Future Weapons: ?Wait a minute, this is the future. Where are all the phaser guns?? ? Simon Phoenix

[Iron_will]

I would just like to say that I despise the idea that in the future say 100 years from now they still use basic weaponry just buffed up rather than approach it logically with the advances in technology.

"Basic weapon just buffed up" is quite logical.

Using bullets in the future? WHY would we still use bullets given 100 maybe even 1000 years of technological advancements?

If we still use them in the next millennia, it would be because they still work. If they became ineffective, we wouldn't use them anymore.

Better yet, why would I use a laser gun? Where are my rare materials from other planets that are volatile beyond comparison, why don't I have weapons that say even for a silly example have some introduction of ceasium which is wholesomely volatile when in contact with water, to the point it shatters a bathtub? I could just pop people and maybe buildings with some rock and spit, hows that for weaponry?!

That just sounds like a typical bomb.

Where are my satellite weapons that destabilize the cores of planets and turn it into a molten fiery timebomb of death?

Sometimes, you don't want to destroy an entire planet.
I'm honestly more partial to relativistic kill projectiles myself (especially the 95%+ lightspeed range).
The energy required for them clearly means I would need have the appropriate technology to utilize that energy.
If it was easy to make it would be an incredibly effective terror weapon.

Why can't I use this teleporter launcher to make his brain displace 5 feet away from him but not the rest of him? And how has science found ways to counter these weapons?

What's the point of that? You might as well just use a gun if you're intent is to kill.

Why do we see people get hit bit lasers once and die in a future where they have been around for centuries?

Because they're that effective. Or their armor isn't quite up to standard.

It's actually quite fun deducing the reasons something is (like the weaponry and stuff we're talking about) the way it is in fiction. Unless it's plothole, inconsistency, or something.

I disagree that Jedi can not block bullets, as seen in the prequels they can move very fast, IE blurry, simply apply that to their blocking capability and they can move fast enough to block and dodge income bullets.

How fast is "very fast", though? Just because someone can move "very fast" doesn't automatically mean they are fast enough.

A 5.56mm bullet can travel at more than 900m/s. So, at 100m range, they have 0.1 seconds (rounding down) before the bullet reaches them. To see the bullet, recognise it (5.56mm across and less than 25mm long at 100m) as a threat, determine where it's going and where the lightsabre has to be to block it.

If they could move anywhere near that fast, you'd not be able to see a lightsabre fight at all.

If its blurry to the human eye, its fast enough to upgrade the fiction to be able to block bullets. You also forget the precognitive ability of force uses who basically should be able see the projectory of the bullets as well, add speed you can block all kinds of things. They do not use it in the fiction because they do not have to but if push came to shove it could be easily done IMO.


TLR: Anime

They do not use it in the fiction because they do not have to but if push came to shove it could be easily done IMO.

Err, you shouldn't assume that.
Have they demonstrated reaction and movement speeds needed for blocking a bullet? And if they haven't, you really shouldn't assume they can do it.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

I disagree that Jedi can not block bullets, as seen in the prequels they can move very fast, IE blurry, simply apply that to their blocking capability and they can move fast enough to block and dodge income bullets.

How fast is "very fast", though? Just because someone can move "very fast" doesn't automatically mean they are fast enough.

A 5.56mm bullet can travel at more than 900m/s. So, at 100m range, they have 0.1 seconds (rounding down) before the bullet reaches them. To see the bullet, recognise it (5.56mm across and less than 25mm long at 100m) as a threat, determine where it's going and where the lightsabre has to be to block it.

If they could move anywhere near that fast, you'd not be able to see a lightsabre fight at all.

If its blurry to the human eye, its fast enough to upgrade the fiction to be able to block bullets. You also forget the precognitive ability of force uses who basically should be able see the projectory of the bullets as well, add speed you can block all kinds of things. They do not use it in the fiction because they do not have to but if push came to shove it could be easily done IMO.


TLR: Anime

They do not use it in the fiction because they do not have to but if push came to shove it could be easily done IMO.

Err, you shouldn't assume that.
Have they demonstrated reaction and movement speeds needed for blocking a bullet? And if they haven't, you really shouldn't assume they can do it.

Looking at Clone wars and Unleashed the standard fiction has room to grow, so I would expect if they updated the lazes/weapons whatever to bullet speeds force uses would implement bullet time or faster than sound movement along with sensing trajectories. So meh saying it can not be done is rather short sighted and over limiting. The reason its not done has more to do with tradition, visual effects and the medium of fiction its focused upon more than "fictional super human characters can not block bullets because I said so" mindsets.


If you incorporate it into the fiction then the fiction will change like a snow ball rolling down a hill and will mostly balance itself out or stagnate into worthless drool.

 

[Iron_will]

Spoiler

I disagree that Jedi can not block bullets, as seen in the prequels they can move very fast, IE blurry, simply apply that to their blocking capability and they can move fast enough to block and dodge income bullets.

How fast is "very fast", though? Just because someone can move "very fast" doesn't automatically mean they are fast enough.

A 5.56mm bullet can travel at more than 900m/s. So, at 100m range, they have 0.1 seconds (rounding down) before the bullet reaches them. To see the bullet, recognise it (5.56mm across and less than 25mm long at 100m) as a threat, determine where it's going and where the lightsabre has to be to block it.

If they could move anywhere near that fast, you'd not be able to see a lightsabre fight at all.

If its blurry to the human eye, its fast enough to upgrade the fiction to be able to block bullets. You also forget the precognitive ability of force uses who basically should be able see the projectory of the bullets as well, add speed you can block all kinds of things. They do not use it in the fiction because they do not have to but if push came to shove it could be easily done IMO.


TLR: Anime

They do not use it in the fiction because they do not have to but if push came to shove it could be easily done IMO.

