RPGnet - User contributions [en]

Talk:FederalSpace:Technology

2009-02-27T22:01:10Z

Pilgrim: /* Psychology, neurology and the like */

On transporters and being bounced- one simple thing that could totally screw up even a well surveyed and planned transporter assault: stringing ropes around the area to change the layout.

== Jamming teleporters ==

Simplest way to jam a teleporter - string ropes across the large areas they'd be teleporting into.

More technological - if warp envelopes (a related technology) are 'finicky' then '''someone''' studying the stability of those envelopes would realize that turning those studies on their head would come up with a jammer. My bet is that it would require knowing about the teleporter system and the characteristics of their warp bubbles. That way, someone can take advantage of those characteristics to collapse them unexpectedly, or cause a bounce where there should be none. Also, you might be able to brute force your way through the jamming (if you've got enough power).

Thoughts and comments?
[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== Lifespan ==

OK, uploads are straight out.

But you've at least implied protein fabricators, so artificial replacement tissues are fairly easy. That means need a new lung? Wait while they customize a left lung template based on your tissues. And so on. This would increase lifespan right there.

What else? Well, there could be nanotech therapies/surgeries that could repair damages from radiation and aging. Time consuming, expensive in terms of the time of skilled therapists, but doable. Another method of increasing lifespan.

So, what are we looking at? Today, we have roughly a 50-60 year useful adult lifespan and 6-10 of that are taken up by education. Given the ability to replace damaged organs, limbs, etc., with a minimum of disruption, repair general aging, better cancer and disease treatments, we're probably looking at at total lifespan of 120+ years, with maybe 80 of that useful adult lifespan.

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

13:58, 27 February 2009 (PST) Later: Given genetic engineering, some human variants might have a much greater lifespan.

== Psychology, neurology and the like ==

Ok, this is where things can get creepy.

Memetics & Social Engineering
Imagine the ability to craft an ad that would pretty much ''hook'' you on a deep level and you have to fight against to resist. That's what you're talking about. With memetics, you can get some nasty high powered ads. If you allow for say, low power and nearly ubiquitous fMRI machines (with a low range), the pitch men can tailor it for the best effect. Without it, you can study the effects of specific social techniques and look for the greatest effects.

Does this remove free will? No, but a person has to be aware they're being targeted. Otherwise, they will be influenced. For the removal of free will, see below.

Psychology and Neuropsychology
How detailed can it get? Given your rules of thumb, a fmri machine is at least semi-portable. This means they could relatively common. Now, if you allow for high powered computers to interpret results, you have a all but unbeatable lie detector. Its also probably a very powerful therapeutic tool. With it, they might be able to identify areas of trauma, and worse stimulate areas of the brain through transcranial magnetic stimulation. Unlock a memory, induce a hallucination, make 'em see God, or administer a temporary lobotomy.

And that's the beginning... There are a host of books on this - from Peter Watts' '''Blindsight''', Cordelia Fine's '''A Mind of Its Own''', '''Kluge''' and most of Oliver Sacks' books. Look up on brain injury effects for some ideas and what could be done with them if they could be induced temporarily.

With patience (and a complete lack of ethics) you could implant memories. How? Good video, some drugs to induce a hypnopomp or hypnogogic state, and fmri assisted surgery to disconnect a person from his or her previous memories. Otherwise, want to induce amnesia for a specific memory its feasible. Or just make sure they can't remember what you did to them... Or they did... Trashing the process of transferring short term to long term along with other things can severely cripple an individual.

Alright, how widespread is this stuff? I imagine in the Federation, they restrict it. The OA may go all out. The Empire probably restricts it to themselves and the great houses. The Borg probably use it in ways that would scare anyone. The Romulans may hate it but study it to defend against it. And that's all I've got so far.

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

14:01, 27 February 2009 (PST) [http://www.pinktentacle.com/2008/12/scientists-extract-images-directly-from-brain/ extracting a image from a brain.]

== AI: They're people ==

Really. They are raised like children (probably with a greater up front cost), but are people and citizens (@ least in enlightened polities). They may have legal obligations to their parents, but against a much greater than organic lifespan, this may not be much to them.

Now, that's how I bet the Federal Worlds deal with it. Outside of it... well, I bet it gets ugly.
The OA probably practices some sort of longer term indentured servitude.
The Empire out and out enslaves them.
The Borg hives would take them as citizens.
The New Byzantines ... I don't know. Probably long term servitude and may ban them from certain roles.

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== Neural interface ==

Things that read nerves are probably ''easy''. We've got a version now being used in prosthetic limbs. Things that can stimulate tactile nerves are moving out into production as well - artificial legs with feet that feel the ground and feed it to the wearer.

So, for bionics and feedback for teleoperation would be pretty easy in the 29th century.

What else can you do with it? Well, getting it ''beyond'' simple reading of limb motion and providing tactile feedback, it builds on the stuff I mentioned above, particularly neuropsychology and its tools -fMRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Between the two of these, they can 'read' the brain, particularly for physical motion and some sensory issues. Heck, they've reached the point where they can pull the image from a brain now. Now, the interface can see what the person wearing it sees. Probably all the other senses too. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation, maybe ultrasonics, they can induce the appropriate hallucinations as well.

Not easy. I doubt its cheap and the potential for abuse is '''huge'''. Probably restricted pretty heavily by most governments.

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

Talk:FederalSpace:Technology

2009-02-27T21:58:07Z

Pilgrim: /* Lifespan */

On transporters and being bounced- one simple thing that could totally screw up even a well surveyed and planned transporter assault: stringing ropes around the area to change the layout.

== Jamming teleporters ==

Simplest way to jam a teleporter - string ropes across the large areas they'd be teleporting into.

More technological - if warp envelopes (a related technology) are 'finicky' then '''someone''' studying the stability of those envelopes would realize that turning those studies on their head would come up with a jammer. My bet is that it would require knowing about the teleporter system and the characteristics of their warp bubbles. That way, someone can take advantage of those characteristics to collapse them unexpectedly, or cause a bounce where there should be none. Also, you might be able to brute force your way through the jamming (if you've got enough power).

Thoughts and comments?
[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== Lifespan ==

OK, uploads are straight out.

But you've at least implied protein fabricators, so artificial replacement tissues are fairly easy. That means need a new lung? Wait while they customize a left lung template based on your tissues. And so on. This would increase lifespan right there.

What else? Well, there could be nanotech therapies/surgeries that could repair damages from radiation and aging. Time consuming, expensive in terms of the time of skilled therapists, but doable. Another method of increasing lifespan.

So, what are we looking at? Today, we have roughly a 50-60 year useful adult lifespan and 6-10 of that are taken up by education. Given the ability to replace damaged organs, limbs, etc., with a minimum of disruption, repair general aging, better cancer and disease treatments, we're probably looking at at total lifespan of 120+ years, with maybe 80 of that useful adult lifespan.

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

13:58, 27 February 2009 (PST) Later: Given genetic engineering, some human variants might have a much greater lifespan.

== Psychology, neurology and the like ==

Ok, this is where things can get creepy.

Memetics & Social Engineering
Imagine the ability to craft an ad that would pretty much ''hook'' you on a deep level and you have to fight against to resist. That's what you're talking about. With memetics, you can get some nasty high powered ads. If you allow for say, low power and nearly ubiquitous fMRI machines (with a low range), the pitch men can tailor it for the best effect. Without it, you can study the effects of specific social techniques and look for the greatest effects.

Does this remove free will? No, but a person has to be aware they're being targeted. Otherwise, they will be influenced. For the removal of free will, see below.

Psychology and Neuropsychology
How detailed can it get? Given your rules of thumb, a fmri machine is at least semi-portable. This means they could relatively common. Now, if you allow for high powered computers to interpret results, you have a all but unbeatable lie detector. Its also probably a very powerful therapeutic tool. With it, they might be able to identify areas of trauma, and worse stimulate areas of the brain through transcranial magnetic stimulation. Unlock a memory, induce a hallucination, make 'em see God, or administer a temporary lobotomy.

And that's the beginning... There are a host of books on this - from Peter Watts' '''Blindsight''', Cordelia Fine's '''A Mind of Its Own''', '''Kluge''' and most of Oliver Sacks' books. Look up on brain injury effects for some ideas and what could be done with them if they could be induced temporarily.

With patience (and a complete lack of ethics) you could implant memories. How? Good video, some drugs to induce a hypnopomp or hypnogogic state, and fmri assisted surgery to disconnect a person from his or her previous memories. Otherwise, want to induce amnesia for a specific memory its feasible. Or just make sure they can't remember what you did to them... Or they did... Trashing the process of transferring short term to long term along with other things can severely cripple an individual.

Alright, how widespread is this stuff? I imagine in the Federation, they restrict it. The OA may go all out. The Empire probably restricts it to themselves and the great houses. The Borg probably use it in ways that would scare anyone. The Romulans may hate it but study it to defend against it. And that's all I've got so far.

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== AI: They're people ==

Really. They are raised like children (probably with a greater up front cost), but are people and citizens (@ least in enlightened polities). They may have legal obligations to their parents, but against a much greater than organic lifespan, this may not be much to them.

Now, that's how I bet the Federal Worlds deal with it. Outside of it... well, I bet it gets ugly.
The OA probably practices some sort of longer term indentured servitude.
The Empire out and out enslaves them.
The Borg hives would take them as citizens.
The New Byzantines ... I don't know. Probably long term servitude and may ban them from certain roles.

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== Neural interface ==

Things that read nerves are probably ''easy''. We've got a version now being used in prosthetic limbs. Things that can stimulate tactile nerves are moving out into production as well - artificial legs with feet that feel the ground and feed it to the wearer.

So, for bionics and feedback for teleoperation would be pretty easy in the 29th century.

What else can you do with it? Well, getting it ''beyond'' simple reading of limb motion and providing tactile feedback, it builds on the stuff I mentioned above, particularly neuropsychology and its tools -fMRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Between the two of these, they can 'read' the brain, particularly for physical motion and some sensory issues. Heck, they've reached the point where they can pull the image from a brain now. Now, the interface can see what the person wearing it sees. Probably all the other senses too. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation, maybe ultrasonics, they can induce the appropriate hallucinations as well.

Not easy. I doubt its cheap and the potential for abuse is '''huge'''. Probably restricted pretty heavily by most governments.

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

Talk:FederalSpace:Peoples

2009-02-27T18:32:02Z

Pilgrim: /* Human variants */

== Humans, Aliens (agressive), Aliens (passive) ==

Seems to me that you need to set up the common species, humans, human variants, aggressive aliens and passive aliens.

== Hivers & Puppeteers ==

[http://members.tip.net.au/~davidjw/libdata/alphabet/h/hivers.htm Hivers]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pierson%27s_Puppeteers&oldid=272317302 Puppeteers]

So, are you saying that you ought to combine these two very different species? Or that these two very different species have some sort of alliance?

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== Human variants ==

Another one for you - what human variants are out there?
So far, there are:

* Hesphateans/Vulcans
* Kronans/Klingons
* Byzantines/Romulans
* Betazed
* Borg

Pretty much human with maybe cultural differences?
* Cardassians
* Bajorans

From the series
* Bynars - a good fit with the version you've sketched. Maybe a borg lite?

And ...?

May I suggest a few?
* Floaters/spacers - adapted for microgravity and radiation resistance, possibly with prehensile feet, or even an extra set of arms. Besides, I always wanted to play a floater marine in Trek.
* Upgraded humans - no bad recessives, better healing, longer lived, etc.
* Humans engineered for longer life - I swear I remember reading about these nearly 20 years ago - better designed for circulatory systems, sinuses and similar stuff. ISTR seeing them in Transhuman Space.
* Para-cetacean variants, able to exist in water like a dolphin or whale, and even more capable with technological gills.

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

Talk:FederalSpace:Peoples

2009-02-27T18:31:48Z

Pilgrim: Human variants

Talk:FederalSpace:Peoples

2009-02-27T18:31:37Z

Pilgrim: /* Hivers & Puppeteers */

Talk:FederalSpace:Peoples

2009-02-27T18:30:51Z

Pilgrim:

== Humans, Aliens (agressive), Aliens (passive) ==

Seems to me that you need to set up the common species, humans, human variants, aggressive aliens and passive aliens.

== Hivers & Puppeteers ==

[http://members.tip.net.au/~davidjw/libdata/alphabet/h/hivers.htm Hivers]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pierson%27s_Puppeteers&oldid=272317302 Puppeteers]

So, are you saying that you ought to combine these two very different species? Or that these two very different species have some sort of alliance?

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

Another one for you - what human variants are out there?
So far, there are:

* Hesphateans/Vulcans
* Kronans/Klingons
* Byzantines/Romulans
* Betazed
* Borg

Pretty much human with maybe cultural differences?
* Cardassians
* Bajorans

From the series
* Bynars - a good fit with the version you've sketched. Maybe a borg lite?

And ...?

May I suggest a few?
* Floaters/spacers - adapted for microgravity and radiation resistance, possibly with prehensile feet, or even an extra set of arms. Besides, I always wanted to play a floater marine in Trek.
* Upgraded humans - no bad recessives, better healing, longer lived, etc.
* Humans engineered for longer life - I swear I remember reading about these nearly 20 years ago - better designed for circulatory systems, sinuses and similar stuff. ISTR seeing them in Transhuman Space.
* Para-cetacean variants, able to exist in water like a dolphin or whale, and even more capable with technological gills.

Talk:FederalSpace:Technology

2009-02-26T23:03:09Z

Pilgrim: /* Neural interface */

On transporters and being bounced- one simple thing that could totally screw up even a well surveyed and planned transporter assault: stringing ropes around the area to change the layout.

== Jamming teleporters ==

Simplest way to jam a teleporter - string ropes across the large areas they'd be teleporting into.

More technological - if warp envelopes (a related technology) are 'finicky' then '''someone''' studying the stability of those envelopes would realize that turning those studies on their head would come up with a jammer. My bet is that it would require knowing about the teleporter system and the characteristics of their warp bubbles. That way, someone can take advantage of those characteristics to collapse them unexpectedly, or cause a bounce where there should be none. Also, you might be able to brute force your way through the jamming (if you've got enough power).

Thoughts and comments?
[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== Lifespan ==

OK, uploads are straight out.

But you've at least implied protein fabricators, so artificial replacement tissues are fairly easy. That means need a new lung? Wait while they customize a left lung template based on your tissues. And so on. This would increase lifespan right there.

What else? Well, there could be nanotech therapies/surgeries that could repair damages from radiation and aging. Time consuming, expensive in terms of the time of skilled therapists, but doable. Another method of increasing lifespan.

So, what are we looking at? Today, we have roughly a 50-60 year useful adult lifespan and 6-10 of that are taken up by education. Given the ability to replace damaged organs, limbs, etc., with a minimum of disruption, repair general aging, better cancer and disease treatments, we're probably looking at at total lifespan of 120+ years, with maybe 80 of that useful adult lifespan.

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== Psychology, neurology and the like ==

Ok, this is where things can get creepy.

Memetics & Social Engineering
Imagine the ability to craft an ad that would pretty much ''hook'' you on a deep level and you have to fight against to resist. That's what you're talking about. With memetics, you can get some nasty high powered ads. If you allow for say, low power and nearly ubiquitous fMRI machines (with a low range), the pitch men can tailor it for the best effect. Without it, you can study the effects of specific social techniques and look for the greatest effects.

Does this remove free will? No, but a person has to be aware they're being targeted. Otherwise, they will be influenced. For the removal of free will, see below.

Psychology and Neuropsychology
How detailed can it get? Given your rules of thumb, a fmri machine is at least semi-portable. This means they could relatively common. Now, if you allow for high powered computers to interpret results, you have a all but unbeatable lie detector. Its also probably a very powerful therapeutic tool. With it, they might be able to identify areas of trauma, and worse stimulate areas of the brain through transcranial magnetic stimulation. Unlock a memory, induce a hallucination, make 'em see God, or administer a temporary lobotomy.

And that's the beginning... There are a host of books on this - from Peter Watts' '''Blindsight''', Cordelia Fine's '''A Mind of Its Own''', '''Kluge''' and most of Oliver Sacks' books. Look up on brain injury effects for some ideas and what could be done with them if they could be induced temporarily.

With patience (and a complete lack of ethics) you could implant memories. How? Good video, some drugs to induce a hypnopomp or hypnogogic state, and fmri assisted surgery to disconnect a person from his or her previous memories. Otherwise, want to induce amnesia for a specific memory its feasible. Or just make sure they can't remember what you did to them... Or they did... Trashing the process of transferring short term to long term along with other things can severely cripple an individual.

Alright, how widespread is this stuff? I imagine in the Federation, they restrict it. The OA may go all out. The Empire probably restricts it to themselves and the great houses. The Borg probably use it in ways that would scare anyone. The Romulans may hate it but study it to defend against it. And that's all I've got so far.

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== AI: They're people ==

Really. They are raised like children (probably with a greater up front cost), but are people and citizens (@ least in enlightened polities). They may have legal obligations to their parents, but against a much greater than organic lifespan, this may not be much to them.

Now, that's how I bet the Federal Worlds deal with it. Outside of it... well, I bet it gets ugly.
The OA probably practices some sort of longer term indentured servitude.
The Empire out and out enslaves them.
The Borg hives would take them as citizens.
The New Byzantines ... I don't know. Probably long term servitude and may ban them from certain roles.

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== Neural interface ==

Things that read nerves are probably ''easy''. We've got a version now being used in prosthetic limbs. Things that can stimulate tactile nerves are moving out into production as well - artificial legs with feet that feel the ground and feed it to the wearer.

So, for bionics and feedback for teleoperation would be pretty easy in the 29th century.

What else can you do with it? Well, getting it ''beyond'' simple reading of limb motion and providing tactile feedback, it builds on the stuff I mentioned above, particularly neuropsychology and its tools -fMRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Between the two of these, they can 'read' the brain, particularly for physical motion and some sensory issues. Heck, they've reached the point where they can pull the image from a brain now. Now, the interface can see what the person wearing it sees. Probably all the other senses too. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation, maybe ultrasonics, they can induce the appropriate hallucinations as well.

Not easy. I doubt its cheap and the potential for abuse is '''huge'''. Probably restricted pretty heavily by most governments.

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

Talk:FederalSpace:Technology

2009-02-26T23:02:56Z

Pilgrim: /* AI: They're people */

On transporters and being bounced- one simple thing that could totally screw up even a well surveyed and planned transporter assault: stringing ropes around the area to change the layout.

== Jamming teleporters ==

Simplest way to jam a teleporter - string ropes across the large areas they'd be teleporting into.

More technological - if warp envelopes (a related technology) are 'finicky' then '''someone''' studying the stability of those envelopes would realize that turning those studies on their head would come up with a jammer. My bet is that it would require knowing about the teleporter system and the characteristics of their warp bubbles. That way, someone can take advantage of those characteristics to collapse them unexpectedly, or cause a bounce where there should be none. Also, you might be able to brute force your way through the jamming (if you've got enough power).

Thoughts and comments?
[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== Lifespan ==

OK, uploads are straight out.

But you've at least implied protein fabricators, so artificial replacement tissues are fairly easy. That means need a new lung? Wait while they customize a left lung template based on your tissues. And so on. This would increase lifespan right there.

What else? Well, there could be nanotech therapies/surgeries that could repair damages from radiation and aging. Time consuming, expensive in terms of the time of skilled therapists, but doable. Another method of increasing lifespan.

So, what are we looking at? Today, we have roughly a 50-60 year useful adult lifespan and 6-10 of that are taken up by education. Given the ability to replace damaged organs, limbs, etc., with a minimum of disruption, repair general aging, better cancer and disease treatments, we're probably looking at at total lifespan of 120+ years, with maybe 80 of that useful adult lifespan.

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== Psychology, neurology and the like ==

Ok, this is where things can get creepy.

Memetics & Social Engineering
Imagine the ability to craft an ad that would pretty much ''hook'' you on a deep level and you have to fight against to resist. That's what you're talking about. With memetics, you can get some nasty high powered ads. If you allow for say, low power and nearly ubiquitous fMRI machines (with a low range), the pitch men can tailor it for the best effect. Without it, you can study the effects of specific social techniques and look for the greatest effects.

Does this remove free will? No, but a person has to be aware they're being targeted. Otherwise, they will be influenced. For the removal of free will, see below.

Psychology and Neuropsychology
How detailed can it get? Given your rules of thumb, a fmri machine is at least semi-portable. This means they could relatively common. Now, if you allow for high powered computers to interpret results, you have a all but unbeatable lie detector. Its also probably a very powerful therapeutic tool. With it, they might be able to identify areas of trauma, and worse stimulate areas of the brain through transcranial magnetic stimulation. Unlock a memory, induce a hallucination, make 'em see God, or administer a temporary lobotomy.

And that's the beginning... There are a host of books on this - from Peter Watts' '''Blindsight''', Cordelia Fine's '''A Mind of Its Own''', '''Kluge''' and most of Oliver Sacks' books. Look up on brain injury effects for some ideas and what could be done with them if they could be induced temporarily.

With patience (and a complete lack of ethics) you could implant memories. How? Good video, some drugs to induce a hypnopomp or hypnogogic state, and fmri assisted surgery to disconnect a person from his or her previous memories. Otherwise, want to induce amnesia for a specific memory its feasible. Or just make sure they can't remember what you did to them... Or they did... Trashing the process of transferring short term to long term along with other things can severely cripple an individual.

Alright, how widespread is this stuff? I imagine in the Federation, they restrict it. The OA may go all out. The Empire probably restricts it to themselves and the great houses. The Borg probably use it in ways that would scare anyone. The Romulans may hate it but study it to defend against it. And that's all I've got so far.

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== AI: They're people ==

Really. They are raised like children (probably with a greater up front cost), but are people and citizens (@ least in enlightened polities). They may have legal obligations to their parents, but against a much greater than organic lifespan, this may not be much to them.

Now, that's how I bet the Federal Worlds deal with it. Outside of it... well, I bet it gets ugly.
The OA probably practices some sort of longer term indentured servitude.
The Empire out and out enslaves them.
The Borg hives would take them as citizens.
The New Byzantines ... I don't know. Probably long term servitude and may ban them from certain roles.

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== Neural interface ==

Things that read nerves are probably ''easy''. We've got a version now being used in prosthetic limbs. Things that can stimulate tactile nerves are moving out into production as well - artificial legs with feet that feel the ground and feed it to the wearer.

So, for bionics and feedback for teleoperation would be pretty easy in the 29th century.

What else can you do with it? Well, getting it ''beyond'' simple reading of limb motion and providing tactile feedback, it builds on the stuff I mentioned above, particularly neuropsychology and its tools -fMRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Between the two of these, they can 'read' the brain, particularly for physical motion and some sensory issues. Heck, they've reached the point where they can pull the image from a brain now. Now, the interface can see what the person wearing it sees. Probably all the other senses too. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation, maybe ultrasonics, they can induce the appropriate hallucinations as well.

Not easy. I doubt its cheap and the potential for abuse is '''huge'''. Probably restricted pretty heavily by most governments.

Talk:FederalSpace:Technology

2009-02-26T23:02:44Z

Pilgrim: /* Psychology, neurology and the like */

On transporters and being bounced- one simple thing that could totally screw up even a well surveyed and planned transporter assault: stringing ropes around the area to change the layout.

== Jamming teleporters ==

Simplest way to jam a teleporter - string ropes across the large areas they'd be teleporting into.

More technological - if warp envelopes (a related technology) are 'finicky' then '''someone''' studying the stability of those envelopes would realize that turning those studies on their head would come up with a jammer. My bet is that it would require knowing about the teleporter system and the characteristics of their warp bubbles. That way, someone can take advantage of those characteristics to collapse them unexpectedly, or cause a bounce where there should be none. Also, you might be able to brute force your way through the jamming (if you've got enough power).

Thoughts and comments?
[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== Lifespan ==

OK, uploads are straight out.

But you've at least implied protein fabricators, so artificial replacement tissues are fairly easy. That means need a new lung? Wait while they customize a left lung template based on your tissues. And so on. This would increase lifespan right there.

What else? Well, there could be nanotech therapies/surgeries that could repair damages from radiation and aging. Time consuming, expensive in terms of the time of skilled therapists, but doable. Another method of increasing lifespan.

So, what are we looking at? Today, we have roughly a 50-60 year useful adult lifespan and 6-10 of that are taken up by education. Given the ability to replace damaged organs, limbs, etc., with a minimum of disruption, repair general aging, better cancer and disease treatments, we're probably looking at at total lifespan of 120+ years, with maybe 80 of that useful adult lifespan.

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== Psychology, neurology and the like ==

Ok, this is where things can get creepy.

Memetics & Social Engineering
Imagine the ability to craft an ad that would pretty much ''hook'' you on a deep level and you have to fight against to resist. That's what you're talking about. With memetics, you can get some nasty high powered ads. If you allow for say, low power and nearly ubiquitous fMRI machines (with a low range), the pitch men can tailor it for the best effect. Without it, you can study the effects of specific social techniques and look for the greatest effects.

Does this remove free will? No, but a person has to be aware they're being targeted. Otherwise, they will be influenced. For the removal of free will, see below.

