The Secret Histories, #2

[Aucoq]

The real terror in this is the killing from a safe distance issue. And that is certainly nothing new. It's just that everyone is getting better at it.

Ground troops will be nothing but mop up crews and the horror that is war and killing will be sanitized until all of the horror is hidden under a nice sterile blanket.

They are probably working on a first assault vehicle that is unmanned. Or already have it.

It seems things like this could make war more desirable socially acceptable since mothers won't be crying over the loss of sons and daughters.

And that's the sad part.  Essentially, the people fighting wars will be those people who are perfectly fine with wars, or killing, because it doesn't affect them personally and, as a result, are incapable of understanding the gravity of such subjects.

[Richter]

Dok, you're better set up to comment on it than I am, but military equipment seems like an exercise in hillarity to me.  Trying to outfit a large group of mooks with somewhat simialr and standard equipment, not to emntion training them to use it effectively, is a weird thing.  It almost epitomizes standardized hand - out mentality.  I can't think of too many cases where the stuff being handed out had the QC it should have.  Dad used to tell us how he had to go through a whole hutch full of parts to get a Colt worth a damn.  Another buddy of mine (certifiable shit magnet) who's trained as a medic (Ho HO!) has a whole list of things he supposed to always have on hand, but has to acquire at his own expense.  Then the more recent tales of families scrimping and saving to send their sons in Iraq better body armor.  (Dave the Marine had some crazy stories about mail order fun too, but those are his to tell.)  

Those remote jets and tanks, well...
For now, it's our new toy, and we use them to kill as needed.  They've already been hacked, stolen, abd hocked on the black market though. (The right introductions and cash will get you ANYTHING from ANYWHERE, after all.  Welcome to Uncle Sam's garage sale.)  So soon enough the other assholes have them too, then what?  Drone vs. Drone, dueling it out far and away from where anyone REAL can get hurt?  Nope.  Drone running from drone until they're close enough to shoot at somethign someone REALLY cares about.

Drone vs. AAC?  Too bad, your 2nd hand gen. 1  "Predator" was shot up over that city before you could dump out any ordnance at any civilian or infrastructure target.  (You DID pack ia dirty surprise into it first, right?)

Another layer of expensive fluff and attrition before it gets down to knives and sticks.  Breaking each other's unmanned toys jsut won't have the same meaning.

[Jasper]

I'm morbidly fascinated with the psychology of operating this kind of device though.  Will there be comfy operators who, in quiet moments, struggle with the cognitive dissonance of what they've wrought?  To my thinking, at least killing people in person makes it easy to say "if I didn't, I would have died."  You can't tell yourself that kind of thing when you kill with robots.

[Zyzyx]

Just makes it all the worse when the war finally shows up on our doorstep, complete with bloodthirsty opposition in the flesh. Or worse yet, drones in control of the other side. I for one have read too much sci-fi to ever trust placing my life in the hands of a machine.

[Adios]

I think we are all missing the point of the inevietability (I cannot spell this in my inebriated state) of the situation and the fallout on our offspring.

The Horror™ is very real and coming to a world near you.

[Adios]

Doomsday shelters making a comeback


   
     

By Keith Matheny, USA TODAY
Jason Hodge, father of four children from Barstow, Calif., says he's "not paranoid" but he is concerned, and that's why he bought space in what might be labeled a doomsday shelter.

Hodge bought into the first of a proposed nationwide group of 20 fortified, underground shelters — the Vivos shelter network — that are intended to protect those inside for up to a year from catastrophes such as a nuclear attack, killer asteroids or tsunamis, according to the project's developers.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-07-28-doomsday28_ST_N.htm

Like that will help.

[Jenne]

  I was wondering when this would make a comeback.  Awesome. 

[Zyzyx]

Can't anyone take a hint from Dune, Fallout, Mad Max or even the last forty years of American warmongering? When the shit gets real you don't want to be pinned down in one location where you can't leave and everyone has mobility on you. I'd think these shelters would just be juicy targets for anyone with enough unhealthy chemicals.

Of course credit goes to Dok Howl for explaining this to me in the first place.

[Adios]

Can't anyone take a hint from Dune, Fallout, Mad Max or even the last forty years of American warmongering? When the shit gets real you don't want to be pinned down in one location where you can't leave and everyone has mobility on you. I'd think these shelters would just be juicy targets for anyone with enough unhealthy chemicals.

Of course credit goes to Dok Howl for explaining this to me in the first place.

Consider them fancy coffins.

[Doktor Howl]

Doomsday shelters making a comeback


   
     

By Keith Matheny, USA TODAY
Jason Hodge, father of four children from Barstow, Calif., says he's "not paranoid" but he is concerned, and that's why he bought space in what might be labeled a doomsday shelter.

Hodge bought into the first of a proposed nationwide group of 20 fortified, underground shelters — the Vivos shelter network — that are intended to protect those inside for up to a year from catastrophes such as a nuclear attack, killer asteroids or tsunamis, according to the project's developers.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-07-28-doomsday28_ST_N.htm

Like that will help.

"Bought space in?"

First family in locks the door.   

[Adios]

Doomsday shelters making a comeback


   
     

By Keith Matheny, USA TODAY
Jason Hodge, father of four children from Barstow, Calif., says he's "not paranoid" but he is concerned, and that's why he bought space in what might be labeled a doomsday shelter.

Hodge bought into the first of a proposed nationwide group of 20 fortified, underground shelters — the Vivos shelter network — that are intended to protect those inside for up to a year from catastrophes such as a nuclear attack, killer asteroids or tsunamis, according to the project's developers.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-07-28-doomsday28_ST_N.htm

Like that will help.

"Bought space in?"

First family in locks the door.   

They are time shares.  Some of them can hold up to around 2000 people.

[Adios]

The Vivos network, which offers partial ownerships similar to a timeshare in underground shelter communities, is one of several ventures touting escape from a surface-level calamity.

Radius Engineering in Terrell, Texas, has built underground shelters for more than three decades, and business has never been better, says Walton McCarthy, company president.

The company sells fiberglass shelters that can accommodate 10 to 2,000 adults to live underground for one to five years with power, food, water and filtered air, McCarthy says.

The shelters range from $400,000 to a $41 million facility Radius built and installed underground that is suitable for 750 people, McCarthy says. He declined to disclose the client or location of the shelter.

[Jasper]

Just a few years?

That will simply not do.

[Zyzyx]

[Adios]

An artists rendering of a common area in a shelter.