Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Pointless Question #16

Technology has advanced to the point that high quality robotics are commonplace, everyone's got a cyberbrain, and a trip to the Crab Nebula is a good five minutes in your jalopy spaceship. Why then, do so many mooks come equipped with laser weaponry that fires projectiles so much slower than, you know, bullets?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Because bullets can pierce the hull, and flashy light-zaps don't (because I say they don't)?

Also, they're mooks. Give 'em a break.

Don said...

Pure nostalgia value, of course. Everyone wanted the future to be like Star Wars, so naturally it ended up that way.

Anonymous said...

Something about a light-speed shot that is barely audible at best and invisible except for the burned out hole in whatever it hits seems like a much scarrier future weapon.

Tom Foss said...

Bullets have weight. You don't think you're going to accelerate a giant spaceship past lightspeed with tons of unnecessary lead on-board, do you?

Anonymous said...

They forgot to wind up their laser guns again, so the shots are all droopy.

Anonymous said...

The Fairness In Battles Act 2112, subsection 21, paragraph 14 [Acceptable Weaponry] requires that all weaponry must give the target an opportunity to dodge.

However, this leads on to another pointless question: why do all those robots have slower-than-human reaction times?

Anonymous said...

Easy... "the slow blade penetrates the shield..."

Anonymous said...

RodeoBob, did Dune rip off The Forever War, or vice versa?

Anyway, I don't know why everyone's so befuddled--it's clearly the Rule of Cool.

J. J. Ramsey said...

A fixed version of grendelkhan's link: Rule of Cool

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Ramsey. Curse my metal body!

Derek said...

Better question: with all these laser weapons available, why are people still fighting with katanas?