Afloat in a Starry Sea

I don't know about anyone else but now just like when I was young I look up at the night sky with awe.  Out there just beyond my grasp is an entire universe of *stuff*.  By stuff I mean more stars, more planets, more of everything we have here.

In our own solar system we have for the purposes of our species at present an infinite amount of material for construction and fuel and living space.  And yet still more exists in our local neighborhood however that may be defined by cosmologists.  And farther out EVEN MORE.  And yet here we sit...floating in this starry sea of stuff acting as if scarcity is an actual thing rather than a self-imposed limit.

The United States alone could go to the moon and start a colony there if it so desired.  As a nation it could do this within five years.  The EU and China could also engage in such an activity.  So why would they not do it you ask?  Risk aversion, political power, general ineptitude and lack of foresight.

What does the Moon have?

Helium 3 - This is important for nuclear fusion and even charged particle drives (ion drives) and likely other applications we haven't even considered yet.

A Dark Side:  Useful for deep solar system and space obervatories and automated interferometric sensor equipment and for communications beyond line of sight in the solar system.

A Light Side:  Solar power, habitation areas dug into the lunar regolith.

How can we do these things?
We already have the patents and engineering designs for habitation modules and subselene nuclear powered tunnel boring machines that melt their way through the lunar rock using liquid lithium pipes and automated muck removal systems.  That by the way was worked out in the 1980's.  Today's machines would be more efficient by a large degree.

So what use would the moon be other than for fusion/ion fuel?

A low gravity staging point for exploration and exploitation of the solar system and its resources.  It is the natural jumping-off point for a Mars expedition and colony.  It is a ready-made observatory and it doesn't really have an environment to despoil aside from the portions that we want to inhabit or view from Earth.

Can we do it?
Yes
Should we do it?
Yes
Is it worth the cost?/
Yes
Why haven't we done it?
Distractions intentional and otherwise to keep people under the thumbs of terrestrial powers.
Biological adaptations are necessary for living life away from our home.  Low gravity causes calcium to leech out of our bones, the lack of tidal pull may effect our reproductive cycles and there are many other effects that come from having evolved on this planet.

A better human:

A better human will most-likely be thought of as trans-human or post-human.  This theoretical person would have a great deal of artificial genetic manipulation for his/her cardio-vascular, musculo-skeletal and nervous systems.  His/Her entire system will be adaptable to environments other than Earth.  I don't mean that future humans will breathe methane...but that their bones won't crumble in micro-gravity nor will hormone production be disrupted and they would likely have a higher tolerance to radiation dosing.

Humans optimized for space travel would also likely be hairless completely and have vision capabilities at least at 20/20 if not better and be able to see and process colors in the infra-red and ultra-violet.  Their cognitive abilities would be enhanced to require less sleep and irregularities of schedule would become less of a problem.  We have drugs like modafinil, caffeine, and nicotine that already have this effect on our minds and bodies.  Why not hard-wire these effects into features?  Also likely would be enough manipulation that no human past a certain point would age past their mid 30's and never get cancer except from outside sources.  All genetic faults would be corrected or removed.

It could take generations of therapies for this to happen, but it would first happen to humans off Earth.  The benefits would be realized on Earth on an industrial scale.  Sickness and frailty...gone.  We're not talking of a master race or picking a child's sex, hair or eye color...this is about eliminating blindness, deafness, down syndrome, ALS, chromosomal defects that hold back the entire species!

The path to the starry sea is a long, broad and windy path with many other paths feeding into it.

A greater understanding:

Right now all that we conceive of is from the Big Bang onward.  Yet tantalizing evidence exists for something beyond our realm.  Some celestial phenomena from quasars to even the cosmic background radiation maps suggest energy is leaking INTO our universe from some outside medium.  Additionally physicists think that our universe is flat and gravity curves or distorts this relatively 2-D space.  We also know that the universe is still expanding and the rate of expansion is increasing.  What is speculative is the continued duration of that expansion and rate of increase.  What is also speculative is what exactly the universe is expanding into as a medium.

