Editing FederalSpace:Technology

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. 

=== Commentary ===

'''Wolfwood2:''' One classic theme that hasn't been much discussed in this thread is "the frontier". TOS was on a five year mission of exploration to seek out new life and new civilizations. One aspect of that I really like is that the power balance could change form week to week. Sometimes the Enterprise would be the most powerful military force in the system, and Kirk would have to make decisions about how (or if) to use his power to try to make things better. Other times the Enterprise would encounter godlike aliens and have to play by their rules.

'''shadowjack:''' This is a thing I do like, and want to keep in mind. A starship is incredible power… but so's a planet. There's thirty of you with a starship, and one billion of them with a planet. It's an even match. Good luck.

== General Fields of Technology ==

=== Genetic engineering ===

Genetic uplifts, upgrades, parahuman hybrids, etc. make up the bulk of the aliens in this setting. It's an established technology.

==== Commentary ====

'''Albert:''' An idea about gene-mod . . . 

What if ''everyone'' is a product of gene-mod? What if the nasty diseases and disorders have been identified and removed, and the general genome improved on? Such that people are generally healthier, stronger, more graceful, better centered, longer lived, and smarter than they are today at the beginning of the 21st century?

(Nurture continues to be important, of course.)

Now what if it's very hard to come up with an improvement in one area that doesn't disproportionately harm another area? If "improvement" is really a matter of balancing trade-offs, and the real business in gene-tinkering is repairing damage from space and/or industrial hazards?

That might explain why people aren't happy with the idea of making genetic supermen: It's been pushed to the safe limit already, and people looking for supermen always seem to end up making them stupid (grunts) or unstable (officers). 

'''Susanoo Orbatos:''' It would also work as a really good explanation for game mechanics. That way your "humans" can be the middle baseline and all the "adaptations" can have strong downsides for "balanced" racial packages.

=== 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 ====

'''LordDraqo:''' 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.


'''Susanoo Orbatos:''' …Councilor Troi isn't Telepathic because she's a Betazoid, she's telepathic because she's a Councilor. The world they were from spent most of its time developing the "Telepathic" skills. So when they joined the Federation they ended up taking up roles in society where "telepathy" would work well Gamblers, Councilors, Diplomats.

Anyone can go to the Betazoid schools for Diplomacy, psychology etc they are just the best in the Federation for such things.

Your "warrior Races' might have an equivalent with things like Gramaton Clerics....

== 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:''' 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.

'''Shadowjack:''' While I'm using the handwave that transporter ''doesn't'' require vector matching… on the other hand, maybe it does, just for the sake of energy control. The warp compensates, but if you don't have enough power, you don't get as close on target. 

Exponentially-greater power for longer range castings seems like a good idea, and a solid limitation.


'''gc3:''' Note, I don't understand why someone would use the transporter technology with a pad rather than an enclosed vehicle. Should the transporter pad fall out of warp at the wrong spot (perhaps, due to a large bird flying by at the wrong time, or interference by an energy blast) you may be in vacuum, or in the sky. So the transporter explanation needs rework, any sane engineer would enclose the pad in a life support system that could fly and survive underwater and other hostile environments.

'''Shadowjack:''' That's why they carefully prepare the transports, just as rocket launches are carefully prepared today. And you ''can'' beam down with a vehicle or protective suit, of course…


'''Shadowjack:''' I do mourn the loss of the classic "Beam us up" line, but, damn it, that means I can beam up enemies, too. Or beam the enemy ship away. Unless I go back to the screens and jamming and tachyon particle interference anomaly defenses. :(

I decided to see where "you can send only, and only in line of sight" takes me.


'''LordDraqo:''' I've got to admit that I have had difficulty wrapping my head around the physical effects of this transporter. What happens to the air that is displaced at the target-location? How about the vacuum created at the origin?

'''Shadowjack:''' *whoosh* and *thwip*, respectively. So there's a breeze. Possibly ''Terminator''-style static discharges, as well; pads are grounded properly, of course.

I'd say you probably can't beam something into high-density atmosphere or liquid. And solid is right out.

