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Author Topic: Theoretical weapons (Burn all the things!) and other ideas  (Read 103611 times)

Strife26

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Re: Theoretical weapons (Burn all the things!) and other ideas
« Reply #1335 on: November 29, 2016, 03:16:16 pm »

Not to mention the killing joke that the Brits won WW2 with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdWGlJrG6sQ
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GiglameshDespair

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Re: Theoretical weapons (Burn all the things!) and other ideas
« Reply #1336 on: November 29, 2016, 03:16:41 pm »

If you squint and look sideways, flashing lights in a pattern that also triggers epileptic fits could count?
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Culise

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Re: Theoretical weapons (Burn all the things!) and other ideas
« Reply #1337 on: November 29, 2016, 03:24:25 pm »

Can we make a theoretical weapon?

Like, can we kill someone with a theory? A legitimate infohazard?
Do you mean indirectly as wierd joked, or directly via a sort of memetic basilisk (that is, as opposed to the classic Langford basilisk, which uses an image as a vector)?  I don't think such a thing is actually possible.  It seems rather implausible to me that we can create something created via a mental vector will result in a destructive positive chain reaction that kills the person with a literal thought.  That's not to say we can't introduce fresh new vulnerabilities in the future; hacking someone's "wetware" through a digital MMI is a time-honored cyberpunk tradition, after all, and anyone familiar with the damage malicious computer access can cause in the modern world should be aware of the potential issues that could be caused should a person of a particularly malicious bent obtain root access to, say, a wifi-capable pacemaker.  Leap into a future with digital memory implants or processing-enhancers wired directly into the brain, and I could see these being used as points of access to cause all sorts of problems.  I think most hypothetical variations of the concept in fiction, apropos of typical delivery mechanisms likely in reality, tend to be either visual (a la epilepsy) or aural (such as the much reputed, but rather unproven "brown note"), however, unless you count jokes about mental instability in key figures of mathematics being indicative of the subject's effect on its scholars; Lovecraftian-style things of which one was not meant to know tend to drive one insane rather than kill one directly.
« Last Edit: November 29, 2016, 03:26:53 pm by Culise »
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TheDarkStar

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Re: Theoretical weapons (Burn all the things!) and other ideas
« Reply #1338 on: November 29, 2016, 05:40:37 pm »

Can we make a theoretical weapon?

Like, can we kill someone with a theory? A legitimate infohazard?

Interestingly, there is a correlation between having schizophrenia and doing highly logical things like mathematics. Of course, it's hard to tell if there's a causation there or if schizophrenics just tend to like math more.
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Tack

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Re: Theoretical weapons (Burn all the things!) and other ideas
« Reply #1339 on: November 29, 2016, 08:39:31 pm »

Hello folks, in a thing I'm working on, the ozone layer is mostly gone.
Since most objects in space are invisible thanks to the ozone layer, would they become visible if ozone was depleted? And what objects would be visible to the naked eye? Would the night sky be visibly brighter?
Here's a question- what needs to be missing from the atmosphere for the sky not to be blue?
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wierd

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Re: Theoretical weapons (Burn all the things!) and other ideas
« Reply #1340 on: November 29, 2016, 09:17:06 pm »

oxygen and nitrogen, (they make the sky blue via Rayleigh scattering.)

any atmosphere at all will produce such scattering, but it may not be blue in appearance.
(mars has red sky, due to dust particle scattering. Titan has an orange sky from smog like chemical particles)

you need an airless rock to have black daytime sky.
« Last Edit: November 29, 2016, 09:23:16 pm by wierd »
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Rolepgeek

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Re: Theoretical weapons (Burn all the things!) and other ideas
« Reply #1341 on: November 29, 2016, 09:26:09 pm »

Would it be possible to have an atmosphere that scattered perfectly neutrally?
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wierd

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Re: Theoretical weapons (Burn all the things!) and other ideas
« Reply #1342 on: November 29, 2016, 10:55:16 pm »

That would be a grey sky.

Theoretical, but not sure what compounds you would put in to have such a white/grey sky.
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Amperzand

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Re: Theoretical weapons (Burn all the things!) and other ideas
« Reply #1343 on: November 30, 2016, 12:13:03 am »

Supposedly massive amounts of CO2 would get you a white atmosphere.
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Is there a word that combines comedy with tragedy and farce?
Heiterverzweiflung. Not a legit German word so much as something a friend and I made up in German class once. "Carefree despair". When life is so fucked that you can't stop laughing.
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Max™

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Re: Theoretical weapons (Burn all the things!) and other ideas
« Reply #1344 on: November 30, 2016, 01:30:56 am »

Depends on what you mean by massive amounts of CO2 though Venus has contributions from the clouds and acid haze, so it's not the best example there, and not recommended as a vacation destination either!
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Erkki

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Re: Theoretical weapons (Burn all the things!) and other ideas
« Reply #1345 on: November 30, 2016, 02:10:16 am »

Isnt Venusian sky blue at altitudes above 45 km or so? The atmosphere has so much gas and temperature differential in it that its layered. The toxic stuff is mostly at the bottom.
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Kot

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Re: Theoretical weapons (Burn all the things!) and other ideas
« Reply #1346 on: December 04, 2016, 06:45:05 pm »

White phosphorus shotgun shells.
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Amperzand

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Re: Theoretical weapons (Burn all the things!) and other ideas
« Reply #1347 on: December 04, 2016, 09:41:31 pm »

Do you mean like shotgun shells that fire uncontrolled blasts of white phosphorus, or shotgun shells that fire white phosphorus explosives?
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Muh FG--OOC Thread
Quote from: smirk
Quote from: Shadowlord
Is there a word that combines comedy with tragedy and farce?
Heiterverzweiflung. Not a legit German word so much as something a friend and I made up in German class once. "Carefree despair". When life is so fucked that you can't stop laughing.
http://www.collinsdictionary.com

Egan_BW

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Re: Theoretical weapons (Burn all the things!) and other ideas
« Reply #1348 on: December 04, 2016, 10:05:27 pm »

Shotgun that shoots tiny smoke grenades, obviously.
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Amperzand

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Re: Theoretical weapons (Burn all the things!) and other ideas
« Reply #1349 on: December 04, 2016, 10:50:00 pm »

Wouldn't just be smoke, but sure. I'm not sure exactly what the use would be, smaller smoke grenades seem kinda problematic.
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Muh FG--OOC Thread
Quote from: smirk
Quote from: Shadowlord
Is there a word that combines comedy with tragedy and farce?
Heiterverzweiflung. Not a legit German word so much as something a friend and I made up in German class once. "Carefree despair". When life is so fucked that you can't stop laughing.
http://www.collinsdictionary.com
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