Politics. Peace. Intersolar Travel.
----------------------------------------
Google + is shutting down comments so.. putting this here:
david shaw4 February 2019 at 14:29
I enjoyed writing this..
my daydream extended further..
After seeing what the American's had with Luna, EAS (English AeroSpace formerly BAS (British AeroSpace).. The English wanted that for themselves, Ceres was to be important for outer Solar mining, and so would become a fueling station, so EAS launched a small spacestation into earth orbit in 2039, it had a small ship attached, they then send up rectangular cubes, something like modular homes or sealed metal portacabins, each containing the things needed to study Ceres, 2044 they had assembled the parts into a spaceport/vessel, inside were remote controlled robots, controlled via VR on Earth (Tera), synced inside the server for any time delay. by 2049 Spaceport 'Jerusalem' safely landed and commenced sending sync signals to the server on Earth.
China once they realized how a much of a claim the Russians had on Venus, backed off, and 2040 launched their mission to Mercury, declaring IF they got curatorship of Mercury, this would also make them Curator of the Sun.. and while all were skeptical, this is certainly how this has worked out. They have ultra high density solar panels that charge vast batteries, they transport them back to Earth and exchange the power for natural gas, oxygen and nitrogen (as exchanging the batteries themselves would not be profitable) but all the vessels need electrical power, especially in the outer solar system (past the Asteroid Belt or as I dub it 'Sol Belt').. pretty much all vessels use their charging system as fuel is so valuable in outgoing missions, they have bases on Europa, Deimos, Vesta, and Himalia.
my daydream extended further..
After seeing what the American's had with Luna, EAS (English AeroSpace formerly BAS (British AeroSpace).. The English wanted that for themselves, Ceres was to be important for outer Solar mining, and so would become a fueling station, so EAS launched a small spacestation into earth orbit in 2039, it had a small ship attached, they then send up rectangular cubes, something like modular homes or sealed metal portacabins, each containing the things needed to study Ceres, 2044 they had assembled the parts into a spaceport/vessel, inside were remote controlled robots, controlled via VR on Earth (Tera), synced inside the server for any time delay. by 2049 Spaceport 'Jerusalem' safely landed and commenced sending sync signals to the server on Earth.
China once they realized how a much of a claim the Russians had on Venus, backed off, and 2040 launched their mission to Mercury, declaring IF they got curatorship of Mercury, this would also make them Curator of the Sun.. and while all were skeptical, this is certainly how this has worked out. They have ultra high density solar panels that charge vast batteries, they transport them back to Earth and exchange the power for natural gas, oxygen and nitrogen (as exchanging the batteries themselves would not be profitable) but all the vessels need electrical power, especially in the outer solar system (past the Asteroid Belt or as I dub it 'Sol Belt').. pretty much all vessels use their charging system as fuel is so valuable in outgoing missions, they have bases on Europa, Deimos, Vesta, and Himalia.
How did Scotland get Curatorship of Titan and Ganymede??
Ohw, it was kind of random luck, in June of 2042 the USA President withdrew all funding for extra solar bodies from NASA, which, as a knock on, hit SpaceX quite badly.. the morale around the world .. the hopes for outer solar mining and travel, sunk to an all time low, quite coincidentally Scotland's Fortitude probe destined for Ganymede launched in late autumn of 2042.. so in part big 'screw you' to the US from the World Council and part genuine gratitude to the 'Truth of Humanity'* towards Scotland's efforts, Scotland was granted special dispensation and Curatorship of Ganymede.. a year later and rushed launch and 'Fidelity' was on its way to Titan.. hopes returned, hearts elevated, and peace of all mankind again became a vivid reality in the making.. merely inches and moments away.
Not lifetime after lifetime of lazy politicians..
SpaceX and Elon Musk were great.. really amazing, but after the US pulled funding and started charging SpaceX for using the Luna Spaceport, SpaceX pretty much declined to staying on Mars, until the tragic death.. in 2058, one of the fueling seals blew, a value began shooting around inside the engine, the whole ship.. such a shame.. they name spaceports and great buildings after him, he is the JFK of Mars, pretty much always will be.
The EU had some meager bases that were contract licenced from SpaceX, no-one else had that kind of money at that time, as the majority of the return had been coming from the USA, who now weren't doing it.. although Russia put in a bid, but since they were already Curators of Venus, it was felt too powerful a thing to give them Mars also, that is our two closest neighbour planets.
Sounds like I am chastising Russia.. I'm not, from day 1 of being Curator of Venus, they have shared resources and done the job they said they would do. A people of their word..The US pulling funding like that.. was devastating.. Russia did the right thing, providing troops for the (then new Service), what they couldn't give in money, they found elsewhere to enable and help others. Even backing down over the tensions of the mining rights/usage of Luna spaceport, just so we all could get *something* to prove the system *did* work. very noble.
Russians detest backing down.. but by doing so over time, we got to prove the US wrong.. these tensions remained until the Odessa Incident of 2085.
Not so much a 'cold war'.. but a 'cold shoulder', from the world to the US for 20-30 years.
As of 2130, the most populous people of the Earth are the ones you are most likely to meet on an intersolar body, The Chinese, The Russians, The Indians, The Americans.. the African Continent, has many peoples and yes you meet them from time to time, the World Council had some problems integrating some of the African countries, as some governments would not agree to punishment of their violent criminals.. it has been an ongoing discussion for over 80 years, with many African nations claiming it was barbaric to send violent criminals to die mining uncurated bodies.
South East Asia contributes many to the Service, particularly The Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar (Burma).
It's rare for me to meet a fellow Scot, except on Ganymede..
Commerce is alive and well.. if you make good money off world you can take those credits rent some land (from the Government of that country, not ownership) and have children here on Earth, raise them until they are whatever age you think they should be, then return to the intersolar body you made your fortune on.
Work isn't exactly as it was before.. you can work for 4 years, getting 5000 credits a week (plus if you make a profit you get to keep that.. there is no such thing as tax, the governmental bodies take the share from the resources, not from you).. if after the 4 years you decide not to work and to stay on Earth you still get 3000 credits a week.. and can live your life out doing whatever it is you want to do, that is lawful and within your means.
People on Earth live to on average to 140 years old now, at 65 they are given a choice if they wish to retire, many take the option not to retire, they are used to the extra money and perhaps they can gain something from working to ensure their children get a larger plot of land (if they are living with their children, a petition of an extra 5 or 8 years worked, might tip the balance for extra land) at 80 years old, they are respectfully asked to retire, they get the full 5000 credits for the reminder of their life having worked until 80. Many are granted a larger plot, regardless of their station of work.
What are conscripts? Is this national service?
Not National Service but.. I'll come to that in moment. Conscripts are members of the Service, but all members of the Service have *somewhat* of a choice where they are posted, an assignment comes and they are given the right to refuse.. however it's not that simple, they can only refuse one assignment at a time.. Russian Service persons usually elect to refuse going to Venus, as it's so hostile on the surface, Russia doesn't really expect them to go to the surface, however in times of crisis they *may* be expected to go into the upper atmosphere (Venusian Mesosphere), which itself can be dangerous, some vessels have irregular orbits and do not maintain their height regulation well, the Service are sent to warn/enforce the captains of those vessels.
If that Serviceperson refuses say Venus, they will be assigned to the next assignment that comes in, which could be Mars.. or Pallas in the Sol Belt, a Penal Colony for violent criminals.. if so you just traded 'bad for worse'.
I mean at least Venus has hotel like cruise ships.. I've been to Venus a few times, it's great for music concerts, the ships are lavish late 1800s looking hotels floating in the sky.
I actually got to be acquainted one time with a Captain, it was his last night of service before retirement, I was drinking chilled Filipino brandy on an upper deck and he came sat down on the chair to the right of mine and had a glass.. we chatted and listened to the concert a couple of miles away.. Russia as Curator doesn't have any noise pollution laws on Venus like most places do.. that's what makes it a great venue.. that and the slow sunsets and sunrises. I *do* understand however why Mars is so anti-noise, it's due to the domes.. glass + sound = cracks.
A Serviceperson can also volunteer to go to a solar body they might like, or ask to work with a specific team working on .. something. They will be put on a waiting list and if their skills are required they will be first in line.
Countries who do not contribute engineering or scientifically, will have periods of National Service and National Conscription.. because of this some of these Service-persons burnout, but it's understood why. A great many see what it is humanity is doing and are inspired to stay on. minimum is 4 years.. that's why they get their own place on Venus or Mars, if they want something on Earth that will last them, they should do the 8-12 years. I say 8 to 12.. this is because if you are on Venus for 8 years, it gets recognised as worth 12 years anywhere else.. but you could serve 8 years in the Sol Belt with criminals, 8 years in the outer solar system, 8 years doing the Mercury runs.. counts as 12 for easier places. Ceres is still 12 years, but it's not hostile, just a spaceport for passengers, service and fueling.
What happens to Countries that refuse to provide *any* Servicepersons and do not contribute to the World Council via engineering or scientific discoveries.. who give nothing?
What are conscripts? Is this national service?
Not National Service but.. I'll come to that in moment. Conscripts are members of the Service, but all members of the Service have *somewhat* of a choice where they are posted, an assignment comes and they are given the right to refuse.. however it's not that simple, they can only refuse one assignment at a time.. Russian Service persons usually elect to refuse going to Venus, as it's so hostile on the surface, Russia doesn't really expect them to go to the surface, however in times of crisis they *may* be expected to go into the upper atmosphere (Venusian Mesosphere), which itself can be dangerous, some vessels have irregular orbits and do not maintain their height regulation well, the Service are sent to warn/enforce the captains of those vessels.
If that Serviceperson refuses say Venus, they will be assigned to the next assignment that comes in, which could be Mars.. or Pallas in the Sol Belt, a Penal Colony for violent criminals.. if so you just traded 'bad for worse'.
I mean at least Venus has hotel like cruise ships.. I've been to Venus a few times, it's great for music concerts, the ships are lavish late 1800s looking hotels floating in the sky.
I actually got to be acquainted one time with a Captain, it was his last night of service before retirement, I was drinking chilled Filipino brandy on an upper deck and he came sat down on the chair to the right of mine and had a glass.. we chatted and listened to the concert a couple of miles away.. Russia as Curator doesn't have any noise pollution laws on Venus like most places do.. that's what makes it a great venue.. that and the slow sunsets and sunrises. I *do* understand however why Mars is so anti-noise, it's due to the domes.. glass + sound = cracks.
A Serviceperson can also volunteer to go to a solar body they might like, or ask to work with a specific team working on .. something. They will be put on a waiting list and if their skills are required they will be first in line.
Countries who do not contribute engineering or scientifically, will have periods of National Service and National Conscription.. because of this some of these Service-persons burnout, but it's understood why. A great many see what it is humanity is doing and are inspired to stay on. minimum is 4 years.. that's why they get their own place on Venus or Mars, if they want something on Earth that will last them, they should do the 8-12 years. I say 8 to 12.. this is because if you are on Venus for 8 years, it gets recognised as worth 12 years anywhere else.. but you could serve 8 years in the Sol Belt with criminals, 8 years in the outer solar system, 8 years doing the Mercury runs.. counts as 12 for easier places. Ceres is still 12 years, but it's not hostile, just a spaceport for passengers, service and fueling.
What happens to Countries that refuse to provide *any* Servicepersons and do not contribute to the World Council via engineering or scientific discoveries.. who give nothing?
Well.. harsh as it may seem, you give nothing you get nothing. If a country is very small and does not provide enough Servicepersons, and does not have the natural talent to contribute.. they ask that they, 1. adhere to all other rules of the world council that they are able to 2. use what resources they have for agricultural provision.. to provide food for the world.
We don't punish those who *can't* contribute.. only we exclude those who can and do not want to.
We don't punish those who *can't* contribute.. only we exclude those who can and do not want to.
To date in 2130, only North Korea is the one nation whom will not cooperate with the World Council, the rest of the planet, every other nation sees the benefit of what we do for humanity.
Wait! Where does all the food come from? on Earth and off world??
On Earth.. just as we have been doing for millennia, we set aside land for the animals and fruit, vegetables that we wish to consume.. then we have overseers, who manage the bots.. the bots report back when a crop or cattle is sick and the overseer, who is a trained veterinarian & horticulturist, will cure whatever ails them.
Wait! Where does all the food come from? on Earth and off world??
On Earth.. just as we have been doing for millennia, we set aside land for the animals and fruit, vegetables that we wish to consume.. then we have overseers, who manage the bots.. the bots report back when a crop or cattle is sick and the overseer, who is a trained veterinarian & horticulturist, will cure whatever ails them.
Off world.. people eat a LOT of fish heheh.. fish and rice! When I was in Space-Glasgow.. four months of fish and rice!.. y'see we found out in around 2050 with the Mars colonists that they were burning through food like crazy.. but rice is a natural constipatant .. so that slows down the bodies ability to burn food quickly.. ensuring every last bit of energy is extracted from the food before evacuation. Water is plentiful around the solar system, so we feed the fish rice that is enriched with algae and some other supplements*. .. humans don't eat the 'fish-rice' although I saw one guy trying to sell it near the Hexagon market.. everyone looked at him like he was totally gross!
