SMAC tech becoming reality

fluffy · January 28, 2002, 11:55

After the Human Genome Project completed, you may have seen this in the news recently:

Quote:

Nexia hopes to produce large quantities of the recombinant spider silk, trade-named BioSteelR, using goats engineered to produce the spider silk proteins in their milk. If sucessful, future applications of harvested silk could include medical sutures, high-strength composites and soft body armor.

http://www.sciam.com/news/011802/1.html

which sounds very close to silksteel (4) - and discovered before synthmetal (2) or plasma (3) armour (or does someone else know otherwise?

)

Adalbertus · January 28, 2002, 17:03

For me, the product mentioned is a substance similar (or chemically identical) to silk and not to steel. They call it steel to better sell it. I think that one might arrive at substances with a tensile strength higher than spider silk. But I very much doubt that it will be based on steel.
As to the other armours: SMAC doesn't give too much information about how those things should be made. Smart guys.
Synthmetal armour: As long as made from alloying metals known today: They exist since bronze ages (Civ's Phalanx, also defensive power of 2!

)
If it is made from metallic elements not known today: Nonsense, unless you want to have a highly radioactive coat.
Plasma Steel Armour: A mass-energy composite is a pure nonsense. At least as normal people would think about it. For physicists, mass and energy is essentially the same and a composite sort of redundant, but nothing exciting (The only sort of energy you can make clothes of is matter).

It's a game, not a guideline to future science. Today, the Supercollider is (depending on what you expect) merely a question of money...

vootguy · January 28, 2002, 17:11

I think you may have misssed the point... it wouldn't be steel, to be sure, but the resulting material woven together in thicknesses and sizes used for steel would be many times stronger and many times lighter.

Don't rain on our parade

... this is a wonderful discovery, a harnessing of natural processes to help mankind. I wonder what a hybrid cloth of Kevlar and spider silk would be able to do? Stop rifle bullets?

Yxklyx · January 28, 2002, 17:38

Quote:

Don't rain on our parade ... this is a wonderful discovery, a harnessing of natural processes to help mankind. I wonder what a hybrid cloth of Kevlar and spider silk would be able to do? Stop rifle bullets?

We'll just invent a newer weapon to cut through it - the SMAC way.

TresXF · January 28, 2002, 17:51

the "achievements" in genetic engineering and reproduction technics make me nervous...
cloned people as human spare parts, uber-menschen, genetically cleaned children...

Cybergod · January 28, 2002, 18:11

Quote:

Originally posted by TresXF
the "achievements" in genetic engineering and reproduction technics make me nervous...
cloned people as human spare parts, uber-menschen, genetically cleaned children...

Oh yeah? What about this:

Quote:

^I swear sometimes they're watching me.
^
^ -- Bozon Pete, Shift Foreman,
^ Metagenics Biomachinery Division

or the Self-aware colony video

Or just running Thought Control

Actually I am more afraid about what people like Bush & Laden etc. are doing than the, so called, "future" of mankind

neuro7 · January 28, 2002, 19:30

It will happen, and it will happen in our lifetime....
http://www.iter.org/

TresXF · January 29, 2002, 12:33

Quote:

Bush & Laden

yet another war, so what?

staying on the edge of a "genetic era" is much more of importance for mankind (imho).

Alynzia · January 29, 2002, 15:25

What gets me with science fiction - all science fiction I've read, including Alpha Centauri - is how we always get these amazing spaceships and advanced technology but people still have gay genes, kill each other and **** etc, just like we do. All on this forum, especially Off Topic.

Realisitically I imagine Uber-mensch, eugenics and clinical immortality centuries before we colonize the stars.

Hey, we can travel faster than light but we still think it's cool to blow someones brains out. Yeah right.

Shai-Hulud · January 29, 2002, 16:44

I'm very pessimistic about the idea that our ethics would REALLY develop. Our recent "discoveries" in the field of philosophy are, for example, modern humanism and Nietzschean egoism. In many ways the opposite despite of their secular nature and focus into human itself. The human nature haven't changed much and the fact that each individual have his own nature, within the limits of collective human nature. There is no technology that could prevent people from pursuing power and wealth(which are essentially the same) at the cost of other people. This is the cause of conflicts within our social environment. No technology can take away our "Den Will zur Macht", Will to Power.

Adalbertus · January 29, 2002, 19:08

Quote:

Originally posted by neuro7
It will happen, and it will happen in our lifetime....

If you like so ... They keep telling it for 40 years now (Not the ITER people, this project is working for 10 years or so). Research in the civil usage of fusion power has started almost at the same time as the military (H-bomb).

Quote:

Originally posted by Shai-Hulud
I'm very pessimistic about the idea that our ethics would REALLY develop.

There were so good ideas 2000 years ago. And what made humanity of it? Crusades, witch hunts and MIRIAM.

