denyasis

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

what about converting yourself into a robot? That is an interesting concept. As you pointed out, The sticking point would be the brain and spinal cord, as you'd have to convince the brain that the rest of the body existed by simulating nervous impluses, blood, hormones, etc. I'm no doctor, but I do know that we do have a wide array of devices that can take over the primary function of a lot of organs and systems. I would guess these devices would only ge

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

While I uderstand that you could perfectly optimize conditions and and human lifestyle to extend the human life, you gotta think about what exactly you are doing. Essentially you are putting a person into a test tube where everything is controlled. By having stress (of say running an economic empire), or any other such event, you would be cutting down the lifespan. Those people would essentially have no freedom. It is true that aging is much more than genetics. The scientific community

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

I'm not so sure about the human life being extended too significantly or indefinitely. Wihle I won't contest the concept of suspended animation, I'd like to point out that from a philosophical sense, those people aren't alive in the sense that they have the same freedoms or abilities as a normal person. But to the point of extending the human life. We've made incredible progress in extending the average life span of a person in some countries. In some places the life span has been incre

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

When I was thinking of jettisoning tanks/engines I was thinking in terms of continual thrust while jetisoning (pretty much just like the space shuttle). Why thrust dead weight as we start a sling shot? In addition, this would make the ship easier to slowdown when it reaches its destination in terms of momentum not to mention periodic pre-programed busts of thurst to maintain/adjust course or heading. but along the lines of the general discussion, it'd mak

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

One thing that we haven't mentioned, and I'm not sure how relevant it would be to space only flight, but It may be significant to the slingshot, would be the Mass of the ship. With our current shuttle tech, we jettison fueltanks, engines, etc as we break orbit. This reduces the ships mass, making it easier to propel and escape Earth's gravity (no dead weght to pull against gravity) With the slingshot, we'd still have to pull away from the sun's gravity (the sling shot orbit) while thrus

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

That's merely stating that the net effect of acceleration is valid as energy is conserved in the system. That means that the BCS isn't magically gaining velocity (relative to the sun) for no particular reason. Everything uses Energy. But, as your quote states, The law of conservation of energy implicitly states that Energy is not being created (or destroyed). The energy already exists in the BCS, as Potential Energy. The force of Gravity merely converted this Potential into Kinetc, as Millertime

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

I'm glad ,at least somewhat, that we are on similar pages. I too would assume that a good portion of our solar system would be used. I hesitate to say maxed out, as history has shown with the Colonization of the Americas, the home resources don't necesarily need to be totally maxed out, just scarce or unfavorable for certian groups. While I don't really have a uptopian/dystopian view on Humanity itself, I do recognize and agree, that expansion into space is not recogized by the world as

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Unfortunately I know nothing of The internet other than I plug in my computer and turn it on I do enjoy how our discussion have formed. It seems we have a few fairly strong models of how a colony would get started. I was wondering about pre-developement, hypothetically, of course. What would our Solar system be like when we have the ability to send a Big Colony Ship out beyond our sola

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Yes! They could make it work like a sparkler tho... the nuke fuel being mixed with other compounds to slow down the reaction. Interesting. A chemical reaction is Much Much different than a nuclear type reaction. We do use mechanisms to control the reactions in modern reactors (I'm not very up on how the mechanism works), so I guess it could be possible to use the reactor as a heat source for the rocket. By controlling the rate of reaction, we could contr

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Looks like there are no fusion or fission rockets. I think that is our key problem with the propulsion here. Currently, Nuclear devices are our most destructive weapons. A rocket, is essentially, a controlled bomb. If you were to use a nuclear reaction (fission or fussion), you're essentially trying to controll a small nuclear explosion inside the ship. We'd have to build a ship that is not only capable of handling an internal nuclear explosion, but chan

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

One thing I do know is that from the outside, as we watch an object fall into a black hole it appears to slow down Really? Not trying to argue but I'm not really understanding this. I mean, if the gravity of the black hole is interacting with Object A, then a continual force is applied on Object A, hence constant (more or less) acceleration. That would mean the object's speed would increase as it moved into the black hole. If its slowing down, there must

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

A chemical bond is the atoms' electrons forming a stable orbit created by their magnetic interactions with the nuclei. It's all magnetics; but it's just referred to as chemical bonds, probably because it isn't all the relevant to most studies in chemistry. I think that most chemists are more worried about molecular reactions on a large scale rather than what goes on inside the atom. Actually they are called chemical bonds for two reasons. First, when the