They make it in big grotty tanks that are purposefully unclean, to make the algae grow. As money making schemes go.. no sale!
The rest of the food is shipped in, they use Pax-ing.. I like MaxPax (French), their beef stew is sooo good! You can buy cheaper .. Corepax (Russian), nah.. never been a fan of them. The paxing companies reduce the size and weight of the meal to around the cubed size of your thumbnail, they remove the water and air and compress the food until its tiny. Over the years they have worked out how to make it go back to 'normal' once you add water and air back.
They make it in big grotty tanks that are purposefully unclean, to make the algae grow. As money making schemes go.. no sale!
The rest of the food is shipped in, they use Pax-ing.. I like MaxPax (French), their beef stew is sooo good! You can buy cheaper .. Corepax (Russian), nah.. never been a fan of them. The paxing companies reduce the size and weight of the meal to around the cubed size of your thumbnail, they remove the water and air and compress the food until its tiny. Over the years they have worked out how to make it go back to 'normal' once you add water and air back.
What about milk?
Well, we have a choice, dried milk from home.. or suppli-milk made on site, suppli-milks not too bad, but I'd rather have dried that was once real milk. suppli-milk can taste.. a bit chalky.. OK for tea or coffee.. but that's about it. But dried, yeah you can make ice-cream (iced-milk) milkshakes, cheese.. tastes good.
Sugar?
Ohw.. we have a specially created Dexterol (Glucosite), called DexTer, everyone.. even on earth uses that instead of sugar.. all of the energy and sweetness.. none of the fattening or rotting. People were going nuts when they first heard it was GM..but after 20 years of human trails they only thing extra they found it did was increase male sperm count.
It's not white like sugar, but you can have it in granules if you like.. it's orange. Most coffee and tea merchants off world have little dots on the lid of their cups, up to 6 mini DexTer tablets.. as the lid gets placed on the drink, the little dots open and fall into the drink. .. It's stupid.. but people dare each other to bite the mini ones haha.. like the cinnamon challenge.
Sugars the one place I think GM is OK.. coz if there's problems with sugar, and its a staple of our human diet.. I mean who wants to give up chocolate completely? etc.. other GM, I'm pretty against.
Well, we have a choice, dried milk from home.. or suppli-milk made on site, suppli-milks not too bad, but I'd rather have dried that was once real milk. suppli-milk can taste.. a bit chalky.. OK for tea or coffee.. but that's about it. But dried, yeah you can make ice-cream (iced-milk) milkshakes, cheese.. tastes good.
Sugar?
Ohw.. we have a specially created Dexterol (Glucosite), called DexTer, everyone.. even on earth uses that instead of sugar.. all of the energy and sweetness.. none of the fattening or rotting. People were going nuts when they first heard it was GM..but after 20 years of human trails they only thing extra they found it did was increase male sperm count.
It's not white like sugar, but you can have it in granules if you like.. it's orange. Most coffee and tea merchants off world have little dots on the lid of their cups, up to 6 mini DexTer tablets.. as the lid gets placed on the drink, the little dots open and fall into the drink. .. It's stupid.. but people dare each other to bite the mini ones haha.. like the cinnamon challenge.
Sugars the one place I think GM is OK.. coz if there's problems with sugar, and its a staple of our human diet.. I mean who wants to give up chocolate completely? etc.. other GM, I'm pretty against.
Who Curates Jupiter and Saturn?
As 'failed stars' they have special status, every nation owns them and can mine as they please, with the exception of any ecological disturbance. Essentially, the World Council curates Jupiter and Saturn.. giants are however an esteemed prize to Curate. With the Indians probably going to Curate Uranus, this will be the first Curation of an 'Ice Giant'.. with as of 2130 we have not yet reached Neptune with the Service. Lots of probes..no human contact. Once Uranus is controlled by the Service, then manned missions will start. The most outer moons are usually main spaceports, for quicker launching of vessels.. and with Oberon most likely being Cutated by Scotland, The Scottish Space Administration (TSSA) will be asked by the World Council to build a spaceport, so vessels can be launched to Iapetus, Curated by The South American Scientific Council (El Conselho Científico Sul-Americano, ECCSA) then to Callisto Curated by the Nordic Council (Department of Science) then Ceres curated by English Aerospace (EAS), then Mars..
Wait! I get the idea, but why are there 'Councils' and 'Unions'.. doesn't the World Council manage things for the best coordination?
Well.. yes and no, it's the job of our countries politicians to get the best deal for those involved (themselves) and the job of the World Council to give out work to those they think will return the most resources, Curatorship is an honoured extension of this; that the Curator is believed to be able to return the most resources to Earth, without causing ecological disaster.. some countries decide to ally themselves to maximize scientific and engineering contribution and minimise conscription.. even separate partnerships.. Like Scotland is a member of the 'Raf-Fin'e Gauls' which is a council with The Irish & French.. we also employ Welsh and Cornish peoples.. but again Scotland is on the Nordic Council with the Scandinavian nations.. and again a member of the EU.. and a member of the 'Pan-Atlantic-AustralAsian Alliance' which is the scientific branch of 'The Commonwealth'.. it's all very very complicated.. but to oversimplify it..
Working together gets you a share of incoming assets as stated, if you can contribute an IP to help another nation, you get a share.. Scotland owns many IPs, so we offer in exchange for a share.
The council, union or federation gets to complete their project without the cost of finding out if their idea would work/the whole project failing due to the part not working, knowing the IP already works and has been launched into space and does its job successfully.
The IP holder gets a share of the resources.
Normally Spaceports are run by a few nations working together, but Scotland is pretty rich, Praise The Lord! We do pretty well..
Curation by council bodies .. works easily as far as resources go, but as far as work goes.. the teams who make the IP.. well that's a bit more complicated, however, we don't have war so.. let people who enjoy arguing for better deals.. do their job. We civilians don't have to care..
How does the Mag-Suit work?
The Mag-suit has two parts, the clothing and the outer-shell.. The clothing has high density metal fibers woven through it, on Earth (Tera) it weighs 6 times the weight of the human that is to wear it, because on other solar bodies, the G is a fraction of 1.. meaning if you are on a body that is 1/6 the G-force of the Earth, you are weighted the same as if you were on Earth..The outer-shell is weighted to twice the weight of the human, why do it this way?.. because fabric is easier to manage, so when you take the outer-shell off, the acclimatization to the weight adjustment is easier.. means when you are on a spaceport/base you can take your outer-shell off and not be totally relient of it.
Now how this all works is..complicated to say the least..
Under the spaceport/base there is a giant electromagnet (Magnotron) that regulates the menial gravity (mG).. all things are weighted for the spaceport/base they are on.. this is yet another reason NOT to take things from that specific spaceport/base.. everything except food and consumable liquids. Stealing a ..pen might mean nothing to you.. but to it's owner it's weighted correctly for that solar body and enables them to do their job correctly.
Besides.. once you have a few souvenirs (I bought mine).. it seems very silly to own a snow globe or bobblehead that weighs say.. 10 kilos? nah.. like the Service tell you on Ceres.. don't buy out of the gift shops, its for suckers.
The 'metal supplements'.. man they are gross! The metal is mostly Iron as the body can absorb that the best..but again, it's not the best metal for the nanites to use..
What are nanites? do they create gravity?
Nooo.. The nanites are teeny tiny robots that repair the space osteoporosis, they fill the holes and line your bones with the metals you drink.. well I say 'metals'.. it's like the most gross milkshake.. steel tasting cocktail.. oh man! and the headache when the metal hits your stomach! ..but after a while those little nanites grab it all, repair your stomach from any damage and begin repairing your bones.. eventually over decades replacing your bones with perfect metal replicas.
When you come back to Earth, you feel stronger.. bones AND muscles.. this is because the Magnotron can't mG everyone, so it errs on the side of caution.
There is a standard called VmG.. which is used around the solar bodies.. Venusian menial Gravity .. the rule states that humans should be left with 1/10th Earth G 'give room' flexibility, this is a safety standard ..it's better to be able to move quickly, then be too tired to move quickly'.
You see signs up in spaceports when leaving Mars.. 'VmG ZONE!' and posters 'REMEMBER VmG!.. Do NOT wear Mars Mag-suits to the outer solar system.. exchange your suit today!' with a woman changing into another mag-suit 1940/50s bombshell style art on a poster.. bet that saved a few lives! Most men would remember that.. catches the eye.
G+ mG (+0.1G/-0.1G) = 30 cycles = L.G (Local Gravity)
~~ per min
VmG
Ends up for every 1 second your lighter then the previous second, gives a bit of work out.
hahaha.. hehe haha.. a rare time you see someone wearing a Mars Mag-suit in the outer solar system.. they are easy to spot because as they are the only blue ones and all the other Mag-suits are Orange gradient to red*... the amount of times the Service must've stopped that poor guy on Ganymede.. wooo!
How long does it take to get to Solar Bodies and how do you get there?
Ohw.. well.. my 4 months on Ganymede was a 14 month expedition (3.2 years total), you plan it.. like you would long haul flights, that are meant to join up.. The quickest vessels will get to Mars in around 3 to 6 months. back in the early days of space travel it was around a year, we had very limited thinking as to fuel/speed.. now that we can build in space, we can make ships as large as we wish and use much more fuel than previously..
You leave the Earth to the Luna Spaceport, takes around 3.5 days with cabin facilities, the wait time can be crazy for launch, but.. we're understanding about it.. I mean what's 3.5 days in the scheme of things? The vessels are constantly coming and going.. delays are common.. check, re-check etc.. then the flight is around 2.8 days.. then some extra time for orientation and security.. your thumb print is all you need, everything else is provided.. your thumb print is both your ticket and wallet.. if someone else has your print (print fraud/identity theft) they take a sample of your DNA and check it with the Earth records.
Once on Luna, they are quite tight about launches, the vessels are pretty massive and can hold upto 2500 people per vessel..but the one I left on had just 300 or so people.. I think I heard one of the Service saying there was a delayed launch on Earth so.. the ship behind us must've been packed.. 1000 + people I would guess. Maybe 1200..?
With it being only 300 we didn't have to share cabins, nice and roomy.. whereas if it's packed you get four beds per cabin..hate the idea of that, prefer my personal space.. but since my off-world permit says 'Artist - (disabled)*' best I could hope for, not to get the dorm rooms. 4 roomer is not bad..but that was so lucky! got the room all to myself! .. dorm rooms are corridors you get a private bunk but.. it's a bit coffin like, you can close your panel, but open it and bam.. your in front of everyone.. not to mention being sanitary. In the cabins, people are polite and each takes a turn using it for their needs, whatever that is.. while the others are in the rec rooms or going for a walk in the gyro-garden.. 1 hour is polite for private use.
Service persons travelling get their own personal cabin, as does the flight crew who are also Service persons.
My flight itself was about 2.5/3 months with hard burn..used to be double that, but we also had reduced weight.. on Earth before we could create large enough vessels to stock as much fuel as we like so we can use more to go faster.. hmm..
You land on Mars, wow.. my first time on Mars.. everything is made of glass, 'Stardust City' is beautiful!.. the Musk Spaceport looks pretty much like Luna's because they were designed the same..but once out of the Spaceport.. wow.. gigantic glass domes within domes.. one solid piece of glass.. burnt from the Martian sand..
Wait! What?? How the flip??.. sounds Sci-Fi to me..
Ohw.. erm.. okay.. so they lay out a circle of pipes and lay the sand on top then they slowly superheat the sand into.. a kind of glass lava/magma, underneath they pump Gallium.. huge quantities of Gallium.. the Gallium 'eats' any metals in the sand, leaving only the glass..which is made into a bubble as the outer glass cools hardening and the inner pressure shaping it..the outer black glass is chipped away by an 'army' of bots.. the bots then laser heat the jagged areas.. much like sandpaper to jaggy wood. The whole process take around a year per dome and up to 4 years for a very large dome.. failure and cracks can happen, but those domes have no one in them, as they are tested for many many years before they are ready for humans.
Sooo.. anyhoo..you move dome to dome via underground walkways sealed with concrete. The third dome is huge.. you are offered induction to Mars, but it's optional. I went in because I was travelling alone.. and you never know when you might meet a hot Martian girl!
The Martian girls dye their hair purple/mauve, green, fuchsia.. any non-natural colour.. it's a cultural thing to identify themselves as Martian.
The Martian girls dye their hair purple/mauve, green, fuchsia.. any non-natural colour.. it's a cultural thing to identify themselves as Martian.
I had 8 months on Mars until the flight to Ceres was ready to depart, the flight from Mars to Ceres is around 70 days.. and Ceres to Jupiter 70 days to 4 months with good alignment etc.. bad alignment.. you could be waiting on Ceres for over 2 years...but if such situation arose, the Service would consider sending you home.. or at least to Mars or Vesta.. Pallas?*..Ceres has a very small population and small base, which they are trying to grow, but the allure of Jupiter.. is such a pull..
I was on Ceres for only a week, The English guys were friendly enough to me, saw a couple of Welsh guys; pretty distant.. guess they are still burnt we left the Kingdom.. Ceres has a small rec room and movie theater..tiny marketplace.. the upper deck was nice though, huge dome.. you could see all the Asteroids and Jupiter in the sky, like Luna from Earth but a 10th the size..
