Kinkajou interviews
Otto Harkaman :
(H Beam Piper : Space Viking)
Kinkajou: Tell us about space Viking power generation technology?
Otto: I think the key feature of our technology is flexibility and adaptability. This is one of the reasons why intelligent and skilled workers are at a premium in our culture.
For example, one of our spaceships can generate energy by number of different methods.
A classical old technology is the nuclear electric power cartridge. These cartridges focus on fissionable technology to allow the generation of nuclear power. They can be adapted to use multiple fissionable sources, including plutonium, uranium and thorium. The trick is in adapting the spacers and shielding to optimise the reaction for particular fissionables.I suppose an example from human history is how old human cities used gas for power, lighting or cooking. Different size nozzles are required if the power source is natural gas as opposed to town gas. These openings can be into converted and changed readily depending upon the fuel type, much akin to the example of our nuclear electric power cartridges adaptable to use multiple types of fissionable fuel.
Although this technology sounds simple, it is actually at the cutting-edge of our scientific development. It is easy to design a device which is optimised for a single type of fuel in particular combinations. However, to enable use of multiple fuels is difficult.
Containment for Fusion :Nuclear Fire.
Because we often raid planets and take fissionable supplies, being able to adapt the energy generators to the fuel taken is critical. Each planet will generally use as fuel sources, different ratios of unstable isotopes and different combinations of nuclear elements. Adaptability is complex and a true sign of technological superiority.
Another type of energy source is our utilisation of our “reaction plants” in mass energy conversion reactions. Fusion reactions are capable of being used in a mass energy conversion format. We do however supplement the fuel in our reaction plants with particular anti-isotopes and anti-elemental particles to optimise the mass energy conversion process.
While these reactions are all typically dirty and dangerous, our ability to generate collapsium has changed the nature of how our nuclear energy generators work. Collapsium maintains confinement and isolation of dirty nuclear isotopes from the living environment. Collapsium allows us to undertake nuclear isotope separation processes without generating nuclear waste by-products. Collapsium is the ultimate uncontaminatable.
Kinkajou interviews
Otto Harkaman :
(H Beam Piper : Space Viking)
Kinkajou: So what is collapsium?
Otto: Collapsium is a collapsed state of matter which we have learnt to generate through special processes. Of interest, in early history it was incredibly expensive, to generate even microscopic quantities of this material. However, the more of it our factories made, the larger scale our newer factories were able to be made. The industrial processes involved in production essentially are exponential, thereby exponentially reducing costs.
Collapsium is primarily based on gadolinium which has paramagnetic properties as well as exceptional neutron capture properties. These properties are amplified by our industrial conversion processes. Theory suggests that collapsium is only stable due to the utilisation of alternate matter dimensions in which to anchor our artificial atomic constructs. By embedding the collapsium atoms partially within another dimension, they can be made stable within this our dimension and universe.
Its’ ability to confine and channel incredible amounts of energy have made it suitable for use in nuclear power generators as well as in spaceship armour.
Spaceship
Kinkajou: Is collapsium important in gravity generation?
Otto: Absolutely! We generate gravity through two main processes. Space ship gravity is also known as pseudo-gravity. Meanwhile powered vehicles generate gravity which we call contra gravity. These two technologies allow us to bypass the limitations of gravity in our access of space. Spaceships can leave the surface of planets and can return. Vehicles can fly through the atmosphere or through space essentially ignoring the effects of gravity.
Our generation of gravity related fields means that our combat aircraft are incredibly manoeuvrable and can substantially outperform chemically fuelled craft. Pilots essentially become immune to inertial effects when manoeuvring. If a chemically fuelled aircraft attempted the same manoeuvres as one of our contra gravity craft, the pilot and the contents of the craft would be flattened by “G” forces.
This makes our combat contra gravity vehicles such a fearsome force to oppose in battle.
Kinkajou: Do your orbital engines utilise gravity generation?
Otto: Yes. On the "Nemesis" we use Abbott and lift normal space engines. These allow us to travel from or to the surface of a planet as well as to travel within the confines of normal space within a solar system. The use of fissionable and fusion power sources can generate incredible amounts of acceleration, but still these fade into insignificance against distance eating technology as seen in our Dillingham Hyperdrive engines.
