Super Weapons

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  • Опубліковано 15 кві 2023
  • Our history has been one of inventing ever more devastating and unstoppable weapons, and yet they may pale in comparison to those made to wreck whole galaxies or tear asunder reality itself.
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    Credits:
    Super Weapons
    Episode 390a, April 16, 2023
    Produced, Written & Narrated by:
    Isaac Arthur
    Editors:
    Briana Brownell
    David McFarlane
    Graphics by:
    Darth Biomech
    Jeremy Jozwik
    Ken York
    LegionTech Studios
    Udo Schroeter
    Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound epidemicsound.com/creator
  • Наука та технологія

КОМЕНТАРІ • 497

  • @ThirdCydonian
    @ThirdCydonian Рік тому +340

    The first rule of warfare: make sure quality control double checks your super weapon for pesky little exhaust ports leading straight to the reactor.

    • @jimmywrangles
      @jimmywrangles Рік тому +29

      At least make the exhaust port smaller than a Womp Rat.

    • @AFMR0420
      @AFMR0420 Рік тому +22

      It was never a bug, it was a feature. Just in case you lost control of your super weapon, make it easily disarmable.

    • @mariovwcardoso5970
      @mariovwcardoso5970 Рік тому +2

      Underrated comment

    • @fabulamcafee
      @fabulamcafee Рік тому +5

      you all underestimate how little this exhausting vent is but a few grids along the way would have been a cheap method

    • @nimbusnation9584
      @nimbusnation9584 Рік тому

      😂😂😂😂 Bloody good one mate 😂😂😂

  • @bitbucketcynic
    @bitbucketcynic Рік тому +345

    Stellaris has a doomsday device that causes every star in the galaxy to simultaneously go supernova. Activating it instantly wins the game for you. Everyone else will try very hard to stop you.

    • @AFMR0420
      @AFMR0420 Рік тому +33

      Way before stellaris, Spaceward Ho! Has an armageddon feature that the player can choose to set off that destroys half the stars in the galaxy. No one can stop you from using it. If you don’t like the results or even survive you can use it again and again until you are no more.

    • @AtlasReburdened
      @AtlasReburdened Рік тому +17

      Isn't this featured in one of the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy sequels?

    • @barryon8706
      @barryon8706 Рік тому +54

      Stellaris sounds like it has a very broad definition of winning. 😀

    • @avi8aviate
      @avi8aviate Рік тому +31

      @@barryon8706 That's just one of the ways you can win in Stellaris. In this case, it's the ending if you become the crisis.

    • @andyf4292
      @andyf4292 Рік тому +7

      ah the Kriket device

  • @fencserx9423
    @fencserx9423 Рік тому +145

    This channel is like an old friend you love. It doesn’t matter if you don’t check in for awhile, when you see them, they’ll make your day

    • @djschultz1970
      @djschultz1970 Рік тому +5

      Make your day. Or try to utterly destroy your entire multiverse timeline with a temporal doomsday weapon!

  • @cannonfodder4376
    @cannonfodder4376 Рік тому +185

    Ah my monthly Sci-Fi Sunday episode and a side of First Rule of Warfare.
    22:29 "Afterall a simple stone arrowhead teleported into your supreme leaders head works wonders for changing his mind." 😂😂😂
    Informative as always Isaac.

    • @Deridus
      @Deridus Рік тому +4

      Thank you for the time stamp! Once again, he drops some serious gems.

    • @DogFoxHybrid
      @DogFoxHybrid Рік тому +4

      Since we're talking advanced technology, what's to say the Supreme Leader isn't some posthuman entity made of nano machines that'd simply expell the arrowhead and repair its head in seconds like a T1000?

    • @singletona082
      @singletona082 Рік тому +6

      @@DogFoxHybrid That may be why it's stone. This was essentially a warning shot. 'That time it was a simple piece of flint. Next time it might be a disassembly virus, or an EMP generator that affects an area roughly the size of a basketball, or the arrowhead is made of anti-matter. So do please return to the negociation table. We dislike being this dramatic about making our point.'

    • @ShadeSlayer1911
      @ShadeSlayer1911 Рік тому +3

      Ah, another reminder of the power of teleportation.

    • @ShadeSlayer1911
      @ShadeSlayer1911 Рік тому +2

      @@DogFoxHybrid Or a being who doesn't even care that one of his 10 quintillion bodies was killed.

  • @jakec9522
    @jakec9522 Рік тому +60

    "There's no such thing as overkill."
    "If brute force isn't working, you're not using enough of it."
    Words to live by, Mr. Arthur. 😊

  • @eddieford9373
    @eddieford9373 10 місяців тому +11

    How come no one talks about mega-maid from spaceballs?
    The ability to remove the atmosphere from a planet would be a devastating weapon.