107 days later, I was on Ganymede in Space Glasgow, pretty rockin'.. they have a pub called 'The Barras' puts on shows.. the upstairs is the Barras venue in miniature.. pretty cool, some guy was doing tours of the surface in a buggy.. at first I was super nervous, but after I seen him come back 4 or 5 times unharmed.. I thought.. 'ah well.. why not?!' .. the underground complex was good for entertainment, bit of shopping in the market.. then world hopping to the other moons.. 4 months flew by!
* my off-world permit w/ photo:
Name: David Shaw
Country of Origin: Scotland
Occupation: Artist - (disabled)
Age: XXXX
License : XXXX-XXXX-XX
: 0 reprimands
DNA sync-code: oxoyoxx
Artists get 4 years per 10 years of contribution.. so my permit would say if not disabled; 'Artist - 2 terms.' 2 terms is enough for a very modest plot.. 4 terms is enough for a decent plot. 1 term is genpop. You don't need to contribute anything world changing.. so long as someone somewhere enjoyed what you did, it counts as a contribution to human culture.
People can work anywhere in the world they like, when I got my second term I moved to NYC for a couple of years.. great Art scene!.. like Glasgow used to be when I was younger.. bands, plays, gallery work, design..really liked it there. I have the suspicion if I had gone before my second term, they would have stuck me in genpop.. even though I am disabled and so exempt.. having that second term counts a lot with respect, means you didn't *just do the bare minimum*. So they gave me a sizeable apartment.. it was okay, really liked it.
I produced a couple of bands there.. if anyone in the next ten years or so buys their album/s it will contribute to my 3rd term, but not my 4th, as its limited to the previous term.
What if you miss your destination??
Well most planets have moons, it's not usual to miss the mark by that much.. but in the case of being off.. we could just land on the planets moon..?..I mean the Sol Belt has four worlds, pretty spread out, if the margin was great.. then stop and wait for the next one.. same for the gas/ice giants.. for Earth.. I suppose we could land on Hothree..??(joke).. but missing a destination in the inner solar system is not alarming.. because we could go on to Venus or Mercury.. land, recalculate, refuel.. and head off.. if it's the outer solar system, we would have enough fuel to get to at least one moon, but if we were judging it and it wasn't possible, then we would return to Ceres.. but.. it's silly to think a Capt. would set off FROM Ceres knowing we were going to miss our destination..no.. if coming into the inner solar system from Ceres.. the chances of missing.. Mars THEN Earth.. THEN Venus AND Mercury.. must be in the trillions to one..and out-going to the outer solar system.. like I said before..the planetary system has to be there before we leave..
How do they get the resources back to Earth?
Well it's been 80 years and the World Council are still promising a 'Mag-Lift'.. hehe not in my lifetime!
For gasses, they leave the huge ship in a low-ish orbit, there are bases around the arctic belt, they send 4 coordinated vessels up to latch on to a huge pipe, then they guide the pipe back to the base.. the pipe is ultra stretchy with loads of give, and the ship gets emptied that way over time.. I think they *may* refill the places that they took the old natural gas from 100/150 years ago.. I dunno
For solids.. the Pacific is an ideal drop point..as there is pretty much only water out there for thousands of miles, water being able to sustain the blow of dropping thousands of tonnes of metals and other solid resources, about three miles in diameter, not diameter.. but shaped more like a boat or a wing, 3 miles by 1 mile by 2 miles, the 2 miles is the wing that hits the surface like a knife.. they have oxygen tanks and inflatables that go off once the pressure reaches a certain depth.. after about a week, it surfaces and is ready for processing.. going to Hawaii U.S. or Sendai, Japan or Isla Guadalupe, Mexico.
You can't just keep firing down drops over and over as it causes such a disturbance in the water, so they do 3 a week, one for each processing plant.. heard they might make a new processing plant in Alaska or Kuril, Russia.. but they are all run by the World Council, Governments don't control them and you can't visit them, no civilians allowed and the Service, are super strict about it.
We have a gas base in the north of Scotland, there are signs up everywhere.. 'entering this area, means you *may* be shot on sight!'.. but there's a friendly path right next to it, that will just take you on to the next village, which is fine to visit. I found it by accident when I got lost..
There's never any discrepancy in the shares.. as the governments know how much was gained from the source, how much they are entitled to and how much has to go to their share partners and the World Council to share with the rest.
Works out something like.. over simplified version here..
20% to the Curator
5 to 10% to a partner (for say Ganymede, we don't have a partner so 0%)
5% donation to each member councils (Scotland is a member of 5 councils, so 25%)
5% to the US for use of Luna
3% to EAS for use of Ceres
Refuelling on Mars (free because we are a member of the EU.. see 5% above)
Russian Vessel Tax 10% (but we (Scotland) could have gone with the smaller EU vessels for free)
World Council Investment Tax 7% (Investment and running costs of the World Council, inc their own science)
World Council Donation 20% (goes to the whole world shared out)
Miscellaneous : 10% (in Scotland's case.. we have some left over, so we bank it for later)
We get silicate from Ganymede, which when broken down is an important component of 3D house building, the planet goes through the stuff pretty quickly.. Olivine for CO2 scrubbers, essential for space travel.. because even if we keep pumping oxygen in, we still need to scrub the CO2! Ohw and Pyroxene powder, in paint, powder coating the vessels for heat resistance.
The TSSA are in talks with the World Council about an 'underwater' terraforming of Ganymede.. even releasing fish into the wild!!
Won't they freeze?
Ohw, no they will be close to the core which is quite toasty, they will just swim to the depth they enjoy the temperature of .. whatever is clement for them..but y'know what?
That totally creeps me out.. I know it's silly, but fish being in water that wasn't purified or from Earth.. and just being in the wild like that.. it just creeps me out. I dunno.. eioeww
Maybe once I see everyone eating them, and being fine after a few years I'll try a Ganymede Fish Supper..but until then.. nope.
------------------------
*(which is the maxim: Humans need resources. It is an inalienable Truth, beside the nobility of faith; it is the ultimate truth)
* We feed the supplements to the algae, then we feed the algae to the rice, then we feed the rice to the fish. (we drain the tank of water and plant the rice in the algae = feed the algae to the rice)
* We feed the supplements to the algae, then we feed the algae to the rice, then we feed the rice to the fish. (we drain the tank of water and plant the rice in the algae = feed the algae to the rice)
*(100% water only not nutrients or flavor! .. Maxpax slogan for 50 years!)
* Pallas is a penal colony, but.. it does have a spaceport. Pallas is Curated by the Thailandese, experts at putting the fright up you if you break the law violently. Being Scottish it should make me a bit nervous, however each country has its own laws on what is and is not violent, and ultimately the Judge (in my case Scottish Judge) understands our own culture. Our portion of inmates come from drug dealing murderers..not so much genpop.
*Venusian Mag-suits are black.. and yes I imagine, the Service tease each other with Darth Vader references.. we found colour does NOT show up well on Venus as the light refraction rate
is vastly different than elsewhere in our solar system.
Mercurian Mag-suits are white iridescent.. to reflect heat. Everywhere else, (except Mars which is blue) is orange to red, as orange is a highly visible colour.
* Pallas is a penal colony, but.. it does have a spaceport. Pallas is Curated by the Thailandese, experts at putting the fright up you if you break the law violently. Being Scottish it should make me a bit nervous, however each country has its own laws on what is and is not violent, and ultimately the Judge (in my case Scottish Judge) understands our own culture. Our portion of inmates come from drug dealing murderers..not so much genpop.
*Venusian Mag-suits are black.. and yes I imagine, the Service tease each other with Darth Vader references.. we found colour does NOT show up well on Venus as the light refraction rate
is vastly different than elsewhere in our solar system.
Mercurian Mag-suits are white iridescent.. to reflect heat. Everywhere else, (except Mars which is blue) is orange to red, as orange is a highly visible colour.
* Every extra-solar body has a spaceport.. however, the systems of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus.. eventually Neptune.. the largest most outer solar body (moon) of that system will have a 'main' spaceport, out-fitted more rigorously for more launches, this is so the launches are closer to their destinations, and can use more fuel to get to their destinations more quickly. Some Service Capt.'s might even slow the vessel down, if they think they can make the solar body come to them quicker.. it's trigonometry in action!
*Fish don't care what's up and what's down.. gravity wise..that's why they are easy to keep off-world, they are already in water, which is very like a low gravity environment, naturally.
----------------------
The Truth of Humanity
'Humans need resources, it doesn't matter if you are politically left wing, right wing, center, upside down, back to front, if you are some racist person, if you believe in God, if you don't believe in God.. humans need resources.
it is an overwhelming fact of life.'
it is an overwhelming fact of life.'
This fact cannot be contested it is so inalienably true.
-----------------------
THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ESCALATION OF PEACE
Along long time ago.. two humans fought..but after seeing one dead .. the first human thought.. this could happen to me.. so the next human I will cooperate with..
Once there was 2 humans.. another human saw they had strength together and joined them, this kept happening until they were a village..
Each time they met another village they went to war.. but eventually they realized they could be family..then they became a town..
The towns saw the reason of peace and became cities and countries.. but the countries were too stupid to realize what they fought over.. until one day..
Many countries cooperated to gain near unlimited resources.. so that the world would never fight again.
----------------------
Dava's Treaties on the Truth of Humanity
David Shaw. 43yo . Scottish.
The Truth of Humanity
'Humans need resources, it doesn't matter if you are politically left wing, right wing, center, upside down, back to front, if you are some racist person, if you believe in God, if you don't believe in God.. humans need resources.
it is an overwhelming fact of life.'
This fact cannot be contested it is so inalienably true.
-
I will endeavor to continue this, that each idea presented here is an inalienable truth.
Politicians should protect primarily the beliefs of the people they represent, as society itself is based on belief. Each and every person on the planet requires resources, so it follows politicians represent a function of society to achieve satisfactory provision of resources while preserving the beliefs of the people they represent.
The Earth has limited resources. It is our home. As human beings increase in number; the Earth must provide more resources to sustain these new humans.
The Solar system has unquantifiably large resources, more than enough for humans. Water is abundant which can provide oxygen and hydrogen once diffused.
In all the universe we look for other intelligent life. This being said; we know human beings represent a unique consciousness in our solar system, so it follows, every life has value and all lives much be sustained; without question.
The ultimate job of politicians is to, gain resources, protect culture and bring freedom to order. Politicians must provide order through policing and rehabilitation or incarceration.
So the goals are clear:
1. resources
2. culture
3. freedom within order.
Eventually the Earth will no longer be able sustain mankind. Even sooner than this, the quality of life will become worse as we try to sustain the humans we have.
There are business that pollute the Earth. However these pollutants, such as CFCs in different atmospheres would not pollute but be absorbed. Businesses could move to Mars and put CFCs into the atmosphere and raise Mars' temperature. Allowing them to continue making their products, paying tax, attaining profit, all the while improving Mars' atmosphere for human habitation.
Our Earth, Our Moon, Our Sun.. these are nicknames, personable love for our home, but if we are from Mars the moons are Deimos and Phobos.. in the future instead of 'earth' martian humans may have a nickname for Mars.. like Red or Big Red, but it's name will always be 'Mars'.
Our Earth's official name is Terra. Our Moon's official name is Luna. Our Sun's official name is Sol; our system is 'the Sol system'.
As an aside.. I would encourage those with wisdom to call the inner asteroid belt; 'The Sol Belt'. because 'Asteroid Belt' is far to generic and has a fumbling short-sightedness towards the future.
Crime and Punishment
Criminals who are removed from society will not offend against society again. But as moral humans we must differentiate between, damage to property and damage to human life.
Theft of all kinds should be treated as damage to property and so non-violent. Everything that is not unique can be replaced.
Murder is damage to human life.
So .. some politicians argue this. some argue that. Human beings once dead cannot be replaced. This is a fact.
I contend that the power be given to judges, but not of any other culture but judge *only* the culture they were borne by and grown by and reside in, that the power is given to judges for a sentence of imprisonment by mining intersolar resources to pay not only for their own life but to provide for humans.
No prison escape could ever be planned. Space is too hostile. Escape means death.
Human life is beyond measure. Damage to property should never result in death.
Matters that must be judged:
Dealing narcotics.. did they result in death?
Death in Adultery.. was the murder a crime of passion?
Adultery..did the partner suffer, did it ruin a family?
Environmental damage.. did anyone die? Should the board be imprisoned for misconduct leading to damage of human life?
Resources and Prestige
What do humans require?
Resources and prestige, what resources do humans require and how they be motivated to attain resources and provide services to other humans once they have every resource provided to them?
Humans require:
Nourishment & Hydration
Warmth & Clothing
Land
Housing (enough to rear many children)
Energy/electricity
Hygiene
Hygiene
Medical/Dental
Education
Transportation
Liberty in movement, work & residence
Providing these things is a not a light proposition. It takes an entire society to provide a high quality of life for human beings.
Human beings crave prestige the thought that their society values them.. this is not an absolute law, but an allure of immortality in remembrance. Prestige provides such a thing. To be greatly valued in a field while alive and remembered once dead.
