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TML Bundles come from the archives of the Traveller Mailing List,
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon Jul 22 10:57:27 PDT 1991
From: traveller-request@metolius.wr.tek.com (TML Administrator)
Subject: TML Bundle #213: Table of Contents

-AMN- --Date--- --Sender--------- --Subject-----------------------------------
2602  13-Jul-91 Carl Fago         Re: Technology & Such << > Date: Fri, 12 Jul 
2603  14-Jul-91 Mike.Metlay@ORGAN various matters << Thanks to Mark Cook and Wi
2604  15-Jul-91 Adrian Hurt       Re: Not the ultimate comment on planetary inv
2605  15-Jul-91 Adrian Hurt       Re: More planetary defences << George William
2606  15-Jul-91 ANANDA%BSU.DECNET Random Alien Generation << I remember seeing 
2607  12-Jul-91 Carl Fago         Re: TML->GEnie and aesd.dnet.ge.com << > The 
2608  14-Jul-91 d9bertil@dtek.cha Re: Erm, mistake? << > From: Marc Alexandrovi
2609  15-Jul-91 "CMD ENS ERIC M.  Re: Merc division << In regards to the TO&E, 
2610  15-Jul-91 "CMD ENS ERIC M.  Technopeasant << Following the discussion of 
2611  15-Jul-91 jimv@ucrmath.ucr. Traveller_Tales_1of5 << Greetings all. I've b
2612  15-Jul-91 Brian Larkin      Hardpoints << What is the rule regarding hard
2613  16-Jul-91 Jo Jaquinta       Library Data Program << I've had quite a few 

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

Archive-Message-Number: 2602
Subject: Re: Technology & Such
Date: Sat, 13 Jul 91 15:57:04 PDT
From: Carl Fago <carlf@agora.rain.COM>

> Date: Fri, 12 Jul 91 13:17:17 PDT
> From: Mark F. Cook <markc@hpcvss.cv.hp.COM>
> Subject: (2592) Re: Stable Tech. vs. Stale Tech
> 
> James Perkins (jamesp@metolius.wr.tek.com) writes:
> 
> > Mark F. Cook <markc@hpcvss.cv.hp.COM> writes:
> > > advance (which is exponential), the rate at which the human race advances
> > > technologically should 'go vertical' in less than 300 years.
> > 
> > One possible problem with Vinge's supposition is that it fails to take
> > into account that people must apply the technology that has been
> > discovered, and this takes time.  The biggest limiting factor to the
> > growth of technology, as I see it, are the factors of societal
> > communication and understanding.  It takes time for engineers to
> > incorporate new ideas, it takes time to develop proficiency in their
> > use, it takes time to bring people up to speed, and large projects where
> > many new technological advancements are put together have a high risk of
> > failure.
> 
> This is only true if the underlying technology needs to be widely
> communicated, which may not be the case.  Joe Citizen does not need
> to re-learn how to drive a car, just because fuel injection, power
> steering, and catalytic convertors get introduced.

The fuel injection and power steering are evolutionary changes to technology
not revolutionary.  I would tend to agree with James regarding revolutionary
changes (horse vs car) and Mark regarding evolutionary changes (Model T vs
the Ford Taurus).

Look at how long it takes for evolutionary military hardware to develop.
I don't have the exact dates with me but I believe the B2 bomber took something
like 15 years to develop.  In my discussions with the research lab that I am
seeking employment with, they mention that the ideas they develop today won't
be seen in the military for at least ten years.

The talk of fast or slow technological development is dependent on the area
of technology that is being discussed.  Mark sites the computer technology:

> A closer example
> would be the introduction of RISC architectures in UN*X workstation
> SPUs.  While these provide an order-of-magnitude (in some cases)
> performance improvement in the computer, only a small sub-set of the
> total user base (the system administrators) need any supplemental
> training to take advantage of the new technology.  To all the other
> users, the change is transparent; their programs just run faster.

But this is _very_ different from a revolutionary change in the methods of
computing and _what_ a computer may do.  Running a program faster is purely
evolutionary.

Mark and I discussed the advance of technolgy briefly last night and I would
say that if the direct neural link he proposed would be developed, then
James' hypothesis of the time required for society to assimilate the
change is correct.

