Quote:Yes, exactly. Different morphologies and populations, but they can and will interbreed and produce fertile offspring given the chance.
Races are physically different groups that are all members of a single species that all can freely interbreed with each other. What I'm saying is that your stating that most of these races can freely interbreed.
As to the question of divergent evolution, one of the assumptions I'd been making without realizing it was that the 'human habitable' worlds were all using the same rotation scheme for their basic sugars and proteins... presumable another effect of the whole 'seeding' enterprise. That being the case, and given that 1, anatomically modern humans are a tremendously successful species and 2, successful species, as a rule, do not evolve further until they stop being so, no, I don't think that they'd've speciated. The more extreme ends of the scale - like, say, Earth and whatever world produced the cat-people - might've generated a case of a ring species, but then again, they might not've, hard to tell.
Quote:'Transcending the limitations of the flesh', and all that? Hmm. Yeah, that'd fit.
So far I get a vibe of trying to become energy beings... not AIs, but basically more themselves then they are currently. Which means they have such focus on knowing themselves as they are now that they can't adapt to new parts. Their mental self image is that focused. They developed mental (or whatever they are screwing around with at a personal level) 'phantom limbs' that allow them to use limbs that are physically no longer there. They get exhausted they fall over or can't use that phantom arm to hold things. They still have to be physically viable though... their brain/heart/etc.. gets taken out they can't hold on.
At this point, I'm mostly trying to decide on a sort of basic philosophical question in the game world - do I want to have villains or not? How clear cut, how black and white do I want things? Because, on the one hand, what's the point of escaping when the world you're going to is just like the one you're in, but on the other, if things are too simple it just gets boring.
Either way, their most militant sect is pretty much hell-bent on locking horns with the UTN, and doing a decent job of dragging the rest in behind them.
Quote:My understanding is that there's no small doubt right now just how much 'gravity' is enough to maintain basic biochemical balances - a full gravity might be needed, it might not, there's just not enough data yet. Plenty on why no gravity is bad, but...
With the gravity though, humans will have to spend most of their time in 1 g gravity zones or with weighted suits on or their going to suffer ill effects. Brittle bones and the like... being in low gravity for too long messes up hearts and the other organs. Thats why space shuttle crews and other astronauts are taken out on stretchers.
For convenience's sake, I'm projecting that anywhere over about half a G is enough to support long term health... although that's not to say that the ambassadorial delegations to Earth don't have some very serious problems.
Quote:Very carefully.
How does one steer?
More seriously, you can probably get at least part of the effect of a gimballed nozzle by having a mechanism to 'skew' your detonations just slightly off of center of the pusher plate... which is, to say the least, delicate. Another possibility might be squirting reaction mass out on the side of the pusher plate that you want to turn away from.
Quote:Stop burning, flip your ship, accelerate again. Pretty much the same way you do with any other type of reaction drive.
How does one slow down, let alone stop?
Quote:Welcome to the wild, wild world of orbital mechanics. ^_^
Effectively shoot enormous, solid, crossbow style bolts or a nuclear spear gun... its like ramming them, the shield/armor requirements to stop one would be insane compared to the tech requirements to make one.
John's Law: Any interesting space drive is a weapon of mass destruction. It only matters how long you're willing to wait for maximum damage. Interesting is whatever it takes to keep the readers from becoming bored.
I've been hearing about Aurora for as long as I can really remember... what, ten years now? But yeah, it might well be the same kind of thing.
Ja, -n
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