- #1
one_raven
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I was hoping for some help with determining the feasibility of a doomsday weapon that would not destroy all life, but would destroy modern civilization as we know it (for a short story idea I have been toying with).
What I was thinking was that if someone could create an electromagnetic pulse with enough power and sustained for enough time to envelop the whole Earth (possibly emanating from the Earth itself) it could do this.
How would someone go about generating a pulse with enough power for long enough to induce enough current in every metal wire (or other conductor) with a gauge of industrial chain-link fence and lesser throughout all of the Earth and all manmade satellites in orbit?
Such a pulse would destroy all modern conveniences, destroy all modes of electronic communications, and destroy all fences. Most modern buildings -even entire cities- would burn to the ground. All computers and magnetic media would be destroyed. There would be no sources of artificial light. The more reliant on modern conveniences a community was, the more they would be affected. Many millions would die instantly, followed in the short term by billions more. All technology would be at ground zero, save the knowledge of some scientists, of which many would perish in the melee.
The modern world would be laid waste. If humanity could ever "recover" it would take MANY years.
Essentially it would thrust much of the world backward in time by about a hundred years, but that would just be the beginning. The social fallout of such an event could, though not necessarily, push us back thousands of years.
Is this possible?
If so, how?
Could the Earth itself be "the bomb" that emanated the pulse (I don't know, maybe shorting out the atmosphere to the earth, somehow?)?
How else could it be done?
What kind of power would be required to pull this off?
Thanks for any help you can offer.
What I was thinking was that if someone could create an electromagnetic pulse with enough power and sustained for enough time to envelop the whole Earth (possibly emanating from the Earth itself) it could do this.
How would someone go about generating a pulse with enough power for long enough to induce enough current in every metal wire (or other conductor) with a gauge of industrial chain-link fence and lesser throughout all of the Earth and all manmade satellites in orbit?
Such a pulse would destroy all modern conveniences, destroy all modes of electronic communications, and destroy all fences. Most modern buildings -even entire cities- would burn to the ground. All computers and magnetic media would be destroyed. There would be no sources of artificial light. The more reliant on modern conveniences a community was, the more they would be affected. Many millions would die instantly, followed in the short term by billions more. All technology would be at ground zero, save the knowledge of some scientists, of which many would perish in the melee.
The modern world would be laid waste. If humanity could ever "recover" it would take MANY years.
Essentially it would thrust much of the world backward in time by about a hundred years, but that would just be the beginning. The social fallout of such an event could, though not necessarily, push us back thousands of years.
Is this possible?
If so, how?
Could the Earth itself be "the bomb" that emanated the pulse (I don't know, maybe shorting out the atmosphere to the earth, somehow?)?
How else could it be done?
What kind of power would be required to pull this off?
Thanks for any help you can offer.