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Old 12-15-2017, 09:10 AM   #3001
Kymage
 
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Default Re: Mini-Lucifer

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Originally Posted by YankeeGamer View Post

Any thoughts are welcome; this is a work in progress.
I wonder just how successful Robert Goddard would be in the this timeline. In OTL, 1869-1914 saw some pretty impressive technological advancement, this TL will no doubt eclipse that progress. How long, before the Americans start putting people into orbit? Teddy Roosevelt with a space program?
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Old 12-15-2017, 02:43 PM   #3002
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Default Re: Mini-Lucifer

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Originally Posted by YankeeGamer View Post


Any thoughts are welcome; this is a work in progress.
In this reality certain rocket pioneers might go to America for their educations and never return. Warner Von Braum might have come over in the 1920s and work on getting a satellite into orbit by 1930.
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Old 12-15-2017, 02:49 PM   #3003
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Default Re: Mini-Lucifer

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I wonder just how successful Robert Goddard would be in the this timeline. In OTL, 1869-1914 saw some pretty impressive technological advancement, this TL will no doubt eclipse that progress. How long, before the Americans start putting people into orbit? Teddy Roosevelt with a space program?
Teddy would have loved one. But, as the Tunguska event happens in the last year of Teddy's second term, Roosevelt could announce a manned space program. Later his young cousin Franklin could claim to be following Teddy's vision.
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Old 12-15-2017, 06:58 PM   #3004
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Default Mini Lucifer needs a name, and inertia

I need a better name for the timeline than "Mini-Lucifer."

The butterfly effect will be in place, so no Robert Goddard or Werner von Braun. Otto Lilienthal, however, might well end up in the United States, or be pivotal in bringing the aviation revolution to Europe.

Unlike a lot of timelines, I doubt that lighter than air will be ahead of OTL; it's clear that a lighter than air contraption won't be able to ascend to where there IS no air. It would, I suspect, still be around, as flight has other uses besides the manically American's desire to reach for the skies.

Any thoughts on what technologies might lag behind? I can certainly see medical technology lag, at least in the USA, as inventors are attracted to the sciences that can get people flying, or stop something big that's dropping.

The more I think about it, the more I realize how dreadful Centrum will find this timeline. The wild and woolly USA is plowing ahead at a ridiculous rate--will they discover fission in the midst of a Great War, and use rockets to lob the resultant explosives everywhere? They might have orbital flight before they discover the neutron, and might reach orbit before they can fly an airplane across the Atlantic.
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Old 12-15-2017, 07:52 PM   #3005
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

No amount of biological necessity would have made Einstein a doctor, for example.
People with talents and interests will gravitate to fields that fit if at all possible.

Balloons are still useful for amateur astronomy, so it's still a very valid path of research there.
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Old 12-15-2017, 07:55 PM   #3006
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Default Addition to almost any magical timeline--with deadly results

In almost any magical timeline, someone or someones have discovered a good efficient way to seperate out elements one from another. This is already bad--seperating out all the hydrogen and oxygen in water, in the presence of an open flame, or splitting table salt, has adverse consequences.

But in THIS timeline, someone has gone one step further. He/she has figured out how to simply and easily purify elements, separating one isotope from another.

Uranium is not especially hard to obtain. Separating the isotopes is the hard part; if that is done quickly and easily, then a gun type bomb is likewise easy to build.

Depending on the tech level, that could result in easy do it yourself nuclear weapons for mages, or, in an earlier tech level, someone accidentally concentrating a lot of a critical mass of something, and the neighborhood glowing in the dark.

No radiation spells needed, just purification.

Did the secret get discovered by a single genius, or did someone provide help?

I got this idea from a mage I played in a D20 modern campaign, who accidentally realized that her scientific spells could be used to bad effect. Other fields of study, she stopped following, when she realized that a bad mistake could be measured in megatons.
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Old 12-15-2017, 08:03 PM   #3007
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Purification spells can separate silver from lead, iron from ore, etc. Since isotopes were not even theorized until 1913, you need to be mid-TL6 before you can even think of purifying isotopes. At that point, the magic provides your civilization with a number of benefits, though separating radioactive isotopes outside of a properly laboratory will give the mage a very exciting and very short life.
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Old 12-15-2017, 08:27 PM   #3008
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Default isotopes and magic

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
Purification spells can separate silver from lead, iron from ore, etc. Since isotopes were not even theorized until 1913, you need to be mid-TL6 before you can even think of purifying isotopes. At that point, the magic provides your civilization with a number of benefits, though separating radioactive isotopes outside of a properly laboratory will give the mage a very exciting and very short life.
Earlier than the discovery of isotopes, a mage might be thinking, "Can this be refined any further," and apply a purification spell/develop a purification ritual. Do it with the right stuff, and he'll get a couple of separate piles that are ALMOST identical. For example, refine pure carbon, and get a big pile and a small pile. Study shows that one is slightly denser than the other, but they're both carbon. Isotope studies are off to an early start...
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Old 12-15-2017, 08:39 PM   #3009
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

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Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
No amount of biological necessity would have made Einstein a doctor, for example.
People with talents and interests will gravitate to fields that fit if at all possible.

Balloons are still useful for amateur astronomy, so it's still a very valid path of research there.
Ballloons can also be used to launch rockets from a greater altitude--this was done on Homeline. I wasn't saying that there won't be airships; I just think that they will not be any more important than on homeline, although as I flesh it out, I won't rule it out.

Of course people will gravitate to fields that fit, but people that could work in multiple fields can go where the interest is. At least as important, in the USA, the prestige is in looking up, and going up. Therefore, that's where the money, and the support, is. Medicine isn't forgotten, of course.

I hope to develop this timeline much further, both in depth and extent of time covered.
nmj
What would a Centrum agent, and later, Centrum officials, think of this one. What might they decide to DO. Same question with Infinity.

How would Infinity classify the timeline?

Timeline is Quantum 6, low or no mana, no known variations in physical laws.
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Old 12-15-2017, 09:57 PM   #3010
dcarson
 
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

A minor side effect would be a lack of neon signs. With so many amateur astronomers skyglow would be unpopular so advertising your business with neon signs, floodlight etc. would be unpopular. Either less streetlight installed or the ones installed would have reflectors to keep the light downward and dimmer. One thing that's been done is astronomy friendly communities today is use sodium arc lamps for street lighting because almost all the light is in a narrow band that a simple filter can get rid of the skyglow for a telescope.
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