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It's not that we're particularly fragile, given the kind of physical trauma human beings can survive and recover from. It's that we have technologically engine
by int_19h 2y ago
It's not that we're particularly fragile, given the kind of physical trauma human beings can survive and recover from.
It's that we have technologically engineered things that are destructive enough to get even past that threshold. Modern warfare in particular is insanely energetic in the most literal, physical way - when you measure the energy output of weapons in joules. Partly because we're just that good at making things explode, and partly because improvements in metallurgy and electronics made it possible over time to locate targets with extreme precision in real time and then concentrate a lot of firepower directly on them. This, in particular, is why the most intense battlefields in Ukraine often look worse than WW1 and WW2 battles of similar intensity (e.g. Mariupol had more buildings destroyed than Stalingrad).
But even our small arms deliver much more energy to the target than their historical equivalents. Bows and arrows pack ~150 J at close range, rapidly diminishing with distance. Crossbows can increase this to ~400 J. For comparison, an AK-47 firing standard issue military ammo is ~2000 J.
- llm_trw 2y agoWatch how a group of wild dogs kill their prey, then realise that for milenia human like apes were part of their diet. Even the modern battlefield is more humane than the African savannah.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoThat reminds me of this[0]. It's a segment of BBC's Planet Earth, where a pack of Cape Hunting Dogs are filmed, hunting. It's almost military precision. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRS4XrKRFMA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRS4XrKRFMA
- keybored 2y ago> Even the modern battlefield is more humane than the African savannah. On behalf of dead WWI soldiers I find this offensive.
- BehindBlueEyes 2y agoYeah, I tracked a lost dog and found the place it was caught by wolves and eventually eaten. Terrible way to go. I get now why the owner was so desperate to find it, even without any hope of the dog surviving - I'd want to end it quicker for my dogs too if this happened to them.
- newsclues 2y agoHumans can render other humans unrecognizable with a rock. Brutal murder is low tech.
- int_19h 2y agoNot at scale.
- newsclues 2y agoArmies scale up. It’s like the original massive scale organization.
- paulryanrogers 2y agoScaling an army of rock swingers is a lot more work than giving one person an AK47 (when all who would oppose them have rocks). (Thankfully in the US we worship the 2A and its most twisted interpretation. So our toddlers do shooter drills. /s)
- newsclues 2y agoYou are discounting the complexity of the logistics required for an AK47 army. You need ammo, spare parts, lubricant and cleaning tools. You need a factory to build the weapon, and churn out ammunition. Or, gather a group of people, tell them to find a rock, and go bash the other sides head.
- com2kid 2y ago> You need ammo, spare parts, lubricant and cleaning tools. The ak-47 famously only needs the first item in that list. That being the key to its popularity.
- int_19h 2y agoIt should be noted that the purported advantages of AK action over its competitors in this regard are rather drastically overstated in popular culture. E.g. take a look at these two vids showing how AK vs AR-15 handle lots of mud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX73uXs3xGU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX73uXs3xGU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAneTFiz5WU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAneTFiz5WU As far as cleaning, AK, like many guns of that era, carries its own cleaning & maintenance toolkit inside the gun. Although it is a bit unusual in that regard in that this kit is, in fact, sufficient to remove any part of the gun that is not permanently attached. Which is to say, AK can be serviced in the field, without an armory, to a greater extent than most other options. But the main reason why it's so popular isn't so much because of any of that, but rather because it's very cheap to produce at scale, and China especially has been producing millions of AKs specifically to dump them in Africa, Middle East etc. But where large quantities of other firearms are available for whatever reason, you see them used just as much - e.g. Taliban has been rocking a lot of M4 and M16 since US left a lot of stocks behind.
- Dalewyn 2y ago>Crossbows can increase this to ~400 J. Funny you mention crossbows; the Church at one point in time tried to ban them because they democratized violence to a truly trivial degree. They were the nuclear bombs and assault rifles of medieval times. Also, I will take this moment to also mention that the "problem" with weapons always seem to be how quickly they can kill rather than the killing itself. Kind of takes away from the discussion once that is realized.