synthozoic

I'm guessing that it was more than 10 Gs that was acting on your character? There must have been higher lateral forces or something right?

I mean, yes, if you weren't strapped in and weren't expecting it, 10 g would be mean broken bones and probably death but, under the right circumstances, a person can sustain more and live to tell about it. I mean John Stapp survived a peak of 47 g with a full 1.1 seconds at slightly more than 25 g--he lived to 89 but did have damage to his vision from this test. (Scary!)

But I don't want to derail the thread into human tolerances of acceleration.

Actually it's worse than that because to move a can from orbit is easy with telepresence and robots. Just like we move stuff around on Mars with robots and sent instructions.

No, the real problem with Feynman's vision is to build the robots themselves that do the moving of atoms for us.

If Richard Smalley (Discoverer of the carbon buckyball, brilliant chemist and now sadly dead.) is to be believed there may be fundamental limits on how we can move the atoms around. Chemical mechanosynthesis may be impossible.

But we'll see.

Well, I was oversimplifying earlier, I'll admit. In chemistry these days there are new ways to synthesize things at that scale. We are now using the methods of directed chemical evolution, chemical self-assembly and others novel processes of synthesis more frequently than we did 30 or so years ago. But none of this is like the mechanosythesis I mentioned above.

Mechanosythesis is the difference between Feynman and Drexler's idea and what we call nanotechnology today.

And now that I've totally derailed the thread. Someone ought to post some new links to kewl science stuff, which I love to read!

Well I guess I derailed the thread but yes, what people mean by nanotechnology now as opposed to what Drexler meant in 1986 or Feynman in 1959, is worlds different.

What people mean by nanotechnology now is just steady refinement of materials science and therefore kinda dull to me. I mean it might let us do some neat stuff but it really is all just chemistry as we've always done it. Feyman's atom stackers are much more interesting to me.

It may be impossible to realize Feynman's "Plenty of Room at the Bottom" vision; I don't know. I'm certainly not a chemist, materials scientist or any kind of expert, but from what I've read, I think physics allows for it. We just haven't figured out the engineering details yet. It's like when Robert Goddard was a child, the physics of rocketry were understood in theory but it took people like him to work out the details.

I guess we'll see.

Well considering that we aren't anywhere near what Feynman and Drexler had in mind for nanotechnology this is a pretty good question to ask. I'll wait until the self-replicating microscopic robots and atom stackers show up.

Right now, since I'm an old geezer, the only technology I'm waiting with bated breath on is longevity research and ways to cure or reverse aging. I figure if they can lick that before I croak, I may live to see all the rest.

Mostly I don't. Out of the 40 or so characters I've built, I have one rich guy: Ornithopter Prime.

Even then, he lost his fortune due to acts of theft, sabotage and industrial espionage that destroyed his corporation. All he has left is the engineering knowledge in his head and his wing vest contraption--oh, and a couple of expensive three piece suits. He's a poor man's Tony Stark. But really he's more like Hawkeye with wings.

This really hasn't occurred to me to try yet. I think it's mostly because I stay away from characters of magical origin.

And the few that I do have of magical origin are elementals, ghosts, undead, magicians or other supernatural creatures, not gods. I think this is because I'm afraid of getting some mythology wrong in my portrayal and background stories. And, as yet, my creativity hasn't taken me there; I'm not interested in making up new religious mythology and gods.

I'm more a science fiction fan, not so much a high fantasy one.

Again, I mostly don't.

Out of 40 or toons, I have one demon, a villian, the Infernal Legionary. He's not really a psychological, mess with your head and lead you into temptation type of demon. When temptation and subtly fail, the Kings of Hell resort to force. The Infernal Legions are that force. He's just a nameless demonic soldier that fights, dies and is reincorporated over and over and over again through the centuries. He just fights and fights and fights. It's all he knows or understands.

I really haven't developed his background that much and aside from him, I have no other demons.

I think this mostly because if I'm interested in mythology, I'm not really that interested in European, Western mythology. I'd rather do mythological creatures based around non-Western mythology.

