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Old 07-14-2018, 10:31 AM   #931
Flyndaran
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

According to one source in Wikipedia it costs 250 million dollars to produce 10 milligrams. Storing it is not the primary reason why we can't make antimatter bombs at the moment.
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Old 07-14-2018, 11:48 AM   #932
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

That ends up being around 500 MW-h of energy (250 MW-h of electricity) for $250 million, which is not terribly efficient (spending $10,000 of antimatter for every $1 of electricity). Antimatter always ends up being a losing investment anyway, as the theoretical maximum efficiency of production is 50%, the theoretical maximum efficiency of electricity production is 50%, and the wholesale price will likely only be 50% of retail price, meaning that every $8 worth of retail electricity spent on producing antimatter ends up generating $1 worth of wholesale electricity.
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Old 07-15-2018, 09:03 AM   #933
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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
When Infinity finds kidnapped natives on Homeline, they usually have to sedate a traumatized superhuman who killed the people who enslaved and violated them. Infinity usually returns them to Eros-1, where they have began to form a group that hunts down outtimer slavers that seek to prey on the natives of Eros-1 (Infinity occasionally finds them on other timelines, as their symbol magic allows them to travel between timelines).
I would think the last part would freak out Infinity the most. Returning people to Eros-1 might reveal the secret, but returning people to a world where cross-time travel exists is inviting danger.
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Old 07-15-2018, 09:42 AM   #934
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DST-9

The DST series of worlds are noted primarily for their differences in Daylight Saving Time. All the the DST timelines have timezones, even if they might be layed out differently.
In DST-1, TL8, Daylight Saving Time was never proposed and does not exist.
In DST-2, TL8, every part of Earth has adopted Daylight Saving Time except for some equatorial holdouts (who are in the process of adopting it along with industrialization).
DST-3, TL8, has a tiered DST, with a shift of 0 at the equator, 1 hour at latitudes 30-60, and 0 again at latitudes 60+. As a result, timezones are not strictly longitudinal.
DST-4, TL6, follows a 2 hour DST shift for those areas which decide to use it.
DST-8, TL7, does not have proper DST similar to DST-1, but every European and American city follows Paris’ example of firing cannons and ringing church bells at dawn. Cities in the U.S. do not have a tax on shutters, but most shutters are cosmetic anyway except on the coast.

But DST-9 is Weird. On DST-9, a TL6 world, Daylight Saving Time actually saves daylight. Through some unexplainable mechanism which hasn’t been explored by the locals, when clocks are set for DST, the daylight shortens by an hour, and non-DST has an increase of an hour of daylight. Winters are more mild here, and summers cooler. Storms are not as extreme in volatility. It also makes no logical sense. Current Infinity theories include magic, or a tight ultra-tech VR sphere surrounding Earth and replicating the sun. Infinity is not sure if the actual setting of the clocks causes any change, but they’re not discounting any possibility here.
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Old 07-15-2018, 10:39 AM   #935
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Hyperborea-1

Hyperborea-1 is a weird timeline straight out of the pages of the pulp fantasy stories of Clark Ashton Smith. When the timeline was first discovered by Infinity, it was first labeled as a geographically and evolutionarily divergent parallel, but Infinity opened it up for limited colonization five years ago (there were unsettled continents in the Western Hemisphere). Since then though, Infinity has noticed that geological and evolutionary changes occur at 10x the speed of Homeline, as the children of a group of colonists which practices selective breeding have experienced profound changes (the equivalent of ten generations of selective breeding in one generation).
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Old 07-15-2018, 11:04 AM   #936
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

I would think colonization marketing departments would try to avoid names of authors with heavy connections to Lovecraft.
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Old 07-15-2018, 12:18 PM   #937
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

Ghosts!

In Specter, ghosts are a physical phenomenon (it's complicated to explain, but in essence, it's a self-projecting hologram which can produce temperature changes and electromagnetic forces). Until the computer revolution, most ghosts dissipated without ever manifesting, but computers are sensitive enough that many more ghosts could influence them.

