01-21-2017, 06:54 PM
Todd: There doesn't have to be a rational reason to go to war. In fact, there almost never is, at least for the aggressor. (Going to war when someone has already gone to war with you is not only rational, but vital for national survival.)
I can think of many reasons for interstellar war. One is paranoia; "do unto others before they do it to you". Another is fanaticism of various sorts; currently, religious fanaticism is the most likely excuse for war on Earth, and fanaticism regarding political systems caused many wars in the 20th century.
Another one is accidental war. It's more complicated than this I know, but WWI was partially accidental and caused by the ever-growing accumulations of war material in all countries involved; unfortunately, such buildups are self-reinforcing. And we came very close to accidental thermonuclear war at least twice. (Poorly written software, mostly.)
Taking this to an interstellar civilisation: Without any fom of FTL, to make any sort of coherent interstellar society work requires relativistic speeds and the associated gigantic energies. It doesn't take much of a course change to turn a ramscoop freighter into a world-wrecking weapon. The energy content of a vehicle at 0.9c is comparable to the same mass of antimatter, and less of the energy is wasted in a collision. A 1000-ton ship at such speeds works out at roughly 132 teratons of TNT equivalent, roughly the same as the Chixculub impact. Realistically, freighters would probably be much bigger than that; after all, they have to sustain the crew for decades.
(This is old news to all here, of course, but worth re-stating I think.)
So what do you do, when you see a ramscoop drive light up at your next-door neighbour, headed your way? After all, you can't be sure the ship will make turnover at midpoint.
I can think of many reasons for interstellar war. One is paranoia; "do unto others before they do it to you". Another is fanaticism of various sorts; currently, religious fanaticism is the most likely excuse for war on Earth, and fanaticism regarding political systems caused many wars in the 20th century.
Another one is accidental war. It's more complicated than this I know, but WWI was partially accidental and caused by the ever-growing accumulations of war material in all countries involved; unfortunately, such buildups are self-reinforcing. And we came very close to accidental thermonuclear war at least twice. (Poorly written software, mostly.)
Taking this to an interstellar civilisation: Without any fom of FTL, to make any sort of coherent interstellar society work requires relativistic speeds and the associated gigantic energies. It doesn't take much of a course change to turn a ramscoop freighter into a world-wrecking weapon. The energy content of a vehicle at 0.9c is comparable to the same mass of antimatter, and less of the energy is wasted in a collision. A 1000-ton ship at such speeds works out at roughly 132 teratons of TNT equivalent, roughly the same as the Chixculub impact. Realistically, freighters would probably be much bigger than that; after all, they have to sustain the crew for decades.
(This is old news to all here, of course, but worth re-stating I think.)
So what do you do, when you see a ramscoop drive light up at your next-door neighbour, headed your way? After all, you can't be sure the ship will make turnover at midpoint.