SheikhJahbooty from the Logovore Technology thread:
So that makes me think, "Jason isn't telling me the real reason he doesn't like grav tech. Maybe he's not aware of the real reason. He's been quite helpful. If we knew the real reason, it might have a profound effect on the final game."
You have a point there. To be honest, I'm not sure. Its one of these fickle cut off points. Everyone has a certain suspension of belief, and some things are more passable than others.
I'm reading a book of testimonies from Vietnam war veterans. ("Everything We Had" by Al Santoli) One segment contrasts two soldiers - one who is deployed in the field, and another who is acting as a liaison in a city. The field grunt needs to travel nearly two kilometers to get five or ten gallons of water - down an 880 meter hill then back up. His counterpart requisitioned a helicopter and stole an entire water tower to assist the plumbing for the hotel. Looking at that you realize that just a year or two in 1968 as the breadth of experience for hundreds of stores.
Yet I still like Sci-Fi, and I like FTL. For all the great things on this world alone, it seems like there should be more. Similarly, I like vampire stores even if I know they can't/don't exist. Seems a bit silly to go so far a field. But it says something about a desire for possibility or to go farther, and see new things. That or its just part of the adventure. First the silk road, then trade wind, jet stream, polar orbit Holloman transfer, wormhole.
Cyberpunk computers appeals to me, as real hacking is rather tedious, and often as much detective work and schmoozing the password out of the secretary as sitting in a dark room in front of a CRT. VR hacking, as inefficient as it is, is graphical and makes a better story and visual.
Star Wars is a good story, but its almost fantasy when you look at the technology. A Gauss gun that is possible - if impractical - today seems better than a light saber that will probably never be possible. The bird in hand is worth two in the bush as the saying goes.
There is probably something else that I read a long while ago and don’t quite remember that affects this. I do recall reading one of the Dorsi books a long time ago, and their artificial gravity was in the center of the ship, so to go from the top to the bottom, you needed to flip over on the ladder, with your feet always pointing to the equator.
Its 5 am and I haven’t slept yet, so I’ll just sign off with a few quotes and continue this later.
“The surest sign of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe is that none has tried to contact us†- Calvin & Hobbes
“Either we are alone in the universe, or one of billions of inhabited worlds. Either way is equally profound†-Carl Sagan (I think)
“There is more in heaven and earth than dreamt of in your philosophies†- Shakespeare
“A human being is the only computer that should be used on a space craft. It is the only one with the proper processing power and that can be easily assembled by unskilled labor†- Werner von Bruawn