[ExI] EP, lasers and power satellites

[spike]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Keith Henson

On Sat, Mar 3, 2012 at 5:00 AM,  Tim Halterman <timhalterman at gmail.com>
wrote:
...

>>... This reminds me of the star wars talk in the Reagan days.

>...Well, yes.  Things, particularly computers, have come a long way since
those days.  Did you read the article on what the software is being used for
now?  Keith

_______________________________________________

Not just software but also hardware Keith.  We developed brilliant pebbles
in the 80s with the notion of having a bunch of them in orbit, ready to hit
nuclear missiles on the way up.  The notion of having all that stuff in
orbit turned out to be impractical and unnecessary, as well as politically
imprudent.  The brilliant pebbles were put on the tips of ground based
missiles known today as THAAD.  Now the notion is that THAAD missiles would
hit incoming re-entry bodies at the edge of the atmosphere.  I expect all
the money spent on star wars research to be made back several times over,
when every little country wants THAAD missiles, for they can buy a quiver
full of those for the cost of a single offensive nuke.  

As the number of nations with nuclear missiles proliferates, we transition
from the no-longer-practical notion of mutual assured destruction to the
more comfortable and far cheaper era of mutual assured survival.  As more
nations get THAAD, it becomes pointless for nations to develop nuclear
missiles, sooo...  We take them apart and make power plants out of the
now-useless warheads.  

Along with this is the delightful mutual assured making a buttload of money
for controls engineers.  Then warfare transitions once again, to nations
attacking each other by sending viruses to infest the other guy's computers.
Deal!

spike