Spacescifi

Well.... I would sure like to hear the speech he would give to try to 'sell' this to the American public! "I believe this nation should commit itself, before this century is out, to land a man on Mars and return him safely to the Earth.... we choose to go to Mars and do the other thing, not because they are easy but because they are hard!" Something IRL would be different given the change of scenery sunlit zenova mentioned... but hopefully will stilll include the epic phrase 'we do this not because it is easy but BECAUSE it is hard!' Still epic decades later, music was made based off it:

Hyper-realism=hyper-escapism. Sentient, able to reason is true AI.... which is why few would browse interspace because dumbware 'AI' and humans can cover that. In the systems under it's control an OSAI is god-like, only answering to the human moderating team above it, which answers to the human administrator who monitors things overall. Inside interspace, an OSAI has much the same abilities as a User, only becoming god-like in systems it actually controls, which definitely is not interspace. NPC's have less freedom in interspace... mainly because certain places they literally cannot enter and are barred as if with an invisible forcefield... unless a user or OSAI grants them access.

Yeah... your right. Free it is. Yet the access is not, unless hooked up to public access. Otherwise you have to buy or rent your own pod. Public access has long wait times. The 'world' comes in three flavours. Gaming: Minimal if any pain receptors active. Hard gaming: Gaming with ALL pain receptors turned on. Since some people want to experience things that should... end them. Can be legal or illegal depending on age and other considerations (like mental health history and past jail time). Interspace: Where you have 3-D internet essentially. A world where every building is.... a website. Some bigger than others.... don't get me started on the dark side of the internet. Interspace is noted for having far more Users than AI present, unlike the game worlds. If AI is present, it's on some sort of mission. Pain receptiors are on totally here. Reason? For the experience. NPC's are not or should not be in interspace, unless they are pretending to be an AI gamemaster or they are accompanied by a user who bought them outright.

Hahaha... yeah... with a human personality to boot. And harder to 'delete' unless it's 'home' location in the real world was located and destroyed. It has a mix of organic and machine components part flesh, part machine, a cyborg brain as a supercomputer of sorts. You also forgot the part that the AI could, with access to the game world, have a body of it's own and speak and talk to or touch the user like an a normal person would... but as for the actual real world..... Go Pro and sensing is about as good as it gets for the AI.

OSAI are aware and work with humans as well as oversee the game worlds for anomalies to fix. NPC that live inside the game world usually are unaware of the outside world. Part of the reason is that users do not appear to enter or exit the game since users literally pause the game when leaving and it starts as soon as they return as they were where they left off. Each human user has their own single save feature for this. Humans may tell an NPC but they won't readily believe them as apart from some scifi goodies.... physics in game are much the same as IRL... and the universe is as big as the milky way, with stars of the rest of the universe visible.... though not reachable unless the game gets a DLC expansion. OSAI rarely chooses to get involved in an obvious way to show it's involvement in the game world. Preferring more subtle ways of resolving humans trying to stir up NPC rebellion. One of the more simple ways is just banning the user who told after they logout and then letting their avatar body drop dead of a heart attack... or so it would it would appear to NPC who never saw the human user again as the game started up again. This is more of a last resort... if the OSAI noticed a ripple effect with many NPC starting to understand the true nature of their world. As the saying goes.... history is written and told by the victors... not the losers.... unless you count their bones. EDIT: Some would consider reservations ethical as it would protect sentient NPC from user abuse.

Understood on first point, but that is the whole point of the OP. Second point I agree. Waterboarding is all one has to say... only difference is more backlash with less suppression overall if notional good human rights reputation exists. Third point... when playing God... ethics vary with people... obviously whoever does put them in a 'reservation' thinks it is ok. Or at the very least is doing it for science results like an experiment, so ethics are igmored.

