Traveller-digest     Thursday, October 21 1999     Volume 1999 : Number 1238



(R)1996. Traveller is a registered trademark of FarFuture Enterprises.
All rights reserved.

The following topics are covered in this digest:

Re: Space Opera?
Re: Space Opera?
[Trav3D] A CALL FOR ACTION!!!  was:  Traveller 3D Model Sites
Re: "new" critter [OT]
Re: Advanced computers in space (was Happy Birthday, Galileo)
Re: Canon, background, etc
re: Drive DestructionSequencing
Re: Space Opera?
Re: Space Opera?
RE: Cybernetic Implants
RE: Bodily waste disposal
Re: "new" critter [OT]
TML Members as resources
RE: Copyright Issues with SJG (was: GT: Starships)
Re: Space Opera?
Re: Cannon, Background, Etc
Re: "new" critter [OT]
Traveller 3D Model Sites
Traveller Auction Update!
Re: Traveller - the 1970's with starships? (longish)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 04:53:57 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Space Opera?

In mail you write:

> Here's an interesting idea:
>
> Take one of Ayn Rand's novels (_We The Living_, _The Fountainhead_,
> _Anthem_ or [especially] _Atlas Shrugged_), and change the setting to
> science-fiction.  Now _that_ would be space opera!  Here are some
> suggestions:

> _Anthem_:  Definitely a Long Night story

Actually, "Anthem" works ok on any world with a sufficiently *extreme*
government and law level. Either the planet is a red zone, or off
planet contact is severely restricted, and only allowed with the
"ruling class". 

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 04:56:40 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Space Opera?

In mail you write:

> There were quite a handful made in the late seventies/early eighties as Star
> Wars knockoffs. The Last Starfighter is one. Ice Pirates another. There was
> one with George Peppard, and the guy who played the Man from Uncle and the
> actor who played John Boy from the Waltons loosely based on the Seven
> Samurai, I can't remember the name.

"Battle Beyond the Stars". It's a classic. Bad, but fun.

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 22:04:10 -0700
From: "Jesse DeGraff" <fenris@slip.net>
Subject: [Trav3D] A CALL FOR ACTION!!!  was:  Traveller 3D Model Sites

Welcome to the Traveller 3D community Lloyd!!  We're relatively small in
number, and very diverse in the programs we've access to, but we're slowly
growing!

I know I've had a couple of private (and TML I think) conversations
regarding a project of this type.  I've been too busy on my end with work
for "Starports" to do anything with it myself.  The deadline is really close
now at this point and I should have free time soon, so I'll make this offer:

If others are interested in contributing material to the project, I can host
it at my Vision Forge Graphics domain.  I have unlimited space and unlimited
traffic.  Only prob is everything would have to be updated by me as the p/w
would be the same as the rest of my site.  This may lead to bottlenecks
while I'm in the troes of a deadline.  An alternative would be having it
hosted at www.downport.com.  I think this would be a great alternative
myself, especially if different people can do the updating.

Ideas for content would be similar to other 3D collections sites like the
Star Wars Modelling Alliance and SciFi Art.  PD (public domain) objects,
textures, tutorials, 3D artwork, 2D artwork, etc.  Usage would have to be
worked out, or just flat "no commercial use allowed".  An example would be
no matter how cool an object was, I couldn't put it in one of my SJG shots
because that would be a commercial use (profit for me and SJG).  An
alternative is profit sharing if you're published and you've used others
objects.  Say 10-50%, depending on the object.  I WILL tell you to keep
you're day job though :)  Even though I do all my own stuff for my shots
('cept occaisionally some licensed or PD textures), I certainly don't make
enough to only do this for a living.  Ah, how I wish....but that's another
story.

If you're interested in contributing, just want to give encouragement, or
even want to tell me to stick it, please e-mail me directly **** with
[Trav3D] **** in the subject line PLEASE (this'll help me sort the mail).
That's only the bracketed part [Trav3D] for you smart-asses out there ;)
Let's get the ball rolling and put together a resource that everyone can
use!!!!!!!

