Aardvark Daily

Please visit the sponsor!

When a computer game becomes reality

If, like me, you were into Atari computer gaming back in the late 1970s and early 1980s then there is one game that was iconic.

Well actually there were plenty of games that became iconic on the Atari console, 400 and 800 microcomputers.

Asteroids and Pacman are probably the first to spring to mind but there was another that was seemingly easy yet soon became frustratingly difficult as the game progressed.

That game was "Missile Command" and as I watched the Iranian missiles being intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome defense system it appeared as if this old Atari game has now become an horrific reality.

Unlike Missile Command, the Iron Dome interceptors require little or no human control -- they are guided by sophisticated electronics to intercept incoming missiles however, just as with the game, too many incoming missiles can make it impossible to stop all of them.

I would not even try to estimate the amount of money that has been spent on both the incoming missiles and those launched in defense but I'm sure we're already heading into the tens of billions. Each of the patriot missiles used to create the Iron Dome costs US$4 million and video footage indicates that scores of these have already been launched.

The ballistic missiles being launched by Iran are also hugely expensive although there is no reliable pricing information available although figures of between $3m and $8m are often cited.

While all this fireworks in the sky might provide macabre entertainment for those who are watching from a safe distance, the death and destruction they bring is a sorry indictment on just how little we have progressed as a civilization since the days of our caveman ancestors. Missiles and bombs may have replaced sticks and stones but the behaviour remains the same.

We can only imagine all the good that the tens of billions already spent in the past three days by Israel and Iran could have done if applied to more peaceful endeavours and addressing the existential problems that face so many in today's world.

The big question of course, in respect to Israel and Iran is "where to from here".

There are some commentators predicting a long drawn out conflict but I (out of sheer ignorance) would disagree.

Why?

Well they can't continue to fire billions of dollars worth of missiles, either in attack or defense, for any length of time -- neither nation has the financial resources to do that. I'm picking that the missile war will fizzle out very quickly and that, in trying to save face, one or both sides will come out claiming to be a peace-maker and demanding talks to end the hostilities.

This despite earlier rhetoric from both nations claiming that they wouldn't stop until the other was anihilated or at least brought to its knees.

One thing that does concern me however, given the absolute zealot status of both parties, is that perhaps Iran may decide to fill a few of its ballistic missiles with highly refined (but not fissionable) uranium and create an air-burst "dirty nuke".

Such weapons have long been discussed and been speculated on as "the poor man's nuke", allowing even non-nuclear nations to inflict painful and long-lived damage to an enemy.

I suspect that Iran has enough high-grade uranium to create several such missiles and all they'd have to do is grind up some of that material, plonk it in a warhead and fire it at a major population centre in Israel. Conventional explosives (or even the impact of a Patriot defense missile) would then distribute that material over a wide region, potentially making it so contaminated as to become uninhabitable.

These would not be the actions of a sane regime -- but then again nobody ever accused the Islamic Revolutionary Guard of being sane or humanitarian in their outlook.

All we, here in New Zealand, can do is sit back and watch with our fingers crossed, that this does not become a wider Middle-Eastern conflict. Fortunately I'm pretty sure that there are not many other countries with an appetite for war in that region.

I'm pretty sure this will all be over, one way or another, within a week or so -- but don't quote me on that.

Carpe Diem folks!

Please visit the sponsor!

Here is a PERMANENT link to this column

Rank This Aardvark Page

Change Font