>laser rifle
Is there any hard-science way a beam of light could benefit from a rifled barrel?
No.
>>44597507
This isn't the most retarded post I've ever seen, but it's pretty close.
>>44597507
It's a free electron laser, and needs accelerated electrons to produce the phase-coherent photons. The barrel is a linear accelerator. The rifling is actually a complex helical arrangement of magnetic coils to condense the size of the accelerator to a man-portalbe package.
>>44597507
Only if the grooves helped disapate heat somehow
>>44597553
/tg/ is probably the most scientifically illiterate board on 4chan.
Case in point:>>44597560
>lookit me mah i know buzzwords from black science man!
>>44597587
Don't knock Black Science Man!
>>44597622
NDT is only great because he hates science and space enthusiasts. He quite often refers to them as delusional.
It's not actually a rifle. It's just common parlance for a long two handed fire arm.
That's also a Shock Rifle you fucking scrub.
>>44597673
He wrote the book on delusional space enthusiasts. His publisher made him change the title from "Failure to Launch, The Delusions of Space Enthusiasts"
>>44597507
No, but it's not like laser guns not being rifled would stop people from referring to them as laser rifles.
>>44597764
>parlance
>scrub
Oh wow /tg/ is breaking out the cringe early this year.
>>44597766
Nobody does. Because they don't exist, outside of make believe.
>inb4 some laser pointer attached to a gun stock
>>44597795
This ain't no Imperial Guard.
>>44597560
I was going to say.
did not the original ruby laser have a coil wrapped around it not unlike rifling on the inside of a barrel...
>>44597795
Well yeah, so you would name it after the thing it most closely resembles for ease of recognition.
>>44597673
>>44597765
>he's great because he hates optimists
What a fucking nigger, why does dae le reddit like this guy again?
>>44597507
In this case, rifle descriptor doesn't indicate riffled barrel, but length of the weapon. Similarly as you can have riffled pistols and they're still referred to as pistols.
>>44597507
a literal laser rifle no, but if you're trying to justify some long barrel energy weapon, for some rpg, it could be a plasma or ion weapon, and the barrel could be a long magnetic accelerator.
>>44597766
Break out yon fulminant arquebusses, mine far-seer doth spy approaching visigoths
>>44597829
He hides it. He knows that people would turn against him if he actually made them think. "New Cosmos" is for people who just like to think they're thinking, while smoking dope.
Also, bigfoot hunters qualify as optimists. Great company you share, keep proving that /tg/ is more scientifically illiterate than even /x/
>>44597872
Hark! 'Tis a sodomite.
You could rifle a length of fiber optic cable that you're shining a laser through, and it wouldn't be any worse than shining the laser through an unrifled piece of fiber optic cable?
>>44597829
He doesn't hate optimism he hates blind optimism. It's counterproductive to the advance of science.
>>44597881
>Also, bigfoot hunters qualify as optimists
>conflating theoretically possible technology and advancements with literal tinfoilery
There's a difference between "hey, space is fucking hard to do, but we can do it if we put our minds to it" and "dude lmao what if like free energy dude LMAO"
>>44597507
>laser rifle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIHOD-M-p1c
>>44597940
>There's a difference between "hey, space is fucking hard to do, but we can do it if we put our minds to it" and "dude lmao what if like free energy dude LMAO"
Yeah, the difference is that theories cannot be laws.
That's it. As long as there is wiggle room, people will believe in literally anything.
>>44597921
>blind optimism
>counter productive
At best, it gets the plebs to donate lots of money and some interesting avenues of research that may or may not pan out get explored.
At worst, some graduate students waste time on a bullshit idea they got while doing psychedelics with the chemistry professor.
I'd rather for the entirety of the nation be as blindly optimistic and be as furturist as the 60's, rather than just going "meh"
>>44597872
>>44597899
10
>>44598005
>Yeah, the difference is that theories cannot be laws.
Anon, are you implying that scientific laws are 100% absolute? There's an infinite amount of wiggle room already, it's just that most of that doesn't have -any- data to back it up.
>>44597507
It's what people would be used to. The first laser rifles would be made like that because people are more accustomed to firearms that are shaped like and function like firearms they already knew and were trained in.
>>44597673
>>44597765
Oh look its Luddite anon again
Get banned from your other board for another 3 day?
>>44598013
If people think there is an easy solution to a problem, will they try hard solutions before all easy options are disproved? Can any theory ever be 100% disproved?The answer to both is No.
