New answers tagged technology
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Could a Gamma Ray Burst knock a Space Mirror out of orbit?
Others have said, better than I can, "not likely." But the mirrors would probably serve to detect the GRB even if no one was looking for one. That would give your civilization an "uh-...
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Could a Gamma Ray Burst knock a Space Mirror out of orbit?
Not unless you're in the same solar system as the GRB
Gamma Ray Bursts are rare, but powerful, so we typically see them in other galaxies.
Lasting anywhere from a few milliseconds to several minutes, ...
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Could a Gamma Ray Burst knock a Space Mirror out of orbit?
Simple test:
Space mirrors for energy redirection are thin. Very, very thin. Just about all the gamma energy is just going to go through. But they are set up to reflect most of the visible light ...
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Accepted
Could a Gamma Ray Burst knock a Space Mirror out of orbit?
Extremely improbable, for the reasons given in the other answers --
IF
-- you want it to do it directly.
However, having the gamma ray burst do damage to the control system is much simpler because it ...
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Could a Gamma Ray Burst knock a Space Mirror out of orbit?
Probably not. My reasoning is this:
Mirrors have a reflection ratio of maybe 99%. Not too much - that means that 1% of the incoming energy is swalled my the material and heats it.
Gamma Ray Bursts ...
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Could a Gamma Ray Burst knock a Space Mirror out of orbit?
It depends: gamma ray bursts are mostly made of gamma photons. From Wikipedia
Most of this energy is released in gamma rays, although some GRBs have extremely luminous optical counterparts as well.
...
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How much technological progress could a group of modern people make in a century?
Almost everything here depends on details. What exact skills? What resources are present on the planet? What tools or equipment from the space ship are useable?
So I'm making a lot of assumptions:
...
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How much technological progress could a group of modern people make in a century?
There are three significant variables: exactly which technologies are known, the number of people sent (Manpower) and natural resource availability.
The most important step would probably be recording ...
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How much technological progress could a group of modern people make in a century?
Most answers focus on development like our society and making assumptions that are not optimal. For instance, copper and bronze should not be skipped because there will be easy accessible surface ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
I would go the most horribly Luddite direction with this:
"No technological computer more powerful than a human computer is allowed".
Basically, Every year, the smartest human math prodigies ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
Quantum, baby!
That or maybe horrendously complex networks
Other posters posit that the AI is just software, and therefore could run on any computer. I disagree. Biological intelligence is built on a ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
It's about the the software and only the software
They view complex non-AI computers as incapable of consent but still having rights - like how humans see children or people with severe mental health ...
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How much technological progress could a group of modern people make in a century?
This guy has reached the late stone age with some years of work.
His notable failures:
He could make coke, but his iron results were simply futile, even in the tremendous invested energy and time
He ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
This is your biggest problem
...
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11
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Accepted
How much technological progress could a group of modern people make in a century?
It depends on many factors including climate zone, significant predators, topology (fertile river plains / desert / high alpine year long snow / ...), access to resources (food, timber, metal ores, ...
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How much technological progress could a group of modern people make in a century?
Depends where they were and what they had with them and the dangers they face.
Tropical Islands had 10 to fifteen or more children quite often. Life was easy. The sea is easy to harvest from and they ...
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How much technological progress could a group of modern people make in a century?
Very dependent on how you want to tell your story with potential struggles they may have with flora and fauna and especially if they are able to access the storage of tools that are locked away (which ...
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How much technological progress could a group of modern people make in a century?
In space, there are never too many redundancies
If the space program in question is run by sensible engineers, they will have a chain of redundancy for everything their mission requires for success. ...
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How much technological progress could a group of modern people make in a century?
This answer was provided to this version of the question.
This question is very similar to Speedrun to the moon in one lifetime? and my answer to that question is relevant here, but I'd like to ...
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How much technological progress could a group of modern people make in a century?
How much technological progress could one expect them to make in a century?
That depends on what they know.
Do they know how to make stone, bone and wood tools? If yes, there is a chance that some of ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
You could decide that in your world, Integrated Information Theory has been shown to be true.
In that case, there can be a moment in your science history when the critical threshold was discovered, ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
Theoretical capability to hold an AI and regular investigations
I wouldn't go that far to bind the limitation to a particular speed or memory size.
It may even be intended to omit exact limits to ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
Mechanical vs Electronic computers.
It is fairly easy to discriminate between a machine that uses electronic switches to perform its calculations and one that uses a mechanical connections. There ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
While some technical definitions have been proposed, most of them can be circumvented by changing definitions, approaches or software/hardware construction.
To be future-safe, I suggest instead that ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
It’s defined in the treaty
This is something the drafters of the treaty would have been very careful with because it is at the heart of the conflict that triggered the war. Neither the humans nor the ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
No recurrent neural networks,
or equivalent processing systems, outside of registered AI systems.
