Forcasted Technologies in Science Fiction

[Hicks]

Warp Drive: So as it turns out, warp drive is a thing under study by NASA. Currently the idea behind it is that up to a 200m sphere of space-time can be relocated at a velocity of ~10 times faster than light by destroying space-time in front of it and creating space-time behind it. There are other details, such as while active the 200m warp field is actually smaller than a proton or the amplitude of visible light so you can't see where you are going, any matter it collided with is annihilated and turned into gamma rays that explode on the vessel as soon as it stops warping, it requires an amount of energy equal to a actual car colliding with another car made of antimatter, and we have no idea how to physically build it, but those are technical problems; the important bit is that the math works and the squints in lab coats are doing science to it, and all these problems have solutions. Like I said, NASA is trying to make a proof of concept warp device that only slightly bends space-time that can be detected by super sensitive lab equipment. The whole "gamma ray burst" is a good and bad thing in that it means you can warp through planets and stars, but you gotta armor the nose of the vessel like a boss or then your dead (also like a boss). The energy requirement is a little harder to meet, but if we design a warp drive we also just invented a total conversion reactor; see my next point. The part where we can't see isn't that hard to solve: hook a warp drive to an alarm clock, when the alarm buzzes it also turns off the warp drive; granted, the clock will actually be of the super accurate nuclear variety, but the concept is the same.

Our Friend, the Totally Annihilated Atom: if we make a warp drive, practical fusion and antimatter research is over because we just invented a practical total conversion reactor. Evidently matter in annihilated space-time is annihilated with the space time, and the rest mass of that matter is converted into a like amount of gamma rays, about as much E as Mc^2. Now this is a large amount of gamma rays, but under normal circumstances (as long as you don't fly through a planet or a star) is quite manageable because of the statisticly low likelihood of slamming into a wandering proton/neutron in the sparse vacuum of deep space (in fact the only thing that will absolutely kill you is if you try to fly through the degenerate matter of a neutron star, but 10 mile wide stars are easy to avoid in the vast gulf between stars). But instead of ramming your ship into stuff, you could instead make a warp field that you threw a measured amount of stuff into to be annihilated on purpose, and used the resulting gamma rays to heat water/reaction mass to do something useful like generate electricity or move the ship? The best fuel would be dense, easy to work with, and plentiful; and I think that magnetically suspended/injected solid or molten Iron pellets would be the way to go.

Quantum Communication and the Internet: Frank believes we will have quantum communication, and so do I. I also believe that a network will be set up between ships and planets as well as between planets and planets. In the worst projected case scenario, we have low density dial up connections to the internet, but this means that you can communicate with anyone else connected to the network regardless of the intervening lightyears of distance with a scratchy phone call, and you can still get porn, very important on the months spent in-between stars. Ships will still have radio and laser communications arrays, but only as a backup; it will be faster to Skype with them than deal with electromagnetic radiation's light speed lag. In other news, this is also why I think SETI is a waste of time; why would an interstellar empire use radio when they can Skype with all the people they care about in the network?

[Username17]

But we still don't have transporters, replicators, or force fields.

-Username17

[K]

We don't have energy-based replicators that make most kinds of atoms.

We do have 3D-printers that are getting good enough to put things together atom by atom. The practical difference between the two is that we still get super-cheap goods, but we need to provide all our atoms (unlike Star Trek where you need to provide some atoms like dilitheum crystals).

[Vebyast]

I'll add something related to my own field of research.
Cyborgs: Right now, we're working on things like direct neural interfaces, prosthetic eyes, and interfaces that use brain plasticity to give you additional senses, and our robotics packages are starting to approach human size, power consumption, and weight and have long since surpassed humans in durability, strength, speed, precision, and accuracy. Once those techs are mature, stick them into a single system, glue it to someone (or glue someone to it), and bang, Robocop.

[Ghremdal]

Hicks, what you posted are technologies that are still very very far off. While there seems to be some theoretical promise in the warp drive, there is a veritable mountain of practical problems to solve (and some of them are probably out of reach with our current tech).

The real big thing that will transfer from science fiction to the real world and rock our socks off is fusion power. By 2050, if ITER pans out, the world should be turning to fusion as its main power source.

As Vebyast said, cyber and bio tech will also be a game changer over the next couple of decades.

[Starmaker]

By 2050, if ITER pans out, the world should be turning to fusion as its main power source.

As projected (going by ITER and DEMO figures), fusion is an order of magnitude more expensive than the electricity we use today. Also, fucking tritium. Until there's a D-D project on the table, don't hold your breath.

[angelfromanotherpin]

But we still don't have transporters, replicators, or force fields.

-Username17

<Ahem>.

Phasers and tricorders also seem to be in development.

Stuff we have implemented already includes transparent aluminum, PADDs, and hyposprays.

[Hicks]

Ok, so I wrote the OP badly. What I wanted to discuss was the implications of future technology as part of the setting of a "hard" science RPG set in the nearish future, not science fiction technology emerging into real life in the here and now.

FYI, we are working on making less limited and bigger force fields, since 1995.

[Prak]

Talking to my astrophysics major buddy, our main obstacle to teleporter tech is also a technical issue of being able to scan the entirety of the human body on the atomic level, disassemble it, and reassemble it elsewhere, so we need atomic scanners with high fidelity and advanced 3d printers/nanotech.

However, once we have those, it also gives us instantaneous cloning, we just turn off the disassemble function.

