How might How might events go if the Krakens in Wyndham's The Kraken Wakes turned up in 2013 instead of 1953 (the copyright date of the book)?
Here are some of my notes on the POD.
1) Better radar to observe the arrival of the red globes although they would be less likely to be fired at these days.
2) Bathyscopes and remote subs for investigating where they have landed. A lot safer for mother ships than the cable approach of 50s technology and they would have better sensors.
3) Current treaties ban dropping nukes on them at least under the guise of testing them. Would countries cede from them?
4) The fact that their domes are in international water, which I presume that they are permitted to use under international law as much as anyone else. Comments?
5) Efforts against them by various countries were not co-ordinated beyond an ad hoc Committee, which conveniently met in London. As events on OTL have shown, things could be different. Would it be NATO that takes the lead or the UN? Would China and Russia co-operate with the West in a new Coalition or would they go their own way as Russian did (China is not mentioned as a real power)?
6) Advances in submarine warfare in general and sonar in particular could make it hot for any Kraken craft near the surface. In addition, could subs detect sea tanks crawling along the continental shelf and dispatch them with torpedoes?
7) The sonic bombs were ultimately used to wipe them off the face of the Earth (well, out of the Deep Blue Sea). However, would a complete clearance be permitted? After all the legal definition of genocide can be found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG). Article 2 of the CPPCG defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
In my view, that would be enough legally to block the programme of eradication in the book. Given the number of people killed there would also be a case for putting the leaders of the Krakens on trial . Extradiction though might prove to be tricky!
Here are some of my notes on the POD.
1) Better radar to observe the arrival of the red globes although they would be less likely to be fired at these days.
2) Bathyscopes and remote subs for investigating where they have landed. A lot safer for mother ships than the cable approach of 50s technology and they would have better sensors.
3) Current treaties ban dropping nukes on them at least under the guise of testing them. Would countries cede from them?
4) The fact that their domes are in international water, which I presume that they are permitted to use under international law as much as anyone else. Comments?
5) Efforts against them by various countries were not co-ordinated beyond an ad hoc Committee, which conveniently met in London. As events on OTL have shown, things could be different. Would it be NATO that takes the lead or the UN? Would China and Russia co-operate with the West in a new Coalition or would they go their own way as Russian did (China is not mentioned as a real power)?
6) Advances in submarine warfare in general and sonar in particular could make it hot for any Kraken craft near the surface. In addition, could subs detect sea tanks crawling along the continental shelf and dispatch them with torpedoes?
7) The sonic bombs were ultimately used to wipe them off the face of the Earth (well, out of the Deep Blue Sea). However, would a complete clearance be permitted? After all the legal definition of genocide can be found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG). Article 2 of the CPPCG defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
In my view, that would be enough legally to block the programme of eradication in the book. Given the number of people killed there would also be a case for putting the leaders of the Krakens on trial . Extradiction though might prove to be tricky!