4 ms·
> The Germans had a two-year head-start, but according to Koeth, "fierce competition over finite resources, bitter interpersonal rivalries, and ineffectual scie
by exdsq 5y ago
> The Germans had a two-year head-start, but according to Koeth, "fierce competition over finite resources, bitter interpersonal rivalries, and ineffectual scientific management" resulted in significant delays in their progress toward achieving a sustained nuclear reaction.
I wonder who'd win nowadays if the superpowers were to race for Super Weapon v2.
- officialjunk 5y agohttps://ourworldindata.org/grapher/military-expenditure-by-country-in-thousands-of-2000-us-dollars https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/military-expenditure-by-c... i would expect it to be correlated with military spending
- rShergold 5y agoI would presume the ideal super weapon would be a lethal airborne virus that only you had the vaccination for. It would decimate your enemy but leave all their infrastructure intact. It wouldn't be too expensive to achieve. You would just need to find an existing virus and conduct gain of function research to make it more transmissible and more lethal.
- bserge 5y agoMost of the countries that could develop and deploy such a bioweapon would need the labour as much as the infrastructure.
- zafka 5y agoPretty to think so--- supposing their AI/ML research was so limited that the were not planning automated manufacturing facilities.
- StevePerkins 5y agoIdeal if you could get most of your population to actually take the vaccine…
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- doliveira 5y agoThat can backfire pretty quickly, though. Viruses evolve, no vaccine is 100% effective, etc...
- rsfern 5y agoWell I hope we don’t soon find out. The current arms race is in hypersonic missile tech. https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/slowing-hypersonic-arms-race https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/slowing-hypersonic-arms-rac...