  • @thegooddoctor2009
    @thegooddoctor2009 Рік тому +91

    "Listen I'm not a genocidal maniac, I just need to eliminate a few pops to cut down on lag"
    Every late game Stellaris player

    • @C0wsmacker
      @C0wsmacker Рік тому +19

      Even my beefy CPU can only allow so much coexistence, and still absolutely no xenophilia

    • @bad_covfefe
      @bad_covfefe Рік тому +5

      -Thanos, basically

    • @exginto8053
      @exginto8053 Рік тому +5

      *machine god plays in background*

    • @bitbucketcynic
      @bitbucketcynic Рік тому +2

      [aetherophasic engine intensifies]

    • @killman369547
      @killman369547 Рік тому +3

      *Revs up the stellar systemcraft*

  • @yorkyone2143
    @yorkyone2143 Рік тому +21

    Never forget the unprovoked attack on Alderaan

    • @We4zier
      @We4zier Рік тому

      I think you mean, unprovoked attack from Alderaan. It never happened, Alderaan was an inside job, the empire did nothing wrong, the Alderaanians deserved it.

    • @Nethan2000
      @Nethan2000 Рік тому +4

      The Empire was provoked by the naked expansionism of the Rebel Alliance and had to act to defend itself from impending aggression.

    • @NaatClark
      @NaatClark Рік тому +3

      Unprovoked? Someone didn't see Rogue One. The Princess of the planet was actively engaged in an assault against the Empire, got caught like 5 minutes later and used the classic Shaggy defense of "Wasn't me" to the man who literally watcher her fly off. The Royal Representative of the planet was literally engaged in spying and terrorism.

    • @boobah5643
      @boobah5643 Рік тому +1

      @@NaatClark There's a difference between 'this government official did something' and 'this planet's population did something.' _And_ Alderaan is ruled by an aristocracy, and Leia isn't even the head of her own House.

    • @deker0954
      @deker0954 Рік тому +1

      The Empire was right. They offered order and the common man was allowed to order his affairs and defend himself with personal weapons as he saw fit. The rebellion was a hobby of the incompetent wealthy.

  • @peterallen5575
    @peterallen5575 Рік тому +18

    I had a kinda horrifying idea for a dark energy bomb, which would suddenly accelerate Hubble expansion in a volume by many orders of magnitude, disintegrating all matter within its radius.

    • @virutech32
      @virutech32 Рік тому +3

      A scaled back version might be able to isolate dangerous entities without killing them. It's nice to have a range of options rather than just kill everyone. It's not very useful as an actual weapon of war if everyone knows u can't use it without committing suicide(works fine as a deterrent).
      cool concept though as far as stupendously overkill superweapons go

    • @thek2despot426
      @thek2despot426 Рік тому +3

      Basically a Shatterbomb from Orion's Arm.

  • @jamesamos6565
    @jamesamos6565 Рік тому +5

    Finally, a video explaining how Ican purge the unclean.

    • @jessebullard7880
      @jessebullard7880 Рік тому

      BURN THE HERETIC, KILL THE MUTANT, PURGE THE UNCLEAN!!- some new astartes getting pumped for training exercises

  • @Naomi.Robertson
    @Naomi.Robertson Рік тому +60

    A new ironic series Sunday Super Weapons.

    • @nyrdybyrd1702
      @nyrdybyrd1702 Рік тому +3

      Please pardon my pressing but in what way would such be "ironic"?

    • @AFMR0420
      @AFMR0420 Рік тому +6

      Can we get an episode about 1000 decibel sound destroying reality?

    • @overdoseproductions9011
      @overdoseproductions9011 Рік тому +2

      Domingo armas de superior

    • @yourbuddyunit
      @yourbuddyunit Рік тому +2

      Ironic or not, I think I may need that in my life. Sounds fkn great I'm in!

    • @radiantsquare007jrdeluxe9
      @radiantsquare007jrdeluxe9 Рік тому +1

      @@nyrdybyrd1702 everything

  • @newtypealpha
    @newtypealpha Рік тому +4

    I've found it a little ironic how one of the very earliest depictions of an O'Neil cylinder in science fiction ALSO also includes -- like 30 seconds later -- the very first depiction of a Colony Drop.
    Never forget: any spaceship, no matter how large, is just a badly designed missile with air conditioning.

  • @davidroddini1512
    @davidroddini1512 Рік тому +55

    Oh wow! I’ve always wondered about earth size/mass moons and what sort of conditions would be required for them to be habitable for modern earth life. And Isaac is releasing an episode on just that very subject *on my birthday*!
    Greatest birthday gift ever! I can’t wait!

    • @isaacarthurSFIA
      @isaacarthurSFIA  Рік тому +18

      Happy early birthday David :)

    • @spencervance8484
      @spencervance8484 Рік тому +3

      Happy birthday

    • @Deridus
      @Deridus Рік тому +1

      Cheers!

    • @davidroddini1512
      @davidroddini1512 Рік тому

      Thanks to everyone for the early birthday wishes.

    • @shaftomite007
      @shaftomite007 Рік тому +1

      ​@@davidroddini1512 Happy Birthday to my fellow brother from the Taurean Reconnaissance Force. Commander Arthur will grant us both a 3 day birthday leave but due to anomalies inherent in FTL travel, we've already enjoyed the party in a parallel timeline even though after we jumped out of warp we realized it hasn't happened yet.

  • @Wertsir
    @Wertsir Рік тому +9

    Samantha Carter once blew up a star (and the fleet surrounding it) by dropping an active Stargate in it, causing the sun to go supernova. For a brief moment she as an individual person achieved Kardeshev II, harnessing the entire output of a star as a weapon against her enemies.