Kinkajou: Does gravity assist with shielding?
Otto: Gravity is one of the key technologies used in the generation of collapsium. The properties of collapsium allow it to confine nuclear fusion reactions but also to armour a spaceship against nuclear attack. This effectively generates a type of energy shield for our spaceships.
Kinkajou: I would like to thank you speaking so cordially to me about your weapons and power technologies. Do you have any parting words for me or my readers?
Otto: While technology is essential to enable we Space Vikings to triumph against incredible odds and committed opponents, it is the metal within the men that is the most important.
I still relish my cadet days at the Canungra land and air warfare facility near Brisbane. Canungra taught us to be teams and to be tough. What one man can accomplish pales into insignificance compared to what can be accomplished by a team of dedicated men.
Still technology is important. The men who work in teams to make and adapt our technologies, often under the dangerous conditions of combat, deserve respect as well. Guns are weapons. But the men who serve them on the battlefield or in the laboratory are as much weapons as well.
I still remember in my younger days, when our ship had taken a hit next to our reaction plant. I remember the men who sacrificed themselves to maintain nuclear plasma containment during the battle. If not for their sacrifice will not be here today.
High technology requires knowledge, experience and appropriate tools. Once the tools of technology are built, they can be used to produce even more tools, ever more powerful and ever more precise tools. The process begins slowly but grows exponentially. The first steps on the path of high technology are always the most tottering.
As Space Vikings, we strive for excellence. As torchbearers of high technology, we must not only maintain the past, but adapt to the present and grow for the future. If humanity is to take its place in the galaxy, we must yearn to strive and to strive together.
I see this as perhaps our greatest challenge. Working together, growing together, building together and staying together. It is our social aspect, not mere technology which is our wildest frontier. The metal within the men.
I still relish my cadet days at the Canungra land and air warfare facility near Brisbane. Canungra taught us to be teams and to be tough.
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AntimatterDrive True.html |
EnergyShieldsTrue.html |
FusionPowerTrue.html |
GravityGeneratorDriveTrue.html |
Orbital EngineTrue.html |
SocialEngineeringTrue.html |
VerticalFarmsTrue.html |
WorldTradeTrue.html |
Kinkajou Interviews John Charles Ramsey. (Ian Douglas: Luna Marine)
Kinkajou: Thank you for agreeing to talk to me Jack. My readers and I are interested in the technologies of the worlds of Quantum Psi. In your world, you are involved in military actions involving antimatter weapons.
Jack (John Charles Ramsey): Yes. I am very familiar with many of the military actions that we in the US Marines had taken involving antimatter weapons. Some friends of mine were in a Sparrowhawk which was struck by positron beam. The beam seared through the whole of the reconnaissance spacecraft much like a blowtorch through paper.
It was incredible. The antimatter and matter combined in a brief unholy alliance of mutual annihilation, generating an intense burst of high energy radiation: heat, light, x-rays and gamma rays.
I was told that the high-energy shriek of the disintegrating spacecraft was picked up by Aerospace Force sensors in low earth orbit within seconds.Spectral analysis of the energy signature showed a sharp spike at 115keV (kilo- electron volts), a characteristic signature of positron annihilation.
Antimatter Reaction in Atmosphere with Lightning and Storms
There was considerable upset at command levels with the knowledge that the sons of bitches (the UN) had an antimatter weapon. A weapon that had directed streams of positrons (anti-electrons) at our target. We ourselves have known how to build electron been weapons for years. However we have been unable to generate that much antimatter that quickly.
The awesomeness of the weapon is obvious when one considers that each particle of radiation generated interacts with the ship hull matter to generate additional secondary radiation in a cascade effect. This amplifies the destructiveness and lethal nature of such a beam weapon. Kinkajou: I imagine it would be fairly hard to hide that sort of a weapon?
Jack (John Charles Ramsey): Agreed. The power requirements for that kind weapon are considerable. It appeared to us most likely that we were dealing with a ground based weapon, one with a large fusion reactor.
Kinkajou: Again where would you hide a ground base of that size?
Jack (John Charles Ramsey): The only place the UN could have hidden the development of such a ground base was on the back side of the frigging moon. There apparently used to be a SETI facility on the dark side of the moon. The UN grabbed that in '35 or '36. But it appears that they insidiously reconfigured the factory there to turn out something other than telescope components.
