[Psionics] [Space] Psi Trek - Worldbuilding

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Perhaps psionic wormholes which bleed antiparticles from a mirror universe.

That's really good.

What if the antimatter in the mirror universe isn't evenly distributed? That gives you anitmatter "mines" with fixed locations, and some semblance of a supply chain. Even if those mines are in deep space.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Huh. Interesting idea. That might also be where we get a dilithium McGuffinite from: natural crystals that are essential components of the device that makes those wormholes.

They could stabilize the wormhole whose failure quickly leads to a big, but not planet busting, boom as traces of antimatter spew while the hole collapses.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by ericthered

That's really good.

What if the antimatter in the mirror universe isn't evenly distributed? That gives you anitmatter "mines" with fixed locations, and some semblance of a supply chain. Even if those mines are in deep space.

It makes sense that you would preferentially mine in the few places where large planetary bodies exist in both universes.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by isf

I read somewhere that the right kind of topology on a wormhole will turn matter that travels through it into antimatter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-orientable_wormhole
Yeah, that was the basis of this idea, except using a mirror universe is more Trek.

You could ditch the mirror universe, and have the psionicists providing the "negative energy" needed to form such a wormhole.

Alternatively, it doesn't have to be an antimatter universe, it just has to be some exotic plane which they're using as a source of high energy unobtainium. So it could be subspace, the mycelial realm, the astral plane, "dark space", the spirit world, or parallel universes that have different sets of fundamental constants. Or, Trek being very kitchen sink-ish, a selection of dishes from the above smorgasbord.

Actually, the paraconstant universe idea could be interesting. You might have a weapon which changes the Planck constant or the charge on the electron within a small region of space, causing instant subatomic annihilation.

[Prince Charon]

OK, so it seems like we're using natural psi-reactive crystals and specific 'mining' locations to produce enough anti-matter to make matter-antimatter annihilation viable as both a source of power and a warhead's physics package?

If there are no objections, I'll edit the Antimatter question post later today (as it's after midnight where I am), and then post the next question, which is probably going to be on the Solar Cooperative.

[Prince Charon]

Solar Cooperative

This is not intended to be our UFP-equivalent, but rather a member thereof, like United Earth in Star Trek:

The early history of the Solar Cooperative is in some ways the early history of the colonization of Mars, as the Red Planet is big enough to make long-term use of artificial gravity relatively cheap, socially interesting enough to attract a lot of colonists despite the distance, and distant enough not to be dragged into the wars easily. Every nation with a sufficiently-developed space program had at least one colony (what would later become the cities of Mars, though in the beginning, they were hardly more than outposts) on Mars, as did a number of private ventures, and some also had stations in Martian orbit, or on Phobos or Deimos. There was even an international colony at Olympus Mons, which some nations and ventures that could not afford their own complete colony also contributed to. The individual colonies (save for a few of those private ventures, where the sponsor or sponsors moved to Mars and lead directly, or where said sponsors were numerous enough to start electing leaders early on) had governors assigned to them from their home nations on Earth, just as other colonies did in the past. As they grew, though, they often felt the need for more representation, electing 'assemblies' or 'town councils' and such from among themselves (though not all governors were completely accepting of this idea, and some expressly forbade it). Those assemblies would later send representatives to Olympus Mons, to meet with representatives from other colonies in what would later be called 'the Martian Assembly' (though it had no real power until the end of the Genetics Wars).

Parallel to this, the rise in population was accompanied by a rise in crime, and by a need for emergency services in regions beyond the individual colonies. For this purpose, the Martian Colonial Police were formed at Olympus Mons, governed in theory by the various nations participating in the colonization of Mars, but in practice more by the Martians themselves - the only armed service Mars as a whole had. The MCP included regular police, a detective branch, a Space Patrol, and an increasing number of various categories of emergency services personnel, as it was bureaucratically easier to just add on to the MCP than it was to create new emergency service departments.

