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In the fiction books of the "Gaia Trilogy", John Varley has a long term nuclear war as the demise of earth. after the first "accidental" launch retaliations and
by h2odragon 3y ago
In the fiction books of the "Gaia Trilogy", John Varley has a long term nuclear war as the demise of earth. after the first "accidental" launch retaliations and opportunistic strikes happen infrequently for months and years.
I recall some discussion in fandom of the dissonance between that vision and the public propaganda lines of "Mutually Assured Destruction" and "Nuclear Winter". It seems to be a religious kind of debate where facts aren't welcome: There have been multiple nuclear weapons detonated in the last 80 years. Many still insist that even a single uncontrolled fission reaction is the equivalent of the end of the world.
- Spooky23 3y agoThe nuclear winter stuff is probably undersold if anything - nuclear testing in deserts and coral atolls aren’t the same as a nuclear exchange. Wildfires have had obvious and significant impacts on cities like SFO and NYC. The Mordor like conditions of smoke and haze with active nuclear materials, plastic, etc will be devastating. Guys who worked the 9/11 pile are still dying of nasty cancers and other conditions - imagine the world after 1000x the scale of 9/11 destruction. I think one of the reasons why the nuclear strategy is what it is is around compliance. I don’t think a sustained long term nuclear exchange could go on without mutiny. It’s critical to launch everything before the capability gets destroyed or the guy in the silos refuse to act.