Very best,
Jesse
fenris@slip.net

p.s.  Great to hear about your SSP upgrade Bruce!  Can't wait to upgrade to
L[6] myself, and pick up the Messiah plug-in.  Can you say massed
Battledress pics for "Ground Forces"?

p.p.s.  And I still blush when people say stuff like that, but keep it up ;)
It helps when I'm sitting in front of the monitor, bleary eyed, at 3am, on
my 7th liter of Diet Pepsi and on my 2nd frozen pizza.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
> [mailto:owner-traveller@lists.imagiconline.com]On Behalf Of Bruce
> Johnson
> Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 1999 12:57 PM
> To: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com
> Subject: Re: Traveller 3D Model Sites
>
>
> Hmmm, none, yet, there are a few of us playing with 3D stuff for trav,
> most notablyt the Master High Modeller Jesse, but we all seem to be using
> different programs, Lightwave, Strata Studio Pro (Hey Jesse! Just got
> upgraded to SSP 2.5.3 from 1.75, now I should be able to pull
> off some nice tricks now..it's much improved over the version I was
> using), POV-Ray, and several others. There was talk a while back about a
> Traveller 3D artists ring, but I don't know whare that stands right now.
>
> In reality, there are a number of ways to share modelling data, .DXF
> files, or there are several programs both Mac and Win that do conversion
> chores.
>
> Bruce Johnson
> University of Arizona
> College of Pharmacy
> Information Technology Group
>
> Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs
>
>
> On Wed, 20 Oct 1999, LLOYD ROBINSON wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I recently upgraded my computer and got a copy of trueSpace 4. I have
> > seen model sites that have collections for Star Wars and
> Babalon 5. I was
> > wondering if there were any sites like those that specialized
> in models for
> > Traveller.
> >
> > Lloyd
> >
> >
>
>

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 05:05:30 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: "new" critter [OT]

In mail you write:

> From: Leonard Erickson <shadow@krypton.rain.com>

>>Listening to the news, I hear that they've found an *intact* wooly
>>mammoth in Siberia. Frozen solid. And they are talking about cloning.
>
> They wooly mammoth itself is really pretty old news. I remember seeing a
> photo of it in my old Childcraft books. They've been talking about cloning
> it for some time now. They made the decision a few weeks ago, it was a hot
> topic among my friends at the diner.

Nope. You are confusing older mammoth finds with this one. There have
been lots of partail finds over then years, as people stumbled across a
carcass that was startung to wash out of the permafrost, or had washed
out to a greater or lesser extent. 

But this one was somehow located while still totally buried. They dug
it out, and only *moved* it this week. 

> I hope that they manage to clone an ankylosaur. I've got a bet with a friend
> of mine that ankylosaurs will have the most succulent meat of all of the
> prehistoric beasties, by far. I am perhaps the only person who saw Jurassic
> Park and wished that we could have Jurassic Burger.

Ain't gonna happen soon if it all. Contrary to what they showed in
Jurassic Park, it's *really* unlikely that usable dinosaur DNA could be
extracted from amber. And unlike mammoths, who are closely related to
elephants, we don't have anything at all close to implant dinosaur DNA
in. 

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 05:01:46 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Advanced computers in space (was Happy Birthday, Galileo)

In mail you write:

>> There's a *reason* the processor is so dumb. There was exactly *one*
>> attempt to use a "modern" CPU in a satellite. One of the OSCAR
>> satellites (satellites built by and for amateur radio operators). 
>
>> It was a disaster. In spite of their best efforts to shield it,
>> radiation was flipping bits in the CPU often enough to make it useless
>> much of the time. And waht "modern" chip was this? An 8086. 
>
> I'm sorry, but that just isn't so.  The AMSAT microsattellites launched
> in 1990 used V40 processors -- basically 80186 clones.  One of them has
> been running for five years since its last reset.  This says a lot for
> the radiation tolerance of the CPU, and of the stability of its
> operating system (SCOS).  No windows here!

Ok, I'm going by an aricle from the 80s in one of the computer or
electronics magazines.

I recall an article in (I think) Popular Electronics about building a
radiation counter from a RAM chip. :-)

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 09:13:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Collin <charles@hebb.psych.mcgill.ca>
Subject: Re: Canon, background, etc

<Otter>
=( The problem is that I don't think I ever encountered a lot of the
background which seems to be old hat to the majority of posters, and while
it all seems extremely interesting, due to budget constraints I can't
exactly pick up every CT product and JTAS ever published.  So like a
piker, I'm wondering if there's some readily (i.e. very cheaply)
accessible source from which I can garner at least the basics of the CT
campaign background
</Otter>

My recommendation for a good single source would be the GURPS: Traveller
main source book.  It contains most of the background up until the
rebellion.  For the rebellion you're going to need the Imperial
Encyclopedia.  OTOH, I'm sure that if you list off things you want to know
about, some TMLer will be more than willing to blather on and on about
them :-).

