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Musings whose time has passed...

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Musings whose time has passed...
Post by bert953   » Wed Feb 03, 2021 7:07 pm

bert953
Lieutenant (Senior Grade)

Posts: 53
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2011 1:08 am

I was going through my phone to delete some old notes and came across these musings. Of course things didnt work out this way, but l thought l’d post them anyway. Enjoy my ramblings. Unfortunate events that could befall the GOF
1 after his next rage Clyntain has a stroke resulting in partial paralysis & impotence.

2 as the republic army invades Zion Clyntain becomes a starving refugee.
3 an alien spacecraft crash lands near Zion bringing the rakurai

4 One of the other 3 poisons Clyntain
5 since Clinton never leaves the temple, how does he procure his many mistresses ? This might be exploitable.
6 Rayano finds out that Clinton manipulated him to fix the grand Vickers election years ago and retaliates.
7 Nimue initiates a Sting operation, Mission impossible style, for Harchonese spys to discover that the GOF's arming and training serfs for the jihad is part of a nefarious plan for a "sword of Shueler" against the imperial family.
8 GOF's family?
9 Clinton leaves the temple to attend his mothers funeral. Merlin captures him and has Owl perform facial & voice reconstruction then they drop him off in one of the concentration camps headed for Zion where he has the opportunity to experience the full punishment of Schuyler.

Since Clyntain & Rayano are actively recruiting and training inquisitors, the trainees as well as the inquisitors facilities are a viable military target in the temple landz s.

Does Clinton ever go to the dentist?
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Re: Musings whose time has passed...
Post by bert953   » Wed Feb 03, 2021 7:16 pm

bert953
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Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2011 1:08 am

More musings (lreally have lots of okd stuff in my phone).

HVAC or things fall apart.....

I understand that the Terran Federation tech base is far superior to our 21 century technology, but all tech requires maintenance, even in the Honorverse & Prince Roger series'. It occurred to me that the temple has been operating nonstop for centuries. My point is that somethings gotta give, sometime -probably catastrophically!

This winter my radiators went cold because 2 valves on the boiler got clogged and even though the boiler was otherwise working normally, hot water wasn't getting to the radiators.

Despite no maintenance for these centuries, nothing (we know of, so far) in the temple's (or Rakuri system) has failed. That's a stretch! Even something as basic as a mechanical switch would eventually suffer metal fatigue or corrosion and fail. Electrical outlets fail because the internal metal conductors become fatigued or corroded resulting in poor connections and/or high resistance points that can cause arcing, short circuits, fires etc. Even the molded plastic structure of an outlet cracks and breaks as it ages. Its unlikely that in all these centuries, no insects have infiltrated the infrastructure, (remember the origin of the term "bug" in computers was a spider had spun a web in a mechanical relay causing it to jam) no water damage from a leak has occurred nothing has shorted out, no optical sensors have become dirty etc. I just don't see how thats feasible.

This is an opportunity for some creative twists ala Ron Goulart's "whats become of screwloose and other inquiries".....

Here are some tongue-in-cheek ideas:
The automatic doors in Clynten's quarters or the GoF meeting wont open and they all starve. Maybe their valets overpower and eat them in desperation.

The climate control starts providing sub zero temperatures in the summer and/or 100 degrees + in the summer.

The air filtration system pumps out noxious odors causing everyone to flee.

The intercom system (I'm sure there is one even if it's not being used) starts generating inaudible harmonics, random or continuous audible sounds that set everyone on edge; cause aberrant behavior, headaches or just scare the bejesus out of everyone.

Remember it's not the elephants in life that get to. you, but more often the mosquitoes.
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Re: Musings whose time has passed...
Post by Theemile   » Fri Feb 05, 2021 3:52 pm

Theemile
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bert953 wrote:More musings (lreally have lots of okd stuff in my phone).

HVAC or things fall apart.....

I understand that the Terran Federation tech base is far superior to our 21 century technology, but all tech requires maintenance, even in the Honorverse & Prince Roger series'. It occurred to me that the temple has been operating nonstop for centuries. My point is that somethings gotta give, sometime -probably catastrophically!

This winter my radiators went cold because 2 valves on the boiler got clogged and even though the boiler was otherwise working normally, hot water wasn't getting to the radiators.

Despite no maintenance for these centuries, nothing (we know of, so far) in the temple's (or Rakuri system) has failed. That's a stretch! Even something as basic as a mechanical switch would eventually suffer metal fatigue or corrosion and fail. Electrical outlets fail because the internal metal conductors become fatigued or corroded resulting in poor connections and/or high resistance points that can cause arcing, short circuits, fires etc. Even the molded plastic structure of an outlet cracks and breaks as it ages. Its unlikely that in all these centuries, no insects have infiltrated the infrastructure, (remember the origin of the term "bug" in computers was a spider had spun a web in a mechanical relay causing it to jam) no water damage from a leak has occurred nothing has shorted out, no optical sensors have become dirty etc. I just don't see how thats feasible.

This is an opportunity for some creative twists ala Ron Goulart's "whats become of screwloose and other inquiries".....

