Strange and exotic weapons are a recurring feature inscience fiction. In some cases,weapons first introduced in science fiction have been made a reality; other science-fiction weapons remain purely fictional, and are often beyond the realms of known physical possibility.
At its most prosaic, science fiction features an endless variety ofsidearms—mostly variations on real weapons such asguns andswords. Among the best-known of these are thephaser—used in theStar Trek television series, films, and novels—and thelightsaber andblaster—featured inStar Wars movies, comics, novels, and TV shows.
Besides adding action and entertainment value, weaponry in science fiction sometimes touches on deeper concerns and becomes atheme, often motivated by contemporary issues. One example is science fiction that deals withweapons of mass destruction.
Weapons of early science-fiction novels were usually bigger and better versions of conventional weapons, effectively more advanced methods of delivering explosives to a target. Examples of such weapons includeJules Verne's "fulgurator" and the "glass arrow" of theComte de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam.[1]
A classic science-fiction weapon, particularly in British and American science-fiction novels and films, is theraygun. A very early example of a raygun is theHeat-Ray featured inH. G. Wells'The War of the Worlds (1898).[2][3]
The discovery ofX-rays andradioactivity in the last years of the 19th century led to an increase in the popularity of this family of weapons, with numerous examples in the early 20th century, such as the disintegrator rays ofGeorge Griffith's future-war novelThe Lord of Labour (1911).[1] Early science-fiction film often showed raygun beams giving off bright light and loud noise likelightning or largeelectric arcs.
Wells also prefigured modern armored warfare with his description oftanks in his 1903 short story "The Land Ironclads", and aerial warfare in his 1907 novelThe War in the Air.
Arthur C. Clarke envisagedparticle beam weapons in his 1955 novelEarthlight, in which energy would be delivered by high-velocity beams of matter.[4]
After the invention of thelaser in 1960, it briefly became the death ray of choice for science-fiction writers. For instance, characters in theStar Trek pilot episodeThe Cage (1964) and in theLost in Space TV series (1965–1968) carried handheld laser weapons.[5]
By the late 1960s and 1970s, as the laser's limits as a weapon became evident, the raygun began to be replaced by similar weapons with names that better reflected the destructive capabilities of the device. These names ranged from the generic "pulse rifle" to series-specific weapons, such as thephasers fromStar Trek. According toThe Making of Star Trek,Gene Roddenberry claimed that production staff realized that using laser technology would cause problems in the future as people came to understand what lasers could and could not do; this resulted in the move to phasers on-screen, while letting lasers be known as a more primitive weapon style.
In theWarhammer 40,000 franchise, a human faction known as the Imperial Guard has a "lasgun", which is described as being a handheld laser weapon, as their main weapon, and larger cannon versions being mounted onto tanks and being carried around by Space Marines. The elf-likeAeldari, meanwhile, have a special unit called the Swooping Hawks equipped with a "lasblaster".
In theCommand & Conquer video game series, various factions make extensive use of laser and particle-beam technology. The most notable are Allied units Prism Tank fromRed Alert 2 and Athena Cannon fromRed Alert 3, the Nod's Avatar and Obelisk of Light fromTiberium Wars, as well as various units fromGenerals constructed by USA faction, including their "superweapon" particle cannon.
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Weapons usingplasma (high-energy ionized gas) have been featured in a number of fictional universes, such asHalo and theWarhammer 40k franchise.[citation needed]
Nuclear weapons are a staple element in science-fiction novels. The phrase "atomic bomb" predates their existence, and dates back toH. G. Wells'sThe World set free (1914), when scientists had discovered that radioactive decay implied potentially limitless energy locked inside of atomic particles (Wells's atomic bombs were only as powerful as conventional explosives, but would continue exploding for days on end).Cleve Cartmill predicted a chain-reaction-type nuclear bomb in his 1944 science-fiction story "Deadline", which led to theFBI investigating him, due to concern over a potential breach of security on theManhattan Project.[6]
The use ofradiological,biological, andchemical weapons is another common theme in science fiction. In the aftermath of World War I, the use of chemical weapons, particularly poison gas, was a major worry, and was often employed in the science fiction of this period, for example Neil Bell'sThe Gas War of 1940 (1931).[1]Robert A. Heinlein's 1940 story "Solution Unsatisfactory" positsradioactive dust as a weapon that the US develops in a crash program to end World War II; the dust's existence forces drastic changes in the postwar world. InThe Dalek Invasion of Earth, set in the 22nd century,Daleks are claimed to have invaded Earth after it was bombarded with meteorites and a plague wiped out entire continents.
A subgenre of science fiction,postapocalyptic fiction, uses the aftermath of nuclear or biological warfare as its setting.