Quote:

Originally posted by Alynzia
Realisitically I imagine Uber-mensch, eugenics and clinical immortality centuries before we colonize the stars.

Eugenics - yes. Übermensch - matter of definition. Clinical immortality - no. And I wouldn't want it: If there were no aging, people would starve or be killed. There are only limited resources on Earth (or Chiron).
Travelling faster than light is not possible. All tricks a theoretical physicist could think of could be used by the light as well and on this way it will overtake us. But due to the miracles of relativity, it is possible to do the trip to the next galaxy (4 000 000 000 light years away) in two years of your living time. But when you are back on earth, you will meet probably none of your roughly 4 000 000 030 year old friends ...

PS: In these threads I read so often "off topic". IMHO, general discussions which are stimulated by SMACX are fine in the SMAC-general forum

Shai-Hulud · January 29, 2002, 19:33

Quote:

...witch hunts and MIRIAM.

And here we are again. Blame Miriam! Nobody likes her

Quote:

Übermensch - matter of definition

True. I think that if people are going to wait supermen to be born out of genetic engineering...they have a long wait ahead of them. If there are such things as overmen, they will be borned through philosophy of life, not through tampering with genes. After all, genetic profile is such a superficial part of human despite of its fundamental effect. Genes don't make Übermensch.

Quote:

Clinical immortality - no. And I wouldn't want it: If there were no aging, people would starve or be killed. There are only limited resources on Earth (or Chiron).

Clinical Immortality may be discovered within decades and genetic treatments enabling such immortality will be preserved for those with will and wealth to live longer than others.

Quote:

Travelling faster than light is not possible. All tricks a theoretical physicist could think of could be used by the light as well and on this way it will overtake us

I know Theory of Relativity well enough to believe that FTL travelling is impossible, but I wouldn't rule any possibility out. I would find it VERY SURPRISING if Einstein, a human being living in 20th century, would have discovered even a percent of possibilities and restrictions of physics. I haven't live for long. But I have experienced enough to say that anything is possible.

gwillybj · January 30, 2002, 00:18

Optical Computers: We have reached an informational threshold which can only be crossed by harnessing the speed of light directly. The quickest computations require the fastest possible particles moving along the shortest paths. Since the capability now exists to take our information directly from photons travelling molecular distances, the final act of the information revolution will soon be upon us. - Academician Prokhor Zakharov, "For I Have Tasted The Fruit"

"Researchers at Johns Hopkins University recently demonstrated a data-transfer system that would allow chips to communicate via light rather than electrons."
Full article at http://www.extremetech.com/article/0...3D21560,00.asp.
I don't know if or when ExtremeTech expires their articles. This one is dated 23Jan2002.

On another topic raised in this thread,

Quote:

Shai-Hulud:
(quoting Adalbertus): ...witch hunts and MIRIAM.
And here we are again. Blame Miriam! Nobody likes her

I like Miriam - her passion and enthusiasm are admirable, although I disagree with her application of her beliefs. Maybe her very close escape from death aboard the Unity messed her up a bit.

Shai-Hulud · January 30, 2002, 00:30

Quote:

Maybe her very close escape from death aboard the Unity messed her up a bit.

Journey to Centauri gives a faint implication to this in the very end. And when you compare the old Miriam and the Miriam the faction leader...there's quite a difference. Personally, I think she became a self proclaimed prophet. Similar to Yang's fate in "Dragon Sun". They lost their ideology to their grandiose egos.

Mr. President · January 30, 2002, 05:31

Quote:

Originally posted by Adalbertus
Übermensch - matter of definition.

You can't make the Overman just by tinkering with the genes of a normal man. Supermen are not regular men who just happen to be six-foot-six. It is a mindset, a way of thinking. The Ubermensch is a man whose mind and attitudes transcend the rest of humanity.

I happen to like the Will to Power, because I also believe in Social Darwinism.

Shai-Hulud · January 30, 2002, 07:37

Quote:

because I also believe in Social Darwinism.

I could start a whole new thread about this subject. Can you like "Will to Power"?

Isn't it more like a fundamental part of human nature, from certain point of view. Just out of intrest, Have you read any of Nietzsche's philosophy?

For me Übermensch is very elusive concept, interesting to theoretize but impossible to verify. But I'm determined that if there is such things as superman, it's all based on a way of thinking. Just like you put it.

Mr. President · January 30, 2002, 20:30

Quote:

Originally posted by Shai-Hulud
Can you like "Will to Power"?

Isn't it more like a fundamental part of human nature, from certain point of view. Just out of intrest, Have you read any of Nietzsche's philosophy?

You're right, of course, that the Will to Power is not really something that can be "liked" in the usual sense of the word. Sorry if I confused anybody.

I have read a little Nietzsche, some time ago now.

