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It was realistic about the initial attacks and aftermath. But the idea that a nuclear winter would send the UK back to the middle ages is ridiculous. Hell, som

It was realistic about the initial attacks and aftermath. But the idea that a nuclear winter would send the UK back to the middle ages is ridiculous. Hell, someone would at least take it over for the arable land.

arethuza 12y ago
I agree that the long term effects based on nuclear winter etc. are arguable. But the whole point was that an advanced technological society depends on the connections between people - and most people in the UK would have died in the initial attack or in the immediate aftermath due to simple things like starvation. Edit: "the idea that a nuclear winter would send the UK back to the middle ages is ridiculous." A early, probably 1960s, review by the UK government (who actually had plenty experience of the impact of bombing) concluded that the UK would cease to function as a society if we were attacked by three H-bombs - indeed our ambassador to Moscow apparently had a debate with a tipsy Khrushchev on the point....
- hga 12y ago
  "the long term effects based on nuclear winter etc. are arguable" Not really at this point, e.g. the TAPPS study has been thoroughly debunked (details on request), LLNL 3D modeling says at worst a "nuclear fall", which I note would be much on the order of or less severe than many historical volcanic events (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer). All the way down to the life histories of those exposed to radiation by Hiroshima and Nagasaki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki#Hibakusha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_a... As for the latter point, would not e.g. the US, reduced to about a Civil War level of population etc., trade tasty technological things, and/or food with the U.K. and any other county easily accessed by ship? The death rate would certainly be a lot higher in the crowded and food importing U.K., but Threads sounds way too dystopic. I'm going by the Wikipedia summary, but it didn't sound like it had even Bronze Age levels of trade with other countries. One neat thing I've read as of late is that the tin for all the bronze used in the western half or more of the Mediterranean came from Britain. Apparently the Iron Age happened in part because of apparent disruption of that trade, iron weapons of that era weren't as good as the bronze state of the art, but they were cheaper. So e.g. a Roman solider would have an iron sword while his centurion and higher were more likely to have bronze.

arethuza 12y ago

I agree that the long term effects based on nuclear winter etc. are arguable. But the whole point was that an advanced technological society depends on the connections between people - and most people in the UK would have died in the initial attack or in the immediate aftermath due to simple things like starvation. Edit: "the idea that a nuclear winter would send the UK back to the middle ages is ridiculous." A early, probably 1960s, review by the UK government (who actually had plenty experience of the impact of bombing) concluded that the UK would cease to function as a society if we were attacked by three H-bombs - indeed our ambassador to Moscow apparently had a debate with a tipsy Khrushchev on the point....

hga 12y ago
"the long term effects based on nuclear winter etc. are arguable" Not really at this point, e.g. the TAPPS study has been thoroughly debunked (details on request), LLNL 3D modeling says at worst a "nuclear fall", which I note would be much on the order of or less severe than many historical volcanic events (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer). All the way down to the life histories of those exposed to radiation by Hiroshima and Nagasaki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki#Hibakusha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_a... As for the latter point, would not e.g. the US, reduced to about a Civil War level of population etc., trade tasty technological things, and/or food with the U.K. and any other county easily accessed by ship? The death rate would certainly be a lot higher in the crowded and food importing U.K., but Threads sounds way too dystopic. I'm going by the Wikipedia summary, but it didn't sound like it had even Bronze Age levels of trade with other countries. One neat thing I've read as of late is that the tin for all the bronze used in the western half or more of the Mediterranean came from Britain. Apparently the Iron Age happened in part because of apparent disruption of that trade, iron weapons of that era weren't as good as the bronze state of the art, but they were cheaper. So e.g. a Roman solider would have an iron sword while his centurion and higher were more likely to have bronze.