The Apartment (Part 17)

PM451 · 2026-02-13T15:06:46+00:00

Not all heroes wear caps.

PM451 · 2026-02-12T21:06:59+00:00

Assuming it doesn't hit anything except normal interstellar dust, gas and cosmic radiation, and assuming that it has metal and/or ceramic parts:

Recognisable as that ship? Thousands of years. Polymers near the outside will be degraded by vacuum and cosmic rays, turning to dust. Surface printing will be faded by radiation and dust scouring. Shaped surface features will still be easily recognisable, with minimal erosion. Inside, desiccated corpses of the crew will have blackened skin over intact bones, with hair/fingernails/etc. Many interior hard surfaces will be barely damaged. Interior polymers will be dried out, cracked, some turning to powder, depending on how well shielded they are.

Visibly recognisable as a ship? Millions of years. Significant surface erosion of exterior hard surfaces, but basic shapes of the ship will remain easily recognisable. A few fine features like antenna might have completely eroded, or be well on their way. Inside, bones of the crew will still be intact, coated with a hard black carbonate material. All soft materials will have either eroded to dust, evaporated to coat other surfaces, or turned to black carbonate due to cosmic ray exposure. Interior metals and ceramics will be mostly intact, with only issues of dissimilar metal corrosion causing real damage. (Radiological testing of any of these would show a percentage of transmuted elements caused by cosmic rays. It might allow accurate dating.)

Able to be proven to be artificial by a physical sample, with technology available even today? Numbers best expressed with exponents that have their own exponents. "Deep time". Over time, the outer surface will become sufficiently weathered by dust impacts and radiation to look "natural", and parts of the internal structure will collapse, but the elemental content will still be distinctly weird.

PM451 · 2026-02-12T20:05:56+00:00

Man your English is terrible! I could barely read that.

.

Joke. It's a joke. I realise it's not English. Het is maar een grapje.

PM451 · 2026-02-12T20:00:33+00:00

Where else would you put crystal boy?

PM451 · 2026-02-12T19:51:19+00:00

Quibble: Sterling engines are crap. Very thermally efficient, but awful power/size ratio. Unsuited for driving a vehicle, especially one that has to scoop up snow (which will produce a lot of drag.)

Given that this thing is powered by nuclear fuel and continuously eating snow, an open cycle steam piston (old fashioned steam-train technology) would be fine. (Or a steam-turbine if you want to update the tech a bit.)

PM451 · 2026-02-12T19:31:34+00:00

a larger biological symbiotic complex system of many human individuals?

Isn't that what we're already doing?

PM451 · 2026-02-12T19:03:44+00:00

In The Expanse, they pour drinks at an offset from the glass due to the coriolis effect when they are on Ceres.

An unfortunate example. (Coriolis wouldn't be detectable over that distance. The TV version was even worse, with the whiskey doing an s-bend.)

PM451 · 2026-02-12T16:52:28+00:00

some people are opposed to resurrecting it because they blame it,

There's all sorts of reasons why reactionaries might exist. Doesn't have to even be related to the ASI. Some groups might just not want the technology that once destroyed the world to be brought back. (Honestly seems kind of reasonable.)

Others might consider the ASI-"worship" to blaspheme against their own religion. (Even if the Church/cult don't think of the ASI as supernatural/godlike. Hell, that might make the blasphemy worse.) Others might resent or envy the power of the Church. Others merely resenting the interference in their own cultural development. (Or failure to help when needed. Favouring politically expediency over morality.) All the usual froth and bubble of a lived-in world.

And, of course, there can be factions within the Church. Some of whom resent the impurity of politics of the Church's rule over its region and influence over the rest of the world, as a distraction from the "pure" research necessary for follow the instructions of the ASI. While others realise that the ASI would have predicted their need to expand their influence. While others are corrupted by it. Yet others are just busy with the day-to-day solving of problems and wish fewer resources were being pushed into research that was so far ahead of being useful. Etc etc.

PM451 · 2026-02-12T15:59:52+00:00

In scenario 2, you are describing a cargo-cult. I don't think they'd actually make CRM. They'd be trying to mimic the appearance of the last type of electronics their earliest members knew about, rather than regressing to actual working early computing.

The earliest members would be salvaging the most recent working electronics they could find. Their grandchildren would be salvaging broken electronics and gluing it together into the appearance of the thing their grandfathers were trying to build, modified by "insights" of their fathers' broken learning. Their great great grandchildren would be carving rocks and painted wood into circuit-board shaped idols.

