Category Archives: War At The Speed Of Light

A large fire bomb is coming out of the ground.

What Would Happen If The US And Russia Engaged In A Full-Scale Nuclear War?

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This is an excerpt from my new book, War at the Speed of Light. Enjoy!

According to the US Congress’ Office of Technology (OTA) study in 1979, immediate deaths in the United States could range from 70 million to 160 million (35 to 80 percent of the population). Russian fatalities would be approximately 20 to 40 percent lower. Many more in both countries would die from injuries, cancer-related deaths, and psychological trauma. If we update these numbers to reflect the populations as of 2018 and the urbanization of the US, the death toll would even be higher. For example, in 1979, the US had a population of about 225 million, in 2018, 327 million. Much of the growth occurred in urban areas. Today, approximately 80 percent of the US population lives in urban areas. By contrast, Russia’s population has only grown modestly. For example, in 1979, Russia had a population of about 137 million, in 2018, 144 million.

On the surface, even with the increased urbanization of the US, it would appear to suggest that the world and even the combatant nations could survive a full-scale nuclear exchange. However, that is not the case. In addition to the immediate deaths and destruction of cities by nuclear blasts, the potential aftermath of a nuclear war could involve firestorms, widespread radiation sickness from the bombs and radioactive fallout, the loss of modern technology due to electromagnetic pulses (EMPs), and a nuclear winter resulting in worldwide famine.

Deaths from the nuclear blast, firestorms, and radiation are relatively easy to grasp. Deaths from the effects of an EMP blackout and a nuclear winter are more challenging to understand. Therefore, let us discuss each.

We will start by understanding the deaths associated with an EMP blackout. A nuclear detonation causes an electromagnetic pulse, which produces rapidly varying electric and magnetic fields. Those fields cause electrical and electronic systems to experience damaging current and voltage surges resulting in a blackout. [Note: In physics, a current generates a magnetic field, and a magnetic field generates a current.] How severe would an EMP blackout be? A 2017 report, written by EMP expert Peter Vincent Pry, concludes in a widespread EMP attack, “Nine of 10 Americans are dead from starvation, disease, and societal collapse.”

Reading the last line is chilling. Even if portions of the US are not affected by the blast, radiation, and firestorms, “The United States of America ceases to exist” due to the effects of EMPs causing the death of ninety percent of the US residents. According to Pry, Russia calls EMP a “revolution in military affairs.”

Let us discuss nuclear winter and its effects. If you are fortunate enough to survive the nuclear blast, radiation, fallout, and EMP blackout, you are still likely to perish in the coming years. Alan Robock and Owen Brian Toon, in their paper, “Self-assured destruction: The climate impacts of nuclear war,” hypothesized that a thermonuclear war could result in a nuclear winter that would be the end of modern civilization on Earth. The nuclear winter would result from the smoke and soot arising from burning wood, plastics, and petroleum fuels in nuclear-devastated cities. A recent study reported this would result in cooling by about 54–68 degrees Fahrenheit in the core farming regions of the US, Europe, Russia, and China. The cooling would reduce crop yields and lead to a “nuclear famine,” characterized by mass starvation due to disrupted agricultural production and distribution. The simple takeaway message is that modern civilization on Earth would cease to exist, and the remnants of humanity would find themselves struggling to survive.

Conclusion: There would be no winners in a full-scale nuclear exchange between the US and Russia.

A large city with a bunch of flying objects

Directed Energy Weapons

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This is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of my new book, War at the Speed of Light. Enjoy!

The devastation of war is always about energy. This statement is true historically, as well as today. For example, most of the massive destruction during World War II resulted from dropping conventional bombs on an adversary. To understand the role energy plays in this type of devastation, consider the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. On December 7, 1941, Imperial Japan launched 353 bombers and torpedo bombers in two waves from six aircraft carriers.[i] Their bombs and torpedoes incorporated Trinitroanisole, a chemical compound.[ii] The vast devastation caused by unleashing the energy in Trinitroanisole’s chemical compound resulted in sinking twelve ships and damaging nine others.[iii] The attacks also destroyed one hundred and sixty aircraft and damaged another one hundred fifty.[iv] Over two thousand three hundred Americans lost their lives during the attack.[v]

