[Grey Wolf]

And powering it without using a nuclear reactor would also be nice.

[Janos]

Originally posted by Grey Wolf
And powering it without using a nuclear reactor would also be nice.

There's one thing in common for all these sci-fi systems people are so thrilled about.

They all are pretty damn energy hungry. We're talking about big nuclear reactors required to keep even some systems online and operational.

[Clave]

You should read 'Footfall' by Niven and Pournelle - great descriptions of aliens totally owning our defences using flying rods dropped from space...

[Sandwich]

Or the Asimov Foundation series, where in the early books, having nuclear powered ships was the equivalent of a Borg cube in Trek.

[Flipside]

I remember those, nuclear everything, even the coffee maker needed a reactor the size of a baseball pitch before the Foundation moved in. At least Asimov discovered Gravitics in time for Golan Trevise to go looking for Gaia

[Mefustae]

Originally posted by Flipside
I remember those, nuclear everything, even the coffee maker needed a reactor the size of a baseball pitch before the Foundation moved in. At least Asimov discovered Gravitics in time for Golan Trevise to go looking for Gaia

I have no idea what the hell you just said...

[Descenterace]

Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth, aka 'the Seldon Plan has one massive flaw in it so it's going to be replaced with something totally different'.

Interesting books, actually. A character from some of his other books (the ones set 20000 years before the Foundation) turns up. No time travel involved...

[CP5670]

It's from the Foundation series. I recognize all that. The first book was the best by some distance, though.

[Styxx]

Originally posted by aldo_14
Unless they got there first and threatened any ground threat with SBW.  Which is possible; bugger knows what they actually have up there already, after all........

Not likely. You can launch your orbital denial rockets from a submarine if your ground-based installations are threatened, and plenty of countries have ICBM launch capability on submarines. You don't even need that, one of those truck-based missile launchers the Soviets loved so much would be more than enough.

[Janos]

Originally posted by Clave
You should read 'Footfall' by Niven and Pournelle - great descriptions of aliens totally owning our defences using flying rods dropped from space...

Heh, yeah. It's not really necessary to bring weapons in space, since some scrap metal (heat shielded or big enough) will cause absolute devastation wherever it hits.

Also, USN is actually researching gauss guns. Why use explosives, since you could just fire a rod of metal going... well, really fast, miles per second into some warehouse 25 nautical miles away.

[Flipside]

Well, it all depends on how big a boom it makes when it hits, theres no point developing something that isn't going to look as impressive as it's name sounds

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Styxx


Not likely. You can launch your orbital denial rockets from a submarine if your ground-based installations are threatened, and plenty of countries have ICBM launch capability on submarines. You don't even need that, one of those truck-based missile launchers the Soviets loved so much would be more than enough.

Forgot those.  They still work?

[Flipside]

Originally posted by CP5670
It's from the Foundation series. I recognize all that. The first book was the best by some distance, though.

Well, I found Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth to be a better Story, however, the first book, and the second to a fair degree were absolute works of arts with regards to Tolkeins grasp of the Social and Political makeup of the Foundation, and how basic human instincts still apply, no matter how much technology you have.

Anyway, I could go on about the Foundation series for hours, so I'll stop before I do

[CP5670]

I also thought they were interesting in their own right, but all the mind control business kind of threw me off. It didn't fit in with the style of the original IMO. (although the first half of the second book fit in very well with the original and I liked it just as much)

[Sandwich]

Originally posted by Flipside
...with regards to Tolkeins grasp of the Social and Political makeup of the Foundation...

Uh-huh... you know something I don't?

http://www.brainzipper.com/files/this_here.wav

[Flipside]

Ummm... Yeah... the keys are right next to each other, it's a common typo....



Edit : To be honest, I thought Asimov, but for some reason my brain sent 'Tolkein' to my fingers