Psychology and Neuropsychology
How detailed can it get? Given your rules of thumb, a fmri machine is at least semi-portable. This means they could relatively common. Now, if you allow for high powered computers to interpret results, you have a all but unbeatable lie detector. Its also probably a very powerful therapeutic tool. With it, they might be able to identify areas of trauma, and worse stimulate areas of the brain through transcranial magnetic stimulation. Unlock a memory, induce a hallucination, make 'em see God, or administer a temporary lobotomy.

And that's the beginning... There are a host of books on this - from Peter Watts' '''Blindsight''', Cordelia Fine's '''A Mind of Its Own''', '''Kluge''' and most of Oliver Sacks' books. Look up on brain injury effects for some ideas and what could be done with them if they could be induced temporarily.

With patience (and a complete lack of ethics) you could implant memories. How? Good video, some drugs to induce a hypnopomp or hypnogogic state, and fmri assisted surgery to disconnect a person from his or her previous memories. Otherwise, want to induce amnesia for a specific memory its feasible. Or just make sure they can't remember what you did to them... Or they did... Trashing the process of transferring short term to long term along with other things can severely cripple an individual.

Alright, how widespread is this stuff? I imagine in the Federation, they restrict it. The OA may go all out. The Empire probably restricts it to themselves and the great houses. The Borg probably use it in ways that would scare anyone. The Romulans may hate it but study it to defend against it. And that's all I've got so far.

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== AI: They're people ==

Really. They are raised like children (probably with a greater up front cost), but are people and citizens (@ least in enlightened polities). They may have legal obligations to their parents, but against a much greater than organic lifespan, this may not be much to them.

Now, that's how I bet the Federal Worlds deal with it. Outside of it... well, I bet it gets ugly.
The OA probably practices some sort of longer term indentured servitude.
The Empire out and out enslaves them.
The Borg hives would take them as citizens.
The New Byzantines ... I don't know. Probably long term servitude and may ban them from certain roles.

== Neural interface ==

Things that read nerves are probably ''easy''. We've got a version now being used in prosthetic limbs. Things that can stimulate tactile nerves are moving out into production as well - artificial legs with feet that feel the ground and feed it to the wearer.

So, for bionics and feedback for teleoperation would be pretty easy in the 29th century.

What else can you do with it? Well, getting it ''beyond'' simple reading of limb motion and providing tactile feedback, it builds on the stuff I mentioned above, particularly neuropsychology and its tools -fMRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Between the two of these, they can 'read' the brain, particularly for physical motion and some sensory issues. Heck, they've reached the point where they can pull the image from a brain now. Now, the interface can see what the person wearing it sees. Probably all the other senses too. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation, maybe ultrasonics, they can induce the appropriate hallucinations as well.

Not easy. I doubt its cheap and the potential for abuse is '''huge'''. Probably restricted pretty heavily by most governments.

Talk:FederalSpace:Technology

2009-02-26T23:02:32Z

Pilgrim: /* Lifespan */

On transporters and being bounced- one simple thing that could totally screw up even a well surveyed and planned transporter assault: stringing ropes around the area to change the layout.

== Jamming teleporters ==

Simplest way to jam a teleporter - string ropes across the large areas they'd be teleporting into.

More technological - if warp envelopes (a related technology) are 'finicky' then '''someone''' studying the stability of those envelopes would realize that turning those studies on their head would come up with a jammer. My bet is that it would require knowing about the teleporter system and the characteristics of their warp bubbles. That way, someone can take advantage of those characteristics to collapse them unexpectedly, or cause a bounce where there should be none. Also, you might be able to brute force your way through the jamming (if you've got enough power).

Thoughts and comments?
[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== Lifespan ==

OK, uploads are straight out.

But you've at least implied protein fabricators, so artificial replacement tissues are fairly easy. That means need a new lung? Wait while they customize a left lung template based on your tissues. And so on. This would increase lifespan right there.

What else? Well, there could be nanotech therapies/surgeries that could repair damages from radiation and aging. Time consuming, expensive in terms of the time of skilled therapists, but doable. Another method of increasing lifespan.

So, what are we looking at? Today, we have roughly a 50-60 year useful adult lifespan and 6-10 of that are taken up by education. Given the ability to replace damaged organs, limbs, etc., with a minimum of disruption, repair general aging, better cancer and disease treatments, we're probably looking at at total lifespan of 120+ years, with maybe 80 of that useful adult lifespan.

[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== Psychology, neurology and the like ==

Ok, this is where things can get creepy.

Memetics & Social Engineering
Imagine the ability to craft an ad that would pretty much ''hook'' you on a deep level and you have to fight against to resist. That's what you're talking about. With memetics, you can get some nasty high powered ads. If you allow for say, low power and nearly ubiquitous fMRI machines (with a low range), the pitch men can tailor it for the best effect. Without it, you can study the effects of specific social techniques and look for the greatest effects.

Does this remove free will? No, but a person has to be aware they're being targeted. Otherwise, they will be influenced. For the removal of free will, see below.

Psychology and Neuropsychology
How detailed can it get? Given your rules of thumb, a fmri machine is at least semi-portable. This means they could relatively common. Now, if you allow for high powered computers to interpret results, you have a all but unbeatable lie detector. Its also probably a very powerful therapeutic tool. With it, they might be able to identify areas of trauma, and worse stimulate areas of the brain through transcranial magnetic stimulation. Unlock a memory, induce a hallucination, make 'em see God, or administer a temporary lobotomy.

And that's the beginning... There are a host of books on this - from Peter Watts' '''Blindsight''', Cordelia Fine's '''A Mind of Its Own''', '''Kluge''' and most of Oliver Sacks' books. Look up on brain injury effects for some ideas and what could be done with them if they could be induced temporarily.

With patience (and a complete lack of ethics) you could implant memories. How? Good video, some drugs to induce a hypnopomp or hypnogogic state, and fmri assisted surgery to disconnect a person from his or her previous memories. Otherwise, want to induce amnesia for a specific memory its feasible. Or just make sure they can't remember what you did to them... Or they did... Trashing the process of transferring short term to long term along with other things can severely cripple an individual.

Alright, how widespread is this stuff? I imagine in the Federation, they restrict it. The OA may go all out. The Empire probably restricts it to themselves and the great houses. The Borg probably use it in ways that would scare anyone. The Romulans may hate it but study it to defend against it. And that's all I've got so far.

== AI: They're people ==

Really. They are raised like children (probably with a greater up front cost), but are people and citizens (@ least in enlightened polities). They may have legal obligations to their parents, but against a much greater than organic lifespan, this may not be much to them.

Now, that's how I bet the Federal Worlds deal with it. Outside of it... well, I bet it gets ugly.
The OA probably practices some sort of longer term indentured servitude.
The Empire out and out enslaves them.
The Borg hives would take them as citizens.
The New Byzantines ... I don't know. Probably long term servitude and may ban them from certain roles.

== Neural interface ==

Things that read nerves are probably ''easy''. We've got a version now being used in prosthetic limbs. Things that can stimulate tactile nerves are moving out into production as well - artificial legs with feet that feel the ground and feed it to the wearer.

So, for bionics and feedback for teleoperation would be pretty easy in the 29th century.

What else can you do with it? Well, getting it ''beyond'' simple reading of limb motion and providing tactile feedback, it builds on the stuff I mentioned above, particularly neuropsychology and its tools -fMRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Between the two of these, they can 'read' the brain, particularly for physical motion and some sensory issues. Heck, they've reached the point where they can pull the image from a brain now. Now, the interface can see what the person wearing it sees. Probably all the other senses too. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation, maybe ultrasonics, they can induce the appropriate hallucinations as well.

Not easy. I doubt its cheap and the potential for abuse is '''huge'''. Probably restricted pretty heavily by most governments.

Talk:FederalSpace:Technology

2009-02-26T23:02:22Z

Pilgrim: /* Jamming teleporters */

On transporters and being bounced- one simple thing that could totally screw up even a well surveyed and planned transporter assault: stringing ropes around the area to change the layout.

== Jamming teleporters ==

Simplest way to jam a teleporter - string ropes across the large areas they'd be teleporting into.

More technological - if warp envelopes (a related technology) are 'finicky' then '''someone''' studying the stability of those envelopes would realize that turning those studies on their head would come up with a jammer. My bet is that it would require knowing about the teleporter system and the characteristics of their warp bubbles. That way, someone can take advantage of those characteristics to collapse them unexpectedly, or cause a bounce where there should be none. Also, you might be able to brute force your way through the jamming (if you've got enough power).

Thoughts and comments?
[[User:Pilgrim|Pilgrim]]

== Lifespan ==

OK, uploads are straight out.

But you've at least implied protein fabricators, so artificial replacement tissues are fairly easy. That means need a new lung? Wait while they customize a left lung template based on your tissues. And so on. This would increase lifespan right there.

What else? Well, there could be nanotech therapies/surgeries that could repair damages from radiation and aging. Time consuming, expensive in terms of the time of skilled therapists, but doable. Another method of increasing lifespan.

So, what are we looking at? Today, we have roughly a 50-60 year useful adult lifespan and 6-10 of that are taken up by education. Given the ability to replace damaged organs, limbs, etc., with a minimum of disruption, repair general aging, better cancer and disease treatments, we're probably looking at at total lifespan of 120+ years, with maybe 80 of that useful adult lifespan.

== Psychology, neurology and the like ==

Ok, this is where things can get creepy.

Memetics & Social Engineering
Imagine the ability to craft an ad that would pretty much ''hook'' you on a deep level and you have to fight against to resist. That's what you're talking about. With memetics, you can get some nasty high powered ads. If you allow for say, low power and nearly ubiquitous fMRI machines (with a low range), the pitch men can tailor it for the best effect. Without it, you can study the effects of specific social techniques and look for the greatest effects.

Does this remove free will? No, but a person has to be aware they're being targeted. Otherwise, they will be influenced. For the removal of free will, see below.

Psychology and Neuropsychology
How detailed can it get? Given your rules of thumb, a fmri machine is at least semi-portable. This means they could relatively common. Now, if you allow for high powered computers to interpret results, you have a all but unbeatable lie detector. Its also probably a very powerful therapeutic tool. With it, they might be able to identify areas of trauma, and worse stimulate areas of the brain through transcranial magnetic stimulation. Unlock a memory, induce a hallucination, make 'em see God, or administer a temporary lobotomy.

And that's the beginning... There are a host of books on this - from Peter Watts' '''Blindsight''', Cordelia Fine's '''A Mind of Its Own''', '''Kluge''' and most of Oliver Sacks' books. Look up on brain injury effects for some ideas and what could be done with them if they could be induced temporarily.

With patience (and a complete lack of ethics) you could implant memories. How? Good video, some drugs to induce a hypnopomp or hypnogogic state, and fmri assisted surgery to disconnect a person from his or her previous memories. Otherwise, want to induce amnesia for a specific memory its feasible. Or just make sure they can't remember what you did to them... Or they did... Trashing the process of transferring short term to long term along with other things can severely cripple an individual.

Alright, how widespread is this stuff? I imagine in the Federation, they restrict it. The OA may go all out. The Empire probably restricts it to themselves and the great houses. The Borg probably use it in ways that would scare anyone. The Romulans may hate it but study it to defend against it. And that's all I've got so far.

== AI: They're people ==

Really. They are raised like children (probably with a greater up front cost), but are people and citizens (@ least in enlightened polities). They may have legal obligations to their parents, but against a much greater than organic lifespan, this may not be much to them.

Now, that's how I bet the Federal Worlds deal with it. Outside of it... well, I bet it gets ugly.
The OA probably practices some sort of longer term indentured servitude.
The Empire out and out enslaves them.
The Borg hives would take them as citizens.
The New Byzantines ... I don't know. Probably long term servitude and may ban them from certain roles.

== Neural interface ==

Things that read nerves are probably ''easy''. We've got a version now being used in prosthetic limbs. Things that can stimulate tactile nerves are moving out into production as well - artificial legs with feet that feel the ground and feed it to the wearer.

So, for bionics and feedback for teleoperation would be pretty easy in the 29th century.

What else can you do with it? Well, getting it ''beyond'' simple reading of limb motion and providing tactile feedback, it builds on the stuff I mentioned above, particularly neuropsychology and its tools -fMRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Between the two of these, they can 'read' the brain, particularly for physical motion and some sensory issues. Heck, they've reached the point where they can pull the image from a brain now. Now, the interface can see what the person wearing it sees. Probably all the other senses too. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation, maybe ultrasonics, they can induce the appropriate hallucinations as well.

Not easy. I doubt its cheap and the potential for abuse is '''huge'''. Probably restricted pretty heavily by most governments.

Talk:FederalSpace:Peoples

2009-02-26T22:58:28Z

Pilgrim: Hivers & Puppeteers

Talk:FederalSpace:Peoples

2009-02-26T22:48:10Z

Pilgrim:

== Humans, Aliens (agressive), Aliens (passive) ==

Seems to me that you need to set up the common species, humans, human variants, aggressive aliens and passive aliens.

Talk:FederalSpace:Technology

2009-02-26T21:16:13Z

Pilgrim: Neural interface

On transporters and being bounced- one simple thing that could totally screw up even a well surveyed and planned transporter assault: stringing ropes around the area to change the layout.

== Jamming teleporters ==

Simplest way to jam a teleporter - string ropes across the large areas they'd be teleporting into.

More technological - if warp envelopes (a related technology) are 'finicky' then '''someone''' studying the stability of those envelopes would realize that turning those studies on their head would come up with a jammer. My bet is that it would require knowing about the teleporter system and the characteristics of their warp bubbles. That way, someone can take advantage of those characteristics to collapse them unexpectedly, or cause a bounce where there should be none. Also, you might be able to brute force your way through the jamming (if you've got enough power).

Thoughts and comments?

== Lifespan ==

OK, uploads are straight out.

But you've at least implied protein fabricators, so artificial replacement tissues are fairly easy. That means need a new lung? Wait while they customize a left lung template based on your tissues. And so on. This would increase lifespan right there.

What else? Well, there could be nanotech therapies/surgeries that could repair damages from radiation and aging. Time consuming, expensive in terms of the time of skilled therapists, but doable. Another method of increasing lifespan.

So, what are we looking at? Today, we have roughly a 50-60 year useful adult lifespan and 6-10 of that are taken up by education. Given the ability to replace damaged organs, limbs, etc., with a minimum of disruption, repair general aging, better cancer and disease treatments, we're probably looking at at total lifespan of 120+ years, with maybe 80 of that useful adult lifespan.

== Psychology, neurology and the like ==

Ok, this is where things can get creepy.

Memetics & Social Engineering
Imagine the ability to craft an ad that would pretty much ''hook'' you on a deep level and you have to fight against to resist. That's what you're talking about. With memetics, you can get some nasty high powered ads. If you allow for say, low power and nearly ubiquitous fMRI machines (with a low range), the pitch men can tailor it for the best effect. Without it, you can study the effects of specific social techniques and look for the greatest effects.

Does this remove free will? No, but a person has to be aware they're being targeted. Otherwise, they will be influenced. For the removal of free will, see below.

Psychology and Neuropsychology
How detailed can it get? Given your rules of thumb, a fmri machine is at least semi-portable. This means they could relatively common. Now, if you allow for high powered computers to interpret results, you have a all but unbeatable lie detector. Its also probably a very powerful therapeutic tool. With it, they might be able to identify areas of trauma, and worse stimulate areas of the brain through transcranial magnetic stimulation. Unlock a memory, induce a hallucination, make 'em see God, or administer a temporary lobotomy.

And that's the beginning... There are a host of books on this - from Peter Watts' '''Blindsight''', Cordelia Fine's '''A Mind of Its Own''', '''Kluge''' and most of Oliver Sacks' books. Look up on brain injury effects for some ideas and what could be done with them if they could be induced temporarily.

With patience (and a complete lack of ethics) you could implant memories. How? Good video, some drugs to induce a hypnopomp or hypnogogic state, and fmri assisted surgery to disconnect a person from his or her previous memories. Otherwise, want to induce amnesia for a specific memory its feasible. Or just make sure they can't remember what you did to them... Or they did... Trashing the process of transferring short term to long term along with other things can severely cripple an individual.

Alright, how widespread is this stuff? I imagine in the Federation, they restrict it. The OA may go all out. The Empire probably restricts it to themselves and the great houses. The Borg probably use it in ways that would scare anyone. The Romulans may hate it but study it to defend against it. And that's all I've got so far.

== AI: They're people ==

Really. They are raised like children (probably with a greater up front cost), but are people and citizens (@ least in enlightened polities). They may have legal obligations to their parents, but against a much greater than organic lifespan, this may not be much to them.

Now, that's how I bet the Federal Worlds deal with it. Outside of it... well, I bet it gets ugly.
The OA probably practices some sort of longer term indentured servitude.
The Empire out and out enslaves them.
The Borg hives would take them as citizens.
The New Byzantines ... I don't know. Probably long term servitude and may ban them from certain roles.

== Neural interface ==

Things that read nerves are probably ''easy''. We've got a version now being used in prosthetic limbs. Things that can stimulate tactile nerves are moving out into production as well - artificial legs with feet that feel the ground and feed it to the wearer.

So, for bionics and feedback for teleoperation would be pretty easy in the 29th century.

What else can you do with it? Well, getting it ''beyond'' simple reading of limb motion and providing tactile feedback, it builds on the stuff I mentioned above, particularly neuropsychology and its tools -fMRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Between the two of these, they can 'read' the brain, particularly for physical motion and some sensory issues. Heck, they've reached the point where they can pull the image from a brain now. Now, the interface can see what the person wearing it sees. Probably all the other senses too. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation, maybe ultrasonics, they can induce the appropriate hallucinations as well.

Not easy. I doubt its cheap and the potential for abuse is '''huge'''. Probably restricted pretty heavily by most governments.

Talk:FederalSpace:Technology

2009-02-26T21:09:13Z

Pilgrim: AI: They're people

On transporters and being bounced- one simple thing that could totally screw up even a well surveyed and planned transporter assault: stringing ropes around the area to change the layout.

== Jamming teleporters ==

Simplest way to jam a teleporter - string ropes across the large areas they'd be teleporting into.

More technological - if warp envelopes (a related technology) are 'finicky' then '''someone''' studying the stability of those envelopes would realize that turning those studies on their head would come up with a jammer. My bet is that it would require knowing about the teleporter system and the characteristics of their warp bubbles. That way, someone can take advantage of those characteristics to collapse them unexpectedly, or cause a bounce where there should be none. Also, you might be able to brute force your way through the jamming (if you've got enough power).

Thoughts and comments?

== Lifespan ==

OK, uploads are straight out.

But you've at least implied protein fabricators, so artificial replacement tissues are fairly easy. That means need a new lung? Wait while they customize a left lung template based on your tissues. And so on. This would increase lifespan right there.

What else? Well, there could be nanotech therapies/surgeries that could repair damages from radiation and aging. Time consuming, expensive in terms of the time of skilled therapists, but doable. Another method of increasing lifespan.

So, what are we looking at? Today, we have roughly a 50-60 year useful adult lifespan and 6-10 of that are taken up by education. Given the ability to replace damaged organs, limbs, etc., with a minimum of disruption, repair general aging, better cancer and disease treatments, we're probably looking at at total lifespan of 120+ years, with maybe 80 of that useful adult lifespan.

== Psychology, neurology and the like ==

Ok, this is where things can get creepy.

Memetics & Social Engineering
Imagine the ability to craft an ad that would pretty much ''hook'' you on a deep level and you have to fight against to resist. That's what you're talking about. With memetics, you can get some nasty high powered ads. If you allow for say, low power and nearly ubiquitous fMRI machines (with a low range), the pitch men can tailor it for the best effect. Without it, you can study the effects of specific social techniques and look for the greatest effects.

Does this remove free will? No, but a person has to be aware they're being targeted. Otherwise, they will be influenced. For the removal of free will, see below.

Psychology and Neuropsychology
How detailed can it get? Given your rules of thumb, a fmri machine is at least semi-portable. This means they could relatively common. Now, if you allow for high powered computers to interpret results, you have a all but unbeatable lie detector. Its also probably a very powerful therapeutic tool. With it, they might be able to identify areas of trauma, and worse stimulate areas of the brain through transcranial magnetic stimulation. Unlock a memory, induce a hallucination, make 'em see God, or administer a temporary lobotomy.

And that's the beginning... There are a host of books on this - from Peter Watts' '''Blindsight''', Cordelia Fine's '''A Mind of Its Own''', '''Kluge''' and most of Oliver Sacks' books. Look up on brain injury effects for some ideas and what could be done with them if they could be induced temporarily.

With patience (and a complete lack of ethics) you could implant memories. How? Good video, some drugs to induce a hypnopomp or hypnogogic state, and fmri assisted surgery to disconnect a person from his or her previous memories. Otherwise, want to induce amnesia for a specific memory its feasible. Or just make sure they can't remember what you did to them... Or they did... Trashing the process of transferring short term to long term along with other things can severely cripple an individual.

Alright, how widespread is this stuff? I imagine in the Federation, they restrict it. The OA may go all out. The Empire probably restricts it to themselves and the great houses. The Borg probably use it in ways that would scare anyone. The Romulans may hate it but study it to defend against it. And that's all I've got so far.

== AI: They're people ==

Really. They are raised like children (probably with a greater up front cost), but are people and citizens (@ least in enlightened polities). They may have legal obligations to their parents, but against a much greater than organic lifespan, this may not be much to them.

Now, that's how I bet the Federal Worlds deal with it. Outside of it... well, I bet it gets ugly.
The OA probably practices some sort of longer term indentured servitude.
The Empire out and out enslaves them.
The Borg hives would take them as citizens.
The New Byzantines ... I don't know. Probably long term servitude and may ban them from certain roles.

Talk:FederalSpace:Technology

2009-02-26T21:04:43Z

Pilgrim: /* Psychology, neurology and the like */

Talk:FederalSpace:Technology

2009-02-26T21:00:20Z

Pilgrim: Psychology, neurology and the like

Talk:FederalSpace:Technology

2009-02-26T20:45:49Z

Pilgrim: Lifespan

FederalSpace:Technology

2009-02-26T17:53:04Z

Pilgrim: /* Weapons */

Because the technology is the first thing everybody asks about.

= Recent Updates, and Unresolved Issues =

*The nature of FTL communications.
*Lifespans and general medical technology. Nanotech can't reconstruct you, and we can't upload your personality to a computer, but what ''can'' be done?
*Power and extent of advanced psychology, memetics, and social engineering.
*Social role of AI.
*Neural interface, level of development of.
*Exotic Talents—details.
*Obvious gaping holes in the functioning of transporters. Big question: Can they be jammed?
*Time scale for terraforming.

= Introduction =

In GURPS (4th edition) rules terms, for those of you familiar with that game, Trek-as-written tends to be a TL12^ Safetech setting: that's about as advanced as possible, with lots of superscience gadgetry, yet the most transformative effects of the technology are avoided or suppressed by society. '''''Federal Space''''', on the other hand, is largely a TL10 Conservative Hard SF setting, with a scant handful of superscience miracles, and emphasis upon the "High Industrial" path (with "High Biotech" running a distant second). That means mostly very, very advanced versions of stuff that we have or is experimental today, and a lot of ultra-tech hasn't transformed the human condition because it ''can't.''

Why do this? Two reasons:

First, it shifts emphasis back to the characters and setting. Isaac Asimov has written that his Lije Baley novels were a reaction to a claim that one couldn't do a proper mystery in an SF setting, because—for example—one could present a made-up problem involving a made-up phenomenon, and then pull a made-up technology out of thin-air to solve it at the end. This describes about half of the episodes in ''Star Trek: Voyager.'' :D Asimov's answer to this problem was that one should present the possibilities and limitations of the technology up front, and then ''stick to them''; the characters use the tools they have, with no tricks hidden to the players.

Second, it places new emphasis upon the technology! A paradox, no? By emphasizing that these are largely commonplace ''tools'', and not Marvels of Science (or multi-purpose plot devices), you notice them again in a new context, and by extension notice your ''own'' tools in the real world. It makes them more accessible—you don't need to invoke magic phrases (technobabble) to get work done. Just use the tools.

This does nerf MacGuyver characters—or does it? Maybe it just shifts 'em down a level. The engineer is complemented not for bending the laws of physics, but for getting his people and resources together to pull off a plan on time…

There's a third reason for going "low-tech" with the ultra-tech: it gives a slightly retro, ''physical'' feel to the setting. Stuff can be heavy or break down, engineers curse and sweat, like that.

== The Three Rules of Thumb ==

Going along with this goal, I've got three rules-of-thumb I'm trying to follow:

'''Rule #1: Trust the Setting's Engineers:''' Also known as the rule of "describe what it does, but not how." I know that our starfarers must have some fancy materials science, because a hand phaser requires some pretty impressive conductors and absorbers to unleash the necessary energy without melting in the user's hand. But I don't need to detail just what these materials are, or where they're used. Our engineers are the only ones who need to know the details; we just need to know what a phaser can be used for. (But since I'm trying to be a little more hard-science consistent, I do try to point out where the ultra-tech may be in use…)

'''Rule #2: Shift Scale Down One Order of Magnitude:''' If it's impossible now, it requires ''at least'' a building-sized installation in this setting. If it's building-sized now, it can be transported by truck in this setting. If it needs a truck now, it's semi-portable. If it's semi-portable now, it's hand-held, and probably multifunction. If it's hand-held now, it's pocket-sized or smaller, and probably integrated with a bunch of other pocket-sized gadgets. If it's already like that now, it can be sewn into your underwear.

