Cobalt Greywalker Wrote:Thanks for the info. That makes a lot of sense. Gives some intermediary stages between repairing the odd crack or surface scrape, and junking and replacing whole sub-modules of something.Ace Dreamer Wrote:I guess one interesting question is what happens when you need to maintain damaged stuff (that was made using handwavium) - splash on handwavium and pray?This is a complicated question. The short answer is: It Depends.
I am going to assume you're talking tech here. The best way is to fix it like any other peice of equipment by replacing the fauly parts if they can't be repaired. In jury-rigging situations, Universal Adaptor (a.k.a. 'Waved Duct Tape) can cover a multitude of sins.
In the situation where you don't have spares, but do have all the bits, I can see putting all the bits in roughly the right places in a tub, covering it in goop (I recommend the same strain as used to create it for preference, or the plainest, most generic variety you can get), and putting it out of sight for a few hours. You'll have an intact part, if a bit quirkier than usual, and a bit less goop that you can reuse.
If you don't have all the bits, well you'd probably need some junk that the 'Wave can canibalise. You'll end up with less goop, it'll take longer, and be quirkier, but it'd work.
For delicate work, I'd use a mix of 'Wave and glue and a detail brush (this is probably good for broken pottery as well).
The splash and pray method is pretty much the last resort. You'll have something that works in roughly the right way, but any bonuses will have new quirks to go with them. And if you don't fill the holes with something, it'll be noticably smaller. (The 'Wave needs something to work on, after all).
Quote:Cobalt Greywalker wrote:The idea was to sell both on Earth and in Fenspace.
Ace Dreamer Wrote:Would people buy a $2k spacesuit, that was comfortable enough to wear as normal clothes?The Fen already have those, cheaper than that. If you're selling down
The Well, maybe if they're desperate and can't wait for delivery.
I guess it might depend on what people would pay for a really good suit. Though, some might think they're a bit 'uniform'. I'll put a spec up for the 'Wright Suit'.
Cobalt Greywalker Wrote:As an additional question, has Arthur had any contact with HeliosUntil very recently (mid 2009) Arthur wasn't much known outside Eire, Dublin in fact. Then the article 'Waving The Future' appeared in the Irish and UK media (mainly press). This put him forward as a 'young turk' in the field of safe use of handwavium, describing him among other things as a 'medical researcher' and a generalist, trumpetting the safe use of handwavium for all sorts of purposes. The article was second-rank, without any specific product releases or anything, but attracted some attention.
Holdings (Galactic)? Being run by a Blue Blazer, I can see Fred (via
Buckaroo possibly) making contact.
Those who poked around found Arthur had originally run a small TV and electronics repair shop, in Dublin, but got sucked-in to doing work for Mr O'Niell (almost certainly on O'Neill Station). Then, for a short while, ran a recruititing company called "Lagrange Recruitment", which only seemed interested in young women, before returning to contract work.
In the second half of 2009 "Wright Stuff Mechatronics" started, and Arthur would appear to be the technical brains behind this.
They were a single-product company, selling the "Wright Frame", a fully functional hard tech humanoid robot frame with no handwavium content at all, for $50k each. These had consistently high build quality, implementing all 640+ muscles in the human body, human-grade sense of touch, hearing and eyesight - no sense of smell or taste. Wright Frames would run on waved Li-on batteries for a few tens of hours, far less using conventional batteries. No on-board AI, still well in the Uncanny Valley, but pretty credible. They were selling at least hundreds per year, and all their (credible) potential competitors had detectable levels of handwavium.
The terms and conditions said "not licensed for off-planet use". At least one Fen got their fingers burned by waving-up a Frame, either as a remote or with a resident AI, the story isn't clear, and finding out it didn't work off-Earth; everything was perfectly OK on return to Earth. This would seem to be a consistent handwavium quirk, and considering the price tag on the Frames, no Fen bothered to look into it further.
Arthur appears to be working with someone described as his 'sister', Janet, (previous records don't show he has one) and several people who looked to be waved Wright Frames, most notable 'Alice' who spoke to KandorCon. He's also had contact with what are believed to be senior staff from O'Neill Station. His nominal boss is Kevin Wright, who incidentally is rarely seen without a companion, referred to as 'Nurse Blake'.
This was all on-Earth stuff, and didn't appear to involve handwavium. Where things got more interesting was from early 2010 when they got involved in telecommunications. Initially they issued special phones to all production staff, then started small-scale leasing more widely. These phones were definately waved, and seemed to side-step them needing to get a spectrum license, i.e. they didn't use radio frequencies, and had cheaper than normal call costs. The public called them "Wright Phones", or, 'magic phones', because they worked places normal phones didn't.
Arthur had been talking for a while to fen about AI rights, then he spoke at KandorCon, introducing an AI on Earth who'd had major rights problems. And, implied Boskone issues. He looks to have appeared on Noah's radar.
Arthur would be quite happy to talk to Fen, like Fred. He seems to consider himself to be only a minor businessman, and really a technologist, at that. I'm sure he would be fascinated to talk to Buckaroo. Seeing as he's expanding into Fenspace, I'm pretty sure he'd be willing to talk to "Helios
Holdings".
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"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind