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In an attempt to avoid derailing the rules thread any more than is absolutely necessary:
Mid-thread, I said:
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Everybody's forgotten this - hell, I've forgotten it most of the time - but the central precept isn't that the Mundanes aren't using handwavium at all because it's dangerous and scary, they're not using handwavium for the purposes the fen are using it for because, frankly, they can think of better shit to do with handwavium than colonize space while pretending to be Klingons and space heroes and all that. They're building Utopia on their terms: nice, peaceful, prosperous and maybe a bit dull, while the fen are building Utopia on their terms: free, wooly, full of excitement, adventure and really wild things.
To which Morganni replied:
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This seems to be hard to reconcile with all the stuff that makes it sound like it's considered actively dangerous in most nations. I suppose it might just be being used for certain applications, but the question is which and how much?
It is hard to reconcile with the already-written stuff that makes handwavium out to be the next OMGdanger. Thankfully, by compressing the timeline down we've got a decent excuse in that by SOS-con it's been, what, only five years since handwavium was discovered. We're still in that uncertainty phase where everybody's touchy about the stuff.
I blame myself for not pushing that bit a little harder in the original plotbunny thread. It's something of an important point to the original setting - an exploration of one of the great Geek Fallacies - that got lost in the threadchurn. Ah well, water under the bridge and all that.---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
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they can think of better shit to do with handwavium than colonize space while pretending to be Klingons and space heroes and all that
So can I, such as colonizing space without pretending anything. Back when this particular forum first started, I toyed with an idea for a guy -- actually a small consortium, possibly getting financial assistance from a Delos Harriman sort -- who put together a no-nonsense starship (as hardtech as possible, because the captain equated "quirk" with "unreliable") and went out on two- or three-year missions to survey other star systems. They would be somewhat unpopular with Earthside governments, because they share the survey results with everyone. ("You found an Earthlike, uninhabited world? You should've told us and only us, not the Russians and Chinese and Arabs and whoever else!")
I dropped the notion when, among a few other disquieting things, I began to feel that this crew, who wouldn't have any particular fan affiliation, would also be seriously unpopular with the cosplaying sort of fen, regarded as more-or-less "Mundanes with a starship" and thus some sort of abomination. I didn't quite think anyone would wish out loud that the Boskonians would kill off my characters, but....
Besides, I don't have enough hard-science knowledge to write the kind of ship I envisioned convincingly.
-----
Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.
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I dropped the notion when, among a few other disquieting things, I began to feel that this crew, who wouldn't have any particular fan affiliation, would also be seriously unpopular with the cosplaying sort of fen, regarded as more-or-less "Mundanes with a starship" and thus some sort of abomination.
Why? It'd make for a good story, and one that would illustrate that, Fen or not, assholes happen everywhere.
Besides, the whole 'three year mission of exploration' would give him major points with _at least_ the Trekkies, of whom most are still busy puttering around the system and, now, drooling over raising the Yamato.
Do it.
The Power Of Youth Compels You.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm
Yes.
The BLAZING POWER OF YOUTH! Compels you!
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll
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So can I, such as colonizing space without pretending anything.
And that, actually, is the Geek Fallacy right there: That a million geeks think something is important doesn't make it important.
I'll give you a real-world example, ripped straight from the original plotbunny. Consider the space program. From 1957 to 1969 it was one of the most heavily-hyped government programs ever, and it was all based in Cold War dick-swinging. Once the goal conditions of the space race had been met - once the US had landed men on the Moon and proved theirs was the superior dick - the hype evaporated. People stopped paying attention.
We as science fiction fans, as geeks, nerds, whatever, *didn't* stop paying attention, and have since lived in a state of low-level outrage at the rest of the world. *We* think space is important - exploration, exploitation, human survival, Destiny, doesn't matter why - and naturally we think that we're right.
Fenspace - and this is the part that's been lost in the "wow, cool!" - doesn't automatically agree with that assumption. The Mundanes aren't sitting at home gnashing their teeth at fandom's expansion into space, they just don't care. They've got better things to worry about, like coming up with sleeker iPods or reversing global warming or the next season of Lost. Space is at best a sideshow, at worst a round of fearmongering reports on CNN, but either way not a concern to 99.99% of mundanes. The reason fen have had the freedom to expand into the solar system - and beyond - isn't because of some innate superiority, it's because they're the only ones who want to.---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
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better things to worry about, like coming up with sleeker iPods or reversing global warming or the next season of Lost
Hmmm. Never having watched Lost -- I pretty much gave up on TV years ago -- and not being absolutely one hundred per cent sure what an iPod is for -- I think it's like a digital Walkman, but I wouldn't be shocked to learn I was wrong -- I find I'm in agreement with the 'danes on only one out of three of those "better" things. Sigh.
The crew in my concept are motivated, not by anything like "Cold War dick-swinging," but by Duane Elms' song "We're Going Back" or the lines near the end of Andre Norton's Star Man's Son (possibly the first science fiction I ever read; certainly the first to make an impression on me): "But above us those other worlds still hang, and still they beckon. And so is the promise still given."
Make no mistake, despite the "Mundanes with a starship" image I described, these are people who like science fiction -- but right now they're out to create a little science fact, and having a reliably working starship means more to them than having a cool starship or imitating a favorite writer. (I did consider First-In Scout as a name for the ship, a nod to Norton.)
With regard to "the power of youth," blazing or not, I'm a little too old for that to compel me. I was conceived before Sputnik left the ground. But really, I think the ship and the mission as I envision them need someone with a better grasp of hard science than I possess to do them justice.
Anyway, this is probably the wrong thread to discuss that. Sorry.
-----
Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.
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The crew in my concept are motivated, not by anything like "Cold War dick-swinging," but by Duane Elms' song "We're Going Back" or the lines near the end of Andre Norton's Star Man's Son (possibly the first science fiction I ever read; certainly the first to make an impression on me): "But above us those other worlds still hang, and still they beckon. And so is the promise still given."
I must admit, my original name choice for Rockhounds, Inc was "WGB Enterprises", but I forgot about it when I made the original posts....--
"I give you the beautiful... the talented... the tirelessly atomic-powered...
R!
DOROTHY!
WAYNERIGHT!

--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
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The Mundanes aren't sitting at home gnashing their teeth at fandom's expansion into space, they just don't care. They've got better things to worry about, like coming up with sleeker iPods or reversing global warming or the next season of Lost. Space is at best a sideshow, at worst a round of fearmongering reports on CNN, but either way not a concern to 99.99% of mundanes. The reason fen have had the freedom to expand into the solar system - and beyond - isn't because of some innate superiority, it's because they're the only ones who want to.
Part of my idea behind the Blue Blazer Irregulars is that some fennish folks don't want to go haring off into space in flying cars. They'd rather fix the ozone layer, or cure cancer, or help the homeless, or keep the government in line, or a thousand other altruistic practices. In canon, Buckaroo is a hero that betters society, and the Irregulars are interested in more than just expanding humanity to the stars. What I hope to do is portray a group that are an intermediary between the Mundanes and the Fen, someone who can help Humanity as a whole, rather than just a section of it.Ebony the Black Dragon
Senior Editor, Living Room Games
http://www.lrgames.com
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."