Charles C.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 09:18:48 -0400
From: Walter Smith <SmithW@HARTWICK.EDU>
Subject: re: Drive DestructionSequencing

Eric T. Holmes wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
I was actually thinking along the lines of the drives overloading to
critical mass if this is possible.  I assumed that the sinks (or capacitors) 
would be where the necessary energy would be stored, either in a reserve
or in the process of building up as in preparation for jump.  The difference
is that the sequence is some how interupted or modified to go critical.  I 
estimated the time required to charge up the capacitors as the time to 
prepare for jump.  I WAG'd this as 10 minutes for the size ship and drive
and added another 5 minutes as a safety factor for the escaping crew.
>>>>>>>>>>
Ah-hah. The ship isn't really using a self-destruct device, it's simply
performing a deliberate and catastrophic misjump. It sounds to me like
the theory behind your WAG was good to go.

I might give such a ship a chance of performing a less-than-catastrophic
misjump instead - yes, she might vaporize or vanish into jump space,
but it also might just have her drives disappear, or she might vanish
for two weeks and reappear multi-parsecs away.

Of course, being trapped on a crippled ship for two weeks in jump space
might be pretty catastrophic in itself.

Walt Smith

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 10:29:00 -0400
From: "Jory Earl" <j-man@iname.com>
Subject: Re: Space Opera?

> Samurai, I can't remember the name.

>"Battle Beyond the Stars". It's a classic. Bad, but fun.

Oh my gawd..I remember seeing that one in the theatre..


___________________________________________________________
 J-Man
 ICQ# 2843475
 New Hampshire - U.S.A.
 Email : j-man@iname.com
 Home Page : http://www.geocities.com/~jman037/
___________________________________________________________

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 09:21:09 -0500 ()
From: "Joseph R. Dietrich" <yikes@evansville.net>
Subject: Re: Space Opera?

Me, every Traveller game I have ever run has been Space Opera (with a
capital O). I was catapulted into science fiction by Star Wars, and my
heart remains with it. Although I love to read superhard sf novels too, my
favorites are the likes of David Brin's _Startide Rising_ -- grand vision,
plenty of BEMs, and techonology both exotic and magical.

So at least some of us on the list like Space Opera, and have even played
Traveller unabashedly this way. Heck, I've even had psionic mystic knights
with force swords in my games, with jumpspace being the AD&D astral plane
(it's not quite as munchkinesque as it sounds). ;-)

Tschuess,

Joseph R. Dietrich
yikes@evansville.net

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 09:21:07 -0500 ()
From: "Joseph R. Dietrich" <yikes@evansville.net>
Subject: RE: Cybernetic Implants

>I have heard that  some  complex  coordination  skills  (such  as
>playing the piano) may be performed (at least partially)  in  the
>spinal cord rather the brain.  This being so would the  recipient
>of a spinal cord  transplant  from  a  concert  pianist  gain  an
>aptiude for piano playing?

AFAIK, no. It's been a long time since Bio/Psy for me, but I think the
neural pathways would have to be developed all the way up and down the
system to show real aptitude for something as complex as piano playing.

But then, my information is 5 years out of date.

Tschuess,

Joseph R. Dietrich
yikes@evansville.net

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 10:25:31 -0400
From: Ian Ferguson <ian@vax2.concordia.ca>
Subject: RE: Bodily waste disposal

William F. Hostman writes:
>>Also, what are we to do with the Ship's Boat?  It carries 96
>>(more if outfitted as such) passengers for up to 24 hours!
>>Where are they gonna do their business?
>in bags, just like apollo crews...

	That's the great thing about CT, the comfort and convenience
	of a fully equiped fresher right behind the bridge.

:)
Peez

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 10:28:46 -0000
From: "Chris Seamans" <semo@pil.net>
Subject: Re: "new" critter [OT]

- -----Original Message-----
From: Leonard Erickson <shadow@krypton.rain.com>
To: traveller@lists.imagiconline.com <traveller@lists.imagiconline.com>
Date: Thursday, October 21, 1999 12:22 PM
Subject: Re: "new" critter [OT]


>> From: Leonard Erickson <shadow@krypton.rain.com>
>Nope. You are confusing older mammoth finds with this one. There have
>been lots of partail finds over then years, as people stumbled across a
>carcass that was startung to wash out of the permafrost, or had washed
>out to a greater or lesser extent.


Nope. I'm not. This is just the most recent in a long line of intact, or
very nearly intact Mammoths that have been discovered in Siberia in the last
century or so. The first one was discovered at the turn of the century and
they Russians managed to skin it and stuff it and otherwise preserve it with
the crude techniques of the day.