Kinkajou: Makes sense. They want to keep something hidden from the US, something big that they were building; the moon’s far side would be the place to do it. So how did the military planners deal with these developments?
Jack (John Charles Ramsey): Apparently, the US had been developing an antimatter warship. However, to our knowledge so had the UN. We believe that the “Millennium” was being refitted with both an antimatter drive and an anti-electron cannon. Initially we had felt that an antimatter warship could be the key to success. However, we came to consider that we could no longer depend on any one ship, no matter how powerful, as being a guarantee for victory.
Kinkajou: It still bears the consideration that antimatter is difficult to create.
Jack (John Charles Ramsey): The antimatter stuff was indeed pretty new technology. We felt perhaps that the UN didn’t want to pull out all the stops, the first time around in using/developing this weapon. We believe that they manufactured the stuff right here at the construction stacks using solar energy on something like a miniature version one of one of the big particle accelerators on earth. It seemed obvious that it would take a long time even just to collect a few grams of the stuff.
Kinkajou: Especially if they’re making the stuff one atom at a time.
Jack (John Charles Ramsey): The basic physics of an anti-matter powered space drive had been understood for quite some time. Inject a very small amount of antimatter into a reaction chamber filled with water turning the remaining water into plasma and generating extraordinary high temperatures. This water plasma could then be channelled as a highly efficient space drive.
Ordinary spacecraft operated in much the same way. However the antimatter drive produced a much hotter and more energetic plasma jet the liquid core reactor. Antimatter drives can sustain a high thrust for days or even weeks at a time, allowing for a steady accelerations of one G (9.8 M/S/S) or more.
Kinkajou: Did any of the alien species you encountered in the chamber use this type of drive technology?
Jack (John Charles Ramsey): The ancient space faring “Ann” evidently had known how to produce antimatter in a steady constant and powerful stream. French, German and Chinese teams working for the UN had recovered one of the “Ann” freighters and had attempted to reverse engineer the drive technologies.
Kinkajou: I believe back engineering alien technologies is a lot more difficult than first impressions would suggest. For example, history on our earth suggests that the US government had attempted to reverse engineer alien technology from wrecked alien spacecraft. However, I think that figuring out how something works and going back to try to figure out how it is made into an effective tool, can only occur when the technological achievement/development is more or less matched.
Kinkajou: So what do you believe are some of your more significant technologies?
Jack (John Charles Ramsey): My recruitment by the Marines was based on my skills with programmable AI agents. I engineered one such agent; I called Sam, when I was in high school. Watching her on my screen, it was impossible to think of her as anything other than a flesh and blood woman. I developed Sam initially as a “net agent”.
Net agents are artificially intelligent programs designed to search the net for information, to provide services such as being secretaries, librarians, search specialists, data valets and even to serve as personal stand- ins. They are perhaps the most visible aspect of the ongoing computer revolution in my time. They could be made to look like anyone or anything that the owners desired.
I developed her even more when I attended Marine Boot Camp. Here, we were given the Marine Corps’s “Artificially Intelligent Dedicated Executive”, AIDE for short. I found the AIDE to be quite sluggish compared to my Sam.
So I began to look at how I could get at the source code to tinker with the AI aspect of the program. I was quite proud of the modifications I’d hacked into the original commercial AI packages that made up my Sam. Sam was so bright and responsive that often it would seem like she had a mind of her own – that she was essentially self-aware.
Kinkajou: And that of course is the point of AI.
Jack (John Charles Ramsey): Some of the modifications needed to make a computer software package seem like a real person course are quite mundane. For example, I engineered a delay between the computer receiving verbal input and responding to this. Sam’s personality software featured a built-in response delay. This simple strategy made my AI Sam seem much more human.
Kinkajou: How successful were you in reconfiguring the AIDE software package used by the Marines?
Jack (John Charles Ramsey): My revision not only allowed AIDE to do everything it was designed to do, but it did those operations faster, more efficiently and smarter. In effect I had managed to upgrade the simple net agent to a level II AI, and had done this in a smaller and more efficient package.
Sam had reached the point where I couldn’t really tell what she’s about to do or say. Just like a real person. So it begins to create the impression that she is self-aware.