It would seem to me that we are as a small boat floating atop a dark sea of some unknown form of energy or some sort of Hyper/Hypo Space.  This might also indicate the possibility of a multi-verse...a sea filled with islands of expanding and contracting 'Verses'.  The apparent energy exchange could be evidence of this in the same way that small ripples in a pond or glass of water are evidence of the edge or shoreline or some reflective boundary.  It is evidence and we need more of it to come to any conclusion as to the actual implications which are likely far more profound than what we can imagine today.

Movie Review: Side Effects

Side Effects (2013) Dir: S. Soderberg

Synopsis:

The protagonist is a psychiatrist who gets a patient who has attempted suicide.  She later has a parasomnia episode where she stabs her husband to death and goes back to sleep.

It turns out that this is a giant scam.

She killed her husband while "doped" up on a new to market drug.

Well actually she just straight up murdered him and skated on the charges by faking the symptoms really well and actually taking this drug but not previous ones described.  The psychiatrist continues probing after however and he figures it all out.

She conspired with her previous psychiatrist to murder her husband and tank the stocks of a firm and cause its main competitor to rise.  He plays both of them...gets the other in jail and his patient permanently confined in a mental hospital.

My take:

Decent story and the pacing is a bit off but that disjointedness actually helps bring the psychosis of the people in the movie out to the audience.  At the end of the movie no one comes out clean and the protagonist, though left in a better place can be looked at with a bit of a suspicious eye.  He didn't get justice...he got even.  This movie was about vengeance and in the end it deilvered int he most chilling fashion possible.

Of course the real world implications for how we view and treat mental patients is also chilling.  Once you are put through that system how easy would it be for a corrupt official or doctor to abuse you?  Easy.  The film achieves a very subtle but deep level of horror if the viewer cares to give more than a moments pause.  The pacing of the movie also helps to get the viewer to think about each phase.

All in all... grade A-

The downside of the movie?  A few plot holes that could have been sewn up with better writers who care about the subject material.   Thanks to great acting and a solid piece of directions and good production...the movie hits on all fronts and might leave most people stunned and wondering...WTF did I just see?

The Next Mass Effect - Locations I'd like to visit

Well in each Mass Effect we get to visit some different places and also some recurrences take place.

Noveria: ME, ME2, ME3 as an example.  In the first mass effect however we get the most expansive look at what is on Noveria and it otherwise gets short shrift in the other series editions.

Earth: barely visited save the final battle in Mass Effect 3, but present for missions/resource gathering in each other series.

The Citadel:  Of course the citadel - good ole base of operations.  Should be interesting to see whats happened with it since ME3...has it stayed in Earth orbit or moved back to the Widow Nebula?

Those were old places...but for new locations?

Irune:  The Volus homeworld is a high pressure ammonia based world and would be an interesting place for the next series to have some encounters.  develop the culture of the volus more and maybe a good wya to get a volus team mate.

Ilos:  Going back to Ilos...perhaps humans have started to colonize this former prothean world as well.  More missions, more npcs....more exploration fun to be had.

Kahje:  The Hanar homeworld and adopted world of some of the Drell...the rest of the Drell according to lore are still at war over the limited resources on their real home world.  Would be an interesting conflict driver and fun times to be had fighting in aquatic environments and exploring drell/hanar social conventions.

Thessia:  We only get the barest glimpse of it during the Reaper War...going back would be great (maybe Liara is there!)

Turvess: The as yet unseen Raloi homeworld.  having an Raloi (avian spiecies) as a team mate and exploring their culture would be exciting as well.

Taking a tour of the council races home worlds to review the rebuilding after the Reaper war would be a good way to explore for resources/knowledge and to bring new players up to date on the universe they are in.  So Thessia/Palaven/Sur'Kesh and ostensibly Earth.

Perhaps the Batarians have resettled on Earth or have new colonies out in the Attican Traverse.

Checking in on the Elkoss would also be interesting...perhaps being human you have to wear special life support armor with enhanced mass effect fields on their homeworld.

Valhallan Threshold and Perseus Veil of course for more Geth/Quarian (if either or both survived).

