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A doomsday device is a hypothetical construction — usually a weapon or weapons system — which could destroy all life on a planet, particularly Earth, or destroy the planet itself, bringing "doomsday", a term used for the end of planet Earth. Most hypothetical constructions rely on hydrogen bombs being made arbitrarily large, assuming there are no concerns about delivering them to a target (see Teller–Ulam design) or that they can be "salted" with materials designed to create long-lasting and hazardous fallout (e.g., a cobalt bomb).

Doomsday devices and the nuclear holocaust they bring about have been present in literature and art especially in the 20th century, when advances in science and technology made world destruction (or at least the eradication of all human life) a credible scenario. Many classics in the genre of science fiction take up the theme in this respect. The term "doomsday machine" itself is attested from 1960,^[1] but the alliterative "doomsday device" has since become the more popular phrase.

History

Since the 1954 Castle Bravo thermonuclear weapon test demonstrated the feasibility of making arbitrarily large nuclear devices which could cover vast areas with radioactive fallout by rendering anything around them intensely radioactive, nuclear weapons theorists such as Leo Szilard conceived of a doomsday machine, a massive thermonuclear device surrounded by hundreds of tons of cobalt which, when detonated, would create massive amounts of Cobalt-60, rendering most of the Earth too radioactive to support life. RAND strategist Herman Kahn postulated that Soviet or US nuclear decision makers might choose to build a doomsday machine that would consist of a computer linked to a stockpile of hydrogen bombs, programmed to detonate them all and bathe the planet in nuclear fallout at the signal of an impending nuclear attack from another nation.^[2]

The US and its doomsday device's theoretical ability to deter a nuclear attack is that it would go off automatically without human aid and despite human intervention. Kahn conceded that some planners might see "doomsday machines" as providing a highly credible threat that would dissuade attackers and avoid the dangerous game of brinkmanship caused by the massive retaliation concept which governed US-Soviet nuclear relations in the mid-1950s. However, in his discussion of doomsday machines, Kahn raises the problem of a nuclear-armed Nth country triggering a doomsday machine, and states that he didn't advocate that the US acquire a doomsday machine.^[3]

The Dead Hand (or "Perimeter") system built by the Soviet Union during the Cold War has been called a "doomsday machine" due to its fail-deadly design and nuclear capabilities.^[4]^[5]

In fiction

Doomsday devices started becoming more common in science fiction in the 1940s and 1950s, due to the invention of nuclear weapons and the constant fear of total destruction.^[6] A well-known example is in the film Dr. Strangelove (1964), where a doomsday device, based on Szilard and Kahn's ideas, is triggered by an incompletely aborted American attack and all life on Earth is extinguished.^[6] Another is in the Star Trek episode The Doomsday Machine (1967), where the crew of the Enterprise fights a powerful planet-killing alien machine. However, doomsday devices also expanded to encompass many other types of fictional technology, one of the most famous of which is the Death Star, a planet-destroying, moon-sized space station.^[6]

Some works have also considered the erroneous activation of doomsday devices by external factors or chain reactions. An example of both is Virus (1980), where an earthquake is misdetected as a nuclear explosion and triggers a sequence of Automated Reaction Systems (ARS). Various types of fictional doomsday devices have also been activated as part of an AI takeover.^[7] This includes the missile launch system in the movie WarGames (1983), control of which has been handed entirely to a computer, and Skynet's nigh-destruction of the human race in The Terminator (1984).^[7]

References

^ Harper, Douglas. "doomsday". Online Etymology Dictionary.
^ Kahn, H. (2011). On Thermonuclear War. War and Peace Research. Transaction Publishers. p. 145. ISBN 978-1-4128-1559-8.
^ Kahn, Herman (1960). On Thermonuclear War. Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton University Press.
^ "Dr. Strangelove's 'Doomsday Machine': It's Real". NPR.org. NPR.
^ "Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine". Wired.com. 2009-09-21.
^ ^a ^b ^c Hamilton, John (15 August 2006). "Doomsday Devices". Weapons of Science Fiction. New York: ABDO Digital. p. 14. ISBN 1617843636. OCLC 1003840589.
^ ^a ^b Pilkington, Ace G.; Brin, David (2017-03-05). "Doomsday Machine". Science Fiction and Futurism: Their Terms and Ideas. Jefferson, North Carolina. p. 69. ISBN 978-1476629551. OCLC 973481576.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

External links

"The Return of the Doomsday Machine?", Ron Rosenbaum, Slate.com, Aug. 31, 2007
Doomsday device featured in The Bionic Woman episode Doomsday is Tomorrow
Channel 7 Two (Australia) - Secrets of War, Series 1, Episode 19

[1] Harper, Douglas. "doomsday". Online Etymology Dictionary.

