Transhuman Space in Infinite Worlds

[marvin]

The recent issue of Pyramid has me interested in running a Reign of Steel / Transhuman Space crossover. While having a rouge AI arise in the world of THS may be the easiest way to go, I want to try something different.

In the Infinite Worlds: Lost World pdf there is an Infinite Worlds version of Reign of Steel called Steel and set in 2026. I want to move that up a bit and include the information from "Reign of Steel: Deep Space" (Pyramid, Issue 3/71, pp. 4-11). My question is...has there ever been a write up to include THS in the IW setting. I thought I saw a discussion about this a long time ago, but I don't recall anything official. I'm guessing that it never happened as world hopping into future worlds is not possible.

Ant suggestions would be helpful. My initial plan was to have an teleportation experiment go awry and open a number of portals that transport portions of the Reign of Steel reality into THS. But upon further examination I think having a small USAF task force transported to RoS would be more interesting. Something along the line of Birmingham's Weapons of Choice trilogy or even the movie Final Countdown would be a lot of fun.

Benjamin

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by marvin

I thought I saw a discussion about this a long time ago, but I don't recall anything official. I'm guessing that it never happened as world hopping into future worlds is not possible.

This is the case. There are no worlds accessible to Infinity/Centrum through projector/conveyor or nexus portal or even shift-realms that have a local date in advance of Homeline.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

This is the case. There are no worlds accessible to Infinity/Centrum through projector/conveyor or nexus portal or even shift-realms that have a local date in advance of Homeline.

Of course, nothing says you have to follow that... Traveller interstellar wars actually has a section on the IW setting -- the restriction is for playabilty in the IW setting. The fact is if infinity found the transhuman space world they'd stay far far away and work with safer settings like saiku-mon . We're not likely to see a writeup like that.

My first though is one of infiltration -- THS is uniquely able to field units that won't stick out like sore thumbs. I'd try to stick the THS heroes in RoS territory, and keep to travel between the two relatively low -- an all out war between the two is not the best place for heroes.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by ericthered

The fact is if infinity found the transhuman space world they'd stay far far away and work with safer settings like saiku-mon .
.

Shikaku Mon and I'm not certain that there aren't greater targets of opportunity in the TS setting. Everybody in Shikaku Mon seems to be paranoid _and_ wired to the gills but nobody in the TSA would even try and keep you from stealing IP.

[marvin]

I think I'll stick to a Final Countdown type scenario without the IW setting. A small task force consisting of an American SDV, a British SDV, an American SCV and a research spacecraft are thrown not only back in time thirty-six years but also into an alternate reality. That reality is of course Reign of Steel: Deep Space.

So how long until the THS people realize they're elsewhere? I'd imagine that would happen rather quickly with a quick telescopic scan of Mars and Earth/Luna. Conversely, Zones Paris, Beijing, Delhi, Orbital and Luna will rather quickly spot the newly arrived spacecraft given their very bright nuclear pulse engines.

What happens next? How do the two good-guy groups get to know each other? Looking at the in game Spaceships stats it is very clear that the Angel and Resolution class SDVs can clean the clocks of the XAU-13 Enforcers. I'd imagine the SCV could even take Mars, Luna and Orbital if need be. But what next? How would they go about liberating Earth without triggering a general globe destroying conflict?

Benjamin

NOTE - In my THS the US does not allow bioroids to be constructed unless used only as a bioshell with no functional brain. Furthermore SAIs have software that limits their ability to trigger a Singularity and are tied to certain types of hardware. The same goes for Ghosts. And wireless transmission of SAIs or Ghosts is unheard of as they are too large and any corruption essentially turns them into a fragment.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by marvin

ISo how long until the THS people realize they're elsewhere? I'd imagine that would happen rather quickly with a quick telescopic scan of Mars and Earth/Luna. Conversely, Zones Paris, Beijing, Delhi, Orbital and Luna will rather quickly spot the newly arrived spacecraft given their very bright nuclear pulse engines.

The THS ships will notice immediately that the planets are in the wrong places in their orbits, and that lot of beacons aren't transmitting. They'll probably shut down engines as soon as they know they aren't going to hit anything soon, because their fuel is limited: fusion pellets aren't trivial to make, and the materials aren't easy to get.

What happens next? How do the two good-guy groups get to know each other? Looking at the in game Spaceships stats it is very clear that the Angel and Resolution class SDVs can clean the clocks of the XAU-13 Enforcers. I'd imagine the SCV could even take Mars, Luna and Orbital if need be. But what next? How would they go about liberating Earth without triggering a general globe destroying conflict?

Well, it depends on what the THS ships can find out about what's going on. THS computing and cryptography are significantly superior to RoS. The optimal solution is that the ships go covert, sneak some probes onto Earth to get a better idea of the situation, and then prepare a cyberattack of unprecedented sophistication. From the point of view of the population of Earth, everything seems normal until one day all the robots shut down and stay that way. Some action needs inserting along the way, of course.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by marvin

And wireless transmission of SAIs or Ghosts is unheard of as they are too large and any corruption essentially turns them into a fragment.

Do you realise that CRC has been invented in 1961 and MD5 in 1991, and that verification methods only get better as they years go by?

[marvin]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Do you realise that CRC has been invented in 1961 and MD5 in 1991, and that verification methods only get better as they years go by?

Yes and I've decided that the newly inserted hardware requirements (on both ends) for high level digital entities precludes their being transmitted by long range wireless transmission, especially through a radiation rich environment.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by marvin

Yes and I've decided that the newly inserted hardware requirements (on both ends) for high level digital entities precludes their being transmitted by long range wireless transmission, especially through a radiation rich environment.

What requirements? THS encryption is strategically secure even against government-level THS cryptoanalysis. A byte is a byte, and you can trivially ensure data integrity with trivial increases in the amount of data sent. I really don't understand in what way TL10 transmission protocols are worse than TL8 ones.

[marvin]

Given a Point of Divergence between the THS and RoS realities of about 90 years (I'm sticking with setting dates of 2100 and 2064 respectively) from the THS perspective how compatible would the software and the computer hardware be at this point? Surely, given the tremendous computing power available to THS spacecraft they could come up with something. But how difficult would it be? I don't want an easy walkover.

Also where would the best place be for the task force to appear to avoid detection? I was thinking a joint operation taking place around Jupiter or Saturn. A quick system survey would let the THS people know something is awry. So how do they get to Mars without lighting up their drives?

Benjamin