Future Tech Advice and Assistance Thread [O.O.C.]

[SquareDisc City]

Regarding the training in close-quarters and/or hand-to-hand combat, I'd note that while most soldiers ought to be trained in such, it's just one aspect of their training. Military hand-to-hand combat training I expect will be short, simple, and to-the-point. Soldiers have more important things to do than spend several years mastering a "martial art".

[Talonis]

Regarding the training in close-quarters and/or hand-to-hand combat, I'd note that while most soldiers ought to be trained in such, it's just one aspect of their training. Military hand-to-hand combat training I expect will be short, simple, and to-the-point. Soldiers have more important things to do than spend several years mastering a "martial art".

The point here is that if your line is hit with an EMP, or similar device, of considerable force, you still need to hold it. Martial arts will help, as will sharp sticks. But if you have both, and your enemy has one, you may be able to advance.

[G-Tech Corporation]

Regarding the training in close-quarters and/or hand-to-hand combat, I'd note that while most soldiers ought to be trained in such, it's just one aspect of their training. Military hand-to-hand combat training I expect will be short, simple, and to-the-point. Soldiers have more important things to do than spend several years mastering a "martial art".

The point here is that if your line is hit with an EMP, or similar device, of considerable force, you still need to hold it. Martial arts will help, as will sharp sticks. But if you have both, and your enemy has one, you may be able to advance.

If an EMP reduces your forces to martial arts for success, you don't deserve to call your arbitrary brigands "soldiers".

[OMGeverynameistaken]

Regarding the training in close-quarters and/or hand-to-hand combat, I'd note that while most soldiers ought to be trained in such, it's just one aspect of their training. Military hand-to-hand combat training I expect will be short, simple, and to-the-point. Soldiers have more important things to do than spend several years mastering a "martial art".

It's too bad the Rethast aren't around anymore. They would have liked you. At least, insofar as the Rethast were capable of liking things.

[The Fedral Union]

Well I doubt most piratical military establishments will spend that much time training someone to the level of Bruce Lee .. But that doesn't mean after basic/boot camp your government cant offer incentives or free courses on increasing levels of martial arts . Things like that cant and shouldn't be done in one training session but I figure most soldiers have a good degree of personal autonomy whilst not deployed/on duty to take interest in such things.

Martial arts is more than just a weapon, it is a mental training tool. It is many things, so I could imagine aspects of it being useful universally. OFC a hand to hand combat battle between power armored dudes might get messy, I wouldn't want to be a by-standard in the way of an oncoming guy who's just been the victim of a "falcon punch"

Then this isn't FT street fighter. But that does give me an interesting rp idea...

[Derscon]

Regarding the training in close-quarters and/or hand-to-hand combat, I'd note that while most soldiers ought to be trained in such, it's just one aspect of their training. Military hand-to-hand combat training I expect will be short, simple, and to-the-point. Soldiers have more important things to do than spend several years mastering a "martial art".

It's too bad the Rethast aren't around anymore. They would have liked you. At least, insofar as the Rethast were capable of liking things.

The Rethast like things in the way men like steak.

[Lubyak]

"Pointless?! Pointless?! The entire [EXPLETIVE] point of the Imperial and Federal military is so that you may face our enemies on the field of battle, and drive your bayonets into their [EXPLETIVE] hearts. The Navy is there to make sure you get to the battlefield. The Chair Space Troops are there to keep you alive and frighten your enemies. The artillery is there to cover your approach, the Jaegers to frighten them, and the Cavalry to distract them. All this so that when you hear the drummer play the [EXPLETIVE] advance, you can get to the enemy, look him in his face or whatever the [EXPLETIVE] the [EXPLETIVE] has and ram your bayonet into it.

So don't tell me that it's [EXPLETIVE] pointless."
~Master Sergeant Johann Kraus, 17th Imperial Line Regiment, on the value of continued bayonet drill.

[Dreadful Sagittarius]

Regarding the training in close-quarters and/or hand-to-hand combat, I'd note that while most soldiers ought to be trained in such, it's just one aspect of their training. Military hand-to-hand combat training I expect will be short, simple, and to-the-point. Soldiers have more important things to do than spend several years mastering a "martial art".

The point here is that if your line is hit with an EMP, or similar device, of considerable force, you still need to hold it. Martial arts will help, as will sharp sticks. But if you have both, and your enemy has one, you may be able to advance.

