Hacker News Reader

Comment by me_me_me | Hacker News Reader

Excellent summary, if nuclear war starts all you need is a gun and enough bullets for your family.

It's brutal logic but there is nothing that an average person can do to survive nuclear war. Only remote isolated farmer/survival communities will be able to make it, if they will survive nuclear winter.

Anyone else in long term will not be able to get food with no petrol, electricity and slowly starve to death. And even if you are in surviving community the life will be back to limited tech, village-state civilization.

View on HN

The idea that an all-out nuclear war will trigger a civilization-ending nuclear winter has been on shaky ground for a while now. It appears the likelihood of it happening to such a degree was based on the political/idealist desire to reduce the nuclear stockpile. [1][2]

For a more realistic view of nuclear war and its survivability, check out [2] (with a foreword by Edward Teller and author's note by Eugene Wigner of Wigner's friend fame).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_winter#Criticism_and_d... [2] Kearny, C. Nuclear war survival skills

I agree nuclear winter might not occur or not be all that impactful, however you still will have mass starvation as all supply chains will just disappear, including fuel for power plants. Cities will not be able to supply food and sustain themselves unless in very rare and specific scenarios.

One way or another not a fun place to live

With things like the Iron Dome and Patriot Missile System I'm certain the US has the capability to knock some number of incoming nuclear weapons out of the sky. People in rural and even suburban areas in the US will probably be fine, maybe lose a few years life expectancy due to cancers and the like.

Lack of insulin, antibiotics medical expertise.

That will take a higher toll then you might expect

Somebody's been watching way too much TV. Protecting yourself may be useful in an apocalypse, but it's far down the list. Top of the list is having some way to get clean water. Second is knowing and trusting your neighbors.

That gun is not for protection my friend

Username checks out.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com