Thus: An FTL communicator is impossible, so it occupies a building, or a whole section of a starship. There are truck (or transporter) deployable factory units. You can lug a powerful generator or radar installation as a backpack unit. A phaser rifle can put out equivalent destructive power to a modern heavy machine gun or rocket launcher, or both—and a "pocket" phaser pistol compares to both SMG and taser. A "pocket comm" combines nearly every imaginable function of PDAs, satellite and cell phones, cameras, microphones, music players, and most other modern pocket devices—with greatly increased reliability, to boot. Your shirts all have calculators or wrist-watches sewn into the cuff.

'''Rule #3: It's About Choices, Not Levels:''' I've already mentioned that there are no Alien Space Gods or magic Clarke-tech in this setting, but I also want to avoid or twist the lesser trope of the world with technology far advanced from that of the adventurers, or inventions that are limited to only one "race." This is a setting of enthusiastic engineers: anything one culture comes up with, another can duplicate—if they want to go to the trouble. They might not want to, either because their tech base is oriented differently, or they dislike it on moral grounds, or just because they don't see the problems that tech was intended to solve! So it's not that planet X has incomprehensibly advanced tech, it's that the people on planet X have come up with a unique application of known technology to solve a particular problem, and therefore they have the edge of experience over everyone else in using it that way.

== General Fields of Technology ==

=== Warp-tech and high-energy miracles ===
There's only one major miracle: warp technology, used for the FTL drive, FTL comms, and the trademark ''transporter.'' I combine all of these because it feels satisfying to have all the obvious impossibilities in one place.

There's no gravity or "force" control. Therefore, there are no contragravity vehicles, artificial gravity control, inertial dampers, tractor or pressor beams, force fields or deflector screens, or anything else along those lines. Spacecraft must spin or thrust, or their crews must accept the problems of microgravity. And we have the full variety of conventional vehicles to draw upon, from maglev trains and all-terrain vehicles, to aerodynes and hypercavitating submarines.

Projected holograms—mere images—seem both cool and harmless to me, though, so I'll permit this minor bending of the laws of physics. Realistically, it's probably pretty easy to detect the trick except under controlled circumstances—outside of a holodeck or holotank, you'd likely see the light beam, for example—so we won't have invisibility cloaks or scare-the-natives god displays, but it's a fun detail for control rooms and R&R.

There's no matter-energy conversion. The transporter just moves stuff, nothing else. "Replicators" are physical manufacturing units requiring materials and time, not anything-out-of-thin-air devices. Holodecks just make images and sounds (and maybe scent, from little chem units)—no manipulation of physical objects.

=== Physical Tech ===
We have nano-materials and manufacturing processes now, of course, but this setting does not have "grey cloud" nanotechnology, monomolecular materials, living metal, and similar wonders. Turns out that the only effective nanobots are extremely limited in capability and only work under tightly controlled circumstances; it's just not worth the effort. There ''is'' advanced materials technology, to permit the superconductors and superabsorbers needed for energy weapons and such, and allow for some nifty-looking spaceships and skyscrapers. And to let us handwave away the heat dispersion problem—call this a minor miracle. So we can also have smart materials (like color-changing, self-cleaning fabrics), memory metals and plastics, transparent metals, and similar toys.

Also, I think nanobots and microswarms and such break the feel. Cadres of baseball-sized drones I can live with, but microbugs everywhere spoil the "physical" feel.

There is some advanced biotechnology. Most of the "alien" humanoid races are actually gengineered humans, and the setting also has uplifted animals, genetically-targeted therapies, and various other bio-tricks. And the real aliens have equivalent technology. Oddly, there's been a retreat ''away'' from some of this technology, from the days of the Terran Empire. There's no point in bioengineering a perfect slave race when it's illegal or impractical to own slaves, for example, and experience has shown that there's only so far you can push genomes before unacceptable drawbacks appear. And the interstellar ecology has gotten complex enough that biomaterials and biogadgets are vulnerable to infection from unanticipated sources—you grow yourself a beautiful living skyscraper, and then it gets sick and dies from some random bug brought by an interstellar tourist. Hardtech is more reliable for functional equipment. But biotech is known and embraced, and I'm sure there are many busy terraforming projects going on out there.

An unresolved question: Just how far have lifespans been improved? How old is old for a modern human?

=== Minds ===
Artificial intelligence is possible, but intelligence and memory cannot be duplicated or transferred. Say there's some ineffable quality to sapience, or just say that thought is a ''process'' and not a state. Thus, an A.I. has to be birthed and trained over years, is considered a unique (albeit unusual) person, and is bound to a particular brainbox (though the shell could be changed or upgraded). No personality uploads, no xoxing, no "what is real?" mind games. Conventionally-programmed drones can be smart, but not clever or wise; send people if you want attention to detail. We do have neural interfaces, for use by the handicapped, in the experimental stages now, so some sort of passive neural input seems likely—a "hands-free" way to use your computer, in a pinch. I'm hesitant on the idea of sensory-input, though since memory can't be recorded or duplicated… A good compromise might be that tricks like ecstasy machines or electronic anesthesia are possible, but must be tuned for a particular individual. So no neuronic whips.

Incidentally, no universal translator. You can have pretty smart translator programs, and linguists have computer analysis to help them, but there are still language barriers. English is one of a small number of ''lingua franca.''

Just because the mind can't be duplicated doesn't mean it can't be ''analyzed.'' Psychology would be more advanced and effective, thanks to good brain scans and analysis tools, and presumably there's some understanding of memetics. I don't know how powerful I want this to be, because I feel that free will is important for to the Trek setting, and having other people mess with your thinking twists that. On the other hand, one must keep in mind the importance of the bell curve and edge cases—you may have used memetics to construct a peaceful utopian society, but that 10% of the population who are assholes will still be assholes…

And does that mean we have a functioning lie detector?

=== Exotic Talents ===

I ''was'' opposed to the idea of psi powers—I go to all the trouble of stripping the magic tech out, and now we want to put magic mental powers ''in?!''—but after consideration, I do like the idea of "exotic talents." Let's say that the usual psi explanation, of manipulation of energy or information at a distance, remains impossible. A Talent is an intriguing edge case, like an idiot savant—they've got some incredible personal knacks and quirks that, in the right combination, can do some incredible things. A person who's incredibly good at reading people's emotional states; a person who's a linguistic savant, rapidly identifying languages and following the tone; a person with pronounced meditative control over their metabolism; a person who can hear and understand minute changes in active machinery; a person who can intuitively sift large amounts of intelligence data. With this setting's improved understanding of psychology and genetics, it's possible to locate these people, and train them to use their knacks more reliably and in concert with conventional skills and technology. It's even possible to ''try'' to manufacture them—nature and nurture being what they are, you'll get hundreds of normally-odd people for each success, but it may be worth the trouble for some organizations.

'''Commentary''' If you've had the opportunity to catch Fox-television's "Lie To Me," or NBC's "The Mentalist," you have seen how people can develop hypertrophied perceptual abilities. Combine this with training from the cradle, and Betazed "empathy" might not be so far-fetched.

== New Miracles ==

=== The Transporter ===
I wanted to keep imagery of the transporter, because it's the most distinctive piece of Trek tech—essential to the visual experience. But the Trek-as-written explanation is troubling, for various reasons I'm sure you know. So here's a possible replacement:

The transporter was first used for satellite launch, and second used for orbital bombardment. Later, it was adapted for personnel and cargo transport, and today is a commonplace—if finicky—technology. It also formed the eventual basis for the warpdrive.

It's a spacewarp device. It wraps the subject "on the pad" in a "space-time bubble", then "casts" the bubble in a straight line, somewhat like a particle accelerator. For a fraction of a second, the bubble moves faster-than-light, and can pass through ("ghosts") through limited quantities of normal matter. And then the bubble "bursts", and its contents are deposited, hopefully at the target location. Because this is a space-warp, the subject doesn't experience any movement—in fact, they even arrive "at rest" relative to the largest mass at the landing site. (Thus explaining why you don't smack into the planet as it moves through its orbit—you arrive at rest relative to it!)

Because mass bends space-time, the more mass there is in the path of travel, the less accurate the casting is. The bubble can't burst where there is already significant mass, but "bounces" in an essentially random direction, until it finds an open location. So you can't beam into a solid object, and beaming through more then a couple of walls kills accuracy. On the other hand, it's a standard trick to aim your casting ''below'' ground level, so the bubble bounces and precipitates to the surface—off target, but safer than having the bubble burst prematurely, dropping the subjects at altitude…

You can, of course, simply aim for empty space.

Presumably, there should be a hell of a lot of noise and stray energy when this occurs, because of displaced atmosphere, the neutralizing of inertia when matching reference frames, and similar concerns. But you know what? Since it's ''already'' impossible, I don't care. Assume there's noise, a breeze, and a bunch of static discharges, similar to but not as pronounced as the time travel effects in the ''Terminator'' movies, but somehow the rest is compensated for. There's a shimmer of a lights, a blurring of space, and then the subject is there!

You can perform a transport on the spur of the moment if you don't care much about where your subject ends up, but a safe transfer requires detailed spatial and gravitational observations for the entire zone of operations, from the transporter pad, through the intervening space, and to the target site. The ideal situation is between two well-surveyed locations, e.g. from one permanent installation to another. Field-expedient transports, as under combat conditions, are comparable to aerial insertion via parachute—not terribly accurate, but quick, and hard to detect or intercept. (Note that there's no reason why you couldn't beam out ''with'' a parachute… special ops troops probably train to beam down, paraglide to a good body of water, then swim underwater to the assembly area.)

You can't retrieve a subject, because they're out of range of the transporter unit. On the other hand, you could beam down another transport unit, and use it to send them back. There are single-use units for away parties, that must be assembled at the other end, and linked back to the mothership to use its sensors and computational equipment for a safe exit. For a more permanent base camp or beachhead, you actually ''construct'' a full transport facility, with power supply, sensors, etc.

Sadly, this means the loss (or alteration) of the immortal line, "Beam me up!"

Because of the need for careful surveying, limitations of retrieval, and so forth, use of aerospace vehicles is actually ''better'' in situations where you need flexibility. Transport in the field is used when you need speed, or don't want to be intercepted; otherwise, transport is exclusively for use in civilized areas.

Developed worlds will have extensive transport networks, well-surveyed and centrally-coordinated. Public transport pads, for cargo or people, will link cities—with light rail and light aircraft to fill in between. Emergency personnel can be deployed very rapidly from orbital transport facilities. Personal delivery is expensive as hell—an entire pad, just to send you a package immediately?—but it happens. Satellites and shuttles are launched to orbit via transporter, reserving laser-launch facilities for the largest of vessels that must be launched in one piece; ships can deploy their drones and probes via transporter, as well. Colonies see more use of conventional vehicles, because they haven't built their teleport network yet—cars and trucks overland, ships and subs in the oceans, aircraft.

In war, transport can be used to beam troops aboard a spacecraft or habitat that must be taken intact, but it's risky, of course—you probably don't have accurate surveys of the interior, and they'll be shooting back at you the moment you're down. A well-coordinated transport assault can work wonders, however. Transport can also be used to deploy uninterceptable bombs with fair precision, which explains why military bases are still placed far underground.

It'd be a good idea to work out just how long it takes to arrange a transport. For now, assume it takes hours to set up a good transport, and there can be days of downtime while the equipment is being reset and tested. Public pads will carry heavy loads, multiple times per day (or even per hour), for days or weeks at a time, and then be taken offline for extensive maintenance.

What can go wrong? Generally, the worst that happens is the subject scatters farther than is convenient, or the bubble fails to establish at all and nothing happens. It ''can'' happen that a subject appears at altitude mistakenly, or trapped in an underground pocket, or some similar disaster; all the more reason to set up the transition carefully. Worst case scenario, there's a catastrophic failure, destroying the transporter, the subject, and possibly all around them. This is incredibly rare and unlikely, though.

It occurs to me that this is a practical reason, among ships of hostile nations, for the tradition of having your senior officers waiting to greet the other ships' senior officers when they are transported over. You had to link systems to perform a careful transport, but one party or the other could easily sabotage the job… so by putting your people in harm's way, you make each party hostage to the other.

An important question: Is it possible to jam transport, or is the only defense jamming the sensors? (A thought: if the FTL comm is a spin-off of warp tech, then the answer is probably "yes", but you block all transport and comm to that region, too… and it's a planet-scale effect.)

==== Commentary ====

===== David Rhode on matching vectors =====
Transporters - one possible limitation on the system you describe might involve matching the velocity vectors. If you're moving mass from one inertial frame of reference to another, even if you have a 'space warp' effect that lets you cover the distance nigh-instantaneously, you still have to change the vectors of the mass transported, or it will fly off the planet, or ram through the wall of the ship or whatever. The transporter, in additon to the power required to initialize the space warp, will need to use power to cancel the difference in vectors. The greater the difference in magnitude between the vectors, the more costly and difficult the transport effect would be. Moving people up and down from a planet while you're in geostationary orbit would be pretty easy. Snagging the captain off an exploding space station while evading phasers would be difficult, mostly because of the power requirements.

I remember a scene from one of the Lensman novels where Kimball Kinnison, wearing some kind of armored suit IIRC, had to transport directly from one ship to another at top speed, meaning they couldn't slow down to match vectors, so they just tossed him off one ship into the other. They caught him inside a special room covered with shock absorbers, and he had to spend a good while bouncing off the walls until he finally matched vectors with the second vessel.

'''Commentary:''' While I'm using the handwave that transporter ''doesn't'' require vector matching, this is a good example of the sort of stuff that a transport operator would have to worry about. Exponentially-greater power for longer range castings seems like a good idea, and a solid limitation.

=== Stardrives ===

Transport was the origin of the warpdrive in this setting. The early "stutterwarp" (inspired by the one in ''2300''), developed during the Terran Empire, is essentially a transporter that transports itself. Because the range-per-cast is short, the drive has to be cycled rapidly to get anywhere; breakdowns are frequent.

The later "transwarp", developed independently by a number of people (but first by what would become the Federated Worlds), is a variation that, in layman's terms, lets the bubble be maintained ''indefinitely.'' Thus, your starship can rampage all over the place at fantastic pseudovelocity—until you hit something that disrupts the bubble, and then you're back in normal space again, at a dead stop. Long-distance travel is a continual start-and-stop affair, carefully jockeying the drive across gravity gradients and around the higher-concentrations of spacedust, and recalculating your location after the last inadvertant bounce-and-scatter.

I have a glimmering of an idea that the classic layout of Trek ships is actually a requirement of the warp drive—that they've placed the habitat module in the safest part of the bubble, and that the warp nacelles ''have'' to be cantilevered away from the center of mass like that. Efficiency trade-offs should also play a role: you've got your powerful but slow tugs, swifter cruisers, and slow but ''stealthy'' (i.e. low warp signature) craft like the old Romulan Warbird.

Though no one in the core setting uses them as far as I know, stargates are theoretically possible, if you could build a transporter with range and accuracy sufficient to cross interstellar distances. (Most transporters have ranges of no more 1.0 light-second.) The catch is that there's no way to get your ship back without another stargate—and if you could carry one on your ship, why not just fit it with a warpdrive? Still, it's probably do-able if you took the time—perhaps some Borg hives have gate networks, and myriads of small ships to fling between their worlds. It'd be easier to do within a system, Cowboy Bebop style, then for interstellar travel—at ''that'' scale, I imagine you'd consider yourself fortunate to hit the right part of the target solar system. A stargate accurate enough to take a single person from one world to a specific location on another world would be far beyond the capabilities of anyone in this setting. (Alien Space Gods could do it, but there aren't any, remember? :) )

The warp bubble itself is very finicky, and "collapses" at the slightest notice: not only impact with too much mass (causing the "bounce" effect), but too much energy, or energy change, or crossing too powerful a gravity gradient, or… When the bubble drops, you have to stop and reestablish it, which is difficult to do under combat conditions. Basically, warp drive is ''cheating'' on a cosmic scale, and it's easy for the universe to force you to play by the rules again.

I suppose theoretically you could warp a planet, Lensman-style, if you could build a big enough generator—but that's way out of the reach of their current technology.

'''Commentary from LordDraqo''' I like this, as it feels like the Alcubierre warp that has been kicking around for a while.

=== Space Warfare in the Eight-and-Twenty ===

In normal space, there's nowhere to hide, unless you go FTL: if early 21st century technology can spot spaceships around other planets in the same system, and planets around other stars, 28th century technology will easily perceive every vessel in a system. In warp, ships can be ''dimly'' perceived, using the same spatial sensors used to calculate warp transitions. (Presumably, the spatial warp propagates faster-than-light, which may not be true-to-real-life-physics, but is convenient for our purposes.) It's tricky, thanks to varying gravitational gradients and ripples in space and what not. Fast or powerful ships have strong warp signatures, while slow and sneaky ships have weak signatures; you can spot a fleet coming, but a few warbirds might be able to sneak up on a system if they plot a good course. But once they drop out of warp, there's no cloaking device or jamming device that can prevent you from knowing they're in-system. (This doesn't change the plot effect, really. "Oh shit, warbirds decloaking!" is the same as "Oh shit, warbirds coming out of warp!")

If ships meet in open space between systems, and one force wants to break contact, it's a contest of maneuver. If you can bring your warp bubble into contact with the enemy's, both your bubbles "pop" and you drop into normal space, stationary next to each other. Something similar happens if you make a mistake of maneuver, and momentarily lose your bubble—your foe can pounce, or increase the distance. Conventional weapons don't do any good, but there are expensive warp-capable missiles, designed purely to pursue and intercept, and distract the target until you get there, instants later.

In-system, conventional defenses like brilliant pebbles are fine against conventional forces, but a warpship can maneuver around them, and a well-positioned phaser array has a good chance to shoot them down. (This is also why the near-c asteroid trick isn't worth much these days.) Thus, in normal space combat, you've really got no choice but to walk up and blast 'em. (Fly-by courses make sense for conventional maneuver, but a warpship breaks the rules.) There are ways to seek advantage: the right fly-by course, a barrage of nuclear torpedoes as an opener, a formation of drones that flies in with you, coordinated spoofing at the right moment… but really, the actual fight is a crap shoot.

Face-to-face with the enemy, things go down like the battle scenes from ''Wrath of Khan.'' Fuckin' fireballs and people screaming and ships torn apart. Things move so fast you have to rely on automatics, but you need human intuition to guide them—or is that just a psychological crutch for the sake of morale? Lensman-style, the beam and slugs and particles bore into the ships with no room for maneuver. There are magnetically-suspended "sand" screens, and there is hull armor, there is energy absorptive hull-plating which gamely tries to channel the energy into your own capacitors even as the plating melts and shorts out, but in short, it's fucking murder. Both ships are likely to be crippled; even if you have advantage of numbers, someone gets mauled. People blown to bits, radiation burns for the survivors, breaches and cut wiring everywhere.

Did we mention that warpships are among the most expensive and valuable pieces of equipment in the galaxy?

Because of this, no one likes to actually ''fight'' battles. It's all a chess game of bluff and counter-maneuver. You shift ships into a system, they shuffle their fleets around, you make like you ''could'' attack if you wanted to, they make like they ''could'' defend, you shift away to another direction… Occasionally things do come to brief blows. Rarely do things come to full battle—but when they do, all bets are off.

How's this play out on the strategic scale? There are interstellar warp missiles, either deployed independently, or launched by "boomer ships", in analogy to ICBMs and ABMs—or lurking like seamines—that maintain a stand-off balance of power. Warpships show the flag in outlying territories, probe "neutral space" for advantage, and there are standing forces in the core, waiting for a battle that everyone thinks will never come… and prays it won't. In-system, you see lots of normal traffic, including conventional-space patrol ships, lightly armed for customs interdiction, or toting heavier weapons for forlorn hope defense against invasion… and screens of monitor stations and orbital cannon around the worlds, dispersed and ready for warp attack. Plus hidden ground-based weapons and jammers, forming the final line of defense.

Once you have space superiority, you have tremendous advantage over any ground forces, because you can see everywhere, fly everywhere, and transport everywhere—except deep underground. But you still need infantry to take and hold ground, and transports for them, and armor to support assaults. Thus, teledropped troops, a few landmate power armor suits, and plenty of teledroppable air or surface transport vehicles. Infantry operate more dispersed than we're familiar with, thanks to modern communications, and have the advantage of drones and lots of clever portable kit, but they're still limited to running on foot—and, what with electronic warfare, often reduced to shouting out targets spotted visually. The presence of stunners and modern medicine make hostage-taking a viable tactic in conflict between nations—you can trade their troops for yours.

Honestly, most of this tech never gets used. The last big wars were the General War over fifty years ago, which was mostly a series of vicious border skirmishes, and an incursion by an aggressive Borg Hive twenty years ago, which was terrifying because the Borg apparently ''didn't care'' about their losses—which were considerable. They lost. Most combat we're likely to see are border incidents, anti-piracy patrols in out-systems, and police actions.

== General-Issue Kit ==

=== Items ===

At the moment, this is just skimming the GURPS 4e Ultra-Tech book for ideas. This is in no way an recommendation of GURPS as a system for this setting, but rather an endorsement of it as an idea source…

As mentioned, this is generally a TL10 Conservative Hard SF setting, so anything listed TL9 or below is available. It's the higher-tech stuff which is questionable.

==== Power ====

Both fusion and antimatter power are used in setting. I don't mind the possibility of "semi-portable" fusion reactors—the Starfleet Seebees need them for their field transport pads—but letting every vehicle have a fusion plant (as in some versions of ''Traveller'') seems pushing it.

Microwave beamed power: sure, why not?

Summing up: Basically GURPS TL10.

==== Computers and Robots ====

As mentioned, sapience is restricted—volitional AI requires a dedicated neural net—but a sapient computer can be as smart as any mortal, and probably can access its databases far more quickly and more reliably than human memory.

A quick rules check: a tiny computer can run a single high-quality translator program, which is nicely convenient. The ability to run several languages at once requires a bigger unit, though.

I won't be using microbot swarms, and definitely not nanobots… but note that many functions could be handled with larger robots. I don't mind bigger, visible drones roaming around; it's nice color.

==== Personal Items ====

Minor TL10 nanotech or chemical tricks, like depilatory cream, smart hairspray, "buzz fabric", and the like hardly threaten setting consistency, and are a good way to promote a "friendly technology" feel. Battledress uniforms incorporate programmable fabric, so they can flip between parade colors and appropriate camouflage in an instant. I don't mind video cloth, but let's not have spray-on video—that's a little too cyberpunk.

The holographic "clothing belt" is completely ostentatious and unlikely, but… you know, why not? Make it expensive, and you have a "must have" item for those fancy dress balls. Approved.

Ecstasy machines: Approved. And probably illegal.

Sleep machines: Approved. Though possibly doctors' prescription required.

==== Communications ====

Physical jacks, lasers, radio, and sonar. The FTL comm, as according to the scale rule (above), is building-sized only.

Translator programs are quite good, but each program only handles one language combination; the more you run at once, the slower the results. Imagine diplomatic gatherings, with each attendee carrying or wearing a translator computer—pausing every few moments to listen to the translation. Human translators can greatly speed up the process, and of course the best answer is always to learn the language yourself.

As I said, I'm cool with passive neural input devices—akin to those being experimented with so paraplegics can use computers, and amputees can maneuver their bionic limbs more effectively. But computer-to-brain input makes me hesitate—it breaks the flavor.

Presumably, any inhabited world has a computer net. The core worlds have ubiquitous coverage; colonies might have, or might have only a few core computers and limited terminal access.

Physical mail can be sent very rapidly, thanks to transport, though transport direct-to-person is reserved for items of the utmost importance.

==== Media ====

Video walls, and holodisplays, are a great way to combat claustrophobia. I bet the off-duty areas of starships will run scenic environments on a rotating schedule—this week, it's the desert; next week, the forest. Advanced sound tech can provide all-around sound, and chemical synthesizers for scent could complete the illusion. Do this in a holotank, and you get your holodeck—you can't touch the illusions, so you still need physical props. Entertainment centers make use of actors. Training simulations will go to a lot of effort to set up good physical props and sets, before overlaying the holographic imagery.

Although memory can't be recorded, it ''might'' be possible to have ''live'' sensory-input. But again, this might be too cyberpunky… on the other hand, it could be useful both for doctors and for entertainers.

"Sleep teaching" is an amusing concept, and I might permit it with some drawbacks… like, it only works for certain things (like language skills), and the sleep doesn't count as ''sleep'' (so you need to take a walk and ''real'' nap after your session…).

==== Sensors ====

We're going real-world here: optics, thermal imaging, radar, lidar, sonar, magnetic anomaly detectors, x-ray, MRI…

A stock tricorder has a handset and a shoulder pack computer, and incorporates a number of sensors, low-powered. For specific purposes, you should bring specific gear, but a tricorder is a great start, and you can of course link up your additional peripherals. Presumably, different specialties have different tricorders. A generic "science" unit would pack in chemical analysis units; an engineering unit would have interface cables and chip scanners; a medical unit would have biomonitor leads, that you attach to the patient; a "tactical" unit—mounted like a weapon scope—would combine target data, IFF, and so on.

