Here's something I have learned in my gaming experience (in quote form, of course ) "If even one enemy exists, you are not in control. Crush them swiftly, surely, and without mercy." --MillerTzu
[quote]life as a reiterative system?[/quote] I think it has some potential. It certainly passes Occam's Razor. It has been proposed (I believe it was Richard Dawkins) that the only true "organism" is DNA itself, and that all creatures, even complex multicellular creatures, are tools of the DNA, which "understands" that even though each individual gene isn't involved in the eventual step of procreation, working as a complex unit gives an advantage to the DNA as a whole. This closely r
[quote]Essentially, most organics are hydrophobic,[/quote] I was thinking about that; couldn't the reverse be true? As in an abundance of, say, butane (that is the first liquid hydrocarbon right?) which would clump polar molecules together (by the way dystopic, that is the hydrophobic force denyasis was speaking of, polar molecules repel non-polar; think water and oil.) so that they might interact in life-forming ways? That would be very, very different from anything on earth. <br
[quote]. i don't think there's a priori reason to suspect that "life" couldn't exist in many other media, so to speak.[/quote] I've always wondered about radically different forms of life, with silicon or nitrogen based "genetic" structures. However, while I'm not saying they don't exist, the odds of us finding them would be incredibly low, if only because we simply have no clue to how it could possibly work; we wouldn't know what to look for. [quote]at the same time there's r
[quote]for some reason no one knows the rules...?[/quote] thats because most people are halo 2 vets, and the game variations they circulate on halo 3 have slight changes in the rules (like being able to score in ctf when your flag is away; never used to be able to do that)
low G is another issue entirely. muscles tend to atrophe without word; astronauts on long missions have to exercise or face dangerous conditions when they return to constant life in full G But there would be no return from an extra solar colony would there? Perhaps this would be a good thing in a story: new colonists have to adapt to a change in gravity, and extrapolating this simple change in their lives out a hundred years or so this leads their entir
Not necesarrily so... Ah yes, I forgot about pressure. I also realized that an underwater colony would have more surface area available for heat transfer, so it would probably be more difficult to insulate in that regard as well. In regards to your energy calculations of methane, there are significant amounts of heavier hydrocarbons (ethane, propane, and some other more complex ones), so we might be able to get better energy efficiency by using
"Hyperion" has been a common name given to a "super ship", a flagship, or possibly a class of very strong battle cruisers, etc in many sci-fi novels, games, and t.v. series. Some examples include the Hyperion class battle cruiser in Babylon 5 and the Hyperion in Starcraft, Raynor's command ship.
But there's a big drawback - All the oxygen is consumed in this reaction. Hm, hadn't thought about that. Are there any other ways to extract energy from methane; possibly a chemical reactor using the ammonia or any other abundant chemicals on titan? does Titan have nuclear materials that we can get at?....Does Titan have metals? ....I guess the other hard part would be insulating the structure. We aren'
I was thinking, we have talked about colonizing an Earth-like planet, but what about very unEarth-like planets? Would we have a reason to go there that would make it worth colonizing? How would we do it? I bring this up, not just because we seem to have digressed a bit and I want to get back on track, but I was inspired by a recent article I read about Titan. Titan, one of Saturn's moons, is a seemingly inhospitable chunk of frozen waste, but let me describe it to show you what I'm g
The thing is that computer code is so different from DNA that they aren't even comparable. It's not just binary versus quaternary (A, C, T, G), the "hardware" of the cell operates so differently than a computer, that there isn't really any intermediate step between the two. Sure, a computer could emulate the cell's hardware, but that doesn't get you anywhere, thats actually a waste of a great deal of processing power.
I would venture that computer code will 'evolve' in the direction of DNA? Well, not exactly. Yes, as our technology expands, we will begin to develop and utilize new forms of computing, such as quantum, or even biological using DNA/RNA. However, these forms operate on completely different principles than current computers. Branching to a quantum or biological system would be more 'revolution' than 'evolution'.