In the 70s a calf was unearthed by a construction team in Siberia. This one
was very nearly intact (it had just been unearthed). A sample of the tissue
was sent to the U.S. Another one was found a short time later. DNA was
extracted from one of these guys, maybe both of them. I remember reading in
the mid-80s that they managed to isolate the DNA in one of the popular
science rags. Although at that point, cloning seemed very far off, it was
stated optimistically that one day this beast might be cloned.

In the 80s another very well preserved mammoth was discovered, almost
completely intact (missing its trunk and its tail.) Don't know what happened
to this guy, I just remember it as one of those human interest (mammoth
interest?) blurbs.

This most recent fellow is very nearly completely intact, missing only the
tusks which natives hacked off and sold to a French explorer.

>But this one was somehow located while still totally buried. They dug
>it out, and only *moved* it this week.


I'm out of the loop on this recent mammoth. I remember hearing about it
quite a few months ago, to the effect that the French wanted to move him at
some point in the future. The big deal is that if the French get him back
home, this will be the first mammoth that non-Soviet / non-Russian
scientists will be able to study fully. The Soviets jealously guarded their
mammoths and sent pieces out to other countries for study.

[I checked the Discovery Channel website just now, and there's a nifty
timeline that agrees with mine to a large extent, and gives better dates, if
anyone's interested the address is:
http://www.discovery.com/exp/mammoth/mammoth.html There's also a tantalizing
comment that in '95 the French accused the Russian Mafia of conspiring to
get to mammoth carcasses before scientists].

Now there's an ObTrav for you. A group of Travellers are hunting ancient
artifacts... only to be foiled time and time again by Vargr organized crime
groups. (Yes, Vargr organized crime really exists, to the extent that it can
be considered organized, and the TNE crew clearly patterned them on the
Russian mafia who were quite popular at the time.


>Ain't gonna happen soon if it all. Contrary to what they showed in
>Jurassic Park, it's *really* unlikely that usable dinosaur DNA could be
>extracted from amber.

I don't care how they do it, I just want to win a bet with a friend and chow
down on the tender meet of the ankylosaur.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 10:32:54 -0400
From: Ian Ferguson <ian@vax2.concordia.ca>
Subject: TML Members as resources

<snipped>
>Doug Sinclair
>Spacecraft Engineer

	It has certainly been mentioned before that this list has
	an impressive array of knowledge and skill available.
	Maybe a job description or some such could be included on
	Eris' TML roster.  It would be interesting to see what you
	all do.

Peez

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 09:27:12 -0500
From: "Bont" <felix@felixcafe.com>
Subject: RE: Copyright Issues with SJG (was: GT: Starships)

> You can see the shot at
> http://www.vision-forge-
graphics.com/jesse/traveller/starports_cover.h
> tm as I'd never posted that link on my site.


Jesse,

I haven't seen that picture in a long while.  I must say that it _really_ 
looks good.  You have an outstanding talent and the imagination to 
put it to use.  Good Job.

BTW ... who are the extras?


- - - -
FELIX (Thomas L Bont)

- - Encrypt your messages!
  That way only the government knows what you wrote!

- - It is truly the wise man that knows what he doesn't!

- - With your shield or on it ... (Old Spartan Blessing)

- - Fidelitas super omnia, honore excepto

- - Help Stop Forest Fires.  Outlaw Matches.

Be sure to visit The FELIX Cafe at
     http://www.felixcafe.com/

- - - -

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 11:15:33 -0400
From: "Terry Carlino" <carlino@home.com>
Subject: Re: Space Opera?

>>> Star Wars is the only *modern* Space Opera I can think of.
>>
>> Star Trek DS9?
>>   Grand Sweep - Check
>>   Larger than life Characters - Check
>>   Escalating superweapon duels - Check
>> (actual, I'd call it Space Soap Opera, but thats just me)
>
>Sorry, but the characters *aren't* sufficiently larger than life. And
>there's nothing even *close* to a "real" superweapon.

So Leonard, an Avatar (Emissary to the Prophets), the disgraced warrior who
becomes a hero among the enemies of his people, only to be adopted by the
family of a legendary general and then kills the despotic leader of the
Empire who is the enemy of his family and so changes history, and the one of
a kind shapeshifting alien who turns out the be the key to defeating the
ravaging , unbeatable enemy empire aren't characters that are larger than
life? Gee you must know some interesting people.

