How would you design a sci-fi sword?

[NecronLord]

As for the disruption, having your arm cut with a mono-wire will cause little tissue damage, the chemical bonds along the cut should still be disrupted and thus part of your arm is coming off.

How? It's in a stasis field, which nivenverse, doesn't interact chemically or electrically.

[Lord of the Abyss]

As for the disruption, having your arm cut with a mono-wire will cause little tissue damage, the chemical bonds along the cut should still be disrupted and thus part of your arm is coming off.

How? It's in a stasis field, which nivenverse, doesn't interact chemically or electrically.

A chemical bond isn't going to keep working through a stasis field; it'll break as the stasis field passes between the two bonded atoms; it will quite likely immediately bond to something else.

[Darwin]

I always liked the Dragon's Tooth from Deus Ex. Sure nanomachines blah blah, but what you've got is basically a continually self-reforging sorta-mostly-solid blade, and as a bonus it packs up nice and small when you're done.

[NecronLord]

As for the disruption, having your arm cut with a mono-wire will cause little tissue damage, the chemical bonds along the cut should still be disrupted and thus part of your arm is coming off.

How? It's in a stasis field, which nivenverse, doesn't interact chemically or electrically.

A chemical bond isn't going to keep working through a stasis field; it'll break as the stasis field passes between the two bonded atoms; it will quite likely immediately bond to something else.

That's precisely why I can't imagine it working too well. Surely the arm would just bond together again unless perhaps it was under tension?

[Lord of the Abyss]

A chemical bond isn't going to keep working through a stasis field; it'll break as the stasis field passes between the two bonded atoms; it will quite likely immediately bond to something else.

That's precisely why I can't imagine it working too well. Surely the arm would just bond together again unless perhaps it was under tension?

What I meant was that I assumed that the severed bonds would attach themselves to the atoms/molecules not temporarily blocked by the stasis field. I presume it would happen very quickly. And an arm is under some tension anyway; muscular flexing, the tension of the skin; the pull of gravity; etc.

Even if it did fuse back together, I wouldn't expect the new bond to be nearly as strong and the arm would likely suffer some serious problems. After all, complicated, carefully constructed molecules that are suddenly severed aren't like to neatly fuse back together the right way; such a process would be messy. Even if it held together I'd expect damage something similar to a 2-dimensional burn bisecting the arm due to all the disarrangedment at the molecular level.

[Korvan]

I'm wondering if gravity or the motion of the arm (assuming it was moving at the time of the cut) would cause enough separation before the bonds could reattached themselves. Looks like a slower cut with the wire would be more effective.

[Ryan Thunder]

obviously there'd be a counterweight vibrating in opposite phase to the blade's vibration if it were that significant.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

A thought occurs to me; presumably there will be robots, micromachines (cyberants and cyberflies, even, not necessarily going the length of nanotech), power armour, drones, etc- how well would a really powerful electromagnet on a stick work?

Something like a spear or halberd, actually, with a spoon- shaped shield curving from behind over one (back) edge of the "blade", protecting the wielder and hopefully his mates from the field, which is waved at the enemy to disrupt electronics, shut down combat robots and power armour, possibly get powerful enough induction to fry micromachines and small drones entirely?

Extending shaft, so it can be folded up and shut down when not needed, it would have some area effect, might be useful for landmine hunting too.

Obviously, there are existing defences to this, shock shielding and hardening in military hardware as is, in fact if there weren't the wielder would be quite thoroughly screwed, but can they not be overwhelmed, or more reasonably what would the cost be of doing so?

[Ryan Thunder]

obviously there'd be a counterweight vibrating in opposite phase to the blade's vibration if it were that significant.

Would that work? My gut says it would cancel the movement entirely; two things tugging on opposite directions means no net force.

Actually, on second thought, the counterweight might be more effective if it were simply used to place the balance of the sword in the handle, which would be cushioned to further deaden the vibration applied to your hand.

So the idea is that the blade and counterweight are all one piece and the handle is just wrapped around that.

[Patrick Degan]

My idea: a sword with an electrified blade (the hilt will obviously have to be heavily insulated, as will the sword-wielder's boots). Good against both humans and robots.

[Ryan Thunder]

My idea: a sword with an electrified blade (the hilt will obviously have to be heavily insulated, as will the sword-wielder's boots). Good against both humans and robots.

Perhaps this is a dumb question, but how is that sword going to cut through a war robot?

I can certainly see the utility of it against humans, of course, what with the cutting + tazer/shocking.

[Vehrec]

Neutronium edged weapons-those slice through anything like a rock through air. Of course, there's the weight issue to deal with, but that's an engineering problem.

[Zixinus]

Perhaps this is a dumb question, but how is that sword going to cut through a war robot?

It goes with the assumption that robots are not properly insulated and/or armoured. Though, if you do get contact (with the sword) with one of the wires of the robot, you can fry at least some of the electronics.

[Simon_Jester]

I always liked the Dragon's Tooth from Deus Ex. Sure nanomachines blah blah, but what you've got is basically a continually self-reforging sorta-mostly-solid blade, and as a bonus it packs up nice and small when you're done.