Oh well shit, that's taking a risk isn't it? It's not like space is going anywhere, we're just selfishly determined to run the bases before we've even picked up the bat.
>>44597507
Depends on how the beam is generated. Probably not, but handling and learning how to use and handle a rifle is a hell of a lot easier then being good with a pistol at range.
>>44598093
Oh look it's my faithful dog.
>>44598051
So go make a perpetual motion machine already.
>>44597862
It would work for a laser long arm as well, to a point. The extra length could be for focusing lenses, and an optical stabilization system, since to actually work the beam would need to dwell on the target for a length of time.Honestly, that is reaching for a justification though.
>>44598093
>using luddite seriously
>>44598177
>le perpetual motion strawman like always
Nothing if not dependable, like an irritable bowel
We aren't even talking about science in this thread, go back to /sci/. This is literally about science fiction and not even near future hard sci-fi
>>44597829
He hates optimism that flies in the face of the facts. Optimism like "someone in power gives enough of a fuck about space travel to get us there". Space is hard and there's no immediate economic payoff, so it's no wonder world leaders aren't exactly rushing to get there.
>>44598177
Oh hey, it really is you. That style of strawmanning is unmistakable. How are you going, luddite anon?
>>44598196
>being a narcissistic cynical la la prancing doomsday homo man seriously
>>44598146
>The answer to both is No.
Only if you let plebs run your organization, university, or administration. There are benefits in researching both the hard but likely to work solutions, and the easy but might not pan out solutions.
>>44598177
>Oh look it's my faithful dog.
>implying I'm him
>>44598177
>So go make a perpetual motion machine already.
>strawmanning this hard
Even if scientific theory and law are not 100% absolute by their very nature, that doesn't mean there's any data that supports the feasibility of a perpetual motion machine.
Likewise, just because bigfoot could technically exist (and you can't say that it's impossible for it to exist), doesn't mean that it does exist, or that looking for it is a good use of time.
>>44597862
The only justification you need for a weapon to have long barrel is that it will be used by humans, who can't aim accurately unless you give them every possible crutch for it.
>>44598207
>>44598262
>>44598216
Okay reddit. Here, have your ball back.
>>44597560
/thread
>>44598216
>Optimism like "someone in power gives enough of a fuck about space travel to get us there". Space is hard and there's no immediate economic payoff
But there IS a payoff, and I would think that governmental bodies most of all would be itching to tap that vein, considering how they don't have a quarterly report to justify. For fucks sake, I don't think the LHC has any immediate economic payoff, and the long term payoff of space infrastructure is magnitudes more than the LHC.
>>44598327
>and the long term payoff of space infrastructure is magnitudes more than the LHC.
says what?
>>44598298
>I have no response so I'll spam memes
>>44598322
Not even going to stoop to the Reddit bait, thank you and don't let the door hit you on the gaping asshole on the way out
>>44598262
So what is your standard of evidence that your beliefs are wrong? What would convince you that space is a dead end?
>>44598345
Says the communications network that we're all using to be on this Portuguese Narrative Scrimshaw chatroom.
>>44598350
>I have no response so I'll spam memes
>does it
Science doesn't need dishonest people to defend it.
>>44597565
Which surely is the opposite of what you want in a beam of light? You want to focus the heat to a point, so perhaps if the rifling was... mirrored because SCIENCE and it works?
>>44598383
...you think the internet is conveyed by satellites?
If you live in the deep woods, maybe.
>>44598345
Says the trillions of dollars worth of rare earth metals floating around between Mars and Jupiter.
>>44598368
>What would convince you that space is a dead end?
Proving that the celestial firmament is actually real and that there is nothing beyond the Earth-moon system.
When will humanity be satisfied?
>>44598402
The global shipping industry is also contingent on all those satellites.
>ctrl + f "hard light"
>0 results
Come on, people, it's simple. The gun generates hard light laser "projectiles" that it flings at the enemy and the rifling stabilized the solid projectile.
>>44598442
When we have achieved technological apotheosis and become as gods.
>>44598442
Perhaps after we make ourselves a god.
Or make out with one. One of those for sure.
>>44598481
>gods
Monotheism all up in this bitch! All other gods must go, only one can remain.
>>44598479
>The gun generates hard light laser "projectiles" that it flings at the enemy and the rifling stabilized the solid projectile.
For a fantasy "sci-fi" game this would be acceptable.
>>44598422
>Says the trillions of dollars worth of rare earth metals floating around between Mars and Jupiter.
Ah right, because economies are fixed things with no costs.
>Proving that the celestial firmament is actually real and that there is nothing beyond the Earth-moon system.