If your troops are reduced to hands and knives for fighting after an EMP strike, they're not worthy of the name. Besides, in FT it's quite hard to assume an EMP would be as effective as we see in popular fiction, given the commonality of Farraday Cages even in the modern day.

[The Akasha Colony]

The point here is that if your line is hit with an EMP, or similar device, of considerable force, you still need to hold it. Martial arts will help, as will sharp sticks. But if you have both, and your enemy has one, you may be able to advance.

If your "line" is hit with EMP and the enemy is not (presumably since they are the one employing it), they will certainly not be closing to hand to hand combat. They will be shooting at you with their perfectly functional guns at ranges which you can no longer respond to. Which means you either stay there and die, or retreat to get some replacement equipment.

In fact, EMP does nothing to good ol' fashioned firearms. It might disable the fancy bells and whistles, but a normal machine gun has no electronic parts and no need for electricity, it is powered entirely by the gas (or recoil on older weapons) of its cartridges. So even then, you'd not need to resort to hand to hand. Just pull out your AR-15s and AK-47s and have at it.

And as others have pointed out, EMP resistance is something that even modern equipment is generally tested for. Presumably this would be even more important in the future, and thus equipment would be made even more resistant to it.

[Avenio]

The Commonwealth doesn't really bother with hand-to-hand training, mostly because the development of retractable flailing chainsaw arms on their troops' combat exoskeletons makes it rather redundant.

[The Star Corporation]

Well I doubt most piratical military establishments will spend that much time training someone to the level of Bruce Lee .. But that doesn't mean after basic/boot camp your government cant offer incentives or free courses on increasing levels of martial arts . Things like that cant and shouldn't be done in one training session but I figure most soldiers have a good degree of personal autonomy whilst not deployed/on duty to take interest in such things.

Martial arts is more than just a weapon, it is a mental training tool. It is many things, so I could imagine aspects of it being useful universally. OFC a hand to hand combat battle between power armored dudes might get messy, I wouldn't want to be a by-standard in the way of an oncoming guy who's just been the victim of a "falcon punch"

Then this isn't FT street fighter. But that does give me an interesting rp idea...

Especially if one of the people in the power armor is a Class Five telekinetic[our Special Operations has some Class Five Telekinetics!)

In Tarantara, of course... not in Star.

[The Star Corporation]

The Commonwealth doesn't really bother with hand-to-hand training, mostly because the development of retractable flailing chainsaw arms on their troops' combat exoskeletons makes it rather redundant.

It really doesn't... in close quarters I would crush you.

If you believe that makes it redundant, you have another thing coming.... that being dead soldiers, but you know.

[G-Tech Corporation]

Well I doubt most piratical military establishments will spend that much time training someone to the level of Bruce Lee .. But that doesn't mean after basic/boot camp your government cant offer incentives or free courses on increasing levels of martial arts . Things like that cant and shouldn't be done in one training session but I figure most soldiers have a good degree of personal autonomy whilst not deployed/on duty to take interest in such things.

Martial arts is more than just a weapon, it is a mental training tool. It is many things, so I could imagine aspects of it being useful universally. OFC a hand to hand combat battle between power armored dudes might get messy, I wouldn't want to be a by-standard in the way of an oncoming guy who's just been the victim of a "falcon punch"

Then this isn't FT street fighter. But that does give me an interesting rp idea...

Especially if one of the people in the power armor is a Class Five telekinetic[our Special Operations has some Class Five Telekinetics!)

In Tarantara, of course... not in Star.

Psionics, meh.

[The Star Corporation]

Especially if one of the people in the power armor is a Class Five telekinetic[our Special Operations has some Class Five Telekinetics!)

In Tarantara, of course... not in Star.

Psionics, meh.

Yuppers, which is why only around 1% of the population has powerful psionics.

Again, we are a nation of 128 Billion, but only 2000 of those are in the military.

[Kyrusia]

Just a reminder to you, The Star Corporation, but this thread is not meant for general chit-chat. The original post clearly defines the purpose of this thread. The sort of vitriol as seen here (emphasis added)...

It really doesn't... in close quarters I would crush you.

If you believe that makes it redundant, you have another thing coming.... that being dead soldiers, but you know.

