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by WHATDOESIT 1366 days ago
Why are LASERs and railguns better than biological weapons? At least the more efficient a biological weapon is the less it hurts. Not an option while literally burning someone with a LASER or pushing a piece of metal through their body.

(Of course biological weapons are bad, but I don't get this preference of yours)
2 comments
krisoft 1366 days ago
> At least the more efficient a biological weapon is the less it hurts.

Maybe in some ideal scifi world.

In this one “biological weapons” are just disesases modified and packaged for warfighting. Their efficiency is measured in how little of the substance you need to kill or disable someone, and also in how reliably it kills/disables.

A headshot kills you instantly. From biolgocial weapons the ones which kill you (because do note, that is not always the aim) will torture you for hours but more likely for days before you succumb. Even longer if you get medical help. That is of course if you are lucky enough and the attack hasn’t overwhelmed the medical system where you are. Which of course they are designed to do.

Biological weapons can unleash hell on earth. They are difficult to aim with and they do not discriminate between combatants and non-combatants.

Where did you get the notion that they “hurt less”?

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whythre 1366 days ago
Biological weapons are less ethical because the chance for collateral damage is far higher. Weapons like railguns and lasers may be destructive, but they are far more precise than biological agents- the main feature of the biological weapon is its infectious nature. Even if a laser missed an intended target and harms a bystander, or strikes an innocent due to bad intel, that is still a contained tragedy.

Biological weapons can mutate or spread in unforeseen ways to infect victims other than initial targets, and a virus or bacterium does not destinguish between combatants and non-combatants. A biological weapon can cause suffering on a much larger scale than the initial deployment of the weapon, which is why they are widely banned.

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WHATDOESIT 1366 days ago
Very good point that I didn't think of, thanks.
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