==== Construction, Manufacturing, Agriculture ====

"Smart buildings" are a given. And I want to see O'Neill Cylinders and Stanfard Toruses a plenty—easy enough to do, when you can beam your parts into orbit.

Economy of scale and specialization still apply, so there are still factories—mostly automated, and incorporating whatever assistance this setting's limited nanotech can provide. "Fabricators" are general-purpose manufacturing units, used by starships and start-up colonies—the equivalent of modern "rapid-prototyping" systems. You still need parts and materials, but a full fabrication complex includes the necessary recycling and refining equipment to make use of raw materials, and parts can be manufactured like anything else. Fabricators do have some specialization, i.e. heavy manufacturing unit, fabrics-and-soft-goods unit, organic recycling and food processing, pharmaceutical synthesis, etc. You can't use the chemical synthesis unit to make a phaser, and you can't use the heavy manufacturing unit to make food. "Replicators" are hobbyist-grade fabricators, even more specialized, designed for small lots—plans and recipes circulate widely on the web. This doesn't kill commerce, because, most people don't have the time, knowledge, or interest in finding plans, replicating a device, testing it, maintaining it, etc., when they could just pay the company to do it all for them.

I envision some truly massive and high-efficiency agricultural layouts, with food fabricators and small, "tradition" organic lots supplementing.

Given the materials technology, there would be some powerful adhesives, solvents, and lubricants, and I see the use of "construction foam" and "fusion-formed concrete."

Terraforming seems likely but it's slow. This requires some thought: if people have been among the stars for about six centuries, I do want some nice "M-class" planets, but not a wealth of them—they should be valuable! Though terraforming may be most useful for making "almost-but-not-quite" worlds into "good enough" worlds; a Mars or LV-426 may still be uninhabitable after 500 years of work, but a more Earth-like world may be a paradise after 200…

'''Commentary from Pilgrim:''' For what its worth, the transporter can make terraforming '''much''' easier. For Mars, with a bit of work you can beam down water from a comet, without the worries of planetary bombardment. If you've got the power, heat the water, or beam down steam and methane. 

==== Covert Ops and Security ====

I don't mind the idea of sonic privacy fields. Memory-metal or -plastic concealed gadgets—sure, why not?

I don't want invisibility cloaks, because this isn't ''Ghost in the Shell''—although that was one inspiration for this setting. On the other hand, it seems possible to set up a holographic "duckblind." (Though it'd glow in the dark, wouldn't it?) Programmable camouflage seems simplest.

Since we've got ecstasy machines and electronic anesthesia, similar devices for restraints seem likely—though again, I like that they should be tuned for a particular subject, rather than general-purpose.

Can we erase memories? Can we brainwash? I don't know.

==== Weapons ====

"Phasers" are multi-function lasers—with the tricorder scope, the laser can be tuned on the fly to the most effective wavelength for a particular atmosphere and target type. The power output is variable, too, from a harmless marker or dazzle beam, up to a high power burst. (Instant disintegration mode, as in the TV shows, seems unrealistic. Lasers blast and scorch.) In the default "stun" mode, it's an electrolaser. (A sad problem: electrolasers don't work in all environments. Sometimes, you ''can't'' just stun them!)

"Blasters" are particle beams. Right now, I'm tending toward banning these as portable weapons, but ships definitely have them. Indeed, a starship's "phaser banks" may be ''very'' multifunction weapons, capable of switching between different laser or particle modes as necessary.

There are also microwavers and sonic nauseators, though no "sonic stunners" or the like.

No plasma, force, or neural weapons.

Also, people still use GUNS. You can't "stun", and you need to manufacture and bring ammo, but bullets can penetrate through walls, are hard to resist or thwart, and the weapons themselves are inexpensive and durable. Presumably, modern guns are electrothermal caseless or liquid-propellant weapons, but there are undoubtedly lots of old models floating around, with hobbyist replicators still churning out ammunitions… and some old classics will still be in use, like the venerable Colt .45 autoloading pistol.

One compromise is the airgun—it's easy enough to make 'em almost as powerful as chemical firearms (some exist today), and the ammo supply train is simpler. I envision the Federal Starfleet making wide use of airguns when it needs to deploy special ammo types (darts, grenades, etc.). The Alliance and the Empire prefer firearms, both from tradition, and also because they consider the need for a full ammo train an acceptable exchange for the increase in punch.

'''Commentary from Pilgrim:''' Also, this may break the feel, but smart/guided/homing bullets may be possible under this. With the right payload, this can open up some ''neat'' less lethal options (stun bag expands just before impact, or tase the target into unconsciousness, darts with a drug, etc.)

I don't know about gauss guns—I may do with them as with blasters, limit them to large vehicles.

Missiles and hand grenades, oh my. One trick I think would be fun: hand grenades that function as a LAW or similar weapon. You can throw them around a corner, and their rocket motor activates, and they guide themselves toward the target.

I'm sure there are mininukes, and I'm sure people are hesitant to deploy them.

All sorts of fun munitions are possible with smart materials and biotech, though I'm not sure that knockout gas would be as useful as all that in a society where multiple similar-but-different biochemistries live together, and air masks are over-the-counter equipment for space travellers.

Cops will still have riot batons, just in case—probably electrically-charged.

==== Armor and Defenses ====

I imagine that even a single infantryman has a lot of electronic defenses, built into his helmet or carried with his kit, but we can handwave all that. Say that his automatic systems cancel out the enemy's automatic systems, and boil things down to a contest between each squad's EW man to get momentary advantage.

Your basic ship uniform can seal for use as a light, limited-duty spacesuit; pull up a hood and pocket airmask, and hurry to a spacesuit locker. Battledress and protective suits can be sealed against NBC, and ablates when struck by high-energy blasts.

There probably are powered battlesuits, but they seem to be a special-purpose, given how powerful hand weapons are. Say that they're like ''Appleseed'''s landmates, essentially very expensive and delicate armored infantry, used for close assault. Any star cruisers probably has a couple of them in storage, just in case. The rest of the time, just use normal troops. I'm tending towards a setting where armor is only helpful against casual violence—when the shit hits the fan, ''no one'' is safe.

==== Medical Tech ====

Cold sleep and fancy high-tech treatments (purging the body of all foreign materials, etc.) are cool, but they should take time, so you don't do them as spur of the moment things—inject a drug and done. No, they should be proper operations, requiring a trained doctor and equipment.

Neural inhibitators to serve as electronic anesthesia: cool.

Since I've put the kibosh on hyperactive nanotech, that means no nanotech stasis, regeneration, or rejuvenation. And definitely no "healing rays." And growing biotech body parts is iffy—maybe it works, maybe bionics are faster or more reliable, I gotta think about it. On the other hand, sonotherapy sounds fun—so maybe we have healing rays after all, they just take a while! And we do have some pretty spiffy nanotech therapeutics and tailored drugs already; I bet the Federated Worlds CDC works overtime, tracking the latest flu strains and ginning up new vaccines.

I guess in general we won't do any resurrections or mass reconstruction here, but if you reach the operating table in close to one piece, they can save you.

=== Commentary and Ideas ===

==== LordDraqo on tricorders and interfaces ====
Idea - Shadowjack didn't know what he was planning to do about tricorders. A couple of years back I was enjoying an article about soft-ware configurable circuits, for use in cell-phones, and the potential versatility that this would provide. Combine that with what we have at this time, with OnStar, and 3G, and a "realistic" tricorder becomes attainable.

Idea - I've felt that in a society with ubiquitous information access, everyone would wear a hat, that would also contain a Monocle and earpiece for receiving data from a personal computing device. Perhaps too Transhuman Space for Federal Space, but certainly an idea that I would use.

'''Commentary:''' ''Good thinking. Normal electronics today are already highly configurable, so extending this seems reasonable. Earpieces are a given; it was already Trek canon that the translator was worn like a hearing aid. Another idea: VR contact lenses! Invisible to an outsider, so it doesn't spoil the look, and it's a non-invasive technology…''

'''Commentary from LordDraqo''' As long as your crew are already wearing hats, perhaps the earpiece is integral and the visor provides a HUD for the wearer.

==== s/LaSH on defense ====
I can contribute a little to the concepts of shield and fields, however. Consider that modern technology has already produced the plasma window and electrically charged armour. Neither will look exactly like original Trek, however: plasma windows are likely only useful for high-energy applications like starship engines (they are extremely power-hungry), and ECA is most effective against physical penetrators, although a variation that squirts a cloud of beam-dissipative plasma would have its uses in reducing the impact of an energy weapon, and magnetic fields of all kinds are useful against charged particle beams if such weapons are ever used.

'''Commentary:''' I suppose this means that a starship's "shields" are actually ''several'' devices, working in concert. Magnetic fields for anti-particle defense, sandscreens for anti-laser, the phasers themselves for anti-missile defense and sensor jamming, armor and energy absorbers as the final line of defense.

<s>Warp bubble as shields does conveniently connect technologies—come to think of it, Honor Harrington did the same deal—but it might be putting too much onto that one technology.
Another idea that did intrigue me: using a ship-wide forcefield as a sensor lens, turning the entire ship into a sensor dish as big as itself. You can get a similar effect with a big-enough sensor network and computing tricks.</s> I've decided to keep the warpdrive for transport only.

…can you charge one's perimeter with ionised plasma or some such in order to make it harder to collapse, or just cause diffraction in beams passing through it, such that the energy is distributed over a larger portion of the ship's armour? This is very important: a beam weapon works by destructive heating of a small area. The same energy spread out over a ship's entire hull will be much milder, and the heat sinks can deal with it at their leisure. Heat sinks are another kettle of fish, however, and if you want to go that far I'd advise you to just go to Atomic Rocket and weep silently as you learn about Hohmann transfer orbits and brehmstrauling radiation and other things I can't even spell, let alone see as relevant to Star Trek.

'''Commentary:''' I agree; heat sinks are as frustrating to space adventure as relativity, and just as quick to be jettisoned. :)

The warp bubble itself collapses under attack, but the dispersal idea is worth considering… if only there was a decent physical way to achieve it.

==== Kaiu Keiichi, joking or not? ====
This sounds great! Now, what role do Giant Robots play in all of this?

'''Commentary:''' GIANT giant robots are exceedingly impractical, but there was an awesome thread in RPOpen that combined Gundam and Star Trek, so the two concepts are not wholly incompatible.

I've already mentioned landmates for special assaults, and I think that ''Aliens''-style powerloaders would be useful in many functions, from cargo handling and construction to firefighting and salvage.

FederalSpace:Technology

2009-02-26T17:49:48Z

Pilgrim: /* Construction, Manufacturing, Agriculture */

Because the technology is the first thing everybody asks about.

= Recent Updates, and Unresolved Issues =

*The nature of FTL communications.
*Lifespans and general medical technology. Nanotech can't reconstruct you, and we can't upload your personality to a computer, but what ''can'' be done?
*Power and extent of advanced psychology, memetics, and social engineering.
*Social role of AI.
*Neural interface, level of development of.
*Exotic Talents—details.
*Obvious gaping holes in the functioning of transporters. Big question: Can they be jammed?
*Time scale for terraforming.

= Introduction =

In GURPS (4th edition) rules terms, for those of you familiar with that game, Trek-as-written tends to be a TL12^ Safetech setting: that's about as advanced as possible, with lots of superscience gadgetry, yet the most transformative effects of the technology are avoided or suppressed by society. '''''Federal Space''''', on the other hand, is largely a TL10 Conservative Hard SF setting, with a scant handful of superscience miracles, and emphasis upon the "High Industrial" path (with "High Biotech" running a distant second). That means mostly very, very advanced versions of stuff that we have or is experimental today, and a lot of ultra-tech hasn't transformed the human condition because it ''can't.''

Why do this? Two reasons:

First, it shifts emphasis back to the characters and setting. Isaac Asimov has written that his Lije Baley novels were a reaction to a claim that one couldn't do a proper mystery in an SF setting, because—for example—one could present a made-up problem involving a made-up phenomenon, and then pull a made-up technology out of thin-air to solve it at the end. This describes about half of the episodes in ''Star Trek: Voyager.'' :D Asimov's answer to this problem was that one should present the possibilities and limitations of the technology up front, and then ''stick to them''; the characters use the tools they have, with no tricks hidden to the players.

Second, it places new emphasis upon the technology! A paradox, no? By emphasizing that these are largely commonplace ''tools'', and not Marvels of Science (or multi-purpose plot devices), you notice them again in a new context, and by extension notice your ''own'' tools in the real world. It makes them more accessible—you don't need to invoke magic phrases (technobabble) to get work done. Just use the tools.

This does nerf MacGuyver characters—or does it? Maybe it just shifts 'em down a level. The engineer is complemented not for bending the laws of physics, but for getting his people and resources together to pull off a plan on time…

There's a third reason for going "low-tech" with the ultra-tech: it gives a slightly retro, ''physical'' feel to the setting. Stuff can be heavy or break down, engineers curse and sweat, like that.

== The Three Rules of Thumb ==

Going along with this goal, I've got three rules-of-thumb I'm trying to follow:

'''Rule #1: Trust the Setting's Engineers:''' Also known as the rule of "describe what it does, but not how." I know that our starfarers must have some fancy materials science, because a hand phaser requires some pretty impressive conductors and absorbers to unleash the necessary energy without melting in the user's hand. But I don't need to detail just what these materials are, or where they're used. Our engineers are the only ones who need to know the details; we just need to know what a phaser can be used for. (But since I'm trying to be a little more hard-science consistent, I do try to point out where the ultra-tech may be in use…)

'''Rule #2: Shift Scale Down One Order of Magnitude:''' If it's impossible now, it requires ''at least'' a building-sized installation in this setting. If it's building-sized now, it can be transported by truck in this setting. If it needs a truck now, it's semi-portable. If it's semi-portable now, it's hand-held, and probably multifunction. If it's hand-held now, it's pocket-sized or smaller, and probably integrated with a bunch of other pocket-sized gadgets. If it's already like that now, it can be sewn into your underwear.

Thus: An FTL communicator is impossible, so it occupies a building, or a whole section of a starship. There are truck (or transporter) deployable factory units. You can lug a powerful generator or radar installation as a backpack unit. A phaser rifle can put out equivalent destructive power to a modern heavy machine gun or rocket launcher, or both—and a "pocket" phaser pistol compares to both SMG and taser. A "pocket comm" combines nearly every imaginable function of PDAs, satellite and cell phones, cameras, microphones, music players, and most other modern pocket devices—with greatly increased reliability, to boot. Your shirts all have calculators or wrist-watches sewn into the cuff.

'''Rule #3: It's About Choices, Not Levels:''' I've already mentioned that there are no Alien Space Gods or magic Clarke-tech in this setting, but I also want to avoid or twist the lesser trope of the world with technology far advanced from that of the adventurers, or inventions that are limited to only one "race." This is a setting of enthusiastic engineers: anything one culture comes up with, another can duplicate—if they want to go to the trouble. They might not want to, either because their tech base is oriented differently, or they dislike it on moral grounds, or just because they don't see the problems that tech was intended to solve! So it's not that planet X has incomprehensibly advanced tech, it's that the people on planet X have come up with a unique application of known technology to solve a particular problem, and therefore they have the edge of experience over everyone else in using it that way.

== General Fields of Technology ==

=== Warp-tech and high-energy miracles ===
There's only one major miracle: warp technology, used for the FTL drive, FTL comms, and the trademark ''transporter.'' I combine all of these because it feels satisfying to have all the obvious impossibilities in one place.

There's no gravity or "force" control. Therefore, there are no contragravity vehicles, artificial gravity control, inertial dampers, tractor or pressor beams, force fields or deflector screens, or anything else along those lines. Spacecraft must spin or thrust, or their crews must accept the problems of microgravity. And we have the full variety of conventional vehicles to draw upon, from maglev trains and all-terrain vehicles, to aerodynes and hypercavitating submarines.

Projected holograms—mere images—seem both cool and harmless to me, though, so I'll permit this minor bending of the laws of physics. Realistically, it's probably pretty easy to detect the trick except under controlled circumstances—outside of a holodeck or holotank, you'd likely see the light beam, for example—so we won't have invisibility cloaks or scare-the-natives god displays, but it's a fun detail for control rooms and R&R.

There's no matter-energy conversion. The transporter just moves stuff, nothing else. "Replicators" are physical manufacturing units requiring materials and time, not anything-out-of-thin-air devices. Holodecks just make images and sounds (and maybe scent, from little chem units)—no manipulation of physical objects.

=== Physical Tech ===
We have nano-materials and manufacturing processes now, of course, but this setting does not have "grey cloud" nanotechnology, monomolecular materials, living metal, and similar wonders. Turns out that the only effective nanobots are extremely limited in capability and only work under tightly controlled circumstances; it's just not worth the effort. There ''is'' advanced materials technology, to permit the superconductors and superabsorbers needed for energy weapons and such, and allow for some nifty-looking spaceships and skyscrapers. And to let us handwave away the heat dispersion problem—call this a minor miracle. So we can also have smart materials (like color-changing, self-cleaning fabrics), memory metals and plastics, transparent metals, and similar toys.

Also, I think nanobots and microswarms and such break the feel. Cadres of baseball-sized drones I can live with, but microbugs everywhere spoil the "physical" feel.

There is some advanced biotechnology. Most of the "alien" humanoid races are actually gengineered humans, and the setting also has uplifted animals, genetically-targeted therapies, and various other bio-tricks. And the real aliens have equivalent technology. Oddly, there's been a retreat ''away'' from some of this technology, from the days of the Terran Empire. There's no point in bioengineering a perfect slave race when it's illegal or impractical to own slaves, for example, and experience has shown that there's only so far you can push genomes before unacceptable drawbacks appear. And the interstellar ecology has gotten complex enough that biomaterials and biogadgets are vulnerable to infection from unanticipated sources—you grow yourself a beautiful living skyscraper, and then it gets sick and dies from some random bug brought by an interstellar tourist. Hardtech is more reliable for functional equipment. But biotech is known and embraced, and I'm sure there are many busy terraforming projects going on out there.

An unresolved question: Just how far have lifespans been improved? How old is old for a modern human?

=== Minds ===
Artificial intelligence is possible, but intelligence and memory cannot be duplicated or transferred. Say there's some ineffable quality to sapience, or just say that thought is a ''process'' and not a state. Thus, an A.I. has to be birthed and trained over years, is considered a unique (albeit unusual) person, and is bound to a particular brainbox (though the shell could be changed or upgraded). No personality uploads, no xoxing, no "what is real?" mind games. Conventionally-programmed drones can be smart, but not clever or wise; send people if you want attention to detail. We do have neural interfaces, for use by the handicapped, in the experimental stages now, so some sort of passive neural input seems likely—a "hands-free" way to use your computer, in a pinch. I'm hesitant on the idea of sensory-input, though since memory can't be recorded or duplicated… A good compromise might be that tricks like ecstasy machines or electronic anesthesia are possible, but must be tuned for a particular individual. So no neuronic whips.

Incidentally, no universal translator. You can have pretty smart translator programs, and linguists have computer analysis to help them, but there are still language barriers. English is one of a small number of ''lingua franca.''

Just because the mind can't be duplicated doesn't mean it can't be ''analyzed.'' Psychology would be more advanced and effective, thanks to good brain scans and analysis tools, and presumably there's some understanding of memetics. I don't know how powerful I want this to be, because I feel that free will is important for to the Trek setting, and having other people mess with your thinking twists that. On the other hand, one must keep in mind the importance of the bell curve and edge cases—you may have used memetics to construct a peaceful utopian society, but that 10% of the population who are assholes will still be assholes…

And does that mean we have a functioning lie detector?

=== Exotic Talents ===

I ''was'' opposed to the idea of psi powers—I go to all the trouble of stripping the magic tech out, and now we want to put magic mental powers ''in?!''—but after consideration, I do like the idea of "exotic talents." Let's say that the usual psi explanation, of manipulation of energy or information at a distance, remains impossible. A Talent is an intriguing edge case, like an idiot savant—they've got some incredible personal knacks and quirks that, in the right combination, can do some incredible things. A person who's incredibly good at reading people's emotional states; a person who's a linguistic savant, rapidly identifying languages and following the tone; a person with pronounced meditative control over their metabolism; a person who can hear and understand minute changes in active machinery; a person who can intuitively sift large amounts of intelligence data. With this setting's improved understanding of psychology and genetics, it's possible to locate these people, and train them to use their knacks more reliably and in concert with conventional skills and technology. It's even possible to ''try'' to manufacture them—nature and nurture being what they are, you'll get hundreds of normally-odd people for each success, but it may be worth the trouble for some organizations.

'''Commentary''' If you've had the opportunity to catch Fox-television's "Lie To Me," or NBC's "The Mentalist," you have seen how people can develop hypertrophied perceptual abilities. Combine this with training from the cradle, and Betazed "empathy" might not be so far-fetched.

== New Miracles ==

=== The Transporter ===
I wanted to keep imagery of the transporter, because it's the most distinctive piece of Trek tech—essential to the visual experience. But the Trek-as-written explanation is troubling, for various reasons I'm sure you know. So here's a possible replacement:

The transporter was first used for satellite launch, and second used for orbital bombardment. Later, it was adapted for personnel and cargo transport, and today is a commonplace—if finicky—technology. It also formed the eventual basis for the warpdrive.

It's a spacewarp device. It wraps the subject "on the pad" in a "space-time bubble", then "casts" the bubble in a straight line, somewhat like a particle accelerator. For a fraction of a second, the bubble moves faster-than-light, and can pass through ("ghosts") through limited quantities of normal matter. And then the bubble "bursts", and its contents are deposited, hopefully at the target location. Because this is a space-warp, the subject doesn't experience any movement—in fact, they even arrive "at rest" relative to the largest mass at the landing site. (Thus explaining why you don't smack into the planet as it moves through its orbit—you arrive at rest relative to it!)

Because mass bends space-time, the more mass there is in the path of travel, the less accurate the casting is. The bubble can't burst where there is already significant mass, but "bounces" in an essentially random direction, until it finds an open location. So you can't beam into a solid object, and beaming through more then a couple of walls kills accuracy. On the other hand, it's a standard trick to aim your casting ''below'' ground level, so the bubble bounces and precipitates to the surface—off target, but safer than having the bubble burst prematurely, dropping the subjects at altitude…

You can, of course, simply aim for empty space.

Presumably, there should be a hell of a lot of noise and stray energy when this occurs, because of displaced atmosphere, the neutralizing of inertia when matching reference frames, and similar concerns. But you know what? Since it's ''already'' impossible, I don't care. Assume there's noise, a breeze, and a bunch of static discharges, similar to but not as pronounced as the time travel effects in the ''Terminator'' movies, but somehow the rest is compensated for. There's a shimmer of a lights, a blurring of space, and then the subject is there!

You can perform a transport on the spur of the moment if you don't care much about where your subject ends up, but a safe transfer requires detailed spatial and gravitational observations for the entire zone of operations, from the transporter pad, through the intervening space, and to the target site. The ideal situation is between two well-surveyed locations, e.g. from one permanent installation to another. Field-expedient transports, as under combat conditions, are comparable to aerial insertion via parachute—not terribly accurate, but quick, and hard to detect or intercept. (Note that there's no reason why you couldn't beam out ''with'' a parachute… special ops troops probably train to beam down, paraglide to a good body of water, then swim underwater to the assembly area.)

You can't retrieve a subject, because they're out of range of the transporter unit. On the other hand, you could beam down another transport unit, and use it to send them back. There are single-use units for away parties, that must be assembled at the other end, and linked back to the mothership to use its sensors and computational equipment for a safe exit. For a more permanent base camp or beachhead, you actually ''construct'' a full transport facility, with power supply, sensors, etc.

Sadly, this means the loss (or alteration) of the immortal line, "Beam me up!"

Because of the need for careful surveying, limitations of retrieval, and so forth, use of aerospace vehicles is actually ''better'' in situations where you need flexibility. Transport in the field is used when you need speed, or don't want to be intercepted; otherwise, transport is exclusively for use in civilized areas.

Developed worlds will have extensive transport networks, well-surveyed and centrally-coordinated. Public transport pads, for cargo or people, will link cities—with light rail and light aircraft to fill in between. Emergency personnel can be deployed very rapidly from orbital transport facilities. Personal delivery is expensive as hell—an entire pad, just to send you a package immediately?—but it happens. Satellites and shuttles are launched to orbit via transporter, reserving laser-launch facilities for the largest of vessels that must be launched in one piece; ships can deploy their drones and probes via transporter, as well. Colonies see more use of conventional vehicles, because they haven't built their teleport network yet—cars and trucks overland, ships and subs in the oceans, aircraft.

In war, transport can be used to beam troops aboard a spacecraft or habitat that must be taken intact, but it's risky, of course—you probably don't have accurate surveys of the interior, and they'll be shooting back at you the moment you're down. A well-coordinated transport assault can work wonders, however. Transport can also be used to deploy uninterceptable bombs with fair precision, which explains why military bases are still placed far underground.

