Science will surely destroy the planet

[Shell B]

Science doomsday scenerio:

With technology becoming

1. Expodentially more powerful
2. Expodentially cheaper to produce
3. Expodentially more widely available and attainable

It is inevitable that at some point it will be possible for anyone to construct a weapon of mass destruction in the privary of their own homes and use it to set off a chain reaction which will start world war 3.

Comments?

Okay, now that I am done elsewhere, I can actually reply here.

What you are discussing is technology, which is a type of science, but so is just about everything else. Some even consider cooking a type of science.

Now, the precise scenario you present involves weapons technology. At this point, the only weapons of mass destruction that are actually termed such are different types of bombs. Some pretty big bombs can already be built in homes. Nuclear bombs are quite difficult for several reasons. You cannot accumulate the materials needed to make nukes under the radar.

Now, let's say tech does progress to the point where someone can create a weapon of mass destruction, per the commonly accepted definition. They would also need to be able to launch this weapon to start the "chain reaction" you speak of. Alternatively, they would need an elaborate plan to make it appear that the weapon was not made by a domestic terrorist. In other words, the person would have to want to start a chain reaction. Otherwise, it would just cause "Holy shit! What the fuck?" reactions. That is not to say that it will never be possible, but that very few people actually want to destroy the planet. Most simply want to destroy some of it and rule the rest. Most of those who would go to the trouble of building WMDs, that is.

Forgetting all of that, it is my belief that people can already unleash weapons of mass destruction. A cache with enough rifles and ammo to take out a city is a WMD to me. We can do that already. Why doesn't it happen? Well, very, very few people are sociopaths. For "science" to destroy the planet, we have to have at least one highly intelligent human being who doesn't want the planet to harbor human life anymore, including his or herself. I doubt you will find many of those, at least, many that go undetected. People like that tend to be vocal or obvious in some way.

It is far more likely that something like overpopulation will become an issue. In that case, we can say Christianity destroyed the planet. With abortion laws getting more and more ridiculous and more Christians going apeshit Bachmann nuts, we are headed toward a catastrophe of Easter Island type proportions. That is all.