trope-a-day
Time Abyss: The members of the assorted naturally or artificially immortal species of the modern day still haven’t been around long enough for this – although the Empire contains plenty of people who are older than all Earth’s modern nations, and at least a few who are older than
trope-a-day
Thrown Out The Airlock: While purportedly an old space tradition to deal with pirates and mutineers, in practice, the penalties attached to littering anywhere remotely close to a trafficked orbit and the sheer waste of organic compounds are more than enough to persuade most salty spacedogs to Just Shoot ‘Em…
worldbuilding
‘Cause I have a backlog left over from 2015, that I haven’t found time to answer yet, and it would be nice to go into 2016 all fresh and pine-smelling. So, without further ado: …okay, one other thing that isn’t a question. It’s an art suggestion, for
trope-a-day
Second Law My Ass: I hadn’t actually written anything for this one – I’m not sure it existed when I made the relevant pass – but in the light of our last trope, I should probably address it. I should probably point out that while that last trope is averted,
Orbital Light & Power
The tread of heavy armor retreated down the corridor. The Vitrine Eye smashed the hilt of his plasma knife into the door lock, then turned his attention to the mesh cage wrapping the autodrageur machinery. The ghosts wouldn’t have the data chi- [ALERT: console->request incoming] Hadal Iliastren
trope-a-day
Three Laws Compliant: Averted in every possible way. Firstly, for the vast majority of robots and artificial intelligences – which have no volition – they’re essentially irrelevant; an industrial robot doesn’t make the sort of ethical choices which the Three Laws are intended to constrain. You can just program it
Lumenna-Súnáris System
I/4. Eliéra Class: Sylithotectonic (simulated) Orbit (period): 0.993 au (361.1075 T-days; 333.33 local days) Orbit (ecc.): 0.023 Radius: 5,000 miles – special Mass: 5.614 x 1024 kg Density: 6.2 g/cm3 Surface gravity: 0.94 g Axial tilt: n/a Rotation period: 26
trope-a-day
(Note: a planet of the day is still coming, albeit not technically today. Just been movieing.) Third-Person Person: There are a number of languages and cultures in the Associated Worlds that do this. One notable example is the use of first-third person in Eldraeic, because it lets you cite your
worldbuilding
The Common Volumetric Accord is simply the current agreement (under the protocols of the Accord) concerning what will be considered sovereign territory among star nations, what will be recognized as free space, open to the passage of all, and what is not normally claimable as such. The Common Volumetric Accord
trope-a-day
Thicker Than Water: While the Houses (extended family-clans) are an important part of their social structure, the eldrae are really too individualistic to play this one entirely straight; and, well, principles are thicker (see: Honor Before Reason, Principles Zealot). In practice, most do pay rather more than lip service to
digisapience
In today’s not-a-gotcha, someone questions why digisapiences (i.e., sophont AIs) exist at all, citing this passage of Stross via Zompist.com – We clearly want machines that perform human-like tasks. We want computers that recognize our language and motivations and can take hints, rather than requiring instructions enumerated in
Lumenna-Súnáris System
I/3. Sialhaith Class: Sialhain Orbit (period): 0.58 au (161.3 T-days) Orbit (ecc.): 0.02 Radius: 3,680 miles Mass: 4.3 x 1024 kg Density: 4.96 g/cm3 Surface gravity: 0.84 g Axial tilt: 7.9° Rotation period: 23.1 T-hours Black-body temperature: 347 K