So something you already know to be impossible, showing either your lack of character or the fact that you just don't care if you have unfalsifiable beliefs?
As long as you don't see yourself as being better than a flat earther, that's fine.
>>44598442
When we have either discovered sexy technicolor space babes, or make them ourselves.
>>44597507
YES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_polarization
You can pass a beam of light through a filter that gives it circular polarization, effectively "rifling" the barrel, meaning the photons vibrate in a coherent corkscrew.
There is no reason you would ever do this, but it's possible dammit.
>>44598481
>>44598495
>gods
>satisfied
Then why did they create lesser beings and punish them for not doing what they want? Sometimes having sex with said beings.
>>44598422
You're wasting gestures, anon. I've argued the value of impossibly vast natural resources (long-chain hydrocarbon OCEANS, single asteroidal bodies with more rare earths than Terra's entire crustal layer) before. The stock answer is our terrible husbandry of what we already have, and how much more we could get out of terrestrial efficiency tweaks than dragging rocks from waaaaaay out yonder.
There's no reasoning with someone who cannot see a single positive. That's an ideological position, not a reasoned conclusion.
>>44598481
>Religion
>Science
Pick one, for fuck's sake.
>>44598451
You know that for most of human history nobody owned anything that wasn't made in their community?
Or do you like abusing children? Those ships don't just vanish. Your desires cause suffering.
Frankly, if you don't care, then the human race isn't worth squat and never will be.
>>44598442
When we all die horribly and go extinct. Godhood will not be enough for our hungry brains.
>>44598479
That sounds needlessly complicated and expensive.
>>44598518
>Ah right, because economies are fixed things with no costs.
Fine then; says the thousands, millions of tons of useful rare earth metals that can be used for important stuff floating between Mars and Jupiter.
>So something you already know to be impossible, showing either your lack of character or the fact that you just don't care if you have unfalsifiable beliefs?
The difference is that space IS possible. It's hard as hell, I'm not arguing that, but it is possible and we know we can do it. It's just really hard and really expensive.
Fuck the black science man and his "historically inefficient drivers", all it takes is one nation to do it for the sake of doing it (or at least for the sake of their nation a hundred or so years down the line)
>>44598514
Didn't they make some experiments some time ago where they got photons to solidify and clump together?
I heard y'all niggas talkin' bout space.
>>44598570
>Pick one, for fuck's sake.
>implying it's religion when you've hypothetically become as powerful as a classical god, with a lower case gee
>You know that for most of human history nobody owned anything that wasn't made in their community?
Yes, and?
>Or do you like abusing children? Those ships don't just vanish. Your desires cause suffering.
Everybody suffers, and the suffering of some thousands of children isn't worth halting the march of progress.
>Frankly, if you don't care, then the human race isn't worth squat and never will be.
>>>/VHEMT/
>>44598591
>Fine then; says the thousands, millions of tons of useful rare earth metals that can be used for important stuff floating between Mars and Jupiter.
Science fiction, with strong emphasis on the latter?
>but it is possible and we know we can do it
Possible does not mean practical. You need to realize that what scientists say and what engineers can do are always going to be worlds apart.
>Fuck the black science man and his "historically inefficient drivers", all it takes is one nation to do it for the sake of doing it (or at least for the sake of their nation a hundred or so years down the line)
You know more about space than the director of the hayden planetarium, random 4chan poster?
>>44598570
>Pick one, for fuck's sake.
I choose religience.
>>44598657
Why did we land on the moon?
>>44598680
Because fuck the ruskies
>>44597507
>Can making a bigger laser gun change the properties of a laser gun?
A laser pistol, rifle, and canon would have ability directly correlating to their size.
>>44598570
>>Religion
>>Science
>Pick one, for fuck's sake.
Scientology?
>>44598657
>Science fiction, with strong emphasis on the latter?
How the fuck is this science fiction? We -know- there is lots of good shit in those rocks.
>You need to realize that what scientists say and what engineers can do are always going to be worlds apart.
Of course, engineers today are just doing what the scientists of yesterday said. I see no reason why we can't get a head start.
>You know more about space than the director of the hayden planetarium, random 4chan poster?
He's a pop-sci meme, anon. Besides, since when has an astrophysicist known jack-shit about policy and national projects?
Him being smart in one field doesn't make him an authority in all fields.
>>44598655
>>implying it's religion when you've hypothetically become as powerful as a classical god, with a lower case gee
It sure appeals to the same base instincts as any religion.
>Yes, and?
