# real life examples of self-destruction? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 2, 2014, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174 "2014-07-02T07:46:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/21 "2014-07-03T22:51:34Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > There have been attempts to create computer chips that destroy themselves upon tampering. A standard way to reverse engineer a chip was to carefully slice off the cover, take pictures, slice a layer off, etc. The idea was that by adding something to the chip, when the cover was taken off, the innards would get dissolved to prevent this. > > I have no idea if this ever really went into production. Even if it did, it would have been for chips is top secret military gear. > > I don’t think this is practical anymore for chips with many millions of transistors. The process couldn’t possibly preserve the very finest details plus the coarse layout doesn’t tell the whole story. > > But the DoD is still [thinking](http://defensetech.org/2014/02/03/darpa-wants-self-destructable-computer-chips/) about it. There ceratainly do exist secure USB drives that will “self destruct” (in the sense of destroying all stored data) if the wrong password is used to try and access it more than a certain number of times, or if attempts are made to breach its security. Here’s one: > **[A legacy of secure solutions by Kingston IronKey - Kingston Technology](https://www.kingston.com/en/solutions/data-security/ironkey)** > > Kingston’s hardware-based encrypted storage devices feature data-protection solutions for mobile data in and outside of an organization's firewall. > **[A legacy of secure solutions by Kingston IronKey - Kingston Technology](https://www.kingston.com/en/solutions/data-security/ironkey)** > > Kingston’s hardware-based encrypted storage devices feature data-protection solutions for mobile data in and outside of an organization's firewall. > [@](#): > > Self-defending IronKey Basic drives are hardened to stand up to malware or mischief, so confidential data stays where it belongs. And after 10 failed consecutive password attempts, the device will either self-destruct or reset (if previously enabled) back to its default state. The principal of destroying things goes back to scuttling of ships, and thus has a history centuries old. Secret messages sealed in sandwiches of lead to make them drop out of reach were used in Napoleonic days. The first use of a “self destruct” device in a movie I know of was in **Robinson Crusoe on Mars**. Unlike later uses of the trope, where the ship was spectacuilarly destroyed to kill a monster or something, this was woinderfully low-key, with the main character “scutytling” his out-of-reac h orbiting ship to prevent interlopers from knowing of his presence, and the explosion was just a bright dot that happened far away. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/22 "2014-07-03T22:57:18Z")
> [@Dr.Colossus](#): > > would the ISS conceivably have some kind of destruction fail-safe mechanism? > > i understand the movie trope, but i don’t really understand the logical necessity of such a system. There was a science fiction TV movie called _Something is Out There_ many years ago, in which a man and a humanoid alien woman are dealing with a non-humanoid alien bad guy on her space ship. There was a wonderful piece of dialogue: Human Guy: Doesn’t this ship has a Self Destruct system on it? Alien Woman: Why would we have something like that on board? It doesn’t make any sense. This is from the original two-part “miniseries”, before they tried to turn it into a series > **[Something Is Out There](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Is_Out_There)** > > Something Is Out There is a 1988 American science fiction television miniseries that aired on NBC, and a weekly series that followed in the fall of 1988, which lasted from October to December 1988. > Jack Breslin (Joseph Cortese) is a police officer investigating brutal murders in which organs have been removed from the victims with (by human standards) surgically impossible speed. He learns that the crimes are being committed by a monstrous alien insectoid prisoner known as a xenomorph, possessin... I could, however, understand having something like that to “scuttle” a ship if it became necessary (like it ends up out of orbit, and might plunge into a heavily inhabited area, and you could somehow guarantee that it would break into bite-sized pieces that burned up on entry, instead of a single huge meteor that would take out a neighborhood). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/23 "2014-07-04T05:32:55Z")
[quote=“PastTense, post:14, topic:692174”] A classic example is lemmings going over a cliff: [/QUOTE] This is a total myth created by Disney which produced the film seen in the above mentioned youtube. [It turns out that there is no proof that an assemblage of wild lemmings would actually drive themselves off of a cliff at all, but rather **the myth was perpetuated by a 1958 Disney documentary called White Wilderness, in which the filmmakers manually ran a pack of lemmings off of a cliff to make for good television.** The staged suicide turned out to be a critical success, as the movie went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary](http://mentalfloss.com/article/50957/do-lemmings-really-run-cliffs-their-death) Here is another [cite.](http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=56) So what you see in the youtube is not mass suicide but rather mass murder by (trumpets please) Disney. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/24 "2014-07-04T23:45:05Z")
> [@Fishtar](#): > > And I suppose that cyanide pill Hermann Goring had stashed somewhere in his nether regions… Incorrect – he didn’t have such a pill. The poison he used to cheat the hangman was supplied to him by an Allied soldier, who gave him a pen. He thought it contained notes from a German girl to Goring, as it had on previous occasions. But this time it had inside a glass capsule (not a ‘pill’) containing cyanide. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/25 "2014-07-05T00:05:16Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > This is a total myth created by Disney No, it’s a total myth that predated Disney, and was why they staged the ‘migratory’ deaths in White Wilderness. ---
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/26 "2014-07-05T03:16:13Z")
