I say weapon because it gets to complicated with all the super powers you can get. Turning invisible, walking through walls, teleporting. So for this I want to limit it to sci fi weapons that at least attempt to have a tech basis. So like not the masters device that turns people into dolls. However we don’t care if we can completely explain how it might be done now. Like lightsabers are fair game. As for me I would go with the star gate zat guns as initially put in. Both lethal and nonlethas and very portable. I want to put an honorable mention for tthe minority report sonic shotgun that seems to run on wind up energy so you should never theoretically run out of ammo. although not so sure as there was no indication you could power up more than one shot at a time.
EDITED: Its a little late at this point as the answers have went way off the rails but in case it gets more replies my intention was a weapon someone might carry around and could use as one person. not a weapons system or vehicle. Also no robots or things that essentially are their own entities. It should be a weapon used in a weapon like manner. aim and fire. also that quote about sufficiently advance technology looks like magic. if it looks like magic to us instead of technology then its to far afield. I hope this makes it more clear what I was looking for. Honestly I would have like to not use weapons as a basis but there are just to many things when you look at all of sci fi.
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Sonic Screwdriver is pretty much a magic wand with lights, so I choose that.
They’re scientific instruments, not water pistols!
An emp that blankets the world, but instead of electromagnetic it’s empathy manipulation such that it either eliminates those lacking empathy or forces them to be empathetic.
Goodbye capitalism, pedophilia, corruption, etc. We’re facing what I believe is a global empathy crisis through the rise of the far right due to global neoliberal capitalism. To secure profits, which we’ve tied to survival, we’re un-learning empathy, which was an evolutionary advantage for us. Capitalism rewards narcissism, a lack of empathy, being willing to exploit others.
I would set that empathy pulse off in an instant. I’m tired of seeing people brutalized around the world because of greedy people in power.
I think such a weapon is achievable once we understand genetics enough. Create a gene modification that makes people a little more cooperative and more interested in everybody else’s welfare - say 20% more - and infuse it into enough of the world’s water supplies to give the mutation to a majority of humans. Wait a few years and I think their behavioral changes would turn our whole world around. No need to design a perfect social system and use politics to implement it. It would quickly evolve on its own. .
Isn’t this the lore of the Reavers in Firefly?
Similar idea, but the “pacification gas” wasn’t a genetic modificationn. And of course how something works in a sci-fi story doesn’t depend on how it worked in a different one.
A Gun That Can Kill The Past
While a death star is definitely more powerful, I think I would have to choose then BFG9000 from Doom.
The Death Star is a weapon you can live in. It’s an important consideration.
yeah I mean the death star is outside of scope but the bfg is within. although i think it is one of those. the hero is so strong they can lug around a weapon thats supposed to be mounted type thing.
Then I will settle on the BFG9000
Not one of those politically correct ones either. Mine will be the “Big Fuckin’ Gun”
One that immediately eliminates all billionaires and blocks their existence forever.
Nicoll-Dyson beam. You can fry your enemy anywhere, anytime, at the speed of light, with the power of an entire star.
Dena’s chakrams but laserfied
Cerebral Bore from Turok 2. Not sure why, but that one stuck with me over the years.
Vegetarian forks
A chainsword from 40K.
Portal Gun, no question.
I never actually played. I assume it creates portals.
Yes. It could technically be a weapon if you placed a portal up high, and another on the ground under someone.
and tele-fragging: stepping into the same space as your target, theoretically exploding them
I don’t think this one would work, since they don’t occupy any space in the flat plane the portals appear on. You’re just making doors.
Yep, links two portals to each other. Place one over a dangerous area and one below someone, they fall. Boom, a weapon. However, it’s also a very useful tool for transportation purposes.
One on the wall next to me + one on the wall next to my refrigerator = not having to get up for snacks.
Is that a weapon? The game doesn’t let you use it on people.
In Portal 2 there’s a multiplayer mode. It can definitely be used as a weapon when you quickly swap out the portal exit so that your companion falls to their demise.
There are some fun community levels where you can race against a friend and there are all sorts of traps you can trigger/set if you plan it right.
Wow. I didn’t know it was multiplayer. I bought an old Xbox 360 a while back and it came with a bunch of games. I played portal 2 on that. Does it have multiplayer on that platform?
I liked it so much I bought Portal 1. I think it’s better to play them in order. 2 was better than 1.
Oh yeah 100%, you can play portal 2 local co-op or online co-op. I’ve never personally done online co-op on the 360, but it probably works fine.
Portal 1 is single player only and you’re totally right about playing them in order, that’s the way to do it.
Well regrettably my wife didn’t really get the hang of portal and we’re the only two who live here. Maybe when I have a friend over. I’m kind of old and the only friend I have that really plays games lives in the UK. We pay together online. If you’re interested we’ve played:
Borderlands Borderlands 2 Borderlands 3 Tiny Tina’s Wonderland Borderlands the pre-sequel Grim Dawn Aliens elite team Warhammer 40000 space Marines?
