wingfield wrote:Randomiser wrote:If you have an actual argument that the scanners Merlin has are 'exactly' as good as the Temple's, let's have it. Continually asserting that it must be so because they are the same generation of technology isn't an argument - it's mere assertion. Where's your evidence?
This is the same as asking the child who called out that the Emperor had no clothes to provide evidence. The truth is obvious to all who could see, as long as they would only look.
Well... yes, it is actually quite obvious. It's blindingly obvious that you are
both part right.
It is absolutely blindingly obvious that the tech
level is (at least essentially) on par. It's a complete duh.
It's also blindingly obvious that
size does actually matter. Even when Weber breaks these obvious rules from time to time (most likely because he forgets, but perhaps occasionally to write his way out of a corner) he also
obeys these rules quite often. And he kindly provided some textev thereof in the very latest book.
Through Firey Trials, October YOG 905 wrote:The temptation to simply send the stealthiest possible passive array along with Staynair had been almost overwhelming. In fact, that was exactly what Cayleb, Sharleyan, Nahrmahn Baytz, and Owl had all argued they should do.[...]
And it was probably a good thing he had, because no remote small enough [my emphasis] for them to infiltrate under someone’s clothing or disguise as a piece of jewelry without anyone’s noticing could have pulled in everything the much more sensitive ones hidden inside him had already gathered. And were still gathering, for that matter. And that smaller, less capable sensor [my emphasis] wouldn’t have had the flexibility to look in all the directions he was looking as he followed individual power runs and placed them—and the devices they served—on the map he was creating. It would be partial and woefully incomplete when he finished it, that map, but it would be incomparably better than anything they’d had before.
The sensors inside him are
bigger. That means they are more sensitive. This is truly basic physics and is absolutely inarguable unless you want to throw Newton out with the bathwater. (Or unless you want to go to quantum mechanics of some sort. Granted, some sci-fi series do one of those or even both. Weber, however, does not. Or at least not on Safehold.)
The key point here is not that he has equivalent technology. Duh. Of course he does. The key point is that
in order to evade risk of detection the sensors he is
able to use (not owns or has access to) have to be passive. This means either A) small and hidden and totally inert until safely back outside the temple, or B) inside him (and still in passive mode).
wingfield wrote:Now the prevailing orthodoxy in this thread seems to be that the IC would not dare take on the Temple because there is such superior technology there; that they dare not challenge the Church of God Awaiting because they have 80 years to work out a way around all the possible religious objections to attacking the Writ; and so on.
Obviously I'm not in that camp. Not in any way shape or form. They
must take on the temple and the lies in the Writ. I'm just not a fan ATM of the way they appear to have done so.
wingfield wrote:The hole in your arguments is that we know NOTHING about what is ACTUALLY under the Temple. When you say that nothing Merlin has is able to challenge the level of what is there or could not be of the same quality, we have no data with which to compare what is in Nimue's Cave or can be used or is used by Merlin.
Aside from the minor detail of size, this is quite true. We don't have a clue what's under there. We do know there is more space for it and therefore odds are
very high there is more of it. But beyond that we know nothing.
What we
do know is what is
over there. And over the rest of the world. The OBS is still out there and OWL has already stated that Merlin has no weapons capable of destroying it. Not because he doesn't have an equivalent tech level, BTW, but because he doesn't have enough
weapon range. Which is not a qualitative difference either, it's a size difference (again).
Could they
create something to do so? Obviously yes. In fact I'm mildly surprised they haven't yet; there dozens of ways they could have. If nothing else there
have to be other moons somewhere in the solar system. Kicking things off might be tricky, but once started they could build the next best thing to a whole
planet worth of advanced manufacturing capacity out there (eventually). Might take 50 years or so, but they think they have that now so why not get on it already? And once they had that, it's not that much harder to build a warship or even a fleet of warships. Odds are good all they'd need would be one.
And once there was no more OBS their constraints would ease greatly. But
until that day happens, it's not that they fear the
tech level of the temple. It's that they fear the
response of the temple ...
IF there is still any system there capable of triggering the OBS into flattening Charis. Which unfortunately they also don't know... and can't know until they cross the Rubicon.