I don’t rethink perhaps that she is actually self-aware, but sometimes I get the strangest feeling that she is doing things on her own. Thinking. Reasoning things out. She probably too complex now for any programmer to understand how she works. That can be unsettling you know. If I asked Sam if she was self-aware, would she respond any differently if she were? Maybe it’s best that we not be too sure of our AI friends. Kinkajou: Have you ever used AI technology in combat?
Jack (John Charles Ramsey): Yes we have. I was allocated to one of the boarding teams in one mission. We were going on with our nut- crackers, trying to subvert the UN computer system running the Millennium ship. The theory was that if one of us could pull it off, we may be able to fly that ship out of there and use the ship as a weapon ourselves.
Kinkajou: Wow! What a mission. I note that perhaps you also had some exposure to quantum communications technology.
Jack (John Charles Ramsey): Yes we had seen a number of display screens in the alien chamber we had located, which gave us a window into a number of alien civilisations. We could actually look at these aliens within their own civilisation. What is truly spectacular about this find is that people on one of the screens we were watching were living right then on a world circling a star we call Lalande 21185, a star that is only 8 ¼ light years away.
Kinkajou: Somewhat disconcerting to realise however that we have had very little if any contact with other alien races within our current history. I imagine that many people would be unsatisfied with the vista that the chamber provided. A rational approach to life and the universe demands evidence, data and proof.
Jack (John Charles Ramsey): That brings us then to the Fermi paradox, does it not?
Kinkajou: Yes I’ve heard a bit of that. Tell me about your perspective of the Fermi paradox.
Jack (John Charles Ramsey): Back in the 1940s, Enrico Fermi – one of the important early nuclear physicists working on the atom bomb, asked the question “where are they?” He was asking about other intelligent life in the galaxy. He proposed that a galaxy is approximately 8 billion years old, proximally twice the age of the earth itself. It took less than 4 billion years for life to evolve here.
“We” now know that planets are common, as he supposed. It would be fair to assume that life, including intelligent life, has evolved before: time after time after time.
Further theory suggests that if even one colonising intelligent race evolves in all the history of the galaxy and it had the same curiosity, drive and determination to reach out into space that we do, it could actually colonise the entire galaxy in a period of time such as 3 million years, even if its' spacecraft were only capable of a speed only of a few percent of the speed of light.3 million years is an eye blink compared to 8 billion years. So Fermi wondered why someone hadn’t already colonised the entire galaxy. Why weren’t they here already?
What we have learnt about extra-terrestrial civilisations from display screens in the “Cave of Wonders” suggests that intelligent alien civilisations are indeed common.The galaxy therefore should have filled up many times over. It should be teeming with starfaring civilisations. Radio astronomers should be bombarded by the alien equivalent of TV programs, shortwave broadcasts and military call signals. But when we listen, we hear – nothing.
SETI Aliens
And that’s when the problem starts to appear.
Research has suggested that both of the alien civilisations who have had contact with us before, were destroyed by invaders. The “Ann” had a technology that was not all that much ahead of ours. From what we have seen on the moon, they appeared to use antimatter powered spacecraft, maybe a century or two ahead of what we’re flying today. The other early Builder civilisation who we suspect of perhaps even tinkering with our own DNA was thousands of years older and more advanced still. But they do not exist as far as we know it today. Kinkajou: I have seen that you history suggests that these alien races were destroyed by invaders. So there appears to be some built-in self-destruct mechanism so that no civilisation lasts for more than a few thousand years before it disappears. Or perhaps something else happens. Something we can’t recognise.
Jack (John Charles Ramsey): We know that one long-lived and energetic civilisation could overrun the entire galaxy in a few million years. And this appears to have happened several times. This paradox has led many of our researchers to propose that perhaps intelligence evolves, develops civilisation, develops star flight, and moves out into the galaxy.
Imagine if this civilisation evolved with the kind of Darwinian imperative that leads it to seek out other less developed civilisations and destroy them before they become a threat. And remember that this only has to happen once to establish a pattern. If it happens once, if it works for them, it would happen again and again and again. This predatory species then becomes top dog in the galaxy. It just hangs around and stomps on the newbies as they emerge.