...is completely unnecessary and, equally, is quite against the general spirit of "consistency, collaboration, compromise, and creativity" of the NSFT community as defined in this portion of the original post. Furthermore, if you are merely replying (without further addition of thought in the manner of advice or assistance), please constrain your multiple replies to a single post, to keep from cluttering this thread.

Thank you.

[Adus Kiran]

What are some possible economical models for a future tech society?

[The Akasha Colony]

What are some possible economical models for a future tech society?

It's been discussed at length before, but ultimately it comes down to how "FT" your society is. Once you start claiming things like replicators, then resource values change dramatically. From a labor force standpoint though, there would almost certainly be a greater emphasis on the generation of intellectual property, as manual tasks as well as things like accounting become increasingly automated.

[Adus Kiran]

What are some possible economical models for a future tech society?

It's been discussed at length before, but ultimately it comes down to how "FT" your society is. Once you start claiming things like replicators, then resource values change dramatically. From a labor force standpoint though, there would almost certainly be a greater emphasis on the generation of intellectual property, as manual tasks as well as things like accounting become increasingly automated.

I have not really decided where at on the FT scale I fall yet, so I was curious about the economies of various places on that scale.

[Lubyak]

What are some possible economical models for a future tech society?

The way I run mine is basically very colonial in nature, and relies on two things: 1) Manufacturing centers are distant from resource centers, 2) Interstellar travel is relatively cheap. Basically, the idea is that the core systems which have been inhabited for the longest, have had the time to build up the necessary infrastructure in order to manufacture most consumer and heavy industrial goods, while more distant systems have not. At the same time, since they've been doing this for so long, mot of their own easily accessible resources have been drained, and so it is now cheaper to ship in raw materials from newly settled and developing colonial worlds, rather than try and exploit ever rarer resources in their own systems.

This system creates a nice pressure for continued expansion, which is useful to have for RP purpouses. It also fits in with the kind of feel I want to give my nation and so, I've made up the tech to go with it. I feel like this system is among the more similar to 'real world' economies, but it is reliant on setting tech up in a certain way. If you have instant replicators that can just be dropped off and start mass production instantly, then you won't have the issue of manufacturing centres not being where the resource centres are. If your FTL travel is too expensive, then it becomes cheaper to invest in continued exploitation of local resources rather than long distance shipping. As far as the level of 'FT' goes, this seem like it's pretty much in the middle, what with the presence of large scale planetary colonisation/exploitation, and cheap faster than light travel, but without post-scarcity economics, replicators or other such things.

[Oppressorion]

Ooh, I have a Factbook entry on this (I'm so sad). Basically, manufacturing is so cheap and labour so undervalued that citizens aren't paid for the value of their work any more - they, uh...

...If they just gave away everything to any who asked, there would be a great cost with little return, as there would be no incentive to work if everything was given without question. As such, it was decided that while the bartering system would be retained while resources were scarce, their new government would transition to the Luxury system.

Resources would be split - what the citizenry needed would be given away, defined as food, shelter, and medical attention. However, citizens would also be paid in so-called Luxury Licences (LUX), which were given out in proportion to how useful each citizen was to the government - education, health, and occupation all factored into a collective Usefulness Index, which in turn (in combination with each Citizen's history of good/bad behaviour and productivity) determined how many Luxury Licences each citizen received. Unlike traditional forms of currency, LUX is non-transferable - each citizen has a fixed amount, which is exchanged for various perks to make life more comfortable - better food, stylish clothes or artwork, or even upgraded accommodation at the higher levels of LUX.

Sponsoring someone else with your LUX is possible to a limited extent, but the LUX remains the property of the sponsor and can be withdrawn at any time. Something else to bear in mind is that citizens do not pay for the actual Perk, but rather the happiness it brings - as such, physical perks can be repaired or replaced at no cost. Perks are also continuous, rather than one-off - one cannot buy a basket of fruit, but they could buy a basket sent to their apartment every week. The UI of any given citizen fluctuates over time as they become more skilled, acquire more skills, or are made obsolete.

[Steel Union]

Sounds like you'd need a lot of administration costs centered around determining the UI of a citizen. Plus, citizens deliberately trying to inflate their value by lying (or stretching the truth at least) about their skills or productivity in many fields.