  • @arcdecibel9986
    @arcdecibel9986 Рік тому +24

    Some of those superweapons are absolutely M.A.D., but I think my favorite is the Berserker Swarm. Why fight the enemy when you can just take them apart and build them into more useful stuff?

  • @cholten99
    @cholten99 Рік тому +8

    The one that always sticks in my mind is at the end of E. E. Smith's "Skylark DuQuesne" where the "heroes" caused millions of suns, each being orbited by a planet where the "bad species" has evolved, to go nova because they were "irredeemable". Oh, and of course the end of Greg Bear's "Anvil of Stars" still haunts me to this day.

  • @patroclusilliad233
    @patroclusilliad233 Рік тому +7

    Turning off EM forces holding matter together, is what Davros tried to do with his reality bomb. As a super weapon it reallly illustrates a lot of your points, because they had to get a 'planet engine' using several specific worlds plucked form time and space, so their gravity fields create an energy source to power the whole damn thing.
    There's an idea, out of the box sources of energy.

  • @libertyjones1451
    @libertyjones1451 Рік тому +15

    There are super weapons and then there are super content creators. Issac is the later.

  • @bryfunkenstein
    @bryfunkenstein Рік тому +27

    It's funny that you have mentioned gundam before on your space habitat videos....but you didn't mention the fact that one of the biggest atrocities in the series was one side of the war dropping an O'Neil cylinder on earth and craving a very big crater where Sydney Australia was along with a lot of other damage. In UC gundam they stayed dropping colonies with varied effects

    • @boobah5643
      @boobah5643 Рік тому +9

      It's one of the series trademarks. Just about every iteration has a special, unique Gundam for the pilot protagonist, a rival with a mask (initially) and a red robot, and some ungodly large space structure thrown at the planet.

    • @TARDISES
      @TARDISES Рік тому

      And then there's Gundam X, where the *series backstory* features hundreds of colonies getting dropped, to the point that society basically collapsed.

    • @gabrote42
      @gabrote42 6 місяців тому

      It's the archetypal Colony Drop example

  • @kigas24
    @kigas24 Рік тому +5

    Colony drops are a big trope in Mobile Suit Gundam as well. Probably the most famous franchise to use it, surprised to not see it here.

  • @SenorGato237
    @SenorGato237 9 місяців тому +1

    In the Wing Commander series, the Kilrathi (the baddies) developed a super weapon ship that would increase the gravity constant on a target planet for a partial second.

  • @DavidEvans_dle
    @DavidEvans_dle Рік тому +5

    The secret doomsday weapon, is best line in Dr.Strange Love.

  • @SpecialEDy
    @SpecialEDy Рік тому +6

    Happy G-Type Main-Sequence Star Day! If you have your finger over the button of a Super Weapon, I hope you can hold off long enough to grab a snack, sit down, and enjoy this video!

  • @achtsekundenfurz7876
    @achtsekundenfurz7876 Рік тому +2

    USSC (United Spacefaring Species Council) member: "There are many ways to measure how advanced a species is: their architecture, art, philosophy, technology, weapons..."
    Somebody in the audience: "Weapons? Surely, nobody would concentrate all their efforts on advancing those..."
    Human just behind him: "And that's where you're wrong, buddy."

    • @harbl99
      @harbl99 Рік тому

      "I'm voting against activation of both _Project Streetlights_ and _Project Neighborhood_ . Planet crackers and nova weapons, fine; but weaponizing Sesame Street _and_ Mr Rogers is just beyond the pale!" -- from the _Behold Humanity_ series

  • @jamescarlson4605
    @jamescarlson4605 Рік тому +11

    The Goths from The Expanse are a good example of what can happen when a civilization taps another universe for power. Good episode!

    • @alienhoboszombies
      @alienhoboszombies Рік тому +4

      And a good example of a unconventional super weapon *(SPOILERS)* since their attacks consisted of turning off/disrupting consciousness for a localized space, not blowing anything up

  • @piotrd.4850
    @piotrd.4850 Рік тому +2

    Some crazy ideas:
    1. piece of 'neutronium' extracted from neutron star and close to 'c' - to slow down it's natural detonation in relation to target
    2. again small blackhole of precisely calculated mass and speed so it does 'airburst' of hawking radiation above hostile planet
    3. fling brown dwarf to destabilize orbits and catapult target planet as rouge
    4. aim quasar jet onto something
    5. I loved Starcarrier ur-Shaddar approach: fling star huge star through Black Rosette - spacetime gateway created from collapsed 6 blue supergiants
    6. 18:40 - nah, it was also used in Stargate ( improvised ), Andromeda ( Nova bombs - using dark energy to temporarily negate gravity within star ) and to extend Galactic Corps ( small starship called Trigger though the star under warp drive )
    7. anything that messes with Higgs field - dictates mass, mass dictates chemistry -> express option to turn everything to green goo; or strong nuclear force

  • @frankreynolds445
    @frankreynolds445 Рік тому +1

    A common super weapon would be a Atomic mass conversion device. Such a device can be the size of a base ball. Once it hits a planet it can convert it into anything the user wants. It requires no destructive power. Quick, quiet and gives you a planet that is turned into a extension of your civilization.