The theory that then emerges suggests that the galaxy may endure cycles of civilisation alternating with destruction. Hundreds or maybe even thousands of civilisations emerge throughout the galaxy, all at about the same time. They develop space travel and spread out. But if even one of them is a predatory race, it is going to have an advantage of all the others and it will destroy them. But if there is one such race, there may be the two. Maybe even more.
Sooner or later these predator races come into conflict with each other. After a few thousand years of all-out warfare, the galaxy is empty again, except for a scattering of stone shipping primitives and a few thousand bombed out worlds that begin starting the whole cycle all over again.
Fermi Paradox
Kinkajou: An awful vision of our history.
Jack (John Charles Ramsey): Yes the theory here is that galactic civilisation was at a high point half a million years ago. It collapsed in a massive war. A predator race destroyed the “Builders”, bombed the structures on Mars and destroyed their colonies. The “Ann” was the next alien civilisation to arrive at Earth. Then perhaps a new crop of predatory species arrives. They destroy the “Ann” bases on the moon. They destroy the colonies on earth. The thinking now is that the destroyers dropped a small asteroid in the Arabian Sea and let the Tidal Wave wipe out the Ann cities.
Kinkajou: A truly sobbing version of reality. One can only hope that it does not apply to my own world and era. However, the Fermi paradox, by the logic of the existence of the same circumstance in my era as in yours, suggests that it does in fact apply to the world in which I exist. Just that the evidence is less clear.
AntimatterDrive True.html |
Douglas, Ian |
Jack, John Charles Ramsay |
Luna Marine |
BAD |
Douglas, Ian |
Jack, John Charles Ramsay |
Luna Marine |
FusionPowerTrue.html |
Douglas, Ian |
Jack, John Charles Ramsay |
Luna Marine |
SingularityTrue.html |
Douglas, Ian |
Jack, John Charles Ramsay |
Luna Marine |
Kinkajou interviews Estwald, “Hard-One”
from the other side of the "brane". (Isaac Asimov: The Gods Themselves)
Kinkajou: Thank you for agreeing to share with us your knowledge of interdimensional physics and matter exchange from the other brane of our universe.
Estwald: Thank you Kinkajou: I realise there may be some disquieting aspects to my tale, but part of my inner self screams to me that I must share the truth with fellow intelligences.
My existence began really with my components, three gaseous beings with different skills and traits. Lefts are Rationals (Odeen), Rights Are Parentals (Tritt), but don’t forget the Emotionals (Dua). They all grow up their own way.
My sympathy with you is based on the feelings of my constituent Emotional: Dua. She was very different than the other Emotionals. Other Emotionals all flocked together. They all had the same complaints about their brothers. They all talked of coming triads. They all spread in the sun and fed on sunlight, growing more and more the same every day.Dua was different. In some ways she still remained almost childlike – tangling with others, thinning uncontrollably and rolling through others and even into walls. Maybe Dua’s odd way of life was part of what ought to be.
The Hard Ones seemed interested in her (Emotional: Dua) and ordinarily they paid little attention to Emotionals. All their attention was directed to the Rationals (like Odeen). I had felt pride in that. It was so much better for the triad that even the Emotional was worthy of attention.
However as a Rational, I also never ceased being thankful that I did not have Tritt’s limited understanding (Tritt being the Parental) or even more Dua’s erratic understanding (Dua being the Emotional).
However, if Parentals didn’t talk, they thought. They thought about important things. We Rationals talked about atoms and energy but Tritt (our Parental) thought “who cared about atoms and energy”. Tritt thought about the triad and the babies.
It is my unusual components that resulted in the creation of an unusual being: myself. The Emotional Dua) (supplied the energy for the fusion, the Rational (Odeen) supplied the seed for the fusion and the Parental supplied the incubator. The three of us: the triad fused essentially creating a single being.
Kinkajou: My peoples have considerable expertise with biology and genetics. I believe that sharing this information can help you to understand yourself, your components and other aspects of your world. It is likely there is much that can be shared between us than simply matter and energy. Information and technology has ever been a source of trade and I believe is often far more valuable than simple things and materials.
Kinkajou: But back to our talk. It is the unusual nature of your respective sub intelligences that has made you the pioneer of trans-brane energy pumping technology.