Society must provide a reward whilst giving everything required for human comfort. The reward must be greater liberty in exchange for work.
I propose that we humans work 'terms'.. a term would be 4 years. A system of prestige should be devised to give a worthy reward.
Not purely meritorious or a meritocracy, intent should be rewarded. Not to punish those who can't .. but always reward those who do. If you have a qualification in a field and pursue that field.. it is a profession. It shouldn't matter what that field is..bee keeping to spear making to curator of a private museum. If you have a degree and have pursued it as a profession.. you get a term for every 4 years. In society people themselves will decide what they think of other people's terms..
I have a Vocational Degree in Sound Engineering and Music Production. Working in the arts is always difficult to find regular employ and the artist temperament means we take longer to digest before we share. I would say for artists a lighter social requirement be placed for proof of work but a longer gestation per term. I suggest 10 years .The Arts are not a dangerous profession, it is unlikely the person would die before completing quite a few terms.
What are the greatest gifts politicians can provide for us?
Answer: as many children as we wish, sustenance for said children and maximum liberty within society.
Money must still exist as it brings a human quality of trade and trade brings peace. But no human must be under threat.. to threaten humans is to provoke war.
We must take threat out of the equation, but still maintain society, We do this in how we structure reward. If someone is told they may not go to Mars unless they have first provided at least 1 term, they cannot have an 'off-world' permit and they want to go to another intersolar body, the drive they feel *may* urge them to work at least 1 term.
I want to use words that are easier to communicate, I want to say; we have *near* unlimited resources; it would take thousands and thousands of years to use up those resources even with an excessive population. So when I say 'near unlimited' this is what I mean.
We have enough resources in the solar system that human beings can live a high quality of life, each and every one without threat of death or threat of liberty or threat of war.
Human beings as far as facts provided so far, are the only fully conscious beings in the universe.. as far as we know. Each human is precious. We should allow humans who do not contribute to society to continue their lives. We do not reward such behaviour but we do not punish it with threat of deprivation of necessities also.
Human beings should have the *right* to a high quality of life and very long life expectancy. Every human.Without exception.
Only those who jeopardize life should then have their life jeopardized. Only those who jeopardize liberty should then have their liberty jeopardized.
One is old, one is new.
The idea of an 'Army' or 'Navy' or 'Airforce' is outdated the second we have access to near unlimited resources. These brave patriotic people will still exist as a strata of future society, however their job to protect their country and by evil politicians gain resources for only their country should end.
In the past war was a tool to gain resources and end in peace. This costs human life.
As a member of our Service, you should abhor war.. why? because war ends peace, every soldier's end goal is peace, but by providing near unlimited resources no politician will ever have the excuse to require making war with another country.
So logically it follows that a unified Service controlled by one world body would end war. Every enlistment would be to the Service and no country would have their own military and so cannot go to war.
Every one of the Service is taught these principals:
1. War is a useless antiquated expression of ego at the cost of human life.
2. War means the extinction of humankind, because as war functions to gain resources, we will continue use war as a method to gain resources and so never leave this planet.
Weapons of war upon the planet could kill the entire human population and this will escalate with man's better understanding of science eventually through human error and arrogance we will destroy ourselves, it is inevitable.
3. Humans killing humans is wrong. I believe in divine providence. I currently know of no politicians that are 'divine'. No soldier *wants* to kill anyone. They *love* to protect and preserve their countries way of life.
4. If a Service person is told to be dutiful to a politician.. no matter that politicians rank, that Service MUST disobey that politician, and I will explain why here:
Politicians are no longer in charge of you, let the World Council that operates the Service issue your directives and orders. By listening to a politician you risk ending world peace. It just takes one Service.. one person makes a decision to listen to a politician and a moment later.. a million million people are dead, displaced, dying, sick, children are malnourished .. because ONE lone Service was foolish enough to obey a politician.
War is obsolete. Why is a politician issuing you orders?
Will it gain more resources for humankind and so cause more peace? no.
Let the police and justice system deal with those who disobey your laws and in other countries their police will deal with those who disobey their laws.
The saying goes: Not my table, not my problem.
The World Council only have control of the Service so long as they maintain world peace. So long as they facilitate providing resources for everyone. Even one Service could bring down the World Council in a day by obeying a politician.
The World Council is unfit for purpose IF:
1. They do not maintain peace.
2. They do not provide sufficient resources management and distribution.
3. They do not provide liberty within the confines of society and local culture.
War is obsolete. Why are you asked to kill anyone?
The Service's job is to protect humans, to gain intersolar resources to maintain world peace.
The Service's job is NOT to kill anyone. The Service *may* be armed as an extreme precaution to stop people at Spaceports acting strangely.
You may be a engineer, security, medical .. if you are security your job is to simply stop idiotic behaviour in space and on intersolar bodies. Civilian areas should be pretty 'idiot proof' having nothing they can touch to cause trouble.
And finally..
The worth of Humanity as a race of beings can be summed up thusly: If we stay on this rock, fighting over this rock.. and die on this rock. maybe we weren't worth it after all.
If we value life by valuing each other and spread out across our solar system and eventually the stars.. then maybe we were.
Dava
---------------
More daydreaming fun in 2130..
Human of 2019: What was your experience on Mars like as civilian?
Well its.. hmm..everywhere you go your *somewhat* underground, ohw there *are* doors you can walk out of to the pavement (there's no roads inside the domes).. they are mostly for decorative purposes, each building as a floor 1, but you don't use that, you use the floor down.. buildings don't go up on Mars, they go down in to the ground.
So it goes : Floor 1. Floor -1B. Floor -2. Floor -3. Floor -4. The rooms have faux windows about 10 meters away to make a fake exterior (also used as a fire escape).. hmm Venus.. as far as radiation goes Venus is super safe because we are always facing away from the sun.. Mars you need to carry a lead brolly if you want to go outside of the buildings..
Human of 2019: Tell me more about Venus.. you've been a few times?
Ohw yeah loads of times.. as a muso its essential. You *need* that experience.. it's part of the final criteria for earning your degree.. and because mine is Vocational, there was no question, I *had* to do it.. by the end of the course it was just ten of us.
The criteria was.. I needed to produce a live band (including doing the sound engineering) and I had to find a band on the World Council 'WC Arts' .. their equivalent of 'Chord'.. it's a matchmaking site for producers and bands.. and generally matchmaking musos of different types.. I had to find a band with a 3.5 or higher approval rating/sale rating.. I had been talking to the singer of a certain band for a couple of months before getting ready.. she was *super* nervous.. but I showed her my thesis on the history of music 1900 to 2106.. and she chilled right out. I was only 19 years old.
The other band.. well.. I got to Venus and was staying in this old 1970's themed hotel that the World Council owns.. the Russians still kind of run it though, it was a bit janky but it had its charm..I got to Venus and the band I was to engineer for the live event.. the singer had got in a fight with the guitarist.. they were a punk-thrash-hybrid band (Russian).. apparently the guitarist slept with the singers girlfriend or something.. I was gutted. I went to the upper deck and got a bit drunk.
2 hours later the guitarist contacts me saying he has spoke to the rest of the band and they are firing the singer.. I was like 'no way..' So I phoned the singer and jumped on Chord to see who was around.. Felicity's band was of course on Chord.. so.. I got a hold of Ivan their drummer and couple of other peeps and got it all sorted.. the booking was in my name so.. tough. no consent; no concert.
It worked out pretty well.. and I got excellent rep and my story told on Chord, I still get likes for it today; 24 years later. Ivan is still with Felicity's band.. no one was poached, but he drums for Kenny's band too.. Felicity heard the story and give me super respect for it. I *think* she kinda got into me after that.. but she's got a boyfriend, so show respect.
Yeah.. you know WW? big pull back in the day, but that was two albums before in 2106.. they had their big hit January 2108. Was so proud for them. Their album of 2106.. do you know it?
Assistant interviewer: Erm.. not so much but I remember listening to it.. it really put them in a more rock-hybrid oriented direction.. I liked it..
That was me.. hehe.
Assistant interviewer: You produced that??
Yeah.. at 19 years old
Due to the nature of the Arts, I got my proper off-world Permit 6 months later, I checked on WC Arts and I already had a credit waiting for my first term.. so proud! but I knew it was 10 years before pickup. Because I didn't have my degree yet I had a two week temporary permit; that every one of the Service seemed to look at me and laugh ..and then call me a 'space baby'.
I still know how to say 'space baby' in Russian.. kosmicheskiy zelenyy rebenok
Do you know Kenny's band?
Assistant interviewer: Kenny who?
Kenny Kiliner of 'Wishing on a Star'.
Assistant interviewer: Ohw.. yeah, not a huge band but my older sister likes them.
Yeah I produced a couple of albums for him when I was in NYC for a few years. It was OK. I told Kenny my fort'e wasn't thrash punk.. but Rock-Hybrid-Electronica.. but he insisted we give it a go.. got 3.0 approval rating for the first album.. not bad.. not great but not bad. second album was his solo stuff.. got 3.9 approval rating I played on some of the tracks.. helped compose some of it.
Assistant interviewer: That's her favorite album of theirs/his..
Good stuff. I listen to 'Face the Tide' myself sometimes..
That was a great second term, when it shows on my final record when I apply for a plot, they will give me extra credit for that rating/sales rate. Man.. I'm in my third term now, my credits for that work showed.. I got a gift basket from the World Council.. that was cool. Muffins and some super expensive wireless headphones and a bottle of single malt..
That was a great second term, when it shows on my final record when I apply for a plot, they will give me extra credit for that rating/sales rate. Man.. I'm in my third term now, my credits for that work showed.. I got a gift basket from the World Council.. that was cool. Muffins and some super expensive wireless headphones and a bottle of single malt..
Ohw yeah. Righto..erm.. not too much.. we have lead panels surrounding the domes.. first set of panels are about an inch thick, fit together near perfectly, but there's gaps, which the second set of lead panels fixes, this time 3 inches thick and one half space over, there's many layers of lead panels going up to four feet thick making an igloo of lead protection.. the outside is black and white.. because the lead is black and the pyroxene coloured paint has to be white.. the side facing the spaceport needs to be covered in the heat resistant paint for take off and landing.. the other side does not. It's white so we can easily see the condition of the paint and how much is lost.. lead having a very low melting point.
I dare say even with the paint.. the nearside is probably fused by now.
How does anyone see outside?
HAHA.. seeing 'outside' is a luxury best done with monitors! I mean I was SO surprised Ceres has that Observation Deck.. sure it's Titanium Glass but wow!
In the olden days even space suits had glass visors..man that was a dumb system for protecting against radiation!.. let the camera do the work! while your behind 6 inches of titanium reinforced steel and lead.. it's not like the suits weigh anything in space.. relative gravity sure it can be tiring.. but I'll take a good work out over solar radiation anyday!
Nowadays.. we have the Mag-Suits with their reinforced but form fitting plating..the helmet doesn't have a visor.. you either have it on or take it off. The camera feeds an image to the helmet that gives you 270 degree vision. As well as an AR HUD.. just talk to the HUD and it will do what you want.
It's the same on the Luna Spaceport.. the whole facility is about.. a kilometer circled? But a significant portion of that is the radiation shielding.. as I said basically; massively thick lead panels then pyroxene paint to make the lead a little more heat resistant. It's an encased igloo..no windows. no glass to the outside. Even the door you enter is a solid block of lead about.. idk 10 feet thick? 20ft?
But inside.. you wouldn't know. There is windows to the outside everywhere and a huge main window for the departures/arrival lounge.. this is a facade, but so well done you can't tell the difference. I mean it's not like Mars subterranean hotels where you could break the window and climb into the space between.. no, Luna has no 'middle space'.. it's the lead shielding then monitors then the facade of the internal spaceport, a web of well placed cameras make up a live feed of outside.. 1:1 true representation of what the place would look like with glass.. but without the radiation!
hehe.. in fact.. there was that famous case of that Service person back in 2070s.. he rigged up the monitors to still show the feed but also show Godzilla attacking the Spaceport.. hahaha!.. he was *so* fired! The Americans had to issue a formal apology on the news.. everyone thought it was hilarious.. the World Council were raging at the thought he could have killed everyone in the Luna port due to panic. Fair point. But .. it was crazy seeing the video! No one was hurt by the way.. except that Service guy.. I hear all the other Service on Luna at that time had a go at kicking him in the unmentionables.. Service = also raging.
Luna Spaceport itself is both massive.. super massive and not.. let me explain..
Even though we have a huge underground section too and above is a about a kilometer circled.. a large.. and I DO mean large portion of that is the storage warehouse. Y'see it was built into the crater to create the igloo and we even dug deeper to get to the ice.. but since Luna needs so many resources due to not being on Terra.. it needs to stockpile *everything*.. not just the vending machines in the lounge either! *everything*.
Wow!
Yeah the World Council send up regular 'packages'.
Have you ever been on the surface of anywhere.. you mentioned a buggy ride on Ganymede..
Yeah.. I was on the surface of Mars .. civilians aren't really allowed on the Lunar surface, various reasons.. radiation, ship building resource security, return resource security, how hostile the Lunar surface is.. but Mars seems equally as hostile and I've been on the surface of Mars.. I just think The Americans just don't want anyone nicking their stuff.. and I think that's fair enough.