Err, you shouldn't assume that.
Have they demonstrated reaction and movement speeds needed for blocking a bullet? And if they haven't, you really shouldn't assume they can do it.

Looking at Clone wars and Unleashed the standard fiction has room to grow, so I would expect if they updated the lazes/weapons whatever to bullet speeds force uses would implement bullet time or faster than sound movement along with sensing trajectories. So meh saying it can not be done is rather short sighted and over limiting. The reason its not done has more to do with tradition, visual effects and the medium of fiction its focused upon more than "fictional super human characters can not block bullets because I said so" mindsets.


If you incorporate it into the fiction then the fiction will change like a snow ball rolling down a hill and will mostly balance itself out or stagnate into worthless drool.

Thing is, they haven't shown they're capable of that.
What you're describing actually sounds like a retcon of their abilities.

I'm not saying that they definitely can't, it's that they haven't displayed such capabilities so we can't assume they can, at least in the movie canon.

 

[Ryan Hughes]

Okay, if you've ever got time to waste, and feel like it please let me know. I'm terrible at the math part of physics, so there's a lot of stuff I can't figure on my own.

I am not too terribly good at physics math myself, but knowing a few of the basics really helps you apply those principles to other systems and environments. Chaotic electron re-absorption is easiest to understand using the basic "Three-body Problem" or "n-body Problem," which almost goes all the way back to the Greeks.

Basically, once you get three or more gravitational bodies present in a system, they behave chaotically, and their patterns only rarely repeat, even though they are still following the laws of physics. Josef Lagrange and later Ponciare proved that the movements could be predicted if one of those bodies only had nominal gravity compared to the other two. This is why the Earth-Sun-Moon system is not chaotic, because the moon is only of nominal gravity compared to the sun. But systems with three or more roughly equal gravities are what lead to the formation of Chaos Theory.

Oddly much the same chaotic system rears its head in particle physics and quantum theory as well. For the case of plasma, when we say "plasma" we are usually referring to the nuclei, as the electrons become fluid and it is nearly impossible to tell where they are at any given point, due to Heisenberg's Uncertainty. Thus, the "core" of the plasma usually gains a positive charge as it sheds these fluid electrons. As soon as the plasma begins to lose energy though, electrons are either pulled back into the nuclei from the fluid field, or are pulled from the surrounding atmosphere. Now, you have positive plasma, a negative electron field, and newly ionized gasses from the surrounding atmosphere, all playing against one another. Or, what can be described as a three-body problem, effected by electromagnetism instead of gravity.

This model does not even mention the thousands of other variables, such as changes in air density and charge. Basically, all the elements will follow their own laws of physics, but there are so many variables that the magnitude of the complexity makes it impossible to predict in advance. Using standard models, one might be able to tell why a beam of plasma veered off one way or another after the fact, but the variables before hand are just too complex and change widely by the fraction of a second.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-body_problem

Sorry, there is some scary math there on the wiki, but just ignore it for now and read the article, it does a good job of explaining things verbally.

 

[DefunctTheory]

I think the laser weapons from Warhammer 40K did somewhat solve the "if they aren't better, why bother?" problem a bit. They're not that much better than ordinary firearms, but the batteries can be recharged when they are drained. It's probably a bit more economic than to supply vast hordes of conscripts with real rounds that must be transported and accounted for.

Lasguns, like much of Warhammer 40K, are a bit inconsistent. They range from 'a bit better then firearms' to 'can blow of limbs with glancing shots.' Either one is moot, however, since the poor guardsman are basically fighting the culmination of 20 thousand years of human nightmares, brought to life by magic, impossibly ancient aliens, or your beast friend who's now wearing your guts as a fancy hat. At that point, it hardly matters.

For the Imperium!

It is interesting because there was a phase where we stopped believing in energy weapons. That's why they use projectile firearms in Aliens, Total Recall etc, it was more believable that we'd never figure out energy weapons at all. Now that we're getting closer to a future where hand held energy weapons become available, that should change.

They stopped using them because they have very little impact and are visually uninteresting. Projectile weapons buck around, they make a fuck ton of noise, fire flash and smoke spew everywhere, stuff explodes and sprays blood everywhere - it creates chaos and things that have clear, visual impact.

Beam weapons are, for the most part, displayed as point and shoot. Its boring. And its also (Or at least it used to be) more expensive to do then just piecing together a blank gun, a bunch of molded plastic for the future look, and a bunch of squibs on what you want to shoot.

I do not know much about Twilight but Harry Potter is easy. Firstly; the Harry Potter series takes place almost entirely in the UK where firearms are pretty rare. Secondly; the magic that they use in Harry Potter makes firearms obsolete. Keep in mind that the "shouting incantations" bit is for students and focus on what the teachers and Aurors can do. They have a stick that can kill twelve people in a single shot (Pettigrew), take over someone's mind (Voldemort, Harry Potter others), transfigure things (anybody), destroy entire bridges (Deather Eaters), alter weather (also Death Eaters), shield themselves and others (Dumbledore), the list goes on and on. Then they have invisible allies that suck the soul out of you and can't be defeated through mundane means. Why would anyone in the Wizarding world use a gun? Comedic relief? There's also a theory that since most Wizards weren't even aware of guns, that Wizard blood made you immune to normal injuries. After all, I am pretty sure that most of us are aware of anything that can kill us, so for something to be completely off the radar, it would have to be really harmless.

Actually, guns are rated above wands in the Harry Potter verse, and its hinted pretty heavily that the wizarding world, for all of its neat tricks, is of virtually no danger to the muggles around them. The wizards displayed in the book are sometimes an exception, but they represent the cream of the crop, and even they would be pretty much helpless in the presence of competent muggle soldiers.

As for the original topic... I'm always partial to magnetics.