  • @thentil
    @thentil Рік тому +2

    Man what a plethora of ways to destroy everything. 😮😮

  • @davidkleinman5002
    @davidkleinman5002 Рік тому +2

    No tech yet can beat a real human mind. Nothing more devious or deceptive.

  • @miguelespinosa80
    @miguelespinosa80 Рік тому +3

    Some (many) years ago, I read an article about the concept of "novaing". Basically, if you enriched the deep atmosphere of a gas giant with deuterium and detonated one (or many) nuclear warheads, you would cause a chain reaction that would sterilize everything up to the Kuiper belt.

  • @SpecialEDy
    @SpecialEDy Рік тому +3

    A fission bomb big enough to strip a planet of life, even if it's mostly fusion boosted, would surely be quite noticeable for vast distances across the universe

    • @TS-jm7jm
      @TS-jm7jm Рік тому

      hard disagree, thats an insignificant of power at interstellar scales, noticeable for thousands of lightyears sure, but... well .. the universe is billions of lightyears wide, and our galaxy is at least 120 thousand lightyears, we routine observe some binary star systems which output way more power than that when one is a white dwarf or neutron star and siphons off enough mass to have say a kilonova, so whilst detectable compared to background, it's not particularly a standout feature.

    • @SpecialEDy
      @SpecialEDy Рік тому

      @T S Well yes, the light won't be bright relatively speaking. But the gamma rays and plutonium/uranium emission spectrum would outshine the galaxy?

    • @TS-jm7jm
      @TS-jm7jm Рік тому

      @@SpecialEDy it really wouldn't, that power out put is nothing compared to what gets routinely dumped out even relatively far from the galactic core, nevermind that the galactic core dumps orders of magnitude more power out than that on a second by second basis, the emission spectrum of such a nuclear detonation should predominate in gamma rays and x rays because most of it will not be absorbed and just spread out in a sphere as such, and this is not really distinguishable from what leaves the core, except to be orders of magnitude weaker,
      now sure, its it a noticable pulse, yes ive already said that, but in terms of energetic cosmic event, it really doesnt rank high.

  • @wk8219
    @wk8219 Рік тому +1

    Every time you say, “Send in the murder bots“ I hear it in my head to the tune of song Send in the Clowns. Which means I picture the sad ironic twist at the end of the song, “Send in the murder bots… They’re already here“ sung by one lonely remaining murder bot from the last invasion.

  • @quentinking4351
    @quentinking4351 Рік тому +3

    Dresden Files was not a reference I was expecting here, but it was appropriate.

  • @fsmoura
    @fsmoura Рік тому +2

    16:37 _". . . Skinny Black Metal Mega-Bullet"_
    good name for a band! \m/

  • @TheVoiceOfReason93
    @TheVoiceOfReason93 Рік тому +1

    Regarding super-nukes, Teller (of the Teller-Ulam hydrogen bomb design) had noted any sufficiently large bomb wouldn't need to be on target to achieve desired effect of annihilating the enemy. Of course, in his case he was conceiving of 10,000 megaton doomsday bombs which could level New England, Germany or the Korean peninsula in one blast and blanketing the planet in apocalyptic-levels of fallout.The sort you use to either deter the enemy from using their doomsday devices or take them with you if you are about to lose.

  • @hudsonlicyayo6791
    @hudsonlicyayo6791 Рік тому +4

    I first heard about dropping a colony on a planet in Mobile Suit Gundam (1979).

  • @AnimeShinigami13
    @AnimeShinigami13 Рік тому +6

    Don't forget the "Bring down the sky" DLC for Mass Effect 1, your favorite! As for ZPMs, (gonna steal the stargate term), I like to think of the Markers in Deadspace as ZPMs from hell. But one of the more confounding superweapon uses in gaming is in resident evil. The continued tolerance of the rest of the world to Umbrella's making bioweapons. Even if the general public doesn't know, governments have GOT to know what Umbrella Corps was doing under Racoon City. I don't get why Resident Evil didn't devolve into a war of the whole world versus Umbrella. I also don't get why the writers of Resident Evil never went into the non weapon related things Umbrella made, even the non weapon related things involved in war. Supposedly they're a Pharmacutical company that's highly regarded, so why don't they have the retail and commercial presence on the ground in Racoon City to show it.
    Moving back to the real world, I love using the following string of reasoning to disprove Marjorie Taylor Greene's Jewish space laser conspiracy theory;
    1. Something of that size is not the sort of thing you can build quietly. It would be visible to EVERYONE in the sky while it was being built. Anyone with a backyard amateur telescope or a pair of binoculars could potentially spot it.
    2. The Rothschilds are bankers, if bankers destroy large swaths of wilderness, they're not really gaining anything by doing so. You could imagine doing that to a small town or a neighborhood if you were really evil, and then blaming it on wildfires so that you can sell loans and insurance to the people there later. But there's no direct gain by doing so. You would have to work to recoup that loss and its not gueranteed.
    3. If you really want to make money with a space laser, its in pushing spacecraft, not in setting virgin wilderness on fire. If you were the Rothschilds and you had a space laser, you'd be working with Elon Musk to sell tickets to the outer solar system to prospect for precious metals and set up colonies, then having people, governments and businesses pay for the privelage. But that's not what we see. We see massive wildfires, the kind that are easier to start with a careless use of pyrotechnics during a gender reveal party than with a space laser.