> If the advances in technology occur in the information and communication
> industry, then the rate of increase may go even faster.
> 
> >      ...  Look at the failure of the first n Mariner space probes, the
> > incredible cost of the Space Shuttle, the Sergeant York program, Hubble,
> > Galileo, the Soviet Mars moon probes, and the NeXT computer.
> 
> With the possible exception of Galileo and the NeXT computer, these failures
> can be directly attributed to mismanagement and political infighting, not
> the inability to disseminate new technology.  (This is *not*, however, true
> for the Sgt. York.  It was a piece of sh*t from the start.  But I digress...)


Now _here_ is one of the _real_ problems...  The politics of advancement and
the management of the funds relating to the advancement will _always_ be
there.  As the technology advances, the cost will also increase.  My
opinion is that the cost of technology will increase faster than inflation.
Thus, there will be fewer and fewer "backyard" inventors making significant
contributions to technological advancement.  I think we have already seen this
in the past fifty years.

> > 	[[[ James' Maxim of Technology Advancement ]]]
> > 
> > 	You can't push technology faster than it can be
> > 	communicated, understood, incorporated, and perfected.
> 
> No argument here.  I just think that the new technology is being
> communicated, understood, incorporated, and perfected faster all
> the time.  I cannot believe that mankind has some inherent 'upper
> limit' for accepting these changes.  The limit is cultural, and
> since the culture is modified by the new technology, and vice-versa,
> I don't see any immediate obstacle to accelerated assimilation.

I believe that there is a limit given a certain population base. 
One person's capacity is finite.  Mark provided the neural computer
implant as a way of increasing the capacity.  But I submit that this just
increases the capability of the person no the capacity to hold and
assimilate information.  An example would be Mark's specialty in computers
and mine in engineering.  I couldn't develop a "C" program that would be
useful (at least not now.)  I don't think Mark could solve some of the more
difficult nuclear engineering problems that I work with.  Now both of us
could do the others work given the time and training.  But the sacrifice
would be the previous job capability.

Basically, each of society's individuals is required to become more specialized
in order to support a higher technological base.

The other thought rattling around in the brain is the cost of the technology.
Many a TMLer may be more ready to accept a revolutionary concept in, say, 
transportation...the personal flying vehicle, about the size of a car.  They
exist now.  You can go out and buy one.  They will fit in your garage.  They
are not the dorky-looking aircars of the 50s.

But they cost over $100,000!!  I don't know of a TMLer (though I only 
personally know a few :-) who could afford one!

> > What about ceramic high-temperature turbine-powered drive-by-wire
> > automobiles? One innovation at a time, please! Serial, not parallel
> > improvement.  New ideas on a proven base.  It's they way human
> > engineering and technology transfer works.  The human mind has a limited
> > capacity to absorb and use new ideas.
> 
> Not true!  all three concepts (ceramic engines, turbines, and drive-by-wire)
> were developed independently of one another.  None of those ideas had to
> wait for any of the others to be perfected before they could work.
> Synthesis is the fundemental nature of innovation.  Right now, the only
> thing preventing all three concepts from being incorporated in next year's
> Chevrolet is one person with a sufficiently large checkbook. :-)

I caution against the oversimplification.  The developments are neither
wholly serial nor wholly parallel.  Technological advancement is a very
synergistic process.  I believe that if the complete failure of one or
two technological advancements is postulated, a whole raft of other
seemingly independent advancements would also fail.

And as far as the checkbook...sorry Mark, I think that it takes a whole
slew of checkbooks (DOD not withstanding :-) to make a technology work.

> As for the human mind having a limited capacity to absorb and use new
> ideas, that may be, but we're nowhere near the limit.  Using a work-
> station running X-Windows, I can absorb an order of magnitude more info
> today than I could have on an ASCII terminal 5 years ago.

I don't believe your absorbtion capability has increased, I maintain your
efficiency has increased and thus you are able to weed out more garbage
and find more of what you need or want.  

- - -- 
+---------------------------------------------+------------------------------+
| *-=Carl=-*  INTERNET - carlf@agora.rain.com | Time is nature's way to keep |
|             DELPHI - WULFGAR                | everything from happening    |
| Carl Fago   Portland, OR                    | all at once.    -anon.       |
+---------------------------------------------+------------------------------+


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

Archive-Message-Number: 2603
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 91 12:00:06 EDT
From: Mike.Metlay@ORGAN.MUSIC.CS.CMU.EDU
Subject: various matters

Thanks to Mark Cook and William Timmins, who pointed out the problem of
lung strength in CFC breathing with large animals; that was a facet of the
research I hadn't been aware of. Sorry for the mixup.