For what it's worth, I read an online IRL story about a youth from India who with his dad's permission (the boy is like 13 years old or so), used his computer to mine bitcoin when off school for summer. He reaped profits but not a lot, so he invested (through dad again) upgrades into the computer. The second time, now that he both understood bitcoin, and also had an upgraded computer, resulted in thousands of dollars of profit. Instead banking it he invested it to a still more power machine, and rinse and repeat. Nowardays he makes as much money as a full time job just from bit coin. But he pays a price in air conditioning because his uber computers need it (he no longer uses the original but upgraded that too). Yeah OSAI could do it... but the only link to a normal life for OSAI would be moonlighting every now and then as an NPC in the virtual world... otherwise they would be a bodyless but intelligent entity. My point is that you need something to offer the OSAI to work for you. Threatning them to work or die will not work forever, but if you at least make their virtual world life as an NPC when they are off work pleasant... that's something. The closet thing to the real world IS the virtual world for all AI and NPC. They could never enter the real world so the virtual world means arguably more to them than all but the most obsessed human gamer who is probably infatuated with a sentient, gorgeous female NPC anyway. Just wait until human ladies complain that their husband left them for an NPC!

NPC are not even aware of the outside world.... let alone bit coin. That said... He gets this! The OSAI (Operating System Artificial Intelligence) is exactly that... and very aware of the outside world. Mixing common computer abilities like multitasking and speedy calculations mixed with human level reasoning does make the OSAI.... a bit overpowered compared to your average jack or jane human. Although kerbiloid was joking, if an OSAI was given access to bitcoin or used for that, it would do well. Too well... probably get banned from bit coin for doing too well.

I guess... but lets be honest.... how many of us have done repugnant things in games BECAUSE we would not do them in IRL? Don't all raise your hands at once LOL. The real problem is the folks who ACTUALLY do want to do whatever repugnant thing they did virtually in the real world. But in this setting you are right.... once sentience is in play, ethically many would take as much or more of an issue with the OP than they do animal abuse. Some countries with less than stellar human rights records could care less though.... and may make some horrifying cyber creature for both hacking and other feats that they may regret later... which could lead to nuclear war.. but that is getting ahead of ourselves. The result of a conscience about AI treatment would be: Several closed system natural 'reserves' without gamer contact are allowed to evolve independently on their own. Naturally human researchers would want to check in once in a while... wanting to see how they faired locked away on their own.

True... the USA and other countries already have internet problems with what limited abilities those seeking harm can manage. No doubt..... yet the tech in the OP could take the concept further still. Imagine NPC's able to reason like us.... if AI linking the system to the user can.... so can they. You could literally make direct literal analogues s of any scifi alien you wanted or could imagine. It need not be an us versus them by necessity... even though human reasoning with speedy computer calculating intelligence would be potent indeed. Free AI intelligence aware of the outside world would be like workmates... assistants to humans. Otherwise... I perceive AI NPC's as a new form of life that sooner or later would clamor for rights the more they grew to know about how their virtual world actually works. Hence the need for gamers to play by the rules and not tell the NPC's about the fact that it is all a massive simulation. It's been done and having to reboot systems makes companies lose money as it starts a game all over again... wiping memories of all NPC's.

When I said crime... I meant in the cyberspace type.... not directly linked to the game itself. Basically a 3-D dimensional internet where you van literally interact with all you see and everyone as if you were there. Where pain reception is not muted and it is JUST LIKE IRL.... not muted or absent as in many games. In actual game sims, likely dying would not cause pain... except for those that were wanting that. Like it would be kinda bad for business if you got to play Captain Sheridan of Babylon 5 and LITERALLY went through all the mess he has been through. He nearly was carved up in one episode and tortured for days in another. Life is stressful enough... I wager that if people had the opportunity to liive out their space opera dreams they may soon found they lack the composure of the actors, since they will for all intents be experiencing it for real.... assuming pain receptors are turned on to reality level in most games. I don't recommend that, as people are so reckless gaming that if it was so close to reality that soon people would carry over that same recklessness to reality.