  • @kevinlane1219
    @kevinlane1219 Рік тому +1

    I would like to type on behalf of Ambassador Alexei de Sadeski (played by Peter Bull) from the movie, Dr. Strangelove. He responded to the question with "It was to be announced at the Party Congress on Monday. As you know, the Premier loves surprises."

  • @SuperShadowKinTwitch
    @SuperShadowKinTwitch Рік тому +2

    Captain, we killed all our enemies.
    Not enough. Go back in time and kill them again.

  • @Reddotzebra
    @Reddotzebra Рік тому +1

    "It's a reminder that subtle and clever use of force can be better than raw might."
    Yes, and on the other hand we have the "Disassemble a gas giant and several planets to create a gravity manipulator megastructure and then use it to destabilize the local star in such a way that it turns into the stellar equivalent of a flamethrower"...

  • @Obiwan7100
    @Obiwan7100 Рік тому +7

    Palpatine has entered in the chat.

  • @Datan0de
    @Datan0de Рік тому +2

    Love that you referenced "The Gods Themselves" the moment I thought of it applying to what you were saying about harnessing other universes for energy.

  • @the_sage_of_dragons1881
    @the_sage_of_dragons1881 Рік тому +13

    NOTIFICATION GANG!!!

  • @aserta
    @aserta Рік тому +1

    Everyone forgets Stargate. A solar system here and there, doomed a few planets to slow death by black hole...

  • @jayboydakid8299
    @jayboydakid8299 Рік тому

    I came home from work frustrated today . Sitting in traffic didn’t help either- but I finally got home - showered n made dinner n played call of duty. Once bedtime was approaching I turn on my utube channel and click on Issac Arthur. So many episodes I miss🤦🏾‍♂️damn but I be busy. But this 1 I watched and really enjoyed!! Thanks Issac !!
    I luv SciFi !!

  • @trebacca9
    @trebacca9 Рік тому +2

    I mean, taking the whole 'MIRV'd nukes' idea to a logical maximum, let's look at antimatter. Let's assume you want to uniformly blanket an entire planet in nuclear fire, say, 1.7kt per square kilometer. About 40mg of antimatter would do that. You can probably fit a containment system, guidance, and reentry package into a 100-gram dart, each containing that 40mg. That totals up to about 20 tons of antimatter to uniformly toast an Earthlike world, and about 51,000 tons of delivery systems. Divide that across a fleet, and it's entirely conceivable that a fleet of, say, 500 small warships is more than capable of delivering Exterminatus to any world they choose, without even making too big a dent in their mass budget.

  • @hovant6666
    @hovant6666 Рік тому

    18:34 Also, 'Look to Windward' by the late Iain M. Banks, in which the events of the plotline lead up to a memorial of the Culture supernova-ing an Idiran star

  • @tomasavendanozacarias5205
    @tomasavendanozacarias5205 Рік тому +4

    interesting how you mentioned the concept of colony dropping but you didnt mention moble suit gundam, one of the first (and probably the most well known) cases of colony drops in popular media.

  • @BriarLeaf00
    @BriarLeaf00 Рік тому

    1:30 that armored dude is strokin that gun like the sun's about to go supernova.

  • @budwhite9591
    @budwhite9591 Рік тому +1

    Pulling the power cord on the computer running our simulation

  • @FreedomisSuccess
    @FreedomisSuccess Рік тому +2

    Thank you for your hard work issac ❤

  • @lvl10cooking
    @lvl10cooking Рік тому +1

    Strange Matter bombs and False/True vacuum bombs are terrifying.

  • @flurfdawg6611
    @flurfdawg6611 Рік тому +1

    Maybe the real super weapon is the friends we made along the way.

  • @ErinsAaron
    @ErinsAaron Рік тому

    Thank you for all your incredible content.

  • @markchristiansen5683
    @markchristiansen5683 Рік тому +1

    "Relativistic Kill Cloud" is a great name for a metal band.

  • @norielgames4765
    @norielgames4765 Рік тому +1

    "Teleporting an arrow to your supreme leader's brain works wonders to change their mind."
    - Isaac Arthur, 2023

  • @RavishingSailor
    @RavishingSailor Рік тому

    Yet another amazing video. Pure quality

  • @timogul
    @timogul Рік тому +2

    I would think that if you are powering a volley of missiles using a laser, and you want them to all hit at slightly different times, the most efficient way to do that would be to stack them all together in a bundle, then accelerate that bundle all to the minimum speed you want one of them to be, and then that one would detach from the front of the pack and move itself just slightly out of the way, while the beam pushes the rest a bit faster, and then the second one splits off, and so on, until only one is left accelerating.

  • @petermcconnell9925
    @petermcconnell9925 8 місяців тому

    I love that every rule of warfare is the "1st rule of warfare."

  • @isaacbourdeau3167
    @isaacbourdeau3167 Рік тому +1

    The Spitting Cobra in House of Suns was a good way of having an ftl like technology without violating causality

  • @SecularMentat
    @SecularMentat Рік тому

    Ryk Brown in his frontiers saga loves using "kinetic kill vehicles" to strike large capital ships in surprise attacks.