On Mars.. we went for a jaunt into a nearby cave.. cave system.. I say 'system'.. but it was tiny. We took a buggy with about a dozen rad brollies there was 4 of us.. I met them outside the buggy hire place where we all stood about like chickens wondering if we should hire one.. one girl said to me 'man we must look like noobs' so I said in Scots.. 'aye well let's dæ iyt boss style.. hau yous two wa'nt tæ come tæ?'.. I could tell she wasn't a martian girl because she didn't have the makeup and hair.. she was from Earth like us..
So we grabbed two rad brollies each off the buggy.. and into the cave. Pitch black but the suits had night-vision which the AR recalibrated into the place having Augmented Reality 'virtual lights', it gave the place the correct colour pallete due to it being a Martian Mag-Suit.. spent.. idk half an hour wandering around.. looked pretty much like Earth's caves.. then back to Stardust City. it was OK. Little boring but at the same time 100% glad I did it for the experience!
The 'world hopping' around Jupiter was pretty cool.. and that guy on Ganymede he knew his stuff! The outer Solar system Mag-Suits are pretty different to the inner ones.. the Venus ones are pretty unique, they don't have a hard outer shell unless you are Service.. they need that for the Jetpack. Everyone thought there would be civilian flying on Venus.. nope! mess up equals death.. but the Service need them to get around.
What are the different Mag-Suits like?
Well.. the outer solar system ones shell's are pretty thick, but you don't notice it too much as you weigh so much less. They have heating coils everywhere inside.. when I went with that buggy tour guy, he didn't care a jot.. splashing into the puddles of oxygen and everything like it was dirt rally, I asked him in Scots 'Ur these puddles no goiny skeen hærm yon suits?' .. asking if the puddles would harm the suits.. but he replied in Scots 'Naw! ays soon ays the liquid gits close tæ ye its aweready stært'yt tæ boil an' evaporate, wance iyt lends oan ye iyt cannæ fight the suits heat... wan o' the reasons Ah drive sa fast iys.. if wi stop wi could melt yon surface an' git stuck.'.. met a few Irish brothers on Ganymede in the Barras Bar.. there's a running joke they say to us Scots 'This shoulda been our world!' hehe.. because 'Ganymede' sounds like an Irish name of a town.
I went on all the cruises and tours after that.. before I was a little nervous. I went to Callisto, the Scandinavians were cool friendly people.. but the Scots have Scandinavian blood, we're related to the Norwegians, ohw and the Icelanders. Felt nice but they are probably like that to everyone. Callisto's a lot like Ganymede being honest .. it's got a few very minor caves with liquid water in them.. we flew by on a jetplane, didn't get to go inside but the tour guide mentioned them. Civilians aren't allowed near them until they figure out what the flip is going on there..by all rights it should freeze. it doesn't. took about an hour to do the whole of Callisto.. then going shopping at 'Sentraal'.. they had some low G video games I hadn't seen too many of those, it was in the bar..it was 5 credits a pint of cider.. for bot made cider! expeeeensive!
Then on to Europa, it's jointly curated by the Russians and Chinese now.. but that's a new thing, up until 2111 it was curated by the United Arab Nations.. but they are a strange bunch, not in conduct personally, but financially. Since the 2050s regularly upping funding and then suddenly pulling funding... seemed they were not 100% about the idea of curating. In 2108 a claim was filed that they had not gained enough resources from Europa to continue their curatorship.. the decision came back from the World Council that it was true. Shocked everyone.. no wait.. shocked no one. When you go to Europa.. it is very Arabic themed, but then all the Service are Russian and Chinese.. mix of culture there. I saw one of the big Chinese/Russian Mercury ships..it was coming in to the docking station overhead.. it is MASSIVE, we watched it drop those huge batteries one by one.. civilians are not allowed to go to Mercury, for obvious reasons.. I mean like I said if you were stuck.. yeah you could land and refuel, but that's a Service Captain doing that.
My Chinese is awful.. and the Chinese can't speak much English (let alone Scots), but there's signs up for universal mime. Sounds nuts but it works great. Like.. grabbing your stomach with one hand, making a fist with the other and grunting means 'I urgently need the toilet.. please where is it?'. There's a depiction of it on the sign with a few languages underneath.
I liked Europa.. everything is HUGE. The Chinese really upgraded the place.. the Russians were supplying the new kind of ships to them for free so they could get all the resources that were not gained previously, quickly.
On to Io..
Io Mag-Suits are Iridescent Orange black and white.. they start white then the colder things get the more they go orange and finally black.. this is because Io is pretty hot for the outer solar system. Sadly we weren't allowed on the surface that day.. there was some sort of energy excavation.. I didn't really understand what the pilot of our hovercraft said.. or I wasn't listening due to watching the plumes outside. The Io hovercrafts are a feat of engineering and chemical genius, it doesn't have a motor underneath but a mix of chemicals that do.. a lot of stuff I don't really understand.. I often imagine it's like the Venusian sky vessels.. but try saying that out loud and about ten people will spring from nowhere to correct you. The large hovercraft was supposed to dock and we were meant to go on to the Io plinths, the plinths are a series of tall plinths with adjoining bridges.. distanced *just* the right amount away you don't get splashed (I went back a couple of weeks later and did this.. it was excellent fun!).. but mind you I could see how hot those volcanoes were.. 1 splash = death.
Io is curated to by the Germans. They invented the Io hovercraft technology.. as a Scot.. I've got to say.. it was a feat of genius. no doubt. respect.
I don't understand.. what does it do?
Well from my very limited understanding... as we 'float' around, the plumbs hit the bottom of the craft, this hits the aforementioned chemicals, turning the magma into gas then converting it lighter gas than the surrounding gas giving us lift, at the back of the craft the rest is ejected as freezing cold liquid that turns instantly to ice when it hits the surface. The heat is extracted and turned into energy to power the craft.. but a lot more is going on.
On the surface at the plinth bridges the atmosphere is sulfur dioxide, but the pinths are huge, we aren't near the atmosphere when we cross... it's kind of like flying by, except you're walking across a bridge.. its nuts! hehe
Wow!
Ah! I wondered when you would get round to this..
Okay so we had a situation a long time ago..the EAS (English Aerospace) had decided that the surface of Ceres was too alien too hostile (too cold and irradiated for that time)..Well the English decided to create robots.. small robots while the (then astronauts /early Service) were in 'sleeping chambers' with a view for lucid dreaming controlled by light.. it was a nuts idea, but saying that it became the nucleus for extreme colonization. The technique quickly became outlawed and the English issued a formal apology.. surprisingly they got to keep Ceres, but it was a different time back then..and they did a good job since.
Now what I'm going to share is pretty classified with the Service and I don't know *much* about it but..
The service launch a hab.. a hab is a small vessel, maybe 12 Service? each with their own room and lab.. but also their own avatar chamber.. Surrogate avatars.
Interrupts: Wait! what happened about the technology.. did something happen?
Erm .. y'know the unspoken rule one of being human; don't mess with the natural order of things?
Yeahhh.,. they were messing with sleeping. after two years.. the crew went nuts and started ripping each other apart. They just lost it when there replacement crew launch failed.. so that stress combined with the weird sleeping stress and being in a (then) remote part of our solar system.. they cracked and started doing strange things. When the replacement crew arrived it was.. unpleasant to say the least.. only one young woman survived, but she was scarred for life with what she saw.
This all lead to the 'World Council Directive Initiative 2051':
Humans must be expected to be humans. hydrate. eat. sleep. evacuate.
These four things are incontrovertibly human and cannot be defied.
Create any disruption to these four requirements and you are unworthy to be in space.
Soo..initial missions that do not have proper supplemental support, like the upcoming ones to Uranus and Oberon.. I'll explain in a little more detail:
So the main ship will act like a orbiting space station on the dark side/darkest place of Uranus, using Uranus as a shield for solar radiation .. then they'll send down bubble drones to Oberon and once they select a location, they'll send down four massive magnets that have a center cradle..
tbh some of this stuff I'm not supposed to know, the retired Russian Service Captain told me a few things, I'm not sure about sharing this.. but since you're a time traveller I guess it's okay..
The cradle is a hollowed ball shape and the tether on the ship is shaped like a ball..they fire the tether at the cradle, they now have a *very janky* lift thing, it's all done via electro magnets..they now send down the surrogate avatars inside the 'flower' pods.. that's because when it opens on top of the ball it looks like a plant/flower.. the 'petals' have disc brakes in the center when closed to slow down the pod. They become landing bridges for the avatars when opened.
Once there is idk.. 6 avatars on the surface, in the ship above 6 people are in normal AVR (Augmented Virtual Reality) chambers, 1:1 except the robots are about 12 foot tall by 6 foot wide.
The Service now spend the next months and years building both a landing zone for the hab and some rudimentary buildings.. mostly for emergency purposes. In that time they learn the dangers of that world.
When TSSA (The Scottish Space Administration) landed on Titan.. I must have been around 10 years old.. so around 2097? We still don't have a civilian colony there 33 years later.. the base is fully formed now and the Service and World Council scientists and engineers go there regularly.. but Saturn and its moons are still a 'no-go area' for civilians..
hehe conspiracy theorists say ..'ohw they found something ET on Saturn!' ... nah.. I asked that Russian Captain..he said from what he heard.. there is a strange new radiation type that the lead shields weren't stopping.. the rings are generating .. something.. a harmonic or something that changes the properties of the radiation .. he said many Russian Service had came back 'very dull minded'.. I gave him my commiserations, it's a very sad thing. They are now suffering for us all. My deepest respect to them and their families.
The Russians thought they could make the 'clean diamonds' into graphene shielding.. the Captain said it failed. So sad.
I'm not supposed to know Russian Service were on a Scottish base..ohhhww. But we.. had a few drinks..he was a cool dude. half of what he said was in Russian.. and my Russian is OK.. but not *that* good.
Whoa! Wait.. don't you have universal translators?
Erm.. ohw those.. yeah, but it's a cultural thing.. to open your PDA for translation is considered rude, when you're on a curators 'world'.. you should at least have tried to learn a little of their language.. most musos know at least a little Russian because.. yknow.. Venus; pretty important to the Arts. Loads of film companies even moved from LA to Venus because of the excellent encouragement of the Russian Curatorship.. in fact in the community we are all a bit worried if Russia makes it to another solar system.. will they abandon Venus? will someone else take over?
For Scots.. we speak Scots the sister language of English. The people are culturally obligated to speak Scots on Ganymede.. but only people who permanently stay; learn Scots. Everyone else .. tourists.. speak English to us.. same for Scotland; they learn Scots if they are living here, but tourists just speak English.. a few try to learn a little, which is respectful to us. The basics.. naw/aye/oot/iyn/ A-vs-B/næ-vs-not
Scots speak the Scots language to one another, Gaelic too. Failte!
Internationally we speak Scottish Standard English.
If NASA contributed so much technology.. why doesn't the US have more intersolar worlds? I know you said they withdrew funding but..
Well..the US has a *very special* place amongst curatorships, they are Curators to our home moon, Luna, they are trusted above all other curators not to cause damage to our home Terra.. our beloved Earth.
Luna is more important than most people imagine..
To explain.. the USA is trusted to:
Not end world peace by causing even the slightest thought that they will use Luna for political gain.. as this would most definitely start a world war.
To answer.. not once have the Americans threatened to malign the supply drops or hold anything or anyone to ransom for political gain. In fact.. it is well known they are *very happy* just taking their (sizeable) share. 5% off all incoming resources is.. a near unfathomable amount.
The USA is trusted to:
Never damage Luna in such a way as to harm either Luna or the Earth.
To answer:
Much like the above answer.. the US Government is very happy with the current arrangement.
Because they know: 1. don't rock the boat. 2.if they put effort into mining Luna for anything other than defusing oxygen and fuel, they are risking everything when they know fine well if they sit back and do nothing they get a huge slice of the cookie.
What do they spend it on?
Well.. paying for everything their country needs. Their genpop is pretty decent..you can tell some cash has been spent there, Scotland's is pretty decent too.. not naming and shaming.. but I've seen another country's genpop where they *didn't* spend the money on the people.. shame! shame!.. it gets spent on control of mass food produce & personal provisions.. vast factories of bots making things cheaply. Patents and IP are very important now..
There is still a 'Wall Street'.. they trade in GLC's (Government Licensed Commodities) and Open Patent Rights.. 'Free Commodities' too, but we are actively trying to get the US to stop this.
The world stock markets still exist.. erm.. if I remember right, not checked for ages 1/10th GLC for Olivine is trading for 100,000 credits, so 1 GLC = 1 tonne/ 1000 kilos. so 1 mil for 1 GLC.. max cut is 1/20th.
The US is the only one that trades in the FCs.. but all stockmarkets trade in GLC and OPRs.
Whats an 'OPR'?
Ohw.. so there are companies that sell patents, they develop a tech and if confidence is high they can sell it.. this isn't the same as patents owned by countries. Well.. it is the same but.. ones sold by tech companies is like buying something without insurance.. some get lucky buy a OPR low and sell it to Government for a fortune.. but it's rare.
Saying that.. some stockbrokers are geniuses and can aggregate their patents into consolidated patents.. a consolidated patent.