And we’re currently playing Aliens Elite Team 2.
I may have forgotten some.
Yeah, I didn’t realize it for a while as well. The multiplayer has its own whole storyline of what happened before GLaDOS took control.
You can instantly turn anything into a weapon and you can instantly drop the floor out from anyone and drop them from the highest point you can reach.
Yes. It’s a weapon and a tool like an axe is a weapon and a tool
Yeah, I guess so. I only played single player and now I know.
It’s called a gun, so I vote yes.
Nah, huge limitation that it only works on walls painted with moon dust. Even without that detail, the surface needs to be flat and judging by the main characters height, roughly 1m x 2m. Those details really limit its functionality outside the enrichment center.
Then explain the ending of Portal 2. What flat surface exists on the moon?
Judging by the moon landing pictures, most surfaces on the moon are roughly flat especially in the dusty areas.
The games are also a bit inconsistent about what happens when the surface moves. Sometimes the portal fizzles out, and on rare occasions it doesn’t.
If we really want to get into the specifics technically everything is moving. Could maybe that as long as the object is stationary relative to nearby large mass but then that would start to strain the moon shot since that is a separate large moving mass being linked to another moving mass
idk about flat but it’s 100% covered in moon dust.
Phaser.
- Stun
- Kill
- Vaporize
- Create a source of warmth
- Cook (not shown on screen to my knowledge, but plausible)
- Precisely cut various materials
- Landscape
you know I kinda forgot. it is kinda more utilitarian and they do show them running out but like it seems to take a lot to do so.
Phasers can vaporize people or even big piles of rock within seconds. We’re talking hundreds of millions of Joules of energy.
It’s got to be something more exotic than simply dumping energy into the target until it turns to vapor, otherwise there would be horrifying explosions of steam and guts and molten rock, instead of a soft hum and the disappearance of the target.
I choose to believe the vaporize function is actually a one way transporter beam. It digitizes them into the phaser and just deletes the file instead of sending it somewhere to be rebuilt.
That’s a good theory! The development of one could have led to the other. A beam that remotely disassembles something to its subatomic particles without an explosion would have been a necessary part of transporter development, regardless of which was invented first.
Unless they operate on different physics than our universe currently does, there’s no way around it. Energy is energy, it’s the currency of the universe.
Unless they operate on different physics than our universe currently does
It’s Star Trek. Of course it does.
In this case, it’s a fictional particle doing the heavy lifting. Explanations of exactly what it’s supposed to do seem to be inconsistent (it’s Star Trek), but at lower energy levels, it does electromagnetic stuff (including stunning living creatures), at medium energy levels, it does thermal stuff, and at high energy levels, it messes with the strong nuclear force.
Disintegrating something by messing with the strong nuclear force would probably have harmful effects on anything nearby, which is not addressed because it’s Star Trek.
- asplode
Pretty sure it can be countered by a towel.
The Point of View Gun, conveniently, does precisely what it’s name suggests. That is, if you point it at someone and pull the trigger, they instantly see things from your point of view.
I would be a menace to society with that
So one practical question is, can you effectively ‘lie’ to the gun? That is, can you forcibly “believe” for a moment (within your own mind) something which you want to project onto a target with the gun? Or does the gun read only your unfiltered, unconscious beliefs? Is there any discretionary control?
Also, notably, the Point of View Gun does not work on women, so there would be some practical limits to your menacing.
I think with drugs or high blood sugar you could lie to it
That was exactly the answer I had in mind.
Orgazmo’s Orgazmorator, a ray gun that forces orgasm upon whomever it is fired.
*for crime fighting, bad politicians, or consensual encounters, only.
I still quote, “I am Sancho!”
A cheap clone of the Tasp. I assume Orgazmo came after 1970.
It did. It’s a 90s movie from Matt Stone and Trey Parker about a Mormon that becomes a superhero genre pornstar. At the time it was funny as fuck, but haven’t seen it in years to know if it still stands up or not.
It does!
If you have a couple drinks first it’s still decent
Yeah, I’d shoot two portals in a vertical line
Undo my belt, lean in and
Change pants without having to look down
Also I’d suck my own diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick
Be your own reach around
I’m pretty sure I can already do that.
I’m not sure I’d like having a portal gun. I want one. I really want one. I just think life would kinda feel either pointless or overly complicated.
With only one of you with your regular human brain you’d be unable to save the entire world so any good you achieve would feel depressingly underwhelming, like the ending of schindlers list. Also you’d likely fall for a bad guys story and think you’re doing good but actually making shit worse.
If you manage to just be selfish with it and keep it quiet, what would you even do with life? Once you’d done all the landmarks, snuck onto area 51 and shit, what’s left? Doesn’t seem much point working a job, keeping a house or even robbing banks or whatever. Why bother with money when you’ve got a portal gun?
I really want it. But I must never have it.
I shouldn’t feel bad for just using it to reach the fridge from the sofa.
Don’t forget the protective footwear.