I tried to arrange things to ''avoid'' having to think about the transporter too much, actually, because I didn't want to have to. It just moves shit. Draw a line segment on a piece of paper from your transporter pad to your target spot; if your line of fire crosses a significant amount of mass (more than a few klicks of atmosphere or a single bulkhead), or reaches maximum range of (say) one light-second, end the line there, and that's where your payload appears, "at rest" in comparison with whatever it's next to.

'''LordDraqo:''' So we are dealing with magical physics. I just wanted to be certain, as instantaneous arrival of 27 cubic meters of stuff will create quite a breeze. If you've never experienced a fifty mph wind-gust, you haven't lived :D

'''Shadowjack:''' The transporter and the warp drive are most definitely Super-Science! technology. I'm trying to keep them as my ''only'' bits of magic, though.

'''s/LaSH:''' Presumably it can't be instant instant, because that would involve infinite acceleration, albeit over small distances, and even very high acceleration over small distances can translate to "plasma pyroclasm in atmosphere". There might be a good reason for the twinkly lights of a traditional transporter - at least at the receiving end: some sort of 'clear the field' effect, initially a warning, and then some sort of heating pulse to clear out the atmosphere for a warp bubble. It is not going to be a comfortable area to stand in without safety goggles. There will likely be lots of wind, dust, and small rocks flying through the air. It's also easy to mistake the operation for an orbital bombardment, because the principles are identical.

'''Shadowjack:''' Which is why our scouts always seem to come down in isolated areas, and our visiting diplomats come to the specially-cleared and shielded landing pad.

'''LordDraqo:''' This I can get behind, and support, with whole heart. This also got me to thinking about the link to ''plasma windows'' and how that might work to produce a barrier around the transmission stage to prevent everything in the room from being sucked into the evacuated stage when the warp-bubble transmits.

'''s/LaSH:''' I believe this is the logical conclusion, yes. All important facilities are presumably jammed, probably including starships as a routine anti-piracy measure.

Oh, also, another reason for the 'transporter sparkles': a series of small disposable probes, little more than smart-paper beacons, designed to arrive in set patterns at set heights; if they don't show up in the right configuration, you assume that the site's being jammed or is otherwise unsafe. I would assume you could get nasty effects by using sophisticated dirtside ECM to make a starship think there's a building at point A, whereas it's actually a big hole in the ground with magma at the bottom. If you can get sparkles in the right place, it's obviously stable for materialization.



'''mindstalk:''' Take a page from the Culture, which had Displacers -- little wormholes -- for 'transporter' technology. No duplication problems, more ability than your warp bubbles to go through things, like ship walls. (OTOH, more ways to go through enemy ship walls, and no obvious defense.)

'''Shadowjack:''' Micro-wormholes is as good an explanation as warp bubbles, actually. I suppose the player-level physics works out about the same, and that more elegantly combines the FTL comm with the technology. Food for thought.



'''The Green Man''': If the transporters work in one direction, I suggest that they be matter ''receivers'' instead of matter transmitters.  This way, you can keep the traditional "Beam me up, Scotty" (under the right conditions of course) but force landing parties to use shuttlecraft or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropship_(science_fiction) dropships] à la ''Aliens''.

If transporters are matter transmitters, then they also become effective weapons -- just teleport a bomb into enemy territory -- which was rarely if ever used in the franchise if my memory serves.

'''Myth''' Whether wormhole or warp-bubble, it seems the transport must occur slowly (in physics terms, not human ones) to avoid pseudo-explosions.  AM warp bubble decaying, rather than bursting, might release energy slowly, perhaps as vibration and semi-Cherenkov radiation (which would coincidentally mimic the classic noise and lights thing).  A wormhole, expanding rapidly from a point, might do something similar.

As far as range goes, you might simply count it as "gravimetric distance"; other (non-Transporter) gravity sources, or just the general curve of space.  Interestingly, this you give you shorter range near heavy-mass objects, complicated gravimetric situations, and the like, and longer range in interplanetary, interstellar, or even intergalactic space.  Also lets you shield somewhat with, say, neutronium BB's embedded in your steel wall.  Possible some exotic matter channels for guided transporter effects, but I'd leave that as theoretical for the Federal Space guys.

Can an assemble-on-planet transporter pad transport itself as well, or does it stay behind, possibly resulting in some poor native beaming himself to orbit months later, once the ship has left?

=== 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, than 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 ====

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

'''Niles:''' I like Pseudovelocity, it's very Star Trek for starships to come to a stop when they get engine trouble.