This is where the stockbroker understands all the patents and makes a new tech based on many/all owned patents. This is why now.. the top stockbrokers all have doctorates in both Physics (practical or theoretical) and Applied Science.
How does tax work?
Well ..there is NO taxation.. take the movie industry for example..every high paid actor, every high paid producer..every studio.. no taxation..
Everything is paid for by the resources gained from intersolar bodies.
The Government (every Government):
1. Takes what is required for future development of gaining more resources
2. Has something called 'Trade Balance'.. some is stored for the future some is traded for credits. The World Bank keeps record of each countries bank account.
3. Uses credits gained to provide for its peoples..every Government pays money to The World Council to be transferred into the World Bank the amount of 3500 credits per week for each citizen, which is paid on to them. This is so the World Council can *ensure* everyone has enough to live on. And additional 1500 is paid directly from the Government to citizens of that country, who are in employment. The World Council takes a share of all initial resources and turns that into credits by selling those resources.. they use this money to pay those who cannot afford shares and in turn grow agriculture to feed all humans.
No taxation for anyone. No business tax. No land tax. No personal tax. Tax is a thing of the past.
Socialism evolved into regulation of prices with basic provision and Capitalism evolved into a much broader and freer high quality market
Work is rewarded.
Contribution is rewarded.
The music industry is pretty much free at this point..unless you achieve massive success and start selling out gigs.. gigs and t-shirts, 1900s, 2000s, 2100s. That's how we pretty much always made our money.. not the albums. The fans provide the financial success through dedication.
You *do* get some QoL (Quality of Life) perks through prestige.. like reputation means you might be required somewhere and to entice you, you will get offered perks. Like Felicity, who is Scottish like myself, was given a massive studio by the Icelandic government.. her band (WW) is a mix of Icelandic Scandinavians and Russians.
From my work I earned (in total) around 50,000 credits for.. idk? 20 years work.. I *occasionally* get residuals from Wandering Warriors album I produced..my last 5 residuals were:
2121: 500 credits
2123: WW were touring so..5300 credits.
2125: Kennys album plus WW revival..12400 credits
2126: 7500 credits
2129: 4100 credits.
Musical Artists get bunk cash.. producers even less.. but it's still a decent life y'know?
One day I hope for a plot on Earth.. but that day for me is a long long way away..
Okay so how much does a plot cost.. you said you can't buy one.. I'm confused..
Right so.. all land is Government owned unless you have a deed. Deeds are passed on to the heir, if there is no legal heir then it returns to the Government.
Once I complete 4 terms I will apply for a modest plot.. I'll be around 59 years old. Still young yet! Medical advances and lack of stress over debt and death.. has done wonders for human beings! We regularly live to 140.. but once you're like 120, you might want a power-suit. It's a skeletal suit, it moves for you like a second body wrapped around your own. .. .. erm it's more complicated than it sounds. You're probably imagining a suit of armor or something.. no its wove into you and through you. It is ultra complicated that is misses every nerve while still being effective.. erm.. I'm not a doctor.
You can rent plots from Governments.. but you do NOT own the deed, when you either come to the end of the contract or die then property goes back to the Government.
The quickest way to earn a sizeable plot is become a member of the service.. the higher rank achieved the larger the plot.. ohw I forgot to mention, there are limits to promotions..you cannot achieve higher than Sergeant on 1 completed term (but all Service are commissioned for two terms.. and this is a requirement for retirement), you cannot achieve higher than Capt. on 2 completed terms (but you are required to have a commision credit on your last term) ... It's designed to slow down favouritism.. everyone should have the opportunity to be an officer, not just those with a private expensive education. No one enters the Service any higher than Private (in training Cadet)
You get the idea.
For a Sergeant, the house and the acoutremon as described above.
A Capt. As above but + 1/3rd extra everything.
Fleet Commander/ Base Commander
As above but this time.. pretty much double everything.
This includes the smaller houses on the land too.
The heir is required to have at least one term completed upon accepting ownership of the deed and to work to *keep* the deed, unless they become disabled or sick.
If you want to have a non-intensive job.. say you decide.. 'I don't want to work too hard I could just be an artist'
no.
First you need a degree. then a term in that chosen (Artistic) profession.. no matter what *some* dumb misinformed people think!.. and you have to maintain your artistic work terms through work credits.
People have been complaining about this for decades.. that if your first term was say.. a waiter/waitress.. if you inherit a deed under that term you get locked into that path and can't just switch.. but again that's not true, because you can take night classes to earn a degree in a different field and do a part time internship for 8 years and then switch. Not ideal.. but hey..
The best time for having children is early 20s to 40s.. soo.. that's just one reason the Service has so many volunteers. Even a Private who did 12 years will get a reasonable plot close to what that Sergeant gets for 8 years.If you join and successfully.. say you're doing the Mars runs for civilian passengers, you never get promoted, if you joined at 18, by 30 years old you will get your plot.
If your say again.. a Private, never get a promotion but are a Serviceperson for a prisonbase or doing the Mercury runs, say you do 16 years, you will most likely get something similar to the Capt.
And if you decide you don't want a plot on Earth (very rare) and not complete a second term.. for as little as four years and a honourable discharge by request.. on Venus they will give you a trajectory path, it's like a deed, and you just hire a load of drones to make your sky-house (materials are free for ex Service or for requested commissions)..or Mars, you will get a plot with several acres, your own glass dome.
No one takes that option though.. well I got offered a Sky-House because I knew a few muso Russians and being a muso etc.. but I knew I would never be able to have children and I couldn't afford the rent on Earth once I accepted it.. I badly regret not accepting it.
I talked myself out of it by moving to NYC..it's because I have quite a good rating on Chord and.. there was a producer shortage and a couple of Russians friends said they would pull some strings..I said no because Venus is near impossible to get pregnant on, much like Mars.. my ex flipped when I told her even though I said that I had refused.. it ended that relationship, but sometimes I wonder if she was more freaked out how seriously I want children.
Ohw! I almost forgot! As stated housing is provided for all.. but once you *own* a deed, the World Council/The Government will NOT support any claims for housing support. If I accepted that trajectory (deed) and built my Sky-House (you get 2 months).. that's it. You don't get access to living on a property on Earth.. I had to give up my place in Scotland to get my place in NYC. Deeds trump all that jazz.. you need to pay rent if you want live somewhere else.
I mean.. there's been people who have found ways around owning deeds on both Mars and Venus.. but not Earth. they clamp that nonsense down. no messing about.
I can rent a basic hotel/motel room for 2-3000 credits a week.. I much prefer not to do that.
For Housing Adjudicators.. they are (local not world) Council civil servants, they have doctorates in Social Science , Housing Economics and Psychology.
They are nice people.. their HR never hires anyone mean spirited. They are friendly, nice, kind, understanding.. but ultimately authoritative in reasoning.
How much does stuff cost? That hotel seemed expensive!
Well.. anything bot made.. is super cheap, it's decent quality, but lacks variety . Basically any liquid except water is around 1 credit.. water is free and is available at any shop, bar or restaurant. There's no stigma now about just going somewhere that's a business, and just ordering water.. or bread is also free.. but its not *really* bread.. they freeze these kind of breadstick things. If you want to just go into a place and drink water and eat that bread.. its free and not embarrassing.. although.. if you go somewhere fancy.. they probably have a dress code. Flip if you go to a Punk Thrash club and are dressed *too* fancy.. they will probably turn you away.
Bot made clothing is around 5 to 15 credits.. underwear 2 to 5 credits. There are these 'super-bizarre-malls' where you can get anything bot made..but also handmade goods for idk 100s to 1000s.
Anything involving renting any kind of land on Earth is super expensive. Rent rates on Venus are great.. you can stay in a 5* hotel for a month for around 2000 credits a month if you take the 'bot menu'.. the handmade food is OK priced too.. probably around 5000 extra credits a month. So since I earn around 20,000 a month.. I can afford it.
Like if a chef/food server has to make some food from scratch.. it takes extra time obviously..but if they just need to defrost the bot made stuff and stick it in the oven.. I mean I can go into a restaurant and order a MaxPax beef stew.. now I know that costs.. 2 credits, but because they made it for me, plated it, brought it to me and allowed me to be in their establishment.. they charge 3 credits.. maybe 4 if the place is posh. If I want a beef stew from scratch probably around.. 30 credits?
You'll find that the difference in standard style foods and beverages are 10 times what is charged for bot made items in that particular restaurant. It's easy to understand.
I said before about CorePax vs MaxPax... CorePax is Russian and MaxPax is French.. I wasn't dissing Russian food.. CorePax is OK.. but for the two main Paxing companies, the Russians have stiff competition going against the French, who have a huge reputation and culture of food around the world for hundreds and hundreds of years. CorePax do some decent iced-milks (like Ice-Cream).. their coffee is good and ohw.. their peach vodka iced-milk.. mmm that's nice, I had that on Ganymede.
Each country has a 'main' Paxing company.. Americans have LuxPax.. Scotland has MacPax.. Japan has SunPax.. they are OK.. its just there is *something* extra in those MaxPax.. mmm..I have no idea how they do it.
The Paxing vending machines.. make your choice; a little cube pops out; you unwrap it into its bag form; rip the top seal; use the instant hot water faucet on the machine; re-wrap the top and place it on the side trays; After a few minutes the 'Yucca plastic' spork will drop out letting you know your food is ready.
Hey.. what's 'Yucca Plastic'?
Ohw its a ultra degradable plastic made from the Yucca plant.. they bred a strain of it so it will only dissolve in seawater due to the salt content. The bag is made from this too..
So when we through our rubbish away it goes into the sea, returns to plant matter and feeds the sealife..everyone wins.
There's loads of underground bases for growing these yucca.. vast tracts.. they grow normal food too.. they are pretty much bio-domes but not domes.. huge rooms that have oxygen pumped in and they use the soil to grow things.. since the the arctic belt and antarctic so pretty hostile.. and we needed 100% of the land we started building underground for more land.. few cities kinda sprang up by accident as we have learned how to control our environmental living climate within 'houses'.
You get.. traditional materials too.. sometimes.. but most of our rubbish that is not recyclable is shipped of to the burning pyres on Mars to help with their atmosphere. That rubbish becomes pretty important to them.. it's used to both experiment and see the outcome.. and catalyse the atmosphere with any successful elements. Besides .. its Mars, they don't have Earth like resources, even something we couldn't recycle on Earth.. they will find some use for it.. something we couldn't do on Earth without polluting the planet.
Whoa!.. but wait how do they make fire on Mars?
Well.. they use a catalysing agent; blocks of hard oxygen while pumping nitrogen.. man.. yknow what? I'm a muso.. not a scientist! If it wasn't for my education .. Scotland revolutionized Education with 'selective subjecting' in the 2090s I wouldn't know any of this stuff.. pretty proud that the world is adopting selective subjecting slowly but enthusiastically.
I had a big thrill interest in space.. so I spend hours and hours learning about that..
What is 'selective subjecting'?
Ohw..I mean you're from a time without it.. so.. you kinda look like a cave person to me.. you were spoon fed information whether or not you brain would be interested and so accept the information.. man that's a dumb way of doing things and I *cannot* belief the human race ever did such a dumb thing.
Scotland has a mucho mucho more strict regime than other countries.. so.. welp.. average day:
I wake up around 9-ish in summer and 10-ish in Winter.. sometime around 10:30am (in summer/11:30am in Winter) I log for class.. I begged my Gran for homeschool logging but let's say she wasn't keen and leave it at that. Q.Q
Average day..first class is recreational study.. two and a half hours.. I can call on a teacher to help me understand the context of what I am reading to learn better the intention of what was meant.. then lunchtime.. 45 minutes..
Scotland is *still* a crazy place.. never changed.. doubt it ever will.. kids be nuts trying to kill or mortally wound/mame other kids.. its normal for Scotland.. we're one of the few countries that is really like this these days..
Second class 'intuitive learning'.. this is erm.. so you get a headset with VR with heart and skin monitor once a month and the computer watches what interests you by showing you clips of things..*scoffs* I scored really high as a kid for enjoyment of the female body.. hehe hmmm.. and I'm talking from 5 year old onwards.. (little true joke there) but really you get the idea.. they are trying to find out what you are naturally drawn to and so will make you the most intelligent by your mind accepting what you learn.. When I was 14yo they offered me a nature art class (they would have offered me sooner but.. its illegal) where you draw the model.. creepiness aside I really found the experience positive.. they uncovered that I was a muso pretty quickly and identified my IQ as 'exceptionally gifted' a gifted IQ is 120 -134. mine is 127.. but these days due to my illnesses that leave me in agony it's pretty hard to concentrate and apply my full IQ..
Anyway.. I'll tell you about intuitive learning properly now.. I always make that joke with people.. you should have seen my teachers faces when they read the report HAHAH
I as you know had an interest in space.. but what you don't know is I have an interest in instrument making and instrument repair.. so say the computer chooses this interest and for the next 2 hours I am taught about fixing guitars, the way guitars are supposed to work.. don't be fooled.. this whole experience is teaching me practical physics and geometry.. when my mind is absorbing like a sponge every drop of information due to the chemical/emotional reactions inside me/my brain.. compare that to the system you have.. the irony is the educators are woefully undereducation in the system of education.. haha.. it's like.. to create children (for men) there needs to be a physical chemical reaction.. no reaction no children,.. and these educators think.. yous can get whatever information is available crammed down your throat and hopefully it will hit the brain.. wow.. dumb. impressively dumb.
och.. no one ever said that politicians of your age knew how to be good educators..