It'd be a good idea to work out just how long it takes to arrange a transport. For now, assume it takes hours to set up a good transport, and there can be days of downtime while the equipment is being reset and tested. Public pads will carry heavy loads, multiple times per day (or even per hour), for days or weeks at a time, and then be taken offline for extensive maintenance.

What can go wrong? Generally, the worst that happens is the subject scatters farther than is convenient, or the bubble fails to establish at all and nothing happens. It ''can'' happen that a subject appears at altitude mistakenly, or trapped in an underground pocket, or some similar disaster; all the more reason to set up the transition carefully. Worst case scenario, there's a catastrophic failure, destroying the transporter, the subject, and possibly all around them. This is incredibly rare and unlikely, though.

It occurs to me that this is a practical reason, among ships of hostile nations, for the tradition of having your senior officers waiting to greet the other ships' senior officers when they are transported over. You had to link systems to perform a careful transport, but one party or the other could easily sabotage the job… so by putting your people in harm's way, you make each party hostage to the other.

An important question: Is it possible to jam transport, or is the only defense jamming the sensors? (A thought: if the FTL comm is a spin-off of warp tech, then the answer is probably "yes", but you block all transport and comm to that region, too… and it's a planet-scale effect.)

==== Commentary ====

===== David Rhode on matching vectors =====
Transporters - one possible limitation on the system you describe might involve matching the velocity vectors. If you're moving mass from one inertial frame of reference to another, even if you have a 'space warp' effect that lets you cover the distance nigh-instantaneously, you still have to change the vectors of the mass transported, or it will fly off the planet, or ram through the wall of the ship or whatever. The transporter, in additon to the power required to initialize the space warp, will need to use power to cancel the difference in vectors. The greater the difference in magnitude between the vectors, the more costly and difficult the transport effect would be. Moving people up and down from a planet while you're in geostationary orbit would be pretty easy. Snagging the captain off an exploding space station while evading phasers would be difficult, mostly because of the power requirements.

I remember a scene from one of the Lensman novels where Kimball Kinnison, wearing some kind of armored suit IIRC, had to transport directly from one ship to another at top speed, meaning they couldn't slow down to match vectors, so they just tossed him off one ship into the other. They caught him inside a special room covered with shock absorbers, and he had to spend a good while bouncing off the walls until he finally matched vectors with the second vessel.

'''Commentary:''' While I'm using the handwave that transporter ''doesn't'' require vector matching, this is a good example of the sort of stuff that a transport operator would have to worry about. Exponentially-greater power for longer range castings seems like a good idea, and a solid limitation.

=== Stardrives ===

Transport was the origin of the warpdrive in this setting. The early "stutterwarp" (inspired by the one in ''2300''), developed during the Terran Empire, is essentially a transporter that transports itself. Because the range-per-cast is short, the drive has to be cycled rapidly to get anywhere; breakdowns are frequent.

The later "transwarp", developed independently by a number of people (but first by what would become the Federated Worlds), is a variation that, in layman's terms, lets the bubble be maintained ''indefinitely.'' Thus, your starship can rampage all over the place at fantastic pseudovelocity—until you hit something that disrupts the bubble, and then you're back in normal space again, at a dead stop. Long-distance travel is a continual start-and-stop affair, carefully jockeying the drive across gravity gradients and around the higher-concentrations of spacedust, and recalculating your location after the last inadvertant bounce-and-scatter.

I have a glimmering of an idea that the classic layout of Trek ships is actually a requirement of the warp drive—that they've placed the habitat module in the safest part of the bubble, and that the warp nacelles ''have'' to be cantilevered away from the center of mass like that. Efficiency trade-offs should also play a role: you've got your powerful but slow tugs, swifter cruisers, and slow but ''stealthy'' (i.e. low warp signature) craft like the old Romulan Warbird.

Though no one in the core setting uses them as far as I know, stargates are theoretically possible, if you could build a transporter with range and accuracy sufficient to cross interstellar distances. (Most transporters have ranges of no more 1.0 light-second.) The catch is that there's no way to get your ship back without another stargate—and if you could carry one on your ship, why not just fit it with a warpdrive? Still, it's probably do-able if you took the time—perhaps some Borg hives have gate networks, and myriads of small ships to fling between their worlds. It'd be easier to do within a system, Cowboy Bebop style, then for interstellar travel—at ''that'' scale, I imagine you'd consider yourself fortunate to hit the right part of the target solar system. A stargate accurate enough to take a single person from one world to a specific location on another world would be far beyond the capabilities of anyone in this setting. (Alien Space Gods could do it, but there aren't any, remember? :) )

The warp bubble itself is very finicky, and "collapses" at the slightest notice: not only impact with too much mass (causing the "bounce" effect), but too much energy, or energy change, or crossing too powerful a gravity gradient, or… When the bubble drops, you have to stop and reestablish it, which is difficult to do under combat conditions. Basically, warp drive is ''cheating'' on a cosmic scale, and it's easy for the universe to force you to play by the rules again.

I suppose theoretically you could warp a planet, Lensman-style, if you could build a big enough generator—but that's way out of the reach of their current technology.

'''Commentary from LordDraqo''' I like this, as it feels like the Alcubierre warp that has been kicking around for a while.

=== Space Warfare in the Eight-and-Twenty ===

In normal space, there's nowhere to hide, unless you go FTL: if early 21st century technology can spot spaceships around other planets in the same system, and planets around other stars, 28th century technology will easily perceive every vessel in a system. In warp, ships can be ''dimly'' perceived, using the same spatial sensors used to calculate warp transitions. (Presumably, the spatial warp propagates faster-than-light, which may not be true-to-real-life-physics, but is convenient for our purposes.) It's tricky, thanks to varying gravitational gradients and ripples in space and what not. Fast or powerful ships have strong warp signatures, while slow and sneaky ships have weak signatures; you can spot a fleet coming, but a few warbirds might be able to sneak up on a system if they plot a good course. But once they drop out of warp, there's no cloaking device or jamming device that can prevent you from knowing they're in-system. (This doesn't change the plot effect, really. "Oh shit, warbirds decloaking!" is the same as "Oh shit, warbirds coming out of warp!")

If ships meet in open space between systems, and one force wants to break contact, it's a contest of maneuver. If you can bring your warp bubble into contact with the enemy's, both your bubbles "pop" and you drop into normal space, stationary next to each other. Something similar happens if you make a mistake of maneuver, and momentarily lose your bubble—your foe can pounce, or increase the distance. Conventional weapons don't do any good, but there are expensive warp-capable missiles, designed purely to pursue and intercept, and distract the target until you get there, instants later.

In-system, conventional defenses like brilliant pebbles are fine against conventional forces, but a warpship can maneuver around them, and a well-positioned phaser array has a good chance to shoot them down. (This is also why the near-c asteroid trick isn't worth much these days.) Thus, in normal space combat, you've really got no choice but to walk up and blast 'em. (Fly-by courses make sense for conventional maneuver, but a warpship breaks the rules.) There are ways to seek advantage: the right fly-by course, a barrage of nuclear torpedoes as an opener, a formation of drones that flies in with you, coordinated spoofing at the right moment… but really, the actual fight is a crap shoot.

Face-to-face with the enemy, things go down like the battle scenes from ''Wrath of Khan.'' Fuckin' fireballs and people screaming and ships torn apart. Things move so fast you have to rely on automatics, but you need human intuition to guide them—or is that just a psychological crutch for the sake of morale? Lensman-style, the beam and slugs and particles bore into the ships with no room for maneuver. There are magnetically-suspended "sand" screens, and there is hull armor, there is energy absorptive hull-plating which gamely tries to channel the energy into your own capacitors even as the plating melts and shorts out, but in short, it's fucking murder. Both ships are likely to be crippled; even if you have advantage of numbers, someone gets mauled. People blown to bits, radiation burns for the survivors, breaches and cut wiring everywhere.

Did we mention that warpships are among the most expensive and valuable pieces of equipment in the galaxy?

Because of this, no one likes to actually ''fight'' battles. It's all a chess game of bluff and counter-maneuver. You shift ships into a system, they shuffle their fleets around, you make like you ''could'' attack if you wanted to, they make like they ''could'' defend, you shift away to another direction… Occasionally things do come to brief blows. Rarely do things come to full battle—but when they do, all bets are off.

How's this play out on the strategic scale? There are interstellar warp missiles, either deployed independently, or launched by "boomer ships", in analogy to ICBMs and ABMs—or lurking like seamines—that maintain a stand-off balance of power. Warpships show the flag in outlying territories, probe "neutral space" for advantage, and there are standing forces in the core, waiting for a battle that everyone thinks will never come… and prays it won't. In-system, you see lots of normal traffic, including conventional-space patrol ships, lightly armed for customs interdiction, or toting heavier weapons for forlorn hope defense against invasion… and screens of monitor stations and orbital cannon around the worlds, dispersed and ready for warp attack. Plus hidden ground-based weapons and jammers, forming the final line of defense.

Once you have space superiority, you have tremendous advantage over any ground forces, because you can see everywhere, fly everywhere, and transport everywhere—except deep underground. But you still need infantry to take and hold ground, and transports for them, and armor to support assaults. Thus, teledropped troops, a few landmate power armor suits, and plenty of teledroppable air or surface transport vehicles. Infantry operate more dispersed than we're familiar with, thanks to modern communications, and have the advantage of drones and lots of clever portable kit, but they're still limited to running on foot—and, what with electronic warfare, often reduced to shouting out targets spotted visually. The presence of stunners and modern medicine make hostage-taking a viable tactic in conflict between nations—you can trade their troops for yours.

Honestly, most of this tech never gets used. The last big wars were the General War over fifty years ago, which was mostly a series of vicious border skirmishes, and an incursion by an aggressive Borg Hive twenty years ago, which was terrifying because the Borg apparently ''didn't care'' about their losses—which were considerable. They lost. Most combat we're likely to see are border incidents, anti-piracy patrols in out-systems, and police actions.

== General-Issue Kit ==

=== Items ===

At the moment, this is just skimming the GURPS 4e Ultra-Tech book for ideas. This is in no way an recommendation of GURPS as a system for this setting, but rather an endorsement of it as an idea source…

As mentioned, this is generally a TL10 Conservative Hard SF setting, so anything listed TL9 or below is available. It's the higher-tech stuff which is questionable.

==== Power ====

Both fusion and antimatter power are used in setting. I don't mind the possibility of "semi-portable" fusion reactors—the Starfleet Seebees need them for their field transport pads—but letting every vehicle have a fusion plant (as in some versions of ''Traveller'') seems pushing it.

Microwave beamed power: sure, why not?

Summing up: Basically GURPS TL10.

==== Computers and Robots ====

As mentioned, sapience is restricted—volitional AI requires a dedicated neural net—but a sapient computer can be as smart as any mortal, and probably can access its databases far more quickly and more reliably than human memory.

A quick rules check: a tiny computer can run a single high-quality translator program, which is nicely convenient. The ability to run several languages at once requires a bigger unit, though.

I won't be using microbot swarms, and definitely not nanobots… but note that many functions could be handled with larger robots. I don't mind bigger, visible drones roaming around; it's nice color.

==== Personal Items ====

Minor TL10 nanotech or chemical tricks, like depilatory cream, smart hairspray, "buzz fabric", and the like hardly threaten setting consistency, and are a good way to promote a "friendly technology" feel. Battledress uniforms incorporate programmable fabric, so they can flip between parade colors and appropriate camouflage in an instant. I don't mind video cloth, but let's not have spray-on video—that's a little too cyberpunk.

The holographic "clothing belt" is completely ostentatious and unlikely, but… you know, why not? Make it expensive, and you have a "must have" item for those fancy dress balls. Approved.

Ecstasy machines: Approved. And probably illegal.

Sleep machines: Approved. Though possibly doctors' prescription required.

==== Communications ====

Physical jacks, lasers, radio, and sonar. The FTL comm, as according to the scale rule (above), is building-sized only.

Translator programs are quite good, but each program only handles one language combination; the more you run at once, the slower the results. Imagine diplomatic gatherings, with each attendee carrying or wearing a translator computer—pausing every few moments to listen to the translation. Human translators can greatly speed up the process, and of course the best answer is always to learn the language yourself.

As I said, I'm cool with passive neural input devices—akin to those being experimented with so paraplegics can use computers, and amputees can maneuver their bionic limbs more effectively. But computer-to-brain input makes me hesitate—it breaks the flavor.

Presumably, any inhabited world has a computer net. The core worlds have ubiquitous coverage; colonies might have, or might have only a few core computers and limited terminal access.

Physical mail can be sent very rapidly, thanks to transport, though transport direct-to-person is reserved for items of the utmost importance.

==== Media ====

Video walls, and holodisplays, are a great way to combat claustrophobia. I bet the off-duty areas of starships will run scenic environments on a rotating schedule—this week, it's the desert; next week, the forest. Advanced sound tech can provide all-around sound, and chemical synthesizers for scent could complete the illusion. Do this in a holotank, and you get your holodeck—you can't touch the illusions, so you still need physical props. Entertainment centers make use of actors. Training simulations will go to a lot of effort to set up good physical props and sets, before overlaying the holographic imagery.

Although memory can't be recorded, it ''might'' be possible to have ''live'' sensory-input. But again, this might be too cyberpunky… on the other hand, it could be useful both for doctors and for entertainers.

"Sleep teaching" is an amusing concept, and I might permit it with some drawbacks… like, it only works for certain things (like language skills), and the sleep doesn't count as ''sleep'' (so you need to take a walk and ''real'' nap after your session…).

==== Sensors ====

We're going real-world here: optics, thermal imaging, radar, lidar, sonar, magnetic anomaly detectors, x-ray, MRI…

A stock tricorder has a handset and a shoulder pack computer, and incorporates a number of sensors, low-powered. For specific purposes, you should bring specific gear, but a tricorder is a great start, and you can of course link up your additional peripherals. Presumably, different specialties have different tricorders. A generic "science" unit would pack in chemical analysis units; an engineering unit would have interface cables and chip scanners; a medical unit would have biomonitor leads, that you attach to the patient; a "tactical" unit—mounted like a weapon scope—would combine target data, IFF, and so on.

==== Construction, Manufacturing, Agriculture ====

"Smart buildings" are a given. And I want to see O'Neill Cylinders and Stanfard Toruses a plenty—easy enough to do, when you can beam your parts into orbit.

Economy of scale and specialization still apply, so there are still factories—mostly automated, and incorporating whatever assistance this setting's limited nanotech can provide. "Fabricators" are general-purpose manufacturing units, used by starships and start-up colonies—the equivalent of modern "rapid-prototyping" systems. You still need parts and materials, but a full fabrication complex includes the necessary recycling and refining equipment to make use of raw materials, and parts can be manufactured like anything else. Fabricators do have some specialization, i.e. heavy manufacturing unit, fabrics-and-soft-goods unit, organic recycling and food processing, pharmaceutical synthesis, etc. You can't use the chemical synthesis unit to make a phaser, and you can't use the heavy manufacturing unit to make food. "Replicators" are hobbyist-grade fabricators, even more specialized, designed for small lots—plans and recipes circulate widely on the web. This doesn't kill commerce, because, most people don't have the time, knowledge, or interest in finding plans, replicating a device, testing it, maintaining it, etc., when they could just pay the company to do it all for them.

I envision some truly massive and high-efficiency agricultural layouts, with food fabricators and small, "tradition" organic lots supplementing.

Given the materials technology, there would be some powerful adhesives, solvents, and lubricants, and I see the use of "construction foam" and "fusion-formed concrete."

Terraforming seems likely but it's slow. This requires some thought: if people have been among the stars for about six centuries, I do want some nice "M-class" planets, but not a wealth of them—they should be valuable! Though terraforming may be most useful for making "almost-but-not-quite" worlds into "good enough" worlds; a Mars or LV-426 may still be uninhabitable after 500 years of work, but a more Earth-like world may be a paradise after 200…

'''Commentary from Pilgrim:''' For what its worth, the transporter can make terraforming '''much''' easier. For Mars, with a bit of work you can beam down water from a comet, without the worries of planetary bombardment. If you've got the power, heat the water, or beam down steam and methane. 

==== Covert Ops and Security ====

I don't mind the idea of sonic privacy fields. Memory-metal or -plastic concealed gadgets—sure, why not?

I don't want invisibility cloaks, because this isn't ''Ghost in the Shell''—although that was one inspiration for this setting. On the other hand, it seems possible to set up a holographic "duckblind." (Though it'd glow in the dark, wouldn't it?) Programmable camouflage seems simplest.

Since we've got ecstasy machines and electronic anesthesia, similar devices for restraints seem likely—though again, I like that they should be tuned for a particular subject, rather than general-purpose.

Can we erase memories? Can we brainwash? I don't know.

==== Weapons ====

"Phasers" are multi-function lasers—with the tricorder scope, the laser can be tuned on the fly to the most effective wavelength for a particular atmosphere and target type. The power output is variable, too, from a harmless marker or dazzle beam, up to a high power burst. (Instant disintegration mode, as in the TV shows, seems unrealistic. Lasers blast and scorch.) In the default "stun" mode, it's an electrolaser. (A sad problem: electrolasers don't work in all environments. Sometimes, you ''can't'' just stun them!)

"Blasters" are particle beams. Right now, I'm tending toward banning these as portable weapons, but ships definitely have them. Indeed, a starship's "phaser banks" may be ''very'' multifunction weapons, capable of switching between different laser or particle modes as necessary.

There are also microwavers and sonic nauseators, though no "sonic stunners" or the like.

No plasma, force, or neural weapons.

Also, people still use GUNS. You can't "stun", and you need to manufacture and bring ammo, but bullets can penetrate through walls, are hard to resist or thwart, and the weapons themselves are inexpensive and durable. Presumably, modern guns are electrothermal caseless or liquid-propellant weapons, but there are undoubtedly lots of old models floating around, with hobbyist replicators still churning out ammunitions… and some old classics will still be in use, like the venerable Colt .45 autoloading pistol.

One compromise is the airgun—it's easy enough to make 'em almost as powerful as chemical firearms (some exist today), and the ammo supply train is simpler. I envision the Federal Starfleet making wide use of airguns when it needs to deploy special ammo types (darts, grenades, etc.). The Alliance and the Empire prefer firearms, both from tradition, and also because they consider the need for a full ammo train an acceptable exchange for the increase in punch.

I don't know about gauss guns—I may do with them as with blasters, limit them to large vehicles.

Missiles and hand grenades, oh my. One trick I think would be fun: hand grenades that function as a LAW or similar weapon. You can throw them around a corner, and their rocket motor activates, and they guide themselves toward the target.

I'm sure there are mininukes, and I'm sure people are hesitant to deploy them.

All sorts of fun munitions are possible with smart materials and biotech, though I'm not sure that knockout gas would be as useful as all that in a society where multiple similar-but-different biochemistries live together, and air masks are over-the-counter equipment for space travellers.

Cops will still have riot batons, just in case—probably electrically-charged.

==== Armor and Defenses ====

I imagine that even a single infantryman has a lot of electronic defenses, built into his helmet or carried with his kit, but we can handwave all that. Say that his automatic systems cancel out the enemy's automatic systems, and boil things down to a contest between each squad's EW man to get momentary advantage.

Your basic ship uniform can seal for use as a light, limited-duty spacesuit; pull up a hood and pocket airmask, and hurry to a spacesuit locker. Battledress and protective suits can be sealed against NBC, and ablates when struck by high-energy blasts.

There probably are powered battlesuits, but they seem to be a special-purpose, given how powerful hand weapons are. Say that they're like ''Appleseed'''s landmates, essentially very expensive and delicate armored infantry, used for close assault. Any star cruisers probably has a couple of them in storage, just in case. The rest of the time, just use normal troops. I'm tending towards a setting where armor is only helpful against casual violence—when the shit hits the fan, ''no one'' is safe.

==== Medical Tech ====

Cold sleep and fancy high-tech treatments (purging the body of all foreign materials, etc.) are cool, but they should take time, so you don't do them as spur of the moment things—inject a drug and done. No, they should be proper operations, requiring a trained doctor and equipment.

Neural inhibitators to serve as electronic anesthesia: cool.

Since I've put the kibosh on hyperactive nanotech, that means no nanotech stasis, regeneration, or rejuvenation. And definitely no "healing rays." And growing biotech body parts is iffy—maybe it works, maybe bionics are faster or more reliable, I gotta think about it. On the other hand, sonotherapy sounds fun—so maybe we have healing rays after all, they just take a while! And we do have some pretty spiffy nanotech therapeutics and tailored drugs already; I bet the Federated Worlds CDC works overtime, tracking the latest flu strains and ginning up new vaccines.

I guess in general we won't do any resurrections or mass reconstruction here, but if you reach the operating table in close to one piece, they can save you.

=== Commentary and Ideas ===

==== LordDraqo on tricorders and interfaces ====
Idea - Shadowjack didn't know what he was planning to do about tricorders. A couple of years back I was enjoying an article about soft-ware configurable circuits, for use in cell-phones, and the potential versatility that this would provide. Combine that with what we have at this time, with OnStar, and 3G, and a "realistic" tricorder becomes attainable.

Idea - I've felt that in a society with ubiquitous information access, everyone would wear a hat, that would also contain a Monocle and earpiece for receiving data from a personal computing device. Perhaps too Transhuman Space for Federal Space, but certainly an idea that I would use.

'''Commentary:''' ''Good thinking. Normal electronics today are already highly configurable, so extending this seems reasonable. Earpieces are a given; it was already Trek canon that the translator was worn like a hearing aid. Another idea: VR contact lenses! Invisible to an outsider, so it doesn't spoil the look, and it's a non-invasive technology…''

'''Commentary from LordDraqo''' As long as your crew are already wearing hats, perhaps the earpiece is integral and the visor provides a HUD for the wearer.

==== s/LaSH on defense ====
I can contribute a little to the concepts of shield and fields, however. Consider that modern technology has already produced the plasma window and electrically charged armour. Neither will look exactly like original Trek, however: plasma windows are likely only useful for high-energy applications like starship engines (they are extremely power-hungry), and ECA is most effective against physical penetrators, although a variation that squirts a cloud of beam-dissipative plasma would have its uses in reducing the impact of an energy weapon, and magnetic fields of all kinds are useful against charged particle beams if such weapons are ever used.

'''Commentary:''' I suppose this means that a starship's "shields" are actually ''several'' devices, working in concert. Magnetic fields for anti-particle defense, sandscreens for anti-laser, the phasers themselves for anti-missile defense and sensor jamming, armor and energy absorbers as the final line of defense.

<s>Warp bubble as shields does conveniently connect technologies—come to think of it, Honor Harrington did the same deal—but it might be putting too much onto that one technology.
Another idea that did intrigue me: using a ship-wide forcefield as a sensor lens, turning the entire ship into a sensor dish as big as itself. You can get a similar effect with a big-enough sensor network and computing tricks.</s> I've decided to keep the warpdrive for transport only.

…can you charge one's perimeter with ionised plasma or some such in order to make it harder to collapse, or just cause diffraction in beams passing through it, such that the energy is distributed over a larger portion of the ship's armour? This is very important: a beam weapon works by destructive heating of a small area. The same energy spread out over a ship's entire hull will be much milder, and the heat sinks can deal with it at their leisure. Heat sinks are another kettle of fish, however, and if you want to go that far I'd advise you to just go to Atomic Rocket and weep silently as you learn about Hohmann transfer orbits and brehmstrauling radiation and other things I can't even spell, let alone see as relevant to Star Trek.

'''Commentary:''' I agree; heat sinks are as frustrating to space adventure as relativity, and just as quick to be jettisoned. :)

The warp bubble itself collapses under attack, but the dispersal idea is worth considering… if only there was a decent physical way to achieve it.

==== Kaiu Keiichi, joking or not? ====
This sounds great! Now, what role do Giant Robots play in all of this?

'''Commentary:''' GIANT giant robots are exceedingly impractical, but there was an awesome thread in RPOpen that combined Gundam and Star Trek, so the two concepts are not wholly incompatible.

I've already mentioned landmates for special assaults, and I think that ''Aliens''-style powerloaders would be useful in many functions, from cargo handling and construction to firefighting and salvage.

FederalSpace:Peoples

2009-02-26T17:45:05Z

Pilgrim: /* A Letter From Prague on economy */

= History =

The quick-and-dirty history of the setting. Play "spot the borrowed inspiration" as you read along! :)

== 21st Century Cyberpunk and the Eugenics Wars ==

As the 21st century goes along, Earth becomes more and more cyberpunky, as new technology completely fails to resolve many of the big social problems that date back to the 20th century of before. All the cultural divisions finally bust loose at the end of the century in World War III, which is one big war and whole bunch of little ones. This is our Eugenics Wars parallel, and maybe the subsequent conflicts can still be called that.

Long story short: The bad guys win.