And it means that not everyone with a starship has access to extinction level kinetic strikes. For maintaining the mood it's probably best to keep that temptation away from the PCs.


'''Shadowjack:''' …Our new-and-improved transwarp drive is the Star Trek standard, whose bubble doesn't collapse after a fraction of a second. Instead, you can just drag your ship all over space, at exponentially greater speed. Wheeeeeeeeeeee. And then, when you cut off the drive, you're conveniently deposited next to whatever you were trying to reach. Anything messes with the bubble, *bip*, you're back in normal space, but if no one's attacking you, you just kick in the drive again and away you go. This probably happens all the time during normal operations, which explains why there's always a helmsman on duty, and they don't just automate this.

Still don't want to do this in atmosphere or gravity, because you'll have to stutter the drive again, and this time it wasn't built for it. Also, there's no way we're risking a trillion-dollar warp engine down on some planet where it could get rusty or dusty or vandalized by some native with a spraypaint can.

'''Myth:''' I like that Helmsman thing. Missed it on the first read-through. I was quoting this to point out why there are Engineers, and why they seem to have an inordinate amount of pull for their place in the command structure.

Same thing, really -- Engineers always on duty, ready to kick the unstable drive in the right spot to get it moving again, adjust the field density for the average pressure of space in this part of.. um.. space, warn the Helm guy when it starts overheating, etc.

I like the idea of the whole ship-zooming-though-space thing being mostly an illusion of the passengers, with stops, drops-outs, semi-random changes in pseudovelocity, and barely-managed physics driving the whole thing, usually, in the more-or-less correct direction.

'''Shadowjack:''' From an aviation/astronautics point of view, having the Flight Engineer high up in the command structure makes a good deal of sense already—that's a good point you add to it.

Really, that description of travel is not that far off from the Original Series. I rewatched some of those old episodes a while back, and was intrigued by the difference between their technology and TNG+ technology in its failure modes. TNG+ stuff was just ''fickle''—does it work today? Oh, ionization. Never mind. Shiny, but unreliable on a metaplot level. TOS stuff, on the other hand, worked—but the ''equipment'' broke down. Plot-level failure. Those little ships were barely able to contain the powers they handled, and you really got the impression that Scotty was sweating every day just to keep things together. 

I like my starships to be a ''little'' less gum-and-baling-wire, but it's something to keep in mind. Stuff works… but it can ''break''.



'''LordDraqo:''' It occured to me that with stutter-warp, it would be possible to have the sensors sample the surrounding environment everytime that you were "at rest" in normal space, and put together a "flight-picture," from that.


=== FTL Communications ===
My thoughts so far: In-system, just like now or near-future, only (obviously) vastly scaled-up and debugged. A vast network of radio, microwave, laser-comms, etc., etc. The edges of the system have a few hours lag with the inner planets, but everyone gets the same TV shows.

I'm of two minds on long-distance communication:

'''Version One:''' Spinning off of the warp drive idea, and the "spatial sensors" idea. Let's say there's a warp-drive spin-off that can make some big spatial pulse, refracting off of a large gravity well—i.e. a planet or a sun. Anyone in range with a warp-drive and/or spatial sensors can pick up this signal. But they can't ''reply'' unless they're also in a gravity well. And this would suggest a rather low bandwidth signal device. Thus, we get the submarine model: slow VLF radio, lots of codes; you can signal your ships, but they need to make landfall to respond. Inspired by but nowhere near as badly-off as the crew in ''Forbidden Planet'', who had to ''unship'' most of the drive and electronics systems and ''build'' an FTL signal tower, right there on the planet, in order to call in for orders. And ''detailed'' orders need to be hand-delivered—or rather, transmitted from a friendly ship.

'''Version Two:''' We've got the World Wide Web now, and if we're doing social commentary, we need to keep that relevance for this version. So we need a Galaxy Wide Web of some sort. Wormhole server nodes makes as much sense as anything, I guess. On the other hand: I ''do'' love LeGuin's word ''ansible''. 


