11-19-2017, 12:02 PM | #41 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: Does Interstellar Trade Make Sense For Realistic Science Fiction?
Of course, this is assuming that reactionless drives are realistic (GURPS reactionless drive violate the law of conservation energy around 6 mps because the energy produced by the reactors is less than the energy gained by the spacecraft). If you have to depend on non-superscience reaction drives (plus FTL), then the economics shifts dramatically.
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11-19-2017, 01:57 PM | #42 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Medford, MA
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Re: Does Interstellar Trade Make Sense For Realistic Science Fiction?
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11-19-2017, 09:02 PM | #43 | ||
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: Does Interstellar Trade Make Sense For Realistic Science Fiction?
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Still, I don't know that we can safely assume that with such long lifespans, other motives/lack of motives might kick in. The average suicide/violence rate might decline through the first 2 or 3 centuries of life, then tick up in the fourth century for reasons we couldn't even guess at, because we have no experience with such life spans. Certainly I would not fault an SF writer who posited such a thing. Multi-century lifespans are terra incognita.
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11-19-2017, 09:08 PM | #44 | |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: Does Interstellar Trade Make Sense For Realistic Science Fiction?
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'Realistic' is a moving target.
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11-19-2017, 09:41 PM | #45 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: Does Interstellar Trade Make Sense For Realistic Science Fiction?
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11-19-2017, 11:08 PM | #46 | |
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southeast NC
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Re: Does Interstellar Trade Make Sense For Realistic Science Fiction?
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The above assumes shipping that operates on a relatively fixed timetable. For the classic space opera cowboy freighter pilot that picks up cargos as they show up destined for wherever they happen to be going, you'll need to be more flexible. But that's where the line about drug cartel go-fast boats comes in, which incidentally was exactly what the Millennium Falcon was.
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11-19-2017, 11:25 PM | #47 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: Does Interstellar Trade Make Sense For Realistic Science Fiction?
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In the former, landing capability adds no cost for a typical freighter because the basic thruster is a 2G reactionless type. You'd need to be really cutting to the bone to build a freighter that can't fly its way across the solar system, land, and launch back to space in that context, though it's not inconceivable. In the latter, it's obviously too broad to be able to make any strict statements. You could very plausibly have as many as three separate types of ship involved - an interface shuttle covering surface-to-orbit, an STL freighter (or cargo tug) that hauls cargo from orbit to the FTL point, and a jump carrier which is solely responsible for the interstellar step and may not even be capable of significant insystem flight.
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11-19-2017, 11:29 PM | #48 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Does Interstellar Trade Make Sense For Realistic Science Fiction?
We can skip the chemistry, economics and engineering. Physics is enough to cover it. And certainly if we assume that we can travel effectively instantaneously for free over interstellar distances interstellar trade makes just as much sense as international trade. But at that point "realistic" stops being a meaningful concept.
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11-20-2017, 01:35 AM | #49 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: Does Interstellar Trade Make Sense For Realistic Science Fiction?
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It's trivial to have unrealistic economics in fiction that doesn't overtly fail to have realistic physics, and conversely one can have realistic economics within a framework that violates known physics.
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11-20-2017, 01:38 AM | #50 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Does Interstellar Trade Make Sense For Realistic Science Fiction?
It doesn't matter because no matter how unrealistic your economics are, trade between point A and point B requires something to go between point A and point B and you can't do that without unrealistic physics.
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