International shipping is unnecessary.
>Everybody suffers, and the suffering of some thousands of children isn't worth halting the march of progress.
This is why i don't care that the species is doomed. People like you taint the entire franchise.
>>44598680
The same reason we've build needlessly large buildings and generally spend tons of money on flashy shit with little practical use. Propaganda.
>>44598690
Exactly. We already have a history of doing ridiculous shit for no tangible benefit. Like the Russians digging a twelve kilometer hole straight down just to prove they could do it.
>>44598570
>>44598698
A N T H R O P O D E I S M
>>44598680
Before the invention of the ICBM, dropping things from the moon was going to be the preferred weapon of mass destruction.
>Notwithstanding the sanitized memories so many of us have of the Apollo era, Americans were not first on the Moon because we're explorers by nature or because our country is committed to the pursuit of knowledge. We got to the Moon first because the United States was out to beat the Soviet Union, to win the Cold War any way we could. John F. Kennedy made that clear when he complained to top NASA officials in November 1962:
>I'm not that interested in space. I think it's good, I think we ought to know about it, we're ready to spend reasonable amounts of money. But we're talking about these fantastic expenditures which wreck our budget and all these other domestic programs and the only justification for it in my opinion to do it in this time or fashion is because we hope to beat them [the Soviet Union] and demonstrate that starting behind, as we did by a couple of years, by God, we passed them.
--Neil de"you only like me when i tell you what you want to hear"grasse Tyson.
>>44598591
>all it takes is one nation to do it for the sake of doing it
And that's probably going to take a long while. Space is hard and easily ignored, and the kinds of space travel that do have great economic payoffs (like large scale asteroid mining) are nowhere near practical right now, and likely won't be for a while yet. That's not a good recipe for enticing governments.
>>44598657
>You need to realize that what scientists say and what engineers can do are always going to be worlds apart.
Human flight is, a) impossible, and b) worthless.
Computers will, a) never be smaller than a room, and b) never need more than one per household. Hell, they said the same thing about televisions, if I recall.
And who needs this atomic refrigerator? My icebox is just fine!
>>44598751
>wreck our budget
This meme needs to die. The space programs budget has always been.a fraction of other programs, especially the military.
>>44598711
>How the fuck is this science fiction? We -know- there is lots of good shit in those rocks.
We know there's a lot of good stuff in the earth's core. We've dug holes before, clearly it's just a budget issue.
>Of course, engineers today are just doing what the scientists of yesterday said. I see no reason why we can't get a head start.
Because you lack the education to see.
>He's a pop-sci meme, anon.
>that's why they made him director before he was famous
Well, at least as long as people like you exist i will have all the more reason to keep my beliefs. cognitive dissonance is powerful.
>>44598577
>That sounds needlessly complicated and expensive.
It's not, if the technology is there. Look at your smart phone, man. The technology in that, just a few decades ago it would have cost an arm and a leg and filled up a whole room. Not it's smaller than a slice of bread.
What if you really need a solid projectile weapon in the distant future and hard light technology exists? You gonna revert back to gunpowder and bullets?
>>44598796
>This meme needs to die. The space programs budget has always been.a fraction of other programs, especially the military.
>i know more than the president of the united states on budgetary matters
This fucking thread.
>>44598712
>It sure appeals to the same base instincts as any religion.
Except it doesn't, since you're the one with the power rather than supplicating yourself to an imaginary entity with imaginary power.
>International shipping is unnecessary.
HAH
>This is why i don't care that the species is doomed. People like you taint the entire franchise.
Are your feelings hurt, anon? Maybe you should go blog about it.
>>44598811
>It's not, if the technology is there. Look at your smart phone, man. The technology in that, just a few decades ago it would have cost an arm and a leg and filled up a whole room. Not it's smaller than a slice of bread.
you're saying that because semiconductors were permitted by nature to exist that all things must be permissible if you want them to exist?
Because that's crazytalk.
>>44598799
>We know there's a lot of good stuff in the earth's core. We've dug holes before, clearly it's just a budget issue.
And, guess what, it turns out it's really fucking hard to dig that deep! It's even harder than space!
>>44598823
>president in the fucking 60's, who admittedly didn't care about space, and didn't live to see all the benefits reaped from it
>>44598826
>Except it doesn't, since you're the one with the power rather than supplicating yourself to an imaginary entity with imaginary power.
There's more religions than monotheism, you know.
>HAH
You know, 99% of human history?
>Are your feelings hurt, anon? Maybe you should go blog about it.