[2] Kahn, H. (2011). On Thermonuclear War. War and Peace Research. Transaction Publishers. p. 145. ISBN 978-1-4128-1559-8.

[Kahn-3] Kahn, Herman (1960). On Thermonuclear War. Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton University Press.

[4] "Dr. Strangelove's 'Doomsday Machine': It's Real". NPR.org. NPR.

[5] "Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine". Wired.com. 2009-09-21.

[Hamilton-6] Hamilton, John (15 August 2006). "Doomsday Devices". Weapons of Science Fiction. New York: ABDO Digital. p. 14. ISBN 1617843636. OCLC 1003840589.

[Pilkington-7] Pilkington, Ace G.; Brin, David (2017-03-05). "Doomsday Machine". Science Fiction and Futurism: Their Terms and Ideas. Jefferson, North Carolina. p. 69. ISBN 978-1476629551. OCLC 973481576.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

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+{{Short description|Construct which could destroy all life on a planet or a planet itself}}
-{{Redirect|Doomsday Device|the professional wrestling move|Doomsday Device (wrestling)}}
+{{For|the professional wrestling move|Doomsday device (wrestling)}}
-[[File:Castle Romeo.jpg|thumb|upright|Many hypothetical doomsday devices are based on the fact that [[Salted bomb|salted]] [[hydrogen bomb]]s can create large amounts of [[nuclear fallout]].]]
+[[File:Castle Romeo.jpg|thumb|upright|Many hypothetical doomsday devices are based on [[Salted bomb|salted]] [[hydrogen bomb]]s creating large amounts of [[nuclear fallout]].]]
-A '''doomsday device''' is a hypothetical construction — usually a weapon or weapons system — which could destroy all life on a planet, particularly [[Earth]], or destroy the planet itself, bringing "[[End time|doomsday]]", a term used for the end of planet Earth. Most hypothetical constructions rely on the fact that [[hydrogen bombs]] can be made arbitrarily large assuming there are no concerns about delivering them to a target (see [[History of the Teller–Ulam design|Teller–Ulam design]]) or that they can be "[[salted bomb|salted]]" with materials designed to create long-lasting and hazardous fallout (e.g., a [[cobalt bomb]]).
+A '''doomsday device''' is a hypothetical construction — usually a weapon or weapons system — which could destroy all life on a planet, particularly [[Earth]], or destroy the planet itself, bringing "[[Human extinction|doomsday]]", a term used for the end of planet Earth. Most hypothetical constructions rely on [[hydrogen bombs]] being made arbitrarily large, assuming there are no concerns about delivering them to a target (see [[History of the Teller–Ulam design|Teller–Ulam design]]) or that they can be "[[salted bomb|salted]]" with materials designed to create long-lasting and hazardous fallout (e.g., a [[cobalt bomb]]).
-Doomsday devices and the [[nuclear holocaust]] they bring about have been present in literature and art especially in the 20th century, when advances in [[science]] and [[technology]] made world destruction (or at least the eradication of all human life) a credible scenario. Many classics in the genre of [[science fiction]] take up the theme in this respect. The term "doomsday machine" itself is attested from 1960,<ref>{{OEtymD|doomsday}}</ref> but the [[alliteration]] "doomsday device" has since become more popular.
+Doomsday devices and the [[nuclear holocaust]] they bring about have been present in literature and art especially in the 20th century, when advances in [[science]] and [[technology]] made world destruction (or at least the eradication of all human life) a credible scenario. Many classics in the genre of [[science fiction]] take up the theme in this respect. The term "doomsday machine" itself is attested from 1960,<ref>{{OEtymD|doomsday}}</ref> but the [[alliteration|alliterative]] "doomsday device" has since become the more popular phrase.
 ==History==
-Since the 1954 [[Castle Bravo]] thermonuclear weapon test demonstrated the feasibility of making arbitrarily large nuclear devices which could cover vast areas with radioactive fallout by rendering anything around them intensely radioactive, nuclear weapons theorists such as [[Leo Szilard]] conceived of a doomsday machine, a massive thermonuclear device surrounded by hundreds of tons of cobalt which, when detonated, would create massive amounts of [[Cobalt-60]], rendering most of the Earth too radioactive to support life. [[RAND Corporation|RAND]] strategist [[Herman Kahn]] postulated that Soviet or US nuclear decision makers might choose to build a doomsday machine that would consist of a [[computer]] linked to a stockpile of hydrogen bombs, programmed to detonate them all and bathe the planet in [[nuclear fallout]] at the signal of an impending nuclear attack from another nation.{{Citation needed|date=October 2017}}
