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I don't need to find a nuclear missile guidance system that is destination controlled by a freaking mouse click, because that is not what is being argued. What

by Zikes 12y ago

I don't need to find a nuclear missile guidance system that is destination controlled by a freaking mouse click, because that is not what is being argued. What is being argued is that it is not out of the question to expect that such a system may or could exist. It's not unreasonable to think that it could. Occam's Razor. Are all of our nukes controlled solely by systems that do not involve a mouse, or might there be a computer sophisticated enough somewhere in that launch process that it might make use of a mouse?

crazypyro 12y ago
We are arguing whether it is out of the question to expect that such a system's TARGETING is based on clicking a point on a imprecise map (per the rest of the whiteboard). It is completely out of the question to expect ICBM to be targeted with a mouse. You are (incorrectly) extrapolating the mouse click to mean that there is a mouse click somewhere in the process and NOT at the exact point drawn on the board. If you follow the flow chart, it says mouse click and then gets the target location based on that imprecise click.
- ForHackernews 12y ago
  > imprecise click. "Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear war" When you're dealing with high-yield nuclear warheads, anywhere within a few hundred miles of your desired target is probably going to be plenty good enough.
  - crazypyro 12y ago
    Actually, that's a pretty horrendous common mistake. The maximum of the blast radius of every nuclear warhead is below 50 miles. The biggest one ever designed, but not tested, by the USSR (larger than the US) was 100 MT which would've had a blast radius (third degree burns) of 46.5 miles, if it was detonated at 50,000ft , less with lower heights. That is a far cry from "within a few hundred miles".
    - ForHackernews 12y ago
      What area was contaminated by radioactive fallout?
piptastic 12y ago
I can't even begin to understand how a rational person would think this. Someone is going to launch a missile from Russia to the United States.. and this person needs a whiteboard with a crudely drawn line to DC and a blast radius drawing to help him do it? I don't even have to read any of the text to know this is ridiculous.
- ForHackernews 12y ago
  Plenty of people designing complicated things do crude whiteboard sketches to help them discuss or reason at a high level. How much you want to bet there are whiteboards at NASA with cartoon squiggles of "Earth" --> "Mars" on them?

by Zikes 12y ago

crazypyro 12y ago

We are arguing whether it is out of the question to expect that such a system's TARGETING is based on clicking a point on a imprecise map (per the rest of the whiteboard). It is completely out of the question to expect ICBM to be targeted with a mouse. You are (incorrectly) extrapolating the mouse click to mean that there is a mouse click somewhere in the process and NOT at the exact point drawn on the board. If you follow the flow chart, it says mouse click and then gets the target location based on that imprecise click.

ForHackernews 12y ago
> imprecise click. "Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear war" When you're dealing with high-yield nuclear warheads, anywhere within a few hundred miles of your desired target is probably going to be plenty good enough.
- crazypyro 12y ago
  Actually, that's a pretty horrendous common mistake. The maximum of the blast radius of every nuclear warhead is below 50 miles. The biggest one ever designed, but not tested, by the USSR (larger than the US) was 100 MT which would've had a blast radius (third degree burns) of 46.5 miles, if it was detonated at 50,000ft , less with lower heights. That is a far cry from "within a few hundred miles".
  - ForHackernews 12y ago
    What area was contaminated by radioactive fallout?

piptastic 12y ago

I can't even begin to understand how a rational person would think this. Someone is going to launch a missile from Russia to the United States.. and this person needs a whiteboard with a crudely drawn line to DC and a blast radius drawing to help him do it? I don't even have to read any of the text to know this is ridiculous.

ForHackernews 12y ago
Plenty of people designing complicated things do crude whiteboard sketches to help them discuss or reason at a high level. How much you want to bet there are whiteboards at NASA with cartoon squiggles of "Earth" --> "Mars" on them?