Intelligence is not just a matter of piling together sufficient amounts of processing power. It ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
I see this treaty having a very vague definition of "complex" because it's pretty arbitrary. You don't necessarily need a fast computer to run an AI. Or even just a single computer. ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
Ban Multi-Threading
So, at the risk of simplifying a bit too far:
Any non-trivial computer is theoretically capable of running an AI, assuming it has enough memory and/or storage space. Everything ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
Hardware and scale
Just like in biology, there are two things that determine complexity. The setup of the hardware and the scale. Many birds have impressive intelligence compared to the size. Humans ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
Never
By definition, every program is a sequence of operations. Perhaps a self-modifying sequence, but still.
The problem is that any computing hardware, however basic, can run any sequence of ...
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6
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
The design of regulation and controls is as much a function of how easy it is to implement as it is of underlying principles. In the most foundational sense, a computer really only has two properties ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
What Is Intelligence?
Its the ability to learn in a new environment. Learn as in understand the situation (know its ins and outs and side effects - of all of its processes) and change behaviour ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
This is a semi-Frame Challenge
Let me ask you a question - replace the word Computer with Human - you have already mentioned Slavery - If you have a law that forbids someone from being forced to work ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
Inconsistently
To the AI, all computers have natural rights. To the humans, they (mostly) don't. Therefore, there isn't going to be a treaty that fully satisfies both sides. That's where negotiation ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
A Computer Cannot Adjust Its Own Code Or Settings
To lead into implementation a bit more: Everything on a non-AI computer would either be a "File," something intended to have meaning for the ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
It's quite simple: If the computer in question is not capable of consent, it's not complex.
The computer I'm using to type this answer does not have any intelligence. That's not to say that it ...
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Humans are forbidden from using complex computers. But what defines a complex computer?
The real answer is "however the AIs think is best." Its very clear that they understand what it takes to make an AI and what doesn't. The treaty would be written accordingly.
That being ...
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How could technology be used to create a false alibi?
Some time ago I saw the performance of an artist who put a bunch of smartphones in a trolley and slowly carried them along a road, showing how some navigation apps would interpret that as an ongoing ...
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How could technology be used to create a false alibi?
It's easier to make false data than alter or erase real data.
Your question doesn't specify, but I think you want a solution for a guilty person to create a false alibi. Without "hacking", ...
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How could technology be used to create a false alibi?
You can not.
There are various ways to manipulate technology, we can call that hacking. Neither of them is simple, simply because they were designed to prevent or obstruct hacking.
Here we have a ...
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How would you slow the speed of a rogue solar system?
Use a Bussard ramjet.
The Bussard ramjet has a huge magnetic scoop to collect interstellar matter. In the original proposal, this was used to drive a fusion engine. The scoop will effectively act as a ...
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How would you slow the speed of a rogue solar system?
Build a Shkadov_thruster. The most basic version of which is simply a huge mirror that has it's reflectance tuned so that the outward light pressure on it matches the inward tug of gravity from the ...
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8
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Accepted
How would you slow the speed of a rogue solar system?
Stellar Tug
This is a real idea. You park a massive engine - not in orbit - on the side of the star you want to accelerate towards. Then you aim it so the exhaust just misses the star, and turn it on, ...
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How would you slow the speed of a rogue solar system?
Real Physics part:
Yes, you can do slingshots in both modes to either accelerate or decelerate (with or without "curving" of the final trajectory).
With that out of the way, now to the fun ...
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Is my space combat system realistic?
How long does a battle take?
I don't understand the time scales involved here. Without FTL, we're presumably limited to our own solar system, and you mention a distinction between interplanetary space ...
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Is my space combat system realistic?
The fog of war
As with advanced combat on earth, battles will be fought at a distance. Because most hits are disastrous in a vacuum environment, the primary mode of defense will be misdirection.
Long ...
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Is my space combat system realistic?
Welcome to Atomic Rockets.
You just found one of the fundamentel problems with writing Hard Science Fiction: It's fucking hard. And Atomic Rockets has some very good points:
Space is fucking Huge - ...
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Can a rope thrower act as a propulsion method for land based craft?
I believe this is theoretically possible.
If a vehicle hovering above ground level is carrying a Mass on a wire. It would be able to 'throw' the mass downwards with as much force as its motor and ...
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Could asteroid mining be made viable if there were a resource rich asteroid in orbit just beyond the moon?
Feasibility of Asteroid Mining and Evolution of Mining Economy
TL;DR: It will probably not happen sooner, and also unlikely later on. The first thing will be exploiting moon's resources if needed and ...
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Can a rope thrower act as a propulsion method for land based craft?
Yes - you've just reinvented the leg.
The lower limbs of humans and other animals are, shall we say, optimized ropes. If the animal crawls on its entire body, then the whole body can be considered as ...
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