Nope. you're just confirming my biases at this point.
>>44598862
>And, guess what, it turns out it's really fucking hard to dig that deep! It's even harder than space!
"Only because it doesn't get enough funding!~"
>>president in the fucking 60's, who admittedly didn't care about space, and didn't live to see all the benefits reaped from it
Prevents him from knowing the budget? Makes you a greater expert on the budget of the united states in the 60's? Implies that he had no financial advisors who weren't smarter than you?
What should we call this amazing humility you're demonstrating?
>>44598845
>hypotheticals of a fictional universe
>crazytalk
Welcome to /tg/, feel free to help yourself with the complementary buffet of monster girls and heresy.
There is a whole lot of angry cock sucking going on in this thread, from both sides.
>>44598823
>trusting a politician
Nice job mate.
>>44598930
Thank you, perfectly objective god being.
>>44598949
Tinfoil hats only increase reception.
>>44598877
>You know, 99% of human history?
That is an extremely fallacious argument anon, and you know that. A good portion of human history was humans rolling around in mud and shit, does that mean we should go back?
>>44598902
>"Only because it doesn't get enough funding!~"
You're absolutely correct, we could probably figure it out if we put enough money to it. Unfortunately, unlike space, it has a much lower possible return for the difficulty involved.
>Prevents him from knowing the budget? Makes you a greater expert on the budget of the united states in the 60's? Implies that he had no financial advisors who weren't smarter than you?
You're forgetting something very important, anon. The space program DIDN'T wreck America's budget, and like I said, Kennedy didn't live to see all the benefits from the space program. Your argument is effectively the same as a loyalist saying "you can't beat Britain!" It makes sense from that point of view, but history has proved you wrong.
>>44598953
You're welcome.
>>44598823
>president
>budget
Congress makes budget, president approves it. And if you are all familiar with Americas process you know that even the budget makers have no idea what's in the budget
>>44598984
>That is an extremely fallacious argument anon, and you know that. A good portion of human history was humans rolling around in mud and shit, does that mean we should go back?
Should we risk being pulled back into the mud because we didn't keep our eye on the ball? or will space vanish if we don't get to it right now?
Or is it just an easy looking solution, one that originally existed as entertainment?
>You're absolutely correct, we could probably figure it out if we put enough money to it. Unfortunately, unlike space, it has a much lower possible return for the difficulty involved.
That doesn't seem to phase you.
>The space program DIDN'T wreck America's budget
and if it did, i sincerely doubt that you would care. You live in a post-scarcity fantasy world.
>>44598984
>A good portion of human history was humans rolling around in mud and shit, does that mean we should go back?
Yes. If we did it in the past, we should continue on doing it. Now excuse me while I chug mercury so I can be immortal.
>>44599012
No, we get it, you're ultimate genius who understands more than world leaders.
Why you waste all that potential on 4chan, we'll never know.
>>44599012
>not having billionaire president who can make his own budget
>with blackjack
>and hookers
>>44598980
>actually trusting a politician
Lying is very useful in politics, anon. The president had no interest in continuing space development, so saying that it would do horrible things to the budget was an easy way to make people accept the lack of money being put into space. It's not like anyone could prove him wrong then, anyway.
He's also from the fucking 60s and didn't have all the information that we have, so it's quite possible that the other anon knows more about current budgetary matters on the topic of space than Kennedy did.
>>44599012
Isn't the POTUS just a rubber stamp that congress uses to approve the budget? Like he doesn't have much to say about it, he just gets given a piece of paper he has to approve. So when politicians bitch about the president's spending and shit, it's just political play, since congress is the one who makes up the budget and pretty much tells the president to approve it?
>>44599068
Scarecrow pls
The brain is inside of you all along
You do not need wizard
GET IT BECAUSE YOUR MADE OF STRAW LIKE A SCARECROW
A STRAW MAN, IF YOU WILL
I thought you said you were leaving Luddite anon jesus Christ
>>44599093
So you've got a conspiracy theory for everything then?
Since you're the smartest person in the world and only you've figured this out?
>>44599099
Luddites don't use computers. Find some other way to call me a gook so you can feel good about shooting me.
>>44599049
>or will space vanish if we don't get to it right now?
Possibly, and there's no reason NOT to get the ball rolling.
>That doesn't seem to phase you.
>and if it did, i sincerely doubt that you would care. You live in a post-scarcity fantasy world.
>all this strawmanning
>>44599109
Man, you're really complementing everyone in this thread. It's so sweet of you to say that we're all so smart, anon.