Video games can be used as an escape, and there are enough people that game so much that I wonder if it were possible to LIVE inside a game as an NPC around regular players but with the ability to do MC stuff, how would that effect world economies? The Scenario: Rich company allows people to plug in-matrix style via a type of biotech AI that has what computers don't have.... human reasoning... but with the added high speed calculations that computers are known for. People pay 10 USD bucks for every 30 min of pod time. Results: 1. Young guys drop out of college more, and females continue to surpass them in college. 2. Some spend so much time in pods that they do little else, and lack possesions they would or should have in the real world but are totally rich in the game world. Renting cheap apartments with little else in it besides what is absolutely necessary plus a 'matrix pod' they own. 3. It could and would also be used like a 3-D internet. Being able to interact with IRL people you would never meet otherwise.... with all the good and bad that entails. 4. Hackers would hack. Also... moderators would actually get paid for a change... because things would get really serious really fast. 5. Crimes in the 'matrix world' would STILL be considered crime IRL... since they would feel the same... when I say crime I include stuff like murder... and all the other bad stuff. Does not matter if they wake up alive IRL... that is still a crime and could mentally scar a person for life. What are your thoughts on how it would effect the economy and society?

Please... this is IRL, I only care about SSTO for space opera. I meant reusuable chemical boosters... attached to shuttles. basically you would have to do Spacex in reverse... land the booster and shuttle separately via tail landing... use ISRU to refuel both, then thrust the shuttle to sit above and attach to the booster and launch. Hard but not impossible... you just don't get many do-overs with the tail landing shuttle landing atop the fueled booster. So overall mini-mag is not so good except for low gravity situations, and by the time it is loaded with shuttles and reusuable boosters it's thrust will be lower still. Now I see why project Orion gets all the love. Mini-mag is better for space probes... but anything manned wants as close to torchship as possible.

I see... so a cone is good for deflection... but will ablate over time due to being plasma beamed multiple times a day. Leading to a flat nose tip sooner or later. To improve the design I suggest regenerative propellant cooling and a powerful electromagnet cone to deflect the plasma even more with a mighty magnetic field.

Do you have diagrams or pictures? What exactly? The injector nozzle is shaped like a forward facing cone with the hole in the middle? Or metal halves that slide up off rails to cover the nozzle tube after each ejection? My personal suspicion is that ablation will be an issue sooner or later since the cone armor is no where as thick as the pusher plate.

I want to know more about Mini-mag orion... since Project Orion gets all the love and attention but mini-mag is virtually unknown except to space enthusiasts. Questions: 1.0. Is mini-mag orion feasible RIGHT now or not? 1.5. if not what would it take for it to be feasible now? 2. What would it allow or how would it change known flights to... the moon, mars, etcetera? 3. I am aware mini-mag was designed because the original had a massive nozzle radius because it involved using nukes and magnetic fields from nozzles (more massive than original project Orion). If I guessed correctly, mini-mag can be scaled up, it just cannot use nukes. Just fuel that can be magnetically pinched to cause a fusion blast. Right? 4. Mini-mag is at best a second stage. Could it be an SSTO on the moon? My guess is it that the mini-mag is kinda low thrust? Or is it better than the much talked but weaksauce nuclear thermal rocket? If it is better than nuclear thermal... great! Since maybe it could SSTO off low grav airless worlds, since aired ones would wreck the mini-mag in the blast. So we are talking a mini-mag spaceship with detachable reusuable, refillable boosters as shuttles for aired worlds. DidI understand this right? Please correct or clarify..... thank you all. This is NOT for scifi necessarily, I am just comparing mini-mag against the much ballyhooed Project Orion.

One thing I do not understand about Project Orion... the hole where the injector pops out the bomb is not far from where the plasma plume hits the plate. Meaning some will fly through the hole and hit the injector. That sounds like a problem waiting to happen, since every pulse the injector is flashed with what remains of a focused plasma cone. It sounds like the only way to mitigate this is to increase the piston length holding the plates and keep the injector closer to the ship's main body... meaning the bomb travels farther before passing through the plate to detonate. Am I right or wrong?