+Since the 1954 [[Castle Bravo]] thermonuclear weapon test demonstrated the feasibility of making arbitrarily large nuclear devices which could cover vast areas with radioactive fallout by rendering anything around them intensely radioactive, nuclear weapons theorists such as [[Leo Szilard]] conceived of a doomsday machine, a massive thermonuclear device surrounded by hundreds of tons of cobalt which, when detonated, would create massive amounts of [[Cobalt-60]], rendering most of the Earth too radioactive to support life. [[RAND Corporation|RAND]] strategist [[Herman Kahn]] postulated that Soviet or US nuclear decision makers might choose to build a doomsday machine that would consist of a [[computer]] linked to a stockpile of hydrogen bombs, programmed to detonate them all and bathe the planet in [[nuclear fallout]] at the signal of an impending nuclear attack from another nation.<ref>{{cite book | last=Kahn | first=H. | title=On Thermonuclear War | publisher=Transaction Publishers | series=War and Peace Research | year=2011 | isbn=978-1-4128-1559-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EN2gtPTjFd8C | page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=EN2gtPTjFd8C&pg=PA145&dq=%22doomsday%20machine%22 145] }}</ref>
-The doomsday device's theoretical ability to deter nuclear attack is that it would go off automatically without human aid and despite human intervention. Kahn conceded that some planners might see "doomsday machines" as providing a highly credible threat that would dissuade attackers and avoid the dangerous game of [[brinkmanship]] caused by the [[massive retaliation]] concept which governed US-Soviet nuclear relations in the mid-1950s. However, in his discussion of doomsday machines, Kahn raises the problem of a nuclear-armed [[Nth Country Experiment|''N''th country]] triggering a doomsday machine, and states that he didn't advocate that the US acquire a doomsday machine.<ref name="Kahn">{{cite book | title=On Thermonuclear War | publisher=Princeton University Press | last=Kahn | first=Herman | year=1960 | location=Princeton, NJ, USA }}</ref>
+The US and its doomsday device's theoretical ability to deter a nuclear attack is that it would go off automatically without human aid and despite human intervention. Kahn conceded that some planners might see "doomsday machines" as providing a highly credible threat that would dissuade attackers and avoid the dangerous game of [[brinkmanship]] caused by the [[massive retaliation]] concept which governed US-Soviet nuclear relations in the mid-1950s. However, in his discussion of doomsday machines, Kahn raises the problem of a nuclear-armed [[Nth Country Experiment|''N''th country]] triggering a doomsday machine, and states that he didn't advocate that the US acquire a doomsday machine.<ref name="Kahn">{{cite book | title=On Thermonuclear War | url=https://archive.org/details/onthermonuclearw00kahn | url-access=registration | publisher=Princeton University Press | last=Kahn | first=Herman | year=1960 | location=Princeton, NJ, USA }}</ref>
-The [[Dead Hand]] (or "Perimeter") system built by the [[Soviet Union]] during the [[Cold War]] has been called a "doomsday machine" due to its [[fail-deadly]] design and nuclear capabilities.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113242681|title=Dr. Strangelove's 'Doomsday Machine': It's Real|publisher=NPR|website=NPR.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine|url=https://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/17-10/mf_deadhand?currentPage=all|website=Wired.com|date=2009-09-21}}</ref>
+The [[Dead Hand]] (or "Perimeter") system built by the [[Soviet Union]] during the [[Cold War]] has been called a "doomsday machine" due to its [[fail-deadly]] design and nuclear capabilities.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113242681|title=Dr. Strangelove's 'Doomsday Machine': It's Real|publisher=NPR|website=NPR.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine|url=https://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/17-10/mf_deadhand?currentPage=all|website=Wired.com|date=2009-09-21}}</ref>
 == In fiction ==
+<!-- Please limit this section to one or two examples. Comprehensive litanies of every single mention in works of fiction are unencyclopedic and discouraged per [[WP:TRIVIA]]. -->
-{{Main article|List of fictional doomsday devices}}
-<!-- Please limit this section to one or two examples. Comprehensive litanies of every single mention in works of fiction is unencyclopedic, and discouraged per [[WP:TRIVIA]]. -->
