Cultural Consequences of Rapid Technological Uplift

[Sindri]

Originally Posted by Jonas

Except that we've been destroying each others cities for as long as they've existed in warfare and continued to do so right up through WW2. The only real difference nuclear weapons made was said ability now came in a much more compact package, which we already had conventionally in spades as the firebombing of Japan attests to.

First of all we've done a lot more conquering and looting (Which is a conversion of value.) than destroying (Which is a removal of value.) but nukes are different from armies. Nuclear weapons allow the losing side to totally eliminate cities after they have lost.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Sindri

First of all we've done a lot more conquering and looting (Which is a conversion of value.) than destroying (Which is a removal of value.) but nukes are different from armies. Nuclear weapons allow the losing side to totally eliminate cities after they have lost.

Scorched earth policy in the most literal manner possible.

I didn't even think of the losing side going, "If I can't have it, no one can!"

[Sindri]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Scorched earth policy in the most literal manner possible.

I didn't even think of the losing side going, "If I can't have it, no one can!"

Often in history cities are destroyed after the other side has been beaten already. With nuclear weapons though the difference between beaten and provably incapable of destroying a city in retaliation is significant.

[gjc8]

It depends on how the TL10 uplifters are running the show. And what is meant by "rapid".

If they take a generation per TL improvement, it would still be drastically faster than historical advancement, but it gives cultures a lot more time to adapt (and be managed) than if they're just handing out nukes to local rulers.