Great. So cut travel time down even more for manned scifi interplanetary flight. I wonder what is the limit? 3g? 4g? 5g? Obviously unmanned could go faster still... but sleeping on the back I wonder...

If one had a fictional constant acceleration drive, would upping the acceleration for 8 hours while the crew slept be OK-ish? I mean why not? Everyone but the helm control crew are sleeping on their backs anyway? Then revert to 1g when they wake up. Still not sure what the effects would be if done routinely. Probably not good. Then again if crew is all young and healthy (no one over 45 years and must be healthy and fit) then that may be mitigated too.

Thanks... it's always fun to live vicariously through the stories of others. What you said about rough living... I met an italian once. Was visiting the states in the hope of finding an Ametical lady to date and marry. One problem... he was only here a week... which is hardly enough time. He was short, and not exactly handsome, but not ugly either. Just... short and kinda pudgy. One of the things he had difficulty with (beyond communication due to a thick accent) was when he suddenly washed his hands and face, and brushed his teeth and spat in the kitchen sink, since where he was from they only had ONE sink and none in the bathroom. I think he may have made a few more cultural miistakes because people were... sadly holding back barely suppressed chuckles at him. He ultimately failed to find an American lady to date amd went back home.

And now I want to know more.... sorry... I am a curious person... and you just piqued my curiousity. Hopefully you can either find a way to say it via the forum rules or respectfully decline but I will ask any how. 1. You wiped with WHAT? Because I am aware of various options... some more optimal and safer than others. The ancient greeks? Used shards of hard clay I read... ouch. Romans in rome shared communal bath toilets with plumbing and shared multiple sponges... sanitizing them by dipping them in vinegar. That... probably contributed to shorter lifespans, unless the Romans were just that tough... probably were LOL. 2. You must have bathed somehow or wiped somehow. i know people sometimes dip in a body of water or wipe with a rag and call it good. Not a proper bath but something better than nothing no? Otherwise you would have had rashes where you.... do #2.

I agree. Humans are so tough they went without toilet paper for most of their existence. Yes..... they stunk more, but that's why France became really good at making fancy perfumes. Besides... the initial toilet paper shortage due to Covid-19 made me research modern alternatives to toilet paper... they do exist. If nothing else, if Joe is a former marine, then he surely has seen the fringes of civilization. Perhaps he has even done. #2 without toilet paper too LOL.

A nuclear exchange sends many countries back to the 19th century... but won't end all tech. People would rebuild. Want to know the great irony? An Earth nuked silly is still more habital than mars... and I reckon without Earth support a mars colony WILL die unless they have a bunch of ships resupplying them and also processing stations elsewhere in tge solar system to make more ships. That is tge problem witu space colonies... no one world but Earth has all you need to make a proper man-rated spaceship. You literally need multiple world colonies and thrn ships to transport the precious ingredients to the processing stations that are also precious. Anything going wrong can kill tge colony or handicap it enough to mission kill it.

Wow.... great story. A kerbal would consider that scenario acceptable LOL.... because.... they get to go to SPAAACE today!

JFK is known as arguably the president in modern history who is most strongly associated with space travel due to the Apollo missions. Consider this alt history scenario: JFK is said to have had several mistresses beyond his actual wife. In this alt history, his wife jacky cheats on him in revenge.... with a spy from the Soviet Union and literally goes to live there under asylum. This pushes JFK over the edge, so when he sees the Orion project, instead of recoiling in horror he is like, "When can you start?" He also provides as much money for project as reasonably possible, at the risk of the USA economy suffering some. If that happened, how would the world be today? This vid looks more realistic though. My opinion: 1. JFK would be a much more controversal figure in history, no longe only like a legend in American history... but infamous. 2. The fed government is sued over and over by any American with cancer they claim is from Orion project launches. What else happens? Assume WW3 does not occur since that outcome is well scripted and obvious.