The Why of the FTL Wave
- Thread starter robject
- Start date
Sitting here looking at my 2nd monitor; which is a curved screen; which is used to display what is essentially a plane; but is a curved screen, but...ah, crap.
Anyway, I think that the term Jumpspace is more an ancient (but not Ancient) misnomer for Foldspace. The Jump drive folds space, so technically you don't "jump" at all. The higher Jump numbers allow you to increase the "size" of the fold.
The Fold itself is based on the computed Mass of all known [[ key word, there! ]] objects to be factored into creating the "Jump" field. The closer you are to the "local" Mass, the less fault tolerance allowed in the calculation. The 100D limit is, in general, the break-even point for the tolerance.
Inaccurate Mass [or incomplete calculations of the same] cause Wrinkles in the fold. Those Wrinkles are the primary cause of misjump. They are folds within the fold, which is why there is so much variance in the distance traveled -- if any.
Picture 3 sheets of toilet paper stretched out on the floor. Jump-2 drive, so dot on sheet one, and dot on sheet 3. Touch the two dots together, and there is your jump -- between the two touching points. The folder segment is ignored.
Say we had 36 sheets, with dots on sheet one and three. Now put dot on another sheet -- say sheet 23. Say we just had a misjump. Touch dot on sheet 1 to dot on sheet 23. Still 168 hours (or so) travel time, but distance travelled is a LOT more -- from sheet 1 to sheet 23, all the rest can be wrinkled up while to two points touch.
Anyway, I think that the term Jumpspace is more an ancient (but not Ancient) misnomer for Foldspace. The Jump drive folds space, so technically you don't "jump" at all. The higher Jump numbers allow you to increase the "size" of the fold.
The Fold itself is based on the computed Mass of all known [[ key word, there! ]] objects to be factored into creating the "Jump" field. The closer you are to the "local" Mass, the less fault tolerance allowed in the calculation. The 100D limit is, in general, the break-even point for the tolerance.
Inaccurate Mass [or incomplete calculations of the same] cause Wrinkles in the fold. Those Wrinkles are the primary cause of misjump. They are folds within the fold, which is why there is so much variance in the distance traveled -- if any.
Picture 3 sheets of toilet paper stretched out on the floor. Jump-2 drive, so dot on sheet one, and dot on sheet 3. Touch the two dots together, and there is your jump -- between the two touching points. The folder segment is ignored.
Say we had 36 sheets, with dots on sheet one and three. Now put dot on another sheet -- say sheet 23. Say we just had a misjump. Touch dot on sheet 1 to dot on sheet 23. Still 168 hours (or so) travel time, but distance travelled is a LOT more -- from sheet 1 to sheet 23, all the rest can be wrinkled up while to two points touch.
Origami drive?
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
rlmercad069
SOC-12
We are all trying to visualize at least 10 as many as 24 dimensions with more likely 11 dimensions the current consensus by most physicist as to the actual number.
Commander Truestar
SOC-13
I will admit that I do not include the EW in My TU....
That said, I won't try to rationalize or explain the properties of the wave.
I will just say that "the setting" does not allow for FTL communications as a current or anticipated technology.
However, The Ancients can be assumed to most certainly have FTL comms
The OTU also included another race which died out ~K200 years before the OTU setting, I believe it was called the "Kursae"
And we have no idea of their ultimate tech level.
So, it is possible the EW was a FTL wave and could even have been a remnant weapon of the war that destroyed The Ancients.
And that would fit in with everything we've been give from GDW onward.
That said, I won't try to rationalize or explain the properties of the wave.
I will just say that "the setting" does not allow for FTL communications as a current or anticipated technology.
However, The Ancients can be assumed to most certainly have FTL comms
The OTU also included another race which died out ~K200 years before the OTU setting, I believe it was called the "Kursae"
And we have no idea of their ultimate tech level.
So, it is possible the EW was a FTL wave and could even have been a remnant weapon of the war that destroyed The Ancients.
And that would fit in with everything we've been give from GDW onward.
They colonized a region 3000 pc across, but using NAFAL (STL) ships. So they apparently did not have any FTL capability, though they might have otherwise been very high TL.
If so it must have been deployed long after the war, since the Milky Way is only about 80,000-100,000 light years in diameter even by the most liberal estimates. Even if the EW was detonated on the far edge of the galactic disk or in the halo, at mere light speed it would have gotten here in about 70,000-80,000 years, not 300,000.
Commander Truestar
SOC-13
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
How do we know the Kursae didn't have FTL drives of some sort?
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
There is an explanation for all this, in T5:
He created the jump drive paradigm.
Something out there is trying to change reality with their own technology - the wave.
Then there is the detail:
and further:
Grandfather discovered Reality Manipulation technology.
He created the jump drive paradigm.
Something out there is trying to change reality with their own technology - the wave.
Commander Truestar
SOC-13
@mike wightman
So, if "Something" is "trying to change" the paradigm,
- "Trying" means an act of will
- So an 'Act of Will' means "Someone", not "Something"
And that suggests there was "something" out there with Grandfather or Near-Grandfather level tech then.
So, if "Something" is "trying to change" the paradigm,
- "Trying" means an act of will
- So an 'Act of Will' means "Someone", not "Something"
And that suggests there was "something" out there with Grandfather or Near-Grandfather level tech then.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Not necessarily, it could be a machine, a remnant of a long lost civilization. It could be a jumpspace metapsychic distributed intelligence becoming aware of the jump membrane Grandfather invented/discoverd/enginered.
Re-reading Dave Nilsen's thoughts during his interview, the wave was likely going to be the result of the Zhodani finally reaching their "pot of gold" - the culmination of their core expeditions spurred by that strange psionic oracle Grandfather left them.
But yes, there are other somethings out there that have Grandfather level or higher technology, ore even different technology based on their manipulation of reality...
remember there were starfarers long before a mutant Droyne began his climb to awareness...
Re-reading Dave Nilsen's thoughts during his interview, the wave was likely going to be the result of the Zhodani finally reaching their "pot of gold" - the culmination of their core expeditions spurred by that strange psionic oracle Grandfather left them.
But yes, there are other somethings out there that have Grandfather level or higher technology, ore even different technology based on their manipulation of reality...
remember there were starfarers long before a mutant Droyne began his climb to awareness...
a distinction without practical meaning. A droyne village or a K'kree family are both things that tend to act as a singular thing, rather than their component sophonts, based upon the available writing. (and for different reasons.)
Axiomatically, all beings are also things, and some things can theoretically have what appears to be a will of their own; it's "act of pseudo-will," when remotely encountered, is indistinguishable from a person's (of any species) act of actual will.
