Yet another weird SF fan


I'm a mathematician, a libertarian, and a science-fiction fan. Common sense? What's that?

Go to first entry


 

Archives

<< current
 
E-mail address:
jhertzli AT ix DOT netcom DOT com


My Earthlink/Netcom Site

My Tweets

My other blogs
Small Sample Watch
XBM Graphics


The Former Four Horsemen of the Ablogalypse:
Someone who used to be sane (formerly War)
Someone who used to be serious (formerly Plague)
Rally 'round the President (formerly Famine)
Dr. Yes (formerly Death)

Interesting weblogs:
Back Off Government!
Bad Science
Blogblivion
Boing Boing
Debunkers Discussion Forum
Deep Space Bombardment
Depleted Cranium
Dr. Boli’s Celebrated Magazine.
EconLog
Foreign Dispatches
Good Math, Bad Math
Greenie Watch
The Hand Of Munger
Howard Lovy's NanoBot
Hyscience
Liberty's Torch
The Long View
My sister's blog
Neo Warmonger
Next Big Future
Out of Step Jew
Overcoming Bias
The Passing Parade
Peter Watts Newscrawl
Physics Geek
Pictures of Math
Poor Medical Student
Prolifeguy's take
The Raving Theist
RealityCarnival
Respectful Insolence
Sedenion
Seriously Science
Shtetl-Optimized
Slate Star Codex
The Speculist
The Technoptimist
TJIC
Tools of Renewal
XBM Graphics
Zoe Brain

Other interesting web sites:
Aspies For Freedom
Crank Dot Net
Day By Day
Dihydrogen Monoxide - DHMO Homepage
Fourmilab
Jewish Pro-Life Foundation
Libertarians for Life
The Mad Revisionist
Piled Higher and Deeper
Science, Pseudoscience, and Irrationalism
Sustainability of Human Progress


























Yet another weird SF fan
 

Monday, August 11, 2003

Terrorist Attacks on Low- and High-Density Areas

Jay Manifold speculates about the possibility of a terrorist attack on Kansas City, a very low-density metropolitan area. It's hard to arrange a terrorist attack on Kansas City using methods such as explosions or nerve gas. If the attack method can “live off the land,” on the other hand, its power is proportional to the area, so low density is no defense. At present, the only reliable terrorist attack that can extract resources from its surroundings is arson. Arson is commonly used by the Earth Liberation Front, but it's rarely spectacular enough to make headlines. That can change.

If the terrorists use gray goo as a terrorist weapon, they may prefer to attack areas with more potential food for the goo available. Food sources may include the obvious (gas storage tanks, oil storage tanks, munitions dumps) and also the not so obvious (reams of paper, asphalt roads, nearby trees, or maybe even lawns). If it will release energy when combined with oxygen, it is a potential gray-goo food. A low-density area might still be relatively safe, but only if all the streets are concrete instead of asphalt and if lawns and trees are prohibited.

High-density areas are not necessarily easier targets, even at present. Biological attacks might be less effective in areas with more hospitals. It's probably easier to wash radioactivity from a “dirty bomb” off concrete than out of dirt. The vulnerability of skyscrapers can be reduced by building down instead of building up. For a while, it seemed possible there could be a few survivors in some of the World Trade Center's basements.

In general, there are two types of ways to deal with terrorism: to reduce people's options in the hope terrorists will be unable to carry out their plans or to allow people to foil the terrorists on their own (also known as the pack-not-a-herd principle). Since terrorists depend on surprise, it is impossible to anticipate their every move. We will have to depend on letting people improvise. It is, of course, easier to improvise a response when there are more people around.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

 
Profiles
My Blogger Profile
eXTReMe Tracker X-treme Tracker


The Atom Feed This page is powered by Blogger.