Spacescifi

Hmmm....not always. Having skin in the game is non-optimal for space war when remote controlled spacecraft can fight a lot better. Logically...assuming scifi follows logic for once instead of a need for heroic drama at the expense of logic. Life forms involved would be like arm chair generals who watch the battle at a distance. If the battle reaches them it is already lost. The only real casualties would be command crew if they lose abd cannot escape, and other space assets (stations) that meet the same fate. At worst this goes planetside.

Agreed LOL.

Oh no...I simply don't trust businesses who often have ulterior motives...especially anything having to do with healthcare. Case in point, my mother needed to visit a specialist doctor but her insurance gave her the run around saying something about verification. Turns out later the place my mom wanted to go because it was a lot closer to where she actually lives call her up and says, "So your INS did not even need verification, we can take you in immediately! Apparently your INS expected (desired) that you visit an office farther away from where you live instead." The local office had to call to figure that out. Now why on Earth would INS behave this way? I thought PPO means go wherever you want? PPO's: "Well...it does, but it will be a lot easier for you if you only go to the places we direct you. Anyone: "Why is that?" Likely Reason: Follow the money. Medical is guaranteed pay, since no one wants to be sick or die. I believe PPO's have arrangements with specific doctor offices so as to funnel patients who live in certain location there, even if it is inconveinient for the patient. Why? The doctor your INS want to pay probably charges INS less I presume? Everything boils down to dollars.

Correction...all human beings are prone to making errors. Sometimes even ones that are basically crazy. But there is a difference between doing a crazy action and being crazy. I take the latest research on the human condition that has existed from the beginning of human civilization with a grain of salt. They may be partially right...but they are never totally correct. Otherwise they would not need to revise a dozen times over.

We know that good logistics win wars. Military organizations are some of the most logically rational organizations on Earth, with often clear goals in mind. That said...war in space, whether soft or hard scifi, presents unique challenges for logistics. Hard Scifi: Every spacecraft is a potential kinetic weapon...especially for moon bases without atmosphere and even more so for orbiting stations or weapons platform. Resupply takes a LOOONG time. Soft Scifi: Every spacecraft has enough energy inside to become like a massive bomb explosion if the energy is suddenly released. Resupply times are much faster. All spacecraft are still potential kinetic weapons. The Questions: 1. What should logistics even look like in hard scifi or soft scifi? 2. Can one side EVER win a war with poor logistics against an opponent with superior logistics? My guess answer regarding question two is both no and...maybe? Japan tried to alpha strike piecemeal and was A-bombed for it. Russia is wise enough not to even go there but keeps a rich supply of nukes just in case, since in a conventional war they know it would be a hopeless logistics nightmare against a foe who is known for excelling in logistics. With a very, very, very thorough alpha strike, a logistically challenged foe could win against a logistically superior foe. Realistically though, obtaining sufficient data to know where to strike to neuter your opponent completely is next to impossible. One would literally need double agents all over the place in secure areas of the enemy...while still having some contact with the government that wishes to alpha strike. Doing that is next to impossible, as being found out by watchdog agencies is likely with any massive undertaking.

Oh there is more to it...at first I just ignored it all in the hopes that would make it go away. At first it was not even BEEEP! It was SHEEEP! And SEEEP! Take your pick, he would say one of them in a lower but ringing tone and then my name as he passed by. I stopped ignoring it after he brought up the priest encounter. Since prior to that he had had been singing, "I've been waitin', for someone like you" and then grinned and pointed toward me in a friendly way, no doubt trying to engage me in some sort of conversation, as I was solemn Death made me act kind of out of character, at first very solemn, then a lot more nice, since prior to the beep guy engaging me a lot a loved one had died and I was rather open talking about it to everyone since I was REALLY out of character. Now that I am back to normal, I cannot just brush off the annoyance. But like I said, over the last few days he has toned it way down so I am content.

Not an office. He travels around on a forklift everywhere, but lately not as much. We do not work together. .but overall he has been quieter for the last two days...probably because his boss has been angry lately. And his best buddy at work angered the same boss too. He (the beep guy) tends to act out the most oddly with his buddy, where they both make loud silly noises together loudly and he laughs and BEEEPS (that's how he sounds) along with it. So far so good...although I did hear him make suppressed under his breath 'beep' yesterday while walking. He just can't quit it LOL. LOL. I don't even have a personal theme. Maybe I should get one LOL? The only way people know I am near is if they hear classical playing...since just me and one other play it at work.

