Here are some basic ground rules by which the Terra Arcadian universe works. I use them as basic guidelines to help me write the stories. They help to provide a framework within which the characters and their world(s) live and work.
1. People are still people, regardless of their level of technology, even if they have been genetically modified by an alien virus. This is very important. No one is perfect, and people have flaws. They have desires. They have fears. They have ambitions. They have love. They have hatred. They have sanity...and insanity. They have motivation. They have lives.
2. As Robert Heinlein once said: TANSTAAFL: There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Unpacking this statement we find that the future society of the Terra Arcadian universe is not a utopian, socialistic, communistic, atheistic, politically correct, monolithic, bland, multi-cultural-non-cultural welfare paradise lacking depth and character in which all individuals happily and mindlessly march in lock step harmony to someone's arbitrary politically correct tune so that no one is possibly offended by real life. (Was most of that just one sentence??? Yup.)
3. The third law of Arthur C. Clarke's "Three Laws" states that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." That may be true to a certain extent. For example, a stone age hunter-gatherer would regard a modern flashlight as an instrument of magic. However, to be true Clarke's requires technology that is sufficiently advanced. What this means in the Terra Arcadian Universe is...
4. There's no such thing as faster-than-light communications. All communications are limited by the speed of light.
5. There's no such thing as true faster-than-light space travel. Yes, there is a form of "warp" travel, but it isn't like Star Trek and it isn't real FTL travel.
6. There's no such thing as "artificial gravity." (I wish there was.)
7. There's no such thing as energy beam weapons that magically do anything and everything from stun to vaporize.
8. There's no such thing as magical, undefined "force fields" that miraculously stop any and all attacks of every kind (except, for example, in Star Trek, when it is convenient for the story line for the "force field" or "shield" not to stop attacks.)
9. There's no such thing as magical, all-seeing, all-discerning, undefined "sensors" that somehow instantaneously discern every single tidbit of information about a target down to the atomic level, whether it is a ship, planet, or individual being. Only in Star Trek will a "sensor" be pointed at one hemisphere of a planet and detect instantaneously that there are 12 billion life forms on the entire planet (only 12 billion living organisms on a whole planet?!), all of them Borg. (Even the microbes are Borg?)
10. Computers are still just computers, no matter how complex and sophisticated. But, a true Artificial Intelligence just might be something more...
11. All technology is not compatible.
12. Nanotech exists but within limits.
14. Weather control and earthquake control - not. There is no magical God-like control of the weather or plate tectonics of any given planet.
15. Teleportation, as portrayed in Star Trek, using "transporter beams" which dematerialize people (essentially destroy them atom by atom) and then reconstruct them on the other end, does not exist. Star Trek style teleportation violates the laws of thermodynamics, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and quantum physics.
16. Starships have circuit breakers, unlike the vessels portrayed in Star Trek. Control panels and keyboards simply do not blow up with lethal force (usually only on the ship's bridge) killing and maiming crew members if the ship receives a direct hit by an energy beam. Duh.
17. Intelligent aliens are not lurking around every corner. Neither are super intelligent aliens. (But they may be out there somewhere.)
18. Last, but by no means least, above all else remember: The stories set in the Terra Arcadian universe are just stories.
Some of these points I'll touch on in upcoming posts.
Peace, all. J
1. People are still people, regardless of their level of technology, even if they have been genetically modified by an alien virus. This is very important. No one is perfect, and people have flaws. They have desires. They have fears. They have ambitions. They have love. They have hatred. They have sanity...and insanity. They have motivation. They have lives.
2. As Robert Heinlein once said: TANSTAAFL: There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Unpacking this statement we find that the future society of the Terra Arcadian universe is not a utopian, socialistic, communistic, atheistic, politically correct, monolithic, bland, multi-cultural-non-cultural welfare paradise lacking depth and character in which all individuals happily and mindlessly march in lock step harmony to someone's arbitrary politically correct tune so that no one is possibly offended by real life. (Was most of that just one sentence??? Yup.)
3. The third law of Arthur C. Clarke's "Three Laws" states that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." That may be true to a certain extent. For example, a stone age hunter-gatherer would regard a modern flashlight as an instrument of magic. However, to be true Clarke's requires technology that is sufficiently advanced. What this means in the Terra Arcadian Universe is...
4. There's no such thing as faster-than-light communications. All communications are limited by the speed of light.
5. There's no such thing as true faster-than-light space travel. Yes, there is a form of "warp" travel, but it isn't like Star Trek and it isn't real FTL travel.
6. There's no such thing as "artificial gravity." (I wish there was.)
7. There's no such thing as energy beam weapons that magically do anything and everything from stun to vaporize.
8. There's no such thing as magical, undefined "force fields" that miraculously stop any and all attacks of every kind (except, for example, in Star Trek, when it is convenient for the story line for the "force field" or "shield" not to stop attacks.)
9. There's no such thing as magical, all-seeing, all-discerning, undefined "sensors" that somehow instantaneously discern every single tidbit of information about a target down to the atomic level, whether it is a ship, planet, or individual being. Only in Star Trek will a "sensor" be pointed at one hemisphere of a planet and detect instantaneously that there are 12 billion life forms on the entire planet (only 12 billion living organisms on a whole planet?!), all of them Borg. (Even the microbes are Borg?)
10. Computers are still just computers, no matter how complex and sophisticated. But, a true Artificial Intelligence just might be something more...
11. All technology is not compatible.
12. Nanotech exists but within limits.
14. Weather control and earthquake control - not. There is no magical God-like control of the weather or plate tectonics of any given planet.
15. Teleportation, as portrayed in Star Trek, using "transporter beams" which dematerialize people (essentially destroy them atom by atom) and then reconstruct them on the other end, does not exist. Star Trek style teleportation violates the laws of thermodynamics, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and quantum physics.
16. Starships have circuit breakers, unlike the vessels portrayed in Star Trek. Control panels and keyboards simply do not blow up with lethal force (usually only on the ship's bridge) killing and maiming crew members if the ship receives a direct hit by an energy beam. Duh.
17. Intelligent aliens are not lurking around every corner. Neither are super intelligent aliens. (But they may be out there somewhere.)
18. Last, but by no means least, above all else remember: The stories set in the Terra Arcadian universe are just stories.
Some of these points I'll touch on in upcoming posts.
Peace, all. J
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