-Doomsday devices started becoming more common in science fiction in the [[1940s]] and [[1950s]], due to the invention of nuclear weapons and the constant fear of total destruction.<ref name="Hamilton">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1003840589|title=Weapons of Science Fiction|last=Hamilton|first=John|publisher=ABDO Digital|isbn=1617843636|location=New York|pages=14|chapter=Doomsday Devices|oclc=1003840589}}</ref> A well-known example is in the film ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' (1964), where the Dead Hand is triggered by an incompletely aborted American attack, and all life on Earth is extinguished.<ref name="Hamilton" /> Another is in the TV episode ''[[The Doomsday Machine (Star Trek: The Original Series)|The Doomsday Machine]]'' (1967), where the crew of the ''Enterprise'' fights a powerful planet-killing alien machine. However, doomsday devices also expanded to encompass many other types of fictional technology, one of the most famous of which is the [[Death Star]], a moon-sized planet-destroying [[space station]].<ref name="Hamilton" />
+Doomsday devices started becoming more common in science fiction in the [[1940s]] and [[1950s]], due to the invention of nuclear weapons and the constant fear of total destruction.<ref name="Hamilton">{{Cite book|title=Weapons of Science Fiction|last=Hamilton|first=John|publisher=ABDO Digital|isbn=1617843636|location=New York|pages=14|chapter=Doomsday Devices|date=15 August 2006|oclc=1003840589}}</ref> A well-known example is in the film ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' (1964), where a doomsday device, based on Szilard and Kahn's ideas, is triggered by an incompletely aborted American attack and all life on Earth is extinguished.<ref name="Hamilton" /> Another is in the Star Trek episode ''[[The Doomsday Machine (Star Trek: The Original Series)|The Doomsday Machine]]'' (1967), where the crew of the ''Enterprise'' fights a powerful planet-killing alien machine. However, doomsday devices also expanded to encompass many other types of fictional technology, one of the most famous of which is the [[Death Star]], a planet-destroying, moon-sized [[space station]].<ref name="Hamilton" />
-Various types of fictional doomsday devices have also been activated as part of an [[AI takeover]].<ref name="Pilkington">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/973481576|title=Science Fiction and Futurism: Their Terms and Ideas|last1=Pilkington|first1=Ace G.|last2=Brin|first2=David|isbn=1476629552|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|pages=69|chapter=Doomsday Machine|oclc=973481576}}</ref> This includes the missile launch system in the movie ''[[WarGames]]'' (1983), control of which has been handed entirely to a computer, and [[Skynet (Terminator)|Skynet]]'s nigh-destruction of the human race in ''[[The Terminator]]'' (1984).<ref name="Pilkington" />
+Some works have also considered the erroneous activation of doomsday devices by external factors or [[chain reaction]]s. An example of both is ''[[Virus (1980 film)|Virus]]'' (1980), where an earthquake is misdetected as a nuclear explosion and triggers a sequence of ''Automated Reaction Systems (ARS)''. Various types of fictional doomsday devices have also been activated as part of an [[AI takeover]].<ref name="Pilkington">{{Cite book|title=Science Fiction and Futurism: Their Terms and Ideas|last1=Pilkington|first1=Ace G.|last2=Brin|first2=David|isbn=978-1476629551|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|pages=69|chapter=Doomsday Machine|oclc=973481576|date = 2017-03-05}}</ref> This includes the missile launch system in the movie ''[[WarGames]]'' (1983), control of which has been handed entirely to a computer, and [[Skynet (Terminator)|Skynet]]'s nigh-destruction of the human race in ''[[The Terminator]]'' (1984).<ref name="Pilkington" />
 ==See also==
+<!---♦♦♦ Please keep the list in alphabetical order ♦♦♦--->
+* [[1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident]]
 * [[Conflict escalation]]
+* [[Doomsday Clock]]
 * [[Fail-deadly]]
 * [[Global catastrophic risks]]
 * [[Mutual assured destruction]]
+* [[Nuclear terrorism]]
+* [[Sundial (weapon)]]
 * [[Weapon of mass destruction]]
@@ Line 32: / Line 37: @@
 ==External links==
-* [http://www.slate.com/id/2173108/pagenum/all/ "The Return of the Doomsday Machine?", Ron Rosenbaum, ''Slate.com'', Aug. 31, 2007]
+* [https://slate.com/human-interest/2007/08/did-the-soviets-really-build-a-doomsday-machine.html "The Return of the Doomsday Machine?", Ron Rosenbaum, ''Slate.com'', Aug. 31, 2007]
 * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGb-D3v05RI Doomsday device] featured in ''[[The Bionic Woman]]'' episode ''Doomsday is Tomorrow''
 * [https://web.archive.org/web/20131230035808/http://au.tv.yahoo.com/plus7/secrets-of-war/-/watch/20505910/sat-28-dec-series-1-episode-19/ Channel 7 Two (Australia) - ''Secrets of War'', Series 1, Episode 19]
@@ Line 38: / Line 43: @@
 {{Doomsday}}
-[[Category:Doomsday scenarios]]
+[[Category:Doomsday scenarios|*]]
 [[Category:Nuclear weapons]]
 [[Category:Science fiction weapons]]
+[[Category:1960 neologisms]]