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[Loud Whispers]

Joe Haldain's "The Forever War" exploes this quite well. With relativity taken into account, a 18 month tour of duty takes years for those not whizzing around space at 99% of c. What was cutting edge when they left is crude when they return, most noticably weaponary, tactics used by the enemy, and the nature of human society. Well worth a read.

Humanity is very good at killing things and only getting better at it too. If we have reached the point of near light speed travel, you can bet that the "obsolete" technology on board would be more than enough for any nobody-expects-the-inquisition moments. However if any intelligent life is out there I doubt there'd ever be much conflict.

[RedKing]

Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War" exploes this quite well. With relativity taken into account, a 18 month tour of duty takes years for those not whizzing around space at 99% of c. What was cutting edge when they left is crude when they return, most noticably weaponary, tactics used by the enemy, and the nature of human society. Well worth a read.

FTFY. And yeah, I loved the idea that there was NEVER technological parity between Earth and the Taurans. Defender almost automatically had technological superiority, because they've had time to develop and deploy new weapons and tactics while the attacker has spent all that time in cryosleep and travelling. The only time they're even roughly paritible is

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

the last skirmish, where technology and countertechnology has advanced to the point where they're literally fighting with spears and darts inside of a zero-energy bubble thing.

It follows that in a war like that (as in WWI) it would be bloody, long and little ground would change hands because the defender always has a significant advantage.

The comic book series Albedo also had pretty realistic space combat. Basically, both ships manuever (within the G-tolerance of their crew annd their fuel budget) for optimal vector, then shoot a metric shit-ton of metal chunks at each other at relativistic speeds. Much of their cloud of drones and slugs will hit and annhilate each other, but some will get through. You basically shoot and pray that your cloud of ordnance was bigger than theirs, then both sides strap in and wait a few hours for impact. I think Forever War had some of that as well (I seem to remember one of the missions is basically FUBAR'd from the start when they get hit by relativistic shrapnel and lose a number of their ground troops before they even get to target).

[kaijyuu]

Touché (as I understand it) just means an acknowledgement of being beaten. Comes from fencing, iirc, where the person touched says it to admit defeat.

[/pedantry]

[i2amroy]

Re: the super speed bullet thing.


Depending on the distance away, the target would be able to see it quite a ways off and intercept with their own (probably another, equal mass object going the same speed, as that's about the only thing that COULD stop it). A .9c bullet traveling 1000 light years would be visible 100 light years away.

I could see such things being used in planetary warfare, but a vigilant target could avoid anything you throw at them from long distance.

I don't know if he was the first one with the idea, but KS Robinson's new book gives a rather terrifying new possibility - a swarm of bullets, too small to detect from a distance, and spread out in a cloud, but converging on the same point to deliver the same or almost the same amount of energy as a much larger one. Granted it'd be even tougher to figure out the trajectories, since they all have to hit at the same time, but with quantum computers, enough projectiles, and a little bit of on-board guidance it might just be possible across systems. Pretty much the only way to defend against something like this is to have a massive sensor-net with a comprehensive laser defense system, and that's assuming they aren't shielded enough that you can detect them in time for the hit. Otherwise your best bet is to move the target.

This is actually one of the ways to increase the destructive potential of a large relativistic missile (such as an asteroid), by blowing it up when it is fairly close to the target. The result becomes a destructive cloud of particles traveling at approximately the same speed but over a much larger area. I mean sure a single large astroid hit would cause mass climate problems all over, but you actually only get total devastation in a relatively small area. A barrage of smaller objects in a cloud the size of a planet, while imparting less force with each one, would actually end up causing more destruction. Sure a large object might cause a crater the size of japan, but the rest of the world is relatively unharmed except by the climate change. A hail of small objects causing house sized craters over half of the entire planet will cause more actual destruction relatively, as a house sized crater will take out most buildings just as well as a larger one will.

[Hanslanda]

This is actually one of the ways to increase the destructive potential of a large relativistic missile (such as an asteroid), by blowing it up when it is fairly close to the target. The result becomes a destructive cloud of particles traveling at approximately the same speed but over a much larger area. I mean sure a single large astroid hit would cause mass climate problems all over, but you actually only get total devastation in a relatively small area. A barrage of smaller objects in a cloud the size of a planet, while imparting less force with each one, would actually end up causing more destruction. Sure a large object might cause a crater the size of japan, but the rest of the world is relatively unharmed except by the climate change. A hail of small objects causing house sized craters over half of the entire planet will cause more actual destruction relatively, as a house sized crater will take out most buildings just as well as a larger one will.

Relativistic Shotgun: Never before have two words been put together and been this beautiful.

[Loud Whispers]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is actually one of the ways to increase the destructive potential of a large relativistic missile (such as an asteroid), by blowing it up when it is fairly close to the target. The result becomes a destructive cloud of particles traveling at approximately the same speed but over a much larger area. I mean sure a single large astroid hit would cause mass climate problems all over, but you actually only get total devastation in a relatively small area. A barrage of smaller objects in a cloud the size of a planet, while imparting less force with each one, would actually end up causing more destruction. Sure a large object might cause a crater the size of japan, but the rest of the world is relatively unharmed except by the climate change. A hail of small objects causing house sized craters over half of the entire planet will cause more actual destruction relatively, as a house sized crater will take out most buildings just as well as a larger one will.

"And in the future humanity will look upon me and say, he has become Mars - god of shotguns."

[Tellemurius]

This reminds me of South Park

"And i Pull out my gun!"

[Hanslanda]

Notice how the first contact thread got derailed into a gunlove discussion? Bodes well for humanity, this does not.

[Sheb]

I wonder if Future GOP will support the second amendment right to own Relativistic Shotguns.

[MonkeyHead]

Mass shootings will be... different.

A gunman in Sigma Orionis today killed 12 billion people when he opened fire on 2 planets and a series of moons and orbital habcomplexes. Enforement droids were unable to subdue him so anhilliated him with a controlled antimatter dusting, which resulted in the destruction of the uninhabited moon he was using as cover. The gunman, a Mr FutureName, was described by his VRNet aquaintances as a bit quiet, a bit of a loner, but a nice guy. It is thought he was recently laid off from his job as a FutureShelf FutureStacker at FutureWalMart and that his designated pleasuredroid companion suffered a terminal fault. He was armed with two H&K RC8 .99c scattercannons, obtained perfectly legally over the VRNet commerce section.

[Karnewarrior]

Itvwould probably be considered artillery, though. /stophavingfunguys

[kaijyuu]

Also, a traditional shotgun firing relativistic bullets would vaporize the gunman just as much as anyone else.


These things would have to be remotely activated and almost certainly will destroy the firing mechanism in the process (even in a vacuum).

[RedKing]

Well, you wouldn't have the backblast problem nearly so much in a vacuum, but there is the issue of recoil (unless you have some momentum-less method to impart velocity to the projectile).

[darkrider2]

Well, you wouldn't have the backblast problem nearly so much in a vacuum, but there is the issue of recoil (unless you have some momentum-less method to impart velocity to the projectile).

Like, say... a rocket?

[kaijyuu]

No combustion would ever be able to accelerate an object that fast. Even if Magical Fuel, it'd still shoot relativistic waste products in the opposite direction.


Some sort of slingshot would probably be required. Who knows if it's possible to store enough potential energy in anything to accelerate something of significant mass to .9c, though.