===

Now, if you were to ask me why I play so many aliens and robots, then we'd be getting somewhere.

As I recall, Niven wrote that episode of the animated Trek series. Saw it as a kid in grade school and then, years later, thought Niven was rather lazy to just adapt his great short story, "Soft Weapon" for Trek. He could have written something original, tsk.

Anyway, I don't consider that canon either.

Well, the way I imagine my alien critters, they may not even have vocal cords, let alone human sounding ones. If the game let us create nonhumanoid creatures, then maybe I'd give those weird Geiger/Lovecraft/Clement-esque critters human voices, just to be weird. But otherwise any reasonably good and cheap voice actor--from NPR maybe--willing to be digitally processed to sound weird would be fine.

My robots would have intellectual sounding voices like David Hyde Pierce, Carl Sagan, Paul Giamatti, Jane Goodall, Nora Dunn, Jodie Foster. Or better still Stephen Hawking's DECtalk unit!

And they'd change voices, and even genders, periodically just to keep the humans guessing!

Thanks for the recos, I'll start with Revelation Space. If he's got interesting speculation on the Big Silence, I can abide--it's only fiction, right?

I'd be far more interested in seeing Ringworld, Protector or World of Ptaavs first. Or any of the large number of short stories he wrote.

The Man Kzin War shared world stuff I don't consider as canon and was never interested. My feelings are that Known Space ended with Ringworld Engineers and "Unsafe at Any Speed." But I know there are lots of fans out there that feel different.

Actually I haven't read any Reynolds yet. I may have to take a look. Any recommendations to start with?

From what you cited, it seems to me that TV is dying, not science fiction, let alone space opera. Anyway, I don't watch TV very much anymore except via the DVR--a friend's DVR as I don't own a TV or DVR myself.

I've been reading that there is a similar decline in the publishing market too but, really, you could have fooled me having just finished Anathem, Vacuum Diagrams and a Use of Weapons. I've heard that e-readers are reviving things a bit too but I refuse to own one of those blasted things.

As someone else in the thread said, these things seem to go in generational cycles.

What I think may be happening is something like franchise fatigue. People are getting tired of seeing revival, re-boots, re-makes and continuations of the old money makers. Really, I'm sick to death of Trek and Star Wars. I want something new! Here are some examples of space opera I'd like to see as movies or television series:

• Niven's Known Space
• Vinge's Zones of Thought
• Bank's Culture
• Baxter's Xeelee Sequence

I prefer my space opera to be of the hard science fiction variety.

Well I have no reason why I couldn't do both. Hood Ornament can be the Arthur Dentish human interest for something reasonable to interact with. Quark Zombie has always got the cosmic horror and just plain weird angle covered but is difficult to interact with, sort of like being stuck on a road trip with Dr. Manhattan or the Hulk.

I'll PM you with some ideas about where I think the artifact plot could go.

Well, I just posted my move. I apologize for the delay. Devious, did you want me to bring Quark Zombie into this or is my new guy, Hood Ornament, worthwhile by himself?

(("Here I come to save the daaaaay!" Or at least do what I promised.))

Over in Hide Park, in one of the back yards of a block of co-op townhouses, Kyle Tyler startled awake. What woke him was the rattle of a screen door being opened and allowed to bang shut repeatedly. Apparently the owner of the townhouse, a man, was waking up and was now calling to his pet cats.

It was still early in the morning. Dawn had yet to release her cold, chapped hands from the night. Kyle was hiding in the hedge. Exhaustion drove him to sleep there last night.

The owner knelt and lured his two cats indoors with the promise of fresh food. Kyle wasn't sure at first, but he thought the owner spotted him. The man was in a bathrobe and came out again with a newspaper and cup of something hot, that wasn't coffee. Kyle was pretty sure he could have smelled coffee from that distance.

The man spoke calmly, in a friendly tone, "Listen friend, you probably know you're breaking a couple of laws here. Why don't you step out of that bush so I can offer you a cup of tea and then you can be on your way?"