Depending on the ending you chose the galaxy could be in vastly different states:

Destruction: No Geth, no EDI, and still massive rebuilding to be done
Control:  Could have Geth and EDI rebuilding would be majorly done but society would be largely unchanged and static due to Shepard's influence and protection.
Synthesis:  Geth, EDI, everyone is better smarter, stronger.  The Reapers don't just build and protect...they help innovate and become a civilization unto themselves helping their former creators (Leviathans) rebuild and repopulate after being hunted for millions of years.  This 'ultimate' ending would have everything rebuilt...and indeed expanded.

How to build the synthesis ending into a new mass effect without being unbalanced vs the other choices?  Maybe it should be unbalanced.  Access to technologies at a higher level...say starting at level 2 instead of 1 with your ship having at least one upgrade...maybe more fuel for travel or something like that.  Of course all of the models for the environment and people will have to have those green lil circuits running through/over them.  So that is an additional graphical detail.

Technology is now organic in the galaxy and there is no such thing as synthetic.  All are one and there should be references to that...people in close proximity being able to voluntarily share data without omnitools and geth/EDI like people able to use biotics now...reapers able to use biotics.  Imagine Harbinger as your team mate?

Maybe you fly around now in a Reaper dreadnought :-P  Or maybe we focus on how the reapers are being held for reparations for the war.  Many many plots could happen.  The main driver will have to be something bigger than the reapers.  Perhaps they will return to develop the theme of Dark Energy now that more time has passed.  We can revisit Haestrom and explore other locations including Tuchanka and where ever else to uncover at least a piece of the problem.

In other endings it would be just as easy to explore the dark energy plot...but with reduced knowledge making the challenge much harder across future games using imported saves.  Control and Synthesis would have similar likes while destruction would sort of leave the organic races 'holding the bag' so to speak/write/whatever.

Re-Watching ST:NG - Relic

I have always had an appreciation for Star Trek and the idea of humanity expanding into the stars and of course the ever changing environment of science as they plumb the depths of space.

Relic (SE6,E04) starts off with the Enterprise finding a Dyson Sphere with a crashed ship (The Jenolen) still on it and remarkably Captain Scott is found alive in a continuous cycle in the transporter.  And right here...at the beginning is where it jumps the shark...so to speak..erm write.

The episode becomes more about a man out of time than this fantastic...life changing find of an actual Dyson Sphere that as it is stated...can still support life with a class M environment on the inner hull area.  Captain Scott's drama while compelling is more of a B-story than an A-story.

Writers today may indeed have the enterprise encounter the race who built the damned thing...rather than no explanation of why they are not present.  Have they built other Dyson Spheres?  There is so much more environmentally that could have been done...in-fact the Federation should have made an effort to colonize the sphere.  Understanding and exploring this place would have advanced them hundreds of years in only a decade.

One of the initial shots as they enter the sphere shows a massive city on a peninsula.  Hello Mega City One.  This sphere is ready to colonize considering the amount of greenery and water present.  The state of the environment inside at least superficially appears to be decent despite the supposed radiation bursts from the star.

Presumably solar flare activity is anticipated as part of a natural process of a main sequence class G star.  Picard's observation that these flares must have driven the inhabitants away ignores many things.  They BUILT A PHYSICAL STRUCTURE AROUND A STAR (or they built the structure and then ignited a star once it was built...).  The sphere's structure is composed of neutronium.  This sci-fi material is some sort of ultra-dense metal likely formed by the pressures equivalent to a collapsed white-dwarf star.  It would be nearly impervious to destruction short of a truly massive matter-antimatter reaction or a singularity/singularity weapon.  Even large mass driver type weapons would likely only leave superficial marks.

Though two science vessels are dispatched to study the sphere we never in all of the lore since ever hear about this place again.  If I were Picard I would have wanted to stick around and help study it.  The importance of this find in xeno-archaeology would be beyond comprehension.

The idea that solar flares would present any kind of danger to a society that can build something like this is laughable.   The fact that they can ignite a star inside a structure means they must have advanced radiation and force shielding counter measures.  And the fact that they can engineer a star means that likely they could exert control over the star beyond simply turning it on.  Given the level of control over gravity they would need...it is likely they could snuff out a star using the systems in the Sphere.

bah!

