From: Michael Lorrey (retroman@tpk.net)
Date: Sat Jul 12 1997 - 19:57:38 MDT
Max M (Not MORE... not less!) wrote:
> (speaking of a stealthed planetary probe)...
> What about a nanomachine the size of a speck of sand covered in teflon
> being dropped into the atmosphere at low speed?
>
Speaking of mythology.... ;)
This sounds good, but you are forgetting a few key problems with that
scenario:
1) what's its power source? I suppose it could have a catalytic cold
fusion crystal in it that ran on atmospheric moisture, but we are
talking still about one major problem that even that kind of power
source would not be able to solve:
COMMUNICATION
You are expecting a probe the size of a grain of sand to be stealthed,
yet pump out enough power to run a communications device that can
communicate at interstellar distances? Oh PLEASE. The sort of power
density that would demand is huge, millions of years beyond our
greatest hopes. At that level, such a grain of sand would stick out on a
beach like a spotlight, would probably melt its surrounding material to
glass, and start a fire... hardly a stealthy behavior.
Here's a fantastic scenario to go with that:
The grains of sand come down in bunches over an area of a few miles
wide. They survey, store up information, and wait for a storm system to
swing overhead. They use the storm's electrical potential to trigger
lightning strikes that they use to send a tightbeam burst message using
the earths atmosphere as a highpower radio transmitter. The power demand
to accomplish this naturally causes a forest fire that destroys the
probe,and the fire is blamed on lightning.
WHile this sounds like a fanciful SF story, I think your guys are
thinking too far ahead. Any civilizations first interstellar missions
will not be that much different from our existing space program, i.e.
hiding is not a priority. you think that any aliens must be some
superbeings because in your heart you think that humanity is too stupid
to ever reach other star systems, so if they can get here, they must be
so much better than we are. BS. They will put their pants on pretty much
the same way as we do, and will be just as messed up as individuals as
we are.
--
TANSTAAFL!!!
Michael Lorrey
------------------------------------------------------------
mailto:retroman@tpk.net Inventor of the Lorrey Drive
Agent Lorrey@ThePentagon.com
Silo_1013@ThePentagon.com http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/
Mikey's Animatronic Factory
My Own Nuclear Espionage Agency (MONEA)
MIKEYMAS(tm): The New Internet Holiday
Transhumans of New Hampshire (>HNH)
------------------------------------------------------------
#!/usr/local/bin/perl-0777---export-a-crypto-system-sig-RC4-3-lines-PERL
@k=unpack('C*',pack('H*',shift));for(@t=@s=0..255){$y=($k[$_%@k]+$s[$x=$_
]+$y)%256;&S}$x=$y=0;for(unpack('C*',<>)){$x++;$y=($s[$x%=256]+$y)%256;
&S;print pack(C,$_^=$s[($s[$x]+$s[$y])%256])}sub S{@s[$x,$y]=@s[$y,$x]}
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