'''On the Other Hand''' there's no reason why I couldn't do both. Hey, I haven't done anything with "dilithium crystals." Here's a thought: they aren't really dilithium, of course, but the name stuck (maybe they're coated in it, or contain it, or whatever), anyway, that doesn't matter, that's all technobabble. Here's how it works: you've got paired units, which vibrate in harmony across interstellar distances. Expensive, and perhaps bulky, so a starship only cares one or a handful, but planets can have whole ''banks'' of them running in parallel, transmitting high bandwidth data from world to world. 

Important data goes by ansible, highly compressed and whatnot, and the rest of the bandwidth is used for common carrier stuff, so all the big news organizations and financial services and everything get sent interstellar as fast as needed. Everything else gets bundled up and sent on the next courier. And when you need to signal all your ships, or send a signal to someone you don't have an ansible for, that's when we park in a gravity well and invoke the warp-gravity-resonance trick. 



No, damn it, that's still too slow, because the point of the Web is that everyone and her uncle is online. But on the other hand, that implies that we could operate drones from half-a-galaxy away, and in that case, why send ships? Grrrrr. Gotta permit one and limit the other. 

Maybe we can have ansibles have really good bandwidth, so there is some web-browsing, but it's not so good that there aren't bottlenecks…


Hmmmm.

Ideas?

==== Commentary ====

'''Susanoo Orbatos:''' One thing that hasn't been hit on is communication, in the TNG era just about everyone can have a real time conversation across the Alpha Quadrant. While it would be neat to just say "no faster than light communication its all done by courier" I don't know if I like that for the core worlds(I rather do like it between core and Frontiere and definately across Star Nations). Any technojargon for why when someone is PVPing on Federal Space's version of WoW they don't end up having to wait 5 years to move against that guy on Alpha Centauri?

'''Scarik:''' Since this society can throw ''entire warships'' through space faster than light I can't see how they would have trouble throwing information. The way in which this is done is important, it could be streaming, or have to rely on distinct packets.

Within a star system I would think its nearly instantaneous, much like how the internet works now. ['''Shadowjack:''' Agreed.]

Outside it could require a probe filled with information to be filled, then warp to the system its destined for. So email and forum posts would work normally since you can't easily see the lag, but IM and telecommunications would suffer from lag.

There could also be wormholes. If the technology can only support very tiny ones such that only light can pass through them you have great communications potential but no other effect on the technology of the setting.


'''Myth:''' Communications in Trek seem instantaneous, once you have the channel established. Even on ''Voyager'', once they got the link, they could talk normally.

['''Shadowjack:''' And this always drives me ''crazy.'' :D]

Maybe messages are sent through the old Borg Transwarp Conduits. Maybe we use teeny-tiny wormholes. Maybe there's a string of little stutterwarp drones shuttling back and forth, or one little commdrone stringing pseudogravitic cable. 

I vote for the wormhole, myself. One small enough not to need any exotic matter to hold it open, almost too small for a comm channel. That way we can have static, and lost signals at ominous times, and garbled and hard-to-make-out orders. Also, PCs won't be double-checking things with Mainframe Luna, and admirals won't be leaning over everyone's shoulder, trying to micromanage everything. (And, if they try, we can conveniently "lose the signal".)



'''JohnBiles:''' Here's a thought. Really massive bandwidth transfers require huge amounts of energy and large recieving facilities, which can then transfer it easily within a system at low cost. This allows settled worlds to have a fast-acting Galactic Wide Web. But it hampers the remote control of probes because they need huge amounts of fuel and equipment to run a high bandwidth connection to the probe-masters. 

So you could send a ship to Beta Epsilon XXIII to build a reciever/transmitter facility to send probes around a system, but at that point you're visiting the system manually.

It also means ships in the field can't afford to spend too much time on the phone back to HQ, thus creating the Trek environment of commanders making big decisions on their own instead of being on a tight leash.

'''Shadowjack:''' A good compromise.


'''s/LaSH:''' Regarding bandwidth: Perhaps the problem isn't that it's limited, but that it's unlimited. Anyone with an ansible device can get into the network. A drone ship might be set up to take only mil-spec encrypted data packets, so it's very very hard to take control of it remotely, but you can still hit it with a denial-of-service attack and leave it dead in the water. (This is what I'd do, at least.)

A few quick data packets for important briefings can go unnoticed in the datastream, so the Admirals at Starfleet HQ can rant at our captains as the plot requires, but a full ship's telemetry is a beacon to enemy hackers.

