Re: [GZG] FTverse colinies and FTL communications

>Courier ships could also be sped up by using them in relay, ships may
only
>be expected to make one or two jumps to a way point where another
courier
>ship could be stationed, each operate on a regular jump cycle. News,
mail
>etc is then tightbeamed (or wide beamed throughout a system if you
want) to
>the waiting courier ship, which then jumps out to its destination,
while the
>first ship spools up their FTL drive for the jump back. Of course this
>system would work best in the inner colonies, and not the outer
colonies
>where reliance on passing tramp freighters, military patrol ships
willing to
>carry the mail, and probably a regular courier ship stopping in every
couple
>of weeks.
>
>This method is similiar to the old pony express and coaching
wayhouses...
>stops to feed, water, and rest the horses were minimised by having
fresh
>sets prepared along the route. Far quicker to change a set over (in
this
>case transmit the data to another ship) than to rest the horses (or to
>spool/cycle the FTL Jump drive up for the next jump in the sequence)
>
>This method, especially if a system/government is willing to using
several
>ships to act as couriers could easily halve the time it takes for news
to
>spread - one role suited for those small naval craft...
>
>Robyn

For those who remember, this is exactly the way it worked in 
Traveller, including the "Poni Express" reference....  ;-)

Jon (GZG)

>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Robert Mayberry" <robert.mayberry@gmail.com>
>To: <gzg-l@vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu>
>Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 5:02 AM
>Subject: Re: [GZG] FTverse colinies
>
>
>>  Another issue is control.
>>
>>  Right now, we're making the costs of journalism so low that the best
>>  reporting often comes from citizen journalists on the scene filing
>>  dispatches onto their blogs. In the grim future of the Tuffleyverse,
>>  the situation has been reversed.
>>
>>  On major planets, you'll have an internet with a pretty integrated,
>>  globalized world-wide culture, lots of voices, and a very short news
>>  cycle. However, news BETWEEN colonies could be tightly regulated, at
>>  least in highly regulated states like the ESU. Distribution costs
>>  become enough of a bottleneck that only a few large (possibly
>>  state-owned, state-supported, or state-coddled) news organizations
can
>>  be supported by the market.
>>
>>  Plus the *expectation* of instant news isn't there. You have time
even
>>  when a ship docks to get the Official Story straight even if you
know
>>  you can't keep the information totally bottled. That means that
>>  overall control of information would be pretty tight, certainly
enough
>>  to place a politically expedient spin on even bad news.
>>
>>  You couldn't keep the people from finding out about a massacre, for
>>  example, but you could minimize it, create "context" for it, or
>>  surround it with "news analysis" to justify it. Or even just
>>  manufacture some domestic story that eats up all the air.
>>
>>  Yet another reason why GZG's universe is so balkanized.
>>
>>
>>  On 5/13/08, Oerjan Ariander <orjan.ariander1@comhem.se> wrote:
>>>  Jon T. wrote:
>>
>>>  >...There may
>>>  >well be international/Interstellar media about filming and
reporting
>>>  >on everything, but then even if they can smuggle the footage
offworld
>>>  >(or transmit it to a courier waiting to jump outsystem) it is
still
>>>  >going to be days/weeks/months before the public back home get to
see
>>>  >it. So there may well be plenty of firm evidence to court-martial
>>>  >people after the event, but still no way of actually stopping
>>>  >seriously bad stuff while it is happening.
>>
>>>  How is that - no way of stopping seriously bad stuff while it is
>>>  happening
>>>  - different from today's situation...? Sure, we often get to see
>>>  seriously
>>>  bad stuff happening almost in real time, but we still can't do
anything
>>>  about it unless we happen to be *right* there *right* then...
Srebrenica,
>>>  anyone? Rwanda?
>>
>>
>>  --
>>  Robert Mayberry
>>  (678) 984-5113
>  > Robert.Mayberry@gmail.com
>>
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>
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