Re: [GZG] Gzg-l Digest, Vol 37, Issue 14

On Sat, Sep 11, 2010 at 11:30 PM, 
<gzg-l-request@mail.csua.berkeley.edu> wrote:

> On Thursday 09 September 2010 04:26:43 John Atkinson wrote:
>> I'm doodling here, so here goes nothing. . .
>>
>> Presumptions:  No nanotech "magic wands", technology levels roughly
>> equivalent to Drake's Hammer's Slammers, Jerry Pournelle's CoDo
>> series, and similiar novels.  Volume matters when shipping across
>> space, mass relatively less so.
>
> Any particular reason? Mass is the most important factor in
> reality.

1: Contra-grav.  The way it has always worked in my brain (mine, I
decline to speak for anyone else--but I'm pretty sure this is how it
works in Marc Miller and Frank Chadwick's brains too) is that within
the 'envelope' of a CG suspension, the planet's gravitational pull is
cancelled out, so the limiting factor is how much stuff you can stuff
into that CG envelope.
2: To be redundant, I got started playing Traveller a long time ago,
and I think it damaged my brain.
3: I'm presuming you want to ship stuff inside your starship, not
strapped to the outside.
4: I'm also presuming that FTL drives, when engaged, pull along things
within a certain volume, not up to a certain mass limit.

YMMV

John
who is NOT a physicist, not even a little bit.
-- 
"Thousands of Sarmatians, Thousands of Franks, we've slain them again
and again.  We're looking for thousands of Persians."
--Vita Aureliani
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