I bet they are interesting, the speed of light is already a major concern in computer engineering. But I was mainly speaking about algorithms -- every self-organizing system has an instruction set and external signaling -- biological systems use DNA codons and hormones, for instance.
Really I'm just thinking about future tech because I'm reading Paean to SMAC, which is sort of an "In Which I Watch Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri". Emphasis on the "watch", even though it's a game, because he looks at it as a plot with a canonical story -- the quotes that you get when you earn a new technology tell you a lot about their beliefs and how each faction did in the overall story, and who won the canonical victory. You know, like that time in the late game that Sister Miriam killed herself, or the long war between the Gaians and Spartans. Putting Chiron into the Alpha Centauri system for Act 2 would be interesting -- say mid-game, before the really crazy stuff starts happening with Planet.
Brian Reynolds occasionally chimes in in the comments section. Apparently he was unaware at the time that Deirdre's "network node" was a dirty joke when he wrote it. Or so he claims.
Really I'm just thinking about future tech because I'm reading Paean to SMAC, which is sort of an "In Which I Watch Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri". Emphasis on the "watch", even though it's a game, because he looks at it as a plot with a canonical story -- the quotes that you get when you earn a new technology tell you a lot about their beliefs and how each faction did in the overall story, and who won the canonical victory. You know, like that time in the late game that Sister Miriam killed herself, or the long war between the Gaians and Spartans. Putting Chiron into the Alpha Centauri system for Act 2 would be interesting -- say mid-game, before the really crazy stuff starts happening with Planet.
Brian Reynolds occasionally chimes in in the comments section. Apparently he was unaware at the time that Deirdre's "network node" was a dirty joke when he wrote it. Or so he claims.
"Kitto daijoubu da yo." - Sakura Kinomoto