Here are some tongue-in-cheek ideas:
The automatic doors in Clynten's quarters or the GoF meeting wont open and they all starve. Maybe their valets overpower and eat them in desperation.

The climate control starts providing sub zero temperatures in the summer and/or 100 degrees + in the summer.

The air filtration system pumps out noxious odors causing everyone to flee.

The intercom system (I'm sure there is one even if it's not being used) starts generating inaudible harmonics, random or continuous audible sounds that set everyone on edge; cause aberrant behavior, headaches or just scare the bejesus out of everyone.

Remember it's not the elephants in life that get to. you, but more often the mosquitoes.


Servitors.

There were small robots which cleaned the temple, removing dust and cleaning biological contaminants. When you add in advanced materials designed not to fatigue or corrode (or with a rediculous # of cycles designed into their design lives) you get a temple that still smells factory fresh 800 years later.

It's a stretch, but compare cars built in the 70s to cars of today - metals in the 70s started to corrode inside of 5 years, where it's rare to see rust on a car <10 years old now. In the 70s, many people added aftermarket corrosion protection, now it is rare. Metallurgy is progressing, and materials are becoming longer lasting. Will they become THAT MUCH longer lasting is another story.
******
RFC said "refitting a Beowulfan SD to Manticoran standards would be just as difficult as refitting a standard SLN SD to those standards. In other words, it would be cheaper and faster to build new ships."
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Re: Musings whose time has passed...
Post by mhicks   » Sat Feb 06, 2021 2:02 am

mhicks
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They have nanotech that could be part of the temple cleaning crew. If something needs repair they could do it micron by micron to rebuild it to be "like new" each time like miniature 3D printers. I am starting to imagine all the secret passages behind each wall that the cleaning crew robots use. As we saw with he nanites that destroyed the inquisition camp they could consume a wall and rebuild it section by section as needed.
Oh the endless possibilities of Nanites... but there would need to be a program running to tell them when something is needing replacement... that would indicate an AI of some kind.
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Re: Musings whose time has passed...
Post by Erls   » Wed Feb 10, 2021 11:45 pm

Erls
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mhicks wrote:They have nanotech that could be part of the temple cleaning crew. If something needs repair they could do it micron by micron to rebuild it to be "like new" each time like miniature 3D printers. I am starting to imagine all the secret passages behind each wall that the cleaning crew robots use. As we saw with he nanites that destroyed the inquisition camp they could consume a wall and rebuild it section by section as needed.
Oh the endless possibilities of Nanites... but there would need to be a program running to tell them when something is needing replacement... that would indicate an AI of some kind.


They could also have designed multiple redundant connections to everything, allowing for the wholesale replacement of parts or entire systems over time without any impact on the operation of the system.

As long as the computer programming is running correctly it could continuously maintain/repair/replace most parts of the temple.

Also, keep in mind that battle-steel that was designed and manufactured to serve as the hull of space-going naval craft is likely going to hold up very well (especially if continuously treated with anti-weather coatings as we needed) to normal atmospheric conditions.
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Re: Musings whose time has passed...
Post by Daryl   » Thu Feb 11, 2021 12:04 am

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Posts: 3488
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2010 1:57 am
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Arthur Clark wrote The City and the Stars that postulated this in 1956.
Erls wrote:
mhicks wrote:They have nanotech that could be part of the temple cleaning crew. If something needs repair they could do it micron by micron to rebuild it to be "like new" each time like miniature 3D printers. I am starting to imagine all the secret passages behind each wall that the cleaning crew robots use. As we saw with he nanites that destroyed the inquisition camp they could consume a wall and rebuild it section by section as needed.
Oh the endless possibilities of Nanites... but there would need to be a program running to tell them when something is needing replacement... that would indicate an AI of some kind.


They could also have designed multiple redundant connections to everything, allowing for the wholesale replacement of parts or entire systems over time without any impact on the operation of the system.

As long as the computer programming is running correctly it could continuously maintain/repair/replace most parts of the temple.

Also, keep in mind that battle-steel that was designed and manufactured to serve as the hull of space-going naval craft is likely going to hold up very well (especially if continuously treated with anti-weather coatings as we needed) to normal atmospheric conditions.
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Re: Musings whose time has passed...
Post by Keith_w   » Sat Feb 27, 2021 3:54 pm

Keith_w
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Posts: 976
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2012 12:10 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada

Theemile wrote:It's a stretch, but compare cars built in the 70s to cars of today - metals in the 70s started to corrode inside of 5 years, where it's rare to see rust on a car <10 years old now. In the 70s, many people added aftermarket corrosion protection, now it is rare. Metallurgy is progressing, and materials are becoming longer lasting. Will they become THAT MUCH longer lasting is another story.


I put aftermarket corrosion protection on my 2019 vehicle when I bought it a year ago. On the other hand, I live in an area where salt is sprayed on the road on a regular basis in winter. The car I traded in (2011) had some rust on the door step and paint bubbling at the roof line due to a stone chip.
--
A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
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