Plus plus, lots of potential for corruption by those who decide the index, who decide their own worth is much higher because they're such a vital part of the system, and so on.

In short, sounds like fun, and good RP possibilities.

[Oppressorion]

Sounds like you'd need a lot of administration costs centered around determining the UI of a citizen. Plus, citizens deliberately trying to inflate their value by lying (or stretching the truth at least) about their skills or productivity in many fields.

Plus plus, lots of potential for corruption by those who decide the index, who decide their own worth is much higher because they're such a vital part of the system, and so on.

In short, sounds like fun, and good RP possibilities.

Lying isn't a good idea, what with being a surveillance state and all. Happily, automation unemploying most of the labour sector was compensated for by the government's...everything, really, inflating to watch and manage everyone in the cities. What are left are in the service sector, usually arts - theatre, sculpture, films, etc.

[Libraria and Ausitoria]

What are some possible economical models for a future tech society?

When I RP as a 'near' FT nation (pre-time travel if we ignore relativistic effects), I RP that with improvements in biochemical technologies, humans and robots have effectively merged; with people thinking and acting on correspondingly shorter time-frames: with technological singularity in effect bypassed. This has the added bonus of making even short distances slightly more significant to a nation that treats hypersonic speeds as everyday.

Regarding manufacturing, Lubyak is right about the importance of the expense of trading: it's all as per Adam Smith's argument on the division of labour and the fruits of specialization. I myself RP that Ausitorian manufacturing centres are increasingly distributed and spreading because energy, information, and resources are very cheap to transport after being processed and processing is not very expensive; but services can be transported with no difficulty so they are concentrated in only a few shrinking places. I assume that the cost of moving knowledge, i.e. electrons, is fairly miniscule.

Another point perhaps worth noting in this discussion is that it is much easier to enjoy higher interest rates if you are travelling through time faster than the people giving you interest; which is possible when approaching the speed of light.

When I RP as a far FT nation, of which I don't think there are many others; monetary policy becomes very tricky as if something is worth less in the future due to inflation then it can simply be sold in the past or vice versa. There are infinite resources available, my nation has built a capital at a conveniently early stage in the history of the universe when it was smaller and the capital is defined around a specific time, and it is no longer useful to RP anything serious because anybody can have anything.

[Zepplin Manufacturers]

When I RP as a 'near' FT nation (pre-time travel if we ignore relativistic effects),

Are you (A) positing light hugging ignoring the specific temporal effects of relativistic distortion (B) positing a sans FTL setup?(C) ..positing time travel. A subject that well http://youtu.be/32kN5r-YZFY?t=35s

Your response is C. Time travel is verboten in most rational RP interactions as it is for the sake of sanity. Your use of it no matter how well your original intent will result in almost zero interaction possible for you as will the entire "far ft" setting which is just space opera without the training wheels on and with far less entertaining EE Doc smith and far more "Im trying to blow up a star with a handgun while being as cool as the culture".

Far FT has a deserved bad reputation. All bets, sanity and plot is at whim and while char interaction is possible it is entirely too open to abuse to be used as a community standard.

[Vocenae]

When I RP as a 'near' FT nation (pre-time travel if we ignore relativistic effects), I RP that with improvements in biochemical technologies, humans and robots have effectively merged; with people thinking and acting on correspondingly shorter time-frames: with technological singularity in effect bypassed. This has the added bonus of making even short distances slightly more significant to a nation that treats hypersonic speeds as everyday.

[snip]

When I RP as a far FT nation, of which I don't think there are many others; monetary policy becomes very tricky as if something is worth less in the future due to inflation then it can simply be sold in the past or vice versa. There are infinite resources available, my nation has built a capital at a conveniently early stage in the history of the universe when it was smaller and the capital is defined around a specific time, and it is no longer useful to RP anything serious because anybody can have anything.

I'm just going to stop you there and ignore all the silly economic stuff that has no bearing on FT whatsoever (outside of your own enclosed bubble of world-building) to say this:

There is no 'near' or 'far' FT. There is only FT. If you have FTL, you are FT. This difference between FT 'techs' that you speak of is the the difference between GOOD FT and BAD FT, of which your 'far' example is BAD FT. I would advise you to re-read the terms and definitions listed in the OP of this thread, because you lack an understanding of what the FT community expects, accepts, and how it works.