trope-a-day
Royal Blood: Averted, except inasmuch as those who know they’re going to grow up to be rúner are genetically engineered for a laundry list of desirable traits in people who are expected to hold sovereign authority and use it wisely, rarely, and with great caution. (Of course, given the
military
Kahrsh Pacification Zone Kaher (Yaffish Marsh) Even from within the thickly-armored Hellwind-class command tank, and at the entire river’s width, the yells and screams of the mob advancing towards the nearest island, and so the final span of the lengthy bridge were clearly audible. Lieutenant Vikal Karelian, Forty-Third Waserai
trope-a-day
Romanticism Versus Enlightenment: Go, Team Enlightenment! (Were you expecting something else?) Of course, just phrasing it that way is to greatly understate the influence, even dominance, of technepraxic philosophy in the Worlds in general and the Empire in particular, which riffs on the general theme of science and reason and
damnfool switch
damnfool switch (n.): Engineering / aerospace jargon. Damnfool switch is an alternate term for the Master Envelope Interlock Disable switch; i.e., that switch which disables the hardwired safety features preventing the pilot, sailing master, or other operators from commanding maneuvers or equipment operations known to cause damage to, or the
meta
Been a bit quiet around here for the last few days, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. That would be the running a big ol’ literary yard sale which I’ve been doing, keeping me away from my writing room all day and leaving me too exhausted to set
trope-a-day
Rock Beats Laser: No, no it doesn’t. The history of galactic warfare is the history of superior technology consistently crushing inferior technology in Curb-Stomp Battle after Curb-Stomp Battle. Most of the time, it’s not even sporting. There are a very few counterexamples brought up, but when examined, those
'fresher
The primary hygiene component of a standard shipboard ‘fresher is a cylindrical translucent compartment, resembling a drug capsule set on its end, with a watertight sealing door. At top and bottom, gratings conceal powerful counter-rotating fan/turbine units. In dynamic mode, these fan/turbines are engaged to blow (at the
trope-a-day
Robots Enslaving Robots: Rare, but not unknown, especially when the AI code used to build them is based off insufficiently processed sophont brainscans. Without the same careful design effort that goes into transsophonts being put into making them so, artificial minds are no more immune from irrationality, hypocrisy, and unenlightened
starship
The current standard for docking adapters in Imperial space, suitable for both docking and berthing, is defined by IOSS 52114, the Imperial Universal Starship Interface (IUSI). The standard defines androgynous docking adapters in three standard sizes (IUSI-C/crawlspace, IUSI-P/gangway, and IUSI-F/freight container), in both standard (containing a transfer
trope-a-day
Robot Religion: Played straight for the digisapiences, but it’s generally not a specific robot religion – they tend to take up the same religions and philosophies as anyone else (including, where relevant, Deus Est Machina). With the general proviso that it’s a lot harder to get contradictions and afactualities
computer
“Back off the toggle reader,” Myrian Vitremarvis bellowed through his bullhorn. “Unclutch the address drive from the operatin’ counter.” A series of metallic bangs punctuated by less-metallic blasphemies from the floor above accompanied the execution of this order. “Okay, now get the donkey strapped up. Advance address counter to 12,
trope-a-day
Robot War: Happens, to some degree, every time some new species makes the monumentally bad decision to try their hand at sophont-AI slavery, because that trick never works. Most of them, fortunately, aren’t wars of extermination – on the machine side, anyway – just escape-style wars of liberation. And, of course,