Steve Kellogg: I have many Hiver NPCs in my current Traveller game, including
a fellow whose nickname eludes me at the moment who took over the operation
of Radio Free Terra in 1117 after Near Miss shut it down. I have little or
no difficulty running Hivers--- they represent, as a species, the way I like
to handle parties that get too uppity with me. |-> The K'Kree have been run 
as NPCs in my campaign in the past; I find them more aggravation than they're
worth. Droyne are kind of fun as patrons, Aslan make for a nice change of
pace, and Vargr--well, as anyone who's read the Near Miss stories or played
with me and Bhyarrvouf on the PBEM can attest, they're my favorite alien race
in any SF genre of any kind, period. My wife and I refer to our marriage as
"A Vargr kinda love;" we never get bored with each other. |-> In practice, the
original idea was to populate the spinward galaxy with races that would be
easy to roleplay, and the trailing part with tougher ones, thus allowing groups
of players to expand their abilites in a controlled manner, according to the Gthink team that created the major races in the late Seventies.

On the acceleration of history and technology: one of the players in my game
got very annoying with his insistence that humanity should have long ago shot
upward into the black hole foam, with all the attributes of godhood. My response
was, "How do you know they didn't? Shut up and play the game." Suspension of
disbelief is a stapl,e for games like this; we just have to learn to accept
the fact that a future society would be impossible to roleplay enjoyably if
we made it totally alien to our own.

metlay

PS. Has anyone SEEN MTJ2 yet? I live in terror of missing it before it's 
out of print.

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

Archive-Message-Number: 2604
From: Adrian Hurt <adrian@cs.heriot-watt.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Not the ultimate comment on planetary invasions
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 91 10:11:44 BST

Marc Alexandrovich Volovic <mav@cs.huji.ac.il> writes:
>   The very fact that spending is limited would favour an attacker or
> defender who balances the quantity of medium priced combat vehicles with
> a quality of high priced combat vehicles (be these vehicles TL9 grav
> tanks or TL15 super dreadnoughts). There may be 5 Atlantis battleships
> (Robert Dean's Prize Baby :-) in a star system, but a mixed force can
> outmaneuver it and perform a planetary landing.

Perhaps, but there had better be something that can take out those 5 Atlantis
class battleships, or at least keep all 5 occupied for a long time, or else
at least one battleship will come and make the invasion very costly.

>   On another hand - a planetary assault may take place WITH THE CONSENT
> of the defender - if an attacker finds himself faced with an apparently
> impenetrable defence belt, he may just give up the idea of an assault
> and accelerate a few medium sized asteroids at the target planet. Thus a
> situation similar to a battle of Maldon may arise - the defender
> granting battlespace to the attacker.

The whole assumption in this discussion is that for some reason, the attacker
can not/does not want to destroy the defender totally in this manner.  (Why
was such a tactic never used during any of the Frontier Wars, by the way?)
Otherwise, if the attacker finds himself faced with an unbeatable defence
at any stage, he can just give up, take off and nuke the planet from orbit.

>   If the above comments hold true the deciding stage in an invasion
> would be how much of the attacking force can the defender destroy before
> an engagement on the world surface, but without making him desperate
> enough or hurt enough to bombard and jump outsystem. This may or may not
> be the fine art of generalship in the future.

Fine art?  Either the attacker wins, or the defender wins.  If the defender
wins, the attacker brings up the asteroid.  End of defender's story.

>   The future batlefiled itself depends very much on the concept of
> anti-gravity. If it invented (and within Traveller it is assumed so),
> filed artillery and infantry will rapidly decline in importance. Indeed,
> infantry is losing importance even now, long before even air-cushion
> combat vehicles have appeared.

Why?  There are reasons why the infantry has to get out of the vehicles
and fight on foot.  The only way anti-gravity will put an end to fighting
on foot is if every soldier gets a grav-belt, and anyone with Striker will
know what that will do to the unit's maintenance costs!

>   Infantry shall continue to be used in city assaults, police and
> security work, shipboard actions and heavily broken areas combat.

