Improbable Technology
POSTED BY: bluekieran
UPDATED: Monday, July 5, 2004 14:29
VIEWED: 12248
PAGE 5 of 5
Quote:
Originally posted by Wave:
Would an organisation expend the mind-boggling amount of wealth required to terraform a planet, and then just dump a few settlers there with no support?
I'm not too sure of the detailed technology of terraforming, but perhaps a freshly 'formed world needs to be worked up some before it enters a more productive state - like running hogs over rough ground. If slave or endentured workers are the norm for terraforming crews (Shingdig), then desperate settlers seem the next exploitable group from the 19th Century character set.
I'm sure you're right about the persistence of the pork-barrel, and the carpet-bag would have been in evidence too. Unfortunately, Fox Network have surrendered that mirror to HBO's Deadwood.
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Quote:
Originally posted by bikisdad:
I guess it depends on assumptions we're making for ourselves that aren't defined in the show. If they are in one system (what I think), then FTL is totally unnecessary. However, if you're right about multiple star systems, then it would be necessary. Maybe we'll find out in the movie...
From The Train Job: "We didn't fly 86 million miles to track down a box of band-aids, Colonel. "
Inference is that 86m miles isn't just around the corner, it's a good distance. It's 93 million miles from the Earth to the Sun, so I presume that most of what takes place happens within a single solar system, with the "core" worlds being those closest to the Sun.
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How does Jayne's rainstick work? 
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Quote:
Originally posted by PurpleBelly:
How does Jayne's rainstick work?
You just shake it around a bit while dancing.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Wave:Quote:That's something else that bothers me. Would an organisation expend the mind-boggling amount of wealth required to terraform a planet, and then just dump a few settlers there with no support? Where's the return on that investment? Surely they'd stay and make the place a going concern? If they didn't, they'd not only lose their investment, they'd be setting themselves up for a war of independence in a few decades.
Originally posted by TheGreyJedi:And they mention terraforming.
My theory on the terraforming is that the corporate/government aspect of the Alliance will terraform, and move in 'workers' and sometimes things just don't work out...
Like the planet/moon where the train job took place?
Everyone has a terrible disease that seems to be from something at comes up out of the ground...
So the investors cut their loses and abandon the project....
I'm assuming there are huge numbes of successful planets/moons that became the core planets, where the rich all live happily and the investors are getting a huge return on their investments.
I see it like the way Gov'ts colonized new lands throughout history: you take the dregs of society, people you want out of your kingdom, and you offer them the opportunity to build a new life independently; maybe become rich, maybe just be allowed to live (like w/deportation). You send them off to a rough untamed world...
and you pretty much abandon them there.
Maybe they'll make it, maybe they won't, what do you care?
If they make it then you have a thriving community to tax and you get a return on your investment (and those annoying Puritans or convicts or whatever are far away).
The only reason you would return is if they are successful AND they think they can break away and actually be independent. THEN it is necessary to send troops and ruthlessly put them down. But of course if they are are not successful then cut your loses and leave them there.
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Quote:
Originally posted by PurpleBelly:
How does Jayne's rainstick work?
It's a hollow branch of bamboo or cactus, partially filled with pebbles and sealed at the ends. When you tip it over, the pebbles run down the shaft and make a sound like rain.
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Quote:
Originally posted by PurpleBelly:
How does Jayne's rainstick work?
Jayne's rainstick is a comedic device. It works like this:
* it is sympathetic magic, and so gives a reference in a scifi show to that sufficiently advanced technology that is indistinguishable from magic
* it provides a penis reference, which is always funny - don't ask me why, it's just an observation
That its magic doesn't work does not have significance for the show
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Quote:
Originally posted by PurpleBelly:
it provides a penis reference, which is always funny - don't ask me why, it's just an observation
So, when Jayne says he'll be in his bunk, it's his RAIN STICK he's got his hands on? Oy.
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...they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their
clothing - and if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order.
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Quote:
Originally posted by CaptainHarbatkin:
So, when Jayne says he'll be in his bunk,
At least Firefly has a lower count than Wonderfalls - now there's a show with its pen in its pants
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