From: spike66 (spike66@attbi.com)
Date: Wed Feb 26 2003 - 20:53:55 MST
Amara Graps wrote:
>
> Spike:
>
>> Nova, the science and technology TV program, has demonstrated to the
>> entire world some relatively easy and cheap ways to spread radiation
>> using any metropolitan subway.[...]
>
>> I have never seen it used as an argument against mass transit, but
>> we should consider that especially subways are so vulnerable to
>> terrorists they might already be considered a very bad investment of
>> public funds. spike
>
> What is going on here? Perhaps your report is true, but isn't it too
> much? Haven't you reached a point where you say to yourself: 'enough
> is enough'? For me that point, was 1 1/2 years ago.
>
> Shall we live in underground bunkers, fearful to breathe, fearful to
> walk, fearful to think ...? We hear 'War on Terrorism' used in the
> same fascist way as the 'War on Drugs' and now 'Weapons of XXXXXXX'
> (fill in your latest fear) in the same way! Now on the transhumanism
> lists are people speculating endlessly about how a handful of
> extremists can bring on the extinction of our species and we should
> greatly change and alter our lives, accordingly, based on that fear...
>
> Amara
Of course, agree on all points. But Amara's post went
off on a tangent that I hadn't intended in the original
post. My notion is that subways are so inherently
vulnerable to terrorist attack and interference-ist
attack that they are not a good investment.
Let me distinguish between a terrorist and an
interference-ist. A terrorist wants to kill people.
An interference-ist just wants to raise hell and prevent
society from progressing smoothly.
A terrorist would like to get aholt of some really nasty
radioactive material and spread it thru a subway system.
Of course the really dangerous stuff is controlled and
expensive. An interference-ist wants to create a great
deal of bother and expense without actually harming anyone.
My original post spoke of someone taking some easily
available shorty half-life element such as americium,
grinding to a powder, scattering in a subway, then
alerting the local authorities that the entire system
is radioactive. They take a geiger counter down there
and sure enough it starts to crackle.
What happens then? I speculate that the subway is
essentially shut down, useless. It need not be anything
as dramatic as the Korean subway fire a few days ago.
Just a little harmless radiation could make the system
functionally useless. What would it do to a major
metropolis if the subway was down for even one day?
My message is similar to Amara's but also subtly different.
Roosevelt said we have nothing to fear but fear itself.
I agree, and fear itself is definitely something to
fear. I agree with Amara that we shouldn't let fear
rule our lives. I haven't bought any duct tape. I didn't
even buy any rifled slugs for Mr. Twelve Gage to take
down germ-spewing crop dusters.
In the Americium-in-the-subway scenario, I make the case
that the proletariat does not understand the concept of
half-life or one percent greater chance of cancer over
a lifetime. Panic could be used to shut down the subway
system completely, even using cheap, legal and readily
available short-halflife isotopes. Such an interference-ist
attack would not require a single suicidal fanatic, nor
would the attack result in a single death. The economic
and psychological impact would be difficult to estimate.
It is not even perfectly clear to me that the perpetrator
would have broken any laws, even if she could be caught,
which she could not. Its only a matter of time before the
world catches on to these sorts of vulnerabilities.
Subways are so inherently vulnerable, they make no sense
to keep building them.
spike
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Feb 26 2003 - 20:56:19 MST