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Guns are already ~20-50% efficient at turning chemical energy into kinetic energy. If you're not using a direct chemical reaction for energy, then you're using

Guns are already ~20-50% efficient at turning chemical energy into kinetic energy. If you're not using a direct chemical reaction for energy, then you're using a human which is a lot less energy-dense than a backpack full of ammo. And yes, people who do avalanche control typically fire explosives out of a cannon or drop them from a helicopter. Getting a machine supply all the energy is the whole idea instead of climbing mountains yourself.

MomsAVoxell 1mo ago
Do you not understand the immense amount of energy and resources required to manufacture a single consumable cartridge? The point is to avoid that entirely and harvest gravity. Re-wilding teams already climb far and wide, and this would extend their reach without increasing their dependencies. Ammo is a dependency.
- anon_cow1111 1mo ago
  Do you not understand your argument is exploring a made-up scenario where we're no longer an industrialized civilization where these things are manufactured cheaply by the billions? And if you INSIST on making everything completely low-tech and renewable, build a potato gun and use high-proof alcohol as fuel. It'll weigh less and last longer than whatever rube-Goldberg trebuchet design you have.
  - MomsAVoxell 1mo ago
    [flagged]
    - anon_cow1111 1mo ago
      >This is false and unimaginative. A good one will weigh about 5 pounds and not have moving parts to break. Ferment your own alcohol from plants you grow yourself. You can at least do that much, right?
      - MomsAVoxell 1mo ago
        A good one will have as few parts as possible, and be optimized for both portability and distances. >Ferment your own alcohol from plants you grow yourself I suppose I could just harvest gunpowder from the bullet trees that grow all over candy-land, too. Or, I could just have an ultra-optimized trebuchet in my backpack for throwing things with very little effort besides the energy (me) required to reload it, wind it up, and let ‘er rip ..
        anon_cow1111 1mo ago
        Well I'd recommend you get out there on a mountain with a trebuchet and try it, because you're certainly not convincing anyone in this thread so far.
        MomsAVoxell 1mo ago
        Nobody in this thread has demonstrated anything but a distinct lack of imagination and a willingness to be as boring as fuck about a really cool idea, though, so I’m not bothered by convincing anyone. It’s like saying “why would you use a bow and arrow when you’ve got a 50 caliber machine gun industry right there, ready to help you blow things up”. I’d use a bow and arrow in the same context - so that I don’t have to have an entire industry dependency just to survive and/or do stuff in the wild. And before you change the context and say “yeah, why don’t use just use a bow and arrow to do your seed-bombing, huh hippy?”, that thought of course crossed my mind. Soon as I find a supersonic capable bow, that is.
        throw310822 1mo ago
        I, for one, would absolutely love to see you carrying up a mountain the contraption in the video with its full 50kgs weight, then raising said weight by three meters with the power of your muscles to launch each single 4 grams pellet, and doing that for several hours every day. I am curious though if you have considered how much you would have to eat to power your muscles, how do you plan to procure the abundant food supply you'd certainly need (and which of course it should have been produced without chemicals and industrial processes of any kind), and how would you carry that up the mountain as well.
- p1mrx 1mo ago
  Gravity is not "harvested", it just stores the energy briefly. Someone or something has to lift the weight for every shot, which requires energy. It's not obvious whether a trebuchet is better than compressed air, like a BB gun.
  - MomsAVoxell 1mo ago
    >lift the weight for every shot, which requires energy. All harvesting requires some secondary-energy source. Gravity is a resource, it takes effort to convert it to a form that can be applied - just like wheat, photons, air guns, etc. > It's not obvious whether a trebuchet is better than compressed air, like a BB gun. True, it’s not obvious yet, but it sure is fun following along and imagining the final, highly optimal version making its way through the process. I’d use it for some seed bombing hijinks, anyway. Green up the place, I would.

MomsAVoxell 1mo ago

Do you not understand the immense amount of energy and resources required to manufacture a single consumable cartridge? The point is to avoid that entirely and harvest gravity. Re-wilding teams already climb far and wide, and this would extend their reach without increasing their dependencies. Ammo is a dependency.

anon_cow1111 1mo ago
Do you not understand your argument is exploring a made-up scenario where we're no longer an industrialized civilization where these things are manufactured cheaply by the billions? And if you INSIST on making everything completely low-tech and renewable, build a potato gun and use high-proof alcohol as fuel. It'll weigh less and last longer than whatever rube-Goldberg trebuchet design you have.
- MomsAVoxell 1mo ago
  [flagged]
  - anon_cow1111 1mo ago
    >This is false and unimaginative. A good one will weigh about 5 pounds and not have moving parts to break. Ferment your own alcohol from plants you grow yourself. You can at least do that much, right?
    - MomsAVoxell 1mo ago
      A good one will have as few parts as possible, and be optimized for both portability and distances. >Ferment your own alcohol from plants you grow yourself I suppose I could just harvest gunpowder from the bullet trees that grow all over candy-land, too. Or, I could just have an ultra-optimized trebuchet in my backpack for throwing things with very little effort besides the energy (me) required to reload it, wind it up, and let ‘er rip ..
      - anon_cow1111 1mo ago
        Well I'd recommend you get out there on a mountain with a trebuchet and try it, because you're certainly not convincing anyone in this thread so far.
        MomsAVoxell 1mo ago
        Nobody in this thread has demonstrated anything but a distinct lack of imagination and a willingness to be as boring as fuck about a really cool idea, though, so I’m not bothered by convincing anyone. It’s like saying “why would you use a bow and arrow when you’ve got a 50 caliber machine gun industry right there, ready to help you blow things up”. I’d use a bow and arrow in the same context - so that I don’t have to have an entire industry dependency just to survive and/or do stuff in the wild. And before you change the context and say “yeah, why don’t use just use a bow and arrow to do your seed-bombing, huh hippy?”, that thought of course crossed my mind. Soon as I find a supersonic capable bow, that is.
        throw310822 1mo ago
        I, for one, would absolutely love to see you carrying up a mountain the contraption in the video with its full 50kgs weight, then raising said weight by three meters with the power of your muscles to launch each single 4 grams pellet, and doing that for several hours every day. I am curious though if you have considered how much you would have to eat to power your muscles, how do you plan to procure the abundant food supply you'd certainly need (and which of course it should have been produced without chemicals and industrial processes of any kind), and how would you carry that up the mountain as well.
p1mrx 1mo ago
Gravity is not "harvested", it just stores the energy briefly. Someone or something has to lift the weight for every shot, which requires energy. It's not obvious whether a trebuchet is better than compressed air, like a BB gun.
- MomsAVoxell 1mo ago
  >lift the weight for every shot, which requires energy. All harvesting requires some secondary-energy source. Gravity is a resource, it takes effort to convert it to a form that can be applied - just like wheat, photons, air guns, etc. > It's not obvious whether a trebuchet is better than compressed air, like a BB gun. True, it’s not obvious yet, but it sure is fun following along and imagining the final, highly optimal version making its way through the process. I’d use it for some seed bombing hijinks, anyway. Green up the place, I would.