| Biological warfare , also known as germ warfare, is the use of any organism (bacteria, virus and other disease-causing organisms) or toxins found in nature, as a weapon of war. It is meant to incapacitate or kill an enemy. |
| Chemical warfare is warfare (and associated military operations) using non-explosive chemical agents to kill, injure or incapacitate the enemy. Living organisms (including viruses ) are not considered chemical warfare: their use is instead labelled biological warfare . |
| A Cybernetic revolt is a scenario in which AIs (either a single supercomputer, a computer network, or sometimes a "race" of intelligent machines) decide that humans are a threat (either to the machines or to themselves) or are oppressors and try to destroy or to enslave them potentially leading to Machine Rule. |
| A doomsday device is a hypothetical construction - normally a weapon - which could destroy all life on the Earth, or destroy the Earth itself - bringing "doomsday" , a term used for the end of planet Earth. Doomsday devices 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. |
| Mutually assured destruction or MAD - is a doctrine of military strategy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two opposing sides would effectively result in the destruction of both the attacker and the defender. It is based on the theory of deterrence according to which the deployment of strong weapons is essential to threaten the enemy in order to prevent the use of the very same weapons. |
| A Nuclear holocaust is the possibility of a nearly complete annhilation of human civilization by nuclear warfare and weapons . Under this scenario, all or most of the Earth is made uninhabitable by nuclear weapons in future world wars or possibly world war 3. |
| A device that releases nuclear energy in an explosive manner as the result of nuclear chain reactions involving the fission or fusion or both, of atomic nuclei. Basically it is any device that harnesses the immense power of the atom to create a bomb or explosive device. Even more simplified, they are essentially nothing more than huge bombs - with a unique exception - they have the potential to destroy entire cities. |
| A suitcase bomb is a bomb which uses a suitcase as its delivery method. While conventional bombs can be hidden in any type of container, suitcase bombs have been threats primarily in two different contexts: conventional bombs in suitcases on airplanes (where there are many suitcases, and where even a small bomb will cause a crash), and suitcases with small nuclear weapons inside. |
| The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clockface maintained since 1947 by the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. It uses the analogy of the human race being at a time that is a 'few minutes to midnight' where midnight represents destruction by nuclear war . |
| Tsar Bomba , or "Tsar-bomb," is the nickname for the RDS-202 hydrogen bomb (code named "Ivan" by its developers) the largest and most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. Developed by the Soviet Union, the bomb was originally designed to have a yield of about 100 megatons of TNT; however, the bomb yield was reduced by half in order to limit the amount of nuclear fallout that would result. |
| World War III is the name given to a hypothetical world war, initially supposed to be fought between superpowers with weapons of mass destruction, usually nuclear weapons . Superpower confrontation was deemed to be the major threat in the latter half of the 20th century, where the Cold War saw the capitalist United States face the communist USSR. This conflict was presumed to result in the extermination or technological impoverishment of humanity . |
| Like World War III , World War IV is the name for a would-be global war, which either has not yet occurred, or else has already started but whose commencement would be established by historians in retrospect. The names WW III and IV arise from the view that World War I and World War II set a precedent which would follow a continued and escalating trend and that designation as a world war is established by either the world leaders performing the aggression or by the world leaders attempting to roll back that aggression. |