Terry C

All that is Gold does not glitter
Not all who travel are lost

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 11:25:01 -0400
From: "Terry Carlino" <carlino@home.com>
Subject: Re: Cannon, Background, Etc

>During the 80s, I played CT for some time, never reaching the heights
>(depths?) of involvement evidenced by some of the posters to this list.
> So like a piker,
>I'm wondering if there's some readily (i.e. very cheaply) accessible source
>from which I can garner at least the basics of the CT campaign background
>- -- Imperial political figures, history, etc.  The CT stuff is what I'm most
>interested in, as I stopped playing long before MT, and TNE doesn't sound
>like my cuppa.  I would appreciate any input I can get, and yes I realize
>that some people feel the whole GURPS thing is heretical etc.  =)  Thank
>you very much for your help, and I've been uniformly pleased with the
>quality of the list.
>
>Otter Driver

You're looking right now at one the greatest resources for Traveller
material in existence. (No not the TML, though it is an excellent resource,)
I meant the Net, you know the great big WWW. I've got at least 75 good
Traveller bookmarks, almost all of which contain great amounts of Traveller
material. And I don't even generally bookmark MT & TNE stuff cause I don't
do the Rebellion or Virus.

Email me and I'll send you the shortcuts (if you use Windows) or the
addresses in email (if you don't). The shortcuts are easier for me, if you
can use them.

Terry C

All that is Gold does not glitter
Not all who travel are lost

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 11:28:24 -0400
From: "Terry Carlino" <carlino@home.com>
Subject: Re: "new" critter [OT]

>I hope that they manage to clone an ankylosaur. I've got a bet with a
friend
>of mine that ankylosaurs will have the most succulent meat of all of the
>prehistoric beasties, by far. I am perhaps the only person who saw Jurassic
>Park and wished that we could have Jurassic Burger.

Nah, It'll just taste like chicken. ;)

Terry C

All that is Gold does not glitter
Not all who travel are lost

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 10:42:09 -0500
From: "LLOYD ROBINSON" <LJR@sbscorp.com>
Subject: Traveller 3D Model Sites

I can open files of types SCN, COB, WRL 1.0, DXF, 3DS, LWO, OBJ, LWB, 
IOB, GEO, and X. I can save files as SCN, COB, WRL 1.0 and 2.0, DXF, 
3DS, and X. The 3DS format seems to be the most popular format used 
on the net. 

Lloyd

On Wed, 20 Oct 1999, Bruce Johnson wrote:


Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 16:13:05 -0700 (MST)
From: Bruce Johnson <johnson@Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU>
Subject: Re: Traveller 3D Model Sites

I mentioned in an earlier post that .DXf is one of the more universal
formats. .DXF doesn't permit the importation of texture
data, it's pretty much just the polygons (and it is POLYS only, no
fancy-schmancy NURBS or other exotic surfacing critters) but just about
every program out there will import a .dxf file.

But, there are programs like CrossRoads (on Windows) and Imagery on the
Mac will translate among formats. I know, for instance that .cob and .lwo
files are openable on Imagery, and saveable to other formats. Crossroads
is more versatile. The aithor of Crossroads, iirc, also has a Mac version,
but it's like version 0.001a, meaning "Does it crash when you double-click
it? No? Great! No quit, it can't do anything else" ;-)

Deciding on common formats will take some doing. When I get home and
figure out what it is that I can open, I'll post the list. If the other
3DFolk want to do the same (that way we can figure out who we all are) We
can start looking at building a modelling repository.

Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 11:47:44 -0400
From: "Scott Spieker" <scspieker@ncweb.com>
Subject: Traveller Auction Update!

Hi again,
    Last update.  I know how you gear heads hate this type of stuff on the
TML...

The Traveller Auction that I am running is going pretty well, with only a
couple of items being contested.  The auction itself has been extended past
12:00pm today because I won't be here to get all of the stuff finished off
until about 2:00pm.  So you have a couple more hours to go if you are
interested.

You can find the action list and current bids at:
http://www.ncweb.com/~scspieker/traveller/TravInvHTML.htm

Any bid listed below the minimum acceptable are being accepted because of
the volume of purchases.

Thanks again,
Scott Spieker

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 11:55:01 -0000
From: "Chris Seamans" <semo@pil.net>
Subject: Re: Traveller - the 1970's with starships? (longish)

From: Robert O'Connor <robocon@ozemail.com.au>


>IMHO, the official Trav universe doesn't get close to Vingean
>singularity over 3 millennia of progress because it's not as easy as the
>Terran neopositivists of the late 20th - early 21st century thought it
>would be (notwithstanding the fact that Vinge didn't really start the
>ball rolling until the late '80s).


