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

----- 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> Gzg-l mailing list
> Gzg-l@vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu
> http://vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu:1337/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gzg-l
> 

_______________________________________________
Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu
http://vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu:1337/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gzg-l