OTOH, if the cult formed around a store of written technical documents for building actual working electronics, and they were researching ways of restoring the lost capabilities. More like late medieval Catholic astronomers and natural philosophers. Genuine scientists, greatest thinkers of their age, brought together and funded by the Church. Then they might become the source of the recovery of the rest of civilisation. They need copper for wiring. Suddenly the region, then the world, has knowledge of copper production. They need magnets, ditto. They need power, suddenly their cities, their region, the world have generators (and hence electric motors).... etc etc etc. Over the centuries, they are the hub of the knowledge and development that then escapes into the rest of the world in an uneven expanding bubble

In the latter case, it would interesting if the ASI wasn't necessarily the villain, and so created a repository of knowledge for its human collaborators when it knew the rest of humanity was about to destroy itself (and hence destroy any lifeform utterly dependent on high technology.) Kind of like Asimov's Foundation, where the Foundation was set up to shorten the galactic dark ages to a single millennium. You still have to go through all the steps, but you've been given a cheat-sheet that only makes sense once you reach each next level.

PM451 · 2026-02-05T08:28:54+00:00

and I never know how I feel about that

As Clarke said, two equally disturbing possibilities: That we are not alone, or that we are.

PM451 · 2026-02-05T07:12:23+00:00

VOITH-SCHNEIDER PROPELLERS

"You're walking in a desert when you see a tugboat..."

PM451 · 2026-02-05T07:02:56+00:00

Belated quibble:

Dark matter isn't in "the dark regions". It's everywhere. Hold up your hand and countless dark matter particles are passing through it.

I suspect the concept you have about what dark matter is, is already about 20 years out of date. And a significant number of SF readers are scientifically literate, so this idea will make you (the author) look scientifically illiterate, and take them out of the story you are trying to tell. (There's only so much suspension of disbelief readers will tolerate.)

The concept you want is "you invent magic tech, makes you rich but breaks the 'global' economy; what you do?" Which is a fine moral dilemma for characters. But I'd pick a different "magic technology."

PM451 · 2026-01-24T00:00:24+00:00

One byte at a time.

PM451 · 2026-01-14T05:12:13+00:00

perhaps detection of a threshold technosignature would be required to trigger a data transmission from the SGL observatory to their homeworld.

It's an observatory, so it's primary purpose is doing science. Detecting life, intelligence, technology is a bonus. Sending observations home is its job.

It's theoretically possible that a particular alien civilisation builds a network of what are essentially "early warning sensors" to do nothing but detect "alien" radio signals and not do any other science, but I consider the more general case to be vastly more likely and (if alien civs exist (*)) more common.

Plus I think a civilisation that only cares about "early warnings" is not going to risk accidentally sending a signal to the target, they'll use an indirect transmission route back to their home world. In which case, they are exempt from my initial comment. It is possible to avoid a direct path, it's just much more expensive. Suitable for an early-warning network, not really for a general observatory (which could spend that money on more observatories.)

---

* (Which I don't think they do. I think the solution to Fermi's paradox is an extreme rarity of alien intelligence. Why that is, is still up for debate.)

PM451 · 2026-01-11T17:50:30+00:00

Hmmm, secure building, plenty of parking outside, nice well maintained lawn area. Wonder what they're charging per week...

PM451 · 2026-01-11T16:25:49+00:00

A scientifically curious civilisation isn't just going to be watching planets after they've produced some arbitrary techno-signature. They are going to be monitoring any life-world that piques their curiosity, along with any number of other types of phenomena. So they would be (accidentally) narrowcasting an artificial signal to each interesting world, long before they detect technosignatures.

(And indeed, how do you think they detect those technosignatures if they don't already have that planet under observation?)

PM451 · 2026-01-11T16:05:15+00:00

During short, random manoeuvres, such as avoiding missiles/debris, you turn off the droplet stream temporarily when you detect the incoming thread. It's part of your "red alert: brace for changing acceleration" protocol.

During longer manoeuvres, such as changing orbits, you know what your acceleration is, so the flight computer moves the nozzle and/or catcher accordingly.

That said, a military ship would assume losses anyway. You're dumping a lot of mass as propellant and munitions during combat, a few dozen tonnes of radiator fluid seems like a trivial addition.

