Mind Rape: See, in essence, And I Must Scream. The penalties are commensurate. (Note, though, that this doesn’t apply to the standard means of extracting information from unwilling minds among technological sophisticates (Mind Probe); namely, pulling a copy of the mind-state vector – which is about as painful as getting
These are some short vignettes “by” members of the various Eldraeic darëssef – not castes, not since very early pre-Imperial days, since one can move freely between them and, indeed, maintain a place in multiple darëssef simultaneously, but rather, groups of social-role archetypes with their own sets of philosophies, customs, protocols,
Mind Probe: Available in a couple of forms; the alethiometer, a highly sophisticated lie detector which works by dynamic mind-state analysis, and the more advanced form, which is obtaining a static copy of the mind-state (via Brain Uploading, which fortunately is possible non-destructively these days) and dissecting it for whatever
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).