'''Shadowjack:''' Interesting reversal. All ansibles vibrate together…?

'''Fringe Worthy:''' Well, actually, you want to be careful here. There is a form of unbreakable encryption. One Time Pads. The one restriction is that you and your friend need an identical pad of random bits. And as long as you and your friend have bits to talk to each, you have enough bits, you only use the bits once, and the timing of sending messages doesn't reveal operational information, and you and your friend keep these bits secret (You can destroy these bits once you've decoded the message if that's fine) (*note, each of these assumptions have issues you can drive a truck/plot through) then your communication can't be read by a person in the middle. Even if they are Q. Of course, Q can waltz over to you, and with/without a beating, pry the results of you reading the message out of your head.

One possible trick: People have ansibles. Ansible connections though, are collapsed when you go FTL. It takes time to rebuild your ansible to ansible connection link. Make it proportional to distance.

So you can have a fast store and forward system in the local system, and the ship can visit a com sat's location to talk through a local ansible. If a ship is parked somewhere, it can craft a new link, and if it's safe, it can leave a com sat while it jounces around the system. Though, sats can be broken and blocked and otherwise abused. They should only have enough crypto for decoding store and forwards messages and well to encode any operational info it gets. Ie, to uniquely identify data it's sending and that only only it, or anyone who can violate it's protected data stores without triggering any of a number of self-protection systems that would otherwise wipe out its bucket of random bits.

'''Shadowjack:''' This is fairly elegant, actually. A long trip requires time to reestablish contact; a short hop keeps you close to the network. 


'''KRNVR:''' Commodity Comms - iFTL on a budget

High energy can become matter. Sometimes, Entangled Quarks. Remember when they used to think they could use these to communicate? Well, that didn't work, but it gave us a head start when we figured out we could string wormduits, because they'd already given that a lot of thought.

Now, when a ship leaves a world, it's usually got a cargo worth infinitely more than it's weight in gold - because it doesn't have any weight. Sure, the maintenance machinery for the end of the wormduit can be heavy, depending on how much you want it shielded, and how many wd you want in the one fixture. Some have hundreds, if they're planning to push big data through, that centijoule half-life means they want spares.

Of course, the wd is only really as valuable as where it's connected to, which is why you ship your other ends to someplace like Memory Alpha, Nexus Three, or whatever. But then, a huge pile of wd terminae becomes a prime target if things go south... that's why there's no Nexus One. Anymore.

In the Empire, they get around that by having long-haul wd terminate anywhere but together, it's a law, even- no more than a fist, ah, five, wd are allowed to come together. Of course, hardened Imperial installations make their own determination of what 'together' means. YOU tell some warlord he can't talk to all his holdings directly.

Supposedly the Rihan have miniaturized and quieted the shielding needed for a wd to survive warp travel, and they're beginning to lay their own threads into Fed space. Of course, the Fed respects all territorial boundaries, and would never lay thread through the Neutral Zone.

'''Shadowjack:''' Aha, so we're basically dragging the ends of wormholes around—or quantum-entangled particles, or whatever technobabble we need. 

Interesting: this takes it in the direction of ''telegraph'', sort of, having to set up a network. "Wireless telegraphy" is being developed…

'''Myth:''' That does explain all those big styrofoam containers that were always falling (unconvincingly) on Worf. Other references to cargo were living matter, special vaccines, and the like. ['''Shadowjack:''' :D]



'''John Morrow:''' With respect to communication, I think there was evidence of two kinds of long-range communication on the show -- real time two way conversations and messages sent and received over time. My suggestion is to have the "Federation" "wired" with an instantaneous communication system that's like hopping on the Internet because they've build an infrastructure of stations and satellites to support it. Once you travel outside of the "Federation", you have to rely on a high energy communication that sends messages and receives them like a long distance communication version of the transporter. Those messages travel at warp speed and take time to reach their destination. Thus you'll have high speed parts of the setting for local stuff and low speed for exploration travel.

'''Shadowjack:''' Probably the best compromise: beyond the frontier, you have to wait for the mail.

=== 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. 

