this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2025
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

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I can see it now: just get the enemy to breathe in a cloud of nanobots, or have the bots enter their body through an open cut that they make, and the enemy's body is yours: no violence needed.

We live in a terrifying time because there's just no way to dodge this sort of stuff unless you have the EMP tech, since a Hazmat suit is unsustainable to don long-term.

EDIT: No, I didn't watch anything! I've been reading about how nanobots are currently being used in the medical field to clear plaque from arteries, so I have simply been chugging with that train of thought in a more nefarious direction...

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[–] theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 51 points 6 days ago

We live in a terrifying time

Well, the nanobots that you are describing do not exist, so they aren't what is making the time terrifying

[–] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 49 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

Wait until you hear about viruses or prions. Truly terrifying nanobots. Worst of all, they already exist. Those things are out there right now.

[–] TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.ca 24 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Prions are absolutely wild. There is no cure, no "vaccine" - not that that would even be possible because they're not viruses, bacteria, or even living things from outside your body. They're just a faulty version of something that already exists in your system and they make your body self-destruct.

[–] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 19 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Prime horror movie material.

You trust your body. You trust your mind. But what if the enemy... is already inside you?

They’re not viruses. They’re not bacteria. They’re your own proteins... twisted. Hungry.

They hide in the folds of your brain. They wait in the silence of your cells. And when they strike... you won’t even know you’re already lost.

PRIONS

COMING TO AN ENDOPLASMIC RETICULUM NEAR YOU

[–] bklyn@piefed.social 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Congratulations. I am now terrified of my own brain.

[–] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 4 points 6 days ago

New fear unlocked.

[–] rayyy@piefed.social 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

Good read. Thanks for the link!

[–] XiELEd@piefed.social 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

If a plausible zombie virus were to exist, it would definitely be those long-incubating stuff

[–] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

Prions(tm): not a virus

[–] sircac@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

There have never been enough concerns to be worth to develop a vaccine for a prion, and current used techniques are those for being efficient for their targets, but as far as I know prions are just proteins and proteins can be (and are) targeted, the whole immunitarie system often relies on those...

[–] ranzispa@mander.xyz 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Chemical weapons appear as a much better option than viruses. Enemy is there, drop a nervine agent and everyone is dead. Wait for a while and you're free to advance.

Viruses in much more difficult to operate: infect someone somehow - I guess a bomb or something like that could be used as well. Wait several months so that enemy actually gets infected on large scale, but not too long because most of them won't be dying anyway and soon back to battlefield. In the meantime vaccinate the whole of your invasion army. Start producing massive quantities of vaccines just in case it spreads to your own country somehow and you'll have to treat your own population.

Assuming you were able to create both the virus and the vaccine within the period the war lasted, it may give you some bit of advantage during a period of 1/2 months or something like that. Good enough if you're able to win the war in such period, but if you've got that kind of money to spend I'm sure you've got way more efficient options.

[–] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 days ago

Yep. Bio weapons are terrible in every way. Now that RNA vaccines are in production, making new vaccines just got a whole lot faster.

[–] Prathas@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

That reminds me... let me post another shower thought...

[–] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 days ago

Glad I could help!

[–] remon@ani.social 22 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

That sounds much more complicated than just using a gun. And they even work on people in hazmat suits.

[–] Prathas@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Why would you destroy potentially useful human resources?

[–] remon@ani.social 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (5 children)

Are you insinuating that your nanobots wouldn't kill people?

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[–] markz@suppo.fi 18 points 6 days ago (2 children)

no violence needed

How is this entire thing not violence?

unless you have the EMP tech

So you mean like robots with electronics in them? You should read less science fiction. This is beyond bill gates microchip injection nonsense.

[–] Randomgal@lemmy.ca 4 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Also how is this different form just gassing the enemy?

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[–] tomiant@piefed.social 2 points 5 days ago

Robots with electronics in them and when they bark they shoot electronics at you?

[–] AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I mean biological warfare already exists so no need to go 21st century with it. I'd imagine that even if the tech existed, it just wouldn't be cost effective.

[–] tomiant@piefed.social 2 points 5 days ago

We already had a sublime propaganda machine, yet here we are with AI anyway...

And cost effective only matters if you actually want to solve problems for people, not if you want to make money by creating something nobody wants and have you and your friends in the military-industrial-political complex get astronomically rich together.

[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 15 points 6 days ago (4 children)

This is different from poison, how?

[–] remon@ani.social 8 points 6 days ago

It's way more expensive!

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[–] DarkMetatron@feddit.org 6 points 5 days ago

The nanobots we have need a light as power source and only work in a strong magnetic field. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ9aXoah5DA

Just try to avoid having a endoscopic lamp inserted into you while you sit inside a MRT and you should be good, no fear needed.

[–] nesc@lemmy.cafe 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

They most probably won't, there is literally zero chance that someone would kill you with nanobots.

[–] tomiant@piefed.social 2 points 5 days ago

probably won’t

zero chance

[–] Perspectivist@feddit.uk 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It'll be mosquito sized drone that stings you in the neck and then you die

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[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 days ago

Well, "obsolete." Unless your average home invader starts employing nanobots in their crimes guns will still be useful, just not against state level threats that can afford nanobots. Of course, those threats already have f-35s or whatever number we're on now so guns are already of limited effect there.

[–] NachBarcelona@piefed.social 8 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Do you believe that nanobots like this exist?

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[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

the borg, replicators(milky way) all use nano-robots as a method to attack thier intended victims, or assimilate them.

its actually the basis of borg assimilating a planet, deploy cloud of nanoprobes into the infect the population through the atmosphere, they dont seem to do it often though.

nano-tech is also big in sg1, where the goauld use them to infect and age the population, in sga they were use to infect humans and wraith.

[–] sircac@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

[...] there's just no way to dodge this sort of stuff unless you have the EMP tech [...]

I think that we are closer of advance EMP technology than remote controlled operative war nanobots that supose a non violent threat more than biological weapons (which I find quite violent and inhumane), not to mention that countermeasure evolution seems much easier than (if not as easy as) the effective sophistication of nanobots, just to say a few...

[–] DemBoSain@midwest.social 4 points 6 days ago (3 children)

I'm on the last part of the Wool/Silo series. No spoilers.

[–] ReiRose@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Really excellent books. I didn't think the second one could be better than the first or reveal more secrets, man was i pleasantly surprised

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

After you finish the last of the 3 novels, make sure you seek out the additional short stories. They fill in some nice gaps in the before, during, and after.

[–] BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Someone's seen the movie Upgrade lol

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[–] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 6 days ago (4 children)

This is literally the concept of a popular science fiction TV series. I won't say which one because I don't want to spoil it, but its next season is eagerly awaited, and it was huge when it was airing its previous season(s).

The series is based on books, and some fans of the series have read ahead; some have finished the books and know what all happens. Of course adaptations do change things, but killer nanobots that were used to wage war were the catalyst and a hidden plot point. I think the next season will reveal this.

(No, it's not Fallout. Fallout is good old-fashioned nuclear war. The show doesn't follow any of the games, but they share the same lore. The show is changing some of that, adding onto it (e.g. Vault Boy origin story in the first season), but they aren't changing that. Also, not based on books.)

If you know, don't say. Or at the very least use spoiler tags.

[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

Fallout the Show doesn't follow any of the games because it's an entirely new story told in that same universe. The games and show all share the same timeline, and yet each game (including the show) has an entirely different story, taking place at a different location and point in time, in each installment.

So there's really nothing for the show to follow, other than the established rules of the world it inhabits, and imo it does a very good job of that.

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