I'm not particularly fond of the Vingean singularity for a few different
reasons. The first is that it's frequently used by opponents in any sort of
Traveller technological / sociological debate who imply that such a path is
a given (the same with the Banks AI model). The second is that, with all due
respect to Banks and Vinge, their future is but one possible vision of the
future.

As a result, any AI path that doesn't end in a Banksian universe, or any
combined use of technology that doesn't end in a Vingean singularity is
ruled out. I disagree, largely for many of the same reasons that you do.

>"If you really understand trend curves, you can extrapolate them into
>the future and discover some baffling things. The speed trend curve
>alone predicts that manned vehicles will be able to achieve near
>infinite speeds by 1982... The trend curve for controllable energy is
>rising rapidly... By 1981, this trend curve shows that a single man will
>have available under his control the amount of energy equivalent to that
>generated by the entire sun."
>
>- G. Harry Stine, 'Science Fiction is Too Conservative', Analog Science
>Fact and Fiction, May 1961.


Yes. Any artificial system that's designed for quantifying anything is going
to run into certain problems at some point or another. It's the nature of
the beast.

>Nanotech? Femtotechnology (nuclear manipulation)? Bedevilled by problems
>of quantum limits, thermal stability, fuelling, control failures (the
>'great grey goo' problem) across average Imperial TLs.


Fair enough. Even so, you still have to think this one through. The "great
grey goo" problem, for example, is a nasty one. What happens if the Ine
Givar get ahold of them, or the Solomani. You still have the problem of it
existing. Internal TU handwaves can break down at one point or another in
the same way that new additions can break down.

>Advanced biotech? In the RW, we have literally millions of data points
>(more appear every day), and no obvious motifs to tie everything
>together (I acknowledge evolution, chemistry and physics, but biological
>order is *complex*).
>    This data is from maybe 1/3 of the organisms on one planet ; it's
>estimated that 1/2 to 2/3 of the organisms in our guts are unknown to
>contemporary microbiology.


Yes, but unfortunately, that's not the way it is in canon. We've got the
Solomani uplifting dolphins and pre-sentient species. Which raises obviously
problems that I don't have the time to detail again.

>Cyborgs and personality uploading? The computing power required to model
>*trillions* of components (neurons) 'talking' to each other is literally
>mind-boggling. This obviously puts limits on robot and computer AI.


That's only one AI model, the "strong" AI model, in which sentience can be
attained only by modelling the human brain. The "weak" AI model is quite
different, in that AI can be built from the ground up, possibly turning out
an entirely different way of doing things.

>    I agree with Bill Hostman ; the cyberware that appeared in
>Traveller's Digest is quite reasonable, compared with the various
>cyberpunk RPGs (reflex or muscle power augmentation without mandatory
>bone and tendon reinforcement? No way).


The Cyberpunk 2020 RPG and Shadowrun encompass the most banal elements of
the genre and are based, poorly, almost entirely on the earlier works of
William Gibson.

When I said cyberpunk, I meant then, and I still mean the genre at large,
not one small part of it interepreted by the folks who did Cyberpunk 2020 or
Shadowrun. I have never, and will never advocate anything that looks like
the "chrome Soviet cyber-arm" school of thought.

The problem with cybernetics isn't whether or not they're in Traveller, but
whether or not the handwave against them holds water. It just doesn't. It
makes absolutely no sense that those in power would actively participate in
a form of social exclusion against others of their ilk when that same
technology would allow them to remain in power longer.

It's as simple as that. It was an attempt to outlaw munchkinism in the
Traveller universe and it isn't really a very good one.

>    The various 'medical' articles that have appeared in TD, etc. are
>reasonably gentle too, dealing with regenerative and cloning tech, and
>some not too over the top pharmaceuticals.


The problem is that you're justifying the lack of existence in the Traveller
universe by way of handwaving that these technologies don't work for some
reason. That's fine, but my whole point is something different.

People should just be honest about canon, and know why they're keeping it.
The intent of handwaving is to somehow justify something's existence or
inexistence according to canon. Such justifications are not needed.

It's much easier to say, "It doesn't feel like Traveller," and it's much
more effective to boot! It keeps the silly and poorly conceived handwaves
out, which allows for more freedom for individual GMs. It's a return to the
roots of Traveller, which was a time when it was possible to add to the
universe in ways that enrich people's gaming experience.

------------------------------

End of Traveller-digest V1999 #1238
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