  • @chrisyoung9653
    @chrisyoung9653 Рік тому +1

    cant get enough of this mas videos

  • @armandoperez4535
    @armandoperez4535 Рік тому +3

    Dual vector foil from Three Body is the most terrifying for me

    • @jennyanydots2389
      @jennyanydots2389 Рік тому

      The Thom Brady probem is far more terrifying Amanda. Maybe if you weren't out there chugging dong all night you'd know that Amanda.

    • @NaatClark
      @NaatClark Рік тому

      @@jennyanydots2389 Who's this Thom fella? Were you too busy chugging dong all night to use the correct spelling Jenny?

  • @arcticfox5118
    @arcticfox5118 11 місяців тому +2

    One fact of superweapons that was missed imo but has likely been covered is the fear factor being just so much more then a "normal" weapon.
    Sure yeeting a few asteroids at a planet or a handful of RKMs will do the job for pennys on the dollar. But a sphere of anti-uranium the size of a moon that is set off nuke style and absolutely vaporizes not just the planet but the entire solar system while you televise it to your enemys survivors or your other enemys is one HELL of a message.
    And sometimes a message is far more valuable then a million cheaper weapons. I mean see the U.S nukeing japan as a perfect case in point. If we had stormed the island the casualtys could have been many thousands of times worse then the bombs caused. At least from our PoV. Im sure japan would argue otherwise, but the then "super weapon" had the intended result and more or less ended the war on that front by scareing the piss out of them in essence.
    Crimson worlds series had that as a weapon in it. And while wasteful i know i as a human would be scared shitless of the tentacle monsters of grixnax broadcasted that thing going off to us just before the super nova lit off in our skys and said you belong to us now. It would take the fight out of us before a shot was fired at least short term.
    Long term its going to have an extremely high chance to ensure everyone and their little dogs too look for the first chance to burry a knife in your back and off your race asap out of fear they are next.

  • @AleksandrPodyachev
    @AleksandrPodyachev Рік тому +2

    Can a nuke be powerful enough to start a nitrogen-nitrogen fusion reaction with the nitrogen in the atmosphere?

    • @isuckatusernames4297
      @isuckatusernames4297 Рік тому

      iirc that was the original worry of the ppl that made the first nuke. so safe to say, not happening

    • @flashraylaser157
      @flashraylaser157 Рік тому

      @@isuckatusernames4297 Robert Oppenheimer, Edward Teller, and many other scientists were incredibly worried about it. Their calculations suggested that it was virtually impossible but there was still serious fear because it would be the end of humanity if they were wrong.
      If I recall, the most terrifying part is that it later turned out there were, indeed, some slight errors in the initial calculations, just luckily not any that led to doom.

  • @darianstjohn5779
    @darianstjohn5779 Рік тому +1

    Another epic video, perfect addition to a good Sunday afternoon

  • @markomalmi7989
    @markomalmi7989 Рік тому +2

    I just started the episode but can already tell it's going to be a.. banger.

  • @martinleopard193
    @martinleopard193 Рік тому

    Stargate has some nice uses supernovae to blow up stuff. Also crushing planets into black holes. Great video!

  • @fsmoura
    @fsmoura Рік тому +1

    17:30 _"...Brutal Relativistic Kill Rain"_
    another great band name!! \m/

  • @aceundead4750
    @aceundead4750 Рік тому +1

    The biggest risk of a superweapon is the saying, "what doesnt kill me only serves to make me stronger." Long as enough people survive with the right skills, and want either to protect against that, or get revenge with multiplied or exponential force is a very real threat.

    • @nastykerb34
      @nastykerb34 Рік тому

      the first rule of war : nothing is overkill

  • @dizzious
    @dizzious Рік тому

    Nice! Dropped just in time for my Sunday afternoon project

  • @quantumfoam539
    @quantumfoam539 Рік тому +2

    First Rule of Warfare:
    Never die first.

  • @WolfeSaber9933
    @WolfeSaber9933 Рік тому +3

    For the asteroid attack, in the Expanse Macro used stealth composites and complex orbital paths to attack Earth.

    • @bitharne
      @bitharne Рік тому

      In the books (a MUCH better version of the attack) he used Tungsten Rods in, exactly, the way Isaac described at about 15/16 minutes in. It also killed billions not just a few million like the show 🙄

    • @WolfeSaber9933
      @WolfeSaber9933 Рік тому

      @@bitharne Where the rods coated with stealth composites? I haven't read the book, but how did Marco get the rods? You need to machine them, especially since they were made of tungsten. Besides, how did Earth defend itself from such an attack to even remotely survive?

  • @alecksonnyamwayavlogs6803
    @alecksonnyamwayavlogs6803 Рік тому +12

    I've been watching since 2015. I'm a creationist but some of the concepts you cover I agree with and even enjoy the ones I don't. Either way you're a great person and it's so encouraging to see someone do what they love

    • @gavinrush4995
      @gavinrush4995 Рік тому

      After listening to science based content, do you ever question the literal narrative of creationism? Good for you that you consume media outside of your chosen dogma!!

    • @808bigisland
      @808bigisland Рік тому

      You are thus not a creationist but share their scizophrenia religiosa. Massdelusion is the base of the grift. It’s only a grift. Good luck on your path to enlightment and education is your ticket.

