this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2025
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Science Memes

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God is a dick. (mander.xyz)
submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

The fact is that any manned vehicle capable of interplanetary travel is by the nature of the energies involved, also a weapon of mass destruction. A spaceship is a weapon in the same way a car can be a weapon.

So either you massively restrict access to this technology, or you create a system of surveillance and defense that is so pervasive and effective that it makes 1984 look benign, OR you just say fuck everyone else and use that weapon to remove yourself from range of everybody else's weapons.

Proliferation is an existential problem for anyone in range.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The usefulness of a fusion engine as a weapon is directly correlated to its efficiency.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

It doesn't really matter what kind of engine it is if it's going fast enough.

Anything with enough mass and acceleration to move a human being from planet to planet in a reasonable timeframe has the kinetic energy required to wipe out a city. Once you start reaching relativistic speeds, you can take out entire planets by simply not slowing down on approach.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Although you are correct, this destroys the engine.

A good, efficient fusion engine just needs to point the exhaust end towards the enemy and the hyper-accelerated particles will punch a hole through the target for you. And then you point at the next target, etc. etc.

Also, it's a butchered quote from Larry Niven's Known Space books, referred to as the "Kzinti Lesson" - because the Kzinti thought humanity was unarmed and helpless until they discovered that humans are really good at improvising weapons.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Yup! Totally plausible - just more expensive and less repeatable. And harder to use against moving targets.