What you need to know about EMP weapons • Hacker News Board

Re: What you need to know about EMP weapons

#211

Post by saltcured » Mon, Jun 09, 2025, 11:37 PM UTC

palmotea wrote: post #206

saltcured wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, so you'll need a bigger roof and more lawn chairs...

> OK, so you'll need a bigger roof and more lawn chairs... You jest, but imagine lining up your four year old to die (you may be childless, so that might be hard for you).

Yes, I joked, but mostly just to soften the discomfort of the idea.

I think the argument a few posts up was that this is the humane way out, rather than dragging themselves or their loved ones through the burns, trauma, radiation poisoning, starvation, and/or depredation that they assume comes next. Having loved ones is not a counterpoint to this sort of thinking.

I can't necessarily imagine making these decisions, but it is not unprecedented that parents would do so for themselves and their children. It's happened with much less trigger than a nuclear holocaust.

Re: What you need to know about EMP weapons

#212

Post by themadturk » Tue, Jun 10, 2025, 10:49 PM UTC

um1 wrote: post #137

themadturk wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but some might have a "take the world down with me" attitude.

Netanyahu?

Putin himself. If it looks like Russia is going to lose, he has expressed an attitude of "If I lose, so do you."

Re: What you need to know about EMP weapons

#213

Post by palmotea » Thu, Jun 12, 2025, 5:11 AM UTC

saltcured wrote: post #211

palmotea wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> OK, so you'll need a bigger roof and more lawn chairs... You jest, but imagine lining up your four year old to die (you may be childless, so that might be hard for you).

Yes, I joked, but mostly just to soften the discomfort of the idea. I think the argument a few posts up was that this is the humane way out, rather than dragging themselves or their loved ones through the burns, trauma, radiation poisoning, starvation, and/or depredation that they assume comes next. Having loved ones is not a counterpoint to this sort of thinking. I can't necessarily imagine making these decisions, b…

> I think the argument a few posts up was that this is the humane way out, rather than dragging themselves or their loved ones through the burns, trauma, radiation poisoning, starvation, and/or depredation that they assume comes next.

Another problem with that argument is that you'd actually be able to position yourself to be vaporized, when I don't think anyone could know what would be targeted with that level of certainty (beyond a couple things like the White House, Pentagon, etc).

Like maybe by setting up some lawn chairs on a roof, you just signed you and your family up for extra burns and trauma because you assumed they'd target downtown, but they actually only targeted the airport so you're miles away from the vaporization zone.