== The Terran Empire ==

This brings us up to about the mid-22nd century. The United Earth Government, which eventually becomes just the Terran Empire, pacifies the globe, and conquers space, using the new space technologies that were developed just before the Wars. Imagine the Empire as a mix of what little we know about the canonical Khans, and the Evil Mirror Universe Federation. Brutal military force, chaotic social situation, lots of runaway genetic engineering to manufacture warrior races and sex slaves and biowarfare critters. The first contacts with extraterrestrial intelligence occur during this time, and go about as well as you'd expect from Space Nazis. The Empire's borders are rather porous, with people escaping to form their own little free colonies beyond the frontier… and then the Empire expands to absorb them. But what with all the escapees, and the Empire's own internal politics, lots of people disappear Out There. Eventually, the Imperial capitol even moves from Earth, and it's just The Great Galactic Empire.

And then something causes the whole thing to fall apart. Probably ''several'' somethings, ranging from economics issues to civil war, but I also like the idea of something like a Berserker or Planet-Killer device suddenly blitzing through, or a supernova disrupting warp travel, or something else big and scary. In any case, the Empire collapses, and we get our Long Night scenario. This is about the start of the 25th or 26th century or so.

== The Triplanetary Confederation ==

History doesn't stop during dark ages, it just isn't recorded as well. Various pocket empires arise, more isolated colonies, more alien contacts. Stuff changes. Now fast-forward to the late 27th century, where three worlds have formed the Triplanetary Confederation.

Analogy to characters: Bones is Earth, a lot of history, a lot of old memes, always the first to worry about the dangers in new technology, but there to help all the same. Kirk is Centauri, aggressive, capable, alternately forthright and sneaky. Spock is Hephaestus, struggling with two natures, but primarily thoughtful and logical.

=== World One: Earth ===
United now under a much more peaceful and democratic government that has successful restored and rebuilt devastated Earth. They're saddled with a load of guilt for inflicting the Empire on the rest of the universe. (Real-world inspiration: I haven't seen a lot of the 1960s German SF program ''Raumpatrouille Orion'', but I know ''of'' it. A story I've heard, though I don't know how true it is: The space patrolmen seem to argue a lot, why? Because the Bundeswehr encouraged this among its troops, as a counter-reaction to the militarism and unquestioning obedience that the Wehrmacht and SS attempted to inculcate. This analogy seems as good as any for explaining why Starfleet seems to have a loose opinion toward chain of command.)

=== World Two: Alpha Centauri ===
Our source of boundless can-do, no-nonsense frontier spirit, and maybe the source of our Confederation's trust in government institutions—they built them themselves, of course they trust them! (A bit of that 1950s-1960s American civic duty ideal.) A random idea which is a footnote in Centauran history, but might stand out for us: some of the early colonists tried to gengineer a way for women to grow as tall and tough as men, hoping this would eliminate gender inequality; whether it did or not, the trait breeds true, and easily spread to other worlds. (The only reason for doing this is so I can have a less gender-segregated military without having certain people grumble about physical requirements. ;) )

=== World Three: Hephaestus ===
Hephaestus was another name for Vulcan, so we know which world this is! A planet with a population dominated by H-class genetic upgrades, an early attempt at a "strong genius" model, marred by emotional instability and some other quirks. In the isolation of Nightfall, they had some massive wars, until a couple of the geniuses worked out an artificial philosophy and set of rituals that spread and brought peace. The "Prime Logic" and "IDIC" philosophies will become well-known outside their planet—though many H-class upgrades don't follow it, it's a common stereotype.

'''Commentary from LordDraqo''' Perhaps the organizers behind the establishment of Hephaestus decided to use lojban, or its equivalent as the societies primary language. A language which has led to the members of the society thinking in terms of predicate logic.

'''Commentary from Pilgrim:''' They also probably diddled their brains and that of their kids to improve memory, mathematical ability and to harmonize the frontal lobes (executive functions) with the hindbrain (how things actually get done). The down side of this, is that when a Hephastan loses it, they really lose it.

== The Federated Worlds ==

Our Triplanetary Confederation works out a new kind of FTL drive, the transwarp drive (today just "warp drive"), and starts exploring. At first, they're just following up their old trade contacts, but the Confederation picks up allies, and soon there's a move toward a new kind of interstellar government. Worried about a repeat of the crimes of the Old Empire, the wrangling over a new constitution continues for years.

But they finally sign the document, and the new Federated Worlds are founded, a cyberdemocracy dedicated to the principle that all life-forms have a fundamental right to existence in their own terms, and that governments are instituted among sapients to secure an equitable compromise for all within their sphere. (Or some such language; I'm not an expert in interstellar treaty law, so I probably can't phrase it properly.) And this young federation is a smashing success.

That brings us up to the present day, 2809 CE, shortly after the Federated Worlds' Centennial celebrations. The last war with the Cronan Empire was decades ago, the old space exploration program has been reactivated, and the government is involved in a top-down reassessment of internal programs. Stuff's changing, except the stuff which hasn't, but life goes on.

== The Others ==

But they aren't the only new government on the block:

=== The Orion Alliance ===
A mercantile trade and defense alliance, grown into a group of federated states. In some aspects, it clings to ancient traditions; in others, it blithely charges forward down new paths. A mirror image of the Federated Worlds. Sometimes they are partners, sometimes rivals. (If you like, you can think of the Alliance as the U.S. and the Fed as the E.U., though that's a gross simplification, of course.) In fact, because of the dispersed nature of space, in places the two governments overlap, with worlds switching allegiance from time to time, or existing side-by-side.

=== The Great Galactic Empire ===
…is what they call themselves. Everyone else thinks of them as the Cronan Empire. A fragment of the old Empire still survives, centered on the world of Cronos, and with a resurgent, feudally-inspired culture, they're back in the Great Game, hoping to reclaim lost territory or colonize new. These are the Klingon / Soviet Union analogs.

=== New Byzantium ===
Our Romulan analogs, and also our Space Communists / China in Space. Formerly isolationist, now hoping for new blood and ideas, a small but powerful polity with lots of transhuman aspects, and lots of little intersecting social groups and concepts of public face that make it tricky for outsiders to quite grasp what's going on.

=== The 'Borg Hives ===
Several of these, actually, mostly way out in the deeps beyond explored space. People who modified themselves and their society so heavily that they may no longer be ''human'', and now exist in such a web of telecommunication and body-modification that each hive is practically a single "person." A couple are aggressive like the TV shows, but others are introspective, or even friendly—though disturbing, for how far they differ from human norms, and yet how close they can still be…

=== And More… ===
Plus various pocket empires, like whatever we'll name our Cardassian analogs, and a myriad of isolates, including no doubt a few nuts who base their culture off of Greek mythology, Nazism, cowboy movies, or Edgar Rice Burroughs novels. If it works for them, it's hard to criticize…

All of the larger nations have a mix of races, species, and cultures within them, often on the same worlds. And there are, of course, alien, or alien-dominated nations, as well. I'd like to work the Kzin / Lyrans in there somewhere, the Gorn are a must, the Tholians would fit the "freaky alien space horde bent on devouring us out of existence" role nicely, I wouldn't mind sticking the Hivers and the K'Kree in there on the side… there's room, Space is Big. And don't forget that the aliens may well have para-alien genemods, alien-animal uplifts, and AIs of their own—and humans living among them, playing the "obligatory non-alien part" on ''their'' media shows, etc.

It's a big, wide, wonderful galaxy out there.

= The Interstellar Nations =

== The Federated Worlds ==

'''Brainstorming'''
* AI-assisted cyberdemocracy, with a Council and a President.
* Individual worlds have lots of freedom, so long as they hew to "universal principles" of the rights of lifekind, e.g. human rights, environmental conservation, etc.
* While our economic definitions don't exactly apply in an interstellar society with AI, fusion power, and rapidfacturing, the Feds are socialist-ish.
* Suggestion: people draw some sort of basic living stipend (a stock holding?), lots of public housing, etc.; colonists reinvest into developing a new world, then have the option to buy back into the core system, or retain economic independence.
* Division between "Core" worlds, which are developed and settled, and have technologized luxury (well, lower-middle-class comfort, at least), and "Frontier" worlds, which have sacrificed that to try to build their world into ''their'' way of doing things. (Isolates are an extreme example of this.) The Fed permits and even encourages this, so long as you're reasonably democratic and play well with others…
* Constant tension between the sheer weight of Earth's history and population, and everyone else.
* Current arts and culture are in a phase of rediscovering and reclaiming "traditional" pre-Empire art; a lot of emphasis on personal performance and hobbies.
* The Starfleet is an arm of the civil government (albeit a heavily-armed one), and associated with the other stellar organizations; analogous to Japanese SDF. Something like this:
** Federation Council.
*** Justice Administration.
*** Diplomatic Administration.
*** Worlds Welfare Administration.
*** Federal Space Administration.
**** Department of Colonization and Terraforming.
***** Colonial Rangers.
**** Department of Transportation.
***** Merchant Space Fleet.
***** Bureau of Starports.
**** Department of the Star Fleet.
***** Core Fleets.
***** Frontier Fleet.
***** Star Fleet Marine Corps.
***** Strategic Space Command.
***** Fleet Surgeon General.
**** Department of Survey.
***** Deep Space Scouts.
***** Scientific Survey Bureau.

'''Random Action Table (1d6)'''
# Consider old Terran philosophy.
# Try to reach a compromise.
# Beam down a probe.
# Check the database again.
# Set phasers to stun.
# Offer to help.

== The Orion Alliance ==

'''Brainstorming:'''
* A republic with AI advisors, with a Parliament and Prime Minister or Ministers.
* Corporate capitalism, complete with well developed mass media, etc.
* Reduced social programs and lax regulation of business, in order to encourage business. Greater individual liberty than the Federated Worlds, but also great social inequality—the poor are poorer.
* Less conservative technologically, but also less stable—more boom and bust cycles.
* Colonies tend to be for business first, and ideology only much later.
* Army and Navy are traditionally-structured militaries, but compete at times with the private corporate fleets.
* Great music, food, and drink!

'''Random Action Table (1d6):'''
# Light a cigarette.
# Offer money.
# Offer sex.
# Apply overwhelming force.
# Bluff.
# Damn the consequences and do the right thing.

== The Great Galactic Empire ==

* Great Houses (derived from former military corps of the empire). Each house has its own traditions and holdings; technologically-assisted feudalism.
* A Senate, with elected Emperor.
* Lots of military tradition, but not necessarily militarized or autocratic—too much competition between houses for that.
* Great emphasis upon honor, duty, and glory—always strive to do better, to qualify for a greater oath to a greater patron, and to attract greater clients. Violent. Lead from the front.
* Glorious colorful banners, capes, swords; black helmets and gas masks in battle.

'''Random Action Table (1d6):'''
# Challenge them to a duel.
# Praise their abilities.
# Follow orders to the letter.
# Gengineer a solution.
# Ask your brothers and sisters for help.
# Attack!

== The New Byzantine Sphere ==

'''Brainstorming:'''
* Roman Republic? "Athenian" cyber-assisted democracy, with completely anonymous posting? Single-party state?
* See previous economic caveat, but these are our Space Communists. Everyone works for the state.
* Society to us would seem a strange mix of fragmented and homogenous:
** Everyone born and raised in public creches, to ensure equality of opportunity. You select your own parent-mentors when you reach the right age.
** Everyone belongs to multiple social groups, with privacy defended fiercely—you can gain social advantage by figuring out just who someone is friends with, so there are intricate social masks, and even spoofing by pretending to attend a group you're disinterested in…
** Careful distinctions made between mating, householding, sex, and love; you may be "married" to one person for the sake of appearance and property holding, and have a couple of regular sexual partners elsewhere—or even belong to a swinger's club—but your romantic confidant could be someone else entirely. And if they ''are'' your spouse or sex-partner, it's impolite to say so.
* Wide use of personal augmentation, paired with the principles of "with great power comes great responsibility" and "subtlety trumps blatancy." Top Byzantines are the smartest, healthiest, sexiest people you've ever met—and have a workload to match. On duty, they're expected to wear the uniform and blend in; in off hours, they ''really'' cut loose. Bottom-tier proles have minimum required service?
* Non-expansionist, but uncompromising on security.
* Long policy of isolation now being abandoned in the hopes of attracting new blood and ideas. Approached with the gritted-teeth attitude of taking cough medicine—they hate this, but they know it'll make 'em better. Privately, many welcome the change (and many others want to sabotage it).

'''Random Action Table (1d6):'''
# Say nothing.
# Consult one of your secret clubs.
# Say polite nothings with hidden meaning.
# Make a gratuitous demonstration of your official resources.
# Pass the buck.
# Seemingly retreat, then take action a moment later.

== The Borg Hives ==

* The far end of the transhuman curve—people so self-modified that they hardly count as human.
* Born and raised in a web of rapid telecommunications (even implanted comms, sensory-sharing?), each "hive" reacts almost as a single personality, as emotional responses spread throughout the web, and anyone with a question can receive advice almost instantly. Some hives are aggressive, most are just absent, a few are friendly and interact with the more normal cultures. Because of this, hard to generalize…
* Bodies are just shells, to be adapted as needed for different tasks. Use of "zombie" bodies as bioshells when no longer needed; no distinction made between minds of different origins (human? AI? uplifted dolphin? non-uplifted housecat? all the same). Lots of robotics.
* Most live far beyond the frontiers, for the sake of privacy, or for esoteric reasons of their own. Some accept immigrants; some have emigrants.

'''Random Action Table (1d6):'''
# Suddenly, the entire Hive's attention is focused on the situation.
# Bring in a different shell.
# Stare blankly.
# Suddenly stop and do something else.
# Odd emotional response.
# For a moment, seems utterly "normal."

== Pocket Kingdoms & Isolates ==

* '''Isolates:''' Plenty of these out there—small groups who set out with their own power and equipment, to engineer their ideal society, away from the common crowd.
** Hidden in asteroids, scattered on frontier worlds, sometimes just in private spaces ''within'' settled space.
** Rely on being small and harmless for defense; some maintain relationships with the larger governments just in case, others try to go invisible.
** Lots of these in and aorund Federal space, since the Feds don't mind; few in the Empire, because the local houses, or the Emperor, want control. (However, some cadet branches are practically isolates themselves.)
* '''Pocket Kingdoms:''' Generic term for independent worlds, and ''small'' interstellar polities, whether they're actually kingdoms or not.
** Lots of these are dictatorships, I mean, People's Democratic Republics. The rest tend to be complicated but well-populated worlds, which endured the Nightfall and decided they liked independence.
** Many are neutral, or fall into client-patron relationships with the larger nations. The Empire tolerates 'em if they pay tribute; the Orions cheerfully make trade or perform military interventions; the Fed tends toward formal diplomacy with limited trade ties.
** The Badlands are a region of particularly balkanized and shifting allegiances, which is a constant source of diplomatic frustration.
** A number of these worlds spawn pirates, privateers, and space vikings, though these are generally quite localized problems; anything gets big and problematic, one of the big nations sends in a fleet.
* New Byzantium can be considered one of the most successful pocket kingdoms, since they maintain an active interstellar presence beyond their sphere.

== Aliens ==

I do like me some alien aliens, but too many of them interacting with humans, and humans become just a drop in the ocean… One compromise might be that it seems there are lots of sapients out there, but they tend to be scattered—the dense and complicated human-dominated space is typical of aggressive species, and passive species pretty much stick to one world. You might encounter a few visitors from ''anywhere'', but rarely interact with the full cultures…

* Uplifts — Neo-dolphins in particular appeal to me, and there may be some other uplifts here and there. The old Terran Empire experimented with a lot of these, and then killed off the useless ones, but some have still held on… and new ones may have been created.
* Free AIs — There are some ''weird'' machine intelligences out there.
* Kzin / Lyrans / Aslan / etc. — Our "cat-like" race of carnivores, and ''their'' genetic variants. Aggressive; lots of fighting. Might steal bits of Vargr culture from Traveller, as well, like their flexible concept of social status.
* Hivers / Puppeteers — More Niven influence, and I do like Traveller's Hivers. They'd fit in just fine.
* K'Kree — So would Traveller's K'Kree.
* Tholians — Because talking killer crystals are awesome. (And steal from some other Trek aliens: "YOU UGLY BAGS OF MOSTLY WATER.") I suggest letting them have emphasizing stargate technology for travel, rather than warp, just to be different—and they supposedly arrived from far away originally, right? One ''massive'' teleport mission.
* Gorn / other lizardy folk — Inspired by Murry Leinster's fun story "First Contact", I suggest our Gorn analogs turn out to be one of the closest and friendliest alien species to humans—we understand each other well. 'Course, this does mean there are also easy conflicts, but nothing's perfect.
* True Andorians — Our Andorian analogs, whatever they are, are probably genetically-engineered by ''some other species'', to better interact with humans. Heck, maybe the Hivers?
* There's something that lives in certain gas giants: big, serene, and difficult to interact with. Since we have rather different living requirements and sensibilities, we usually ignore each other.

= LIfe in the Eight-and-Twenty =

== A Galaxy Without Poverty? ==

=== Pteryx on Replicated Society ===
Concerning Trekish optimism, there are two key things to keep in mind:

1) Replicator technology is assumed to mean the end of poverty, and
2) Humanity as a whole is assumed to have "grown up".

Mess with #2 too much and you start to lose the optimism, but #1 certainly has wiggle room. Replicators have to be powered by something, leaving energy as the only truly scarce resource left. There are certainly renewable varieties, but those aren't portable across space, while the sorts of energies we usually see featured in Trek are -- yet the scarcity of *ahem* antideuterium and dilithium crystals somehow doesn't result in the remnants of an economy, nor does the continued demand for hand-crafted goods (primarily seen in food in the shows).

Thus, what I find myself seeing is this: The majority of people stick to planets, where solar and wind energy and such aren't going to go away and thus you have endless replicator energy for those willing to settle for replicated things -- which in the end is no real hardship, just a luxury-free middle-class-esque lifestyle rather than what we'd call "poor". Then you have the likes of starships, which must rely on scarcer yet portable resources, and the people willing to deal with such a "less civilized" mode of living in order to bring the worlds things that can never be replicated -- knowledge, peace, friendship.

'''Commentary:''' ''This is trending in the right direction, though I've been very hesitant to permit actual "post-scarcity" semi-luxury. "I needed a job" is a very raw and real motivation, but on the other hand I don't think a "friendly" government like the Feds would permit people to starve for lack of money if it was at all feasible. (And I suspect the other governments would follow suit, if for no reason other than practicality—it's cheaper to prevent food riots in the first place than to deal with the aftermath.)''

''I agree that invoking "unbelievium" fuels just shifts things around rather than eliminating the issues. I'm taking the direction of, for example, ''Transhuman Space'', where high prosperity is possible through advanced but conventional means. However, this is a good start of the theme: Pleasant but dull core worlds, less pleasant but more interesting frontier, and starships with limited but portable resources.''

=== LordDraqo on energy ===
Quibble - the key to getting away from scarcity thinking is the idea that with sufficient energy anything is possible, and once you begin working with total conversion of matter (Matter/anti-Matter), you have the energy to accomplish just about anything. However this does not mean the end of an economy, you just have to recognize "money" as a symbol for energy expended to achieve/acquire a resource. People still need to expend energy (work) in order to get stuff. You just don't worry about folding green stuff in your pocket any more.

'''Commentary:''' ''A good idea, to tie money directly to energy expenditure; it seems most likely to me for small, closed systems like space habitats, where every activity can be easily metered, but I could see a larger society using it, too, so long as it was well-networked.''

'''Commentary from Pilgrim:''' Not bad. You're going to want to set up your antimatter factories somewhere though. You'd probably want them near a sun (intense energy) and probably above the plane of the ecliptic (in case things go seriously wrong). You ''might'' be able to transport antimatter in a series of relays, but I wouldn't want to be within a light second of the relay stations. On the plus side, you have a reason for space travel and convoys. Related, if you're willing to take the risk, and put up with the planetary blight, you could build a ring around the world (stolen from ''Dread Empire's Fall'') that serves as gigantic particle accelerator for mass production of antimatter. Solar powered, conveniently located and hopefully failsafed to a fare thee well.

=== Deacon Blues on replicator limitations (abridged) ===
…Even presuming the ability to punch buttons in a computer and get anything you want, the following resources will still be limited:

(1) Time. …Which needs get prioritized? Is there a "queue" of demands that the ship's computer has to process? Will my request for a gin and tonic get pushed off for a few minutes if engineering is demanding some advanced widgets?

'''Commentary:''' Yes. Definitely.

(2) Creativity. Everyone can make all the clothes they need in a replicator. But how do you tell the replicator what clothes to make? Unless everyone's wearing the same uniform, someone has to come up with new fashion templates. Unless everyone's eating the same swill, someone has to come up with new recipes. Etc.

'''Commentary:''' Very, very true. The human element remains important: those who create, or even those who select plans, have important skill.

(3) Information. …How much of anything do you need? Does the ship need more Somethingium ingots or more ounces of Thatstuffinite? Are people more tired of the same bland outfits or the same bland food? This is the kind of information that prices would (theoretically) solve in a scarce-resource economy: more demanded stuff becomes more expensive until supply increases to catch up. However, even with the unlimited replicator, you might still find yourself with a surplus of one thing and a serious shortage of another - unless someone's tracking what you need.

'''Commentary:''' The classic problem of a communist economy, but one that the right combination of computers and compromises might make a reasonable approximation of a solution. (Theme of this setting: there are ''always'' gaps.)

(4) Power Source. I know next to nothing about Star Trek, but I presume that the replicator cannot generate whatever powers it. Otherwise, you have a perpetual motion machine, and as goofy as Trek is I don't think they went that far. So the power source for the replicator is now the most precious resource in the galaxy. That ship of yours has phasers, right?

'''Commentary:''' A vicious, but appropriate, thought to end upon. War's not going away, but it's fortunately less common and less dangerous. Fortunately, my replicators can't do this. They ''can'', of course, manufacture gasoline or whatever from the necessary hydrocarbons, and there is antimatter manufacturing for high-yield applications. But most energy itself comes from renewables and fusion.

=== A Letter From Prague on economy ===
Yeah. Just because the Federation is a post-monetary economy doesn't mean it's a post-economics economy...

'''Commentary:''' That triggers an interesting thought… While technically there's ''some'' medium of exchange, it's true that the individuals in some of these societies may not even know about it!

I'm tempted to call them "Work Units" and make all the Prisoner fans twitch. "Non-alcoholic vodka, 21 work units!"

'''Commentary from Pilgrim:'''This might be getting away from the core concept, but have you considered agalmics? Its the guts of Manfred Macx's business in ''Accelerando'' and the basic idea is that Manfred is a super creative and synthetist. His fee for his work are the products and services of those he helps, resulting in all but unlimited air travel, some fiendish computer hardware, etc., etc.

== Lifestyle and Fashion ==

=== Hats ===
A great many people approved of the assertion that hats are a necessity, some with highly amusing comments:

'''simontmn:''' I agree… Hats are what separates us from barbarism. This is why we've been barbaric since around 1958.

'''Gon:''' "When he lost his hat right after beaming down security ensign Smith knew it would be one of those away missions. If only he had stayed in bed this morning..."

FederalSpace:Peoples

2009-02-26T17:42:33Z

Pilgrim: /* LordDraqo on energy */

= History =

The quick-and-dirty history of the setting. Play "spot the borrowed inspiration" as you read along! :)

== 21st Century Cyberpunk and the Eugenics Wars ==

As the 21st century goes along, Earth becomes more and more cyberpunky, as new technology completely fails to resolve many of the big social problems that date back to the 20th century of before. All the cultural divisions finally bust loose at the end of the century in World War III, which is one big war and whole bunch of little ones. This is our Eugenics Wars parallel, and maybe the subsequent conflicts can still be called that.

Long story short: The bad guys win.

== The Terran Empire ==

This brings us up to about the mid-22nd century. The United Earth Government, which eventually becomes just the Terran Empire, pacifies the globe, and conquers space, using the new space technologies that were developed just before the Wars. Imagine the Empire as a mix of what little we know about the canonical Khans, and the Evil Mirror Universe Federation. Brutal military force, chaotic social situation, lots of runaway genetic engineering to manufacture warrior races and sex slaves and biowarfare critters. The first contacts with extraterrestrial intelligence occur during this time, and go about as well as you'd expect from Space Nazis. The Empire's borders are rather porous, with people escaping to form their own little free colonies beyond the frontier… and then the Empire expands to absorb them. But what with all the escapees, and the Empire's own internal politics, lots of people disappear Out There. Eventually, the Imperial capitol even moves from Earth, and it's just The Great Galactic Empire.

And then something causes the whole thing to fall apart. Probably ''several'' somethings, ranging from economics issues to civil war, but I also like the idea of something like a Berserker or Planet-Killer device suddenly blitzing through, or a supernova disrupting warp travel, or something else big and scary. In any case, the Empire collapses, and we get our Long Night scenario. This is about the start of the 25th or 26th century or so.

== The Triplanetary Confederation ==

History doesn't stop during dark ages, it just isn't recorded as well. Various pocket empires arise, more isolated colonies, more alien contacts. Stuff changes. Now fast-forward to the late 27th century, where three worlds have formed the Triplanetary Confederation.

Analogy to characters: Bones is Earth, a lot of history, a lot of old memes, always the first to worry about the dangers in new technology, but there to help all the same. Kirk is Centauri, aggressive, capable, alternately forthright and sneaky. Spock is Hephaestus, struggling with two natures, but primarily thoughtful and logical.