>>44599123
If you were a gook i'd use napalm, you daego wop nigger chink
>>44599136
>Possibly, and there's no reason NOT to get the ball rolling.
Other than it stymies development and public support in other areas because funding is a finite thing.
But hey, play chicken with species extinction. God knows we can't stop you. It's base human nature.
>>44599161
>Other than it stymies development and public support in other areas because funding is a finite thing.
Anon, scientific funding as a whole could do with more dosh.
>But hey, play chicken with species extinction.
What? Funding literally the ONE THING that could make species extinction a non-issue is playing chicken? Holy shit anon, get your priorities straight.
>>44599123
I'd shoot you just for being a faggot.
>>44598930
Anon A is stating facts about science and technology in an appeal to logos, but is getting off-topic in effort to be correct.
Anon B is being pragmatic and (literally) down to earth in an appeal to pathos, but is getting too invested in winning.
What we have here is a clear case of emotion versus logic. Rationality vs Empathy. The trouble is both are losing sight of what the argument was first about: progress. We as humans need to consider both sides of the argument, because our species is divided on many fronts, internal and external. Our debates need not to be about who wins the debate, but about what we learn from it and take away to our secluded cloisters of research and culture.Sips tumbr of soda masquerading as cognac, leans back in armchair stolen from a psychiatrist's office, and tips fedora repeatedly to appear self-aware and thus above criticism.
>>44599195
>Anon, scientific funding as a whole could do with more dosh.
Go ahead and find a species that cares.
>What? Funding literally the ONE THING that could make species extinction a non-issue is playing chicken? Holy shit anon, get your priorities straight.
A steady state economy is all that can save the world. You prefer space because it gives you cake and lets you eat it too.
Like a religion.
>>44598902
>US President
>Not just a shill for the bankers
It's like you think the bailouts of 2008 were a good idea and not just the president protecting the assets of the guys who paid his way into office.
>>44599161
>Other than it stymies development and public support in other areas because funding is a finite thing.
Are we talking about the US' egregiously, pointlessly enormous budget? Also don't you think you're stretching a bit far to get to human extinction?
>>44599161
>play chicken with species extinction
That sounds like a pretty good idea, desu. We've been doing that for a while and it's worked out really well so far.
>>44599242
Don't you have a park to sit in and smoke dope while calling yourself a movement?
>>44597507
laser always fires from the very tip end. ergo, the long "barrel" is actually more electronic components, presumably the kind to make it stronger.
>>44599196Anon, you're wearing a trilby, get it right.
>>44599196
>need to consider both sides of the argument
No, the wrong side should not be allowed to poison the well with their lies!
>>44599222
>Go ahead and find a species that cares.
I'll make them care, dammit.
>A steady state economy is all that can save the world. You prefer space because it gives you cake and lets you eat it too.
At least until an asteroid kills everything, or the sun burns out, or any number of terrifying cosmic events happen.
Anything less than absolute species immortality (heat death of the universe notwithstanding) is a waste of time.
>Like a religion.
*tips fedora*
>>44599278
>Anything less than absolute species immortality (heat death of the universe notwithstanding) is a waste of time.
Thousands of years and not one drop of wisdom has entered the human brain.
You will never be happy.
>>44599242
That's a might fine rebuttal you've provided.
>>44599222
A steady state economy won't help us expand. Shit's already getting crowded down here, and the rest of the solar system has a lot of room and resources to steal. Any meaningful colonization is going to take a long while, but there's no harm in getting a little bit of a headstart.
>>44599303
I'd rather we have a few hundred thousand more years to figure it out, rather than than figuring it out now and not having any time left.
Tell me, what wisdom are we missing, oh great one?
>>44599303
I'll be happy when I can shoot laser beams from my spaceship. Shit's gonna be so cash.
>>44599303
I'll be happy when mankind is safely arrayed amongst Sol, and perhaps even beyond, so that I may die knowing that we have truly transcended beyond Earth and that we cannot be destroyed by some mere cosmic fluke.
You're just selfish.
>>44599305
The bailouts were at least 700 billion, not including the indefinite lending going on every month. The budget in 2015 was larger than ever, and the banks get to borrow (for free basically) via Quantitative Easing 1, 2, 3 and the infinity going on now. So the 700 billion is grossly understated for how much the bailouts cost. But going with the conservative 700 bill...According to the 2015 data, that amount would be about 18% of the federal budget for one year.
