Destiny trilogy - speculations

[Sxottlan]

Dimesdan wrote:

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And David said a few pages back that he left the design description nebulous (my words not his) so that the art department weren't too constricted if and when they design an image of it, but he did say it was sleek and by the fact it has a crew compliment of 750, it's larger than say a Luna Class and probably not far off a Sovereign class.

I guess I'll envision it as the Altair from last year's calendar.

[BrotherBenny]

Sxottlan wrote:

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I guess I'll envision it as the Altair from last year's calendar.

I'm more inclined to see it as a bigger, badder Intrepid-style ship, with Borg-inspired anti-Borg technology. After all, all the research that Project Full Circle did on the tech they took from Voyager had to go somewhere. Why not the Vesta-class which, as has been said, is one of a few classes to even have a moderate defense against the Borg.

[tenmei]

It also has rudimentary quantum slipstream/transwarp drive according to GTS.

[Christopher]

^^Only slipstream. "Transwarp" is a term that seems to be used to encompass a variety of different faster-than-warp technologies, given how many inconsistent portrayals of "transwarp drive" we've gotten, but for whatever reason, quantum slipstream is never counted as a "transwarp" technology.

[Idoliside]

Christopher wrote:

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^^Only slipstream. "Transwarp" is a term that seems to be used to encompass a variety of different faster-than-warp technologies, given how many inconsistent portrayals of "transwarp drive" we've gotten, but for whatever reason, quantum slipstream is never counted as a "transwarp" technology.

I think it's to do with the type of FTW they are. Transwarp seems to be more "warp" like than slipstream. Wheras the latter seems to artificially create superfast tunnels, or map existing SS tunnels in what can assume is a seperate dimension with different dimensions to traditional space.

[Christopher]

^^That's not the way I explained slipstream drive in Greater Than the Sum. Given the instability of the vortex and the constant calculations that seemed to be needed in "Timeless," I concluded that basically, slipstream is to warp as digital is to analog. Instead of using large masses and energies to reshape spacetime, it manipulates spacetime on the quantum level, reshaping it bit by bit into the desired metric for a high-speed FTL conduit. Which allows more powerful and controlled effects with less energy, but requires vastly more complex calculations and is easy to destabilize.

[BrotherBenny]

Christopher wrote:

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^^That's not the way I explained slipstream drive in Greater Than the Sum. Given the instability of the vortex and the constant calculations that seemed to be needed in "Timeless," I concluded that basically, slipstream is to warp as digital is to analog. Instead of using large masses and energies to reshape spacetime, it manipulates spacetime on the quantum level, reshaping it bit by bit into the desired metric for a high-speed FTL conduit. Which allows more powerful and controlled effects with less energy, but requires vastly more complex calculations and is easy to destabilize.

That was a simple explanation that made infinitely more sense with the analog/digital analogy than anything else I've heard to explain it. Would the gelpacks not have aided the complex calculations though, the biochemical medium is far superior to the old isolinear chips, or were the writers on Voyager just using another copout??

[Christopher]

Xeris wrote:

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That was a simple explanation that made infinitely more sense with the analog/digital analogy than anything else I've heard to explain it. Would the gelpacks not have aided the complex calculations though, the biochemical medium is far superior to the old isolinear chips, or were the writers on Voyager just using another copout??

You can't say it was a copout, since they weren't basing it on my model. They invented it to serve a purpose in a story they were telling, and they established the principles that served that story, which is a perfectly valid way to approach it. Then, afterward, I came along and tried to lay more groundwork for what was going on there.

The idea behind gel packs was that they were based on a more biological, "fuzzy logic" sort of decision making, and thus could arrive at the best decision more quickly without having to game out every possible permutation first. I don't think that would be that great an advantage for slipstream, based on how I explained it in GTTS. A stable slipstream depends on very precise calculations, so a fuzzy-logic approach might be counterproductive. Or at least it would only be a part of the overall system, helping to make decisions to coordinate the functioning of the drive. But at the bottom line, it comes down to ship size: the bigger the vessel, the exponentially harder it becomes to do the computations.

[Idoliside]

Christopher wrote:

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^^That's not the way I explained slipstream drive in Greater Than the Sum. Given the instability of the vortex and the constant calculations that seemed to be needed in "Timeless," I concluded that basically, slipstream is to warp as digital is to analog. Instead of using large masses and energies to reshape spacetime, it manipulates spacetime on the quantum level, reshaping it bit by bit into the desired metric for a high-speed FTL conduit. Which allows more powerful and controlled effects with less energy, but requires vastly more complex calculations and is easy to destabilize.

Well true, but you are much more intelligent than me, i was sort of explaining it in a laymans way...

In the end, it's bloody fast...

[Ayelbourne]

Fletcher cut in, “The intercepted message, Captain. It could’ve been a Trojan horse, a way to slip a computer virus past our defenses.”

See, Erika? This is what happens when you don't have the latest version of Kaspersky or Antivir installed, or, you know...don't use a Prefix Code...

Another intriguing excerpt. All those new names getting thrown around at the beginning were a bit confusing though.

[David Mack]

Ayelbourne wrote:

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Another intriguing excerpt. All those new names getting thrown around at the beginning were a bit confusing though.

Luckily for you, then, there's a list of major dramatis personae at the back of each volume of the trilogy. And it's sort essential to introduce the major players as early as possible. It might seem like a lot, but soon enough you'll see who the focus characters are by noting whose point of view is used in subsequent scenes.

ETA: For those who are interested, there is now a new interview with moi posted at TrekMovie.com.

[Julio Angel Ortiz]

captcalhoun wrote:

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christ, it's like Secret Invasion or Final Crisis!

Except, unlike Secret Invasion, it won't suck.

(And yes, I've read the painfully slow 5 issues of SI so far, and I'm still wondering why I'm going to bother seeing the series through...).

[nx1701g]

David Mack wrote:

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Luckily for you, then, there's a list of major dramatis personae at the back of each volume of the trilogy.

On behalf of all of us thank you for that.

[Newspaper Taxi]

I had another wacky idea about how the Destiny trillogy could end. Maybe the Borg, by the end of book three, will decide to adopt a new phillosophy regarding the United Federation of Planets: "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

[Christopher]

^^Isn't that kind of already the Borg philosophy? Except it's "Don't try to beat 'em, make 'em join us."