Labs (Laboratories) in UT & HT vs. Labs in Spaceships. What gives?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

On the contrary, people regularly use abstract toolkits and other stuff in RPGs, install abstract programs on abstract computers with no regard for compatibility between architecture/OS and the program (which is not a given), etc. and nobody notices. It's just the way things are.

I'm not sure how you can present a contrary to my personal experience that any discrepancy in the labs in HT/UT and SS has never come up.

That specific issue or any thing much like it really hasn't come up in my personal gaming experience.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

I'm not sure how you can present a contrary to my personal experience that any discrepancy in the labs in HT/UT and SS has never come up.

That specific issue or any thing much like it really hasn't come up in my personal gaming experience.

Hmmm. It seems there's been a misunderstanding. Somehow I parsed that as abstractions never coming up, so countered that in most cases, issues of compatibility, tools fitting the task etc. are simplified/abstracted.

Anyway, the price discrepancy sort of came up when I designed a base using the expanded Pyramid rules, and its 3 or 5 labs accounted for 20% of its total cost. It was weird in that those rooms cost so much compared to the hangars, power plant and other stuff.

[Lamech]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Hmmm. It seems there's been a misunderstanding. Somehow I parsed that as abstractions never coming up, so countered that in most cases, issues of compatibility, tools fitting the task etc. are simplified/abstracted.

Anyway, the price discrepancy sort of came up when I designed a base using the expanded Pyramid rules, and its 3 or 5 labs accounted for 20% of its total cost. It was weird in that those rooms cost so much compared to the hangars, power plant and other stuff.

Hey which pyramid was this in?

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Lamech

Hey which pyramid was this in?

Pyramid 3-34: Alternate GURPS.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Anyway, the price discrepancy sort of came up when I designed a base using the expanded Pyramid rules, and its 3 or 5 labs accounted for 20% of its total cost. It was weird in that those rooms cost so much compared to the hangars, power plant and other stuff.

I don't find it particularly shocking that laboratories where you can safely examine alien microbes demand a level of care in construction and engineering that is far beyond the standard required for hangars or engine rooms.

Other rooms just don't require the same safety protocols, with multiple layers of airlocks and suchlike.

[Lamech]

Originally Posted by Icelander

I don't find it particularly shocking that laboratories where you can safely examine alien microbes demand a level of care in construction and engineering that is far beyond the standard required for hangars or engine rooms.

Other rooms just don't require the same safety protocols, with multiple layers of airlocks and suchlike.

Lets pretend for a second these microbes are somewhat similar to earth life. In fact, lets assume they are so similar the only difference is they are a mirror image of earth life. They have mirror image humans, Ebola, cows. Everything.

We cannot eat their food, we cannot get their illnesses, we cannot interbreed. Our DNA and RNA will not bind to theirs. We could probably eat Ebola from their world and be fine.

Now these are not alien microbes, these are nearly identical microbes. Our biggest concern with alien life would be us contaminating it.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Lamech

Lets pretend for a second these microbes are somewhat similar to earth life. In fact, lets assume they are so similar the only difference is they are a mirror image of earth life. They have mirror image humans, Ebola, cows. Everything.

We cannot eat their food, we cannot get their illnesses, we cannot interbreed. Our DNA and RNA will not bind to theirs. We could probably eat Ebola from their world and be fine.

Now these are not alien microbes, these are nearly identical microbes. Our biggest concern with alien life would be us contaminating it.

Not in the majority of fiction where spaceships explore alien worlds. In reality, of course, interstellar travel doesn't work on a timescale relevant to intrepid explorers and alien lifeforms are not compatible with us in any way. GURPS Spaceships is mostly not aimed at that reality.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Lamech

We cannot eat their food, we cannot get their illnesses, we cannot interbreed.

Do NOT depend on this. Many organisms are not terribly fussy about the exact chemical identity, let alone the chirality of the stuff they are digesting, and many potentially very toxic waste products are not chiral at all (H2S or HCN for example...). You won't catch an alien virus. An alien bacterium or fungus or algae might be happy to grow in you and secrete something that will kill you very effectively in the process.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Icelander

I don't find it particularly shocking that laboratories where you can safely examine alien microbes demand a level of care in construction and engineering that is far beyond the standard required for hangars or engine rooms.

Other rooms just don't require the same safety protocols, with multiple layers of airlocks and suchlike.

If the price comes from Andromeda Strain protection levels, then that needed to be stated explicitly. Also, one would think that price hike would be most noticeable in Biology related labs, not all equally.

Strangely most fiction I've see in which characters get infected, they are horribly blase about even basic precautions. Star Trek away teams almost never wore suits and touched everything with bare hands.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Strangely most fiction I've see in which characters get infected, they are horribly blase about even basic precautions. Star Trek away teams almost never wore suits and touched everything with bare hands.

To each one's own.
My current setting doesn't even have bioweapons or genetics to speak of, and yet, before going to an unfamiliar medical facility they're preparing to suit up in full NBC gear.
Bare hands? Forget it.