Spacescifi

Very well Captain Kirk. I suppose you did not also act like Kirk does with them? Kirk-fu and chasing skirts?

So what did they look like? Because most alien visitations I have heard about have much in common with people who say they saw a ghost. In either case usually the person is isolated and most others are not aware of it. Leading the person who saw it to seemingly have questionable credibility.

Technically doable but the issue is both maintenance and expiration dates. Machines are great, but just about any animal has them beat in both performance AND cognitive ability. Dogs and cats are both smart enough to fake injuries they have had before if they know it means people will reward them with treats. Machines? We have to spell everything out. Anything else the machine is like ??????!!!. Not only that, but living things repair themselves so long they have fuel and are not too badly injured or too old. Machine parts must be replaced. Wish they heale but they don't. You can break a bone and walk again later on the same leg after casting it. So when the machine breaks who fixes it? It's like the age old question... who watches the watchers? In this case of machines being the watchers it is far more critical since when they fall asleep, who will fix them? More machines? Which also need someone to fix them? Self-healing is a superpower we take for granted, but it really shows itself here.

Von Neumann machines I personally think are overrated. I have seen some (I am not referring to you personally) claim Von Neumann machines can build stuff that we typically use industrial machines and humans to build. In other words, the claim is that enough Von Neumann machines can act like 3-D printers. Yet just like all machines, they need power and a way to handle waste heat. Small nanobots, correct me if I am wrong, are what some think of when Von Neumann machines are mentioned no? Given such small size, I do not see them pulling off any constructive feats. In fact one way that could in fact make stuff with small nanostuff would not be nanobots... but biobots. Living reproducing organisms under the command of man. Something like that could at least act and look like a flying swarm in the air, so long it had food to eat and predators did not eat them all up. Which is difficult to stop when that small. I have seen birds dive bomb bugs out of the blue. EDIT: Biological reproduction is easier and a proven method. Manipulating creatures with technology to act like bots is something we do not have that I am aware of, but it is plausible for me for scifi. Machines making machines with AI though is a lot harder. Nevermind the fact that many planets do not have all tge resources required to build needed machinery for the machines to be most efficient. Take the moon for example.

I mean you do not have to leave elsewhere to get food, water, or clothing, and can survive for months at the least, years at the max without resupply.

It's a worthwhile question to answered... at least for space scifi. If you can work out what is needed to be a self sustaining space station than you can surely work out the same issue on a spacd vessel. The whole 5 year Star Trek mission? Near impossible without a self sustaining ecosystem on the ship. Questions and my answers: What does it take? Growing plants but in space. Astronauts be vegetarian likely, as meat will be hard to come by. Water and a way to recycle it. And waste managenment. That's actually the biggest problem of any closed system. On Earth we have both weather and lifeforms that clean waste. In space on a spacestation it would take resources to simukate weather, and a multitude of life forms to consume waste won't happen unless brought in. The other option is robot cleaners... which would need maintenance periodically. Tethered spun habitat modules are the cheapest way to generate 1g, so that is a viable and cheap but necessary option. With that you do not need massive size, just really long tethers that you can reel in or out. That's all I have. What are your questions/answers?

I said it was a semi-close approximation of how they look. They don't have horns but the gray is correct. Horns as seen in the pic serve no useful purpose other than decoration and are useful for headbutting. That's about it. Humanoid activity goes far beyond that kind if thing. So it is hardly a useful feature for a humanoid IMO. On the other hand, their hands and feet are definitely different than us. Also they were created, so random mutations do not exist.

I should expect that because they look humanoid you also expect to have many other human traits... deformities included. Well they don't have deformities. They come out right inevitably unless the mother eats toxins or has injuries. Neither of which happen normally in their society. Their society is run unlike our own, given their behavior, so do not expect the same problems or even the same solutions humans would use IRL. They are called aliens for a reason. The above is a semi-close approximation of how they look.

That has nothing whatsoever to do with degeneration due to aging and everything to do with new teeth growing beneath to replace the baby teeth. You know this. As an old man, he whayever he loses is not due to getting replacement growing parts. He just loses it.