>>44599242
Lolbertarian pls go
>Thread on /tg/ about a stupid question
>134 replies later, a somewhat-civil discussion on the philosophy of pro and anti space travel
I love /tg/
>>44599452
NASA's budget at it's absolute peak was less than 5% of the US budget. Look at the previous picture and see how much cash is just FLYING down into Social/Medical programs, not to mention the bailouts which you asked me to compare to NASA's budget.
US could have easily let banks fail and then fund space travel for a long time. Or they could cut back a fraction from somewhere else and the US could have the space program of sci-fi's dreams.
All this to say that, no, the President is not some kind of genius that knows the best way to spend our budget. As an american, can you seriously say the money spent on the Iraq war (1.7 trillion btw) was a stroke of genius us plebs can't comprehend, or was it just dumbfuckery again?
You are an intellectual surrender monkey, all too willing to let someone else take responsibility all while robbing you blind of your financial and mental future.
>>44598570
>>Religion
>>Science
>>Pick one, for fuck's sake
>implying they're mutually exclusive
>implying they ask the same questions and seek the same answers
>>44599822
see this nigger understands.
Imaginr having to carry around a bunch of barrels for your railgun because every time it fires, the barrel fuses shut
>>44599503
>>44599452
Jumping in here to say:
People LOVE to point out NASA's tiny budget,
BUT if they got "serious" bloated funding it would quickly become as bad as the military for waste, fraud, and corruption, as happens to any program that gets a vastly inflated budget.
The tight budget is restricting but at least there's no rot.
>>44599503
5% is a massive amount.
Every single slice in >>44599452 is important and every change will be fought over tooth and nail by vast, incredibly powerful entities both inside and outside the government.
NASA produces some of the least tangible, least reliable and often not very impressive outcomes of any of these agencies as well as some truly spectacular failures. It shouldn't surprise anybody for a second that it gets table scraps.
>>44599503
>As an american, can you seriously say the money spent on the Iraq war (1.7 trillion btw) was a stroke of genius us plebs can't comprehend, or was it just dumbfuckery again?
Technically it was part of a larger national defense plan to protect strategic reserves to secure the future, as has been oil policy since supply projections from WW2, which as much as people love to rant about "so oil baron profiteering", mind you even after we've got all electric cars we're still entirely dependent on oil for other products and risk being entirely crippled unless the supply future is carefully managed lest our entire infrastructure collapse in the next century before any alternative sources become even remotely *viable* (as in can be implemented TOMORROW, not some futurism bullshit).
It just so happens the military-industrial complex has become every bit as bloated and corrupted as it was predicted to be.
The real issue is a lack of accountability and generic corruption.
>>44597507
Perhaps if you're cooling the barrel with a coil somehow.
A question, though, is why in fuck's name you'd need a barrel.
>>44599242
I remember that butt thread. I made a thread on /soc/ for people to meet up and touch my butt in new england, but no takers.
>>44598570
Just a few hundred years ago, you wouldn't have had to pick one. They were more or less intertwined.
Or you could have looked at it as a beautifully bleak expression of humanity's inability to satisfy itself that the only thing that could satisfy a human being is something that would in all likelihood be impossible to science, creating the divine out of the mundane, but you didn't think of that, did you?
>>44600755
focusing optics
>>44600755
Can you aim a pistol properly for long distance shooting? I'm not /k/ enough to know.
>>44600862
A laser would be more like a film camera than a gun
>>44600862
You can. The problem with pistols is not aiming but how a shorter barrel means a shorter distance that the projectile is accelerated by the expanding gases and a shorter distance the projectile is pushed at a well defined direction for accurancy.
There is an upper limit to how fast exploding gases can expand, so you need time and space to harness it properly.
>>44600915
I guess the part I'm having trouble wrapping my head around is how you aim at something that's the distance a rifle would fire away with a pistol. Could there be sights you could adjust? Could you keep the laser pistol steady?
>>44600944
There's plenty of things you can add onto a pistol to make it easier to aim at distance
>>44600915
>at a well defined direction for accurancy.
The bullet's direction is well defined as soon as it has squeezed into the barrel. Then we just need the rifling to get it spinning, which should happen at the same time, for it to remain that way. A normal pistol barrel is more than enough.
>There is an upper limit to how fast exploding gases can expand, so you need time and space to harness it properly.
This is also bullshit. The gasses have a maximum expansion rate, yes. But that's an upper limit. This in turn means we have an upper limit for the speed the bullet can be given. It says nothing about how long time it'll take to get there.
A longer barrel means we can mroe comfortably get the bullet up to higher speeds. Higher speeds means less wind drift, less drop, and less time for the target to move. The gun itself isn't any ore accurate, but you will be able to shoot it mroe accurately.