==== Commentary ====

'''MadDogMike:''' For photon torpedoes, I'm assuming they're probably the modern version of the transporter ortillery. An FTL-speed weapon would be quite helpful in most space engagements, though sensors are probably still light speed so you have to think ahead to know where to place long-range weapons fire (and thus can miss). One thought is wondering what happens when the warp bubble of the torp hits the warp bubble of a ship. If it collapses both, torps could work as a way to stop people from fleeing easily or ambushing other ships; maybe have "non-lethal" torps that skip the warhead part and just stop a fleeing ship or one flying out of control, while warhead versions detach a second stage missile when they hit the target's warp bubble that goes in and hits them. Counter-torps would also be a possibility, knocking out incoming torpedo warp bubbles with their own. Not sure how it'd fit in with transporter jamming, unless maybe non-planetary based versions aren't perfect.

'''Shadowjack:''' Torpedoes to disrupt warp bubbles is exactly the way I've been thinking, but I hadn't considered teleport attacks… it seems to me like the transporter always takes lots of time to set up, more time than would make for effective weapons fire. On the other hand, artillery is pretty slow, too… You'd have to drop a lot of warheads, though, wouldn't you?


'''gc3:''' In Federal space, do they now put seatbelts on the bridge seats? I always wondered why the Enterprise crew had to grab onto things whenever the ship shook.

'''Shadowjack:''' Since I don't seem to have inertial dampers in this setting, yes, definitely. Probably crash helmets, too, come to think of it (which can seal in case of atmosphere loss). People who need to move about the ship wear padded suits. Since I see actual combat as short and intense—we've seen how powerful those weapons are!—punctuated by long periods of maneuver and repair, this ain't so bad. Suit up for the contact, and if you're still alive, get back to work. 


'''JRM:''' While it's true that it's virtually impossible to hide a spaceship from real-space sensors, because there's nothing to hide in in space, this does not entirely preclude "submarine warfare in space" stories in your proposed setting so long as it's ''FTL'' submarine warfare in space.

If the Romulan Warbird can hit you with a FTL torpedo several minutes or hours before the light from its current position reaches you to register on your real-space sensors, its low warp drive signature will become very important tactically.

The warbird's effectively invisible to enemy ship's realspace sensors because its stutterwarp allows it to be somewhere else ''before'' they see it.

'''Shadowjack:''' Got it in one! And succintly explains why system defense forces ''hate'' facing off against warpships…



'''Scarik:''' THe engines are what you detect, but if you power down its not hard at all to remain hidden. Even with today's tech we are very close to creating an effective cloaking device for atmospheric craft, namely fighter jets.

Since everything in space is line of sight it wouldn't be too hard to only hit your engines when you were behind a planet and effectively coast to your next hiding spot. If you have decent ECCM and a low signature you would be harder to see than an asteroid.

THe other Example would be pseudo-velocity, which is not inconsistent with current physics. Our current hyper-inflationary theory rests on space being able to expand faster than the speed of light, so an engine that allows an object to do that could easily count as a cloaking device. 

The enemy would detect your engine emissions long after you had left that location and would give you an effect much like the cloaking device. You know they are out there, but where is anyone's guess.

'''Shadowjack:''' Quantum starship detection? You can pin down where they are, or you can pin down their velocity, but you can't get both at once?



'''Mr Teufel''': Scarik, I'm afraid you're wrong. The reason stealth is practically impossible is because most of your spaceship has to be kept around 273 degrees Kelvin, yet space is 2' Kelvin. Fighter planes may be cloaked, but versus active radar.

'''Mapache:''' No, that just means you can't stay cloaked indefinitely. In the mean time, you just need an enormous internal heatsink that soaks up your emissions. Once it's full, then you're unmasked (though your heat signature is only visible at the speed of light, which is notable, if there's FTL travel going on). This leads to having limited stealth capabilities you need to use tactically, then go recharge them by radiating while you cool down your heat sink, which sounds like it makes for better stories than a permanent cloak would anyway.

'''Shadowjack:''' Damn it, I was trying to avoid having real cloaking devices, but powerful heat sinks are possible technology under my tech assumptions. And you've successfully explained an interpretation! 

Of course, it's not an absolute cloaking device, but it's certainly good for, say, "stealth recon" ships. Warp in, snoop for a while, warp out.

'''Mr. Teufel:''' Radiating that heat would be ''difficult''. Best to dump the heatsink itself. ['''Shadowjack:''' Good thinking.] Hmm... possibly several, as decoys when you uncloak? Interesting.