A near-perfect example of energy’s devastation is the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively. These bombs were different from those that preceded them. They derived their destructive force from nuclear fission or the splitting of atoms. In simple terms, it requires energy to hold an atom together. A fast-moving subatomic particle causes the atom to split into its subatomic particles, termed nuclear fission, releasing the energy binding the atom together. We know from Einstein’s famous mass-energy equivalent formula E = mc2 that even a small amount of mass (m) converted to energy (E) yields an enormous amount of energy. The reason for this is that mass is multiplied by the speed of light (c) squared (i.e., times itself). The velocity of light is a large number approximately equal to 186,000 miles per second. Doing the math yields an enormous amount of energy from a relatively small amount of mass. Examining the bombs demonstrates this point. Each used fissionable material measuring less than two hundred pounds yet unleashed the devastation of fifteen to twenty thousand tons of TNT.

I know it is unusual to think about destruction as related to energy, but that is a fact of war. From the first caveman that used a rock to kill an adversary to a sniper’s bullet, it all has to do with energy. In the case of the rock and bullet, their kinetic energy (a function of their mass and velocity) inflicts wounds. Think of any weapon, except biological and chemical weapons, from the earliest of times to the present, and you face one inescapable conclusion; it relies on some form of energy to carry out its mission.

If you are a Star Trek fan, you are aware that the Starship Enterprise and its crew did not use anything that resembled conventional weapons, such as guns or nuclear weapons. Also, the Enterprise did not have traditional armor plating. In the science fiction series Star Trek, we see the crew using handheld phasers, which could be set to kill or stun. The phasers, set to kill, are a fictional extrapolation of real-life lasers. When set to stun, the phasers are comparable to real-life microwave weapons that have a stunning effect.[vi] In place of missiles, the Enterprise fired photon torpedoes. These are similar to the missiles military warplanes and warships fire, except the warhead is not a conventional or nuclear explosive. The photon torpedo warhead consisted of antimatter, which has the destructive property of annihilating matter (i.e., converting it to energy). Lastly, in place of armor plating, the Enterprise used a fictional force field to shield the ship, which is similar to the real-life Active Protection Systems[vii] deployed to protect US military vehicles. In essence, Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek exposed its viewers to directed energy weapons.

1 Mark Parillo, Why Air Forces Fail: the Anatomy of Defeat, (The University Press of Kentucky, 2006): 288

[ii] Mark Chambers, Wings of the Rising Sun: Uncovering the Secrets of Japanese Fighters and Bombers of World War II, (Osprey Publishing, 2018): 282

[iii] The Library of Congress, “The Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941,” https://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/wwii/jb_wwii_pearlhar_1.html (accessed December 17, 2018)

[iv] Library of Congress, “The Japanese Attacked”

[v] Library of Congress, “The Japanese Attacked”

[vi] David Martin, “The Pentagon’s Ray Gun,” CBSN, February 29, 2008, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-pentagons-ray-gun

[vii]  Allison Barrie, “’Force field’ technology could make US tanks unstoppable,” Fox News, August 2, 2018, https://www.foxnews.com/tech/force-field-technology-could-make-us-tanks-unstoppable (accessed December 18, 2018)

A city is burning down and people are walking.

Assuring the Survival of Humanity In The Post Singularity Era

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How do we assure that we do not fall victim to our own invention, artificial intelligence? What strategies should we employ? What actions should we take?

What is required is a worldwide recognition of the danger that strong AI poses and a worldwide coalition to address it. This is not a U.S. problem. It is a worldwide problem. It would be no different from any threat that could result in the extinction of humanity.

Let us consider the example President Regan provided during his speech before the United Nations in 1987. He stated, “Perhaps we need some outside universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world.”

I offer the above example to illustrate that we need humanity, all nations of the world, to recognize the real and present danger that strong AI poses. We need world leaders to take a proactive stance. That could, for example, require assembling the best scientists, military and civilian leaders to determine the type of legislation needed to govern the development of advanced artificially intelligent computers and weapon systems. It could involve multinational oversight to assure compliance with the legislation. Is the task monumental? Yes, but do we really have another alternative? If we allow the singularity to occur without control, our extinction is inevitable. In time, the Earth will become home to only machines. The existence of humanity will be digital bits of information in some electronic memory depository.