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

no need to use an EM burst to communicate; a highly focused beam would be more efficient and less likely to attract unwanted attention (as long as you new the exactly location of the object you were communicating with). this would also explain the lack of radio signals in our years of listening. True but you are limited your self to exact point to point communication, which while possible, i doubt it would be practical from a communications sense. <b

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

totally random question: what do you guys think about the possibility that intelligent alien life has visited the Earth (or more broadly speaking, our solar system - so i'm including the face on Mars and that sort of stuff)? No. If aliens visited us in the past, they would have to be technologically superior to us now. The only thing we've sent out are probes. One can assume that on the large scale of acheivements/technology, aliens would have the same s

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Some of this reminds me of Asimov's Foundation trilogy. Particularily the 1st and 2nd books and thier focus on separate stories from different times in the Foundation's history and how the Foundation developed from a tiny colony to an Imperial Superpower. The last book kinda has a slightly different premise (The trilogy argues that the future can be mathematically predictable and the 3rd book addresses what happens when the formula is found to be "wrong"). It's a really good series and has a rea

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

well the edge of the cloud it what 100,000 AU (10 to the 5th right?), and A centauri is 1,000,000 AU, so not really halfway, more like 1/10th away. Remember the map is not linear, when I first looked at it, I though it couldn't be right A centauri being so close, then I looked at the scale and it made more sense. Nice pic too, btw!

Reply to Indie Games Are Worth Playing Too in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

That one on the list, Sharshatter, #19, has caught my eye, but I can't seem to find a lot on it from the net (its site and forums are pretty well empty). Any thoughts on it from those who have tried it?

Reply to Civilization colors in Game Talk GalCiv2 Forums

on a side note, does the minimap still have that "shadow" of light at the top? That made it really easy to think one race was another by virtue that the color was shaded a little lighter. Hehe, actually for my first ever galciv2 game, I rmember thing that the "shadow" of light was a range indicator and I cound't figure out why it wasn't changing when I researched new range techs or coloniezed a new planet!! Took me a while to figure it out, lol. But yea, removing that might al

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

Well if we are waiting fro a confirmation msg from earth to reach colony and get back wouldn't that be a super long time, plus the time it takes for the "packaged" info to get to earth in the first place? What if it was done via a satellite or outpost halfway between the colony and earth. Cut response times in half. Info and payemtn would be sent there, confirmations sent from there, and then the info and payment would go on to their final destination. Bedides I know we talked

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

i'm curious about this. what is 'rare' in this context - 1 per year? 1 per day? The radical its self is considerd "rare" as it will otfen interect very quickly with surrounded molecules and neutralize its self. However, chemicals desinged to form radicals are not rare - Hydrogen Peroxide is one example. Oxygen is the most common radical (due to Ozone and the fact that it is heavily used in our bodies during metabolism), but many other radicals exist espe

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

actually it's not. scientific information costs money; most discoveries are printed in journals (forming a major part of most scientists' curricula vitae), but subscriptions to those journals aren't cheap. it's just that working scientists are typically well-funded enough to stay in their respective loops. Very true - Nature for example is almost 200 USD a year. Here in america, Most Research scientists are sponsered by universities, allowing them to poo

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

I do have to agree that the major killer of all our economy, information, contact ideas is the time/distance problem. Like millertime pointed out, that is a mjor problem. When it take 20 years to receive word that your money transfer was received, well 20 years is a long time to wait for anything. Especially when you consider that major investment reurns might take many years, or centuries to materialize, who would want to invest in something that has no garunteed returns for 100 years.

Reply to Im surprised how good non campaign play is! +Any perks to being good? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Personally I go for Neautral. It depends on play style - choosing an alignement allows you research techs unique to that alaignment (once you research - Good and Evil). When you research that you will get to pick the alignment for your civ. The choices you made during the moral events will affect which way your civ leans - Picking an alignment that is different from the direction your civ is leaning will cost you BC. Also other civilizations of the same alignment are supposed to lik

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

even if those materials only contain information or productive power I think you provided for your interstellar economy right here. Knowledge, information is still valuable. While its true that the colonial economy will be different in terms of how they value thier currency than say an Earth economy, the difference is analogous to different economies of the different countries today. I mean, contires today buy up US debt, invest in forgien local

Reply to bussard ramjets, cryonic stasis, and exoplanetary colonization in Off-Topic GalCiv2 Forums

...turn to a pressure valve, giving the adventure-seekers and egalitarian idealists a place to go until their personality traits can be put to better use. Interesting idea, but I see one small problem. What about the "undesirables"? Austrialia and Georgia were both used as dumping grounds for criminals. And while they technically aren't criminals, there are numerous malcontent elements in our culture whose ideologies are often at odds with eachother (Rac