NationStates Post-Modern Tech Community Thread

[Pillowlandia]

There is a cycle of technological innovation. Usually it takes about twenty years after something is invented for it to get put into regular use. For example, the Transhab module was discussed and designed in the 1990s. It is being put into production on the space station now which is 2016. For full adoption of PMT technology, I think it would be MT+20 years for it to be used regularly. In 1973 the Lithium Ion Chloride battery was invented. Sony commercialized the first Lithium Ion Battery in 1991.

If you read something today that just been invented, or discussed, I think it is not unreasonable to expect it will go into full commercial production for popular use within twenty years. The MT+10 is an accelerated schedule for invention.

NS is literally an accelerated everything. From troop movement speeds, to ship building, to weapon design. NS is literally like if the world had more money, less debt, more bad blood (now we got bad blood), and a lot more unchecked aggression and population.

[Post War America]

I am in fact... well sorta. I guess the more appropriate term would be that I am PMT/FanT slowly growing some early FT elements... mostly because I have a progressive timeline where technology advances... and well, there's an FT nation that wants to feed the Commonwealth technology. I sorta broke that mold I guess. In all seriousness though, a Post-Modern (allowing for some low fantasy elements... I've grown rather attached to my Vorlonii) setting is my favorite setting to be in; specifically because I can have things for no other reason that rule of the cool rather than having to justify everything through "realism".

Totally agree with you. You seem to have a really unique set-up, which is great, because that's exactly what PMT is all about.

You didn't tell us you're part of a PMT RP group! How are you liking that? It's a shame I didn't come across that thread sooner.

Yeh, Vistora's a decent chap... unfortunately my ridiculous 12 hour work shifts into 12 hour class days make it difficult to actually RP which

You make a strong point and one definitely worth considering and accepting.

What other crazy PMT ideas do you guys have?

Well I have a couple of RP ideas...

[Singaporean Transhumans]

So I see Razor's Edge was mentioned sooner. Meh.

anyway a tag here

[UniversalCommons]

I think there are a lot of possible things that were never done. For example, the navy built the sea dart which was kind of crazy. It was a jet plane with pontoons. There is also the idea from Jules Verne's book called A Floating City. A lot of things that are possible have never gotten developed. There is a lot of interesting technology like living machines by John Todd which is real, but kind of alternative technology. Buckminster Fullers domed city never got built. You go to the edge of technology and can find some very interesting things. Some of it can get pretty out there. There are also different paths to technology like tech shops which are there but not fully developed.

[Nayba Collective]

You make a strong point and one definitely worth considering and accepting.

What other crazy PMT ideas do you guys have?

Pretty much this entire nation concept, though toned down a bit.

[Marquesan]

I think this is a brilliant idea. There should be more discussion of PMT.

[Vistora]

Well shit. Now I don't know what I'm gonna do. Diplomatic accord? Open warfare?

This complicates things immensely.

But I believe it can be worked out.

[Vistora]

Actually, I should probably introduce myself. Greetings. I am Vistora, PMT aficionado, specialist in PMT realism, and progenitor of the Razor's Edge Cooperative.

[Singaporean Transhumans]

Actually, I should probably introduce myself. Greetings. I am Vistora, PMT aficionado, specialist in PMT realism, and progenitor of the Razor's Edge Cooperative.

Not to be confused with the MT+10 clan.

Cyberpunk shits, to be precise

[Escalan Corps-Star Island]

Nice to see that something along these lines finally exists. As a lot of the work I've done on my history in the past (for novel canon, not NS, sadly) has been decidedly PMT, I'll be keeping an eye on things here and all. Who knows; perhaps in time I could even be bothered to port some of those ideas from the book to an alt or something where I could actively RP with them.

[Stormwrath]

Tag.

Addition to the Glossary (can be edited):

Mobile Offshore Base - In essence, a maritime military base built by certain countries for conducting expeditionary military operations. It is a self-propelling mobile platform often described to be larger than an aircraft carrier. The base can deploy them in deep waters where conventional land-based bases are not available or are just simply too far from the theater of operations. It is capable of carrying military strikes and act as a logistics and deployment area for troops, equipment and cargo.

[The Technocratic Syndicalists]

Armoring the train isn't the problem, its protecting the tracks from sabotage.

I have in idea for an underground vac train (maglev traveling at hypersonic speeds in a partial vacuum) which would connect my two largest cities which are located several thousand kilometers apart. The train would travel through an evacuated tunnel located several hundred feet below the surface in solid rock formations. The tunnel would be constructed by a robotic nuclear powered tunnel boring machine which would use a heated tungsten probe to melt and vitrify the rock, leaving a glass tunnel behind it as the rock is melted. The train would start at ground level si, descend unpowered down to several hundred feet while building up speed where once it reaches the required depth it then passes through an airlock into the evacuated section (pressure several thousand times lower than sea level) where then the wheels are retracted and the electrodynamic system, which would use liquid nitrogen cooled MHD magnets, would be activated. The train would then accelerate at 1 g for 200 seconds, cruise at 2000 m/s (mach 6 at sea level) for the majority of the trip, then decelerate at 1 g for roughly 200 seconds at the end of the trip, exiting the evacuated section through an airlock before the set of powered wheels would deploy and the train would climb back to the surface.

