trope-a-day
Doing in the Wizard: Played straight in the most literal sense possible: if there’s magic, miracle, or straight-up literary conceit around, you can be absolutely sure that there’s someone *there* figuring out how it could work and/or how it can be reverse-engineered, because that’s how you
trope-a-day
Measuring the Marigolds: Should you, gentle reader, ever find yourself transported by some magical tornado to one of the locales about which I write, don’t try and explain this one to the locals. Really. Just… don’t. Expect a lengthy lecture on how The World Is Just Awesome, but
property rights
(Seeing as we’re discussing the amount of trouble people can get into through bad deals, it seems like an appropriate time to mention a certain generous legal provision…) inalienable property: Private property not subject to seizure in mediatory proceedings, in collection of a debt, or in bankruptcy. While any
Adamant Sanction
Responding at once to a couple of past questions: 3. Roughly where does the dividing line between “coercion” and “acceptable-if-pernicious exploitation of another’s flaws and failings” lie? When it violates someone’s fundamental rights and/or their mental integrity (i.e., doesn’t pass through their volition). To give
trope-a-day
Do-Anything Robot: High-end utility spiders are like this – albeit not all the way there – thanks to effectors, self-reshaping “smart tool” nanotechnology, and modular parts.
Torren Moon Incident
“Yes,” said the forensic eschatologist. “Your crippling techniques all appear fully operational. Your screening talkers have detected no basilisks or dangerous memetic payloads, and neither have the people screening them. Your emergency-wipe protocols show no sign of tampering, your network links show no anomalous traffic, and there is no present
trope-a-day
Distress Call: <breedlewheep>. Vessel in distress, vessel in distress. Cycle 214. Free trader More Money, More Propellant under attack by forces unknown. Reaction drive disabled. Point-defense laser not responding. Atmosphere venting from multiple compartments. Message repeats. <breedlewheep>. Vessel in distress, vessel in distress. Cycle 215. Free
CASE DYSPEPTIC FLARE
(Because a comment thread back a ways suggested a mention of the big dakka that hopefully no-one will ever have to use might be in order…) CASE DYSPEPTIC FLARE MOST SECRET (ULTRAVIOLET) / EYES ONLY DYSPEPTIC FLARE NEED-TO-KNOW ABSOLUTE HARD COPY ONLY/NO TRANSMISSION ORIGINATOR-CONTROLLED DISSEMINATION TRACKED-COPY DOCUMENT NOCONTRACT NOFORN SPECIAL
trope-a-day
Digitized Hacker: Most of ’em. When it comes to wrestling for control of systems in cycle-time – especially where security AI are concerned – speed is a definite advantage. As such, digital crackers and their counterparts, digital sysadmins, are both very common; even if they habitually inhabit bioshells and just run a
trope-a-day
Detachment Combat: A staple of modular technology – certainly any morphmech or modubot that is equipped for combat may well be equipped for this technique, as are legionaries with their carried drones and swarms. In starships, some models of AKV and other small starships (multivector attacks being handy in the furball)
Places Not To Go
Spandore (Diaspora Margin): The formerly inhabitable planet of its system, Spandore was once home to a worldbound species that achieved a high-technology civilization with particular advancement in the fields of biochemistry and genetic engineering. Unfortunately, several centuries to a millennium before contact (approximately), the planetary civilization wiped itself out in
trope-a-day
Designer Babies: Of course. That’s called responsible parenting. What sort of parent leaves the health and future of their children up to the random genetic lottery? One might say that’s akin to child abuse! (And the chief reason one wouldn’t say that is because legally, it is.