Dragons, Nuclear Weapons, and Game of Thrones (thebulletin.org)

Slashdot reader Dan Drollette shared this article from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists where a specialist in nuclear security analyzes Game of Thones, citing dragons "as living, fire-breathing metaphors for nuclear weapons." Despite the fantasy setting, the story teaches a great deal about the inherent dangers that come with managing these game-changing agents, their propensity for accidents, the relative benefits they grant their masters, and the strain these weapons impose upon those wielding them. "Dragons are the nuclear deterrent, and only [Daenerys Targaryen, one of the series' heroines] has them, which in some ways makes her the most powerful person in the world," George R. R. Martin said in 2011. "But is that sufficient? These are the kind of issues I'm trying to explore.

"The United States right now has the ability to destroy the world with our nuclear arsenal, but that doesn't mean we can achieve specific geopolitical goals. Power is more subtle than that. You can have the power to destroy, but it doesn't give you the power to reform, or improve, or build."

It makes for a bleak outlook. Or, as a character repeatedly warns in the first episode: "Winter is coming."

Comments

What's a lost dragon called?

[viperidaenz]

If dragons are nuclear weapons, does that make the white walker's dragon a broken arrow?

Re:What's a lost dragon called?

[Leuf]

I really hate that White Walker dragon. Dragons are somewhat magical, but they are real physical animals. To breathe fire they must have some organ that produces flammable liquid/gas. Does the White Walker dragon eat in order to make this substance? It doesn't just appear out of nowhere. And why is it blue instead of red? Blue is a hotter flame than red. Nuclear explosions don't change colors just because the bad guy gets them.

And the dragon doesn't need to breathe fire in order to be the most devastating weapon the Night King could ever have. Instead of moving at the shambling pace of his undead army, he can fly right around the armies of Westeros coming to fight him and make a new army wherever he goes. There's been a raging war all over the country so there's corpses everywhere, but any graveyard will do (including the one inside Winterfell). He can fly anywhere, drop off a White Walker and seed a new army that will grow larger than any force available to fight it before they can find out where it is and march there to fight. And he'll be off somewhere else doing the same thing again long before you find out where he was. Only another dragon can catch him, but the White Walkers are seemingly immune to fire (unlike the wights) so the living dragons can't hurt him but he can hurt them. Even if the living dragons can hurt him and his dragon, very risky going after him since you can't bring reinforcements with you but he can raise support wherever he goes.

Also explores security issues

[SuperKendall]

A major spoiler here if you've not watched the previous seasons, but taking your dragons deep into the heart of the undead kingdom was exceedingly stupid, basically like having a cavalier attitude to nuclear weapon security and handing over a Fat Man to a rogue nation.

Now the undead have one and they are blazing a path south (though to give them credit, they are not unthinking monsters, they stoped along the way to hang some artwork). Without the dragon the wall guards could have just spent years dropping flaming pitch on the things.