Things to See, Places (Not) to Go (13) - General

November 2024

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Ru <shearwater+eldraeverse@gmail.com> on 2019-07-30 03:23:12 wrote:

Wake me when they can eat though glass, quartz, diamond or fullerenes. Also, whatever happened to fluidics, phononics and maybe even plain old micro mechanical computers?

For that matter, has anyone asked the galari (or other silicon-based people) for their input?

Alistair Young <us@arkane-systems.net> on 2019-07-30 13:01:56 wrote:

Wake me when they can eat though glass, quartz, diamond or fullerenes. Also, whatever happened to fluidics, phononics and maybe even plain old micro mechanical computers?

Nothing. Have fun trying to build a technological infrastructure using only them.

For that matter, has anyone asked the galari (or other silicon-based people) for their input?

The galari aren’t terribly interested in a world that would require them to go back to being sessile.

Ru <shearwater+eldraeverse@gmail.com> on 2019-08-02 07:42:35 wrote:

Who says you’d only need to use those? Once you’ve got the ability to make more than adequately tough and strong and indigestible tensile and compressive structural members, hardwearing bearing surfaces and ultra-thin, superhard and refractory coatings, everything else is just a bonus.

Non-metallic conductors and superconductors? Check. Good thermal conductors? Check. Clear windows? check. UV-transparent windows? Check.

Honestly, if you can’t make a ground vehicle, aircraft, power station, computer bank, radio transmitter, offensive laser or even a surface-to-orbit system that works at least once given all that, you need to hand your supersophont interstellar highly advanced technological civilisation card back and leave the thinking to someone else.

Alistair Young <us@arkane-systems.net> on 2019-08-02 16:31:49 wrote:

Let me put it to you this way:

You are planning to exploit a loophole you think you’ve found by nitpicking an excerpt from a constellation-wide travel guide, a type of source which doesn’t even pretend to be complete or conclusive.

It is possible that you might have stumbled across something that might work, but it’s more likely that - like most people who indulge in this sort of cleverness - you’ll end up languishing in a foreign prison, or eaten by hyenas. Maybe both.

Always remember: everything here is something as seen from someone’s perspective, not a definitive statement sprung forth from the forehead of Zeus.