Our timeline gets parachronics in 2022

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Willy

In fact if I read Infinite worlds P 28 under conveyors right. Any conveyor can jump to any point inside a quanta.

Within the same quantum level, a conveyor can jump from any world to any other world, given coordinates. However, it arrives at the "same point in space" in the new world as it left in the old one, as per p. B530.

That restriction is very important. If it did not exist, then nuclear-armed conveyors would be an unstoppable weapon, rather than just a very dangerous one.

[Dr. Beckenstein]

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

Maybe it was the substandard German translation of Time Travel some 20 years ago that sent me down that road, but I always believed you needed a projector and that was one of the reasons getting bases on other worlds was extra important.

But remember this whole quantum-projector-and-conveyor is the way it works in the "official" Infinite Worlds Setting. The original post looks like it would be a totally new campaign world, so other ways (wormholes? fairies?) are possible.

[Astromancer]

It occurs to me that in our real world there were parts of the Earth that weren't settled until fairly late TL3. If you had large temperate climate islands, that were isolated enough to be hard to reach at TL3, and this parallel lacked equivalents to the Polynesian navigators, then you might have an area to have a safe base.

For maximum scandal have the USA get these.islands. For sinister plot elements allow a dictatorship to get these islands.

[Willy]

Originally Posted by ericthered

SNIP

I mean, does that really change things in the grand scheme of things? we can't block them with 100% effectiveness right now. When only one additional world needs to be considered, its easier to defend as well.

Sorry I added the reason for it in a later post above.

Yes it changes everything. The whole MAD strategy of nuclear deterence bases on the idea that the attacked can strike bake and kill the attacker too.

If there is no warning, a attacker can strike at the target eliminate the whole nuclear potential of the emeny in on beheading strike with impunity. At the end of the old cold war the US and the Russians knew where every nuke of the other side was. Now we have better surveilance equipment and satellites and it is 100% clear that this is still true nowadays.

The actual real ultrasonic missiles are not a real problem because they are difficult to intercept, but because they reduce the time we have to decide how to react. The old 30 min warning was barely enough, 7 min are nearly impossible, 0 seconds means the other side is dead before knowing it.

For this reasons russia is reported to have a system called dead hand aka a dead mans switch on a part of his arsenal.

So yes conveyors would be a gamechanger making the whole world totally instable.

Originally Posted by johndallman

Within the same quantum level, a conveyor can jump from any world to any other world, given coordinates. However, it arrives at the "same point in space" in the new world as it left in the old one, as per p. B530.

That restriction is very important. If it did not exist, then nuclear-armed conveyors would be an unstoppable weapon, rather than just a very dangerous one.

If this is still standing it would be another GM fiat by SJG besides van Zandt / UN deal, The patrol to avoid opening a real can of worms.

I thought I read somewhere that conveyors can change local positions with a little help, but are unsure if it was in Infinite Worlds or in the old 3rd Ed books.

[KarlKost]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Within the same quantum level, a conveyor can jump from any world to any other world, given coordinates. However, it arrives at the "same point in space" in the new world as it left in the old one, as per p. B530.

That restriction is very important. If it did not exist, then nuclear-armed conveyors would be an unstoppable weapon, rather than just a very dangerous one.

Step 1: take nuclear conveyor to another world (preferably one with low TL. You wont want to be casually walking around with a nuclear bomb inside a dimensional traveller machine in a superscience TL 12 world)

Step2: inside the other world, transport your conveyor with the bomb to the corresponding location on Homeline that you wanna nuke. For example, enter the new world into the Beijing area, and move to the area o New York.

Step3: move back to homeline

Step4: detonate the bomb.

[KarlKost]

Lets be real here:

China and Russia would move nuclear bombs inside any new world in order to resurface them back into Home World as soon as they got their hands in that technology. And they would use it to destroy all other world nuclear powers (including each other).

Other than that, there is ZERO doubt that Russia and China would use this to conquer and enslave HUNDREDS of worlds as soon as they got to them. Those worlds would become mere sources of raw materials and slave labor to them; more advanced worlds would become sources of tech to be reverse engineered.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by KarlKost

Step 1 ... Step2 ... Step3 ... Step4

Exactly. It's more work than it would be if it was possible to use conveyors as instant bomb-delivery-to-anywhere systems. Travelling from Beijing to New York on an undeveloped world is not trivial.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by KarlKost

Lets be real here:

China and Russia would move nuclear bombs inside any new world in order to resurface them back into Home World as soon as they got their hands in that technology. And they would use it to destroy all other world nuclear powers (including each other).

Other than that, there is ZERO doubt that Russia and China would use this to conquer and enslave HUNDREDS of worlds as soon as they got to them. Those worlds would become mere sources of raw materials and slave labor to them; more advanced worlds would become sources of tech to be reverse engineered.

Not just China and Russia, there are many dictatorships that would do the same. Some nominal democracies would do the same. And some otherwise decent democracies as well.

Few of these nations would face much criticism for it either.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

It occurs to me that in our real world there were parts of the Earth that weren't settled until fairly late TL3. If you had large temperate climate islands, that were isolated enough to be hard to reach at TL3, and this parallel lacked equivalents to the Polynesian navigators, then you might have an area to have a safe base.

For maximum scandal have the USA get these.islands. For sinister plot elements allow a dictatorship to get these islands.

I just remembered the Maldives. These islands are facing catastrophe. Even a few inches of sea level rise will make them uninhabitable.

If they had a chance to get to an uninhibited island with a viable climate, they'd go to survive. Picture a corporate CEO, an Elon Musk type, with a soft spot for the Islanders and a desire to have a reputation for nobility and charity, who gets a projector and conveyor to the Maldives so they can flee to safety.

How would you get them back? How would you quiet the fury? It would be a vast screaming fest for months.

[Tom Mazanec]

I was thinking the new world is on our quantum (or equivalent).