In time, dedicated Necrotronics emerged as a field, and now any given ghost can be preserved and interacted with. It's even possible to dump electrical energy into a ghost to allow them to manifest as a revenant or similar being.

At first, Ghosts made crimes impossible to commit, as they would make fine witnesses at their own murder trials (for instance). That was, of course, until Ghosts got integrated into the economy. Now it's possible to bribe ghosts with the cash needed to regain material forms (temporarily), and the comforts thereof.

Current date 1987 (Computer tech took a slightly different direction).
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Old 07-15-2018, 03:32 PM   #938
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Current date 1987 (Computer tech took a slightly different direction).
Interesting definition of "slightly" there!


This is a really cool notion, and I could imagine the "spectral revolution" happening at different tech levels, depending on what technology the ghosts needed to interact with.
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Old 07-15-2018, 04:12 PM   #939
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In Phantom, ghosts have been scientifically studied since the 16th century, when the ghost soldiers of the Native American Nations repulsed the European colonizers through the utilization of spiritual possession. Without an understanding of shamanism, the European powers found their soldiers possessed by ghost soldiers who attacked the comrades of the possessed soldiers before abandoning the bodies of the possessed. After several disastrous wars, the European powers decided to trade with the Native Americans until they could counter their ghost soldiers. During the 17th century and the 18th century respectively, African and Asia ghosts helped repulse the attempts of the European powers to colonize their shores.

During the late 19th century, the European powers discovered that they could detect and repulse ghosts through the use of electrical fields, countering the advantage of the Native American Nations. By that time though, the populations of the Native American Nations had recovered from the European plagues and, through trade with Africa, Asia, and Europe, had transitioned into industrialized nations through adopting, and then developing, new technology through their own efforts.

After several wars during the 20th century between the European Alliance and the North American Federation, the development of computer technology opened up new frontiers for ghosts. With the ability to influence and possess computers, ghosts soon inhabited the networks of the Native American Nations and spread into the networks of the Asian and African nations. Only the European nations have refused to adopt computer networks, as they fear the influence of foreign ghosts.
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Old 07-15-2018, 09:38 PM   #940
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Why do the Europeans not have a knowledge of shamanism? Europe has a folk tradition of spirit magic as well as Ceremonial magic having to do with spirits. Even if you ignore that, the Europeans could easily utilize the syncretic Caribbean religions that have a strong spirit aspect during this time period. If absolutely nothing else, European folk traditions (such as the Pennsylvania Dutch's powwow (brauch)) could be useful for protection against the spirits.
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In Phantom, ghosts have been scientifically studied since the 16th century, when the ghost soldiers of the Native American Nations repulsed the European colonizers through the utilization of spiritual possession. Without an understanding of shamanism, the European powers found their soldiers possessed by ghost soldiers who attacked the comrades of the possessed soldiers before abandoning the bodies of the possessed. After several disastrous wars, the European powers decided to trade with the Native Americans until they could counter their ghost soldiers. During the 17th century and the 18th century respectively, African and Asia ghosts helped repulse the attempts of the European powers to colonize their shores.

During the late 19th century, the European powers discovered that they could detect and repulse ghosts through the use of electrical fields, countering the advantage of the Native American Nations. By that time though, the populations of the Native American Nations had recovered from the European plagues and, through trade with Africa, Asia, and Europe, had transitioned into industrialized nations through adopting, and then developing, new technology through their own efforts.

After several wars during the 20th century between the European Alliance and the North American Federation, the development of computer technology opened up new frontiers for ghosts. With the ability to influence and possess computers, ghosts soon inhabited the networks of the Native American Nations and spread into the networks of the Asian and African nations. Only the European nations have refused to adopt computer networks, as they fear the influence of foreign ghosts.
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