Topic: Galactic Armaggeddon - Can War Destroy The Galaxy?
lomjlt
Ex-Member
posted
Most often in science fiction, militaries fight like they do with traditional technology before humanity had nuclear weapons --- two machines or ships fire at one another until one is destroyed.
To get more firepower, you add more ships until you have a large enough invasion force to conquer the other side.
Why would future militaries fight like that if they had advance technology?
For example, a powerful enough particle accelerator could generate a black hole that would wipe out all life in a solar system. A black hole that passes through our solar system, even if it passes by Pluto and never comes anywhere near Earth, would still change the orbits of all the planets, killing all life here on Earth.
Why send ships to invade a planet when you could just create a black hole that kills all the inhabitants? It's easier and cheaper to kill with "nuclear weapons" or "black hole weapons" than with a large invasion force.
In fact, that's why nuclear weapons were built - to deter an invasion at an affordable cost that would not bust the budget.
In this scenario, let's say two military alliances engage in an arms race to build black hole weapons until each had an arsenal sufficient to destroy the entire galaxy if ... let's say ... 10,000 black hole weapons were ignited.
What if a scientist could create one black hole weapon as powerful as 10,000 of them?
posted
Interesting.... my personal opinion is that for a civilisation to become space-faring in the first place, a much more stable political structure than those existing today would be needed. It's difficult to imagine what space politics would be like. For instance, how would a government enforce laws in an environment as vast as space? Would "nations" exist at all? Perhaps a separate thread should be started to discuss this.
But getting back to the topic at hand, which is mainly a matter of logistics, my initial opinion would be that destroying a galaxy would be pretty inconceivable. Interstellar space is vast, and even if you could create a black hole and give it an accurate velocity vector (bordering on the impossible, there, even theoretically), how fast could you get it to move to another system?
------------------ "If you can't beat your computer at chess, try kickboxing."
posted
Then there's the probable treaties of future powers regarding "mutual destruction". They could probably fight differently than we do today, but there are easier ways of destroying planets than creating black holes... Manipulating asteroids, for instance. Or exposing a population to various types of radiation. All cowardly and filthy ways of waging wars. Since a black hole can threaten subspace stability, though, it would be the most dangerous and unpredictable enterprise we hairless apes have ever ventured.
posted
They put one of yours in the hospital, you put one of their's in the morgue. It's the Chicago way.
I think we'd better start making plans. If Kosh's information is accurate (and I have no doubt that it is), we need to prepare ourselves for Andromeda's inevitable onslaught.
------------------ At that point, McDonald fired his gun three times in the air to emphasize his point. The crowd, estimated at 350,000, loudly cheered the new candidate.
"Let me make this clear: I am the law! I am your ruler! And you will have fries with that, motherf*cker!"
posted
Actually, Andromeda doesn't have nova bombs anymore... Hunt detonated all 40 of them at once in the series pilot, remember?
I agree that most space combat as is presented today is probably unrealistic. There are going to be technologies far beyond anyone's imagination, I am sure. Invention is a continual process. There are always going to be big weapons that are considered "superweapons" of the time. Remember WWI? (Not like you were there, of course... I mean your history lessons. Sheesh...) Back then the machine gun was proclaimed the ultimate weapon of mass destruction and foretold the end of human civilization. Fifty years before that, the muzzle-loading rifle revolutionized infantry combat during the American Civil War. The list goes on and on.
posted
Actually, they got at least one nova bomb at the end of the second ep.
------------------ "How do you define fool?" "I don't attempt it. I wait for demonstrations. They inevitably surpass my imagination." - CJ Cherryh, Invader
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