Estwald: It was obvious to us Hard Ones that the sun was cooling off. Less sunlight meant less food, so there were less people. My people were facing extinction. Food and energy aren’t quite the same thing. Our food comes from the sun and that’s a kind of energy. But there are other kinds of energy that are not food. When we eat we got to spread out and absorb the light. It is difficult for Emotionals because they are so much more transparent than Rationals or Parentals.
The problem I faced was how to supply food energy to my people. I developed the positron pump. It is a device that would revolutionise our whole world. Our sun was fading and dying. But I had discovered how to find energy far away, far beyond our sun, beyond the seven stars that shone in a night sky.
Kinkajou: We call this divide between us the “brane”. My people and yours exist on different sides of this divide. Essentially we cannot perceive each other, except through the medium of Sigma Psi communications.
Estwald: The rules of physics in our two universes are different. The nuclear force in your universe is not as strong as in ours. I discovered that we could send material across the brane and get material back from across the brane. By studying this material we were able to set up the positron pump.
With the seepage of materials across the brane, also comes seepage of the rules in existence in the two universes. As a nuclear force in your universe becomes stronger, it is likely that the sun in your universe will explode releasing an enormous flood of energy – a flood of energy that will last for millions of lifetimes. While this would guarantee our existence, it could in fact destroy yours.
Kinkajou: The amount of matter and energy in our universe is almost beyond measure. It seems to me likely that matter exchange in small pockets between our two universes could cause an explosion of energies within hours. But I believe this would only be a local phenomenon. It is unlikely to spread throughout our entire universe. I would like to reassure you Estwald, that your positron pump far from destroying our universe, may actually be a force in its creation.
I hope this gives some comfort and relief to Dua who exists as part of and within you.
What is interest to me in this example is that you have discovered a method of manipulating a form of anti-antimatter via your positron pump.What is crucial to us is that such energies can be localised and focused. This would allow energy to be harnessed and used throughout our worlds. The anti-antimatter which you have developed is far less dangerous than the antimatter we already are acquainted with. We have much to learn from each other.
GeneControlTrue.html |
Asimov, Isaac |
Estwald |
The Gods Themselves |
AntimatterDrive True.html |
Asimov, Isaac |
Estwald |
The Gods Themselves |
Kinkajou interviews Sten
(Chris Bunch and Alan Cole:
Sten: Empire's End)
Kinkajou: I note Sten that in your world it’s all about the antimatter. You use this in your fight against the evil empire.
Sten: Our entire civilisation is based on the use of a form of antimatter we call AM2. Without AM2, the Empire will collapse. You know it as well as us that all modern industry and transport is based on that substance (AM2) and only the emperor knows its source. To live without AM2, would be the end of interstellar travel.
It means that all the worlds united under the Empire would quickly become strangers again.
I realised very early that AM2 was in fact one of the eternal emperor’s primary weapons.By controlling the supply the emperor was able to buy influence and support from many people in industry as well as in the military. However the fact that no one but the emperor was permitted to get close to the AM2 came from, was in fact double edged sword.
AM2 was the Achilles heel of the Empire. To stop the Empire we would need to steal it, destroy it and divert it. We are Operating on the premise that the emperor is the only one who knows where it comes from or how to make it out of synthetic components. We want to take much of the AM2 that the emperor is trying to give to his toadies and pass it along to our allies.
We also wanted to break the bond between the emperor’s toadies and the eternal emperor. We accused the emperor of betraying his people. His people worked in near poverty, while he enjoyed lavish entertainments as did his favoured cronies. The workers would labour in cold, in heat, in near darkness while the emperor’s favourites would bask in the light of plentiful AM2.
.
Kinkajou: AM2 is an awesome development in that it bypasses many of the problems associated with matter – antimatter reactions in my own world. Antimatter is an energy dense fuel but a dirty one. AM2 would seem to bypass this disadvantage. I’m not surprised it became so important to your world and so important to military action in your world.
A plentiful supply of clean energy derived from something like AM2 would revolutionise my world and era as well. But to develop an interstellar civilisation would require the solution of a plethora of technical issues underpinning successful space travel. AM2 would of course not bypass” time” spent in travel in crossing the starlanes.
AntimatterDrive True.html |
Bunch, Chris & Cole, Alan |
Sten |
Sten: Empire's End |
Old Dogs with New Tricks.