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🕑 Added 2018-05-19 00:02:28 +0000 UTC

Comments

Nyrath

Jet Kitten, you have point, but I sort of assumed that the zone refining laser could swap out its optics from refining lenses to the drill-white-hot-holes-in-accursed-corporate-raiders lenses

John

The concept of using a series of quantum states imposed on some particles is a bit ridiculous. How do you prevent them from decoherencing when in the pocket of your average Joe? There's a nice Wikipedia article on quantum decoherence that points out all the problems involved. Also, the act of measuring the state of the "quantum serial number" would collapse it and for all intents and purposes, destroy the bill. And it's a fool's errand. Eventually someone will find a way to "counterfeit" one of these bills, either by running the "printing press" at the mint to make load of registered cash, or some lovely hacking on the verification machines that make them acknowledge a very specific quantum pattern as valid. Nothing is unforgeable.

John

Jet Kitten: OK, a mining laser is not a weapon. Much like a plasma torch, most cutting lasers are focused tightly and diverge quickly so that they don't burn a hole in the bottom of the laser cutter. A zone melter would probably be focused in a line to melt the ore/ingot and would be really hard to repurpose as a weapon. Mass drivers however... Yeah, broadsides baby! Meow!

John

Galactic Empires will always be more fantasy than reality. If they are limited to STL ships, you're creating new worlds for the colonists and get nothing back in return other than the comfort of knowing we're putting our eggs in multiple baskets. If you have the FAL drive (Fast As Light) from Ken MacLeod's Engines of Light series, it still takes years to get anywhere. (A bit of a hand wave turns the ship into an entangled photon that detangles at the destination.) FTL will only be a panacea for information. It may take days or weeks for information to travel. And as long as you don't have any Ansibles, Information still moves at the speed of your fastest ship. Barring ansibles, a Wormhole network has the best bet of information transference, as you can beam your message through the wormhole, crossing light years in the process. With the exception of true FTL ships, wormholes are the best means to send information across the light years, and gives you the best chance for either a Galactic Empire or a Republic.