What A Fast Scifi Space Faring Civilivation Would Have/need

[Spacescifi]

If a space faring scifi civilization has the means to seriously bring down the resource cost for space travel, then space travel would be finally opened up to the many. As long as space travel consumes resources at a gluttonous rate (mostly propellant with tanks) they will never ever have a world where space travel is as common as flying in passenger jets.

This is especially true in settings where spaceships do not require propellant as we know it.

Modern economic methods even break with such a scifi civillization, since if space travel is that cheap, you do not need to mine stuff for resources for on site utilization. It is arguably cheaper to just haul everything you need with you and make it super resusable.

Mining is still reasonable if you're  turning an asteroid into a new 'house' (habitat) in space, or if trying to colonize a mars-like world is the goal. But hauling tons of asteroid platinum ore from space back to the homeworld is also viable too.

I guess my point is that for a scifi massive space faring civilization, extreme technological reusability is their main requirement they would need to even exist.

Technology usefulness would be rated for durability and reuseability.  Both of which would need a low enough resource threshold that space travel is common.

What this would imply is massive leaps in technological growth as well as associated indusry. To the point where extremely durable and reusuable technology becomes affordable to most on a planet.

To be sure, modern tech would be considered primitive more because of it's lack of extreme reusability and extreme durability than whether or not it works optimally.

When I say extreme durability and reuseabilty, I am implying tech continuous use rates without needing repair that is on pair with biological systems.  Biological systems are a form of technology considerably more advanced than anything man does, inasmuch it can replicate itself.

It also takes years before a human body begins degenerating while operating, never turning off the whole time (sleep is still an operation).

Super advanced technology should be on the same order of magnitude, with the added bonus of an off switch to increase the total operational lifetime when not in use.

For example, a car can drive for hours before needing to turn off and refuel. To drive for years on end, decades even?

That... is akin to biological operation copied as technology.

That would be the biggest tech game changer to me when it comes to scifi tech.

Not what is done, but for how long without turning it off to recharge or refill, and whether or not reproduction of the technology is possible using the same tech.

Tech that can operate continuously for years on end without repair and can reproduce itself?

Just... wow.

Give me a computer that can do that and you would have a library that would NEVER lose information since it is always growing.

Give me a car that can do that and I would never have to buy a car twice unless I wanted a different type altogther (car reproduction at work).

So yeah... wow.

What do you think on this matter? Because I think it matters little if you have AM or warp drive or even FTL if reusuability is not far better than what we have now.

It would or should scale up I think.  Not down.

Because the only other option is manual reproduction (which is what we already do), which involves using raw resources to create new tech upon failure of old tech from continuous operation without shutting it down.

Edited October 3, 2020 by Spacescifi

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

  

While the reproduction is not exactly manual (though, depends...), the quantum mechanics gives us a wave function which can make the faring much faster, just properly collapse it in desired place.

Spoiler

Heads - you're there, tails - still here.

Repeat while still here.

 

 

[SOXBLOX]

If you're suggesting biotech, then forget it. Self-replicating tissues aren't robust enough to last two seconds in a torchdrive chamber, and I seriously doubt they'd be good for simple maintenance. "But, they'd maintain themselves!" Yeah, well, you're still gonna want to update the computer, or upgrade your tech, which means designing it to mesh with the ecosystem of the ship. That constrains how much you can upgrade before needing an entirely new ship.

Chunks of solid metal with modular, plug-and-pull computer architecture, and one-deep parts, as on the F-35, look like a much better way to go, at least, to me.

[Spacescifi]

2 hours ago, SOXBLOX said:

If you're suggesting biotech, then forget it. Self-replicating tissues aren't robust enough to last two seconds in a torchdrive chamber, and I seriously doubt they'd be good for simple maintenance. "But, they'd maintain themselves!" Yeah, well, you're still gonna want to update the computer, or upgrade your tech, which means designing it to mesh with the ecosystem of the ship. That constrains how much you can upgrade before needing an entirely new ship.

Chunks of solid metal with modular, plug-and-pull computer architecture, and one-deep parts, as on the F-35, look like a much better way to go, at least, to me.

 

A synthesis of biology methods and machine advantages, with the advantages of both with some attempt to mitigate their weaknesses.

It may not be a true living thing, but if it can mimic biology far more than modern tech that's plenty good.

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

a fart + a pusher plate = interstellar bionics

 

[Incarnation of Chaos]

The ultimate answer?

Cheat!

No seriously; why try to design systems to operate in a hostile environment for eons without service or repair when you're this advanced? We already have extremely basic nanotechnology now, and while I'd imagine some base durability would still be desired for essentially reducing waste (You wouldn't want to have "Disposable" tech like today, it's not just wasteful but a liability in space). There's nothing stopping such an advanced civilization from using nanomachines to repair their vessels while underway, and as a bonus they could also act as Von-Neumann machines and be launched well ahead of the main group to secure resources from barren moons/asteroids and then it's just a matter of flying thru them to conduct repairs.

