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If that exists, that user validation is all happening on the BE for Starlink, and while it may go down, there's no reason Starlink (assuming the actual engineer

If that exists, that user validation is all happening on the BE for Starlink, and while it may go down, there's no reason Starlink (assuming the actual engineering team survived in some fashion) wouldn't be able to cut it out of the loop or replace it. I also have no particular reason to think that Russia would use their very limited ICBM stockpile to target data centers rather than military facilities.

dividedbyzero 4y ago
To the best of my knowledge Russia retains hundreds of ICBMs and about a thousand warheads ready to fire at a moment's notice. Unless I've missed a crucial bit of news, I'd expect a majority of these to function as intended, as everything I read on that part of their military suggests they're operating a lot better than their army. In that case, an all-out nuclear war would mean hundreds of warheads raining down on the US with on average larger yields than the US ones to make up for less reliable targeting, and even optimistic projections for that and the effects of US retaliation assume three-digit million deaths right away and at least one growing season lost to nuclear winter. All infrastructure close to major population centers, military installations, ... would be gone, as would be anything susceptible to EMP from high-altitude detonations. I don't see Starlink software engineering and the infrastructure they require to remain operational in such a scenario.
somenameforme 4y ago
I have a reason to think such! The "obvious" target would be things like our nuclear resources, to try to create a win condition. But in most cases this would just be wasting weapons. Those facilities, as well as ones such as where our politicians will go hide while society dies for their decisions, are designed to withstand direct nuclear impacts. The goal of nuclear war, absent any chance for a realistic "win" conditions it to ensure that absolute destruction of the opposing country - beyond the ability to ever rebuild to a comparable relative strength. Our nuke targets from during the Cold War have been declassified [1], and it's likely that the Soviet Union's were similarly themed: population, industry, economic, medical. There's an extremely strong overlap between those areas and data centers. In any case this is also all slightly tangential. One of the first things that will happen during WW3 is the widescale mutual destruction of satellites in the sky, for both offensive and defensive measures. [1] - https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb538-Cold-War-Nuclear-Target-List-Declassified-First-Ever/ https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb538-Cold-War-Nuclear...

dividedbyzero 4y ago

To the best of my knowledge Russia retains hundreds of ICBMs and about a thousand warheads ready to fire at a moment's notice. Unless I've missed a crucial bit of news, I'd expect a majority of these to function as intended, as everything I read on that part of their military suggests they're operating a lot better than their army. In that case, an all-out nuclear war would mean hundreds of warheads raining down on the US with on average larger yields than the US ones to make up for less reliable targeting, and even optimistic projections for that and the effects of US retaliation assume three-digit million deaths right away and at least one growing season lost to nuclear winter. All infrastructure close to major population centers, military installations, ... would be gone, as would be anything susceptible to EMP from high-altitude detonations. I don't see Starlink software engineering and the infrastructure they require to remain operational in such a scenario.

somenameforme 4y ago

I have a reason to think such! The "obvious" target would be things like our nuclear resources, to try to create a win condition. But in most cases this would just be wasting weapons. Those facilities, as well as ones such as where our politicians will go hide while society dies for their decisions, are designed to withstand direct nuclear impacts. The goal of nuclear war, absent any chance for a realistic "win" conditions it to ensure that absolute destruction of the opposing country - beyond the ability to ever rebuild to a comparable relative strength. Our nuke targets from during the Cold War have been declassified [1], and it's likely that the Soviet Union's were similarly themed: population, industry, economic, medical. There's an extremely strong overlap between those areas and data centers. In any case this is also all slightly tangential. One of the first things that will happen during WW3 is the widescale mutual destruction of satellites in the sky, for both offensive and defensive measures. [1] - https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb538-Cold-War-Nuclear-Target-List-Declassified-First-Ever/ https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb538-Cold-War-Nuclear...