Doomsday device

A Doomsday device (or machine) is a mechanisim capable of destroying all life on a planet, or the planet it's self. Doomsday devices have been the subject of literature, and art, especially during the 20th century making them the subject of popular fiction. However there have been real world propositions. In 1960 Herman Khan of RAND proposed such a device. His logic, was that it could act as a deterient. His concept consisted of a series of underground hydrogen bombs linked to a computer that would automatically set off these bombs after detecting as nuclear launch, thus bathing the Earth in nuclear fallout; wipping out all life upon her. The computer would do so with out human consent, nor would it sece upon human action.

The ethics of a doomsday device usually follow suicidal logic. Promoters of such arms claim such a machine would be useful in freeing humankind from some emense dread, for example, rather then waiting with a countdown for the sun to explode, the people of Earth could elect to set off a Doomsday Device, thus ending their lives in a manner of their choosing, and excaping the stressful dread of solar annihilation. Others, like Herman, promote them as part of mutually assured destruction. Mutually assured destruction is a situation in which if two aggressors take to battle against each other, neither shall win, and both share parish. The doomsday device would take this to global levels, and following this logic, deter man from war.