The rifle stocks also gives you a better grip on things, locking you and the gun in place more securely, so that you do things in a mroe consistent way. Once again that makes you shoot more accurately. If we're using iron sights the longer barrel allows for a longer sight radius, which also makes you shoot mroe accurately, since a smaller deviation in aiming shifts the sights a greater distance.
>>44597829
>>he's great because he has academic standards
FTFY
>>44598422
>Says the trillions of dollars worth of rare earth metals floating around between Mars and Jupiter.
Unfortunately retreiving them at the moment would cost significantly more than trillions of dollars, so we're going to wait. We're going to wait until terrestrial based scientific progress has made some discoveries that can be applied to space travel. Once this has been acheived going to space will cost less because other industries have laid the foundations. Once this cost reaches a satisfactory level THEN we will go into space without crippling our current economy, because that's what sensible people do. They don't go leaping forth with more enthusiasm than talent. That may be the done thing when losing one's virginity but not when advancing mankind's interests.
As for OP, Fuck man. This shit is why I ignored optics and waves.
>>44598387
Waste heat, anon. Lazsrs are only 20% to 60% energy-effective, the rest of the energy input just goes into melting the laser and you along with it. You need really good cooloing on anything resembling a combat laser.
>>44599278
>or the sun burns out
...
The sun burning out?
The motherfucking sun burning out is something that you think we should be preparing for?
The SUN?
BURNING THE FUCK OUT?
SHALL WE ALSO INVEST A THIRD OF OUR GDP IN A WELCOME BACK PARTY FOR JESUS SEEING AS THE SECOND COMING IS JUST AS BLOODY RELEVANT TO THE HUMAN RACE AT THE MOMENT?
I AM LITERALLY CRYING WITH LAUGHTER RIGHT NOW AND THAT'S IGNORING YOUR OTHER "TERRIFYING COSMIC EVENTS".
But in all seriousness don't worry kid, I'm sure the fantasic four will save us from the armegedon asteroid since we clearly live in a comic book now.
>>44599096
The President can fund certain things through executive order, and threatening a veto if the budget doesn't adequately fund a given program is a common tactic.
Congress might be the ones who write the bill, but what they write is very much affected by what the President tells them he's willing to sign.
>>44600801
I would have touched your butt, Anon. If only I'd known...
>>44597811
The coil around a ruby laser is actually a helical flash tube, it provides the light to the ruby rod
Man, that same autist who is scared of space sure shows up a lot. He must not have a life.
>>44599196
Neutrality is not always correct.
>>44597507
Hey mister! Wanna buy my wazer wiffle?
https://youtu.be/idjM3Jrp4Yw
>>44598005
>Yeah, the difference is that theories cannot be laws.
Yet another fuckwit that doesn't understand the difference between a theory and a law.
>>44597622
Okay, someone explain this to me, isn't this technically right?
Void is void, after all.
>>44603962
Because space isn't empty, dummy.
>>44603978
True, but he said specifically the empty part of space, that void stretching from body in space to body in space. Most of space is empty nothingness with an occasional cloud of gas or rocky body in between.
>>44603996
Not entirely accurate, particles spontaneously come into existence and annihilate.
Imaginary particles do exist and you can detect them. It's rather funky and exploits wave-particle duality in the detection.
>>44604082
So basically he's wrong because reality is bullshit? And "Matter cannot be created nor destroyed" is wrong? That I'll accept.
>>44603812
Please, share who it is that you think is afraid of space in this thread.
>>44604117
Basically, a particle and an anti-particle can spontaneously come into existence. This does not violate conservation of energy or momentum.
You can detect these particles by having two uncharged metal plates suspended, in a vacuum, next to one another with an absolutely miniscule gap between them. You can detect an attractive force between them. Particles are spontaneously coming into existence constantly, however due to the size of the gap the wavelength of the particles that can come into being are limited, so there are less particles impacting on the inside surfaces of the plates, thus the plates are pushed together.
>>44601027
I still think a super space soldier of the future would rather be using a laser rifle than a laser pistol.
>>44597587
...Actually, this IS a pretty good description of a free electron laser. The only bit that needs work is the "rifling", which the 'barrel' wouldn't get much benefit from as described.
>>44597507
Duh. If you rotate the laser emitter while firing it works like a drill-bit and cuts through stuff faster.
>>44597507
My character will still call it a laser rifle, hard science or not because it still looks like a rifle and fires lasers.