Busted! Kyle stepped out from the hedge, his suit of armor clattered a bit as it scraped against the brick of the back wall. The armor was a full suit forged from bluish metal that didn't quite appear to be steel or iron. The armor had two enormous folded wings of shining metal that sprouted from Kyle's back. Kyle had slept in it that night. Any knight would have told him how uncomfortable that would have been but strangely enough Kyle's sleep was peaceful. Not that it mattered, Kyle had already tried to remove the armor days ago and was unsuccessful.

At Kyle's appearance, the man stifled something between a chuckle, a groan and a sigh. The eye roll was plain though.

"Well now, you're one of those. I'm sure you have a very interesting story but I don't have the time. Tea? Or would you like chai instead?" The man sized him up for a few seconds and then went inside muttering, "Probably a chai man."

Kyle was a young man of 19, a slacker who used to work as a clerk at big box store before his world turned upside down. Now, as far as he could tell, he seemed to be the most wanted man on the planet. He stood there in the backyard as the sun staggered sleepily into the sky. If he could be found so easily in a bush, what chance had he against those weird guys in the robes?

The man interrupted Kyle's gloomy thought with a spiced mug, "Yeah, here you go. Eli Little."

Kyle stared at the offered mug for a second before realizing the man was making an introduction.

"Oh, well, um--I am Hood Ornament."

Mr. Little tilted his head at that, "Riiiight. Secret identity. I can tell right off you've haven't been in this for very long. Listen kid, I'd love to chat but you're on private property and I gotta go to work."

Kyle drank. That seemed to satisfy Eli Little who then went indoors to shower. Kyle knew he couldn't hide here anymore but was unsure what to do next. If only he hadn't been so nosy! If he'd never opened that crate during Monday inventory and put the stupid suit on, none of this would have happened!

"Seems like a nice fellow, he could have called constables or drawn steel on you," the armor whispered.

"Shut up," Kyle grumbled darkly and gulped down the last of the chai. He put the mug down by the stoop of the back door. He stared at the pink sky and, willing them to do so, he flexed and stretched the armor's wings. That was the first thing the armor taught him. It helped him escape the killers on Monday night.

In a beautiful, fluid motion he leapt into the sky. Flight with the armor was graceful and majestic in all the ways he wasn't. The first time he flew it was terrifying. But by now, two days later, he was stunned with how quickly he'd gotten used to it.

It was kind of like the freedom he felt riding his ten speed. He missed his bike, but he couldn't go back to his apartment. He didn't want to risk his friend's lives.

He circled over Eli Little's townhouse for about 40 minutes only to see Eli walk out in a cop's uniform and drive off to work.

Kyle gave a bewildered giggle at that, "No wonder he didn't call the cops or pull a gun on me. He is a cop. Fate just has it in for me!"

A few hours later, Kyle was still circling around the skies of the neighborhood wondering what to do next. Only until now he was to panic stricken to really think about it. But this morning seemed to be a lull. But only gave him an growing sense of impending doom and powerlessness. He didn't know what to do!

As it was Kyle never saw anything of Frostfire's fight. The first he became aware of anything was over the gathering sirens in the Land of the Lost. He watched in a detached manner as the squad cars and news vans gathered. He had no idea what was going on there but felt no urge to get further involved.

Kyle Tyler was no hero. He was a young man trapped and on the run and he had no idea what to do about it. After Karnac arrived later to make his investigations, Hood Ornament was still aimlessly flying back and forth over the Land of the Lost and other precincts of Skyway.

((Devious, do you want me to somehow weave Quark Zombie into all this?))

This is cool idea but the thwarted science fiction writer in me has to ask, how do you or anyone know those robots aren't female even if they don't look remotely mammalian or humanoid?

Anyway, what do I want to throw on the wish list pile?

A guitar emote.

Oh, and maybe smart sitting emotes where I don't have to the immersion breaking "chair dance" before sitting.

((Well, let's see what I can do to get things going here.))