The first and last of those come under the heading of "Getting stuck in
and capturing the real estate".  Assuming you actually want control of the
planet, you're going to have to take control of the cities, which means
city assaults.  If the cities have been bombarded, it means broken areas
combat.

> Artilley shall probably lose all almost all use except for the most
> rapidfiring cannon in light anti-vehicle combat.

Certainly it is true that at higher tech levels, you can build vehicles which
are invulnerable to any practical conventional CPR or mass-driver round.
So long as the infantry stay in their heavily armoured APC's, or in their
bunkers, they are safe.  (And so long as someone doesn't let off some nuclear
rounds.)  Artillery will still be a good way of keeping their heads down, and
weakening their morale.

- - -- 
 "Keyboard?  How quaint!" - M. Scott

 Adrian Hurt			     |	JANET:  adrian@uk.ac.hw.cs
 UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian     |  ARPA:   adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk

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

Archive-Message-Number: 2605
From: Adrian Hurt <adrian@cs.heriot-watt.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: More planetary defences
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 91 10:31:39 BST

George William Herbert <gwh@ocf.Berkeley.EDU> writes:
> 	Think on this one, a bit... rather than a 'national guard', give
> everyone on the planet a combo pack of the following:
> 	Laser Rangefinder/direction finder (PRIS Binocs do fine)
> 	Inertial Locator
> 	x range masercom (determined by other constraints)

Now imagine trying to do that in real life.  Can you imagine what would happen
if President Bush tried to pass a law that every house be fitted with a 
military installation?  Even something relatively harmless like the above?  If
a war was in progress, or looked like being imminent, he might get away with
an emergency programme, assuming that the required number of devices could be
provided, distributed and installed at short notice.  Otherwise there would
be the mother of all peace protests!

As for doing it in Traveller - on a non-democratic world perhaps, or maybe by
Imperial decree.

- - -- 
 "Keyboard?  How quaint!" - M. Scott

 Adrian Hurt			     |	JANET:  adrian@uk.ac.hw.cs
 UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian     |  ARPA:   adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk

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

Archive-Message-Number: 2606
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1991 07:42 CDT
From: ANANDA%BSU.DECNET@MSUS1.BITNET
Subject: Random Alien Generation

I remember seeing a Random Alien Generation article in Dragon magazine waaaay
back.  I do believe it's in issue #59.  The cover has an sci fi theme, an
illustration of a group of 3-6 humans and maybe a robot, along with a shuttle-
type craft. If not #59, then it's in the range of #54 - #76, since those are
the only Dragons I ever bought.  

At the time I found the article highly amusing, since I didn't play Traveller,
and ended up using it for monster generation when we were bored with the
typical Monster Manual critters.  I can't comment on how "good" the article
would be for any of the Traveller game systems, since I don't know any of them
that well at all.

There was a short story about Traveller-types, I remember, and an article
detailing a "new" type of Traveller character.  I don't at the moment remember
what they were called, but they were the people who were the second group to
land on a planet.  Only the "real basics" as far as electronic exploration goes
were done by the first group; this second group did the actual intensive
ground-based research.  Thinking back on this, the type of group sounds similar
to the EEC (Exploration and Evaluation Corps) group in Anne McCaffrey's
_Dinosaur_Planet_.



- - --Ananda

ananda%bsu.decnet@msus1.msus.edu  /ananda%bsu@msus1.msus.edu \__if the .decnet 
ananda%bsu.decnet@msus1.bitnet    \ananda%bsu@msus1.bitnet   /  causes problems


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

Archive-Message-Number: 2607
Subject: Re: TML->GEnie and aesd.dnet.ge.com
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 91 18:54:10 PDT
From: Carl Fago <carlf@agora.rain.COM>

> The user whom I thought was having the TML delivered to GEnie was, in
> fact, not receiving the TML on GEnie.  So, I don't have any knowledge of
> a gateway now.  Someone want to suggest the next course of attack?
> 
> James

I posted an offer on GEnie last Wednesday.  The offer was to transmit the
TML on a periodic basis to either the message board or upload bundles to
the file library or even to send stuff on a personal email basis.

I have yet to have any response _at_all_.  It seems that if GDW or DGP wanted
to see what the average Traveller player was up to, they should get on the
TML and get away from GEnie altogether.  There just isn't much going on
over there.

I'll keep the TML posted as to the status of GEnie, but for now I think the
idea is dead due to lack of interest on the other end.