[sabs]

well, and given how many millons of organisms live on/in us. The scanning has to be so incredibly accurate. Even one cell out of place can wreck havok.

[Prak]

Like I said, high fidelity atomic scanning.

[Vebyast]

Ok, so I wrote the OP badly. What I wanted to discuss was the implications of future technology as part of the setting of a "hard" science RPG set in the nearish future, not science fiction technology emerging into real life in the here and now.

FYI, we are working on making less limited and bigger force fields, since 1995.

I've always wondered how you'd deal with fast cloning in an RPG - the kind of uploading/downloading that we spent so long trying to prevent in the Cyberpunk Fantasy Heartbreaker setting. I think that the solution is in some way related to the "Military Campaigns and Multiple Characters" post that Frank just put up, but that's a pretty large change to the system and might not be very satisfactory.

[Soda]

They're working on tractor beams too.

[Previn]

But we still don't have transporters, replicators, or force fields.

-Username17

<Ahem>.

Electrostatic armor, which that article is describing doesn't work by repelling like it seems to imply, but by vaporizing and/or deforming the molten stream of a HEAT round. It is in no way a force field, think of it as a military bug zapper in function. You'd want to look toward plasma windows for force field type functionality.

[Korgan0]

Talking to my astrophysics major buddy, our main obstacle to teleporter tech is also a technical issue of being able to scan the entirety of the human body on the atomic level, disassemble it, and reassemble it elsewhere, so we need atomic scanners with high fidelity and advanced 3d printers/nanotech.

However, once we have those, it also gives us instantaneous cloning, we just turn off the disassemble function.

Well, let's not forget the whole problem of personal identity, which is going to freak a hell of a lot of people out.

[K]

Talking to my astrophysics major buddy, our main obstacle to teleporter tech is also a technical issue of being able to scan the entirety of the human body on the atomic level, disassemble it, and reassemble it elsewhere, so we need atomic scanners with high fidelity and advanced 3d printers/nanotech.

However, once we have those, it also gives us instantaneous cloning, we just turn off the disassemble function.

Well, let's not forget the whole problem of personal identity, which is going to freak a hell of a lot of people out.

There are whole areas in Philosophy that revolve around Star Trek transporters and personal identity dilemmas. No bullshit.

I've always felt that my solution to the problem is the most novel: if you've just created a perfect clone with all of your memories, then the one with your house/car keys gets to be the real you for legal purposes.

[RadiantPhoenix]

I've always felt that my solution to the problem is the most novel: if you've just created a perfect clone with all of your memories, then the one with your house/car keys gets to be the real you for legal purposes.

What if they both have sets of the keys?

[Kaelik]

The way I look at it, I don't spend half my money on food and laundry, so we just divide the work in half and both live kickass lives. I guess we might also need to come to some arrangement about sex... but I'm willing to do that in exchange for half the work.

[Prak]

Um, if it's for use as a teleporter, you destroy the original after scanning, and crate a new one in the place you want to be.

If it's cloning, then you're creating a new person who just happens to have the same memories up to that point. I suggest you strip down first, and put a delay on the assembly so after you scan yourself, you can run and get dressed and have the keys and such. Alternatively, if you're using the assemblage for instant cloning, I suggest finding some way of selectively deleting memories, and making the clones, well, not clones.

[Whatever]

What if you scan yourself at, say, age 25 (perhaps re-scanning later if you feel it warranted), and have the machine set to auto-clone when you die. Does the new "you" get to pick up where you left off?

[Prak]

It would depend on how backwards the government wants to be. However, you could conceivably leave all your possessions to your clone. Identifying that clone could be tricky, and once again, clone personhood depends on the backwards-ness of your government. But conceivably, yes, that's one thing some people want to do (such as a few of my friends and I, Adam Savage, etc), basically, scan your body at a comfortable age, backup your brain daily, and when you die, or are close to dying, upload your most recent memories to the clone, deactivate the old you, activate the clone you.

I'd kind of prefer a robot body, or at least gen-gineed hermaphrodite body at a reasonable facsimile of peak human attractiveness, but....

[RadiantPhoenix]

The way I look at it, I don't spend half my money on food and laundry, so we just divide the work in half and both live kickass lives. I guess we might also need to come to some arrangement about sex... but I'm willing to do that in exchange for half the work.

Some Internet people claim selfcest is pretty cool.

The problem occurs when a few people with human-replicators decide selfcest is supremely awesome and make 950 million of themselves each.

This is probably why nobody replicates people in Star Trek. Not concerns about the ethics of cloning, but concerns about the wisdom of cloners.

[Whatever]

It's a rather bizarre form of "immortality" since you actually die, perhaps many times. Having a clone/cyborg/duplicate walking around with your memories is great for them, not so much for you.

[Prak]

It's a rather bizarre form of "immortality" since you actually die, perhaps many times. Having a clone/cyborg/duplicate walking around with your memories is great for them, not so much for you.

But if it has all your memories, including your repeated mind-backups, and your decision to put your birth-body into cold storage and use it instead, can you really say it's not you?

[Kaelik]

It's a rather bizarre form of "immortality" since you actually die, perhaps many times. Having a clone/cyborg/duplicate walking around with your memories is great for them, not so much for you.

The problem here is that you have a really stupid definition of personhood. If it has exactly your memories and personality, it is in fact you. Exactly like when you teleport over distances, you aren't killing yourself and cloning yourself on the other end, you are just transporting yourself, because there is literally no aspect of you that is in any way meaningful that the new you doesn't also have.