The US really hates Nevada. And the Pacific Ocean.

[MKindy]

Resilient little planet.

[Jake55778]

Damn French, 'sploding more nukes than us! We should nuke 'em! Switzerland too

Anything involving nuclear weaponry always makes makes me wonder just how long we can survive as a species when the only thing standing between us and destruction is self control. For all it's benefits intellegence doesn't seem to be serving us too well as far as long term survivablity goes.

[Sti_Jo_Lew]

Yep. People seem to be becoming less intelligent every day.

[Jake55778]

I meant it more in the sense that we're fairly young as a species, only around 2.5 million years old (barely 200,000 if we're talking just homo sapians). Compared to a lot of animals that's nothing (sharks for instance have been around 90 million). With nuclear weapons we have the ability to wipe ourselves out completely. Say what you like about deterrents, and mutually assured destruction, but there are a lot of crazy people in the world.
How long would it take for this kind of destructive force to get into the hands of some zealous, suicidal madmen? 50 years? 200 years? 1000 years? 10,000 years? Even if it takes a million years for a nuclear war to break out and escalate to the point of total destruction that's still cutting our species lifespan short significantly from what it could have been.

Besides I don't think people are getting less intelligent, I just think we're exposed to stupidity more.

[Godavari]

Huh. I never knew we'd tested so many nukes.

SCIENCE!

[Byroe]

blackadder was born in 1957?

[Byroe]

I meant it more in the sense that we're fairly young as a species, only around 2.5 million years old (barely 200,000 if we're talking just homo sapians). Compared to a lot of animals that's nothing (sharks for instance have been around 90 million). With nuclear weapons we have the ability to wipe ourselves out completely. Say what you like about deterrents, and mutually assured destruction, but there are a lot of crazy people in the world.
How long would it take for this kind of destructive force to get into the hands of some zealous, suicidal madmen? 50 years? 200 years? 1000 years? 10,000 years? Even if it takes a million years for a nuclear war to break out and escalate to the point of total destruction that's still cutting our species lifespan short significantly from what it could have been.

Besides I don't think people are getting less intelligent, I just think we're exposed to stupidity more.

and whats going to stop the crazy madman from using the nukes if we get rid of ours? what will stop other countries from going "hey i hear the US has no nukes. NUKE EM! they cant get us back!" some say it would of been better if the united states never invented the nuke, but where would we be without them, would japan have taken over? would the Germans make them first? say what you want about nukes being bad, but remember, without nukes Russia would of probably invaded the US while china invaded Russia, while Korea invaded china while japan invaded Korea, while the us invaded japan. nukes themselves keep the peace, but its just crazy people that we need to worry about.

[Lord_Mountbatten]

"Would have", not "would of". Not supposed to jump on people for bad grammar, but that's pretty bad, and now you know.

And in my time as Chief of the Defence Staff, I recognised the importance of nuclear weaponry as a deterrent, but worked hard in what I did to ensure that anything regarding nuclear policy was concerning how likely what we did was to to not cause nuclear war. In essence trying to steer things away from war.

I also was behind the commissioning of the Trident submarines. Some of those UK nukes detonated were likely supervised by me.

[vallorn]

excellent work on the Subs then Lord. they seem to be doing an excellent job. or at least until the Yellow Wets decide to throw another hissy fit.

[697134002]

I meant it more in the sense that we're fairly young as a species, only around 2.5 million years old (barely 200,000 if we're talking just homo sapians). Compared to a lot of animals that's nothing (sharks for instance have been around 90 million). With nuclear weapons we have the ability to wipe ourselves out completely. Say what you like about deterrents, and mutually assured destruction, but there are a lot of crazy people in the world.
How long would it take for this kind of destructive force to get into the hands of some zealous, suicidal madmen? 50 years? 200 years? 1000 years? 10,000 years? Even if it takes a million years for a nuclear war to break out and escalate to the point of total destruction that's still cutting our species lifespan short significantly from what it could have been.

Besides I don't think people are getting less intelligent, I just think we're exposed to stupidity more.

FYI, sharks have been around closer to 500-600 million.

[MKindy]

"Would have", not "would of". Not supposed to jump on people for bad grammar, but that's pretty bad, and now you know.

And in my time as Chief of the Defence Staff, I recognised the importance of nuclear weaponry as a deterrent, but worked hard in what I did to ensure that anything regarding nuclear policy was concerning how likely what we did was to to not cause nuclear war. In essence trying to steer things away from war.

I also was behind the commissioning of the Trident submarines. Some of those UK nukes detonated were likely supervised by me.

It is only a shame your love for a Pykrete-construction battleship never came to fruition.

[Lord_Mountbatten]

Project Habbakuk will one day become a reality!

[Jake55778]

snip

snip again

You're right that they're important for maintaining the balance of power at the moment. They have helped maintain relative peace. My point was that on a long enough timescale mutually assured destruction won't hold up as a deterrent. It's too short sighted a solution. What happens a few hundred years from now when the current political powers have waned? Could Russia and the US still safeguard their nukes if faced with a civil war? Would they have the restraint not to resort to them if they were invaded by a superior conventional army? Political boundries shift, just because there's a enough of a balance to prevent war now doesn't mean that will always be the case.

some say it would of been better if the united states never invented the nuke, but where would we be without them, would japan have taken over?

To be perfectly honest in a world without nukes I'd be more worried about the USA than anyone else. You might not be the craziest nutters around, but you're the ones with the biggest guns.

FYI, sharks have been around closer to 500-600 million.

Thanks. I had a hard time pinning down the origin of "modern" sharks, but you're right ancient sharks were around much longer.

[vallorn]

Project Habbakuk will one day become a reality!

we can only dream...

i think using it as a semi mobile base of operations in the arctic circle would be a good use. an artificial island even bigger than Habbakuk with Pycrete buildings atop it.