tapu, upper lip quivering, _Dis-ney?? Disney threw…?_ ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2014, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/27 "2014-07-06T18:48:04Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > Stingers and most US small missiles have no self destruct mechanism. Stingers, TOWs, Hellfires, Javelins, … While you have a lot of good information here, once the Stinger is fired and flying, there is a self-destruct timer that blows the warhead if no target is struck with an impact fuse, 15 to 19 seconds after launch. Cite: Chapter 2-3 of the LAAD Handbook, handily hosted by [FAS.org](http://FAS.org) as a PDF here. > **[ch2.pdf](https://man.fas.org/dod-101/sys/land/docs/ch2.pdf)** UncleBill MOS 7204 2nd LAAD Bn, MCAS Cherry Point 1990-1992 ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2014, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/28 "2014-07-06T21:12:37Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > No, it’s a total myth that predated Disney, and was why they staged the ‘migratory’ deaths in White Wilderness. Yep, [by quite a few years.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=700925) ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/29 "2014-07-07T05:53:19Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > T > Human Guy: Doesn’t this ship has a Self Destruct system on it? > Alien Woman: Why would we have something like that on board? It doesn’t make any sense. Perhaps to avoid it falling into the wrong hands… As per Star Trek or Doctor Who … “I don’t think we should give them this technology !” They might wish to avoid giving the technology to humans… ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/30 "2014-07-07T06:43:39Z")
Cells have genes for self - destruction. Programmed cell death (apoptosis) is important in embryonic development.[Apoptosis - Wikipedia](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apoptosis) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/31 "2014-07-07T09:49:55Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > Perhaps to avoid it falling into the wrong hands… > > As per Star Trek or Doctor Who … “I don’t think we should give them this technology !” > > They might wish to avoid giving the technology to humans… I’m quoting from the TV movie. That doesn’t mean I can’t suggest answers, or even necessarily agree. Especially after I’ve already given reasons in my previous response. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/32 "2014-07-07T11:18:17Z")
I think some persons who let themselves go by gluttony, not keeping clean, not following medical directives, etc… are doing a kind of slow suicide. ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/33 "2014-08-06T18:24:40Z")
I just heard a thing on NPR about new smart phones being developed for the military. In order to keep them from falling into enemy hands, it sounds like they have a real live self destruct feature–not just a software wipe, which was mentioned specifically, but a vaguely described “vapor” option that, it was implied, would physically destroy the phone (at least in part). ETA: This is the US military. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/34 "2014-08-06T18:31:35Z")
For “Star Trek”, if your ship is powered by a carefully-contained antimatter reactor, simply turning off antimatter containment would blow your ship to atoms. This is why every starship in Star Trek had a self-destruct sequence. Real-life widgets don’t tend to be powered by antimatter. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/35 "2014-08-06T18:34:05Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I imagine military drones probably have some very limited self-destruction capabilities, most likely on parts that are classified or otherwise sensitive. > > For example, it may have charges built into the encryption gear, flight control software system or remote control gear, but it’s unlikely for the airframe or engines or anything else that’s not particularly high tech or hard to come by. [Nothing on t one self destructed.](http://theaviationist.com/category/captured-stealth-drone/)[Aint getting it back either.](http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/files/images/obamadroneIRAN600.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/36 "2014-08-06T18:42:03Z")
> [@tapu](#): > > tapu, upper lip quivering, _Dis-ney?? Disney threw…?_ No, no, it’s OK. Disney would never have done that. [spoiler]Why would he have laid hands on dirty little lemmings? He’s the boss, for pete’s sake. He had Mickey throw the lemmings off the cliff.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/37 "2014-08-06T19:51:29Z")
Self-destruct stingers? That would be honeybees. Mutual assured destruction. Another weird and annoying movie trope, is the “do not disturb” configuration on a bomb planted on a bus or a train (or an airplane). A bomb that goes off it it’s moved, in a setting that is constantly shaken up? It makes sense if placed in a building… ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/38 "2014-08-06T20:58:29Z")
A rather mundane real world example: My mid 90’s era Toyota had stickers on the window warning that the radio would cease to function if removed. And while I never removed it to verify if it actually did self-destruct, I did fantasize about it exploding in the hands of a would-be thief. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2014, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/39 "2014-08-07T00:57:30Z")
NASA had destruction mechanisms in the early days of the space program, when they were using unmanned rockets. If the rockets started behaving erratically it could be blown up (and some were) so it would end up falling into the ocean and not heading for a populated area. I’m pretty sure that’s where the entire “self-destruct” meme originated. ---
**Author:** ![buddy431](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@buddy431](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddy431)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2014, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174/40 "2014-08-07T06:21:19Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > NASA had destruction mechanisms in the early days of the space program, when they were using unmanned rockets. If the rockets started behaving erratically it could be blown up (and some were) so it would end up falling into the ocean and not heading for a populated area. I’m pretty sure that’s where the entire “self-destruct” meme originated. Nearly all rockets still have this option. The U2 famously had a self destruct mechanism, which Francis Gary Powers famously failed to arm before he bailed out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-life-examples-of-self-destruction/692174.md?page=3)