Explosive Overclocking: Played straight with nanotech devices, including both assemblers and nanocomputers (which make up a large number of the processors out there). One of the chief limitations on nanotech devices is the problem of heat dissipation from such tiny machines, and the limitations on the ways there are to
Instant Cooldown: No, no, no. Thermodynamics does not work that way, and even with thermal superconductors, neutrino pumps, and black holes, thermodynamics still doesn’t work that way. Stay out of the red zone. (Also, bearing in mind the proclivities of the manufacturers of much of this equipment, the red
THIS NEVER HAPPENS. Explosive Instrumentation: Oh, good grief, no. All control panels, computer equipment, etc., is low power circuitry separated by multiple isolators, relays, and other such devices from anything high power, and amply supplied with surge suppressors, circuit breakers, hard fuses, and so forth. Even if they’re the
Explosions In Space: Are bright, spherical (definitely lacking planar shockwaves), non-persistent (no flames, because no air), and move along the trajectory of whatever just exploded. Also, silent – any explosion you hear in space has been simulated for you by your ship’s user interface (see: Space Is Noisy).
Space is Noisy: Averted, naturally – there’s no air in space, ergo no sound; the only way to communicate out there without some sort of communication system is writing, mime or pressing-together of helmets, etc., etc. (It’s worth noting, of course, that this doesn’t apply inside starships, because
Expendable Clone: Not clones, no, both because clones are their own people, and because the number of suicide missions in which you’d be better off sending a cloned meathat rather than, say, instantiating your forked mind-state in the MB-77 “Glorious Song of Bloody Slaughter”-class heavy-duty war mechanical are
“A war either is legitimate and justified by the Contract, by the Charter, by the codes of the sentinel, by the writ of DĂşrĂ©nĂän, and under the imperishable eyes of Heaven, or it is not.” “A legitimate war is one whose goals are in accordance with ethics and the Imperial
Me’s A Crowd: This sort of thing works a lot better when all the copies know that they’re going to either merge back together, or sync, in the future, so that technically everyone has experienced everything and no-one got stuck with nothing but the chores. (Your copy, after
Exotic Equipment: Well, yes, fruits of different evolutionary trees, and all that. People… adapt. (See Boldly Coming).
Evolutionary Levels: Subverted, inasmuch as Eldrae anthalis and Eldrae kirsunar (which could be read as direct parallels to Homo superior and Homo summus) aren’t markers of more advanced evolution, but markers of increasing degrees of highly sophisticated engineering. And engineering for specific desirable traits, at that.
Evilutionary Biologist: It might seem, at first, that there a whole lot of these (and, indeed, that the esseli are an entire species of Evilutionary Biologists). Unfortunately for those who fancy this sort of thing, the average bioengineer is of the opinion that evolution is a hopelessly inefficient optimization process
Evil Laugh: The Imperial Society for Joyful Enthusiasm would like to dispute the heck out of the word “evil”, here.