Did I? I don't recall it. Humans in my work are like you and me. Mortal and headed to inevitable nonexistence. All scifi aliens are variants of humanity, because variants of animals just won't have the same sophistication. The difference with my aliens as described vs humans is unlike Klingons who care mostly about winning and glory only while giving lip service to honor ( with rare exceptions), these guys and gals care about honor for each other. To not do so is considered the worst insult. One that must be taken back.... or else. Knowing this, you can expect their culture to be polite and mannerly with each other as well as other aliens, yet when they do get into fights and war, they are ruthless... especially if it involves the lack of honor shown. Paradoxically, the moment the enemy does show honor, they will call off the assault and both sides will carry on like nothing ever happened. Humans don't do that. Humans tend not to forget and hold grudges. These aliens won't... so long honor is shown to the degree they require. Creating multiple alien psyches I can do. Just takes time. Some come out more unique while other are more generic. Either way they are going in the story. Gotta populate the alien side of things!

Interesting. So what you are saying is that even for a scifi race that could create safely stored antimatter by the kilogram, WEAV's would still be expensive flying craft? Airplanes, helicopters, and rockets powered by antimatter would still be cheaper.... although they would not have the same endurance in theory as a saucer. Unless they were fully electric, in which case they could probably outlast a WEAV for flight time. Even though a WEAV does not need propellant, it DOES need mass to shed waste heat... which the air can provide...up to a point anyway. There is a point where the mass will cancel that out though so they can only get so big.

If only it were that simple.... but I also think it's good it is"nt. At least for right now. Until mankind 'grows up'. Life is more than a gift. It is a responsibility. Well for what it's worth they are humanoid aliens. Which means in my story your overalll attitude would be different. Death does not bother them in the same way it does humans. To die with honor and glory? That's totally fine. To not? Worse than death. Of course, by the time of death most should have achieved honor and glory, as to them it matters like.... it's EVERYTHING to them. These are the same people that have a custom among each other to always offer a rematch in any competition to the defeated until they either win or give up. Even dwindling the winning players so there is less and less while the losing team retains numbers. To not offer a rematch? That's the kind of thing that starts fights and wars.

I mean that they will never degenerate due to old age and die. Sickness could in theory take them out without a cure, as could injury if it was not properly healed. Simple.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/worlds-first-flying-saucer/ So people were working on this over a decade ago. Nowadays no one hears of it. Like the whole project died. Why? My theory: Even though they managed to fly small prototypes a few milimeters off the ground for two minutes, and the design is scalable, it never went further because it is too expensive and the only thing that might power it is a nuclear reactor. If not that... antimatter, which we don't have to any usable degree. So what is the point of WEAV any way? With sufficient power to operate them could they EVER compete with airplanes or even SSTO's (yes I know they would need a rocket engine for orbital insertion)? Or is it just a very expensive way to do what a plane already does? What is the benefit? Flying without using fuel? Because I am not sure a greater payload than airplanes or even space rockets is possible.... since that will increase the piwer thermal load, which increases craft weight to deal with that.... unless we use air turbines to cool the craft... THAT'S IT! I think.... What do you think?

Think of it as a spacecraft that uses traditional staging to reach orbit but then uses airbreathing turbofan or turbojet (whichever is more efficient) rockets for for descent and landing. Propellant is still used, but the whole point is to be able to do more with less propellant.

So as I watch SpaceX land reusuable booster rockets, it got me thinking... what if they added intakes? I mean if you take a spacecraft let descend during reentry, and as soon as it reaches below supersonic speed you open intakes at the rear, flip over so the rocket's nozzle is facing the ground and start firing the rocket motor exhaust. Meanwhile the intakes suck up air as the rocket IS falling downward. Would that save on landing propellant at all? Or would the extra intake and compressor weight make it no better than s normal reusuable booostsr? Since the extra weight cancels out the fuel savings? Would it work better with a nuclear reactor?