The Death Star is theStar Wars equivalent to a weapon of mass destruction, and as such, might be the most-well-known weapon of mass destruction in science fiction.
The idea ofcyberwarfare, in which wars are fought within the structures of communication systems and computers using software and information as weapons, was first explored by science fiction.
John Brunner's 1975 novelThe Shockwave Rider is notable for coining the word "worm" to describe a computer program that propagates itself through acomputer network, used as a weapon in the novel.[7][8]William Gibson'sNeuromancer coined the phrasecyberspace, a virtual battleground in which battles are fought using software weapons and counterweapons. TheStar Trek episode "A Taste of Armageddon" is another notable example.
CertainDale Brown novels place cyberweapons in different roles. The first is the "netrusion" technology used by the U.S. Air Force. It sends corrupt data to oncoming missiles to shut them down, as well as hostile aircraft by giving them a "shutdown" order in which the systems turn off one by one. It is also used to send false messages to hostiles, to place the tide of battle in the favor of America. The technology is later reverse-engineered by the Russian Federation to shut down American antiballistic missile satellites from a tracking station at Socotra Island, Yemen.
Cyberwarfare has moved from a theoretical idea to something that is now seriously considered as a threat by modern states.
In a similar but unrelated series of incidents involved various groups of hackers from India and Pakistan who hacked and defaced several websites of companies and government organizations based in each other's country. The actions were committed by various groups based in both countries, but not known to be affiliated with the governments of India or Pakistan. The cyber wars are believed to have begun in 2008 following the Mumbai attacks believed to be by a group of Indian cyber groups hacking into Pakistani websites. Hours after the cyber attacks, a number of Indian websites (both government and private) were attacked by groups of Pakistani hackers, claiming to be retaliation for Indian attacks on Pakistani websites.[9] The back and forth attacks have persisted on occasions since then.[10]
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Themes ofbrainwashing, conditioning,memory-erasing, and othermind-control methods as weapons of war feature in much science fiction of the late 1950s and 1960s, paralleling the contemporary panic about communist brainwashing, existence ofsleeper agents, and the real-world attempts of governments in programs such asMK-ULTRA to make such things real.
David Langford's short story "BLIT" (1988) posits the existence of images (called "basilisks") that are destructive to the human brain, which are used as weapons of terror by posting copies of them in areas where they are likely to be seen by the intended victims. Langford revisited the idea in a fictionalFAQ on the images, published by the science journalNature in 1999.[11][12] Theneuralyzer from theMen in Black films are compact objects that can erase and modify the short-term memories of witnesses by the means of a brief flash of light, ensuring that no one remembers encountering either aliens or the agents themselves.
The TV seriesDollhouse (2009) features technology that can "mindwipe" people (transforming them into "actives", or "dolls") and replace their inherent personalities with another one, either "real" (from another actual person's mind), fabricated (for example, a soldier trained in many styles of combat and weaponry, or unable to feel pain), or a mixture of both. In a future timeline of the series, the technology has been devised into a mass weapon, able to "remote wipe" anyone and replace them with any personality. A war erupts between those controlling actives, and "actuals" (a term to describe those still retaining their original personas). An offshoot technology allows actual people to upload upgrades to their personas (such as fighting or language skills), similar to the process seen inThe Matrix, albeit for only one skill at a time.
Some new forms of real-world weaponry resemble weapons previously envisaged in science fiction. The early 1980s-eraStrategic Defense Initiative, a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballisticstrategic nuclear weapons (Intercontinental ballistic missiles andsubmarine-launched ballistic missiles), gained the popular name "Star Wars" after the popular franchise created byGeorge Lucas.[13]
In some cases, the influence of science fiction on weapons programs has been specifically acknowledged. In 2007, science-fiction authorThomas Easton was invited to address engineers working on aDARPA program to create weaponizedcyborg insects, as envisaged in his novelSparrowhawk.[14]
Active research on powered exoskeletons for military use has a long history, beginning with the abortive 1960sHardiman powered exoskeleton project atGeneral Electric,[15] and continuing into the 21st century.[16] The borrowing between fiction and reality has worked both ways, with thepower loader from the filmAliens resembling the prototypes of the Hardiman system.[17]
American military research on high-power laser weapons started in the 1960s, and has continued to the present day,[18] with the U.S. Army planning, as of 2008, the deployment of practical battlefield laser weapons.[19] Lower-powered lasers are currently used for military purposes aslaser target designators and formilitary rangefinding. Laser weapons intended to blind combatants have also been developed, but are currently banned by theProtocol on Blinding Laser Weapons, although low-power versions designed to dazzle rather than blind have been developed experimentally. Gun-mounted lasers have also been used as psychological weapons, to let opponents know that they have been targeted to encourage them to hide or flee without having to actually open fire on them.[20][21]
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