The success of the MCP, particularly the Space Patrol, lead to it being imitated in various forms in the Main Belt and other asteroid colonies, and on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, at the same time that international cooperation on Earth was breaking down. The Genetics Wars of the 2050s and early 2060s brought a significant change to Mars, and to the other colonies. Some colonists were ordered to return home as soon as possible, to support the war effort (and did not always obey, especially far from Earth and late in the wars), while others were told to remain in place and prepare for the worst. Many colonies on the Moon and in Earth orbit were destroyed in the wars, and the outer colonies were first flooded with those refugees who could escape, and then completely cut off, as there was no-one left on Earth who could send anything significant into space anymore. The colonial governors who remained (those who hadn't been withdrawn for various reasons and not replaced) rapidly lost power, and in some cases, their lives. The assemblies, councils, congresses, and so forth of the colonies were in charge now, for good or ill.

Once the shock had mostly worn off, and resources were enumerated, the various colonies called a meeting to discuss the situation. Leaders, representatives, and experts from Mars, the Near Earth Asteroids, and as far away as Titan came to a meeting room made from an astroball stadium on Ceres (the sport is vaguely like a cross between association football and volleyball, played in microgravity with three teams). The grand old man of the Martian Colonies, the venerable Elon Musk, gave the keynote speech, and inspired the name of the polity they would create when he said "We must cooperate, if we are to survive!" Space station components were brought from all inhabited regions save the Earth-Luna system to the at-the-time uninhabited Sol-Mars L5 Point (mostly cannibalizing incomplete stations), to build the Capital Station of the Solar Cooperative. At first, the Cooperative was not so much a government, as an agreement to share resources and information, and to contribute in common to what would become the Solar Cooperative Space Patrol (sometimes shortened to 'Solar Patrol,' or just 'The Patrol'). Over time, though, it became a functional government, albeit a fairly loose one.


Vague Solar Cooperative timeline

2030s: Earth's population approaches 8.5 billion in 2030, and 47 humans live long-term or permanently in space, all of them on Luna or in Earth orbit; hundreds of others visit, sometimes for months or years. Pushed by political and corporate interests, Human Enhancement Project scientists begin making designer babies available to those who can afford them, despite concerns about the mental health of the enhanced children. Transtator-based inertia manipulation is invented. Colonization of Mars, Martian orbitals, Phobos, Deimos, and Near-Earth Asteroids begins.

2040s: Earth's population exceeds 8.9 billion in 2040, and 61,024 humans live in space, most of them on Luna or in Earth orbit, though a significant fraction live on Mars. Colonization of the Main Belt asteroids and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn begins. Martian Colonial Police founded to deal with inter-colonial crimes and mobile criminals, as well as performing search-and-rescue work; Creeping Featurism sets in, as the MCP provides all emergency services outside of colonies that have their own (and some that do, if the emergency is bad enough). First meeting of what will become the Martian Assembly takes place over the Martian internet.

2050s: Earth's population exceeds 9.5 billion in 2050, and less than one million humans live in space, most of them on Luna or in Earth orbit, though nearly a third live on Mars. Genetics Wars begin, as many 'young supermen,' the children designed by the Human Enhancement Project, seize power in various countries. They rapidly begin to quarrel among themselves, and to provoke their neighbors. Nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons will all be used by the time the wars end. Lunar and Earth-orbital colonies are unable to avoid being pulled into the wars, along with some, but not all, of the Near-Earth Asteroids. More distant colonies watch in horror. Lunar Colonial Militia formed. First physical meeting of the Martian Assembly occurs at Olympus Mons.

2060s: Earth's population estimated to be 5.2 billion in 2060. Nearly two million humans live in space, most of them on Mars. Offworld colonies are effectively cut off from the homeworld, forced to survive on their own; Earth-appointed governors lose power to colonial assemblies and such, and in several cases are assassinated or executed. Genetics Wars end. A few of the 'young supermen' hide among humanity. Others do not, and in most cases are killed. The Post-Atomic Horror begins on Earth. Martian Space Patrol begins delivering aid to the surviving Lunar Colonies and Earth-orbital space stations. Ceres Summit opens on April 5, 2063. Solar Cooperative Agreement signed later the same year. Solar Cooperative begins Project Triage: a survey of the various regions of Earth, to determine which need help that they can give (and what help, and how much), which do not seriously need help, and which are beyond any help the colonies can give in the foreseeable future. Volunteers joining the project are carefully monitored for psychological stress, where possible. The Capital Station of the Solar Cooperative becomes operational on April 5, 2068.