Why Enterprise Was Not Optimal

Enterprise, the heretofore last Star Trek TV series to be produced, was not handled well by those who managed the IP and the writers mangled what Star Trek is about, messed with cannon history and timelines and essentially were out of focus. 1) Cast: Nothing terrible here, but not as much focus on relationships between crew members. There was external development with characters and their families and some mild romantic overtures, but little in the way of developing camaraderie. 2) Plot: Temporal cold war and the suliban/other stupid aliens. The writers should have concentrated on the Earth-Romulan War since the 1st season started. Time travel stuff can wait and should be novel rather than central. 3) Location: Concentrate on the nearby beta-quandrant border with Romulans and Klingons. Play up tensions with Klingons as well but not too much, they should be peripheral and be seen as a nebulous force that will at times help or hinder starfleet's goals, possibly engaging in tech transfer of photon torpedos and matter disruptors and energy shielding. Play off as foil to Vulcans: Their equal and opposite but less knowable even though they have more emotional connections with humans. The reality is that they could have made the series about exploring a core part of the Star Trek Universe and shown more about the United Federation of Planets forming at the end of the ERW. The Enterprise would have still been prominent and the producers could have connected the crew to events in a bigger way rather than inventing new threats and inserting them into the continuity. And we wouldn't have needed the final episode flashback stuff.

Rage Guy

There once was a nice guy from CT. He was slandered, and betrayed twice. Then he drank a cup of rage and felt better.

amen

To Create a World

So I have taken the task upon myself to create a steampunk world for Dungeons and Dragons. Well...sort of. I went to the library and I checked out a couple fantasy novels and I realized that I'd had enough of the high fantasy realm for playing in...been at it since high school. I think we've slaughtered enough orcs to be their equivalent of Hitler.

So I browsed for some other stuff in the fiction area and ran across a series of novels by Jay Lake. His world of the "Clockwork Earth" is a very well illustrated and fleshed out place across the 3 extant novels. "Mainspring", "Escapement" and "Pinion".

I thoroughly enjoyed reading these novels for how they explore the world the characters live in. The characters are like any motley group of people thrown together by destiny that barely hold on to their lives as everything spins out of control...but they are exciting to see how they manage events within the scope of their attitudes.

So I have decided to use this world in some private games to try and do something different. Combat is more lethal and altogether certain, magic barely exists at all and those that have knowledge of any of it guard it more carefully than their own lives. Mechanical means trump everything, gun powder is king and the British Empire rules all in the west.

the world itself is divided at it's center by a great wall in which the clockwork gears track the earth along its great brass orbital ring. The earth is literally clockwork...but was it always so? Well there are a great deal of mysteries to unravel and I have decided to modify the classes one sees as standard in DnD so that they fit better with the world.

Paladins are a prestige class now and most belong to the Church of England and have been or are still cleric/priests in some way. They possess no magic, but are tougher and have a different skill set. They are one of the few classes still likely to have a sword even if it is just a badge of office.

Soldiers now instead of fighters and they now have the ability to choose either officer or enlisted. Officers get more starting gold and enlisted get an additional profession to choose as a bonus.

Rangers are similar to what they were, but they get more bonuses to skill use and to use of firearms such as rifles and dual wielding pistols...to keep some of that flavor.

However unlike most DnD games that use firearms their damage in my games will be far and above melee/bow and arrow or x-bows. There is no armor in 1910 that can protect the person from a well placed bullet, so damage is much higher. For example a 6 shot revolver with a .38 cal would do something like 4d8 damage and critical hit probably x10.

Characters will have to be smarter and not simply reply on hack and slash. As the DM I will have to create scenarios that CAN result in combat but it isn't forced. The players will have a greater chance to use skills and build a world they want to experience.

Will they travel to "The Wall" and meet the monsters said to inhabit The Wall? Who knows. however I have decided to set their starting location as a town we grew up in in New England. A few visits to the town library's archive should get me some copies of photos from that era and I can extrapolate from that what would be different under British rules.

- more posts forthcoming.

Starcraft II Wings of Liberty

Well I've had the game for nearly a year now and I have had great fun playing through the campaign and now in multi-player I avoid the leagues and ladders becuase I have found the ultimate mod... Desert Strike by Squarely.

I have a good team together for it when we go play and we have our strategies down pat so that we nearly never lose in a team match. Even spoiled a person's record of 100 wins and no losses.

