However, planetary defense is simpler than planetary attack as a fleet of weapons approaching a planet will be visible in advance. As a result, there is no first strike advantage in interplanetary war.
At least, assuming current technologies with nuclear missiles. Maybe near-light speed kinetic weapons will be unstoppable as well as directed explosions of multigigatone nukes.
Nanotech also favors defenders as the whole surface will be covered with nanobots and secret replication is impossible.
What if one planet has perfected ‘psy-ops disinformation propaganda weapons of mass confusion and disablement’, and the other has perfected ‘bio-hacking biotech, retro-virtues that cause your own body to continually make subtle mind-altering drugs’? Who wins?
Even really good visibility does not help much to really answer questions of these types.
I think at this point we’re assuming technology so wildly alien and near magic-like that we can’t really do predictions. Nor is it clear why would the two planets diverge so far when, again, they’re less than one light-hour apart.
However, planetary defense is simpler than planetary attack as a fleet of weapons approaching a planet will be visible in advance. As a result, there is no first strike advantage in interplanetary war.
At least, assuming current technologies with nuclear missiles. Maybe near-light speed kinetic weapons will be unstoppable as well as directed explosions of multigigatone nukes.
Nanotech also favors defenders as the whole surface will be covered with nanobots and secret replication is impossible.
Nano-tech vs Nuclear: Who wins?
What if one planet has perfected ‘psy-ops disinformation propaganda weapons of mass confusion and disablement’, and the other has perfected ‘bio-hacking biotech, retro-virtues that cause your own body to continually make subtle mind-altering drugs’? Who wins?
Even really good visibility does not help much to really answer questions of these types.
I think at this point we’re assuming technology so wildly alien and near magic-like that we can’t really do predictions. Nor is it clear why would the two planets diverge so far when, again, they’re less than one light-hour apart.