Re: STL travel

On Thu, 29 Oct 1998, Nyrath the nearly wise wrote:
> Thomas Anderson wrote:
> > also a teeny bit like larry niven's ubiquitous gravity polariser -
now
> > there's a drive! i think the idea was you could flip the sign of the
force
> > between you and a big mass, and so use it to generate lift.
> 
>	Well, actually, that turns out not to be the case.
>	Niven's gravity polarizer had much the same limitations
>	of a parachute.
>	You could go any direction, as long as the direction
>	was "down".
> 
>	It would convert your motion relative to a gravity well
>	into waste heat.  So you could hover or fall slowely,
>	but you could not rise. 

aha. i think he may have changed it over the course of his books - not a
totally unheard-of maneuever. in 'protector', pssthpok (or whatever his
name was) reasons that since his polariser is still working, he has
freedom of movement in the solar system. i took this to mean he could
fly
anywhere, including up a well. i may well have misinterpreted this; your
version certainly sounds more logical. it also sounds a bit like
cavorite,
but that's another issue ...

Tom