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Here's a realistic look at what an all-out nuclear war in 1988 might have been like: http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/nuclearwar1.html http://www.johnsto

Here's a realistic look at what an all-out nuclear war in 1988 might have been like: http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/nuclearwar1.html http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/nuclearwar1.html Spoiler alert: about four fifths of Americans end up dead, and about one third of all humans on Earth. The survivors contend with famine and plague on a scale never before seen. Most of the world's industrial capacity is destroyed. I find it fairly easy to distinguish that scenario from the world we live in, personally.

mlindner 9y ago
That's pretty fake and assumes a lot of capabilities the USSR never had. Satellite mounted nuclear weapons, anti-ICBM missiles, ground to space lasers, "killer satellites", etc never existed. I think the writer enjoys pro-USSR fantasies.
- smacktoward 9y ago
  > Satellite mounted nuclear weapons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_Orbital_Bombardment_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_Orbital_Bombardment... > anti-ICBM missiles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-35_anti-ballistic_missile_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-35_anti-ballistic_missile_sy... > ground to space lasers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra-3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra-3 > "killer satellites" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istrebitel_Sputnik https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istrebitel_Sputnik
- mikeash 9y ago
  The Soviets had and the Russians still have anti-ICBM missiles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-35_anti-ballistic_missile_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-35_anti-ballistic_missile_sy... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-135_anti-ballistic_missile_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-135_anti-ballistic_missile_s... Killer satellites were developed starting in the 60s and deployed operationally in 1991. It seems reasonable to think that some pre-operational capability might have existed in 1988: http://www.russianspaceweb.com/is.html http://www.russianspaceweb.com/is.html I'm not sure where the nuke satellites and lasers came from. When it comes to answering the question of "what would a post-war world look like?" the only significant system out of these is the nuke satellites causing an EMP. That could (and probably would) have been just as easily done with standard ICBMs so I don't think it changes the answer very much.

mlindner 9y ago

That's pretty fake and assumes a lot of capabilities the USSR never had. Satellite mounted nuclear weapons, anti-ICBM missiles, ground to space lasers, "killer satellites", etc never existed. I think the writer enjoys pro-USSR fantasies.

smacktoward 9y ago
> Satellite mounted nuclear weapons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_Orbital_Bombardment_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_Orbital_Bombardment... > anti-ICBM missiles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-35_anti-ballistic_missile_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-35_anti-ballistic_missile_sy... > ground to space lasers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra-3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra-3 > "killer satellites" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istrebitel_Sputnik https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istrebitel_Sputnik
mikeash 9y ago
The Soviets had and the Russians still have anti-ICBM missiles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-35_anti-ballistic_missile_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-35_anti-ballistic_missile_sy... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-135_anti-ballistic_missile_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-135_anti-ballistic_missile_s... Killer satellites were developed starting in the 60s and deployed operationally in 1991. It seems reasonable to think that some pre-operational capability might have existed in 1988: http://www.russianspaceweb.com/is.html http://www.russianspaceweb.com/is.html I'm not sure where the nuke satellites and lasers came from. When it comes to answering the question of "what would a post-war world look like?" the only significant system out of these is the nuke satellites causing an EMP. That could (and probably would) have been just as easily done with standard ICBMs so I don't think it changes the answer very much.