Then for third class.. we have 'integrated learning' team building exercises.. I hated that because, I'm a muso and our temperament is.. ' no sharing until it is digested and ready'.. when I was 10yo they allowed me to be excluded because I protested so much..The teacher gives the class an objective.. such as 'build a ladder and climb a wall'.. so we need to design a ladder from scratch into a blueprint.. we can't just use ladder blueprints ready for bots.. we need to design it ourselves.. this would be to teach geometry and group affirmation.. I think that was a project when I was 7yo iirc.. but you get like one a day.. it's all supervised by the teacher.. and a bot makes that actual thing... in this case ladder and wall.. perfectly safe.
That's around an hour.. can run over an hour.. then 'personal time' which is both study and relaxation for an hour.. we can do what we want and the teachers watch us to learn more about us as humans and make notes.. a furtherment of what did the child want to do.. I used to listen to music.. headset on.. chill out with some cool images/videos..rain or something.. ohw and also they provide snacks food drinks..
then around 5:45pm time for home. Ohw.. I forgot in Winter we get a second break in the afternoon.. for around 20 minutes but not in summer.. but in summer they also hold the majority of classes outside if its good weather. The teacher just uses their pad to control a bot..I suppose in your time they are called drones.. but your drones can't make anything.
It was one of the single most revolutionizing things of the 21st century.. to put a spray nozzle and a fluid tank on a drone.. it also gave A.I the ability to understand 3D space.. hmm wow. Such a simple idea.. 3D print anything.. or spray crops.. or spray paint vehicles.. anything that wants built or spraying..or cleaning.. our primary school had four bots for the whole school.. but man did they get used! they would clean the school automatically.. including the halls and rooms.. spray everything down that would then go down a normally locked drain..then spin up their fans two up two down to dry the place off.. looks like a spinning coin on its side.. just enough up to maintain a little lift though..
Bots to buy are super super expensive.. usually only companies and government have them.. except the house building ones, pretty cheap.. but they are tiny!.. the 'proper' bots are half the size of a car.. soon enough.. I think.. people will be able to afford them, the price keeps coming down every decade so.. maybe I would be able to afford one.. but the cost of maintenance.. I'm not sure.. depends. Liquid plastic tanks.. aren't that cheap; for two tanks (they come in twos) it's around 50,000 credits.. the bot itself is around 100,000 credits.. but when I was a kid they were 2 million credits each easy.
hmmm.. It's great Mars has its own culture.. do the Mars men dress up too?.. Is there any differences in Venus?
Not really.. they just look the same as Earth..
oh! I know a few jokes though..
Q: What do Venusians look like?
R: I dunno
A; Scruffy Musicians :)
hehe
Q: Why did all the musicians move to Venus?
R: I dunno :)
A: So they could all get high more easily.
Q: Why should you never gamble in a Venusian casino?
R: I dunno :D
A: Because you are chancing your money and your life at the same time.. and no one is that lucky!
I don't get that last one..
Ohw thats an old one.. in the early days they didn't have as good stabilizers as today.. so every so often the ship would jut and many things would go everywhere.
Culture seems similar to now..
Well... to me.. your time is a bit.. 'stoneage' in thinking how to solve problems..
Annoyed: How so??
Well.. instead of punishing those who break civilian law, we changed the laws so the law wouldn't hurt the people.. such as immigration and people smuggling.. imagine if there was no immigration rules.. people could go where they want. Then no one would die or go to jail due to people smuggling.. in fact we have no earth-bound smuggling for anything.. sure, sure, you get the odd 'guy in a pub' selling something.. like barrels of contraband gas from the outer solar system.. but the police quickly crack down on such people.
Like in your time.. you have 'homeless' people.. these homeless can't get any money for food.. so maybe they beg or steal for food.. maybe even steal food.. the story of Les Miserables is pertinent here.. why would you imprison someone like that? noo... that's short sighted thinking.. we have wiped out homelessness in my time.. how? it was simple.. those who want housing; get a house. Those who don't; get a tent.. the world council will pay them their 3000 credits a week and they can just do whatever it is they want to do... if they ever lose their tent they get another within an hour for free and it deducted from their weekly allowance over time.. like say a tent is 40 credits.. then perhaps they get 2990 a week for four weeks. Those who hit 0 credits a week or thereabouts get sanctioned into care homes for 6 months to a year until the debt is repaid and they are back to 3000 credits a week and then released .. its okay if they do this their whole lives.. we support people here not chastise them.
I heard they call it 'bedrock'.. if they say 'ohw I've hit bedrock' they mean their allowance has hit 0 and the police will arrest them under sanction of being a harm to themselves.
Annoyed: So.. isn't that a form of imprisonment.. I mean you were just saying..
Well.. we could let them just exist on free breadsticks and water for 6 to 12 months.. but that seems cruel to us.. better to give them a place to stay somewhere warm and regular meals.. no?
I mean.. they don't go to any actual prison.. it's a care home with nurses and doctors and social workers.. soo..it's very much a kindness.. unlike your time, just let them starve or freeze to death.. or be imprisoned with violent criminals which most certainly will endanger their lives.. or they get taught skills that will harm society.
Sorry for the offence.. but it's dumb.
People need freedom and liberty .. human beings crave it in our very nature.. we also need security and society.. knowing we are not alone in the world and can ask for help/justice and receive it.. there is no peace in turmoil and without those four things, freedom & liberty - security and society .. we in our human weaken state are in turmoil.
We are taught this as little children: do not be cruel to those who cannot do what you do, for right and wrong (human justice) is simply a idea (concept) but society is the fullest expression of what being human is.
Society is based on that simple concept.. which is as fragile as our human natures.
Freedom is the human state of having many many desirable options.. liberty is those given charge of society providing those options.
Wow.. I never thought about it that way before..
So back to the topic of understanding how laws hurt or help us..
Many many laws are superfluous.. they do not need to exist, but still in your time people will be punished for them.
But what about ethnicities.. it's a hot topic issue for many countries..
Ohw.. Well if you don't want people to come to your country just be vocal about it on the internet.. I am sure they will stay away.. they have the choice of the whole planet and a good chunk of the solar system..
Wait.. aren't you English?
Yes but what does that have to do with anything??
Well.. I'm just saying.. erm.. the rivalry between our two nations still exists..I don't meet many English in Scotland.. in your time it was many many more. Nationalists complained a lot about English rule.. eventually the English stopped coming to live in Scotland.. then it went pretty mild.. I mean I *have* had a few encounters with; the old world saying of 'the arrogant English'.. assuming I should fit in with them.. but really these days, tension is very mild.. I even have a few English friends.. not like in your time when wow.. what a pair of shoes on the stove that was! Quite the footburner..
But if enough Scots complain on the internet..about say, English coming here.. they won't come.
Choice between:
a. country that likes me
or
b. country that doesn't like me.
I know zero people who would choose 'b'.
... ... Okay so truth be told.. I was asking about you being English.. because, well.. we all know England's history of this kind of thing..
Annoyed: What history???
Moving swiftly on..
Have you ever lived in England?
As a child yes..
Interrupts: as an adult.
No.. I have lived throughout the years.. Venus for 6 months (Sky Palace), Canada (Nova Scotia), New Zealand, Australia, Philippines for 4 months each.. Venus again for 6 months (Music Institute, teaching post) .. home then.. NYC for 2 years..
Wait.. you were tutor??
Yeahh.. erm.. its got a great vibe but the institute has serious funding problems.. place could do with a good clean.. its owned by the World Council.. but some years before I became faculty.. a dispute had flared up between the World Council and Russia.. Russia said the ship was out of code and tried to fine the World Council... it didn't go down well.. in fact the World Council were raging.. the then faculty heads tried to sue Russia which only complicated things.. the end up is.. Russia effectively own the ship but can't legally supply proper funding.. and the World Council don't own the ship but *have* to provide the bare minimum to keep things running..
I mean it's a beautiful old ship.. all 'art-deco' style.. I left for two reasons.. I had been diagnosed with my disability and the cleanliness of the place.. this was when I was around 25yo.. ?
I heard from a Russian friend who is still faculty they worked everything out last year and are just waiting for the new funding.. he even offered me a job.. hmmm.. I'll wait and see how I feel.. I'm under no obligation due to my disability.. but I badly want to contribute to the next generation of musos.. all my tips and tricks, lessons and life lessons, any wisdom and insight I can afford them.
I get a bit.. of a B list celeb thing.. most of them will have read my story on Chord about Kenny Ivan and Felicity.. soo they are very willing to listen..and that is ideal for giving them the info they need to be content in the muso life.
.. hmm.. maybe I would be offered that deed again? that would rock!
Why would people leave the Earth for Venus... surely the pros of the Earth out weight the cons of living in such a hostile place.. I mean what's to be gained by going there anyway?
Whoa!!.. firstly we found out that sulfur is pretty rare in the scheme of things in our solar system, you can see Russian auto-pilot ships going down all the time. They drop a pipe .. which you don't see.. coz they are below the clouds but still pretty far up.. which they suck up and turn into a solid material.
Secondly.. who doesn't want to live in the clouds??.. its cool! perfect for musos hehe
But isn't it hostile?
Well.. not really..
Then.. how do the Venusian mag-suits work?
They are air-tight cloth.. Venus has 9/10ths of the Earth's gravity.. even up high.. you can even take your helmet off..
What??
Ohw we have oxygen flooding on most of the open decks.. when a place is safe they put a white pillar with three blue lights so you know its safe.. and you can even see it in the dark, which is most of the time as we try to stay on the dark side of Venus but I've been on the light side twice.. looks amazing.. but your best to only experience it for a minute or so then go back inside..it gets hot inside the suit very very quickly.
Turns out.. there is LOADS of water around our solar system.. seriously! so they diffuse the oxygen and hydrogen then take the oxygen and turn it into concentrated smallish cubes.. it's basically like an oxygen version of dry ice.. but because of the conditions on Venus you don't see the white mist..they pump the heat from the ship over the cubes which also distributes the oxygen to the designated places.
puts on a voice: Always remember; 3 blue lights means it's safe to breathe!
Being honest.. Venus isn't the most .. safety friendly place.. but then again people going there know this.. and don't mind.
The civilian ships are at an altitude where.. we don't get much wind.. that's why they can just flood the area with oxygen.. there's a sulfuric acid haze layer below us and below that sulfuric acid rain.. we just sit at the 'sweet spot'.. reminds me of a video game from your time.. Bioshock Infinite.. I mean.. we're not daft.. if you drop something over the side .. its gone!
Perfect for gangsters then? :))
hehe.. not really everything you say and do while not on Earth is being recorded *somewhere* then backed up somewhere else.. then backed up another place..on earth you are entitled to your privacy.. it's a very strict law to protect society, off world you get zero nothing nada nichego wala
What was 'Sky Palace' like?
Ohw .. if your young and looking for a relationship.. go to Sky Palace.. I mean I'm Catholic and don't really go in for the casual scene.. but then again humans have needs.. and those needs can lead to solid real relationships.. flip I have two friends who met their spouses at Sky Palace.. well three friends.. I know both within the couple.. she set me up on a date with her best friend and I arranged for her to meet my friend.
And they got married?? wow you must be a special guest at their house..
Ohw.. I hadn't thought of that.. I really should go to their next anniversary party..
Is Venus really that beautiful?
Yes.. golden clouds everywhere at dusk and dawn .. depending on your trajectory, every 1 to 3 months.. then back to the calm of the night.. I mean when do most gigs take place.. night time right?.. so.. more night means more time to show off our lighting display skills during gigs.. have huge holograms.. all that jazzy stuff.. I have some basic skills in it but.. it's not my main focus even though I can teach a class in it, I prefer the pureness of sound..
On Earth it's such a pain! 10pm is quiet hours.. you need like a dozen permits to even hold a regular gig in a proper venue and forget about outdoor concerts..I have to wear earphones all the time at home just to comply with the sound laws.. but I understand why.. quiet discourages crime.. the quieter a place is.. the more likely the whole street will be able to hear someone break something to gain entry..being a 'noisy neighbour' can cause physical fights due to headaches or lack of sleep.. hmm
Only government officials are allowed to break the sound laws in the course of their work..Mars has similar laws on as Earth.. however thats for a totally different reason.. they are afraid the sympathetic vibrations would smash the glass.. Space Glasgow is a bit liberal with regards to sound..when contained to proper venues.. its okay.. like Earth during your time.
You mentioned huge batteries.. how huge are they?
erm.. huge.
So..erm.. point of reference.. they would dwarf the Sydney Hall 100 times over. So if you took 100 Sydney Halls including the square area of air around them.. the batteries are around that size.. the Chinese really pulled out all the stops.. no expense spared! great job! They knew if they cut corners with the batteries it would cost them a fortune in the long run.. so they used the highest quality components.
You didn't mention a share for China for mining rights..