'''Radijs:''' And you'd still be very limited in what you can do even if you can dump all your heat in to a heatsink.
Because as soon as you turn on your cloak you cannot maneuver since your drive heat will be seen and of course, the waste heat will fill up your heat sink that much sooner. So you're stuck on the same course for several months. Better bring a BIG heatsink.


== 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. 

I have to cheat just a little when it comes to the efficacy of unmanned probes. I assume that, somewhere, there are scout ships with lots of probes, dutifully charting all the uninhabited rocks of the galaxy. But this is boring, so we focus on those wonderful times that the explorers discover a world with a population. Intelligence is not duplicable in this setting, so we can't simply send a cheap AI probe, THS-style—and if the people have technology (and why wouldn't they?), they'll pick up our telemetry signals if we try remote control—and in any case, we gotta send down people eventually to say, "Hi."
==== 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…).

===== Commentary =====
'''LordDraqo:''' 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.

'''Shadowjack:''' 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…

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

'''Shadowjack:''' Glance up, and there's your monitor, running along the inner brim? …That's clever. 


'''jsnead:''' Holodecks: I'd go with holograms mixed in with formatable smart materials that can reshape themselves - also robots (covered in smart materials) for NPCs. Also, floor-based force-fields acting as endless omnidirectional treadmills would work perfectly for simulating distance. 

'''Shadowjack:''' I do like robots as NPCs, that works well! I hadn't thought of that. It also provides an opportunity for extra hand-to-hand combat practice for the Marines. And malleable smart materials aren't setting breaking, I'll have to think about fun uses for those.

But if I have force fields in the holodeck, I have to have them other places. And combined with smart materials and such, we could end up with a smart configurable machine shop, that extrudes and retracts new tools as necessary, or a smart defense station, that warps itself to confine and hold intruders, or a smart bedroom whose bed adapts itself to your activities (;)), or a smart configurable ''ship'', even. Now, these are all ''awesome'', but they're the wrong kind of awesome for this setting riff. I want to keep things more ''physical''.

'''Myth:''' Your malleable materials will be good for uniforms -- let them pad themselves when you're about to enter combat, get fewer broken arms as someone bounces off a corridor wall on their way to the changing room.  Those ubiquitous hats can also morph into combat helmets.  Mostly, it will be absorbing air into micropockets and firming up the fiber structure, nothing too outrageuous.

==== 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…

'''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. 

'''Shadowjack:''' It certainly does, doesn't it? That probably speeds up the scale few a few percentage points… 

The transporter really is our general-purpose device to explain lots of space activity. Some settings have super rockets, or beanstalks, or antigrav—this setting has the transporter. 

===== Commentary =====

'''jsnead:''' It makes post scarcity economies much harder though. ['''Shadowjack:''' That's a feature, not a bug, but I get your point. ;) ] I'd instead go with nanotechnology - just limited nanotechnology. Instead of being able to grow a skyscraper from a seed planted in the ground or other wacky-tech, nanotech doesn't work in a normal environment, it only works in ultra-controlled clean rooms, take it out of there, and the nanites die very fast and can't replicate at all.

==== 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.

===== Commentary =====

'''jsnead:''' We're headed for actual neural-based lie detectors now. I could see short range (perhaps 5m) scanners &/or devices that require some form of contact with the individual's nervous system (please put your hand on the verifier plate) that would be essentially 100% reliable. 

If you want, you can make their use mostly obvious by only having contact based devices exist. So, other than sneaking a verifier plate into the table where someone regularly sits and then asking them questions before they get up from that table (which sounds like great RPG fun) people are going to know if they're having a verifier used on them. So, it will work less well on espionage, but will be the perfect tool for trials and a very useful interrogation tool (as long as someone hasn't been neurally programmed to fall unconscious or die rather than answer a question when hooked up to a verifier). So, once you get someone in court, the truth will always out. However, not so much in more ordinary circumstances. I'm certain that there would be various ranged handheld lie detectors (we have portable voice stress analyzers now), but while they will be considerably more reliable than those we have - there's a vast difference between 90% reliable lie detection & 100% reliable lie detection, especially since there are almost certainly ways to fool the ranged lie detectors with various forms of special training or conditioning or whatnot.

