Transhuman Space and Star Trek

[isf]

Inspired by Shadowjack's excellent Federated Space take on Star Trek (Specifically on transporters and warp drives*); what do people think would happen if those techs were added to Transhuman Space? Transporters first, then a period of stutterwarp capable ships (10% lightspeed at start, up to 90% pre-transwarp) and finally transwarp drives [slow FTL at start]

I'd like to keep the tl^ to minimum; is it reasonable to allow other space warping based technologies like shields and expensive and large FTL comm?

I think that the first stutterwarp ships would be both AI probes sent out to survey nearby stars and splinter groups heading out to get away from other people and/or to explore.


*Transporters; warp a bubble around objects in a transporter pad, sight to sight, one way, stopped by physical barriers at rest relative to barrier].

Stutterwarp: mobile transporter field; inertialless reactionless drive, stops relative to any significant mass [at rest as above], limited to near light speed.

Transwarp drive: sustainable warp bubble, stops relative to any significant mass [at rest as above], combination NAFAL/FTL drive.

From the wiki: tech notes

Transport was the origin of the warpdrive in this setting. The early "stutterwarp" (inspired by the one in 2300), developed during the Terran Empire, is essentially a transporter that transports itself. Because the range-per-cast is short, the drive has to be cycled rapidly to get anywhere; breakdowns are frequent.
The later "transwarp", developed independently by a number of people (but first by what would become the Federated Worlds), is a variation that, in layman's terms, lets the bubble be maintained indefinitely. Thus, your starship can rampage all over the place at fantastic pseudovelocity—until you hit something that disrupts the bubble, and then you're back in normal space again, at a dead stop. Long-distance travel is a continual start-and-stop affair, carefully jockeying the drive across gravity gradients and around the higher-concentrations of spacedust, and recalculating your location after the last inadvertant bounce-and-scatter.

It's a spacewarp device. It wraps the subject "on the pad" in a "space-time bubble", then "casts" the bubble in a straight line, somewhat like a particle accelerator. For a fraction of a second, the bubble moves faster-than-light, and can pass through ("ghosts") through limited quantities of normal matter. And then the bubble "bursts", and its contents are deposited, hopefully at the target location. Because this is a space-warp, the subject doesn't experience any movement—in fact, they even arrive "at rest" relative to the largest mass at the landing site. (Thus explaining why you don't smack into the planet as it moves through its orbit—you arrive at rest relative to it!)

Because mass bends space-time, the more mass there is in the path of travel, the less accurate the casting is. The bubble can't burst where there is already significant mass, but "bounces" in an essentially random direction, until it finds an open location. So you can't beam into a solid object, and beaming through more then a couple of walls kills accuracy. On the other hand, it's a standard trick to aim your casting below ground level, so the bubble bounces and precipitates to the surface—off target, but safer than having the bubble burst prematurely, dropping the subjects at altitude…

[jeff_wilson]

Don't for get the magical sensors that allow transporters to beam up just people and not scoops of air and dirt as well. These sots of sensors would utterly change the world, but in different ways depending on who discovered them first and how. The war with the TSA could easily have escalated to one or both side bombing the other back to a pre-transpoter state and then some. (See Niven's "Theory and Practice of Teleportation")

[David Johnston2]

Personally I'd leave transporters out of it just because it's more transhumany to do stuff like sending copies of people through subspace signals to waiting bioshells.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by isf

what do people think would happen if those techs were added to Transhuman Space? Transporters first, then a period of stutterwarp capable ships (10% lightspeed at start, up to 90% pre-transwarp) and finally transwarp drives [slow FTL at start]

There's an essential difference between the Hollywood sci-fi of Star Trek and the semi-hard SF of THS. Make sure that you can cope with this.

In ST, the devices are plot-provided magic, and asking what else one can do with them, or create based on them is impolite. Further, if they are used to do additional things, even ones that break the normal rules, for plot purposes, it is rude to try to use those capabilities in other stories.

In THS, none of these rules apply. If your players find something plot-breaking that they can do with the new technology, that's good work on their part, and the GM needs to suck it up and smile, unless he can find an excuse for it to be deeply illegal - which will take time for the laws to get passed.

So you can't be sure that these technologies will only have the effects you want, or anticipate. Consider what transporters in the hands of any kind of "terrorist" will do. THS has such groups, who would use them. It has people who will try to exploit the causality-bending properties of FTL travel. ST technologies in a non-ST society will create some serious WMD.

[isf]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

Don't for get the magical sensors that allow transporters to beam up just people and not scoops of air and dirt as well. These sots of sensors would utterly change the world, but in different ways depending on who discovered them first and how. The war with the TSA could easily have escalated to one or both side bombing the other back to a pre-transpoter state and then some. (See Niven's "Theory and Practice of Teleportation")

The transporters are one way and can't beam things up, except from another pad. There are emergency pads that can be beamed down but are finicky and take time to get a good lock.

[isf]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Personally I'd leave transporters out of it just because it's more transhumany to do stuff like sending copies of people through subspace signals to waiting bioshells.

I have considered that, but I like his transporter/warp idea.

[isf]

Originally Posted by johndallman

There's an essential difference between the Hollywood sci-fi of Star Trek and the semi-hard SF of THS. Make sure that you can cope with this.

I'm going to err on the side of tech with consequences; semi-hard sf with one miracle technology.

Originally Posted by johndallman

In ST, the devices are plot-provided magic, and asking what else one can do with them, or create based on them is impolite. Further, if they are used to do additional things, even ones that break the normal rules, for plot purposes, it is rude to try to use those capabilities in other stories.

That's what I don't like about Star Trek and specifically want to avoid if I ever get to run this game.

Originally Posted by johndallman

In THS, none of these rules apply. If your players find something plot-breaking that they can do with the new technology, that's good work on their part, and the GM needs to suck it up and smile, unless he can find an excuse for it to be deeply illegal - which will take time for the laws to get passed.

I count that as a player "win" myself :)

Originally Posted by johndallman

So you can't be sure that these technologies will only have the effects you want, or anticipate. Consider what transporters in the hands of any kind of "terrorist" will do. THS has such groups, who would use them. It has people who will try to exploit the causality-bending properties of FTL travel. ST technologies in a non-ST society will create some serious WMD.

After putting things in orbit, it as used to beam bombs back down in Federated Space. I plan on having the tech do X and keep the technobabble short and to the point.

he transporter was first used for satellite launch, and second used for orbital bombardment. Later, it was adapted for personnel and cargo transport, and today is a commonplace—if finicky—technology. It also formed the eventual basis for the warp drive.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by isf

The transporter was first used for satellite launch, and second used for orbital bombardment.

Energy conservation, woohoo.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Energy conservation, woohoo.

Surely the OP is planning to have that! He's going to need some monster generators next to his transmission stations, but it's still drastically more cost-effective than building laser launchers. Indeed, the need for building expensive spaceships basically vanishes; the few necessary orbital stations can just have fresh air transported up, saving lots of money.

There is an SF series that's pretty much based on this idea, only with portals in place of transmitters: Peter F Hamilton's novel Pandora's Star starts it off.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by isf

he transporter was first used for satellite launch, and second used for orbital bombardment.

Is there any way to:

1. Block transportation into an area?
2. Tell where a transport came from?

Without (1), you have a world of many-polar mutually assured destruction. Without (2) you have a world of perfect anonymous terrorism.

In the only Star Trek I'm familiar with, TOS, we only saw transporters in the hands of a sort-of military with very strong ethics and even stronger plot guidelines. Niven's Theory and Practice of Teleportation points out some of the problems when less constrained people have them, but there's plenty more ways they can be abused.