You’re not - it’s pretty explicitly the point. The technological arms race has gotten so advanced that everyone has devolved into fighting with knives.
Specifically it causes the explosion at both ends, so firing a laser at something you aren’t 100% absolutely positively sure is unshielded is suicidal.
There are cultural implications. For the same reason that thermonuclear warheads are stockpiled but not used these days, they avoid using lazguns because you simultaneously blow up more than you would need and turn everyone against you. There are laws in the empire that prevent a military power from intentionally triggering one of these reactions for obvious reasons.
You’re not - it’s pretty explicitly the point. The technological arms race has gotten so advanced that everyone has devolved into fighting with knives.
The shields don’t just protect against kinetic weapons, they also tend to cause energy weapons to blow up in a thermonuclear explosions iirc
Specifically it causes the explosion at both ends, so firing a laser at something you aren’t 100% absolutely positively sure is unshielded is suicidal.
Sounds like a drone dropping an energy weapon on a shield users head would do the trick then.
There are cultural implications. For the same reason that thermonuclear warheads are stockpiled but not used these days, they avoid using lazguns because you simultaneously blow up more than you would need and turn everyone against you. There are laws in the empire that prevent a military power from intentionally triggering one of these reactions for obvious reasons.
Anyone who does that is getting immediately dog piled by the rest of the houses.
Isn’t the thermonuclear bomb a Foundation thing, not a Dune thing?
Is it both? I can see why op said he may be mixing them up lol.
Usually whenever I ask myself “is it X or Dune?” I default to Dune, since it is just that old and has inspired so many things in sci fi.
And even then, the training focuses on slow, deliberate moves, as even a fast knife can be deflected.