'''Shadowjack:''' This looks playable and realistic, and is an interesting twist—photographs can't be trusted, but people can be. 

'''mindstalk:''' I have trouble seeing how a hand plate is supposed to be a lie detector; sure, you can have contact with nerves, but those nerves aren't a general purpose data channel for monitoring the brain. You need good brain data, which may well mean a mix of EEG and MRI, neither of which is a range technology. And neither one's even 90% reliable yet, I have to note. 

Of course, the right brain implant might allow for much easier and more reliable monitoring of the brain, where you just send signals asking if its host is lying, or feeling certain emotions. Thin line between better policing and better police state, but the Federation might think it's on the right side while the Alliance disagrees.

'''Shadowjack:''' On the "scale" principle, if an MRI requires a room-sized device today, in Federal Space it can fit under a table or in a backpack. Maybe you can conceal the scanners somewhere.

I originally had the Federated cops using an expanded Miranda, which included, "You have the right to refuse active scanning measures." An expansion of the principles of personal privacy, and of being able to refuse to incriminate oneself. 

I like, however, the idea of a lie detector having to be tuned for a subject. Have to think about that…

'''Pilgrim:''' Of course you could try generating a low power version of the above - like by having a person walk through a magnetic field, or beaming some low power radio waves at his head and noting the scatter. Neuropath by Scott Bakker has stuff like this in the background of the story. I'll dig out my copy and steal some quotes.

==== 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. 

'''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.)

'''Shadowjack:''' I do think that various stun munitions are a good idea—a way to handle those pesky aliens who happen to be immune to whatever setting your phasers are tuned to, or to more carefully control dosage… I suppose someone out there is using gyrojets, no?]
I don't know about gauss guns—I may do with them as with blasters, limit them to large vehicles. 

'''LordDraqo:''' Stun weapons are provided by various forms of sonic attack.  True there needs to be an atmosphere, however unless you are acting in vacuum, or an evacuated ship, this is not a problem.

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.

'''Myth:''' Any given species/planet can have a reasonable safe stun solution (sonics, strobe, taser, gas, etc.)  Once you start adding other genotypes in, though, I'd think you get a huge possibility of non-stun effects.  They might be immune, they're more likely to take extra damage, but it's not a reliable solution for multi-genotype crowds.

==== 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. 

===== Commentary =====
'''s/LaSH:''' 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.</small>

['''Shadowjack:''' 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.</small>

['''Shadowjack:''' 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.]

'''Myth:''' You have superconductors, don't you?  A network of superconductive wires on the ship's skin would disperse the heat all over the ship, making it near-impossible to melt through.  (Probably a net, though, for cost reasons.  That leave the possibility of hitting a gap, either one built-in or one created by a prior physical attack.)

==== 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 =====

'''jsnead:''' With that level of tech (GURPS TL 10) significant life extension seems fairly inevitable. If you want to go fairly conservative, you could say human lifespans range up to 250 or so, with people starting to look and feel old around 200. This is only a mild extension of what ST already has, and it makes sense.

'''Shadowjack:''' This means that there are a great many people around who remember the early days of the Federated Worlds, and the bad times before… and a few old-timers who remember the old Empire. 


==== Vehicles ====

There's no antigrav, so aircraft still need to fly. I like enclosed vertol/aerodyne designs, though, and with this setting's good energy storage, they seem do-able. Inexpensive, durable ground vehicles. Watercraft, particularly on developing worlds that don't have a transport network; both normal (though advanced) ships, and maybe some hypercavitating subs. Maglev and other rail, to link the transport hubs together. And so on.

Given the nature of the weapons in this setting, I imagine that AFVs have finally become obsolete, although ''light'' armor is useful for any vehicle that'll go near harm's way. Military craft consist of various varieties of flyers and surface-based utility vehicles.

This changes, though, if any of the ship-style screens can be miniaturized (and work in atmosphere)—then you can have tanks again. 


===== Commentary =====
'''Kaiu Keiichi:''' This sounds great! Now, what role do Giant Robots play in all of this?

'''Shadowjack:''' 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 think it could make another fun alternate. 

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. 

Most ground vehicles probably use wheels or treads, though. I do like those Syd Mead ATVs with the expanding wheels.