Galaxy City is a lot quieter than Atlas Park. That might have been why the Main Branch of the Paragon Public Library was built there more than 40 years ago. Librarians and scholars, amateur or professional, like quiet.

Or maybe it was because Freedom Court was nearby. For a lot of reasons, the PPL had a very extensive and valuable group of rare and old books and manuscripts in its Special Collection. Paragon City being the place that it is, it was not uncommon in decades past for criminals to try to steal these books. Maybe it passed through mind of the City Librarian 40 years ago that it would be a good idea to have some superpowered help nearby in case of any unusual robberies.

That was less the case now. In these modern times of modern, high speed document imaging, supervillians rarely stole ancient books containing forbidden secrets anymore. Now, with a hidden camera, one could just riffle through all the pages of an old book causually, not even opening it fully and then reconstruct it all for proper viewing and reading later on a computer with image processing and modeling software.

This brings up Alquist One.

Alquist One, a super and a new member of the Iron Immortals, had been given intellectual scut work for the past two days. Alquist was to copy the entire Special Collection of the Paragon Public Library for the Immortals Central Union databases. This was made less arduous for the reasons above and also because Alquist was a robot.

Well, a cyborg in truth but, that was only a temporary condition. Never mind, this is not really that important to the story at hand but will be explained in more detail as the narrative progresses.

What is important to the story at hand, was that during Al's work of pulling and flipping through books, his augmented medium term memory recorded images of all the pages of three Italian folios on architecture and engineering dating from the Fifteenth Century CE.

Not that Al was paying attention to this of course. He rarely paid attention to routine tasks he'd set his medium term memory to record.

But, as any historian or librarian, will tell, most important events start over something small and trivial.

In this case, the three folios contained extensive marginal annotations by a master carpenter that, when pieced together and studied for a bit by someone who actually knew what they were doing, would reveal the location of a hitherto unknown workshop and residence of the famed genius and polymath, Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci.

Al was completely unaware of this even though his memory was recording it. He was too busy re-writing LISP 20 code at the time.

((So, how's this?))

Chubby gals have always looked cute in my opinion--hard to explain.

But aside from that, my example was for a strong, interesting female character that was not traditionally beautiful or physically exaggerated. And just turn the cheesecake (Both male and female) down about nine or ten notches. That will bring more female readers in. Comic publishers always want more readers right?

So why is that? What's your guess as to why other players don't like going through this back and forth between hero and villain rivals in the game or in RP threads?

This.

Or Irmageddon in Top Ten.

Okay, we'll let's expand on that a bit.

How about the daleks or the borg? Are they evil? Maybe the daleks are more so than the borg because, given their repeated shouting and chanting of "exterminate," they do seem to be enjoying their work. The borg (A least before they start personifying them and making them lame.) didn't really give any impression at all that they enjoyed making others suffer. The borg just ruthlessly cut new species up and merge them into the network before moving on to the next solar system. Human emotion doesn't seem to enter into it.

Or how about Brianiac? Pretty much wants to turn the entire universe into a crystal to store all the information in it forever but doesn't seem to be very emotional about it. Brianiac does get kinda personal with Superman though.

Probably so but, I think this example underscores a problem faced by players doing a villain with a truly alien mind bent on destroying the planet or whatever. You don't really role-play a conversation between Cthulhu and the tiny human who's stupidly entered his sunken city.

Human: Hello Mr. Cthulhu! How are you doing today?
Cthulhu: [Utters a subsonic wail that liquifies bone followed by lapping up the puddle of said human above.]

Doesn't really make for good conversation, right?

I mean I've tried in a thread here with an alien horror of my own and after the novelty wears off, there's not much for other players to build on. Alien evil is hard to do if it gets too alien.

Which brings up the question of audience. If superhero comics were strictly aimed at children the sexy stuff would be toned down immediately (And the violence a little less so. Although why we are more uptight about sex than violence is a mystery to me.) but, since the 80s, that has become less and less the case.

Which makes me hopeful that things will change. As the audience diversifies and as more creators in the industry are women, the depictions of women will improve.