Re Major Technologies

Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Mon, 18 Jan 1999 11:59:23 -0800 (PST)

From: "Billy Brown" <bbrown@conemsco.com>

>IMO, the picture isn't that simple. Early nanotech won't be able
>to burrow that well - remember, there is nothing preventing us
>from using 100 MT warheads instead of the puny <200 KT devices
>currently in fashion. Later nanotech could do it, but by then
>you're facing multi-gigaton weapons. Mature nanotech could protect
>you from anything reasonable, but by then I would expect all
>threats to be pretty unreasonable. For a good level of security,
>you really need a good anti-missile system and enough room to use
>it.

Actually current thinking is that there is no need to build larger than 100MT. At 100MT a 10 mile diameter chunk of atmosphere blows off into space. Larger bombs only blow the same 10 mile chunk at a faster rate. Unless we're talking planet busting.

Brian
Member, Extropy Institute
www.extropy.org