A secret Third Imperium Research Base on Luna is experimenting with transdimensional jump drives. The transfimensional jump drive replaces the standard jump drive and it allows jumps through a wormhole to one parallel universe besides the one the Third Imperium resides in. One of the parallel universes is known as Asimov, it corresponds to the Foundation timeline at the time of the novel Foundation and Earth. The Imperial scout ship arrives in the Sol System of this universe, the Earth is a radioactive wasteland, analysis of the stars in the sky indicate that the time period is several tens of thousands of years in the future. Radio transmissions of the sky indicate a galaxy wide civilization, a galactic empire going back 12000 years, due to the intermittent nature of the radio transmissions there is indications of some sort of FTL communications, there is a base on Luna staffed by scientists headed by an administrator named Daneel Orlivaw. Its not clear what they are researching but psionic activity is detected.
Foundation and Third Imperium
- Thread starter Werner
- Start date
Yep, its 12,000 years old, and preceded by the robot novels.
From the one book I attempted to make it through, cramped, but no worse than USN subs. Months of travel in the story, many years (double digit, IIRC) to cross the galaxy.. Some form of hyperdrive.
Someone's extract and commentary: http://technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=338
IIRC thanks to their slow computers, they could only do short range hops despite theoretically being able to jump practically any distance.
Was it an instaneous hyperjump? Or was it like jumpspace in that you would stay in hyperspace for awhile before popping out at your destination?
And did we ever get to hear about what kind of power plants, weapons, or defenses the ships had?
I don't know, but I don't think hyperspace was instant... there was a LOT of shipboard time mentioned. I'm no fan of Asimov as an author; The book I was reading was not very interesting as a story. I appreciate his genius for tech and setting... so I never got deep into it.
Jump, when described in any of the Robots/Empire/Foundation works by Asimov, was instantaneous. But (at the peak of the Galactic Empire) was limited in distance, required substantial time to compute each step, was extremely error-prone (thus requiring recalculations after each jump), and disorienting to the passengers/crew. All together, this made travel "slow" (relatively speaking). Travel from Trantor (near the galactic core) to set up the Foundation (on the galactic edge) took much less than a lifetime (months is a reasonable estimate).
In contrast, by 500 FE computers had advanced to the point of allowing nearly instantaneous calculations with little error, and no disorienting affect on the crew, thus allowing travel halfway across the galaxy in days. Distance per jump seemed unchanged, hinting that it was a universal or practical limitation in some way.
In contrast, by 500 FE computers had advanced to the point of allowing nearly instantaneous calculations with little error, and no disorienting affect on the crew, thus allowing travel halfway across the galaxy in days. Distance per jump seemed unchanged, hinting that it was a universal or practical limitation in some way.
Re: power plants - massive nuclear engines at the height of the Empire, requiring substantial crews to maintain. But by 500 years into the Foundation era, miniaturized to the point where a yacht was capable of jumps.
Similarly, shields/screens were only available to cities and massive ships with nuclear plants at the height of the Empire. By 250 years into the Foundation era they were personal shields with pocket-sized power cells.
It should be worth noting that the Galactic Empire setting in the books requires a Vilani-like level of conservativeness, where later books portray innovation that was somehow inaccessible to earlier eras. Later writers like David Brin who were invited to play in the universe - but maybe Asimov himself - came up with explanations for why creativity was heavily stunted during the 12,000 year Empire.
Similarly, shields/screens were only available to cities and massive ships with nuclear plants at the height of the Empire. By 250 years into the Foundation era they were personal shields with pocket-sized power cells.
It should be worth noting that the Galactic Empire setting in the books requires a Vilani-like level of conservativeness, where later books portray innovation that was somehow inaccessible to earlier eras. Later writers like David Brin who were invited to play in the universe - but maybe Asimov himself - came up with explanations for why creativity was heavily stunted during the 12,000 year Empire.
Sorry for blathering on... this is a universe I've spent a comparable amount of time in as the OTU....
And for those not familiar with the timeline or list of works, this one is pretty good:
johnnypez9.blogspot.com
And for those not familiar with the timeline or list of works, this one is pretty good:
The Insanely Complete Robot/Foundation Fiction List
As I've noted before , my major claim to fame on the internet is a list of all the stories in Isaac Asimov's positronic robot/Foundation tim...
johnnypez9.blogspot.com
Perhaps communications buoys assist in making these jump calculations, creating interstellar highways throughout the galaxy, and with the decline of Empire these began to break down, these would be synonymous with the Roman roads, travel along them would be faster than travel off of them, because then the Ship's computers and sensors have to do all the work in gathering data and making the jump calculation, as you just download the data and a premade jump calculation from the nearest communications buoy.
I think in the TV show, they're travelling from Trantor to Terminus. I think it's "500,000 light years away", but it going to take 3 years to get there.
I may be misremembering. A new episode dropped, I haven't seen it yet, I may be one behind.
World Series this week, everything else on hiatus.
I may be misremembering. A new episode dropped, I haven't seen it yet, I may be one behind.
World Series this week, everything else on hiatus.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Empire consigned them to a slow boat to China, instead of what appears to be instant translation, like the warship he sent to check up on them.
More like 100,000 light years, we are 30,000 light years from the galactic core. The Andromeda for reference is 2,500,000 light years away, so 500,000 light years is one fifth of that distance, 100,000 light years is on twenty-eight the distance, so I should say the Foundation in the 500s could probably send an expedition to the Andromeda Galaxy if it wanted to, as that would be travelling only 25 times as far as Trantor.
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