Since the train is several hundred feet underground its effectively immune to sabotage. The only way you could attack is the two stations located at either end and those could be easily defended from assault. The only real way to attack the underground tunnel would likely be some absurdly massive nuclear bunker buster.

update: here are some of my earlier PMT (ie 10-30 years into the future) aircraft designs

Some glossary terms to add:

Hypersonic: Defined as anything past mach 5 which is the speed at which a ramjet will no longer generate any net thrust. Characteristics of the hypersonic regime include highly acute shock angles and severe aerodynamic heating due to skin friction. Hypersonic generally refers to 5<M<10, 10<M<25 refers to high-hypersonic speeds, and M>25 refers to re-entry speeds. At high hypersonic speeds the air molecules in front of the object will break up and turn into plasma which surrounds the object in an electrically charged plasma cone. Due to to lift and drag being dependent on the square of velocity hypersonic vehicles will generally not have large wings but rather use lifting bodies and/or small wings to generate necessary lift while also having low drag. Thermal concerns dominate the hypersonic regime which is why aircraft or projectiles which travel at hypersonic speeds require nickel alloy (or other extremely high temperature metallic alloy) construction or ablative heat shields/thermal protection systems.

Scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet): an airbreathing, constant volume combustion (CVC) engine which relies on the ram effect to forcefully compress air before it's combusted. They key difference between a ramjet and a scramjet is that in a ramjet air is decelerated to subsonic speeds before being combusted where as a scramjet air flow is supersonic throughout the entire engine. Advantages of scramjets include simple construction (ie no moving parts) and the possibility of extremely high speeds, up to around mach 17. Disadvantages of scramjets are that they do not generate any net thrust at speeds below mach 4, have low thrust/weight ratios, and require exotic thermal materials in their construction to withstand the extreme thermal stress of sustained hypersonic flight.

Hybrid pulse detonating turbine: A turbine engine with a pulse detonating combustor section, pulse detonating afterburner, and/or pulse detonation tubes placed in the engines bypass ducts (for a turbofan). Advantages include higher T/W ratio and higher fuel efficiency. Disadvantages are mechanical complexity and reliability issues associated with the valves used to modulate the airflow in the pulse detonating sections as well as matching the constant flow of the turbine engine with the pulsed flow of the pulse detonating sections.

[Guadalupador]

Tag for interest.

[Escalan Corps-Star Island]

Armoring the train isn't the problem, its protecting the tracks from sabotage.

I have in idea for an underground vac train (maglev traveling at hypersonic speeds in a partial vacuum) which would connect my two largest cities which are located several thousand kilometers apart. The train would travel through an evacuated tunnel located several hundred feet below the surface in solid rock formations. The tunnel would be constructed by a robotic nuclear powered tunnel boring machine which would use a heated tungsten probe to melt and vitrify the rock, leaving a glass tunnel behind it as the rock is melted. The train would start at ground level si, descend unpowered down to several hundred feet while building up speed where once it reaches the required depth it then passes through an airlock into the evacuated section (pressure several thousand times lower than sea level) where then the wheels are retracted and the electrodynamic system, which would use liquid nitrogen cooled MHD magnets, would be activated. The train would then accelerate at 1 g for 200 seconds, cruise at 2000 m/s (mach 6 at sea level) for the majority of the trip, then decelerate at 1 g for roughly 200 seconds at the end of the trip, exiting the evacuated section through an airlock before the set of powered wheels would deploy and the train would climb back to the surface.

Since the train is several hundred feet underground its effectively immune to sabotage. The only way you could attack is the two stations located at either end and those could be easily defended from assault. The only real way to attack the underground tunnel would likely be some absurdly massive nuclear bunker buster.

I've utilised a similar concept for the major form of cross-continental transit with the nation of Isladestel in my writing, though the threat of seismic activity posed a far greater threat than any terrorist or insurgent menace given the isolation of the island. However, insulating such a finely calibrated network form earthquakes posed a different sort of threat, and the eventual solution was to in effect rubberise the interior lining of the tubes to prevent small shifts or cracks from causing major damage.

[The Macabees]

Well I have a couple of RP ideas...

Oh yea? Care to share?

[The Macabees]

Actually, I should probably introduce myself. Greetings. I am Vistora, PMT aficionado, specialist in PMT realism, and progenitor of the Razor's Edge Cooperative.

Sweet. It's great to see a strong PMT group. It's crazy to think how many PMT gems there are hidden in the vast sea that is II and NS.

[The Macabees]

Tag.