"Living the good life," wrote Nikolai Berdyaev, "is frequently dull and flat and commonplace." Our greatest problem, he claimed, is to make it fiery and creative and capable of spiritual struggle. I agree. Life, except for a favored few, like poets and children and athletes and saints, is pretty much of a bore. Given the choice, most of us would give up the reality of today for the memory of yesterday or the fantasy of tomorrow. We desire to live anywhere but in the present. Dr. George Sheehan Is escapism bad? Ultimately I would say yes ONLY if you prefer the escape over real life. Which is very easy to do based on the former quoted paragraphs. The key to reducing gaming from being the focus, or even eliminating it entirely is not game deprivation nor merely filling the time slot with other things. But rather gaining the desire to want to do other things besides gaming. I know for myself gaming was and is often a way to pass spare time. Yet learning new skills or hobbies will challenge just like any game will, and 'level up' a person in various tangible ways that a game never could. Besides, what your body does not use you lose. Eventually it is inevitable. It is not as if you will forever have the opportunity to learn new skills or hobbies. You could die, become disabled, sick, blind or deaf. So before any of that has the chance to happen, you can 'level up' in real life so that you won't be so level 1 if life throws you a curve ball...and it tends to do that. Have a good 2021. If you make your life interesting enough, you create the struggle that pays off. You won't need nor depend on an escape from real life if you spend your time leveling up in real life. Temporary escape is fine. It is like seeing a movie and returning to reality after, or reading a book of fiction and going about your day, but chronic ongoing escapism is unhealthy. Games are not bad per se, but using them to escape from real life on a daily basis is.

Well...now that I found the key nugget of scifi spaceship design (conservation pf energy and thermodynamics), I would find Firefly troublesome. Ignorance is bliss. The more you know the less you can sometimes accept. I will say the time I saw a whole herd of cattle on his ship with no specialized rooms or gear to hold them that that disturbed me. And that was long before I had an understanding of how the 'nugget' would truly apply to such a setting. One thing The Expanse does right is the singular large nozzle. Since they are using fictional fusion engines, a large nozzle is ideal to diffuse the heat as opposed to melting it. Which coincidentally is the same sort of engine the Firefly would actually need if it were running on propellant based on it's onscreen performance and payload..and it does use propellant in the show. In atmosphere there is no really long plume setting stretches of land up in black plumes of smoke...but that is what you actually would have with a super efficient fusion rocket taking off from the dirt in some random location.

Well said. As a Klingon would say, you speak with honor. And now I will drive my car...with HONOR! For KAHLESS! But seriously...thank you.

Oh no...not like that no. Characters with their cutures make all the difference though, and exploring just what life in space under those scifi conditions would be like. For example, imagine because time works different using the hyperdrive, that it is faster to travel over4 LY away to the next solar system than fly across the home system! The setting itself IS the opportunity for stories to grow all day long. I will also counter that you do not need constant danger if characters are fascinatiing enough. Action for action's sake can be a crutch for poor characterization I don't intend to use. If action happens so be it,but it won't need to happen just to fill some quotient.

I agree Narrative is exactly the point. It can and should be affected by the drive limitations if they are ever brought up at all. Today people don't just get to read about space travel, we have legit space sims like the one which shall not be named. Navigation is half the challenge/fun...and I want to show that. Even scifi vessels can and should have limited energy reserves, allowing for situations that call for good navigation or else a trip back to the nearest base for refueling/charging is the only safe option. The obvious differece as opposed to real life is that in scifi the energy reserves of scifi vessels allow greater margins of error in navigation than our modern tech allows. Granted there is really nothing to stop relativistic WMD in scifi, other than. weapons that are even more overpowered. That is why energy reserves would be regulated, and great space wars would instead be substituted for lower tech proxy hot wars and higher tech cold wars.

So...how do I deal with all of that? Added to this he out of the blue tells me he was abused by a priest as a child. I told him I did not want to know more and he goes on to give graphic details upon which I rose from the lunch table and walked away. So...any suggestions? Good ones?

Right. Either the FTL is inherently more safe, or weapons are good enough to wipe out relativistic objects. Doubt it though based on game footage. The only tech we have that even comes close is Project Orion. Even with that, it puts us back to space program 4.0. Not space opera. We are talking missions with singular objectives that cannot alter. With scifi high thrust constant acceleration drives, which I prefer, they need not be unlimited. Even allowing them to do 1g for only 4 hours before recharge/refuel would be enough...provided the drive had higher thrust modes up to 4g at the cost of less thrust time than 4 hours. And provided they had a jump drive to get them close enough (even a few hundred kilometers is close enough).

Thanks. Now I only need to know how to deal with him. He has this OCD habit of greeting a person in the morning, and then everytime he passes by saying "Wassup *name*" to initiate more conversation, even if it is clearly unwanted. So far he seems to sort of take the hint, but it must be very ingrained though, as I saw him once almost say something and stop himself with one who did not wish to speak with him. Even then he will still slip up and greet a person twice (which is less than five or six or seven he would otherwise with no hint). I know this is a joke, but that is not so. He prefers mariachi music. Which ironically does feature a lot of laughing and random yelling....I never have liked it. No doubt partially because I can't speak that language. But at least he does not play it often so he has that going for him.

At work there is a worker who often laughs loudly, and often says the same words over and over. And loudly. I once asked him why in annoyance. He claimed it was from a song stuck in his head. I believe he is lying to conceal some form of mental illness. Since I know of no song where any human loudly says "Beep!" or "Whoa!" on a regular basis...though I am sure Kerbaloid will try find it if one even exists. I almost think for him it's a way to announce his presence so people can acknowledge him or speak to him when he walks past, since he once said "Beep!" And then my name. After that was when I asked him why, to which he gave a lame excuse as far as I am concerned. He also does not seem to understand social hints. Like if someone is curt with him on the regular, he will still seek them out and try to engage in conversation when it is obvious they do not wish to be bothered. Can anyone diagnose his apparent illness so I can understand how better to deal with him as opposed to me just seeing him as annoying. If he has an actual illness I may pity him and also know how to deal with him.