The secret to winning as a team is communication and voice comms definitely help with that, and it really doesn't matter if it is skype, teamspeak, ventrilo or really even the in-game voice comms that are provided for a party.

It would be interesting to see one of those companies attempt to take down the big telco's by offering their own phone hardware that can plug into your computer. Your IP then becomes your phone number and its free calling anywhere in the world as your phone will be a mini-server that people simply connect to..and page you for a ring and can wait in your lobby instead of redialing all fuggin day...wait I should develop this...*cough* don't notice what I am saying ATT.COMCAST.CableVision.et.al.

brb...need to write a proposal.

The National Debt Crisis (or lack thereof)

Let me start by displaying the frame of the arguments presented in the wider media.

1) The US will default if it does not continue borrowing on aug 2, 2011
2) If we don't borrow MORE money our credit rating will go down
3) We need to borrow money to pay our creditors
4) People who want to cut spending are radicals/regressives who want to kill old people and the poor

You hear it every time you turn on the news "Will the US default?" "What will happen to YOUR 401K?" and so on and so forth. So here I will give an accurate explanation of two ways this can go.

Scenario 1) We borrow more money:

Upon borrowing more money and INCREASING the deficit and national debt; we have not addressed the fundamental issues but we have camouflaged the sucking wound that is the escalating debt. MAYBE our credit rating has statyed up...but maybe not since we haven't actually addressed the debt. Spending continues and it gorws even more out of control and more intertwined with our system eventually leading to a near collapse only avoided by hugely spiking interest rates and inflating our money until it is valueless as we purchase back the debt with zimbabwe-like currency.

Scenario 2) We cut spending immediately:

The budget automatically balances and we are back to 2002 levels of spending necessarily repealing Obama-care and a lot of budget increases over the years. The recession deepens for a short period, but we continue making payments on the debt even paying some of the principle back so our rating stays high. We slowly bring interest rates up to soak up the extra dollars and strengthen US currency in relation to others abroad.

oil prices begin to drop and the recession lifts as we live within our means with a government that is considerably smaller but no less effective. Many public sector workers are now private sector workers which results in a net gain in treasury receipts without the sucking on the govt teat for paychecks. Businesses cease fearing more govt intervention and begin to invest and innovate. Wages rise and jobs are created.

Then people forget and do more stupid borrowing

I give up and my head asplodes.

Is Obama Throwing the Fight?

Afghanistan: The Good War (TGW henceforth) as we have been told since Obama even thought of running for President is becoming tougher and tougher for the United States to fight day by day.

So the President says that he needs to weigh all his options on fighting this war that he supports. Erm...ok go for it. So he has two main options: Add more troops, or don't.

If he doesn't add more troops then he has to change the entire strategy of how this is being fought. That means more aggressive rules of engagement, constant assaults across national borders into Pakistani territory and likely other bordering nations, confronting Iran more actively and actually fighting this like a war rather than a police action.

Gen. McChrystal thinks that adding 40K more troops will help. And even that isn't a sure thing because we have to depend on a corrupt national government, half-trained Afghani soldiers and fight against local warlords whose money flows from the opium trade...which makes heroin that is consumed mainly in the USA and Western Europe. Our own decadence is biting us in the ass in real time.

President Obama may or may not be thoughtfully engaging in the process of reviewing the strategy or formulating a new one ( I hope he is), but he is failing to lead/govern in the meantime as he is quite close-lipped on what exactly he is thinking. This may have flown back in the days before cable TV, the internet and satellites; but he needs to be engaged more in his own press conferences and make his intent clear.

Does he intend to prosecute this war to SOME victorious condition? Or is he looking to disengage like we did in Vietnam, or as the Russians did two decades ago?

In my opinion he isn't sure. I think he really wants to push his domestic agenda (as observed here http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/02/curl-obama-distractions-sideline-afghan-plan/


And some think that he might be willing to let soldiers die to push healthcare. That is a rather callous observation and would make him quite evil. I don't think he is evil.

And assuming his press secretary is truthful...

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that walking away isn't a viable option to deal with a war that is about to enter its ninth year.

"I don't think we have the option to leave. That's quite clear," Gibbs said.


Well ok then, but that doesn't answer the real question. The question is now are we going to stay and lose or stay and win?

