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Old 02-26-2014, 03:24 AM   #11
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Default Re: UT, war, and logistics

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And oh my god pirates mounting a plank above the biomass recycler...
... May I borrow that for something? I don't know what yet, but I want to borrow that!
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Old 02-26-2014, 04:15 AM   #12
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Default Re: UT, war, and logistics

Some thoughts - not necessarily relevant to each other.

Ground forces on un-terraformed worlds will have a heavier logistical burden since nothing could normally be requisitioned. If you didn't bring it, you ain't got it. If transport has significant costs then efforts to cut down on that logistical burden will be made.

This could be SOP for anything from LRRPs checking out a planet to full on invasion/defense forces.

I am thinking that normally bodies would be gathered to make their contribution to the ship/orbital/small-moon sized space station but in an extended conflict that may not be possible so conversion is done on the spot.

I myself was thinking that this would be thought of as a reverent and noble last gift to the rest of the unit. Foe men consumed would be honored.

How does this change if there is the means to record minds on the go up to the point of death and these soldiers are trained to recover that recording so that the fallen may rise again? Variations - 'Death Cheaters' that go through multiple resurrections or you get one resurrection to fight the Ultimate Foe at some point in the future. Or the recordings go home to be digital ghosts. That culture may be shocked to find another that does raise their dead.

How does this work if it is aliens doing it as opposed to humans? Is it more understandable? Does it make humans more alien?

The swarms make it all easey-peasey magical. Kind of like how many people don't understand how meat gets on the shelves at the grocery. Wondering if a messier option gets at more cultural roots.
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Old 02-26-2014, 04:53 AM   #13
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Default Re: UT, war, and logistics

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This could be SOP for anything from LRRPs checking out a planet to full on invasion/defense forces.

I am thinking that normally bodies would be gathered to make their contribution to the ship/orbital/small-moon sized space station but in an extended conflict that may not be possible so conversion is done on the spot.

I myself was thinking that this would be thought of as a reverent and noble last gift to the rest of the unit. Foe men consumed would be honoured.
My major objection to the entire idea is that Casual cannibalism is alien to most if not all human cultures. My gut instinct is that even in the kind of society you describe normal disposals will not feed directly into the food chain but will involve one or more intermediate steps providing at least the illusion of separation.

As a ritualised process in a specific situation the rules change significantly while it wouldn't work in anything too close to modern western society it doesn't strain my sense of disbelief too much either.

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How does this work if it is aliens doing it as opposed to humans? Is it more understandable?
As an alien behaviour it is easier to reconcile, a different evolutionary history by definition offers scope for different behaviours. It wouldn't strike me as too odd to see a species that has a lower resistance to this kind of behaviour.

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The swarms make it all easey-peasey magical. Kind of like how many people don't understand how meat gets on the shelves at the grocery. Wondering if a messier option gets at more cultural roots.
There is no single answer to this one ultimately it depends on the culture of the people practicing this and the amount of, for lack of a better word, theatre they are willing to surround the act with.
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Old 02-26-2014, 05:07 AM   #14
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Default Re: UT, war, and logistics

This has made me wonder if casual cannibalism is rare because of the bounty a planetary ecology enjoys. If that is true then I would want to look at the carrying capacity of orbitals/generation ships/outposts and their robustness. If it is less than a planetary ecology then it may not be so casual. I think the idea of having some separation would be normal but the realities of warfare may make it easier to justify.

When two such cultures fight I wonder about the possibility of how to deny resources to the other side? Deliberately poison the body? Fight swarm with swarm for possession? How many conversion swarms can a unit lose before it suffers? Cause the body to be burned?
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Old 02-26-2014, 05:54 AM   #15
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Have you run the maths on it?

Would it make enough of a dent in the daily logistical drain to become a standard procedure? I think if your casualty rate is high enough for it to matter, then you're probably facing more important problems than whether you have enough food.
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Old 02-26-2014, 06:37 AM   #16
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Of course, if your logistical base is a swarm of cannibal nano that assembles your orders out of anything that it can find, you might end up eating post consumer human (or firing rounds with propellant made thereform) by default.
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Old 02-26-2014, 07:04 AM   #17
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Have you run the maths on it?

Would it make enough of a dent in the daily logistical drain to become a standard procedure? I think if your casualty rate is high enough for it to matter, then you're probably facing more important problems than whether you have enough food.
I am thinking that for this kind of culture everything goes into the swarm and if things are going well more of them than you. There will probably be a whole lot of slang and idiom to go with it.

Also the feel of it should be that margins are thin at the best of times for operations in a non-hospitable location. That implies that transport costs are high but not impossible but prioritization is necessary. If you can convert biomass at the location that means that even less of your stores that you dragged out there have to be consumed and that increases the margin for survival. Hmmm Pyrrhic victories where one side wins the battle but starves on the way home.
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Old 02-26-2014, 07:12 AM   #18
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What is the motivation for fighting on a planet that has no local food supplies? If there's any population there, they'll necessarily have some source of food. If there's nobody there but enemy troops, why bother invading?
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Old 02-26-2014, 07:18 AM   #19
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What is the motivation for fighting on a planet that has no local food supplies? If there's any population there, they'll necessarily have some source of food. If there's nobody there but enemy troops, why bother invading?
The planet in question might still have a closed system (due to an inability or lack of interest in terraforming and agriculture) or even be dependent on external sources for some portion of its food supply. The planet could be a mining colony, or could be inhabited solely as a strategically-located military base, for example. Both would be valid military targets, neither would likely maintain any local food production in excess of actual need.
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Old 02-26-2014, 07:54 AM   #20
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Default Re: UT, war, and logistics

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What is the motivation for fighting on a planet that has no local food supplies? If there's any population there, they'll necessarily have some source of food. If there's nobody there but enemy troops, why bother invading?
One of the things I don't have a handy answer for is just how difficult it is for swarms to deal with biologicals. If the source is someplace with left handed amino acids then can they take those apart and make them right handed? Is there a point where the process takes so long that it isn't worth it? An assumption inherent in this is that it is fairly easy for a swarm to render a compatible biomass and more difficult the further from the 'designed norm' that a biomass is. That assumption may be wrong. If the swarm tech is good enough to just rip individual atoms out and put them together in a brute force manner then complex biologicals that would not be compatible are no problem. I suspect though that for a long time such a swarm would be programmed to use the body as a chemical factory and make the best use of cellular processes that exist in it.
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