=== World One: Earth ===
United now under a much more peaceful and democratic government that has successful restored and rebuilt devastated Earth. They're saddled with a load of guilt for inflicting the Empire on the rest of the universe. (Real-world inspiration: I haven't seen a lot of the 1960s German SF program ''Raumpatrouille Orion'', but I know ''of'' it. A story I've heard, though I don't know how true it is: The space patrolmen seem to argue a lot, why? Because the Bundeswehr encouraged this among its troops, as a counter-reaction to the militarism and unquestioning obedience that the Wehrmacht and SS attempted to inculcate. This analogy seems as good as any for explaining why Starfleet seems to have a loose opinion toward chain of command.)

=== World Two: Alpha Centauri ===
Our source of boundless can-do, no-nonsense frontier spirit, and maybe the source of our Confederation's trust in government institutions—they built them themselves, of course they trust them! (A bit of that 1950s-1960s American civic duty ideal.) A random idea which is a footnote in Centauran history, but might stand out for us: some of the early colonists tried to gengineer a way for women to grow as tall and tough as men, hoping this would eliminate gender inequality; whether it did or not, the trait breeds true, and easily spread to other worlds. (The only reason for doing this is so I can have a less gender-segregated military without having certain people grumble about physical requirements. ;) )

=== World Three: Hephaestus ===
Hephaestus was another name for Vulcan, so we know which world this is! A planet with a population dominated by H-class genetic upgrades, an early attempt at a "strong genius" model, marred by emotional instability and some other quirks. In the isolation of Nightfall, they had some massive wars, until a couple of the geniuses worked out an artificial philosophy and set of rituals that spread and brought peace. The "Prime Logic" and "IDIC" philosophies will become well-known outside their planet—though many H-class upgrades don't follow it, it's a common stereotype.

'''Commentary from LordDraqo''' Perhaps the organizers behind the establishment of Hephaestus decided to use lojban, or its equivalent as the societies primary language. A language which has led to the members of the society thinking in terms of predicate logic.

'''Commentary from Pilgrim:''' They also probably diddled their brains and that of their kids to improve memory, mathematical ability and to harmonize the frontal lobes (executive functions) with the hindbrain (how things actually get done). The down side of this, is that when a Hephastan loses it, they really lose it.

== The Federated Worlds ==

Our Triplanetary Confederation works out a new kind of FTL drive, the transwarp drive (today just "warp drive"), and starts exploring. At first, they're just following up their old trade contacts, but the Confederation picks up allies, and soon there's a move toward a new kind of interstellar government. Worried about a repeat of the crimes of the Old Empire, the wrangling over a new constitution continues for years.

But they finally sign the document, and the new Federated Worlds are founded, a cyberdemocracy dedicated to the principle that all life-forms have a fundamental right to existence in their own terms, and that governments are instituted among sapients to secure an equitable compromise for all within their sphere. (Or some such language; I'm not an expert in interstellar treaty law, so I probably can't phrase it properly.) And this young federation is a smashing success.

That brings us up to the present day, 2809 CE, shortly after the Federated Worlds' Centennial celebrations. The last war with the Cronan Empire was decades ago, the old space exploration program has been reactivated, and the government is involved in a top-down reassessment of internal programs. Stuff's changing, except the stuff which hasn't, but life goes on.

== The Others ==

But they aren't the only new government on the block:

=== The Orion Alliance ===
A mercantile trade and defense alliance, grown into a group of federated states. In some aspects, it clings to ancient traditions; in others, it blithely charges forward down new paths. A mirror image of the Federated Worlds. Sometimes they are partners, sometimes rivals. (If you like, you can think of the Alliance as the U.S. and the Fed as the E.U., though that's a gross simplification, of course.) In fact, because of the dispersed nature of space, in places the two governments overlap, with worlds switching allegiance from time to time, or existing side-by-side.

=== The Great Galactic Empire ===
…is what they call themselves. Everyone else thinks of them as the Cronan Empire. A fragment of the old Empire still survives, centered on the world of Cronos, and with a resurgent, feudally-inspired culture, they're back in the Great Game, hoping to reclaim lost territory or colonize new. These are the Klingon / Soviet Union analogs.

=== New Byzantium ===
Our Romulan analogs, and also our Space Communists / China in Space. Formerly isolationist, now hoping for new blood and ideas, a small but powerful polity with lots of transhuman aspects, and lots of little intersecting social groups and concepts of public face that make it tricky for outsiders to quite grasp what's going on.

=== The 'Borg Hives ===
Several of these, actually, mostly way out in the deeps beyond explored space. People who modified themselves and their society so heavily that they may no longer be ''human'', and now exist in such a web of telecommunication and body-modification that each hive is practically a single "person." A couple are aggressive like the TV shows, but others are introspective, or even friendly—though disturbing, for how far they differ from human norms, and yet how close they can still be…

=== And More… ===
Plus various pocket empires, like whatever we'll name our Cardassian analogs, and a myriad of isolates, including no doubt a few nuts who base their culture off of Greek mythology, Nazism, cowboy movies, or Edgar Rice Burroughs novels. If it works for them, it's hard to criticize…

All of the larger nations have a mix of races, species, and cultures within them, often on the same worlds. And there are, of course, alien, or alien-dominated nations, as well. I'd like to work the Kzin / Lyrans in there somewhere, the Gorn are a must, the Tholians would fit the "freaky alien space horde bent on devouring us out of existence" role nicely, I wouldn't mind sticking the Hivers and the K'Kree in there on the side… there's room, Space is Big. And don't forget that the aliens may well have para-alien genemods, alien-animal uplifts, and AIs of their own—and humans living among them, playing the "obligatory non-alien part" on ''their'' media shows, etc.

It's a big, wide, wonderful galaxy out there.

= The Interstellar Nations =

== The Federated Worlds ==

'''Brainstorming'''
* AI-assisted cyberdemocracy, with a Council and a President.
* Individual worlds have lots of freedom, so long as they hew to "universal principles" of the rights of lifekind, e.g. human rights, environmental conservation, etc.
* While our economic definitions don't exactly apply in an interstellar society with AI, fusion power, and rapidfacturing, the Feds are socialist-ish.
* Suggestion: people draw some sort of basic living stipend (a stock holding?), lots of public housing, etc.; colonists reinvest into developing a new world, then have the option to buy back into the core system, or retain economic independence.
* Division between "Core" worlds, which are developed and settled, and have technologized luxury (well, lower-middle-class comfort, at least), and "Frontier" worlds, which have sacrificed that to try to build their world into ''their'' way of doing things. (Isolates are an extreme example of this.) The Fed permits and even encourages this, so long as you're reasonably democratic and play well with others…
* Constant tension between the sheer weight of Earth's history and population, and everyone else.
* Current arts and culture are in a phase of rediscovering and reclaiming "traditional" pre-Empire art; a lot of emphasis on personal performance and hobbies.
* The Starfleet is an arm of the civil government (albeit a heavily-armed one), and associated with the other stellar organizations; analogous to Japanese SDF. Something like this:
** Federation Council.
*** Justice Administration.
*** Diplomatic Administration.
*** Worlds Welfare Administration.
*** Federal Space Administration.
**** Department of Colonization and Terraforming.
***** Colonial Rangers.
**** Department of Transportation.
***** Merchant Space Fleet.
***** Bureau of Starports.
**** Department of the Star Fleet.
***** Core Fleets.
***** Frontier Fleet.
***** Star Fleet Marine Corps.
***** Strategic Space Command.
***** Fleet Surgeon General.
**** Department of Survey.
***** Deep Space Scouts.
***** Scientific Survey Bureau.

'''Random Action Table (1d6)'''
# Consider old Terran philosophy.
# Try to reach a compromise.
# Beam down a probe.
# Check the database again.
# Set phasers to stun.
# Offer to help.

== The Orion Alliance ==

'''Brainstorming:'''
* A republic with AI advisors, with a Parliament and Prime Minister or Ministers.
* Corporate capitalism, complete with well developed mass media, etc.
* Reduced social programs and lax regulation of business, in order to encourage business. Greater individual liberty than the Federated Worlds, but also great social inequality—the poor are poorer.
* Less conservative technologically, but also less stable—more boom and bust cycles.
* Colonies tend to be for business first, and ideology only much later.
* Army and Navy are traditionally-structured militaries, but compete at times with the private corporate fleets.
* Great music, food, and drink!

'''Random Action Table (1d6):'''
# Light a cigarette.
# Offer money.
# Offer sex.
# Apply overwhelming force.
# Bluff.
# Damn the consequences and do the right thing.

== The Great Galactic Empire ==

* Great Houses (derived from former military corps of the empire). Each house has its own traditions and holdings; technologically-assisted feudalism.
* A Senate, with elected Emperor.
* Lots of military tradition, but not necessarily militarized or autocratic—too much competition between houses for that.
* Great emphasis upon honor, duty, and glory—always strive to do better, to qualify for a greater oath to a greater patron, and to attract greater clients. Violent. Lead from the front.
* Glorious colorful banners, capes, swords; black helmets and gas masks in battle.

'''Random Action Table (1d6):'''
# Challenge them to a duel.
# Praise their abilities.
# Follow orders to the letter.
# Gengineer a solution.
# Ask your brothers and sisters for help.
# Attack!

== The New Byzantine Sphere ==

'''Brainstorming:'''
* Roman Republic? "Athenian" cyber-assisted democracy, with completely anonymous posting? Single-party state?
* See previous economic caveat, but these are our Space Communists. Everyone works for the state.
* Society to us would seem a strange mix of fragmented and homogenous:
** Everyone born and raised in public creches, to ensure equality of opportunity. You select your own parent-mentors when you reach the right age.
** Everyone belongs to multiple social groups, with privacy defended fiercely—you can gain social advantage by figuring out just who someone is friends with, so there are intricate social masks, and even spoofing by pretending to attend a group you're disinterested in…
** Careful distinctions made between mating, householding, sex, and love; you may be "married" to one person for the sake of appearance and property holding, and have a couple of regular sexual partners elsewhere—or even belong to a swinger's club—but your romantic confidant could be someone else entirely. And if they ''are'' your spouse or sex-partner, it's impolite to say so.
* Wide use of personal augmentation, paired with the principles of "with great power comes great responsibility" and "subtlety trumps blatancy." Top Byzantines are the smartest, healthiest, sexiest people you've ever met—and have a workload to match. On duty, they're expected to wear the uniform and blend in; in off hours, they ''really'' cut loose. Bottom-tier proles have minimum required service?
* Non-expansionist, but uncompromising on security.
* Long policy of isolation now being abandoned in the hopes of attracting new blood and ideas. Approached with the gritted-teeth attitude of taking cough medicine—they hate this, but they know it'll make 'em better. Privately, many welcome the change (and many others want to sabotage it).

'''Random Action Table (1d6):'''
# Say nothing.
# Consult one of your secret clubs.
# Say polite nothings with hidden meaning.
# Make a gratuitous demonstration of your official resources.
# Pass the buck.
# Seemingly retreat, then take action a moment later.

== The Borg Hives ==

* The far end of the transhuman curve—people so self-modified that they hardly count as human.
* Born and raised in a web of rapid telecommunications (even implanted comms, sensory-sharing?), each "hive" reacts almost as a single personality, as emotional responses spread throughout the web, and anyone with a question can receive advice almost instantly. Some hives are aggressive, most are just absent, a few are friendly and interact with the more normal cultures. Because of this, hard to generalize…
* Bodies are just shells, to be adapted as needed for different tasks. Use of "zombie" bodies as bioshells when no longer needed; no distinction made between minds of different origins (human? AI? uplifted dolphin? non-uplifted housecat? all the same). Lots of robotics.
* Most live far beyond the frontiers, for the sake of privacy, or for esoteric reasons of their own. Some accept immigrants; some have emigrants.

'''Random Action Table (1d6):'''
# Suddenly, the entire Hive's attention is focused on the situation.
# Bring in a different shell.
# Stare blankly.
# Suddenly stop and do something else.
# Odd emotional response.
# For a moment, seems utterly "normal."

== Pocket Kingdoms & Isolates ==

* '''Isolates:''' Plenty of these out there—small groups who set out with their own power and equipment, to engineer their ideal society, away from the common crowd.
** Hidden in asteroids, scattered on frontier worlds, sometimes just in private spaces ''within'' settled space.
** Rely on being small and harmless for defense; some maintain relationships with the larger governments just in case, others try to go invisible.
** Lots of these in and aorund Federal space, since the Feds don't mind; few in the Empire, because the local houses, or the Emperor, want control. (However, some cadet branches are practically isolates themselves.)
* '''Pocket Kingdoms:''' Generic term for independent worlds, and ''small'' interstellar polities, whether they're actually kingdoms or not.
** Lots of these are dictatorships, I mean, People's Democratic Republics. The rest tend to be complicated but well-populated worlds, which endured the Nightfall and decided they liked independence.
** Many are neutral, or fall into client-patron relationships with the larger nations. The Empire tolerates 'em if they pay tribute; the Orions cheerfully make trade or perform military interventions; the Fed tends toward formal diplomacy with limited trade ties.
** The Badlands are a region of particularly balkanized and shifting allegiances, which is a constant source of diplomatic frustration.
** A number of these worlds spawn pirates, privateers, and space vikings, though these are generally quite localized problems; anything gets big and problematic, one of the big nations sends in a fleet.
* New Byzantium can be considered one of the most successful pocket kingdoms, since they maintain an active interstellar presence beyond their sphere.

== Aliens ==

I do like me some alien aliens, but too many of them interacting with humans, and humans become just a drop in the ocean… One compromise might be that it seems there are lots of sapients out there, but they tend to be scattered—the dense and complicated human-dominated space is typical of aggressive species, and passive species pretty much stick to one world. You might encounter a few visitors from ''anywhere'', but rarely interact with the full cultures…

* Uplifts — Neo-dolphins in particular appeal to me, and there may be some other uplifts here and there. The old Terran Empire experimented with a lot of these, and then killed off the useless ones, but some have still held on… and new ones may have been created.
* Free AIs — There are some ''weird'' machine intelligences out there.
* Kzin / Lyrans / Aslan / etc. — Our "cat-like" race of carnivores, and ''their'' genetic variants. Aggressive; lots of fighting. Might steal bits of Vargr culture from Traveller, as well, like their flexible concept of social status.
* Hivers / Puppeteers — More Niven influence, and I do like Traveller's Hivers. They'd fit in just fine.
* K'Kree — So would Traveller's K'Kree.
* Tholians — Because talking killer crystals are awesome. (And steal from some other Trek aliens: "YOU UGLY BAGS OF MOSTLY WATER.") I suggest letting them have emphasizing stargate technology for travel, rather than warp, just to be different—and they supposedly arrived from far away originally, right? One ''massive'' teleport mission.
* Gorn / other lizardy folk — Inspired by Murry Leinster's fun story "First Contact", I suggest our Gorn analogs turn out to be one of the closest and friendliest alien species to humans—we understand each other well. 'Course, this does mean there are also easy conflicts, but nothing's perfect.
* True Andorians — Our Andorian analogs, whatever they are, are probably genetically-engineered by ''some other species'', to better interact with humans. Heck, maybe the Hivers?
* There's something that lives in certain gas giants: big, serene, and difficult to interact with. Since we have rather different living requirements and sensibilities, we usually ignore each other.

= LIfe in the Eight-and-Twenty =

== A Galaxy Without Poverty? ==

=== Pteryx on Replicated Society ===
Concerning Trekish optimism, there are two key things to keep in mind:

1) Replicator technology is assumed to mean the end of poverty, and
2) Humanity as a whole is assumed to have "grown up".

Mess with #2 too much and you start to lose the optimism, but #1 certainly has wiggle room. Replicators have to be powered by something, leaving energy as the only truly scarce resource left. There are certainly renewable varieties, but those aren't portable across space, while the sorts of energies we usually see featured in Trek are -- yet the scarcity of *ahem* antideuterium and dilithium crystals somehow doesn't result in the remnants of an economy, nor does the continued demand for hand-crafted goods (primarily seen in food in the shows).

Thus, what I find myself seeing is this: The majority of people stick to planets, where solar and wind energy and such aren't going to go away and thus you have endless replicator energy for those willing to settle for replicated things -- which in the end is no real hardship, just a luxury-free middle-class-esque lifestyle rather than what we'd call "poor". Then you have the likes of starships, which must rely on scarcer yet portable resources, and the people willing to deal with such a "less civilized" mode of living in order to bring the worlds things that can never be replicated -- knowledge, peace, friendship.

'''Commentary:''' ''This is trending in the right direction, though I've been very hesitant to permit actual "post-scarcity" semi-luxury. "I needed a job" is a very raw and real motivation, but on the other hand I don't think a "friendly" government like the Feds would permit people to starve for lack of money if it was at all feasible. (And I suspect the other governments would follow suit, if for no reason other than practicality—it's cheaper to prevent food riots in the first place than to deal with the aftermath.)''

''I agree that invoking "unbelievium" fuels just shifts things around rather than eliminating the issues. I'm taking the direction of, for example, ''Transhuman Space'', where high prosperity is possible through advanced but conventional means. However, this is a good start of the theme: Pleasant but dull core worlds, less pleasant but more interesting frontier, and starships with limited but portable resources.''

=== LordDraqo on energy ===
Quibble - the key to getting away from scarcity thinking is the idea that with sufficient energy anything is possible, and once you begin working with total conversion of matter (Matter/anti-Matter), you have the energy to accomplish just about anything. However this does not mean the end of an economy, you just have to recognize "money" as a symbol for energy expended to achieve/acquire a resource. People still need to expend energy (work) in order to get stuff. You just don't worry about folding green stuff in your pocket any more.

'''Commentary:''' ''A good idea, to tie money directly to energy expenditure; it seems most likely to me for small, closed systems like space habitats, where every activity can be easily metered, but I could see a larger society using it, too, so long as it was well-networked.''

'''Commentary from Pilgrim:''' Not bad. You're going to want to set up your antimatter factories somewhere though. You'd probably want them near a sun (intense energy) and probably above the plane of the ecliptic (in case things go seriously wrong). You ''might'' be able to transport antimatter in a series of relays, but I wouldn't want to be within a light second of the relay stations. On the plus side, you have a reason for space travel and convoys. Related, if you're willing to take the risk, and put up with the planetary blight, you could build a ring around the world (stolen from ''Dread Empire's Fall'') that serves as gigantic particle accelerator for mass production of antimatter. Solar powered, conveniently located and hopefully failsafed to a fare thee well.

=== Deacon Blues on replicator limitations (abridged) ===
…Even presuming the ability to punch buttons in a computer and get anything you want, the following resources will still be limited:

(1) Time. …Which needs get prioritized? Is there a "queue" of demands that the ship's computer has to process? Will my request for a gin and tonic get pushed off for a few minutes if engineering is demanding some advanced widgets?

'''Commentary:''' Yes. Definitely.

(2) Creativity. Everyone can make all the clothes they need in a replicator. But how do you tell the replicator what clothes to make? Unless everyone's wearing the same uniform, someone has to come up with new fashion templates. Unless everyone's eating the same swill, someone has to come up with new recipes. Etc.

'''Commentary:''' Very, very true. The human element remains important: those who create, or even those who select plans, have important skill.

(3) Information. …How much of anything do you need? Does the ship need more Somethingium ingots or more ounces of Thatstuffinite? Are people more tired of the same bland outfits or the same bland food? This is the kind of information that prices would (theoretically) solve in a scarce-resource economy: more demanded stuff becomes more expensive until supply increases to catch up. However, even with the unlimited replicator, you might still find yourself with a surplus of one thing and a serious shortage of another - unless someone's tracking what you need.

'''Commentary:''' The classic problem of a communist economy, but one that the right combination of computers and compromises might make a reasonable approximation of a solution. (Theme of this setting: there are ''always'' gaps.)

(4) Power Source. I know next to nothing about Star Trek, but I presume that the replicator cannot generate whatever powers it. Otherwise, you have a perpetual motion machine, and as goofy as Trek is I don't think they went that far. So the power source for the replicator is now the most precious resource in the galaxy. That ship of yours has phasers, right?

'''Commentary:''' A vicious, but appropriate, thought to end upon. War's not going away, but it's fortunately less common and less dangerous. Fortunately, my replicators can't do this. They ''can'', of course, manufacture gasoline or whatever from the necessary hydrocarbons, and there is antimatter manufacturing for high-yield applications. But most energy itself comes from renewables and fusion.

=== A Letter From Prague on economy ===
Yeah. Just because the Federation is a post-monetary economy doesn't mean it's a post-economics economy...

'''Commentary:''' That triggers an interesting thought… While technically there's ''some'' medium of exchange, it's true that the individuals in some of these societies may not even know about it!

I'm tempted to call them "Work Units" and make all the Prisoner fans twitch. "Non-alcoholic vodka, 21 work units!"

== Lifestyle and Fashion ==

=== Hats ===
A great many people approved of the assertion that hats are a necessity, some with highly amusing comments:

'''simontmn:''' I agree… Hats are what separates us from barbarism. This is why we've been barbaric since around 1958.

'''Gon:''' "When he lost his hat right after beaming down security ensign Smith knew it would be one of those away missions. If only he had stayed in bed this morning..."

FederalSpace:Peoples

2009-02-26T17:37:17Z

Pilgrim: /* World Three: Hephaestus */

= History =

The quick-and-dirty history of the setting. Play "spot the borrowed inspiration" as you read along! :)

== 21st Century Cyberpunk and the Eugenics Wars ==

As the 21st century goes along, Earth becomes more and more cyberpunky, as new technology completely fails to resolve many of the big social problems that date back to the 20th century of before. All the cultural divisions finally bust loose at the end of the century in World War III, which is one big war and whole bunch of little ones. This is our Eugenics Wars parallel, and maybe the subsequent conflicts can still be called that.

Long story short: The bad guys win.

== The Terran Empire ==

This brings us up to about the mid-22nd century. The United Earth Government, which eventually becomes just the Terran Empire, pacifies the globe, and conquers space, using the new space technologies that were developed just before the Wars. Imagine the Empire as a mix of what little we know about the canonical Khans, and the Evil Mirror Universe Federation. Brutal military force, chaotic social situation, lots of runaway genetic engineering to manufacture warrior races and sex slaves and biowarfare critters. The first contacts with extraterrestrial intelligence occur during this time, and go about as well as you'd expect from Space Nazis. The Empire's borders are rather porous, with people escaping to form their own little free colonies beyond the frontier… and then the Empire expands to absorb them. But what with all the escapees, and the Empire's own internal politics, lots of people disappear Out There. Eventually, the Imperial capitol even moves from Earth, and it's just The Great Galactic Empire.

And then something causes the whole thing to fall apart. Probably ''several'' somethings, ranging from economics issues to civil war, but I also like the idea of something like a Berserker or Planet-Killer device suddenly blitzing through, or a supernova disrupting warp travel, or something else big and scary. In any case, the Empire collapses, and we get our Long Night scenario. This is about the start of the 25th or 26th century or so.

== The Triplanetary Confederation ==

History doesn't stop during dark ages, it just isn't recorded as well. Various pocket empires arise, more isolated colonies, more alien contacts. Stuff changes. Now fast-forward to the late 27th century, where three worlds have formed the Triplanetary Confederation.

Analogy to characters: Bones is Earth, a lot of history, a lot of old memes, always the first to worry about the dangers in new technology, but there to help all the same. Kirk is Centauri, aggressive, capable, alternately forthright and sneaky. Spock is Hephaestus, struggling with two natures, but primarily thoughtful and logical.

=== World One: Earth ===
United now under a much more peaceful and democratic government that has successful restored and rebuilt devastated Earth. They're saddled with a load of guilt for inflicting the Empire on the rest of the universe. (Real-world inspiration: I haven't seen a lot of the 1960s German SF program ''Raumpatrouille Orion'', but I know ''of'' it. A story I've heard, though I don't know how true it is: The space patrolmen seem to argue a lot, why? Because the Bundeswehr encouraged this among its troops, as a counter-reaction to the militarism and unquestioning obedience that the Wehrmacht and SS attempted to inculcate. This analogy seems as good as any for explaining why Starfleet seems to have a loose opinion toward chain of command.)

=== World Two: Alpha Centauri ===
Our source of boundless can-do, no-nonsense frontier spirit, and maybe the source of our Confederation's trust in government institutions—they built them themselves, of course they trust them! (A bit of that 1950s-1960s American civic duty ideal.) A random idea which is a footnote in Centauran history, but might stand out for us: some of the early colonists tried to gengineer a way for women to grow as tall and tough as men, hoping this would eliminate gender inequality; whether it did or not, the trait breeds true, and easily spread to other worlds. (The only reason for doing this is so I can have a less gender-segregated military without having certain people grumble about physical requirements. ;) )

=== World Three: Hephaestus ===
Hephaestus was another name for Vulcan, so we know which world this is! A planet with a population dominated by H-class genetic upgrades, an early attempt at a "strong genius" model, marred by emotional instability and some other quirks. In the isolation of Nightfall, they had some massive wars, until a couple of the geniuses worked out an artificial philosophy and set of rituals that spread and brought peace. The "Prime Logic" and "IDIC" philosophies will become well-known outside their planet—though many H-class upgrades don't follow it, it's a common stereotype.

