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Old 04-18-2019, 10:40 AM   #1005
Astromancer
 
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

Quote:
Originally Posted by malloyd View Post
Then how do you deliver the grey goo?
In many different ways. As I should have made clearer this is a spy versus spy setting. The Russians have a long history of effective and deadly secret agents. Turn the congress and Supreme Court of the United States of America into grey goo, while a president of questionable integrity is in the White House, especially if it can't be traced back to you, and you've done more damage to America than George III, Hitler, and Jefferson Davis combined.

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To be a strategic revolution a weapon either needs to be much more lethal than the stuff you currently have (and nanotech is not going to beat out nuclear weapons there), able to slip past defenses that block what you currently have (changing a payload doesn't really do that) or enough cheaper opponents who couldn't afford enough to kill you before now can (not particularly an issue for nations who have already paid for enough nukes to destroy the world, which are therefore a sunk cost).
In the real world probably. In a Spy Vs. Spy Spyfy setting, it might not be the same.

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I suppose if somebody has invented nuclear dampers obsoleting nuclear weapons before the invention of grey goo, putting destroying the world back on the table could provide some new leverage, but otherwise it's a tactical change, but not really a strategic one.
Again, I should have made the issue of genre clearer. My bad.
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