06-18-2019, 12:01 PM | #81 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
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Although, blocking the McGovern Commission and its' "reforms" that bascally created the modern primary system would be a big change. The dates being used are generally too late. The big changes in 77 still lets the Vietnam War and Watergate happen. A mass revival of optimism after those too events is not likely to begin in 77. I think Oswald needs to get pushed down the stairs so the first of the moden Kennedys can do all the magic stuff.
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Fred Brackin |
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06-18-2019, 12:02 PM | #82 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
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A lot of "man versus nature" stories have the failing of having technical solutions. if the players aren't knowledgable, this reduces to "roll the dice." If they are, it turns into long discussions of technology. If you have mixed players it's bad for everyone. "Wiring diagram" SF is one of the hardest subgenres to roleplay entertainingly.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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06-18-2019, 12:04 PM | #83 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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06-18-2019, 12:08 PM | #84 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
Could we move away from a political argument that can only shut this thread down and back to the politics of Sol-1.
I agree that many American agents of Infinity would be attracted to Sol-1. And not just Homeline Americans. Picture an American where there was a WWIII and America lost. Or any parallel where America just got to start to show its stuff and got nipped in the bud. Or just an America where freedom failed and was crushed. An America going to the stars in glory would be profoundly seductive. Add into that, the fact that in this scenario many other nations would be having golden ages. A stable prosperous democratic Iran would likely be going through a Golden Age culturally. An Iranian culture is attractive and magnificent at its best. Iran might be taking the West along on its new Gold Age. India would be booming in this world too. If you've ever heard Bally Sagoo then you might have some idea of what Sol-1's pop music might sound like. Now, there would be those opposed to this new American Century. Terrorism would be a threat if only because many dreams would be obviously dying as they failed to compete for dreamers. Certainly dictators and oligarchs would have no love of this new world. As more people became aware of what was possible, if they lived in a democracy, neither oligarchs nor dictators could rest easily. They'd be quick to fund disruptions. Cultures that reject change would find themselves stretched to the breaking point and might fall violently apart. These seem to me to be better elements to explore.
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Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo |
06-18-2019, 12:31 PM | #85 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
Well, I'm comparing the space research facilities to a land facility where the researchers leave each night to go home. The latter has far more methods available to conduct espionage - falsified credentials, social engineering, honeytraps, blackmail, and even compromised personal computers (if the researcher is able to take work home with him) are all much easier to pull off if the research is done in a building where people enter and leave daily. With research done in SPAAAACE, it's likely the researchers essentially live in the same building as they do their research, and don't really have the option of leaving from time to time for entertainment or whatever (which even those who live "on-campus" on Earth would likely have the option of). So, it's instantly harder to place an agent in a position where he or she can even try to compromise security, since you need some legitimate reason for them to go into orbit in the first place, and then go to the research facility after that. Honeytrapping a researcher to get blackmail material (which you can later use to get him to install a backdoor in the facility's network), for example, is a lot harder when your agent can't "just happen to meet" him at the bar he goes to every Friday night.
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GURPS Overhaul |
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06-18-2019, 01:10 PM | #86 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
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Heinlein wrote a classic "cold equations" story around the same time: "Sky Lift." In that one, there's a research base on Pluto that needs medical supplies. They have ships capable of continuous thrust for the entire trip, so they can get there quickly. But each day they take will mean more deaths, and they'll reach a point where it goes to mass deaths. So they send the pilots out at a hellishly high acceleration, and at the end of the voyage one is dead and the other is physically and mentally ruined. And it ends with the medical officer saying, "You used up one man, and you saved <some much larger number>"and making it plain that it isn't the dead man he was thinking of. And it's clear that Heinlein wants the reader to think that the commanding officer made the right choice. Of course you can say that the situation is different: It's not inevitable that the pilots will die or be crippled. But it's certainly foreseeable. And the girl in "The Cold Equations" doesn't fight; she agrees to do the right thing and step out the airlock to save seven other lives. So there seem to be parallels.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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06-18-2019, 01:41 PM | #87 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
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Of course, I think part of the point of Cold Equation situations is that there isn't any real choice. In Godwin's story, the choice is between the girl dying, and the girl dying (alongside the pilot and the expedition). In Heinlein's story and The Expanse, there very much is a choice.
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GURPS Overhaul Last edited by Varyon; 06-18-2019 at 01:44 PM. |
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06-18-2019, 01:44 PM | #88 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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06-18-2019, 07:18 PM | #89 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
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Alternately a more tax tolerant and higher trust US could manage it. The US broadly can't collect more than about 20% of GDP as federal taxes, usually less for any length of time . The colloquially called Hauser's Law appears to be true and a facet of the Laffer curve if enough revenue could be collected, distributed in a highly productive and wealth generating way, the stagflation mostly caused by US money printing and currency devaluation would not be a major issue A caveat though, the 1970's oil shock would also naty inflationary effects |
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06-18-2019, 08:05 PM | #90 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Sol-1 [Infinite Worlds]
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