Editing SCRPG Cosmic Tales/Setting (section)

=== TECHNOLOGY - THE BIG 5 - GRAVITICS, ENERGY, FTL, AI, REPLICATORS ===
* Gravity control tech, gravitic induction energy tech, high-efficiency fusion, FTL tech, quantum computing, and replicators are all considered to be in the class of acausal or postcausal technology. Such tech requires very rare materials, a lot of technical know-how, and most importantly - it can't be built with replicators. It has to be fabricated by sentients. Sentients can use automation in the fabrication, but a sentient guiding the process is required. Think of all these technologies as a kind of Schrodinger's technology - it requires a sentient observer to make the fabrication process work.
* Energy
** Energy at a planetary scale is largely provided by massive gravitic induction engines - impossible to minaturize
** Starships and smaller space stations (smaller than say, Pluto) typically run on very high efficiency fusion power generators that are typically powered by some kind of Fictotanium substance that's rare, hard to get, but mineable in most star systems.
** Man portable power is in the form of power cells - high efficiency batteries typically charged by a homebase / starbase / starship's fusion reactors
* Gravitics
** Sentients have mastered gravity control. Most space stations, asteroid bases, and spaceships have highly controlled and controllable artificial gravity
** Gravity control at planetary scale unlocks a surprisingly clean and plentiful power
** Starships have gravity inertial dampeners that allow high g-force acceleration - meaning interplanetary travel is quite rapid. A trip from Pluto to the Sun might take a day or two, depending on the ship; Starships use massive thrusters for delta-v and straight-line speed; and gravitic thrusters for maneuvering
** Atmospheric craft, hovercraft, maglev transport, etc - almost all run on some form of anti-gravity technology
* FTL
** Faster-Than-Light travel is accomplished by folding space, and literally jumping, instantaneously, from point a to point b
** FTL engines / jump drives will function near high gravity objects like a planet - but the results of doing so are typically accompanied by the bad kind of "interesting" - so must planetary systems have designated jump points beyond the Lagrange points of any planetary bodies
** Calculating a jump requires highly accurate stellar coordinates to make safe jumps - and the calculations take time
** Jumps to unknown locations are possible - that's how exploration of "new" star systems work - but it's very, very, very, very risky - the sentients who do this kind of exploration are thought to be lunatics
** FTL jumps maintain a ships relative speed and orientation - must designated jump points have rules about how much velocity and what orientations are acceptable ways to enter a system, violating those rules will earn a ship fines at best, prison time in some places, and harsher penalties still from the more brutal star system polities
** FTL consequently is largely about having a really good set of books on routes from points A to points B - and so there are trade routes, choke points, etc.
* AI is a hard term to define - but for the setting, AI refers to fully autonomous sentient beings
** AI is created by treknobabble technology - biotech vat-grown brains, positronic circuits, quantum computing, etc
** AI are considered sentient beings - especially by the laws and customs of the Coalition
** Such AI tech cannot be created via replicators - it requires fabrication by another sentient being
* Replicators
** Replicators use as inputs a bunch of different kinds of Fictotanium minerals and materials, and can print up nearly any kind of technology - save for gravitics, fusion power generation, FTL technology, AI computing tech, and replication technology.
** Replicators struggle with biological material - it ''can'' create food - but that food is universally bland and disliked by most sentients, edible but not enjoyable
** Biggest scale replicators can print starship components - even large starship components - everything except the power generation and FTL, which means starship manufacturing has at least a final fabrication and assembly step that requires sentient involvement