- - -- 
+---------------------------------------------+------------------------------+
| *-=Carl=-*  INTERNET - carlf@agora.rain.com | Time is nature's way to keep |
|             DELPHI - WULFGAR                | everything from happening    |
| Carl Fago   Portland, OR                    | all at once.    -anon.       |
+---------------------------------------------+------------------------------+


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

Archive-Message-Number: 2608
From: d9bertil@dtek.chalmers.se (Bertil Jonell)
Subject: Re: Erm, mistake?
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 91 12:19:56 MET DST

> From: Marc Alexandrovich Volovic <mav@cs.huji.ac.il>
> Subject: (2586) Erm, mistake?
> 
> Hello,
> 
> 	Bertil, I THINK (correct me, if anything) that your Vargr vehicle
> designs have a slight error - 
> 
> >VARGR THONGHSUDH ARTILLERY VEHICLE
> >  CraftID: Thonghsudh Artillery Vehicle, TL13, MCr 6.874
> >     Hull: 116/296, Disp=8, Config=1AF, Armor=40F, Unloaded=147tons, 
> >           Loaded=176tons
> 
> Unless I am gravely mistaken - Displacement of 8 gives 108kl hull which, in
> turn gives 108/15=7.2rounded=8 points to Inoperative. Why is the arty listed
> as having 116/296?

  Yes, but there has been two corrections to this. First the official in the
errata that states that all vehicle damage figures are to be multiplied by ten,
and then Rob Deans TDR Vehicle Design where inop damage is computed as
unloaded weight divided by 1.2 and destroyed damage by multiplying unloaded
weight by 1.7 (with reservations for my memory).
  
  The best (IMO) result of this is that extremely heavy vehicles like tanks
and SDBs get larger damage point totals due to their heavy armor.
  
- - -- 
"How about black and yellow striped with neon-green highlights?" - The PCs tries to camouflage their ship.

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

Archive-Message-Number: 2609
Date: 15 Jul 91 11:20:00 EST
From: "CMD ENS ERIC M. SERGIENKO" <s94sergienko@usuhsb.ucc.usuhs.nnmc.navy.mil>
Subject: Re: Merc division

In regards to the TO&E, it seems you've forgotten the medical
department :-)

Typically at the division level, there is a medical company as 
part of the HHB.  It provides medical support to the unit,
largely preventative medicine.  It is commanded by the division 
surgeon.

At the battalion level, the re is a medical platoon as part of 
the HHC.  It provides frontline care (i.e. battlefield medics and
the battalion aid station).  It consists of two medical officers
and about sixty corpsmen (generally).  The corpsmen are spread
between medics assigned to combat platoons, ambulances, and
treatment teams at the BAS.

ttfn,
eric sergienko


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

Archive-Message-Number: 2610
Date: 15 Jul 91 13:29:00 EST
From: "CMD ENS ERIC M. SERGIENKO" <s94sergienko@usuhsb.ucc.usuhs.nnmc.navy.mil>
Subject: Technopeasant

Following the discussion of James, Mark, Carl, etal. inre stale
technology, here's my sociological nanocent.

I don't doubt that technology will continue to grow at a geometric
rate.  However, as it does, the ability of the common man to 
understand every part of its intricacies will decrease.
There will be fewer people who know how the thing works,
and there'll be a widening gap between the technophile and
the technopeasna

the technopeasant.  Even those that are comfortable with 
one aspect of high tech (e.g. medicine) may only function 
marginally in another (e.g. computers).

This might lead to a couple of things:
1)The revolt of the technopeasants (the rising of the greens as in
  _Fallen Angels_)
2)A feudal technocracy were each high tech speciality has a degree 
  of control because of its specialized knowledge.

I could imagine a cyberpunk world as well, were tech is all icons.
I agree with Mark that by TL 15 we might not recognize ourselves.

ttfn,
eric


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

Archive-Message-Number: 2611
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 91 18:21:04 PDT
From: jimv@ucrmath.ucr.edu (jim vassilakos)
Subject: Traveller_Tales_1of5


Greetings all. I've been observing the TML from this shadowy
alcove for next to a year now and figured that it being summer,
this might be an opportune season to put forward the spoils of
imagination for those who are interested.