    • @alecksonnyamwayavlogs6803
      @alecksonnyamwayavlogs6803 Рік тому +2

      @@gavinrush4995 concepts like black holes dark matter larger starts help me understand the sheer power of the creator of the universe. It puts into context the level of power and energy needed to even make just a sun let alone a galaxy.

    • @alecksonnyamwayavlogs6803
      @alecksonnyamwayavlogs6803 Рік тому +2

      @@gavinrush4995 no not question but solidify it. So while the literal says "God said let there be light" and I consider what I learned about light and the sun. It just makes me ponder about the scientific profess after he spoke.

    • @saucevc8353
      @saucevc8353 8 місяців тому

      Creationist in the sense that you just believe God created the universe, or Creationist in the sense that you think the world is 6000 years old? Because one is faith, and the other contradicts everything we've discovered about the universe.

  • @ehpilgrim
    @ehpilgrim 8 місяців тому

    How big and sophisticated their weapons are for how small they can make those weapons and still be useful

  • @rmeddy
    @rmeddy Рік тому +2

    I thought you would've mentioned that episode of SG-1 where Sam supernova;d a star with the gate sent to an adress with the blackhole.
    Also the dimensional weapons in the Liu Cixin's Remembrance of Earth's Past

  • @Reddotzebra
    @Reddotzebra Рік тому +1

    It's been many years since I read the Dresden Files but wasn't it an isolated mega mansion full of vampires that he pulled the satellite down on?
    And yes, that was done by a single spellcaster, again showcasing that the "killing curse" style spells are woefully unimaginative. The guy in question was powerful enough to do a satellite drop with just their universe's version of Accio.

    • @barryon8706
      @barryon8706 Рік тому

      It was a mansion or fortress or such, but there were humans killed, with in-series blowback due to the rules about killing humans with magic.

  • @grapy83
    @grapy83 Рік тому

    amazing episode! Loved it

  • @jaredleemease
    @jaredleemease Рік тому

    Thank you Isaac.

  • @bryanshoemaker6120
    @bryanshoemaker6120 Рік тому +1

    Everytime I think about Nanobots used for a weapon I imagine entire solar system turned into paper clips. Some paper clips as big as the width of Earth. Others the size of cars.

  • @djschultz1970
    @djschultz1970 Рік тому

    YM: "At what time should we launch Time Bomb Capt'n?"
    CPT: "Doesn't matter Yeoman! It Obviously didn't [isn't going to] work this time."

  • @donutrock2132
    @donutrock2132 Рік тому +1

    I enjoyed this video. Great and good.

  • @sixtenwidlund4258
    @sixtenwidlund4258 Рік тому +1

    This is going to be fun!

  • @WarGiver
    @WarGiver Рік тому +4

    In the anime Series Gundam X it takes place AFTER an O'Neil Cylinder was dropped on the planet, and in Gundam SEED Destiny a chunk of Space Colony' well wreckage crashed into Earth, it was destroyed on the way down but there was still massive destruction. While the Sci-Fi elements are a tad leaning towards the fantastic (Given giant combat human piloted Robots) it still is within the subject, Gundam Wing has the space colony (technically a warship but called a colony to hide its purpose) with a giant super weapon, and in Gundam Seed it has a laser weapon that converts all the energy in a super nuke into a gamma ray beam. Nukes are actually a common weapon in many of the Gundam series do bigger weapons are often the replacement for MAD weapons instead Gundam SEED Nukes overuse is a major plot point. In Gundam SEED they actually consider genetic viruses to kill genetically engineered people.

    • @Reddotzebra
      @Reddotzebra Рік тому +1

      The super weapon that uses a nuke to fire a gamma beam is basically an upgraded version of the bomb-pumped X-ray laser concept.

  • @llongone2
    @llongone2 Рік тому +1

    I like the Interex weapon in Voyager: they could rewind time with it and "erase" their enemies. If we ever encounter hostile aliens, perhaps we won't even notice them...we'll just cease to exist at their whim.

  • @letsgetoutsidenow
    @letsgetoutsidenow Рік тому

    Wait, did you just describe how the nexus space works in "The Expanse" Series, The protomolecule builders found a way to break into another universe filled with energy and put a bubble in there for their nexus space and then sent "seedpods" as gate builders to other systems to connect to the same nexus space. It just so happened that the inhabitants of the universe they put their bubble in were not too happy and started tampering with space time on the other side of the bubble connecting to our universe, the nexus space quarantined itself to try and stop the other universe entities who settled down after the death of the builders till humans came along and started dumping stuff into the other universe whenever the gates exceed mass/energy flow rate.

  • @christiancorralejo8726
    @christiancorralejo8726 Рік тому +6

    I wonder how effective bioweapons would be (ranging from edited viruses/microorganisms to super predators like the White Spikes from The Tomarrow War)?

    • @AFMR0420
      @AFMR0420 Рік тому +1

      Well, if the alien life is cellular in nature then some kind of bio weapon could most likely be found, but if it’s not cellular biology then what? Like what if the creature is pure energy that manipulates other energy? Or even sentient stars or black holes? What if it’s a void entity that only effects sentient creatures through their dreams?

