[IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

[PTTG]

Originally Posted by aesir23

My personal geekish fantasy:

On Whedon 1 the science fiction show "Firefly" was given the full support and backing of the Fox network, and it's executives took a hands-off approach to Joss Whedon's show. As a result, Firefly built a solid following of fans over time and increased critical appreciation.

As of local year 2006, the show has eclipsed the popularity of the earlier "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Fans are eagerly anticipating it's 5 season.

I... I think there's something in my eye... excuse me... (sniff)... where was I...

Hayes-3 is named for the leader of the team that discovered it, as are most unremarkable worlds. In this world, Alan Turing moved to California in 1948, where he lived happily with Christopher Morcom, a close friend of his, who had iced tea instead of milk several years earlier.

As a result, computer science advanced at least as quickly as it had in Homeline, and possibly moreso. Although Turing and Morcom produced little in terms of new computer innovations, they both spoke with other scientists throughout the next twenty years and contributed to the ideology and technology, subtly. As a result, closed-source software remained in the industrial field, while open-source software became the primary civilian market.

In turn, the computer was less accessible and more powerful. It grew more slowly, but the exponential growth of the technology was merely delayed by a few years.

Current year 2010; portable electronics are everywhere, and they are secure, private, and more expensive than they were on homeline at the time... the software is far more efficient, more than making up for the less powerful hardware used there. Most consumer software, including games, "office software," and tools, is free and produced by nonprofit groups.

After recompiling to work on Homeline hardware (there are only a few major conflicts between homeline and local hardware), most of this software is perfect for homeline use, and usually better and faster than similar programs.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by PTTG

I... I think there's something in my eye... excuse me... (sniff)... where was I...

Hayes-3 is named for the leader of the team that discovered it, as are most unremarkable worlds. In this world, Alan Turing moved to California in 1948, where he lived happily with Christopher Morcom, a close friend of his, who had iced tea instead of milk several years earlier.

As a result, computer science advanced at least as quickly as it had in Homeline, and possibly moreso. Although Turing and Morcom produced little in terms of new computer innovations, they both spoke with other scientists throughout the next twenty years and contributed to the ideology and technology, subtly. As a result, closed-source software remained in the industrial field, while open-source software became the primary civilian market.

In turn, the computer was less accessible and more powerful. It grew more slowly, but the exponential growth of the technology was merely delayed by a few years.

Current year 2010; portable electronics are everywhere, and they are secure, private, and more expensive than they were on homeline at the time... the software is far more efficient, more than making up for the less powerful hardware used there. Most consumer software, including games, "office software," and tools, is free and produced by nonprofit groups.

After recompiling to work on Homeline hardware (there are only a few major conflicts between homeline and local hardware), most of this software is perfect for homeline use, and usually better and faster than similar programs.

That's a really clever treasure.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Apache

Actually, straight mirror parallels (with no discernable differance from Homeline other than the fact "it's in the past") have tons of valuable stuff.

Imagine plundering the cargo holds of the Titanic and the Lusitania before they sunk, or stealing weapons, ammo, and equipment from any number of Allied and Axis warships just before they are destroyed.

In the case of the USS Cinncinati, that would be an atomic weapon.....

Or pillage Alexandria before it's burned by *insert name here*.

Drop into Constantinople just before the Turks capture it.

The possibilities are endless.....

Isn't interfering with echoes a really really bad idea? What if you cause it to shift?

[Apache]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Isn't interfering with echoes a really really bad idea? What if you cause it to shift?

So what? I'm filthy rich and living it up in another parallel where I own an entire island stocked with Jessica Alba's, Natalie Portman's, and Megan Fox's.....what do I care if some echoe shifts?

:)

[malloyd]

Actually, I don't think art is going to be all that profitable.

The great works of a couple hundred divergent timelines arriving in the space of a decade or two have completely fragmented the Homeline market, and collapsed the Homeline film and publishing industries at the same time. For actual physical art, you don't actually saturate the market, but as it's now pretty much impossible to prove something is genuine, and even if you can somebody could discover a new line with another copy (and an older/better preserved/whatever one at that) tomorrow, rendering yours an "inferior copy". This means the investment side of the market that's so driven up prices in the last few decades is pretty much gone. Collectors and art lovers are still out there, so there's still *some* market, but nobody pays millions of dollars for a painting anymore.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Actually, I don't think art is going to be all that profitable.

The great works of a couple hundred divergent timelines arriving in the space of a decade or two have completely fragmented the Homeline market, and collapsed the Homeline film and publishing industries at the same time. For actual physical art, you don't actually saturate the market, but as it's now pretty much impossible to prove something is genuine, and even if you can somebody could discover a new line with another copy (and an older/better preserved/whatever one at that) tomorrow, rendering yours an "inferior copy". This means the investment side of the market that's so driven up prices in the last few decades is pretty much gone. Collectors and art lovers are still out there, so there's still *some* market, but nobody pays millions of dollars for a painting anymore.

However, new works of popular art, from the Complete Mystery of Edwin Drood to Lovecraft's major Sci Fi novels of the 1950's, would have audiences, paying audiences. If there was a parallel where a Sci Fi film was a major hit in Hollywood in the 1920's, convincing the studio heads there's money in Sci Fi (which most of the moghuls doubted profoundly), then many of the classic Hollywood stars of the 1930's and 40's might have made Sci Fi and/or Fantasy films. A movie, where Humphrey Bogart plays Northwest Smith with Katherine Hepburn as Jirel of Jory, would find an audience quickly. And fast money is what counts in film distribution, and always did.

So there is some money in popular art.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Apache

So what? I'm filthy rich and living it up in another parallel where I own an entire island stocked with Jessica Alba's, Natalie Portman's, and Megan Fox's.....what do I care if some echoe shifts?

The I-Cops' Human Trafficking squad, largely made up of surviving former abductees and family members who saw too much, might care very much indeed.

[Tyneras]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

The I-Cops' Human Trafficking squad, largely made up of surviving former abductees and family members who saw too much, might care very much indeed.

Enough Wealth, Contacts, and Favors can give you Legal Immunity. Unless the dominant species is Homo Moralus, but then they wouldn't be stealing other planets property and ideas without compensation either.

[DoctorRomulus]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

The I-Cops' Human Trafficking squad, largely made up of surviving former abductees and family members who saw too much, might care very much indeed.

Adventure Seed!!!

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Isn't interfering with echoes a really really bad idea? What if you cause it to shift?

Subtlety is the key here. Quietly photographing hundreds of scolls in the library of Alexandria before any of the burnings, no problem. Bring an army in and steal the works out from under the nose of (insert favorite library burner here) causing shock, consternation, and religious hysteria, bad, very bad.