[ExI] diamandis commentary

[John Clark]

On Sat, May 23, 2026 at 1:11 PM Gregory Jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

*> John it would serve you well to get up to speed on the concept of the
> cover story.  Modern battleships...*
>

*There are no modern battleships. And I doubt there ever will be because a
hyper expensive "Trump Class" battleship will never get finished, although
they'll probably waste a few billion dollars before the project gets
canceled due to massive cost overruns. But even if we had a fleet of them
today they wouldn't help us win the Iran war that He Who Must Not Be Named
started because they wouldn't be able to open up the Strait of Hormuz. For
the price of just one battleship you could make at least a half a million
intelligent drones and probably more, each one capable of destroying a
ship. The president likes battleships because he thinks they look cool, but
he's trying to re-fight World War II in the age of AI. And even during
World War II battleships were obsolete.  *

*John K Clark*





>
>
> On Sat, May 23, 2026, 9:43 AM Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, May 23, 2026 at 11:49 AM Gregory Jones via extropy-chat
>> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>> > John the ballroom doesnt use federal money so that one is irrelevant.
>>
>> Then why is Congress debating using federal money for it?  See
>> https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp3px2x96eeo among other sources.
>>
>> >  Regarding ultra expensive battleships, do you know why modern
>> battleships are ultra expensive?
>>
>> To be fair, most modern large naval ships can be described as "ultra
>> expensive", and the Trump-class design is projected to cost maybe
>> 1.5-5 times a modern aircraft carrier (the closest modern equivalent)
>> such as the Ford-class.
>>
>> ...if you believe the initial projections.  One of the complaints is
>> that they're cramming so many new and unproven systems in, this would
>> wind up like the Zumwalt-class destroyer: costs ballooning far past
>> initial estimates, only a very few if any actually get built (3
>> Zumwalts, vs. the initial design for 32), and if any do they'll get
>> repurposed to some other mission rather than serve what they were
>> designed for.
>>
>> > Why do you suppose modern battleship designs exist?
>>
>> They generally don't.  Almost all navies have abandoned the concept.
>>
>> > How do you suppose modern battle drones are deployed and recovered?
>>
>> In a naval context?  From smaller ships, and/or ones more specialized
>> to that role.  A ship whose primary purpose is drone carriage and
>> deployment is not a battleship.
>>
>> > What defensive systems do you imagine?
>>
>> Given as it is "Trump" class, minimal.  Not none, but Trump would not
>> be satisfied with a design that emphasizes active defenses over
>> offensive capability.
>>
>> > How do you suppose they can get into places carriers and ancient
>> battleships such as the Missouri cannot go?
>>
>> Generally, they can't.  Which is part of why the concept has been
>> largely abandoned.
>>
>> Gun battleships just don't have the range, compared to missile
>> cruisers.  Even with railguns or (especially) directed energy weapons
>> (which are far less capable at over-the-horizon shots), to take an
>> extremely simplified example: if my missile cruiser stays out of range
>> of your battleship, I may need to fire a lot of missiles to get past
>> your defenses but, if I do so, I can eventually sink your battleship,
>> while your battleship is utterly impotent to so much as scratch my
>> missile cruiser's paint.
>>
>> Presumably, Trump's supporters do not actually want an impotent
>> "Trump-class" ship.  (Trump's detractors might claim it's an accurate
>> representation - impressive at first glance, utterly weak once you
>> consider how the rest of the world works - but the ones designing this
>> appear to be among his supporters.)  But that's what a modern
>> battleship would be, despite appearances.
>>
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