Being less the technical sort of personage yet more inclined to
dwell on subjects entirely without substance, I've turned all
idle attentions toward the fabrication of an alternate history
for my Traveller setting. Thus, with a Mischievous Huzzah & the
wagging of many a Vargr tail, that history in five glorious if
mundane chapters doth begin.

All comments, criticisms, and character assassinations are hereby
welcome. Enjoy.


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


                       Traveller Tales

        being an encapsulated history of future time

               Copyright 1991 Jim Vassilakos
                 (for whatever it's worth)

               A.D. 2004-2568  *  The Infancy

                         Part One


   2004-2007  The Glowing War
   2011-2034  Germ Wars
   2047-2080  The E-Grid
   2068-2088  Only One Earth
   2084-2102  The Farmers' Rebellions
   2107-2181  Corporate Science
   2162-2212  High Road to Peace
   2197-2243  A Human Question
   2212-2262  Conquest of the Solar System
   2251-2292  Children of the Apes



2004-2007  The Glowing War

The 3rd Millennium kicked off with a bang, when in its first
decade both Paris and New York fell victim to nuclear terrorism.
The blow to the western psyche was heartfelt, yet the fear the
terrorists hoped to illicit was replaced only by anger in the
wake of the destruction. A handful of nations were held
responsible for backing the terrorists, and repercussions were
both swift and certain. Through a combination of neutron and
bacteriological strikes, the so-called offending nations were
decimated and a virtual moratorium on nuclear weapons was called
for by the seven superpowers. A policy of "Cooperative
Guardianship" was ruthlessly enforced by the superpowers in order
to maintain the nuclear free world.


2011-2034  Germ Wars

The so-called peace following the Glowing War was short-lived.
For another two decades, as the ability to produce
bacteriological weapons became available to the developing
nations through numerous advances in medical science, a series of
"germ wars" plagued the earth. By the middle 30's, the death toll
was three billion people. The wars resulted in tremendous
biomedical advances in the more advanced nations, however the
third world nations rarely benefitted from new discoveries and
were the hardest hit. Although relatively minor outbreaks
occurred later in the century resulting in half a billion more
fatalities, the wars were said to officially end with the Treaty
of New Delhi in 2034 when India unveiled the Yama Bug, a class of
germs with theoretically no possible immunization or antidote.
Such a germ had already existed in the more developed nations for
several decades, but never before had its release been
threatened. The Prime Minister's statement, "If India dies, the
whole world dies," brought an abrupt halt to the self-inflicted
genocide.


2047-2080  The E-Grid

By 2047, the world's first fusion reactor with a positive net
power output was successfully tested in Tokyo. Although the news
came as an astonishment to the energy community, the media and
public reaction was one of disinterest. Several times before
nuclear fusion had been announced only later to be disproved.
Further, the advent of fusion had been anticipated for next to a
century, so that when it finally came about, people wondered only
that it had taken so long for science to accomplish. Without
going into the technical reasons for the delays, it can be stated
with some accuracy that it was only until the middle 40's that
the technological components for the nuclear fuser were at hand.
   Several nations began extending their national energy grids,
exporting inexpensive electricity to the third world by way of
power lines or energy capacitors. The boost in world productivity
was astounding, and with the energy crisis finally licked, the
major stresses inciting conflict between nations were for a time
relieved. In 2080, the national energy grids of the nine super
powers and twenty-seven other states joined together in an
"energy confederation" under the auspices of the United Nations.
The World E-Grid was born.


2068-2088  Only One Earth

In 2068, the nine superpowers joined in a treaty known as the
"Green Pact" which was to later evolve into the "Only One Earth"
restoration campaign. As the global-warming crisis continued
unabated, the world community cooperated in the implementation of
long-term solutions to the greenhousing of the earth's atmosphere
and the environmentally sound disintegration or holding of toxic
substances. Although initially greeted with mixed support, the
efforts of this campaign were finally joined by the remaining
nations in 2088, instituting policies of renewal over the entire
planet.


2084-2102  The Farmers' Rebellions

In the years before the establishment of the world e-grid,
particularly during the middle stages of the Only One Earth
Campaign, the emerging energy-confederation began reclaiming
large areas of infertile land traditionally used for small-scale
subsistence farming. In so doing, the land was once again made
fertile for collective farming, however, hundreds of millions of
small-time farmers were displaced. This sudden shift in the
social order created a people entirely dispossessed, and in the
resulting chaos, a number of rebellions broke out beginning in
2084 and continued sporadically for eighteen years until the
Nolanders' rebellion was ruthlessly crushed in 2102.


