OT: Nuclear War???

[Raging Deadstar]

Renegade: If you're paranoid now I suggest reading "Hegemony or Survival" by Noam Chomsky. It's a book detailing American foreign policy and all throughout the book it paints a very scary picture about the possibility of Nuclear War and the Future.

As for Nuclear War, it will happen one day, Hopefully not in my lifetime as the longer we survive the longer perhaps we have to see the stupidity of Nuclear Weapons.

Speaking of Nuclear War, I was impressed by Stargate SG1 and the episode where Kinsey became a Goa'uld and Russia and America almost blew each other up.

[Randallw]

Once we develop fusion weapons (by which I mean ones that don't need a fission detonator) Nuclear war will become more likely. Correct me if I'm wrong but with Fusion there is no radiation. No fallout means no reason not to nuke the enemy as long as they don't have any.

[dogscoff]

The sooner we bukld ourselves permanent, self-sufficient colonies off world the better. THen, even if some idiot does fire a lazy gun at planet Earth, humanity will have at least a chance of survival.

[Slick]

Randallw said:
Once we develop fusion weapons (by which I mean ones that don't need a fission detonator) Nuclear war will become more likely. Correct me if I'm wrong but with Fusion there is no radiation. No fallout means no reason not to nuke the enemy as long as they don't have any.

Respectfully sir, none of the above is true.

[Phoenix-D]

Randallw said:
Once we develop fusion weapons (by which I mean ones that don't need a fission detonator) Nuclear war will become more likely. Correct me if I'm wrong but with Fusion there is no radiation. No fallout means no reason not to nuke the enemy as long as they don't have any.

The easiest way to see that is untrue is to look up. The Sun is a fusion reaction and produces and extreme amount of radiation of most types.

Fusion bombs are clean-er-, not clean.

[Will]

Clean-er- mainly because the radiation from fusing H -> He is more of a one-shot deal. The big problem with fission bombs is all the radioactive heavy metals that come afterward, which have a tendancy to be absorbed into the soil and water supply. As far as I know, there is no such Lasting legacy from fusion reactions, just a very quick burst of energy and radiation, a la our favorite star.

[Renegade 13]

All we need is a psychopath that's smart enough to get high enough in political office in a country that has nuclear capability. If, for example, North Korea launched a nuke at the US because one of their leaders was a little bit loopy, what do you think the US would do?? Wait until they got another few nukes thrown at them, or nuke 'em back?? It's really an unwinnable situation, since if they DON'T nuke them back, they run the risk of having other fringe countries throwning nukes at them, since they know the risk of nuclear retaliation would be minimal. But if they DO nuke them, then they run the risk of North Korea's supporters getting involved (China) which could then easily lead to worldwide nuclear war. It will happen. It's only a question of when.

[Aiken]

There's always hard radiation - x-rays or gamma radiation. And it won't improve your health much. Also massed explosions of "clean" fusion bombs could easily destroy ozone layer in whole hemisphere.

[TerranC]

If, for example, North Korea launched a nuke at the US because one of their leaders was a little bit loopy,

That's a rhetorical question, right?

what do you think the US would do?? Wait until they got another few nukes thrown at them, or nuke 'em back??

Hopefully, the US will have developped sufficient missile defense programs/systems by then; It's not as if NK nukes (if they exist) are high tech, most of them would be scuds with with a plutonium bar attached. But should one hit, it is most likely that the US will retaliate, but not with nukes.

It's really an unwinnable situation, since if they DON'T nuke them back, they run the risk of having other fringe countries throwning nukes at them, since they know the risk of nuclear retaliation would be minimal.

Fringe countries throwing nukes at the US? Take out North Korea and how many Fringe countries are there? Iran and Syria? Iran, if it wanted to, would rather nuke Israel first, and Syria is dirt poor; almost if not all of their military hardware is cold war-era French and Soviet equipement. You should be worrying more about dirty bombs from terrorist organizations and mountain men than state-to-state nuclear warfare.

But if they DO nuke them, then they run the risk of North Korea's supporters getting involved (China) which could then easily lead to worldwide nuclear war.

If the US nukes North Korea, they run the risk of nuking South Korea and Manchuria, radiating a bit of Japan and areas near Beijing, and sterilzing the Sea of Japan and the Yellow sea.

By that time, you shouldn't worry about China nuking the US, you should worry about the whole world nuking the US.

It will happen. It's only a question of when.

Think happy thoughts, now. For every psychopath, there are hundreds of goodwilled rational men and women.

[TerranC]

Randallw said:
ALthough it is true that human relics could be recycled for minerals, aLso consider oil. I do not know an exact figure, but say we have depleted oil supplies so that they will only Last another 50 years. ALthough our technology may well come up with an alternative power supply, a less advanced culture that develops after ours may find it difficult to have an industrial revolution if oil is sparse.

What makes you think that human bodies won't rot and make more oil, given enough time?

Plus, the Industrial Revolution relied primarily on steam power; the world began using oil because it was an efficient means of making steam. Should Coal exist in the future (and it most certainly will, since even now, many coal deposits exist), the civilization that develops after ours will probably learn how to make do and to develop more stuff from coal, as we have with oil.