'''Commentary from LordDraqo''' Perhaps the organizers behind the establishment of Hephaestus decided to use lojban, or its equivalent as the societies primary language. A language which has led to the members of the society thinking in terms of predicate logic.

'''Commentary from Pilgrim:''' They also probably diddled their brains and that of their kids to improve memory, mathematical ability and to harmonize the frontal lobes (executive functions) with the hindbrain (how things actually get done). The down side of this, is that when a Hephastan loses it, they really lose it.

== The Federated Worlds ==

Our Triplanetary Confederation works out a new kind of FTL drive, the transwarp drive (today just "warp drive"), and starts exploring. At first, they're just following up their old trade contacts, but the Confederation picks up allies, and soon there's a move toward a new kind of interstellar government. Worried about a repeat of the crimes of the Old Empire, the wrangling over a new constitution continues for years.

But they finally sign the document, and the new Federated Worlds are founded, a cyberdemocracy dedicated to the principle that all life-forms have a fundamental right to existence in their own terms, and that governments are instituted among sapients to secure an equitable compromise for all within their sphere. (Or some such language; I'm not an expert in interstellar treaty law, so I probably can't phrase it properly.) And this young federation is a smashing success.

That brings us up to the present day, 2809 CE, shortly after the Federated Worlds' Centennial celebrations. The last war with the Cronan Empire was decades ago, the old space exploration program has been reactivated, and the government is involved in a top-down reassessment of internal programs. Stuff's changing, except the stuff which hasn't, but life goes on.

== The Others ==

But they aren't the only new government on the block:

=== The Orion Alliance ===
A mercantile trade and defense alliance, grown into a group of federated states. In some aspects, it clings to ancient traditions; in others, it blithely charges forward down new paths. A mirror image of the Federated Worlds. Sometimes they are partners, sometimes rivals. (If you like, you can think of the Alliance as the U.S. and the Fed as the E.U., though that's a gross simplification, of course.) In fact, because of the dispersed nature of space, in places the two governments overlap, with worlds switching allegiance from time to time, or existing side-by-side.

=== The Great Galactic Empire ===
…is what they call themselves. Everyone else thinks of them as the Cronan Empire. A fragment of the old Empire still survives, centered on the world of Cronos, and with a resurgent, feudally-inspired culture, they're back in the Great Game, hoping to reclaim lost territory or colonize new. These are the Klingon / Soviet Union analogs.

=== New Byzantium ===
Our Romulan analogs, and also our Space Communists / China in Space. Formerly isolationist, now hoping for new blood and ideas, a small but powerful polity with lots of transhuman aspects, and lots of little intersecting social groups and concepts of public face that make it tricky for outsiders to quite grasp what's going on.

=== The 'Borg Hives ===
Several of these, actually, mostly way out in the deeps beyond explored space. People who modified themselves and their society so heavily that they may no longer be ''human'', and now exist in such a web of telecommunication and body-modification that each hive is practically a single "person." A couple are aggressive like the TV shows, but others are introspective, or even friendly—though disturbing, for how far they differ from human norms, and yet how close they can still be…

=== And More… ===
Plus various pocket empires, like whatever we'll name our Cardassian analogs, and a myriad of isolates, including no doubt a few nuts who base their culture off of Greek mythology, Nazism, cowboy movies, or Edgar Rice Burroughs novels. If it works for them, it's hard to criticize…

All of the larger nations have a mix of races, species, and cultures within them, often on the same worlds. And there are, of course, alien, or alien-dominated nations, as well. I'd like to work the Kzin / Lyrans in there somewhere, the Gorn are a must, the Tholians would fit the "freaky alien space horde bent on devouring us out of existence" role nicely, I wouldn't mind sticking the Hivers and the K'Kree in there on the side… there's room, Space is Big. And don't forget that the aliens may well have para-alien genemods, alien-animal uplifts, and AIs of their own—and humans living among them, playing the "obligatory non-alien part" on ''their'' media shows, etc.

It's a big, wide, wonderful galaxy out there.

= The Interstellar Nations =

== The Federated Worlds ==

'''Brainstorming'''
* AI-assisted cyberdemocracy, with a Council and a President.
* Individual worlds have lots of freedom, so long as they hew to "universal principles" of the rights of lifekind, e.g. human rights, environmental conservation, etc.
* While our economic definitions don't exactly apply in an interstellar society with AI, fusion power, and rapidfacturing, the Feds are socialist-ish.
* Suggestion: people draw some sort of basic living stipend (a stock holding?), lots of public housing, etc.; colonists reinvest into developing a new world, then have the option to buy back into the core system, or retain economic independence.
* Division between "Core" worlds, which are developed and settled, and have technologized luxury (well, lower-middle-class comfort, at least), and "Frontier" worlds, which have sacrificed that to try to build their world into ''their'' way of doing things. (Isolates are an extreme example of this.) The Fed permits and even encourages this, so long as you're reasonably democratic and play well with others…
* Constant tension between the sheer weight of Earth's history and population, and everyone else.
* Current arts and culture are in a phase of rediscovering and reclaiming "traditional" pre-Empire art; a lot of emphasis on personal performance and hobbies.
* The Starfleet is an arm of the civil government (albeit a heavily-armed one), and associated with the other stellar organizations; analogous to Japanese SDF. Something like this:
** Federation Council.
*** Justice Administration.
*** Diplomatic Administration.
*** Worlds Welfare Administration.
*** Federal Space Administration.
**** Department of Colonization and Terraforming.
***** Colonial Rangers.
**** Department of Transportation.
***** Merchant Space Fleet.
***** Bureau of Starports.
**** Department of the Star Fleet.
***** Core Fleets.
***** Frontier Fleet.
***** Star Fleet Marine Corps.
***** Strategic Space Command.
***** Fleet Surgeon General.
**** Department of Survey.
***** Deep Space Scouts.
***** Scientific Survey Bureau.

'''Random Action Table (1d6)'''
# Consider old Terran philosophy.
# Try to reach a compromise.
# Beam down a probe.
# Check the database again.
# Set phasers to stun.
# Offer to help.

== The Orion Alliance ==

'''Brainstorming:'''
* A republic with AI advisors, with a Parliament and Prime Minister or Ministers.
* Corporate capitalism, complete with well developed mass media, etc.
* Reduced social programs and lax regulation of business, in order to encourage business. Greater individual liberty than the Federated Worlds, but also great social inequality—the poor are poorer.
* Less conservative technologically, but also less stable—more boom and bust cycles.
* Colonies tend to be for business first, and ideology only much later.
* Army and Navy are traditionally-structured militaries, but compete at times with the private corporate fleets.
* Great music, food, and drink!

'''Random Action Table (1d6):'''
# Light a cigarette.
# Offer money.
# Offer sex.
# Apply overwhelming force.
# Bluff.
# Damn the consequences and do the right thing.

== The Great Galactic Empire ==

* Great Houses (derived from former military corps of the empire). Each house has its own traditions and holdings; technologically-assisted feudalism.
* A Senate, with elected Emperor.
* Lots of military tradition, but not necessarily militarized or autocratic—too much competition between houses for that.
* Great emphasis upon honor, duty, and glory—always strive to do better, to qualify for a greater oath to a greater patron, and to attract greater clients. Violent. Lead from the front.
* Glorious colorful banners, capes, swords; black helmets and gas masks in battle.

'''Random Action Table (1d6):'''
# Challenge them to a duel.
# Praise their abilities.
# Follow orders to the letter.
# Gengineer a solution.
# Ask your brothers and sisters for help.
# Attack!

== The New Byzantine Sphere ==

'''Brainstorming:'''
* Roman Republic? "Athenian" cyber-assisted democracy, with completely anonymous posting? Single-party state?
* See previous economic caveat, but these are our Space Communists. Everyone works for the state.
* Society to us would seem a strange mix of fragmented and homogenous:
** Everyone born and raised in public creches, to ensure equality of opportunity. You select your own parent-mentors when you reach the right age.
** Everyone belongs to multiple social groups, with privacy defended fiercely—you can gain social advantage by figuring out just who someone is friends with, so there are intricate social masks, and even spoofing by pretending to attend a group you're disinterested in…
** Careful distinctions made between mating, householding, sex, and love; you may be "married" to one person for the sake of appearance and property holding, and have a couple of regular sexual partners elsewhere—or even belong to a swinger's club—but your romantic confidant could be someone else entirely. And if they ''are'' your spouse or sex-partner, it's impolite to say so.
* Wide use of personal augmentation, paired with the principles of "with great power comes great responsibility" and "subtlety trumps blatancy." Top Byzantines are the smartest, healthiest, sexiest people you've ever met—and have a workload to match. On duty, they're expected to wear the uniform and blend in; in off hours, they ''really'' cut loose. Bottom-tier proles have minimum required service?
* Non-expansionist, but uncompromising on security.
* Long policy of isolation now being abandoned in the hopes of attracting new blood and ideas. Approached with the gritted-teeth attitude of taking cough medicine—they hate this, but they know it'll make 'em better. Privately, many welcome the change (and many others want to sabotage it).

'''Random Action Table (1d6):'''
# Say nothing.
# Consult one of your secret clubs.
# Say polite nothings with hidden meaning.
# Make a gratuitous demonstration of your official resources.
# Pass the buck.
# Seemingly retreat, then take action a moment later.

== The Borg Hives ==

* The far end of the transhuman curve—people so self-modified that they hardly count as human.
* Born and raised in a web of rapid telecommunications (even implanted comms, sensory-sharing?), each "hive" reacts almost as a single personality, as emotional responses spread throughout the web, and anyone with a question can receive advice almost instantly. Some hives are aggressive, most are just absent, a few are friendly and interact with the more normal cultures. Because of this, hard to generalize…
* Bodies are just shells, to be adapted as needed for different tasks. Use of "zombie" bodies as bioshells when no longer needed; no distinction made between minds of different origins (human? AI? uplifted dolphin? non-uplifted housecat? all the same). Lots of robotics.
* Most live far beyond the frontiers, for the sake of privacy, or for esoteric reasons of their own. Some accept immigrants; some have emigrants.

'''Random Action Table (1d6):'''
# Suddenly, the entire Hive's attention is focused on the situation.
# Bring in a different shell.
# Stare blankly.
# Suddenly stop and do something else.
# Odd emotional response.
# For a moment, seems utterly "normal."

== Pocket Kingdoms & Isolates ==

* '''Isolates:''' Plenty of these out there—small groups who set out with their own power and equipment, to engineer their ideal society, away from the common crowd.
** Hidden in asteroids, scattered on frontier worlds, sometimes just in private spaces ''within'' settled space.
** Rely on being small and harmless for defense; some maintain relationships with the larger governments just in case, others try to go invisible.
** Lots of these in and aorund Federal space, since the Feds don't mind; few in the Empire, because the local houses, or the Emperor, want control. (However, some cadet branches are practically isolates themselves.)
* '''Pocket Kingdoms:''' Generic term for independent worlds, and ''small'' interstellar polities, whether they're actually kingdoms or not.
** Lots of these are dictatorships, I mean, People's Democratic Republics. The rest tend to be complicated but well-populated worlds, which endured the Nightfall and decided they liked independence.
** Many are neutral, or fall into client-patron relationships with the larger nations. The Empire tolerates 'em if they pay tribute; the Orions cheerfully make trade or perform military interventions; the Fed tends toward formal diplomacy with limited trade ties.
** The Badlands are a region of particularly balkanized and shifting allegiances, which is a constant source of diplomatic frustration.
** A number of these worlds spawn pirates, privateers, and space vikings, though these are generally quite localized problems; anything gets big and problematic, one of the big nations sends in a fleet.
* New Byzantium can be considered one of the most successful pocket kingdoms, since they maintain an active interstellar presence beyond their sphere.

== Aliens ==

I do like me some alien aliens, but too many of them interacting with humans, and humans become just a drop in the ocean… One compromise might be that it seems there are lots of sapients out there, but they tend to be scattered—the dense and complicated human-dominated space is typical of aggressive species, and passive species pretty much stick to one world. You might encounter a few visitors from ''anywhere'', but rarely interact with the full cultures…

* Uplifts — Neo-dolphins in particular appeal to me, and there may be some other uplifts here and there. The old Terran Empire experimented with a lot of these, and then killed off the useless ones, but some have still held on… and new ones may have been created.
* Free AIs — There are some ''weird'' machine intelligences out there.
* Kzin / Lyrans / Aslan / etc. — Our "cat-like" race of carnivores, and ''their'' genetic variants. Aggressive; lots of fighting. Might steal bits of Vargr culture from Traveller, as well, like their flexible concept of social status.
* Hivers / Puppeteers — More Niven influence, and I do like Traveller's Hivers. They'd fit in just fine.
* K'Kree — So would Traveller's K'Kree.
* Tholians — Because talking killer crystals are awesome. (And steal from some other Trek aliens: "YOU UGLY BAGS OF MOSTLY WATER.") I suggest letting them have emphasizing stargate technology for travel, rather than warp, just to be different—and they supposedly arrived from far away originally, right? One ''massive'' teleport mission.
* Gorn / other lizardy folk — Inspired by Murry Leinster's fun story "First Contact", I suggest our Gorn analogs turn out to be one of the closest and friendliest alien species to humans—we understand each other well. 'Course, this does mean there are also easy conflicts, but nothing's perfect.
* True Andorians — Our Andorian analogs, whatever they are, are probably genetically-engineered by ''some other species'', to better interact with humans. Heck, maybe the Hivers?
* There's something that lives in certain gas giants: big, serene, and difficult to interact with. Since we have rather different living requirements and sensibilities, we usually ignore each other.

= LIfe in the Eight-and-Twenty =

== A Galaxy Without Poverty? ==

=== Pteryx on Replicated Society ===
Concerning Trekish optimism, there are two key things to keep in mind:

1) Replicator technology is assumed to mean the end of poverty, and
2) Humanity as a whole is assumed to have "grown up".

Mess with #2 too much and you start to lose the optimism, but #1 certainly has wiggle room. Replicators have to be powered by something, leaving energy as the only truly scarce resource left. There are certainly renewable varieties, but those aren't portable across space, while the sorts of energies we usually see featured in Trek are -- yet the scarcity of *ahem* antideuterium and dilithium crystals somehow doesn't result in the remnants of an economy, nor does the continued demand for hand-crafted goods (primarily seen in food in the shows).

Thus, what I find myself seeing is this: The majority of people stick to planets, where solar and wind energy and such aren't going to go away and thus you have endless replicator energy for those willing to settle for replicated things -- which in the end is no real hardship, just a luxury-free middle-class-esque lifestyle rather than what we'd call "poor". Then you have the likes of starships, which must rely on scarcer yet portable resources, and the people willing to deal with such a "less civilized" mode of living in order to bring the worlds things that can never be replicated -- knowledge, peace, friendship.

'''Commentary:''' ''This is trending in the right direction, though I've been very hesitant to permit actual "post-scarcity" semi-luxury. "I needed a job" is a very raw and real motivation, but on the other hand I don't think a "friendly" government like the Feds would permit people to starve for lack of money if it was at all feasible. (And I suspect the other governments would follow suit, if for no reason other than practicality—it's cheaper to prevent food riots in the first place than to deal with the aftermath.)''

''I agree that invoking "unbelievium" fuels just shifts things around rather than eliminating the issues. I'm taking the direction of, for example, ''Transhuman Space'', where high prosperity is possible through advanced but conventional means. However, this is a good start of the theme: Pleasant but dull core worlds, less pleasant but more interesting frontier, and starships with limited but portable resources.''

=== LordDraqo on energy ===
Quibble - the key to getting away from scarcity thinking is the idea that with sufficient energy anything is possible, and once you begin working with total conversion of matter (Matter/anti-Matter), you have the energy to accomplish just about anything. However this does not mean the end of an economy, you just have to recognize "money" as a symbol for energy expended to achieve/acquire a resource. People still need to expend energy (work) in order to get stuff. You just don't worry about folding green stuff in your pocket any more.

'''Commentary:''' ''A good idea, to tie money directly to energy expenditure; it seems most likely to me for small, closed systems like space habitats, where every activity can be easily metered, but I could see a larger society using it, too, so long as it was well-networked.''

=== Deacon Blues on replicator limitations (abridged) ===
…Even presuming the ability to punch buttons in a computer and get anything you want, the following resources will still be limited:

(1) Time. …Which needs get prioritized? Is there a "queue" of demands that the ship's computer has to process? Will my request for a gin and tonic get pushed off for a few minutes if engineering is demanding some advanced widgets?

'''Commentary:''' Yes. Definitely.

(2) Creativity. Everyone can make all the clothes they need in a replicator. But how do you tell the replicator what clothes to make? Unless everyone's wearing the same uniform, someone has to come up with new fashion templates. Unless everyone's eating the same swill, someone has to come up with new recipes. Etc.

'''Commentary:''' Very, very true. The human element remains important: those who create, or even those who select plans, have important skill.

(3) Information. …How much of anything do you need? Does the ship need more Somethingium ingots or more ounces of Thatstuffinite? Are people more tired of the same bland outfits or the same bland food? This is the kind of information that prices would (theoretically) solve in a scarce-resource economy: more demanded stuff becomes more expensive until supply increases to catch up. However, even with the unlimited replicator, you might still find yourself with a surplus of one thing and a serious shortage of another - unless someone's tracking what you need.

'''Commentary:''' The classic problem of a communist economy, but one that the right combination of computers and compromises might make a reasonable approximation of a solution. (Theme of this setting: there are ''always'' gaps.)

(4) Power Source. I know next to nothing about Star Trek, but I presume that the replicator cannot generate whatever powers it. Otherwise, you have a perpetual motion machine, and as goofy as Trek is I don't think they went that far. So the power source for the replicator is now the most precious resource in the galaxy. That ship of yours has phasers, right?

'''Commentary:''' A vicious, but appropriate, thought to end upon. War's not going away, but it's fortunately less common and less dangerous. Fortunately, my replicators can't do this. They ''can'', of course, manufacture gasoline or whatever from the necessary hydrocarbons, and there is antimatter manufacturing for high-yield applications. But most energy itself comes from renewables and fusion.

=== A Letter From Prague on economy ===
Yeah. Just because the Federation is a post-monetary economy doesn't mean it's a post-economics economy...

'''Commentary:''' That triggers an interesting thought… While technically there's ''some'' medium of exchange, it's true that the individuals in some of these societies may not even know about it!

I'm tempted to call them "Work Units" and make all the Prisoner fans twitch. "Non-alcoholic vodka, 21 work units!"

== Lifestyle and Fashion ==

=== Hats ===
A great many people approved of the assertion that hats are a necessity, some with highly amusing comments:

'''simontmn:''' I agree… Hats are what separates us from barbarism. This is why we've been barbaric since around 1958.

'''Gon:''' "When he lost his hat right after beaming down security ensign Smith knew it would be one of those away missions. If only he had stayed in bed this morning..."

Talk:FederalSpace:Technology

2009-02-26T17:15:15Z

Pilgrim:

On transporters and being bounced- one simple thing that could totally screw up even a well surveyed and planned transporter assault: stringing ropes around the area to change the layout.

FederalSpace:Main Page

2009-02-26T16:35:16Z

Pilgrim: /* Overview */

= Introduction =

Response to my scattered, disorganized notes on RPOpen was overwhelmingly favorable, to my great and pleasant surprise, so here may I present a more organized view of '''''Federal Space''''', my alternate-universe Star Trek project. This is one of those personal pet projects that's perpetually under construction, so please make free use of that "Discussion" link up at the top of each page—new ideas and spins are always welcome, and just because I don't use 'em doesn't mean someone else can't. Enjoy. — ''Shadowjack''

== Recent Changes ==
* '''24 Feb 2009''' - Added the rest to the Peoples page. Next on the to-do list: Incorporate suggestions and idea seeds from the discussion thread.
* '''23 Feb 2009''' - ''Art.'' Art page added, with all of my images so far, including two new story fragments, "Hostage Situation" and "Machine Shop."
* '''23 Feb 2009''' - ''Technology.'' Tech page added. Next on the to-do list: Better examination of the main nations. Also, more pictures, more funny! (Eventually to do: general clean up and formatting to make everything easier on the eye.)
* '''19 Feb 2009''' - ''First upload.'' Introduction page and the Quick & Dirty History. Next on the to-do list: the technology overview.

= Overview =

'''''Federal Space''''' is a decidedly non-canonical spin on the familiar ''Star Trek'' universe, refracted through a lens of harder science and more consistent worldbuilding. One-liner descriptions:

* ''Star Trek: Stand Alone Complex.''
* ''Star Trek'' run using GURPS, as a TL10 Conservative Hard SF setting, rather than a TL12 Superscience Safe-Tech setting.
* ''Star Trek'' run using Traveller. "Iron Man" Traveller.
* Pacifist ''Star Fleet Battles.''
* ''Star Trek'' with hats.

Why bother? Because Trek is a wonderful set-up for sci-fi gaming, and the general setting elements are familiar to most of us, but the way the setting has evolved makes it difficult to run "straight." In a TV show, the protagonists don't abuse the technology or society because of genre convention, but if you approach things from the perspective of a gamer or an SF fan, you need more internal consistency. Essentially, this setting jettisons the old technobabble and back-history, as well as the older tropes like single-biome, single-culture planets, and then takes the old names and visual elements as inspiration for a new setting that ''resembles'' Trek strongly, but runs differently under the hood.

It also gives me a chance to jettison some of the infuriating parochialism that has crept into Trek over the years, and re-open possibilities of social commentary that Trek-as-written had closed off. My taste in escapism is not to have a setting where social problems no longer exist, but to have a story where they ''do'' exist, but people can successfully fix them—whilst, and at the same time, playing around with spaceships that go whooosh.

While this is a more serious take on the concepts, I've been careful to ''avoid'' making this GRIMDARK TREK (like the oft-seen meme of an authoritarian, Stalinist Federation, complete with Ministry of Truth putting out propaganda shows), and also to avoid losing the sense of playfulness. Damn it, I ''like'' the red shirts, and green-skinned alien babes, and all that silliness.

What kind of stories do I envision telling with this? My first thought is a combination of procedural investigations and social SF—explore the odd corners of the setting assumptions.

= Table of Contents =

For ease of reading and modification, I'm splitting things up. Here's the start of a table of contents, and I'll add more depth as we move along.

# [[FederalSpace:Technology]] — The first thing anybody ever asks about. What can we do with those marvellous toys?
# [[FederalSpace:Peoples]] — The second question: Who are these people and what makes them tick?
# [[FederalSpace:PlotFodder]] — Ideas for storylines, characters, side worlds, etc.
# [[FederalSpace:Images]] — I do a lot of visual thinking for this, so here are sketchbook scans, plus a few cleaner images, or inspiration from other sources.

= Inspirations =

Besides the awesome thread in RPOpen, my inspiration has included:
* All six Trek series and the movies I've seen (up to VIII), though particularly aspects of TOS and TAS, bits from TNG and DS9, and a bunch of ''Wrath of Khan''.
* ''Forbidden Planet'', which I consider to be one of the top three Trek movies, despite being made by different people before Trek ever aired.
* A bunch of 1950s through 1970s literary SF, most notably Ursula LeGuin's social SF (''Left Hand of Darkness'' shows how complicated just a single world can be), and Keith Laumer's hilarious Retief stories. Also, trying to add much more recent hard SF, but I'm way behind on my reading list.
* Matt Howarth's Keif Llama comics, for wonderful weird aliens and troubles with interspecies bureaucracy.
* The Traveller RPGs, the ''Star Fleet Universe'', and GURPS ''Transhuman Space.''
* Lots of anime space opera, for those big serious space battles and cynical space politics, and a dash of the lighter stuff (like ''Dirty Pair'') for that sense of a future you'd enjoy visiting.
* Masamune Shirow's manga ''Appleseed' for its arcologies, bioroids, and musings on the human quests for utopia via technology and social engineering. (Combined with gunbattles, and that hint of inter-phenotype dalliance.)
* ''Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex'', for its serious (but not unhumorous) presentation of a consistent SF universe.
* Dashes and bits of other sci-fi, including ''Aliens'' (baseball caps) and ''Cowboy Bebop'' (multilingual signage) and the Lensman stories (the ''original'' mad starship engineers!) and ''A Miracle of Science'' ("Mars thinks you're cute!").
* And some of my uniform designs are cheerfully ripped from ''Star Wars'', bringing two fandoms into head-on collision. Oh, and I always liked Brian Daley's ground-level take on that universe.

My future reading list includes the Trek-related works of John Ford and Diane Duane, neither of whom I have read, but both I am told have the knack of applying consistency and good writing to the Trek universe. (I've avoided even ''trying'' to read Trek novels after bad experiences with the Star Wars Expanded Universe… hopefully this'll go better.)

== Recommendations from the Gallery ==

'''David Rhode:''' I am forever in love with John Ford's ''Final Reflection'' novel, which tells a tale about the first Federation/Klingon ambassadorial contact, from the Klingon side. In addition to giving the Klingons a culture with more depth than a pack of scrotum-headed hollywood viking samurai, it depicts an early Federation with a few warts. I recommend snagging a copy of that if you haven't read it, or possibly killing someone who has it and taking it.