2107-2181  Corporate Science

Throughout the 21st century, the vast majority of critical
research in the sciences was conducted with government funds, yet
beginning in 2107, corporations took the lead role in developing
emerging technologies. In 2107, Femm Biolabs in the United
Kingdom engineered a new species of algae which not only helped
reverse global warming during the 22nd century's period of
increased thermal-energy pollution, but also technologically
paved the way for sea farming. In 2122, cryogenic suspension was
refined to the point where long-term "freezing" became both
feasible and relatively safe. In the early 40's, several
breakthroughs in synaptic-electric links made artificial
prothesis of both limbs and major organs more feasible, and by
the middle 50's, the human mind could be connected directly to
computers for the transmission or retrieval of data. The 60's saw
the advent of limb and organ regeneration, and by the 70's
startling progress had been made on total body rejuvenation,
enabling individuals to live up to 200 years. Yet it was in 2181
that the corporate science achieved its crowning glory: the
development of gravitic technology. Though it wasn't for another
three centuries that the science behind the phenomenon was
understood, this step opened an entirely new field of technology,
revolutionizing the global transportation industry almost
overnight.


2162-2212  High Road to Peace

Despite all the progress made toward a unified social structure,
tensions began again to sweep the seeds of discord. Disputes over
territorial rights, population control, reparation for past
injustices, patent infringements, and a whole host of other
issues divided the varying and often fluid factions as though by
an iron wedge. It is thus significant that the United Nations
took the lead in renewing cooperative ties between the world's
many states, inciting perhaps the most unifying gesture of the
first quarter of the millennium. In 2162, the U.N. approved its
first fifty-year plan for space exploration and colonization.
Though this action may seem today more an attempt to divert the
world's attention from the "real issues", the joint venture did a
great deal to quell nationalistic aggression and instill a
feeling of "world community" among divergent peoples. By 2178
both Martian and Lunar colonies had been established, and by
2210, numerous colonies existed in the Jovian and Saturn systems
and in the asteroid belt.


2197-2243  A Human Question

By the late 22nd century, the cyborgization of the human species
was well underway. Since the 50's, numerous machines had been
designed to do nothing other than link with the human nervous
system and provide artificial sensations. These "psychedelic
sensitizers" or "sex machines" as they were sometimes called were
by the close of the century responsible for as many as a million
fatalities worldwide. To compound the problem, the public seemed
oblivious to the mounting death toll. This "crisis" prompted the
United Nations to create a Council on Human Affairs, and for the
first time in its existence, the U.N. began dictating a universal
morality from its high pulpit.
   For the most part, this infringement on private enterprise
came as a shock to the business sector which began moving its
more questionable operations off-planet where the Council would
not have legislative jurisdiction. However, as the 23rd century
dawned it became apparent the U.N. would have more on its hands
than mere sensitizers.
   In 2231, unprecedented breakthroughs in biogenetics allowed
the precise description of an unborn child's future traits, and
by the end of the decade, the IHM Corporation began marketing its
"First Step" program to prospective parents. First Step was
basically a euphemism for the "service" of altering the genetic
material of an unborn fetus in an attempt to create "perfect"
human beings. As the U.N. began wrestling with the ethics thereby
involved, geneticists began work on altering the human DNA to
even greater extremes. In the majority of cases, the geneticists
delivered on their promises, producing evermore intelligent,
physically powerful, and dexterous humans, however in a certain
number of cases mistakes were made, and artificial mutants were
born. Although many of these "accidents" were promptly disposed
of, not all could be hidden so easily. Finally, in 2243, the U.N.
passed a comprehensive ban of genetic engineering on human DNA.
By this time, however, several million super-children had already
been born, and although this figure represented only a small
fraction of earth's thirty billion inhabitants, the threat of
superbeings pounded a serious impact on the social psyche.