Adalbertus · January 31, 2002, 14:47

Quote:

I know Theory of Relativity well enough to believe that FTL travelling is impossible, but I wouldn't rule any possibility out.

Fortunately, physics seems to have a tendency to converge towards reality, and special relativity is experimentally verified to 99% of the speed of light with elementary particles (don't know how many nines after the decimal point). In the framework of relativity, the speed of light plays the role of infinite speed, which is unfortunately a finite value, because in our daily life we use the "wrong" scale. And beyond relativity, I would wonder if a path taken by some particle cannot be taken by light, and much faster.

gwillybj · July 8, 2002, 00:50

In the News: Super Tensile Solids. Associated Press article at Yahoo News: "New Metal Alloy Is Super Strong". (But not quite ready for Prime Time.)

Quote:

It could be the new superhero of metals.
More than twice as strong as titanium and steel, it doesn't rust and it can be cast like plastic and honed to an edge as sharp as glass.
And like any superhero, it has a weakness: don't heat it too much, or it loses its strength.
The fruit of a 1992 discovery at the California Institute of Technology, the alloy, called Liquidmetal, has already been used in golf clubs. And it may soon show up in cell phone casings, baseball bats and scalpels.

I'm not sure how long Yahoo News keeps their articles posted, but I saved a copy if anyone goes looking and it's been taken offline.

Mr. President · July 8, 2002, 00:55

That's really cool. I should have heard about that before you posted it, since I'm technically in the field of materials engineering.

The problem, as we see, with making science fiction games and novels in an era such as ours, is that the stuff you make up is likely to be equalled or even surpassed in the real world.

Iskandar Reza · July 13, 2002, 20:53

Yeah, like matter editation. I mean we can edit post that do not matter, i.e. anti-matter, like this one i'm making, and turn it into a post that matters. So it already exist in the real world. Now about powering up warp cores, since it's matter-antimatter combustion, wouldn't off-topic explode one day?

Kassiopeia · July 13, 2002, 23:10

But if your post is anti-matter, then should it not react with the posts and threads that do matter, and cause matter annihilation (or whatever that fancy name for a very big BANG followed by a WOOSH is)?

Iskandar Reza · July 14, 2002, 00:17

Therefore it proves that my post matters. And that it isn't deliberate spam!

Googlie · July 14, 2002, 02:00

But then you can go back and edit your post, to create an alternate universe, thereby proving another long-held theory.

Right now your matter/antimatter post is in stasis, but with a flick of the edit key, it's gone - well not so much gone, as changed.

Blink Displacement

So does this post really exist??

G.

Kassiopeia · July 14, 2002, 15:11

Quote:

Originally posted by Iskandar Reza
Therefore it proves that my post matters. And that it isn't deliberate spam!

Negative. The fact proven here is that your post (and this post) are not reacting with the other posts.

Therefore, it's a possibility that nothing on this forum - or on this world at that - matters, therefore everything is anti-matter, and matter can not simply exist - if something that matters suddenly shows up, it reacts with the humongous amount of anti-matter around it, thus becoming consumed in it and metamorphosing to anti-matter.

Hang on. This drivels sounds almost rational.

*poof*

Iskandar Reza · July 14, 2002, 20:35

Quote:

Originally posted by Kassiopeia

Negative. The fact proven here is that your post (and this post) are not reacting with the other posts.

Therefore, it's a possibility that nothing on this forum - or on this world at that - matters, therefore everything is anti-matter, and matter can not simply exist - if something that matters suddenly shows up, it reacts with the humongous amount of anti-matter around it, thus becoming consumed in it and metamorphosing to anti-matter.

Hang on. This drivels sounds almost rational.

*poof*

It appears the last sentence of his post mattered, and has dematerialized in reaction to all the post that do not matter on this site.

Googlie · July 15, 2002, 00:50

And just as an aside, what an interesting word matter is. As in:

What is the matter? (loosely translated "what is wrong ... why are you upset, etc etc")

Does it matter? ( as in "is it important? Is it worthy of consideration?")

Can matter exist in a void? (as in physical substance)

As a matter of fact - it's a matter of opinion (pertaining to, etc)

According to OED, it comes from latin materia, which also had 3 meanings:

> timber and other building resources
> substance
> subject of discourse

G.

Adalbertus · July 16, 2002, 15:55

And in German, matter means weaker or duller.

Jac de Molay · July 16, 2002, 16:00

Well, at any rate, I wish someone would come up with the Weather Paradigm 'cause it is damn HOT where I am right now.

If they can clone sheep, why cant they launch a weather satellite or something

Dave

Iskandar Reza · July 16, 2002, 16:20

Quote:

Originally posted by DetroitDave
Well, at any rate, I wish someone would come up with the Weather Paradigm 'cause it is damn HOT where I am right now.

If they can clone sheep, why cant they launch a weather satellite or something

Dave

They cloned sheep for their own sick needs