Try focusing on one or two civs for alliances. Max out your trade with these civs, give them stuff, and have a higher military than them (individually). Hopefully, you can secure an alliance or two; not only will this keep them off your back, you can proceed to build influence bases in their space with little fear of retribution. Once you have converted them totally, you can start allying with another....repeat until the galaxy is yours.
we are not able to maintain a fusion reaction because we do not have anything that can hold as hot as 17,000 degrees Fahrenheit Actually, we have been maintaining fusion reactions in Tokamak chambers (among other designs) for some time now. Tokamaks use magnetic fields to confine the reaction. The problem is that we haven't made them efficient enough to maintain self-sustaining fusion reactions; meaning we still have to input energy to run it, w
the story will center around... This all sounds very interesting. I can't wait to read your story (by the way, are you still planning on getting a website for the book?). mirroring a real brain on a computer would take many more circuits than the brain itself has True, the resulting hardware would probably be too large to fit in a normal human cranium. But, once we learn more about the brain, it should
While it still isn't technically "immortality", what about converting yourself into a robot? Assuming we had a strong enough background in prosthetics and other related disciplines, wouldn't we be able to replace everything in the body with more durable, synthetic parts? We could even substitute totally inhuman appendages to "improve" the human form (like the Borg). The only real challenge that I can see is the brain; not only being a very complex machine, if we merely "replaced" the brain, q
Bah, danielost posted too soon. My last quote should read: we've got plenty of hydrogen for fuel (in the form of water, which can be easily converted to molecular hydrogen and oxygen with current technology).
To add to the list of exceptions: ... I think that the point he was making was that most of the feats their "technology" performed are physically possible, though our devices may work differently, are inefficient, or still in the theoretical phase. nope, missed a couple points. Ah, I saw those. To rephrase: "the only long term trade off between the fountain and a traditional elevator is higher e
it's biggest disadvantage admittedly is that it has a constant power requirement. Couple that with our predicted shortage of resources... It is certainly an interesting idea, but if I read correctly, the only trade off between the fountain and a traditional elevator is higher energy costs vs. necessitating ultra strong materials. It does seem a little more "sci-fi" though. It's like a giant mancannon. <img src="http://images.stardock.com/gc2/
super-tensile materials we haven't yet invented/discovered Carbon nano-fibers are strong enough. The problem is we don't yet have a way to manufacture them en masse into necessary structures. edit: WOW! 10 pages in this topic thread! My goal is to beat Frogboy's "Show off your ship designs 2007!" thread.
When I was thinking of jettisoning tanks/engines I was thinking in terms of continual thrust while jetisoning (pretty much just like the space shuttle). Why thrust dead weight as we start a sling shot? As soon as the engines jettison, they stop imparting thrust to the main body, so there's no way to have thrust without the weight of the engines. a swinging arm space station! I think I mentioned rotating
and we use gravity for sling shots. or did everyone forget that. No, we mentioned that one. In that scenario, we are using gravity, but we aren't actually converting it to electricity or anything, so it doesn't apply to what Mystikmind (or whoever he quoted) was talking about. Why is gravity not energy? Let me put it this way. Gravity is a force, there is such thing as gravitational energy, but this is
hehehe i am going to be a pain here and point out tidal energy! Oh i am not certain but what about 'sling shot' energy as well? Gravity is a force, not a type of energy. In both these cases, gravity is inducing motion, kinetic energy , which we exploit; case a/ it is converted to electricity, b/ it doesn't change form. Really, most of our energy systems have a kinetic energy phase involved. Engines capture the KE of exploding gas with p
Wow. I've never made it to large hulls before a war is declared. What level are you playing at in those games? I usually play on Tough or Painful, with gigantic galaxies. Firstly, this only happened to me in two games I can think of. Second, I'm not counting my flagship (medium) which I do convert into a warship. Sometimes I can just park my uber flagship around a Spin control center and that's enough to deter my opponents. Th
PeskyFly, but do you really feel that the number of games you have played makes you qualified to offer advice with such authority? On the other hand, you seemed to be curious about other players' preferences rather than asking for advice. I don't know if I have anything to say that hasn't already been said. I do try to get the Restaurant of Eternity, bec