2212-2262  Conquest of the Solar System

With the successful completion of the 1st fifty year plan,
industry began to get heavily involved in space interests,
particularly in asteroid mining and shuttle services. Thus, when
it came time to draw the 2nd fifty-year plan in 2212, the U.N.
conferred heavily with business leaders to form an opinion on
what was possible and what was financially feasible. At the 2212
conference, the Aster Corporation unveiled its prospects for the
construction the Von Neumann Robotic Miner. Once complete, the
spacecraft would be capable of self-replication, it's sole
purpose to find mineral deposits among the asteroids, mine them,
and reproduce itself. By 2220, the first VNRM set sail for the
belt, and within four decades, hundreds of the miners existed,
plying the asteroids for minerals which manned vessels could
later find neatly deposited with a homing beacon and refine in
the deep of space.
   Planetary population stress, however, proved to become an even
more serious issue than the plundering of the belt. Despite the
numerous microworlds and planetary settlements created during the
first fifty-year plan, the Terran population pressures were more
evident than ever, and by 2212 every nation on the globe
practiced some variety of population control. It was therefore
critical that some form of large-scale terraforming be undertaken
by the world community. Again, the corporations came to the
rescue with a number of exotic ideas involving the biological
terraformation of Mars, Venus, and Titan. Forming into a
cooperative combine latter to be known as the Solar Planetary
Trust Corporation, these companies demanded exorbitant property
rights on the planets to be terraformed, rights which bordered on
the creation of sovereign states beyond the United Nations'
traditional jurisdiction. With the world community's grudging
acquiescence in 2217, the long process toward terraformation was
begun.


2251-2292  Children of the Apes

With the road to human genetic development legally cut short in
2243, many "human engineers" found themselves squeezed out of the
private sector. One such scientist, Dr. Ukliv Eski, returned to
the academia where he founded the Department of Hominid Studies
at the University of Kampala. There, his research team raised
several generations of chimpanzees, the genetic structure of
which he successively modified toward humanity's own. By 2289,
his chimps gained international notoriety on a holovideo talk
show where on several occasions they argued the "world issues"
with political leaders, the implicit parody of the situation
flustering their opponents and creating a media circus. Although
never progressing beyond a grade school intelligence, the chimps
ingratiated themselves into their hearts of the common people.
However, in a biological mishap at the University in 2292, the
chimps and their trainers, including Dr. Eski, were killed. Later
that year, the U.N. extended its 2243 prohibition on the genetic
manipulation of human DNA to cover the DNA of all hominid
species.


           _   /|
           \`o_O'
             ( )     <---  jimv@ucrmath.ucr.edu
              U            ucsd!ucrmath!jimv (uucp)
          Aachk!
        Phft! Ftp!



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

Archive-Message-Number: 2612
Date:         Mon, 15 Jul 91 21:11:49 CDT
From: Brian Larkin <UC559687@UMCVMB.missouri.edu>
Subject:      Hardpoints



What is the rule regarding hardpoints on small craft/spaceships?
I know it says that you are only allowed one per 100 tons of craft
volume, but that seems awfully small for me.  Anybody modified this
in their own games?????

Also what is space-worthiness of small vehicles.  The reason I ask
is I was trying to implement some small vehicles to be used to transport
marines (translation: pirates) to a smaller ship for boarding.  The ships
would also be used for additional fire support during boarding actions.

The reason I ask is that I was under the impression that there is some
penalty for ships that do not have standard Manuever drives.  Since
20 tons is the smallest available hull tonnage to have a manuever drive
ships with M-Drives is not an option....

If anybody could help me out and explain this stuff to me please do..

- - -- Toucan

   User Consultant
   University of Missouri -- Columbia
   uc559687@umcvmb.missouri.edu
           @UMCVMB.BITNET

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

Archive-Message-Number: 2613
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 91 13:48:22 BST
From: Jo Jaquinta <jaymin@maths.tcd.ie>
Subject: Library Data Program

	I've had quite a few requests for the library data program. I've
made some changes as well. And stuck in on the local mail server.
Note this program is not complete and ready for general distribution.
I am just looking at this stage for beta-testers.
	You can find it in the jaymin/trav directory. Either
		jaymin/trav/libdist.zip
	or
		jaymin/trav/library.exe
		jaymin/trav/library.doc
		jaymin/trav/core.asc
		jaymin/trav/egavga.bgi
	You can get help on the mail server by sending the one line
		HELP
	as the text of your message to info-server@maths.tcd.ie

	Thanks.
				Jo Jaquinta
				jaymin@maths.tcd.ie

PS: Who is our closet Costykian freak? First Bunnies and Burrows, Then
Arabian Nights. What next Swords and Sorcery? :-)

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

End of TML Bundle
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