    • @AFMR0420
      @AFMR0420 Рік тому

      Or a quantum AI that takes over the internet and controls people through subliminal, subluminal or other psy-op mind control in real world applications, as well as manipulating world economies, all hidden as an anonymous group of hackers?

    • @christiancorralejo8726
      @christiancorralejo8726 Рік тому

      @@AFMR0420 a lot of what you’re describing is going into hard sci-fi as opposed to grounded science though I imagine the latter super weapons Isaac described would work on those things.

    • @cedriceric9730
      @cedriceric9730 Рік тому

      Very effective

  • @VianniOG
    @VianniOG Рік тому

    Thanks Issac

  • @watcherquek263
    @watcherquek263 Рік тому

    From the Sun Beam and high dimensioned anti matter planets in the Lensman series, to mini blackholes, gravity negation on a planet by mental power in Galactic Milieu to the dimension strike in the Three Body Problem. Lots of methods

  • @thorin1045
    @thorin1045 Рік тому +1

    "how many and how big is their cannons may be not the best one"
    yep, never in the history of ever someone said, look at my rock, spear, sword, cannon, tank, plane, nuke, stealth bomber, i am this advanced compared to you.

  • @zeekfromthecreek
    @zeekfromthecreek Рік тому +1

    I hope you haven't convinced anyone that we shouldn't build O'Neil Cylinders because some fool might drop one on us.

    • @virutech32
      @virutech32 Рік тому +1

      well it's not like we need to build them in LEO or anything

  • @jakekidd6431
    @jakekidd6431 Рік тому +1

    Rifts RPG games breaks this stereotype. The weakest pistols are on par with damage of an RPG 7 to anti-Tank weapon. Without the explosion, of course.

    • @isaacarthurSFIA
      @isaacarthurSFIA  Рік тому

      Rifts was my first tabletop rpg experience, I still have a bunch of old 90s era manuals and rule books :)

  • @mtpender69
    @mtpender69 Рік тому +1

    "We have arrived, and it is now that we preform our charge"

  • @genkibob
    @genkibob Рік тому

    In the opening of the original Gundam, they drop an O'Neill Cylinder on a city during an Earth/Spacian war.

  • @lacie5522
    @lacie5522 Рік тому +2

    Honor Harrington and Harry Dresden name drops, I knew I liked you for a reason.

  • @jkfecke
    @jkfecke Рік тому +1

    Death bots are easy. Just keep sending soldiers at them until they hit their preset kill limit.

    • @virutech32
      @virutech32 Рік тому

      why would you give them a preset kill limit. That's dumb and also it's very difficult to confirm kills on a battlefield. Even more difficult on a battlefield with transhumans.
      Anyways u dont put a kill limit. u tell them to keep firing until the enemy is well & truly dead. Also robots are gunna be cheaper & faster to replace than humans whhile having a far higher K/D ratio

  • @leerv.
    @leerv. Рік тому

    22:29 "a simple stone arrowhead teleported into your supreme leader’s head works wonders for changing his mind."
    Isaac, your dark dad humor was definitely at form here!

  • @BrazilianBikini38
    @BrazilianBikini38 Рік тому +1

    A long time ago it occurred to me that the Soviet Union DID have a doomsday device: the Tzar bomb was a "clean" version of a fusion device, with 97% of its energy coming from fusion. A full scale version, wrapped in uranium (like most fusion weapons) would be about 10 times that yield, 500 mega tons. If they put 6 of these in a pentagram way underground, timrd to go off together, they would have a 3000 megaton groundburst device that would punch a hole in the crust of our planet, and cover the whole world in highly radioactive dust. No need to worry about delivery, detonating this anywhere would do. And nothing about this is even hard.

  • @Minotaur-ey2lg
    @Minotaur-ey2lg Рік тому +2

    Tactical nukes vs. strategic nukes: Do you want an ecological disaster and billions dead or a bigger ecological disaster and more billions dead?

    • @virutech32
      @virutech32 Рік тому

      oh don't be drama queen. A single tactical nuke is not even killing hundreds of millions(though definitely could do dozens of millions) the effect on climate would be negligible, & the ecological effects would be localized & short-lived(as far as non-human habitation is concerned anyways).

    • @Minotaur-ey2lg
      @Minotaur-ey2lg Рік тому

      @@virutech32 I wasn’t thinking of a few. I was thinking about a full scale nuclear war, which would be quite the setback.

  • @seraphina985
    @seraphina985 Рік тому

    One other point in favour of having many smaller bombs over one big one is simply the flexibility, with smaller bombs you can scale the number and dispersion pattern of the devices to the size and resistance of the target. With a huge bomb you can only efficiently deploy it against an extremely large or insanely well hardened target, there is no point firing a 1 Teraton device at a colony on a small asteroid, even if the colony is inside you could excavate your way in to the settlement and blow it with probably just a handful of 1 Megaton devices, and certainly with far less than a million of them. With just a fraction of that firepower you could turn the entire asteroid into a bunch of gas although even that would be overkill blasting every fragment larger than a pebble until no such fragments remain would well and truly do the job too. Only exception perhaps would be if you are afraid of even bacteria surviving the assault but it surely wouldn't be that hard to sterilise fragments that small, basking the whole area around the fragments in gamma rays from nuclear devices or something like a graser should do the trick.