I harbor hope that humanity, as a species, can unite to prevent our extinction. There are historical precedents. Let me provide two examples.

Example 1. The Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT) – The treaty banned nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space, and underwater. It was signed and ratified by the former Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States in 1963. It had two objectives:

    1. Slow the expensive arms race between the Soviet Union and the United States
    2. Stop the excessive release of nuclear fallout into Earth’s atmosphere

Currently, most countries have signed the treaty. However, China, France, and North Korea are countries known to have tested nuclear weapons below ground and have not signed the treaty.

In general, the LTBT has held well, even by countries that have not signed the treaty. There have been several violations by both the former Soviet Union and the United States. However, for almost the last fifty years, no nuclear tests have violated the treaty. This means that the fallout from the nuclear tests did not exceed the borders of the countries performing the tests.

Why has the LTBT been so successful? Nations widely recognized atmospheric nuclear tests as dangerous to humanity due to the uncontrollable nature of the radioactive fallout.

Example 2. The Biological Weapons Convention – In a 1969 press conference, President Richard M. Nixon stated, “Biological weapons have massive, unpredictable, and potentially uncontrollable consequences.” He added, “They may produce global epidemics and impair the health of future generations.” In 1972, President Nixon submitted the Biological Weapons Convention to the U.S. Senate.

The “Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction” proceeded to become an international treaty.

    • Signed in Washington, London, and Moscow on April 10, 1972
    • Ratification advised by the US Senate on December 16, 1974
    • Ratified by the US president January 22, 1975
    • US ratification deposited in Washington, London, and Moscow on March 26, 1975
    • Proclaimed by the US president March 26, 1975
    • Entered into force March 26, 1975

The above two examples prove one thing to my mind. If humanity recognizes a possible existential threat, it will act to mitigate it.

Unfortunately, while several highly-regarded scientists and notable public figures have added their voice to mine regarding the existential threat artificial intelligence poses, it has failed to become widely recognized.

I am written several books to delineate this threat, including The Artificial Intelligence Revolution, Genius Weapons, Nanoweapons, and War At The Speed Of Light. My goal is to reach the largest audience possible and raise awareness regarding the existential threat to humanity that artificial intelligence poses.

In the simplest terms, I advocate that the path toward a solution is educating the lay public and those in leadership positions. Once the existential threat that artificial intelligence poses becomes widely recognized, I harbor hope that humanity will seek solutions to mitigate the threat.

In the next post, I delineate a four-fold approach to mitigate the threat that artificial intelligence poses to humanity. There may be other solutions. I do not claim that this is the only way to address the problem. However, I’m afraid I have to disagree with those that suggest we do not have a problem. In fact, I claim that we not only have a potentially serious problem, but also we need to address it post-haste. If I am coming across with a sense of urgency, it is intentional. At best, we have one or two decades after the singularity to assure we do not fall victim to our own invention, artificial intelligence.

 

 

low frequency microwaves

New Book, War At The Speed Of Light, Explains Mysterious Directed-Energy Attacks on US Government and Military Personnel

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This press release went live May 4, 2021, 8:00 PM EST, Minneapolis, Mn – May 4, 2021

According to CNN (Jeremy Herb, April 30, 2021), “The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee warned Friday [4/30/21] that mysterious invisible attacks that have caused debilitating symptoms appear to be on the rise against US personnel.” Politico reported (Lara Seligman, Andrew Desiderio, and Betsy Woodruff Swan, April 22, 2021), “Two Defense Department officials briefed members of the House Armed Service Committee about the phenomenon in a classified setting on Wednesday [4/28/21].”

These directed energy attacks are known in the defense industry as low-frequency microwaves, initially used by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. As defense technology expert Louis Del Monte wrote in his new book, War at the Speed of Light (Potomac Books, March 2021), “Microwave weapons may sound like something new. They are not. During the Cold War, from 1953–1976, the US feared that the Soviets were attempting to use microwave radiation covertly as a means of mind control. US intelligence officials surfaced this concern in 1953 when they detected a low-frequency microwave signal at the US Moscow embassy, termed the ‘Moscow Signal.’”

