Air rafts and grav tech
- Thread starter pesco
- Start date
Heh, I spent a day recently in this theme.
Consider this, "Island Effect in the Local Spacetime region"
That is a good explanation. I can sort of wrap my head around how something like that might work in theory. Considerations about how much energy that might take is another thing, like flying around in an atom bomb.
Heh...
Believe me I have been going through all the permutations that Traveller hangs the Gravity answer on, and the above is the simplest for Contragravity.
Amusingly Contragravity equipped space/star ships makes Traveller straight line travel times make sense.
Yup, been thinking about it for a looong time. lol
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Anti gravity ignores it.
Thrusters, at least the Traveller variant, uses gravity wells as anchors.
Thrusters, at least the Traveller variant, uses gravity wells as anchors.
pesco
SOC-9
It does not seem to be the case. I checked all three books mentioned in this other thread as likely candidates (Four-Day Planet, The Cosmic Computer, and Space Viking) and neither seems to contain the word raft or any derivative thereof.
Yet elsewhere, it was suggested that the term might originate with The War Against the Rull by A. E. van Vogt. However, as with The Winds of Gath (which I have since verified), the concept features prominently but the particular term used is simply (antigravity) raft.
So to me this looks like the concept of the Air/raft was clearly inspired by The Winds of Gath as well as possibly other sources, while the particular spelling in Traveller was, at least that would be my guess, Marc Miller's invention.
PS: This poster (Kerry Harrison) on rpggeek.com also states "According to Loren Wiseman, it's air/raft because Marc Miller said it was, it's apparently one of things that makes Traveller unique."
Anyway, this has been very enlightening as far as my reading list for classic SciFi is concerned.
Sources:
- The Cosmic Computer: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/20727/pg20727.txt
- Space Viking: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/20728/pg20728.txt
- Four-Day-Planet: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19478/pg19478.txt
- The War Against the Rull: https://archive.org/details/sim_astounding-science-fiction_1942-04_29_2/page/78/mode/1up
- The Winds of Gath: https://readerslibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Winds-of-Gath.pdf
pesco
SOC-9
As another aside: The main character in that story is called Jamieson -- the origin of Traveller's example character Jamison?
NB: I just played way too much internet detective to confirm that our Jamison was in turn the inspiration for default Commander Jameson of the computer game Elite.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
air/aft
Must be form the e. e. cummings style guide
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Minimalism.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
Piper has aircars, airjeeps, and airboats. No air rafts.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Air/boat would imply a deeper keel.
Centre of gravity would lower, as well.
Centre of gravity would lower, as well.
It's the same in Jondelle - they are referred to as 'rafts'.
... so would that suggest a Piperesque "Air-" and a "Dumarest-esque "raft" to create a Traveller unique term "Air/raft"?
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
I think the original explanation was it was a typo of air-raft.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Pretty far apart on the keyboard.
And I assume the word in that form was used multiple times in the text.
And I assume the word in that form was used multiple times in the text.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
I use the word typo in its generic meaning - it wasn't mistyped anymore than Vaccuumm suit was shortened to Vacc Suit.
Someone wrote down air-raft by hand in such a way that when it was being typed the typist read air-raft as air/raft and typed it accordingly. Off it went to print and so it becomes part of the "features" of the game.
Someone wrote down air-raft by hand in such a way that when it was being typed the typist read air-raft as air/raft and typed it accordingly. Off it went to print and so it becomes part of the "features" of the game.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Seventies, right?
I would suppose that the hack/slash was more indicative, at that time, of alternatives, rather than an adjective.
I would suppose that the hack/slash was more indicative, at that time, of alternatives, rather than an adjective.