And then as previously mentioned, standardize the absolute daylights out of everything. Make it modular, utilitarian to the max. The B-52 is over 50 years old today, but still flying mostly due to the foresight of the designers giving it a modular, upgradable design. Even when digital systems replaced analog steam gauges, they could just be rewired and the standard interfaces for the standard avionics inserted. This is where your idea of "Synthetic Biology" could come in though; because rewiring is a laborious, intensive task that requires dozens of people multiple dozens of hours to perform. If your ship was using either nanomachines or some kind of biological derived equilvilant; well then you just upload the new wiring schematics, swing by a port of call and send everyone to shore leave and wait until the ship pages you that the job is done.

Then all the crew would have to do at most is plug in their new hardware, perhaps acquire new furniture (Shame, but sometimes a chair must be sacrificed for the greater good) and then be off for another several centuries. And since you can carry a small # of self-replicating nanomachines, but have them become much larger over time it also solves the issue of propellant. You know there's a system half way between you and your destination, and it'll take a few decades to get there. You fire a cylinder of nanomachines out your main gun (I'm assuming it's a Rail/Coilgun), and it then uses either a Ion Drive or other propulsion method to get there well ahead of you and establish propellant depots or just make tankers of the stuff.

Once established; this installation is effectively permanent, requires no maintenance and can begin seeding the surrounding systems. Within a couple thousand years you could make Rome look like a postage stamp in size by comparison.

Mind you; this also begs the question about our own corner of the galaxy. And why we're not currently being buried in survey probes from a similar empire. But that's a very, very different discussion

[Spacescifi]

7 hours ago, Incarnation of Chaos said:

The ultimate answer?

Cheat!

No seriously; why try to design systems to operate in a hostile environment for eons without service or repair when you're this advanced? We already have extremely basic nanotechnology now, and while I'd imagine some base durability would still be desired for essentially reducing waste (You wouldn't want to have "Disposable" tech like today, it's not just wasteful but a liability in space). There's nothing stopping such an advanced civilization from using nanomachines to repair their vessels while underway, and as a bonus they could also act as Von-Neumann machines and be launched well ahead of the main group to secure resources from barren moons/asteroids and then it's just a matter of flying thru them to conduct repairs.

And then as previously mentioned, standardize the absolute daylights out of everything. Make it modular, utilitarian to the max. The B-52 is over 50 years old today, but still flying mostly due to the foresight of the designers giving it a modular, upgradable design. Even when digital systems replaced analog steam gauges, they could just be rewired and the standard interfaces for the standard avionics inserted. This is where your idea of "Synthetic Biology" could come in though; because rewiring is a laborious, intensive task that requires dozens of people multiple dozens of hours to perform. If your ship was using either nanomachines or some kind of biological derived equilvilant; well then you just upload the new wiring schematics, swing by a port of call and send everyone to shore leave and wait until the ship pages you that the job is done.

Then all the crew would have to do at most is plug in their new hardware, perhaps acquire new furniture (Shame, but sometimes a chair must be sacrificed for the greater good) and then be off for another several centuries. And since you can carry a small # of self-replicating nanomachines, but have them become much larger over time it also solves the issue of propellant. You know there's a system half way between you and your destination, and it'll take a few decades to get there. You fire a cylinder of nanomachines out your main gun (I'm assuming it's a Rail/Coilgun), and it then uses either a Ion Drive or other propulsion method to get there well ahead of you and establish propellant depots or just make tankers of the stuff.

Once established; this installation is effectively permanent, requires no maintenance and can begin seeding the surrounding systems. Within a couple thousand years you could make Rome look like a postage stamp in size by comparison.

Mind you; this also begs the question about our own corner of the galaxy. And why we're not currently being buried in survey probes from a similar empire. But that's a very, very different discussion

 

Well... self replication requires fuel even with biology.

The only available fuel source I can think of is radiation (starlight, sunlight,) which could even work when building at such smalk scales. Time is all it needs like you said.

Once they reach more rich fuel sources (planets) they can switch over to mass fuel.

[Incarnation of Chaos]

14 hours ago, Spacescifi said:

Well... self replication requires fuel even with biology.

The only available fuel source I can think of is radiation (starlight, sunlight,) which could even work when building at such smalk scales. Time is all it needs like you said.

Once they reach more rich fuel sources (planets) they can switch over to mass fuel.

Basically what i was thinking; wouldn't be too hard to keep them dormant until a sudden deceleration (Crashing into the target planet/moon) woke them up.

But i think you have the general idea down; Time is basically your "Buffer" for getting reaction mass/repairs. Durability of things allows a larger "Buffer" before you need to refuel. And as for powering the nanomachines themselves? You could go multiple routes, radiation would be one. You could also have some kind of artificial chlorophyll that catalyses the splitting of Water into Hydrogen and Oxygen, and use a tiny little fuel cell (It could be basically a diode a couple atoms large or smaller).

There's also a few ways to convert kinetic energy into electrical power; or thermal differences. But i'd imagine you'd use a combination of all of these if possible; you wouldn't want to be stranded adrift half-way between your destination because your water-powered nanomachines landed on a irradiated, barren mercury analog!