T.Neo

Feb 11 2010, 01:02 PM

Still doesn't make them invincible.

Also, having nanobots inside you doesn't protect you from several things... like vaccuum, acid or extreme heat.

And if I hit a human-sized organism with a single .50 calibre round, it will be injured or killed. I don't care if it is covered
in nanobots. It is going to be injured or killed.


Right... small arms are soooooooooo inefficient, which is why every soldier is equipped with a laser weapon...

And the time it takes for a small calibre round to kill depends on the part of the body hit. And even in a pretty nonlethal area, it doesn't matter, since on a battlefield you are aiming to disable immediately, and killing immediately is optional. Also, leaving the target living but injured is advantageous, since it slows down the enemy as they treat his or her injuries.

A biological MG is unlikely, but far less likely then a biological laser. I mean, come on...

Whether it is possible or not does not make it viable. It could be physically viable but in terms of energy usage and maintainance be very unviable. Just use a piece of armorplate.

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When are they going to be exposed to vacuum? Acid's okay so long as it doesn't go into contact, or if the surface is acid-neutral- like the mineral composites forming the Species' shells.

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Forcefields vs. grizzly big bores- hmmm.

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Small arms waste biomass. The ultimate evolutionary sin. We have lasers, but they don't have the right wavelength focus. A microwave could frazzle a human brain at far less than a megawatt.

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This laser isn't biological. I'm not making deities here.

T.Neo

Feb 18 2010, 03:35 PM

This is akin to making rifle ammunition from human excrement.

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This is akin to making rifle ammunition from human excrement.

alienboy

Feb 18 2010, 09:24 PM

Correction. Radiation usually causes defects, not advantagous mutations. Try again.

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Being "acid neutral" does not make you immune from corrosive compounds.

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Oh god, not forcefields again...

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Because a laser is going to spend far less biomass then a chemically-propelled projectile. Right.

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We also have microwave "MASERS". Don't see too many of them in the hands of infantry troops.

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This is akin to making rifle ammunition from human excrement.

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Correction. Radiation usually causes defects, not advantagous mutations. Try again.

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Acid neutrality sure makes you more resilient.

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I was conjecturing whether a Grizzly Big Bore could penetrate an ion projection field. See? Technobabble sure helps here.

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The power does not come from biomass, it comes from any wavelength absorbed by the nanobots which sit around within its skin and organs.

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Masers are currently under development, power problems occur. You need a truck-sized maser with current technology. Fission masers, anyone?

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It doesn't run on biomass! See above!

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Technobabble sure helps here.

What the hell is an ion projection field? Is it more then just nonsense floating around on the internet? Is it in use or being studied by the military?

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Actually, some creatures do fire biomass. With limitations.

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Total gibberish? So every single wavelength, radio to cosmic rays, radiation, body heat, light, UV rays, microwaves and background produces no energy? WTH?

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And that's why i said masers were 'under development'.

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3.Orbital weapons are not being studied in depth by the military, but they would definitely wipe out a squadron of tanks even just armed woith ICBMs.

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ASAT weapons. One bag of ball bearings detonated in the orbit of your orbital missles, and said missles will be torn to shreds.

rufus

May 17 2009, 06:07 PM

I rememebr that once in Peter Ward's book he mentions the differnt things that could possibly thin the human population. He mentioned, then dismissed at once the possibility of a new sort of predator. As he correctly observes, any such predator would be quickly elininated or contained if it started preying on our species. Humans would simply not allow ourselves or our children to become food.

But that got me to thinking. Suppose some future genetic scientist, engineered some sort of future predator to prey upon humans, perhaps as a way of cleansing the population of :defectives" or undesirables". The species could be genetically programed to hunt only humans as a food source. And it might be programed to eliminate only those humans who carried certain traits such as genetic maladies.

This would have to be done in such a way that the human population would not know what was happening, and could not take the action needed to eliminate the predators. This creature would be engineered from humans themselves.The creature could have engineered traits from other animal species, such as camaflauge abilites, and perhaps sonar from bats to stun their prey. BTW, I thought of this idea long before that "future predator" thing from Primeval, and I thought of posting this today, even before I read that other thread.

I also thought of making this idea into a story, in which the heor has to find who is releasing and controlling these predators and how to stop them. I usually try not to bash genetic science in my stories, like some authors do, but in this case the plot would demand that I do have a rogue geneticist.