From: Thomas Barclay <Thomas.Barclay@s...>
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 00:34:30 -0500
Subject: Lasers in the colonies
Okay, here's my counter arguments: 1) You comments about lasers and the power involved may or may not be right. Obviously the US military finds the idea of a portable laser weapon very feasible as they've got something queued up. Once, of course, the power issue is resolved. 2) Foggy days will suck as will really dense atmospheres. In thin atmospheres, the laser will work really well. The lasers lack of kick (hence high FP) may well be a fine compensatory value. 3) You might think you'll remain functional with a 2mm hole burnt through your head, but I have my doubts. At any rate, I heartily advise you not to attempt to experimentally determine this. 4) The argument about a 2cm hole assumes that I don't drag the beam across you or put it on a wider beam. I think temporary or permanent blinding plus a nice third degree burn across a 4" wide strip of your head might put you out of the fight. Burns hurt a lot. And blinding with lasers is quite feasible. (Visors could maybe stop it - assuming it can't shoot through them - but people often have their visors up (or helmets off) when humpin' through the backwoods, even if they had one in the first place. 5) The argument about a 2cm hole ignores the explosive effects of flash-heating the water in your cells. BANG! Can you say chunks blown out! OUCH! Probably quite disabling. 6) Reflec or Ablat? Har de har har. Fine for a panzer (who'd hiding that class 5 GEV anyway), absolutely unlikely for anything other than PA and even then I have some doubt. Think that perhaps armour that will reflect a laser will perhaps have a _low_ chance of managing stealth in any EM spectrum? I do. You _might_ be able to successfully layer it, but then again maybe not. 7) A laser might, as I mentioned, have other settings to make it multi use - everything from starting a fire, acting as a flashlight, being used as a LoS comms, etc. Can a gun do that? Uhh... not by its basic nature! 8) Power: If I can put enough power into a single cell (hence no need for a power for the weapon) to induce fusion for a DFFG, then I think the laser problem is well and truly a non- problem. But this has devolved to just about as useful of a conversation as the religion thread - it hinges on the same projections about what might happen. Since it is an entirely conjectural event many many years hence (who in 1820 would recognize today's world?), we're into the realm of "might as well do what you want and PSB it because you're probably wrong..... but then so is everyone disagreeing with you!".