Though the thing takes up as much space in your inventory as a LAW or a sniper rifle; I suspect the graphic that has the blade popping out of the hilt is just a "looks cool" thing, not a "the sword actually does that" thing.

It sucks, too, because if it didn't take up so much room in inventory it would be a much more useful tool/weapon.

Actually, on second thought, the counterweight might be more effective if it were simply used to place the balance of the sword in the handle, which would be cushioned to further deaden the vibration applied to your hand.

So the idea is that the blade and counterweight are all one piece and the handle is just wrapped around that.

Swords with a balance point in your hand are supposed to be awkward as hell; controlling where the blade goes can be tricky, as I understand it.

[Sarevok]

I don't care about a swords sharpness. The biggest problem in a world of ranged weapons is getting close enough to use it. This is why the lightsaber is the most brilliant design for a scifi sword. It allows the wielder to defend himself long enough to get close enough to use it. So if I were making a scifi sword it would focus on defense not offense. I will take the gravity gun tech from half life 2, when the sword is activated all incoming projectiles are repulsed away by the gravity field. For attacking the swords blade would be a Deus Ex Dragon Tooth style filament that effortlessly cuts even most heaviest armors.

[Lord Insanity]

Regarding the usefulness of a vibrating sword, if it can be done similar to the Fein MultiMaster tool it would work quite well. See their commercial here. I have a generic one that works just as good. What is really weird is it "cuts" through solids just fine but if you touch the "blade" it doesn't cut you.

[Patrick Degan]

My idea: a sword with an electrified blade (the hilt will obviously have to be heavily insulated, as will the sword-wielder's boots). Good against both humans and robots.

Perhaps this is a dumb question, but how is that sword going to cut through a war robot?

I can certainly see the utility of it against humans, of course, what with the cutting + tazer/shocking.

It doesn't have to cut through it, just impart a charge.

[Sarevok]

What if the robot is insulated with same material as the sword hilt ?

[TheLostVikings]

Regarding the usefulness of a vibrating sword, if it can be done similar to the Fein MultiMaster tool it would work quite well. See their commercial here. I have a generic one that works just as good. What is really weird is it "cuts" through solids just fine but if you touch the "blade" it doesn't cut you.

And thus the hypothetical vibrosword ends up going by nick names such as "Boxcutter" or "Can Opener". Since while they can open up the armor real quick, you end up having to finish the job yourself. Depending on whether or not you want to follow up your epic sword fight ...IN SPAAAACE! with an equally epic bare-chested fistfight ...IN SPAAACE! this may or may not be a plus.

I guess this is why vibro blade wanking tend to annoy me, after all in real life bone saws this is actually a safety feature designed to prevent them from cutting your skin...

[Rye]

What if the robot is insulated with same material as the sword hilt ?

The outside of a robot would presumably be earthed anyway. Can you imagine hitting something like a power loader or terminator with an electric sword?

[Sarevok]

Well with a good insulation material even lack of being earthed should not matter. Electricity hates flowing into paths of greater resistance.

[Peptuck]

My idea: a sword with an electrified blade (the hilt will obviously have to be heavily insulated, as will the sword-wielder's boots).

This is an idea I've been kicking around for a story I'm writing. I have a character who is armed with a blade similar to a Chinese straight sword (jian) that is electrified. It's small, it's lightweight, and its flexible, and most of the opponents the characters deal with are either lightly armored or unarmored, making it a good multipurpose weapon. Even a glancing blow or light tap would drop a human opponent.

[Elheru Aran]

My idea: a sword with an electrified blade (the hilt will obviously have to be heavily insulated, as will the sword-wielder's boots).

This is an idea I've been kicking around for a story I'm writing. I have a character who is armed with a blade similar to a Chinese straight sword (jian) that is electrified. It's small, it's lightweight, and its flexible, and most of the opponents the characters deal with are either lightly armored or unarmored, making it a good multipurpose weapon. Even a glancing blow or light tap would drop a human opponent.

A shock-baton or shockmaul, some kind of electric truncheon, would do the same thing just as efficiently and be less potentially lethal, wouldn't it? Granted, with the sword you *can* use it to cut stuff too when needed, but I'm not sure of the practicality of a sword in such a setting. Note that one can always pack a knife when things need cutting, and against lightly armoured/unarmoured opponents, blunt force is just as useful as a cutting force. Of course, if your character has no problem with gutting his/her/it opponents...

[Darmalus]

Stealing from GURPS Ultra Tech, there was a super-science material called memory metal, which could remember 2 or more shapes and switch between them with some sort of input (electrical?). The example in the book had a staff that could change into a spear, different types of axes, a pick (I think, my memory is a little fuzzy and I don't have the book handy). The more shapes, the more expensive, because it had to me manufactured with all the different shapes built in, you couldn't add more later.

If you had this material, you could have a ceremonial sword, or maybe a bayonet, that could change into a variety of useful tools as well as a last ditch melee weapon. I'm think a shove, pick, axe, sword, saw, etc.

[sirocco]

Simple but efficient.
Battle Angel Alita: Last Order