McChrystal is being rather shortsighted in being so public about his views and bordering on insubordination. Yes he knows better than the President on how to prosecute a war, but the President is his CnC and a general ought not pick a fight against his boss who can up and fire him for such comments as he has been making no matter his intentions. McChrystal has foot-in-mouth disease...and his mouth is writing checks that his body certainly can't cash. So far the President being merely irked is a bad sign to me...showing that he isn't really serious.

If I were the President I would 1) be in more consistent communication either through the Pentagon or directly with McChrystal so he doesn't feel hung out to dry.

2) Have a press conference specifically on Afghanistan
3) Announce that we are closing down our base in Germany to re-open it in Afghanistan and move all troops there.
4) Annihilate the bad guys with extreme prejudice.

Part 2: Homunculi Come of Age

At some undetermined point in the future the first industries will either give birth or way to larger heavy industries. I shall call the 5 major super-conglomerates by some nice names:

1) WASP Industries
2) Haelstrom Medical
3) Hyperion Logistics LLC
4) Blunt Force Trauma LLP
5) TTFN Insurance Co.

WASP industries will in my world dominate, though not entirely corner the market on heavy mineral extraction, exploration and prospecting. In addition WASP industries will process many of the 0 gravity manufactured specialty chemicals and build the large shipyards.

Haelstrom Medical will be a division of a large terran bound pharmaceutical company. Tailored 0-gravity medicines, gene therapy drugs, and artificial conception technologies will first be tailored here and marketed .

Hyperion Logistics will be like the UPS of space but also deliver hazardous materials and transport bulk mineral shipments to planetary trans-shipment points for processing on the surface. In addition they will formthe back bone of a merchant marine for the solar system.

Blunt Force Trauma LLC are Private Space Security "Advisors"

TTFN will make sure eveyones' lives in space are insured as well as property.

Creating the Telescopic Humonculi of Ur

In order to create the THoU we must first examine what we need for a successful plan to enter and stay in the realm of our solar system.

So let us make several rules:

1) No need for faster than light travel for thousands of years
2) Even thinking about warp drive will get you executed by the laws of thermo dynamics and conservation
3) Stven Hawking is dead and not even Michu Kaku can figure out how to create a gravity drive

Ok so I've dashed all of the turbo nerd hopes for interstellar flight leaving us constrained to this solar system for the time being.

Phase 1:
Entry Level Space Travel - Creating a market and building infrastructure.
Step 1: The Market:
a: The Market currently only allows for the very wealthy person to enjoy a few moments of weightlessness, or billion dollar companies paying to shoot off some satellites.
b: The Market is a virtual Oligopoly where a few satellite and rocket manufacturers have the majority of industrial, commercial and government contracts.
c: The Market is expanding, though slowly, due to lack of significant regulatory barriers and the new wealth of internet entrepreneurs and high tech specialists and private incentives such as the Ansari X-Prize.

Step 2: The Old Guard
a: NASA pioneered space flight and high altitude/high speed flight in the United States and rocketry in general. NASA has a great deal of territory that as an organization it might feel inclined to protect.
b: The gub'mint will want its piece of the pie and a slew of new taxes will undoubtedly be levvied in the name of protecting consumers or some other such nonsense.
c: NASA will continue to do a great deal of public work and expand our scientific horizons for some time to come and is an important partner in the future of space exploration.

Step 3: The New Guard
a: Blue Origin started by Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon.com) has begun adopting an approach towards implementing improved cargo carrying in resuable launch vehicles.
b: Virgin Galactic has licensed the design of the next generation of personnel carriers designed by Scaled Composites (winners of the Ansari X-Prize).

The two firms have begun planning their launch sites and business will boom. Outer Space has unlimited potential for wealth. The risk is high, but not unmangeable. One day in the near future the average man will not think it too odd that he could take at least a short hop in to orbit and back for a vacation trip. Several generations down the road we may see the first tourist hotels in orbit. One man has begun testing of his inflatable space station modules, and a scalemodel was successfully deployed. The first stations may indeed be balloons. Reach for the heavens and you just may touch the skies...more to come

new space blog

Here I shall post everyting I think about space...fiction and fact