How to Win an Interstellar War

Summary by Krater

An animated video explores hypothetical relativistic weapons that interstellar civilizations could use in warfare, including star lasers, relativistic missiles, and ultra-relativistic electron beams, and examines their devastating effects over interstellar distances.

From the video

Answers: How could civilizations wage war across light-years and what weapons would they use?

• Interstellar warfare weapons
• Star laser technology
• Relativistic missiles
• Ultra-relativistic electron beams
• Dyson swarm energy collection
• Whipple shield defenses

What it concludes

• A star laser powered by a Dyson swarm can focus 1% of a star's energy output into a beam capable of melting a planet's crust from millions of light-years away.
• Relativistic missiles packed with antimatter can travel at nearly the speed of light and obliterate a planet's surface upon impact.
• An ultra-relativistic electron beam accelerates electrons to nearly 100% the speed of light, destroying DNA with lethal radiation doses over planetary scales.