A conventional
US$1,000 munition delivery system, ie, a high-powered military assault rifle,
might not take out a front line battle tank, but is cruelly effective against
unarmed civilians or civilian installations, which are ignoble targets. A front
line battle tank against unarmed civilians is cruel and a crime.
Exotic nanoweapons would represent a very flexible and relatively indefensible
weapon.
"What is the required effect?" is the question. Gene-targeted devices equal
selective genocide, or an individual target from a strand of hair or the
Orwellian governments' biometric archives, with problems if the nano gets out of
hand and kills every living thing. Voodoo never had it this bad.
Don't give your genes to anyone, unless you are procreating in which case share
them with the other parent.
Personally, I would consider a good sidearm one that used railgun elements to
launch small caliber armor piercing explosive bullets. Gyrodyne inertia dampers
and motion sensor IFF auto-guidance all built solid state would be a simple,
effective handgun, not that there aren't simple, effective handguns. Pick it up
and pull the trigger, if it authenticates you. It aims itself.
Flechettes rule, as do discarding sabots, for tank rounds.
Constructing a nuclear weapon is about shaped charges, and fissile material
availability, plus you need a high school education.
The neutron bomb, which erases life while leaving buildings intact, is of
interest.
The troika of mutually assured nuclear destruction (MAD) from stationary,
mobile(air), and submarine launched ICBM's is relatively moot, although
Balto-Russian pony nukes
are not. Uncontained nuclear proliferation is to be avoided.
Radical biochemical warfare is ugly, as buboes are quite unattractive to have
before puking your lungs and guts out.
In terms of "conventional" warfare, air power and superiority rule. Most of
humanity hasn't seen the terror of "carpet bombing" since WWII, except for small
countries bullied by superpowers. We should consult our elders of its ruinous
effects. Thermite is an evil, evil thing.
I say this and I haven't been in a fistfight since I was 11, except for college,
so I am relatively unqualified. I am not a soldier nor have I ever attacked
someone with the intent to kill. Video games do not count. "Professional
wrestling" is a good proletarian entertainment.
Squad, platoon, and larger unit fighting tactics and strategy skills are being
built right into our next generation of warfighting video game players.
Hopefully, they like to play sports games also to relieve some aggression. I do.
They can tele-fight the "bad" aliens.
According to the Asimov's Rules of Robotics, which I wholeheartedly endorse, AIs
are not allowed to control weapons of mass destruction, among the more general
Rules of Robotics, but they do so now.
Why does humanity fight? To practice for the aliens, if they were to be so
inclined as to exist. But seriously, warfighting and the ability to do so is a
Darwinian advantage. Also, it is important to be able to deflect any space debris
that might incinerate the planet. We should enable what limited anti-satellite
satellite capabilities exist to shoot outward, not inward.
Personally, I advocate non-violence. However, one or a society cannot be
protected from the dangers of weapons and Human Rights infringements without
knowledge of how they might be used against them, and the ability and motivation
for defense against them.
I urge the adoption of privacy protection laws, because the massive widespread
invasion of privacy is the biggest attack on American Civil Rights in our time.
Also,
never fear to fight for your right to privacy or freedom of expression. The best
conventional way to do that is to sue.
Other countries such as China and North Korea, for example and among others, have
very bad human rights records, they have to catch up 200 years, an alternate to
catching up from the stone age. In this world, there exists countless cruelties,
and the media spends a year on "O.J." or a "Blue Dress." That is a disgrace.
The worst weapons against Human Rights and law aren't guns and bombs, but corrupt
institutions, like, say, a public utility that you use to dial and call people
that overbills anyone who doesn't read the fine print like blind little old
ladies. That is an economic attack on your bottom line. Other institutionally
propagated Human Rights violations and fraud are as hard to find as your nose, if
you have one.
Massive overprescription of stupefying drugs is some kind of problem. The people
most against illegal drug legalization are illegal drug dealers, although
hopefully when legalized they would go legit. The illegal drug system is the
major reducible cause of violence in America today.
Personally, just in the interest of large explosions as an expression of human
power, perhaps it would be possible to explode the sun. As practice targets, the
moons of Saturn would be a place to start, and demolition of the Martian poles
would cause bright fireworks, quite possibly visible to the naked human eye from
Earth. A large number of large bombs could be folded into the equator of
Jupiter, so we could see what the core is like. Other interesting targets in the
Solar System exist.
-
The entirety of the preceding statement is a: a joke, or b: not a joke. Heh heh.
The practice of most martial arts as a means to self-enlightenment is good for
health and balance, as most martial arts advocate avoiding a fight rather than
starting or engaging in one, and the ability to protect oneself against
aggressors. Other martial arts are specifically about killing, and should be
left to professional soldiers.
Throughout history, in some cultures, combat and combat ability have been revered
and honored, with rank, honor, decorations, and ribbons. This is a part of human
nature and culture, which I hope we shall never see truly vanish, as it is noble.
Here's to the end of genocide as we know it.
Ross, American
http://www.ross.ru/
Spike Jones wrote:
> mark@unicorn.com wrote:
>
> > ...The problem with ABM systems is that so far no-one has ever been able to
> > build one that works worth a damn....
>
> THAAD missile will be fired Monday. Maybe the sixth try will make it! spike
-- Ross Andrew Finlayson 202/387-8208 http://www.tomco.net/~raf/ "C is the speed of light."
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