Appropriate? Sure. But consider the fact that this is occurring during the cold war. Also consider the fact that to this very day they have much the same policy of not naming those they dislike in public broadcasts. Congratulating goes a bit far unless it grants some sort of political advantage. In war do you play fair? I can tell you that in chess if I manage to snag a queen and I still have mine I do not remotely play fair. I just whittle down the opposing forces and retain my tactical advantage as long as possible.

Well...I don't even have to know the numbers to know something is off with Battle tech fusion drives, although I do give them credit for including the fiction of space time manipulation, so it is obviouly more than a garden variety fusion drive, as normal fusion does not do that as far as I know. The devil is always in the details they say. Jump drives are convienient for any hardish scifi setting as you need not worry about the 'FTL equals time travel folks' who look at the negative numbers and trust the math is not wrong. Even though math is actually only right in some cases if you actually KNOW what you are looking for. Realistically, torch drives like Battle tech are rather overpowered and could and likely would be weaponized. And the jump drive only partially solves that by spreading spaceships out across a solar system rather than jumping right in above a planet. There a variety of ways to fix the relativistiv spaceship problem with jump drives: 1. Some sort of auto trajectory and speed translation to nearest gravity well upon jumping. Works extremely well if you have torch or high thrust fictional constant acceleration drive, but can even work without that provided you are ready to deal with the tyranny of the rocket equation. 2. A jump drive that ONLY works if you match orbits (trajectory/transverse velocity) with your target with a 5 kilometer speed margin of error allowed. Also requires a constant propulsion system like the previous jump drive to actually be helpful. But it nips jumping in for instant ramming in the bud. 3. Some type of stand off distance for jumping into a star system. Rather certain both the original Elite, it's midway successor Oolite, and the modern ED all do this. Can jump out most places, but always jump in at a distance. From there using a kind of slow warp drive to cruise around the solar system. Granted the warp drive will induce the ire of the 'FTL is time travel folks', but I seriously doubt many players ponder this while playing LOL.

Well...per the OP they would be fully functional human adults (not castrated). Though they may ask you about that...why it occurred while they were cats.

Although scifi spaceships are bombs basically, they do not have to be overpowered. Don't want to rely on exotic (fictional) forces or don't want to glass everything behind you on takeoff? Too bad. You have to cheat...a bit. 1. Neutral g Hull: Neutralizes the pull of gravity on the spaceship. Which is useful for going oh...just about anywhere with gravity because now you don't have to fight it. 2. Gravity drive: Your hull may be neutral to gravity from planets, but it is not to the gravity drive attached to it. Make gravity work for you! Fall the way you want. Obvious limitations are that you lose thrust with distance, and the planet you are near decides however much max thrust you can utilize. So it's great for leaving or visiting planets or moons. Not good at all for deep space battles...you would be a sitting duck with no nearby gravity fields to convert to thrust.

Red? As in? Dead?

You may disagree. That is fine. Doing calculations is fine if you want to, and it does set hard limits. Yet for doing SW stuff, clearly all those calculations are thrown out the window. Since a literal space program is required with calculations otherwise, not some lone rogue on a fictional spaceship. There is no way one can get much payload with a reusuable SSTO to do anything like what we see in SW. I mean there are so many variables that make it untenable. Radiation, crashing since propellant is finite etc. A scifi setting needs tech to be good enough to justify the setting. Modern physics cannot do that...not for ST and definitely not SW.

Oh yes...I am well aware of the dangers of constant acceleration. Want an easy fix...sort of? Jump drive: To jump you must reach the escape velocity of whatever gravity well you are closest to. Wherever you jump to, your speed and trajectory switches to match the nearest gravity well 7 LY of your vessel. If you made the mistake of jumping into interstellar space where the nearest gravity well is farther than 7 LY...then the escape velocity you need to jump is our galaxy's! About 550 kilometer per second. Unfortunately most ships don't have the energy for that so likely that would strand them. In other words, all ships have limited energy reserves, they cannot accelerate forever. And they use up energy everytime before they go to warp, so sooner or later they will need to refuel/recharge. So one could attempt high speed ramming, but that will be difficult if such a place has defenses, as they would gradually have to build that speed. Cannot drop out of warp and ram at near lightspeed, as if any ship has those kind of energy reserves anyway LOL.

Hmmm...it is my opinion that reality somewhat applied to scifi leads to surprising conclusions, and have had fun realizing that with great power comes the methods the author must invent to manage it. And even that does not have to be totally arbitrary. Everything can be based upon something real if one searches.

I know the truth. It has influenced how I will create my scifi once and for all. Turns out that conservation of energy and thermodynamics are seemingly...at least to me, the very most important things any scifi spaceship designer should know. Because being arbritrary without a sort of guide leads can often lead to inconsistency after inconsistency in a scifi setting. That's what I want to avoid.