this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2026
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I was kinda just daydreaming a storyline while cleaning a car when i had this thought. From what i remember an emp is a thing that can temporarily (or in some cases permanently) disable electronic devices without necessary harming anything else like people. Question is, does the opposite exist?

Story stuff if you're interested, warning it's pretty long and not at all relavent to the questionI don't know how to properly convey this storyline since it comes with a lot of other story stuff mixed with some oc characters^1^ with their own stories tied to them, it's a mess of a universe that only i understand (doesn't help that i don't have any of it in writing).

But basically at this point of the story humanity had been at war with machines^2^ for a while now, and while they been on the losing side, their leaders came up with a plan to turn the tides of the war.

^2^ Spoilers, they were actually robots with trapped demons in them that they use as a energy source, including their weapons. Said demons were summoned using the corpses of living beings to possess, then trapped into a robot suit with an ai chip to controls them.

It was a huge battle, many were lost on both sides but it seemed like the rebellion would win this fight. As the fight went on one of the leaders from both sides came face to face; one a crystalline warrior^1^ who had been key in the rebellion's fights, the other a dreadnought model, the leader of the machines that had been their nightmare.

They both fought hard, and both the fight and the ensuing battle was all but certain to go to the rebellion, but then, the dreadnought opened it's chest plate to reveal... a bio-nuke to eradicate all biological life within the area, with a timer set for a mere 15 seconds. The warrior panicked, thoughts racing through his head; he likely could survive this from where he's standing, he lived though worse, but the rebellion...

He looked back at his army and made a difficult choice, he lunges forward, grabs the dreadnought by the torso, and prepared to make great leap high into the sky in hopes that maybe, just maybe the rebellion could make a retreat in time.

We then cut into a far away overhead view of the facility outside, it's quite and still for a few moments, save for a black dot that flies up before we see a huge, green explosion in the sky from where it was; Then... it cuts to black

tl:dr: thought of this question for a storyline while cleaning a car, if emp can disable robots without hruting people, could the opposite thing?

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[–] Steve@communick.news 27 points 1 day ago (2 children)

A Neutron Bomb is kind of what you're thinking of.

A type of atom bomb designed to maximize radiation output while minimizing the physical explosion. The idea is like you said, maximize casualties with minimal other damage.

[–] CapuccinoCoretto@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

...or a Cobalt Bomb

Designed to leave highly radioactive fallout for years and years. The radioactive fallout is far more dangerous to life than the original nuke because of its spread, toxicity and persistence.

[–] Kess8a@lemy.lol 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Huh, that's surprising close to what i was thing of!

*Sidenote - of course it would be the US to be the one to have invented it

[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Do you really think no one else was working on such things?

Keep in mind the US had a demonstrated monopoly on atomic weapons for 4 years. They could've easily threatened the entire world to capitulate to them, and shut down the Soviet Union's research.

What do you think would've happened if Japan had gotten it first, or Stalin? I can guarantee Japan would have used their advantage ruthlessly.

[–] h54@programming.dev 5 points 1 day ago

To be fair, the US did use the bomb ruthlessly and some claim unnecessarily. The US also basically menaced the non US-aligned world with their advantage.

My point being the US wasn't better than her ops at the time.

[–] Kess8a@lemy.lol 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

~~I know that others were working on it as well, it's just that i think it's typical for them to be one of the earliest to come up with different ways to blow people up~~ sorry, just saw your edit

From my understand, no matter what it would had been made. If the us had not made it, someone else would've either way

[–] zqwzzle@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago
[–] Davel23@fedia.io 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Neutron bombs are designed to produce a powerful neutron pulse which kills biological organisms but causes relatively little kinetic or thermal damage.

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 4 points 1 day ago

Came here to say something like this, except I learned it from the (rather dark) joke "The neutron bomb was invented by an architect with no friends."

[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] hitmyspot@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago

Yes, either a novel virus. Or a modified version of something like measles that can cause immune amnesia?

[–] lagg_mine@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

Strongly depends if you tolerate permanent damage to the humans. Otherwise there are a billion biological weapons that will do the job

[–] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago
[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

A strobe light triggering an epileptic seizure, maybe? There was that one episode of the Pokemon cartoon that sent 600 people to the hospital.

[–] Kess8a@lemy.lol 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It probably would only work for a few people while just giving the rest headaches though, at least for me i could withstand strobing lights for a bit, much less get knocked out by it

Also i remember that, while a few kids did have epilepsy, most of them that were sent to the hospital were experiencing mass hysteria after hearing about it and rewatching the episode

[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Not really. EMPs work by messing with the electromagnetic field. This essentially causes a surge of electricity in otherwise open circuits. There's nothing really that would affect human internal components without also hurting us externally.

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 day ago

A lot of people have already mentioned neutron bombs, which are more immediate, but things like infected hoards of mosquitoes, rats, etc. would be devastating, especially for urban populations. One of the main reasons why the native peoples in the Americas and Australia didn't put up much of a resistance against European colonialism was due to the spread of foreign diseases killing the majority of the population, and in many cases, the idea of deliberate infections has been brought up (whether this was implemented is pretty controversial and still an open question). The Black Death is another example, and aside from how many people died from it across Eurasia, the corpses of those who died from the plague were used as a weapon.

And of course, you have all the chemical and bioweapons of the 20th century developed by the Germans, the Japanese, the Americans, the Soviets, etc., all of which have been used for mass killings, warfare, and terrorism.

[–] shyguyblue@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

If I remember correctly, in sci-fi at least, a neutrino bomb kills the people but leaves their stuff...

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

There are many medicines and chemicals that can incapacitate somebody.

Something like aerosolized chloroform, for instance, if you had enough of it could possibly cause many people to pass out, and as long as there was a prevailing wind to clear it out before it reached whatever the toxic level of chloroform is, then people affected by it would be fine after it wore off.

[–] Triumph@fedia.io 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Chloroform takes a lot longer to knock someone out than movies would have you believe.

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago

And knowing that is specifically why I chose the phrase "something like aerosolized chloroform" rather than saying "chloroform can do this!"

[–] Kess8a@lemy.lol 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Interesting! That would have to be like a spray though wouldn't it?

An emp is something that could be deployed and have an immediate effect, I was thinking some more along that line

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Yeah, and it's kind of fortunate that at least as far as we know nothing like that exists because otherwise militaries would use it as an anti-personnel weapon.

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

Agent Orange.

[–] HerbalGamer@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago
[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Literally any bio/chemical agent like mustard or sarin gas?

[–] hobata@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

neutron bomb