According to Del Monte, “It’s well known that animals and humans subjected to low-level microwaves suffer significant impairment in cognitive function and brain damage. That’s the goal of these recent directed energy attacks. It’s intended to reduce the ability of US government and military personnel to function.”

Surprisingly, few analysts connect the current directed energy attacks to those by the Soviet Union during the Cold War on the US embassy in Moscow. Known as the Moscow Signal, it caused embassy personnel to experience numerous ill effects, including disorientation, headaches, dizziness, and hearing loss. In 2017, the US embassy in Havana experienced a similar attack with almost identical casualties, as reported by the New York Times (Gardiner Harris, Julie Hirschfeld Davis, and Ernesto Londoño, October 3, 2017). Although unable to determine the perpetrator, the US held the Cuban government responsible for what was termed the “Havana syndrome” and expelled twenty-seven Cuban diplomats.

Unfortunately, the directed energy attacks are becoming more frequent and bolder. For example, a potential incident near the White House involving a National Security Council staffer occurred in November 2020, one of several on US soil.

War At The Speed Of Light devotes an entire chapter to microwave weapons, including the type of directed energy attacks currently being perpetrated against the US government and military personnel. It presents US government studies of these attacks dating back to the 1953 “Moscow Signal” and the 2017 “Havana syndrome.”

War At The Speed Of Light is available at bookstores, from Potomac Books, and on Amazon.

Louis A. Del Monte is available for radio, podcast, and television interviews and writing op-ed pieces for major media outlets. Feel free to contact him directly by email at ldelmonte@delmonteagency.com or phone at 952-261-4532.

To request a book for review, contact Louis Del Monte by email.

About Louis A. Del Monte

Louis A. Del Monte is an award-winning physicist, inventor, futurist, featured speaker, and CEO of Del Monte and Associates, Inc. He has authored a formidable body of work, including War At The Speed Of Light (2021), Genius Weapons (2018), Nanoweapons (2016), and Amazon charts #1 bestseller in the artificial intelligence category, The Artificial Intelligence Revolution (2014). Major magazines like the Business Insider, The Huffington Post, The Atlantic, American Security Today, Inc., CNBC, and the New York Post have featured his articles or quoted his views on artificial intelligence and military technology.

human extinction

Will Humanity Survive the 21st Century?

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In my last post, I stated, “In making the above predictions [about the singularity], I made one critical assumption. I assumed that humankind would continue the “status quo.” I am ruling out world-altering events, such as large asteroids striking Earth, leading to human extinction, or a nuclear exchange that renders civilization impossible. Is assuming the “status quo” reasonable? We’ll discuss that in the next post.

Let’s now discuss if humanity will survive the 21st century.

The typical events that most people consider as causing humanity’s extinction, such as a large asteroid impact or a volcanic eruption of sufficient magnitude to cause catastrophic climate change, actually have a relatively low probability of occurring, in the order of 1 in 50,000 or less, according to numerous estimates found via a simple Google search. In 2008, experts surveyed at the Global Catastrophic Risk Conference at the University of Oxford suggested a 19% chance of human extinction over the next century, citing the top five most probable to cause human extinction by 2100 as:

  1. Molecular nanotechnology weapons – 5% probability
  2. Super-intelligent AI – 5% probability
  3. Wars – 4% probability
  4. Engineered pandemic – 2% probability
  5. Nuclear war – 1% probability

All other existential events were below 1%. Again, doing a simple Google search may provide different results by different “experts.” If we take the above survey at face value, it would suggest that the risk of an existential event increases with time. This has led me to the conclusion that human survival over the next 30 years is highly probable.

It is interesting to note in the 2008 Global Catastrophic Risk Conference survey, super-intelligent AI equates with molecular nanotechnology weapons for number one. In my view, molecular nanotechnology weapons and super-intelligent AI are two sides of the same coin. In fact, I judge that super-intelligent AI will be instrumental in developing molecular nanotechnology weapons. I also predict that humanity, in some form, will survive until the year 2100. However, I predict that will include both humans with strong artificially intelligent brain implants and organic humans (i.e., no brain implants to enhance their intelligence). However, each may have some artificially intelligent body parts.

Let me summarize. Based on the above information, it is reasonable to judge humanity will survive through the 21st century.