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Soviets Built a Doomsday Machine; It's Still Alive
An anonymous reader points out a story in Wired introducing us to the Doomsday Machine built by the Soviet Union in the 1980s — and that remains active to this day. It was called "Perimeter." The article explains why the device was built, and why the Soviets considered it to be something that kept the peace, even though they never told the US about it. "[Reagan's] strategy worked. Moscow soon believed the new US leadership really was ready to fight a nuclear war. But the Soviets also became convinced that the US was now willing to start a nuclear war. ... A few months later, Reagan... announced that the US was going to develop a shield of lasers and nuclear weapons in space to defend against Soviet warheads. ... To Moscow it was the Death Star — and it confirmed that the US was planning an attack. ... By guaranteeing that Moscow could hit back, Perimeter was actually designed to keep an overeager Soviet military or civilian leader from launching prematurely during a crisis. The point, [an informant] says, was 'to cool down all these hotheads and extremists. No matter what was going to happen, there still would be revenge. Those who attack us will be punished.'"
If you RTFS:
By guaranteeing that Moscow could hit back, Perimeter was actually designed to keep an overeager Soviet military or civilian leader from launching prematurely during a crisis. The point, [an informant] says, was 'to cool down all these hotheads and extremists. No matter what was going to happen, there still would be revenge. Those who attack us will be punished.'
The reason nobody talks about Perimeter is that it is largely the creation of Yarynich and Blair... A neat piece of semi fiction largely believable in the era immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union, but increasingly irrelevant ever since. The rest of the world has moved on, but like the one trick ponies they are Yarynich and Blair keep flogging the same dead horse. (Well, most of the rest of the world has moved on - there's still a thriving industry in creative semi fiction about the Cold War.)
Third, no worries. A small, controlled population with a ratio of 1 male to 10 females properly sheltered will be able to keep society going. Naturally, the females will need to be chosen for their attractiveness and the males for the knowledge and skills they know (I'm thinking lots of engineers will be needed so sign me up).
First, you're a sexist pig. Okay, now that my inner feminist has spoken up. Why the hell do you think intelligence is going to be important in a post-apocalyptic world? As you've just pointed out -- society is dead at this point. If we're going to rebuild, we're going back to basics, and that means people capable of surviving. We need people that are strong, not smart -- we don't need many smart people to rebuild, just a lot of strong backs. And why would you choose females based on attractiveness? If you're talking about survival of the species, then repopulation, not physical attractiveness, is the important trait. Physical attractiveness in modern terms is almost counter-productive to this -- narrow hips, tall, and thin, make horrible baby-makers. You want women with wide hips, the ability to store body fat, and strong autoimmune systems. Oh yeah, and don't forget -- if you've only got 1 man per 10 women, any group with 10 men and 1 woman's going to kill that man. The existing sex distribution ratio exists precisely because it allows people to survive. You want no more than about 128 men for every 100 women -- and no less than about 98 men per 100 women, at birth. That's what 20,000 years of natural selection have decided... and you should listen. It's a lot more experienced at rebuilding society than you, a mere slashdot poster, could ever hope to achieve.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
and their best was not good enough as here we sit debating
Contrary to the teary memories of some, Russia has never been a great empire in any respectable sense — because that requires the population to have a respectable relative standard of living. Russia was never able to clear that requirement in recent memory — neither under the tzars, nor under the Communists. And they aren't moving in the right direction today either.
But they almost always managed to remain a threat to others, which is why Cato, had he been an American Senator today, would've insisted on destroying them...
You may be right about Russia's sorry demographics (Indeed, the next big war on Earth is most likely to be between China and Russia — over the lands of Siberia, which Russia holds, but can not populate.), but one needs not many soldiers to threaten the world with nuclear weapons — which are, mind you, the subject of TFA... And Russia's Muslim soldiers will have even fewer qualms about invading countries like Georgia, Armenia, Poland, Bolgaria, Moldova, Romania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Lithuenia, Ukraine, et al, then the atheist or Christian folks...
I am not calling for an attack on Russia. I'm just stating, that the next round of confrontation is already on (despite the best efforts of the post Cold War American Presidents, including the current neophyte) and is likely to get worse again. We will be fighting Russia again — and when we win, I hope, we will not repeat the mistakes of the 1990ies...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.