Self-destruct
A self-destruct is a mechanism that can cause an object to destroy itself or render itself inoperable after a predefined set of circumstances has occurred.
For the album by The Original Sins, see Self Destruct (album). For other uses, see Self Destruction (disambiguation).Self-destruct mechanisms are typically found on devices and systems where malfunction could endanger large numbers of people.
Use in fiction[edit]
In the 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Mission: Impossible, sensitive intelligence or equipment is shown to self-destruct in order to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.[9] Notably, the usage of "self-destruct" as a verb is said to have been coined on Mission: Impossible.[10]
Self-destruct mechanisms are frequent plot devices in science fiction stories, such as those in the Star Trek or Alien fictional universes. They are generally found on military installations and starships too valuable to allow an enemy to capture. In many such stories, these mechanisms not only obliterate the object protected by the device, but cause massive destruction in a large surrounding area. Often, the characters have a limited amount of time to escape the destruction, or to disable the mechanism, creating story tension.[11] In some cases, an artificial intelligence will invoke self-destruct due to cognitive dissonance.[12]
Usually the method required to initiate a self-destruct sequence is lengthy and complex, as in Alien,[13] or else requires multiple officers aboard the ship with individual passcodes to concur,[14] while audible and/or visible countdown timers allow audiences to track the growing urgency of the characters' escape. Passwords in 1970s and 1980s movies are often clearly insecure for their purposes as self-destruct triggers, considering accounts with even low-level security—let alone the high-security measures which would come for a self-destruct mechanism—in modern times generally have far more complex password requirements (the writers of the era not anticipating the issues soon to be raised by the easy affordability of fast computer hardware for conducting brute-force attacks).[15]