Well yes... biological immortality does not mean mortality is gone, it's just no longer guaranteed. As the rest... I am working on it. In my work there will be both alien biologically immortal races and mortal ones. Plus regular mortal humans, since a normal human point of view is kind of essential when juxtaposed with alien views that are considered either intolerant or downright strange. What works for aliens won't always eork when done in the same manner by humans. What aliend fight over humans may find silly, wheras aliens may think the same of us. Think of the absurdities we could make! On the one hand aliens may say humans are crazy for fighting wars over land, while humans may say aliens are nuts for fighting in literal wars because their favorite team lost a sports championship, but never over land or resources. Such an alien culture would essentially put far more precedence on glory and being liked than even humans do.

Immortality is hopeless fantasy to some mortals, yet no one really wants to die so long all is well. Men have dreamed of it from time immemorial. It's life's great irony. If a race was biogically immortal, depending on their resources available, they should have both technology and medicine to treat their diseases better than our reality. Once more it is in the writer's court. As for donut planets, fantastic as they are, google has enough info on it that one could show what it would be like to live on one. The one part of ot I will reveal is that our Earth is a safer spot hands down. EDIT: You're right about dreams. I guess I meant that there is a difference between dreams and concrete plans. Since with forever ahead of a person, they could plan to make their dreams come true. I don't know about you, but I would find that more satisfying than merely dreaming and writing about it.

Scifi means different things to different folks. I won't debate that. One calls it one thing while one does not. We all have our likes and dislikes. I watched the movie Waterworld to answer your question. Years ago. They got metal from ships in the ocean. As for my answers, they are based on stuff I have viewed both in scifi movies and real life, which scifi at least tips a hat to, unlike pure fantasy. I do care about a good story, but I am really careful about the theme. I don't want to be all over the place so to speak.

Let's be realistic. Gravity is not an option. It is a necesscity for crew health on any long duration mission. 6 crew is fine, but more than likely tethered ship spun pods away from the ship will be rhe only gravity they have. If anything dangerous occurs they would need notice ahead of time since they have to reel the tether and pod back into the spaceship to work things out in weightless on the main ship. Space travel is hard. For quick well known routes you could have crowds on passenger orbiter liners. Dumping off passengers in volleys of drop pods to deorbit. Picked up later by quad or helicopter fleets. Orbiter spacecraft are fundamentally different than reentry, or even launch craft. They usually trade high thrust for efficiency, knowing full well they need it since propellant is limited. Better that than high thrust and running out of propellant in 60 seconds.

The issue with forever is that ALL those questions can be answered, some of the right now. If not actually done, they can be predicted with ease So questions in themselves are only intriguing if the answer is not readily available Examples: What if night did not exist? Answer: Life cooks and dies. Unless it's some sort of virtual simulation. What if we can predict the future? Answer: Absolute power corrupts OR we have little to zero choice in our fate. Neither sounds very appealing storywise to me, and perhaps that is why some time machine stories end with the machine being destroyed. Since even some authors readily realize this. What if corporations... Answer: That's reality, not fiction. You need look no further than pharmaceutical companies and others that rank profit above consumer safety for decades on end until someone blows the whistle. Not interesting for me. What if we lived with no land? Answer: This one requires a waterworld setting where there used to be land, somewhat intriguing.... but only somewhat for me. A world where planets do not exist? Answer: Fantasy again, unless you dream up beings who can live on stars. Still fantasy. What if everyone was super intelligent? Answer: Faster progress. Intelligence does not change attitudes and motivations much, so whether they nuke themselves to oblivion or ruin everything or make a utopia depends less on intellect and more on motives, purpose, unity and or the lack of it. EDIT: Writing a good story is independent of the genre, if one can write well they can make ANYTHING sound intriguing... even if it is'nt. Advertisers know this. When you look at your box of food it will probably say something like 'We raise/cultivate with premium quality and use a treasured old recipe yadda yadda yadda.' In the end none of that matters at all. What matters is whether or not the consumer believes that, or they actually enjoy the product.

