11 replies to this topic

[Squillimy]

I'm sure most of you know what Rail Guns are; guns that fire projectiles through electromagnetic force instead of use of gunpowder. most of you have probably already seen this video. A naval test shot below:

 

 

 

I was looking at this and i started wondering if its possible to shrink these down to size and make them into regular guns, replacing gunpowder all together. I started searching google and came across this, called the Coil Gun which uses the same concept but in a smaller, handheld form. This guy literally builds it himself!:

 

 

 

What do you guys think? do you think that in the future we could replace gunpowder all together? We are always talking about how electricity is the future so that's why i found this interesting. The main problem is the reload time on these things and the fact that its hard to have enough electricity for long-term uses packed on a small handgun. But this could be solved in the future with advances in nano and battery technology. Also it would be incredibly bad ass to be able to simply plug your gun up to an outlet and recharge it!

 

I'm sure alot of you probably arent too interested in gun technology and im not extremely hot about it either. But still its cool to imagine what kind of weaponry we'll have after we move past the traditional gunpowder / bullet technology we've utilized for so long. It's one step closer to having laser guns & laser cannons. PEW-PEW!

Edited by Squillimy, 21 February 2013 - 03:34 AM.

[SG-1]

Wouldn't an EMP make this worthless?

Eventually I would bet we just get rid of guns all together, but before that day gunpowder will probably go.

 

EDIT: I just watched the video, and it doesn't look very powerful.  Enough to kill an unarmored person but not anything more probably.  More voltage and better conductors would boost it.  Superconductors, laser fusion and magnets. 

Edited by SG-1, 21 February 2013 - 05:08 AM.

[Squillimy]

well ofcourse. but that's why i think with advances in technology maybe some day it could be as powerful as a regular gun. electricity and batteries have come a long way but they still have a long way to go.

 

as for the EMP, maybe the gun could have a protective shield around it to prevent it from being wiped out by interference? idk its just a thought, i hadnt really thought of an EMP situation but if that was the case i'm sure there'd be bigger problems than guns not working lmao.

 

Also i dont know if we'll ever give up guns. the only way it'll ever happen is if nobody has anything that anyone else wants, which would have to be a super post scarcity 100% equal world. Even at post scarcity people would kill/threaten for wants not needs. also people use guns to kill for emotional reasons, so that'd have to be eliminated too, which i obviously don't see happening. And don't forget about hunting which is simply for sport or as a food source that many people enjoy. so yea they're here for the long run!

Edited by Squillimy, 21 February 2013 - 05:33 AM.

[stuffed_leader]

Rail guns won't become personal, they will be confined to naval ships, artillery  and spacecraft. Rail guns produce an insane amount of heat and  the navy must replace the rails  with every shot. Even with advanced nano materials KE weapons are going to be a "one shot/ minute" type of gun. But coil guns could easily increase in power in the coming years and replace gunpowder weapons.  

 

EMP wouldn't be  problem if each weapon used pico tech to alter the magnetic properties, but that is a long way off .  

[SG-1]

Well think about somewhere in Iraq, imagine there is a shoot off, and a small emp is set off in the field.  The guns would be useless, and it wouldn't cause much damage to the terrorists or the city around it.

 

Now imagine if someone set off a giant EMP over america, besides cars not working it would be even worse.  So it just adds to a list of complications, plus it isn't strong.

 

Maybe, but we are a long way off.  Gunpowder is probably cheaper and more effective and will remain that way for decades at the least.

[Squillimy]

yea ofcourse, i agree that gunpowder will be around for a long time. but i just find it hard to imagine us - like by yr 2100 for example - still using gunpowder. it seems kinda a primitive way to create weapons, even though i know they have only gotten more and more advanced over the year. but i see us abandoning all "naturally occuring" earth materials in the future which we make alot of our current technology with. its weird that we still use this stuff and its been around for hundreds of years; china was using it with bombs during the medieval eras!

[SG-1]

Well assuming the singularity happens anything past that point, which most of us can agree that if it does happen - it will probably be within this century, all bets are off.  Predicting much of anything past then will be very inaccurate.  Not to mention predictions past 10 years are usually very hard and historically most who did were wrong.

 

Gunpowder though, it will be ~50-100 years probably.

[Squillimy]

I dont really think it'll be hard to predict things after the singularity personally. I think the inventions won't be hard to predict. However i think it'll be hard to predict the timeframe that they are invented, and their usefulness / impact on society. I mean we all know quantum computers are going to become invented, eventually possibly even flying cars too, and obviously fusion power and maybe even antimatter power. but After the singularity i think itll be difficult to tell when these will come into play (if they don't occur by the time the singularity hits), because they could be invented in the singularity, but a couple days later something more efficient could be created.

 

It could get to a point where by the time we create a fusion nuclear power plant, we've already discovered howto make an antimatter one, and so on. Since the rate of technology advance will approach an exponential limit. But we'll just have to see .

 

Who knows the singularity could hit and coil guns is a revolutionary type of new gun, but only years later something completely new is made as dozens of years of progress happend in the course of a month. Hopefully the singularity will further reduce the need for war though.

[SG-1]

That's what I meant  Also we don't know how it will affect society, how well they will work or other things.  Like in the 50s they thought flying cars would be like the Jetsons, we know now flying cars will be with fans.  We also have instant communication, in the 19th century people said there would be picture telephones. 

 

A 19th century person had the right idea but not the correct way of achieving that goal.  They had the concept down though.  All those predictions about quantum computers and flying cars, uploading minds.  It is all based off of our level of technology.  The singularity will allow completely new ideas to form, try to explain an iPhone to someone from the medieval ages.

But yeah, there are some things that we can predict accurately for a long time.

[Squillimy]

true true, but i think that nowadays we can predict technology a little bit better than in the past mainly because of the knowledge that has grown since then and the fact that alot of futuristic ideas are now based on technology that is being developed rather than already exists.

 

Such as if you showed a late 19th century person mind reading they would think its magic, even though they had some technology back then, this technology is out of their comprehension because they have no reference to it. because they don't know brain waves exist. Obviously if you showed it to one of us we'd see it as more realistic, since research is already underway for that technology.

 

Obviously we are closer to 'mind information' technology so its not the best example. But if you say the same thing about if we saw an intergalactic space ship; because of our existing theories of physics, we've already been working on speculative things like string theory and hyperspace, also theories on wormholes, FTL travel, quantum gravity, hyper and sub dimensional quantum physics. All that crazy shit and more!. So we'd actually be able to comprehend such things because we have reference to it... It's like we've already reached a breaking point where we're egocentric enough to think that EVERYTHING in the world of physics is possible, and someone somewhere is working day in and day out trying to make any one of these things come into reality.

 

Obviously there are some things that we completely havent thought of yet that would come out of a singularity event. something like that would be phenominal and that's what im really excited for!

Edited by Squillimy, 22 February 2013 - 06:07 AM.

[TransAustin]

http://youtu.be/TWeJsaCiGQ0

[KomissarBojantchev]

Railguns ARE the future. No gunpowder or missile can possibly terminally speed up a projectile to 10000m/s while its possible with railguns.At above 2000m/s the material and mass of the projectile makes less of difference of what damage it does. And it has massive shock and explosive power. A railgun fired rifle calibre bullet would have the same chock damage power as a howitzer round . While it wouldn't have as much armor penetrating power as a plasma jet it would just shatter armor and electronics of future armored vehicles . Projectiles will also be very cheap. it would have unmatched performance in space due to no atmoshere slowing down the projectile while in land battles it would serve as an APSFDS round: unmatched short range velocity and penetration but lower performance at range.