Addition to the Glossary (can be edited):

Mobile Offshore Base - In essence, a maritime military base built by certain countries for conducting expeditionary military operations. It is a self-propelling mobile platform often described to be larger than an aircraft carrier. The base can deploy them in deep waters where conventional land-based bases are not available or are just simply too far from the theater of operations. It is capable of carrying military strikes and act as a logistics and deployment area for troops, equipment and cargo.

Thank you! That's a great addition. Do you have an example from an RP of yours?

[The Macabees]

Some glossary terms to add:

Hypersonic: Defined as anything past mach 5 which is the speed at which a ramjet will no longer generate any net thrust. Characteristics of the hypersonic regime include highly acute shock angles and severe aerodynamic heating due to skin friction. Hypersonic generally refers to 5<M<10, 10<M<25 refers to high-hypersonic speeds, and M>25 refers to re-entry speeds. At high hypersonic speeds the air molecules in front of the object will break up and turn into plasma which surrounds the object in an electrically charged plasma cone. Due to to lift and drag being dependent on the square of velocity hypersonic vehicles will generally not have large wings but rather use lifting bodies and/or small wings to generate necessary lift while also having low drag. Thermal concerns dominate the hypersonic regime which is why aircraft or projectiles which travel at hypersonic speeds require nickel alloy (or other extremely high temperature metallic alloy) construction or ablative heat shields/thermal protection systems.

Scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet): an airbreathing, constant volume combustion (CVC) engine which relies on the ram effect to forcefully compress air before it's combusted. They key difference between a ramjet and a scramjet is that in a ramjet air is decelerated to subsonic speeds before being combusted where as a scramjet air flow is supersonic throughout the entire engine. Advantages of scramjets include simple construction (ie no moving parts) and the possibility of extremely high speeds, up to around mach 17. Disadvantages of scramjets are that they do not generate any net thrust at speeds below mach 4, have low thrust/weight ratios, and require exotic thermal materials in their construction to withstand the extreme thermal stress of sustained hypersonic flight.

Hybrid pulse detonating turbine: A turbine engine with a pulse detonating combustor section, pulse detonating afterburner, and/or pulse detonation tubes placed in the engines bypass ducts (for a turbofan). Advantages include higher T/W ratio and higher fuel efficiency. Disadvantages are mechanical complexity and reliability issues associated with the valves used to modulate the airflow in the pulse detonating sections as well as matching the constant flow of the turbine engine with the pulsed flow of the pulse detonating sections.

This is awesome. Thank you!

[Vistora]

Actually, I should probably introduce myself. Greetings. I am Vistora, PMT aficionado, specialist in PMT realism, and progenitor of the Razor's Edge Cooperative.

Sweet. It's great to see a strong PMT group. It's crazy to think how many PMT gems there are hidden in the vast sea that is II and NS.

Excellent!

I'm glad to see so many new people becoming interested in PMT. So, I was thinking of perhaps opening up our current project to everybody here who might be interested in participating. For those curious, it is an in-the-works long-term RP (or perhaps a series of RPs) set on a habitable moon far from Earth. It begins with arrival and early colonization, and culminates, over a long period of technological advancement and general development, culminates in dominance... of whatever sort we decide on

It's in its earliest stages of OOC development, so currently there's still a lot of literal world-building going on, so if you relish the chance to build a not!Planet from scratch, with every manner of exotic ecological features, then I would absolutely recommend it.

In the meantime, I'll make the OP a little friendlier to newcomers.

[Stormwrath]

Thank you! That's a great addition. Do you have an example from an RP of yours?

Sadly no, I was only a PMTer for a short while before migrating to FT. But I am aware of the concept, as I once entertained having MOBs and its implications on how my nation will wage war.

[The Technocratic Syndicalists]

A PMT RP sample from me:

viewtopic.php?p=28255875#p28255875

[New Azura]

A PMT RP sample from me:

https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopi ... #p28255875

I dug it, mate. PMT has been something of a mystery to me; this thread is definitely enlightening.

[The United Remnants of America]

Oh finally, this exists.

[Singaporean Transhumans]

how do we solve the massive schism between that is good ol' 'MT+10' pmt and 'cyberpunk' pmt

because the difference is so grave we might as well have cyberpunk as a different tech level - there was a reason why tech of such sort used to be labelled 'early FT' iirc

[Haishan]

You make a strong point and one definitely worth considering and accepting.

What other crazy PMT ideas do you guys have?

Star Tram ver 2. I'm actually planning to write about Star Tram ver 1 and ver 1.5 which are more saner than that monstrosity ver 2. No need very expensive SSTOs, just build a big gun for direct launch to orbit, liberate cost/weight to space. Like ten times cheaper than current options and SSTOs.

Another idea to consider is proliferation of 3D printing for the masses. Imagine printing your own shotgun! For the record, 3D printing had existed for a long time now but using it to make a gun that wouldn't blow itself up as soon you pull the trigger is the real challenge.