Re: F&SF that I Read in 2007: W

On Sat, 10 May 2008 16:26:18 -0700, John Schilling 
<schillin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>Depends on how narrowly you define "laser pistol".  But expecting
>firearms to be replaced by *something*, that's just common sense.
>It's almost certain that, within this century, we will be able to
>build hand-held laser weapons that are massively superior to ordinary
>pistols.  Whether they have the handgrip-and-barrel form factor of
>a "pistol", whether they will be called "laser pistols", I'm not
>sure.  I don't think it matters.
>
>But the only thing that is going to stop them from almost completely
>displacing the current sort of pistol sometime in this century or the
>next, is the general collapse of civilization, or the development of
>some weapon that is even better still.

Unless you're just using "laser pistol" as a placeholder for "newest 
improved weapon", I don't think we will necessarily have them, or maybe 
any energy weapons at all. Basically it's a power requirement thing -- 
chemical explosives are great at storing and using energy, tough to beat 
from an energy standpoint. Kinetic weapons may outlast us all...

-- 
chuk