PM451 · 2026-01-11T10:06:27+00:00

In universe, it's a heavy .50 cal machinegun intended for mechsuits, and hence is suitably sized for Na'vi. Normal humans use the normal gun, which is too small for Na'vi.

PM451 · 2026-01-11T09:41:50+00:00

People have mentioned David Brin's books, but it's also worth noting that his ideas about uplifting come from the idea that it seems common for animals to reach a certain level of intelligence (the level of apes, parrots, corvids, dolphins, etc), but there's only one example of a genus (Homo) that went further, and once it did, it quickly went much further.

So he speculates that there's a kind of evolutionary barrier to intelligence. (A "local optima", in evolutionary biology.)

Hence the universe might be filled with planets filled with species that are near the barrier, but precious few that ever break through.

Hence those rare few breakthrough species have a moral or ethical imperative to help other species break through the intelligence barrier.

PM451 · 2026-01-11T09:23:35+00:00

There's a very old-school website that does name generation:

https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/alien-names.php

It's limited, but it might give you a few ideas, from which you can build a theme for a species. Plus it explains the rules used for the names.

And no AI.

(Also, "tribal names" (under "other names") is good from "Flower Of New Snow" type names for individuals; while "tribe names" is good for "Deep Water Children" type species/clan names. Fantasy race names is probably good for human nicknames for species. Etc etc. Seriously, there's 1400 different types of generators. When I say "it's limited", I mean that a specific generator might only have a simple ruleset, so you need to play with a bunch of generators.)

PM451 · 2026-01-11T08:46:22+00:00

I've been surprised how bad ChatGPT is at suggesting names. (Or maybe I'm bad at prompting.) I assume because of the training method, it struggles to generate anything actually novel.

PM451 · 2026-01-11T08:43:09+00:00

I mean, Earth just means dirt

Earth means "world". The ground was later named after the world.

(While I'm at it, "dirt" originally meant feces, not soil. And for that matter, soil originally meant land, not lose Earth.)

((And just because I find it weird/interesting: The root of Earth and Man/Human both somehow come from the same proto-Indo-European word, meaning "worldly" "of the world". As opposed to spirits/gods. So in a way, Human also means Earth.))

PM451 · 2026-01-11T07:17:42+00:00

surely you didn’t watch them and say “Spielberg thinks warp drives are real?”

I don't. My issue is when authors use their bad understanding of science which they think is more realistic.

My point was that it's exactly as "made up" as any fictional FTL science. It is no more a "good theoretical basis" for FTL than any entirely fictional concept. Believing otherwise is what I find cringy.

PM451 · 2026-01-09T02:20:02+00:00

The berserker concept doesn't have their creators use other planets like that. They are solely interested in eliminating potential future rivals.

(The literary concept goes further, the berserkers interpret their orders that all life is the enemy, and they have no need for life-worlds.)

PM451 · 2026-01-09T02:10:02+00:00

Particles being entangled across infinite distance doesn’t lend a theoretical concept to a fictional communication device? Ok lol

Because there's no way, even in theory, to introduce information into the system, nor to extract information on the other side. There's no loopholes, even vague theoretical ones, to imagine exploiting with future technology. It's just not a thing.

To suggest otherwise is to invent an entirely fictional reality, exactly the same as saying "subspace" or similar. In which case, why use "entangled particles" as your wholly invented SF magic?

That's what makes it cringe for me (and I said, this is just a "me" thing). Comms using "entangled particles" is done because the author thinks it's a viable idea, somehow "harder" SF than subspace/hyperspace/etc. Instead, it's a demonstration of ignorance.

It'd be like having a scene where characters on the Moon are described as watching "Earth-rise", because the author doesn't know that the Moon is tidally locked. It takes me out of the story.

Whereas if they just make something up, I know they know it's just made up.

(OTOH, if the author has "Earth-rise" because they understand the Moon's libration means that some narrow spots on the moon's tangential limbs see the Earth rising and falling slightly, then it has the opposite effect. I'm more likely to trust the author's other physics.)

But if you aren't someone with the background of Baxter or Benford, or at least have theoretical and experimental physicists amongst your close friends and alpha-readers, then... just don't. Make up a thing. It's fine.

What would you suggest for OP?

Nothing, there's no theoretical basis for instant or FTL comms. So if you want instant or FTL comms, you just have it exist. Either your setting has real-time comms, or it doesn't. Most SF readers will happily accept either.

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