2070s: Earth's population estimated to be less than 3 billion in 2070. About 2.1 million live in space, mostly on Mars. Lunar colonies are recovered to the point of being able to join and contribute to the Solar Cooperative. Earth's colonies (still generally called that, despite being free and independent states, and planning to remain that way) have improved manufacturing and resource extraction to the point that they can offer significant aid to the peoples of Earth. Project Manna begins: single-use landing-craft, almost always unmanned, are loaded with supplies and sent to various locations selected by Project Triage.

2080s: Earth's population estimated to be less than 2.47 billion in 2080. Roughly 2.5 million live in space, mostly on Mars. New Zealand is the first Earth territory to join the Solar Cooperative.

2090s: Earth's population estimated to be less than 2.4 billion in 2090. Around 3 million live in space, mostly on Mars and Luna. 79 Earth territories have joined the Solar Cooperative. In 2096, Earth's population rises for the first time since the Genetics Wars, from 2.37 billion to 2.38 billion. The Post-Atomic Horror ends, not with a bang, but a whimper.

Does this look acceptable? If it needs changing, what would you suggest?

[Prince Charon]

Beings of 'pure energy' options

Do you want them to exist at all, and how powerful should they be? Sufficiently Advanced Aliens are a pretty common trope in SF in general and Star Trek in particular, and a lot of them claim and appear to have 'evolved beyond the need for physical bodies' (which is not how evolution works, of course). OTOH, Space Gods showing up can be pretty annoying, and if not handled well, can ruin people's fun (though on the gripping hand, the same is true of gods in fantasy games, and some GMs and player groups have no problem handling that). So, this one is another 'more optional than usual' post.

If they do exist, the easiest justification in the Psionics rules is Astral Projection. If you have Astral Travel 6, you don't technically need a biological body (replace 'Projection, -50%' with 'Always on, -50%,' with no need to recalculate the price). Those that interfere in the physical world most likely have high levels of Barrier Breaking, or at least Cross-World Communication... or they replace 'Always on, -50%' with 'Usually on, -40%,' and/or 'Substantial Communication, +40%' with 'Affects Substantial, +100%.' Such beings could have massively powerful psychic abilities - or might just be really good at psionic illusions of various types. The ones with massive powers are a good answer for who it is that moved ancient humans and other creatures from Earth to worlds many parsecs (or kiloparsecs) away - that may be too much like Johnny1A.2's Eldren, though.

Another option is some form of ergokinetic 'biology,' which may be a result of organic life with highly advanced ergokinetic abilities creating self-maintaining ergokinetic bodies for themselves, or a result of experimentation with ergokinesis. It might even be the result of natural evolution (as in, they were made of 'energy' all along), but that's pretty strange (then again, they might consider life made of matter to be pretty strange).

Perhaps the 'energy beings' are only called that because they exist as highly-sophisticated software, possibly in extra-dimensional computers.

Each of these types of energy beings could plausibly all exist in the same setting, or only one, or neither. All of them are reasonably good candidates for our version of the Preservers, though on the other hand, the Preservers could simply be regular Ancient Aliens.


Thoughts?

[Flyndaran]

They could also be gaseous or nano-swarms and energy being is just a catch all shorthand.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

They could also be gaseous or nano-swarms and energy being is just a catch all shorthand.

OK, good point. I really should have thought of that.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

If they do exist, the easiest justification in the Psionics rules is Astral Projection.

I have the feeling that a psionic setting with an Astral Plane is leaning more towards a horror or fantasy setting than sci-fi psionics, so introducing astral beings opens up some questions of metaphysics that you'll have to answer.

However, it's possible to make a sci-fi flavoured Astral Plane by relabelling it as "the Universal Gestalt Consciousness," "the Psionic Carrier Field" or even "the Quantum Realm," and keep most of the mechanics and just change the fluff.