Quote:
Originally Posted by taygone
I agree, they are making lasers capable of taking down missiles and such, but how long until that's really practical and cost effective? I see a Galatica type vessel being up first and maybe have an auxilary laser system, but I don't see projectile weapons going away until then, especially nukes.
|
I agree it's hard to imagine a more efficient way of transferring destructive energy than KE weapons or "slugthrowers", as the sci fi world has termed them. But just because it is hard to imagine doesn't mean it's silly. Can man-portable energy weapons be made feasible today? No. In a hundred years? Heck - I don't even know what a
toothbrush-equivalent is going to look like in a hundred years, let alone something as aggressively developed as weaponry.
Maybe I'm stuck in a late-20th century paradigm, but I think it all depends on energy. If we can get a truly revolutionary energy source-and-storage pairing going, something that not just replaces fossil-fuels and chemical batteries, but that actually eclipses them, then I think a lot of the sci fi-type boundaries will be pushed and pierced.
I mean, any one of us with a basic physics background could
design a plasma-type blaster weapon that would "work", i.e. direct harmful energy at a target. But to make it reality we need metallurgy and the above energy issues to advance a fair amount.
-dale