Perhaps. Here is article: A dense molecular gas has been rapidly magnetized using light. Done by physicists in Canada, the experiment involves using an “optical centrifuge” to rotate the molecules. This causes the electronic spins of the molecules to line up in the same direction. The technique could have a wide range of applications including the production of large amounts of spin-polarized electrons. Creating a magnetized gas in which electronic spins point along the same direction is very difficult to do by simply applying a magnetic field – even using the strongest laboratory magnets. Magnetization can be achieved by shining circularly polarized light on a gas. If the light is resonant with the molecule’s electron energy levels, a high degree of spin polarization can be achieved in about 100 ns. However, this only works if a high-intensity source of light at the correct resonant frequency is available. Another problem is that the technique is only practical for relatively diffuse gas samples. Corkscrew-like pulses Now, Alexander Milner, Alexsey Korobenko and Valery Milner at the University of British Columbia have used a non-resonant optical technique to magnetize a sample of oxygen gas. Called an optical centrifuge, the method involves firing broadband laser pulses into an optical system that outputs corkscrew-like pulses. These pulses are then able to deliver large amounts of angular momentum to molecules. A process called spin-rotational coupling then causes some electron spins on the molecules to become polarized and point in the same direction, thereby magnetizing the gas. Although only a few percent of the oxygen molecules are actually centrifuged in the process, the number of polarized electrons created is about 1000 times greater than achieved using resonant techniques. The magnetic field created in the sample is on the order of tens of milligauss – which is about one tenth of the Earth’s magnetic field. Other benefits of the technique are that it works in less than one nanosecond, and that it can be deployed at room temperature in relatively dense gases. The team also found that the process can be enhanced by placing the gas in a magnetic field. Chemical reactions According to the researchers, the optical-centrifuge technique could be useful for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging because the electron-spin polarization can be converted to a nuclear-spin polarization for NMR. A spin-polarized gas could be used as a source of spin-polarized electrons for particle-physics experiments as well as for probing the dynamics of chemical reactions and analysing the electronic properties of materials. The research is described in Physical Review Letters.

Well... interesting. I will say that is not the usual, I mean I can count the underwater scifi movies (most I have not seen) on one hand). Also FYI, if you actually want to shoot anything with a bullet in the water then you want a harpoon gun. Slender profile but heavy enough to cut through enough water to actually hit that guy and even stuff farther out. Google will tell you the max range of an underwater harpoon gun. Second, with submarines, one torpedo hit should be a definite kill. But is not always. It depends on several factors. https://www.quora.com/Can-modern-submarines-survive-a-torpedo-hit

????? The questions asked thus far that I have seen that you have brought up seem basic. So basic that you may not even need us to find the answer. What I want to know is the why.... are you writing submarine miltary fiction? Since that is just an educated guess based off the last poat plus this one?

What if stories eh? The road not taken? May as well be called aliternate history fiction. Nowadays the term science fiction is so broad that it encompasses fantasy (star wars), horror (some monster films) and etc, not withstanding scifi about scientific speculations. What if stories do have some interest, but... perhaps in my old age (no I'm not super old) I have begun to want more than simple entertainment. Laughs stay with you, but they lack substance beyond jolity. What endures is a theme. In other words, my scifi will have a theme, and explore it down to the end fully. Deep down the rabbit hole to the bottom. 'What if' I will agree is an intriguing question. The original Skyline movie for me best answered the 'what if scifi alien invaders were real' question since they were far more dangerous and mysterious than the ID4 aliens ever were. Also humans losing with a light at the tunnel was seemingly far more realistic which helped bolster my suspension of disbelief a hundredfold. Monster flicks are kinda boring, since we all know how that 'what if' question ends. Monster dies or is driven off. Every. Single. Time. So I guess the real answer to whether or not 'what if' questions are interesting is whether the writer thinks so. My opinion? Time travel? Maybe, if done right. Can easily be botched though since reset buttons tend to kill the high stakes. Alien Invasions: Actually hard to do as they have been overdone so many times. Just what is the theme anyway? That humans can beat incompetent enemies with scifi trope tech? Alien First Contact: Also done to death. For what it's worth, Tron (the original) did a rather novel take on this, even though there were no 'aliens' (unless you count 'programs'), the world of Tron definitely was alien as can be.