Ohw that's because of the Chinese population.. they went from 4.5 Billion people in the 2040s to 17 Billion in the 2050s.. this is because they allowed everyone to have as many children as they wanted.. which is fine. However that being said.. the other nations would sue them if they hadn't made a great concession.. China would have owed huge sums of money to the World Council to provide for their population.
I mean it's a good deal for all concerned.. its something the Chinese are very aware of, with their ancient history of starvation in the 1300s.. the Chinese are not stupid, they know what a good deal this is. They provide energy.. all of their needs are taken care of.. and they get to make a lot of money from other efforts.. which being honest.. they do quite well.
They have a partnership with the Russians.. odd time the English or Americans.. like their ongoing concerns on Europa, Deimos, Vesta, and Himalia. They make a tidy profit with these worlds. While curator of Mercury.. and I add they do mine iron there.. Vesta is their main colony with a staggering 900,000 people. Without a doubt.. the highest population off-world besides Venus and Mars.
What are the batteries for.. I mean you already have diffused hydrogen?
Oh!.. you can't use the hydrogen for that, well sometimes its used but not really. The laws of energy conservation.. and remember I'm a muso hehe.. not a scientist..those laws say you cannot get more energy out of something than what you put in..
The batteries make up 90% of off-world normal-everyday power.
From ships systems to spaceports to colonies to.. everything.. but sometimes there is excess hydrogen and that can be used..
But we are still to see all the Jupiter returns paying some proper money..
and when it does.. oh flip wow!.. we are all going to be rich!
I should see it in my lifetime.. at the latest 2150..
Why the delay?
The world paid a fortune to mine Jupiter in the first place.. that money needs to be returned via resources. Once paid back.. the World Council will start sharing the resources.
Hmm.. what are the populations of Venus and Mars?
Last I checked.. Venus has around 100 million people.. about 70% of them stay in the citadel.. which is a massive skyship.. but there are around 900,000 - 1.2 million smaller ships including hotels and homes.
Mars has.. around 400 huge cities with about 10 million people per city.. except Stardust City which has closer 20 million.
Space Glasgow on Ganymede is around 100,000.. Jerusalem on Ceres is around 10,000, although in its heyday its was 40,000 or thereabouts.. before we managed to get setup around Jupiter. I imagine Space Glasgow will have the same population drop once we are colonizing Saturn's or Uranus' moons.
What is in it for workers.. like if you work somewhere that makes a lot of money?
Such as? .. I mean are you talking on Earth or off-world?
On Earth.
Okaayy.. soo for both..if you work for a prestigious company that earns a lot of cash.. they will provide you a contract.. and that contract will contain 'contract perks'.. like 0.? % shares in the company or extra money or goods or services (like providing a fancy apartment and all food and a cleaning service).. when I was a Tutor.. I suppose 'Professor' hmm..on Venus I had the option of a fancy apartment and food and cleaning.. but I got diagnosed so I had an out in my contract.
But waiters and waitresses get tips.. people are pretty friendly about money once they know they not going to starve or get robbed.
Off-world..there is a guy famous on Mars he lives in Olympus Mons.. I didn't meet him myself.. but he's.. well.. imagine a dude with a shovel.. yeh just a shovel. He found a network of tunnels.. turned them into hotels.. now he is one of the richest people on Mars.. and everyone who believed in him and helped him.. they are super rich too. I met his cousin-niece, it was her first time on Mars.. no wait I told you about this.. hehe.. we went and checked out the Mars caves.
She was nice. I liked her.
On Earth you get much better financial perks and off-world you get much better property perks.
If I took a professorship on Earth, I could earn upto 50,000 per month on top of what I already earn.. but that wouldn't be fair as I am tired all the time due to my disability. My salary on Venus was 12,500 per month for the first three months then 17,500 for the last three months.. had I been teaching for 2+ years it might have went up to 20,000 - 25,000 credits a month depending on my approval rating.. my teaching approval rating was 3.5 which is really good considering I was only teaching for 6 months.. but most students will give me good approval ratings for telling stories about the bands: Wandering Warriors and Wishing on a Star..
Have you ever worked on Earth?
Nooo. Not with a proper contract.
I mean.. I have worked on Earth.. but to fulfill my terms.. I have produced around.. erm 12 bands? I get residuals from them too.. but only a few credits now and then.. come to think on it.. Kenny was asking me to do his next solo album.. we were chatting on Chord last year.. I get the feeling he is putting off his next album waiting for me to say yes..but then again if I asked for a contract.. it would be super rude as we are friends. Felicity invited me up to her Icelandic studio in 2129, it was a cool experience.. she is doing the production for WW herself.. so she was simply showing me her studio and asking if I had any tips.. she was using these janky old mics, of which I suggested a better brand.. that was it really the rest of gear was pretty decent. I would say she's a good producer.. but thats one chef complimenting another chef.. and that's rare because they both have a style of things.. I think she's OK as a producer.. but she doesn't do it they way I would.. so I can't give her a 100% compliment. No bad on her.. she's a super talented singer.. and can play loads of instruments.
Sev, WW's keyboard player, wants me to produce an album for his band 'Destination: Everywhere' .. I'm not sure though .. oh! Sev is a great guy and I love his trip-hop style vibe.. but I have no idea how to produce that kind of music.
Hmmm.. he has a super small studio he owns in L.A. .. and one of his band mates owns a medium sized studio on Venus.. hmm.. maybe I should just try it.. I mean I would be upfront with the whole band I don't know how to do this style of music.. and Sev already knows because I told him..
Is there any other bands and/or styles you have produced?
A couple of Thrash-Hybrid-Punk bands.. which seems to be my fort'e.. but I also produced an album for 'The Carebears' not a well known band.. but I got 3.0 approval rating on Chord and 3.1 on the WC Arts.. they are a mix of 'classic rock' and a little grunge.. so Beatles meets Nirvana, I played on a couple of tracks too.. as their guitarist broke her wrist.. she was sooo grateful.. either that or she was flirting with me.. she sent me a basket of chocolate hearts .. the rest of the band were a bit angry at her for breaking her wrist.. she got drunk and fell out of her mini-copter landing on someone's garden shed.. hehe it was on the news. I visited her in the hospital .. now I think about it.. I might have been the only one to visit her.. man! I am 6'5" pretty OK to look at.. and totally oblivious when a girl likes me.
Hmm.. I might hit her up on Chord after this. Celeste.. she's good looking and talented! But also an alcoholic.. so I better be careful.
That's a couple of times you mentioned sending baskets..
Oh that's a common thing now.. well on Earth.. less so off-world.. but still.. it happens everywhere.
I get anonymous baskets all the time due to my Chord page.. shy girls.. flip it could be males.. I have no idea..the most expensive thing I ever got was a pre-bot-era made guitar from around 2025. I just click 'accept' on my Chord gifts.. never know what it is.. the weirdest thing I ever got was a skanky bra from 2060.. looked like it had never been washed..but I figure that was one of my ex's. You can't send biomatter through as they have detectors.. unless its food from established companies .. so sometimes you get used underwear.. its gross.
'Rock and Roll lifestyle' I guess.. I mean Felicity has missed out on loads of gifts.. even from myself because she stopped checking her Chord giftbox. She told me her husband gets pretty mad about the things she gets sent.
WC Arts is gooood to get a basket from.. best stuff! general stuff.. but always very high quality! If Chord themselves send you a basket..I've never had one myself.. but Kenny got one for his solo album.. flip! He got a solid gold mic and a voucher for a michelin lunch for upto 30 people.. he invited me.. it was a great day.. most of them were his family whom I didn't know but..it was cool nonetheless.
I figure there was a girl (woman but you get me because of the teen-crush kinda thing) that works at Chord that fancies him.. or he was her teen crush..
So sexuality is alive and well in the music industry of 2130.. hehe
Yes.. very much so.
How many mini-copter accidents are there?
Like none.. seriously.. Celeste wasn't on the news because she was famous.. it's just so rare to fall out of your mini-copter (she must have purposefully hit the emergency unlock). Her dad was in the service.. he passed away and she started drinking. She's american.. she talked about him when I visited her in hospital, her dad was Colonel-Commander in the service..he had very prestigious positions like, he was in charge of the Luna spaceport for 4 years.. wow!! He oversaw the building of the new rehab prison on Mars.. there is 5 of them.. but he oversaw the largest one, just outside Olympus Mons.. it's called Purgatory. He oversaw the second stage of the low-oxy garden on Mars.. flippp wow!!.. Celeste was a service brat when she was a kid.. moving around a lot. Her father was/is a service hero to the world!
She did not cope well with his death. I mean their whole family looked up to him..
Kindly.. how did he die?
Ohw.. his hip was crushed in an accident so he went in for a hip replacement but his chart didn't show his background.. it was a human filling error.. he was on Venus on the outer hull, overseeing a garbage installation container on a massive Scow, and the hypoxia caused his leg to swell with red blood cells .. eventually it just blew apart with a implosion due to the pressures involved.. see the tiny cap had a different pressure than the air he was breathing so it couldn't pass into his leg and that caused negative pressure.. I don't fully understand it.. but I wasn't going to ask Celeste the details if you know what I mean..
Wow!.. wait. you said that service people work for their own countries..
Well.. it's not that straightforward.. especially if you are high up like her father was.. He had dual citizenship of the US and EU, and it was an EU garbage Scow.. but he could have worked anywhere he wanted.. the reason he took the Venus job was probably, it was meant to be low intensity, an 'easy' job for him while he was recovering..
Hmm .. I better check on Celeste regardless of if she fancies me.. last I heard she was saying mean things to fans on Chord about 6 months ago.. I just figured she was drunk, but the fans know all about her drinking so.. they don't mind and even goad her into it..
The Carebears are an all female band.. Desi is the lead singer and lead guitarist, she is quite a serious person when it comes to band stuff. Even her name sounds serious to me.. Desdemona. Isn't that from an old English play? idk.
Desi wants to kick Celeste out of the band, but.. the rest of the band will leave if she does.. as Celeste is the most talented songwriter in the band.. soo..
Desi is a great singer.. but her guitar skills 'aren't for toffee' to use a English expression, Celeste is one the most talented guitarists I have ever worked with.. better than Yohan from WW and that's saying something.. Yohan defined a generation. Hmm.. I wonder if I can get Celeste some session work for WW? .. but then there's the danger.. if I set them up.. Felicity will crash my approval rating on Chord if Celeste messes them about and has taken money for doing the gig.. maybe for free? A trial run.. which my approval rating is safe..
How does that work? How on earth are you to blame for Celeste's behaviour?
Well.. its.. business and while I would hope Felicity wouldn't crash my approval rating.. I know why. She would be protecting WW's reputation.. she would leave a message on their Chord page telling the story of what happened to delay the album..
Which would include my part.. then the WW fans could click on my page and vote me down.. they can't interact with me unless they have cause.. and me interfering with the new album is considered cause.
But the rules are.. if I do it for free.. and if Celeste does it for free.. we are both protected from getting crashed approval ratings.. as that's on the band leader; in this case Felicity.
You are very much personally responsible for your own approval ratings.. and it's pretty fair.. I mean if a person buys an album 100 times.. they only get to review twice.. once on Chord and once on WC Arts.. and WC Arts you don't get hit as hard as Chord.. if you have a degree in the Arts and are on WC Arts.. then it counts to the fullest.. but if you just bought the album... they don't give that as much truck. But on Chord they do..and it's a bit scary.. coz I forget the rules sometimes.. but with luckily enough never too bad an outcome.
Like.. me and few members of the bands I know.. did a one-off for fun album.. and the singer suggested we used fake names.. welp as soon as I registered it on WC Arts.. Chord slammed me.. they froze my account for 3 months.. until the singer fessed up and we re-released the album properly.. it was rough as they didn't get caught.. I was only one. Pretty much everyone had re-registered by 2 weeks.. only the singer resisted.. in case you're wondering it wasn't Kenny.. or Felicity.
Hmm.. don't like to 'name and shame' .. but I am never working with Desi again. The Carebears have been messaging me on Chord for months .. as our album together got them their highest approval rating of 3.0.. and I like the rest of the band.. especially Celeste.. but no way I am working with Desi after her leaving me hanging for 3 months. It's unprofessional.
This all sounds like the 'good citizen' awards that China has..
yes.. it's an evolution of that system, in a different style but yes, it's based on that system.
It is any surprise?.. the Chinese know about people management. And before anyone says 'communist' .. erm no.. I remind you that you get to make and keep your own profit without taxation. The system while I admit IS based on that Chinese system.. it has a very American skew. A very American style to it.
No one is punished, but some are rewarded for their contribution to society. It's pretty fair I think.
You spoke often of the World Council.. how does it work?
Oh.. we are taught about this as children..
There are two 'houses' the upper house and the lower house.. the lower house is comprised of every head of state.. like right now for Scotland it's our First Minister Seamus McDonald.. well to become part of the upper house it must be a unanimous vote from *every* head of state.. if even one votes no, then that person can never be a member of the upper house... persons of the upper house must be above reproach; that they are above all fair minded and are *only* focused on attaining resources for the planet.. every government is allowed to spy, prod, uncover and delve in the person's past.. and if they are found to be perfect.. it's the job of every head of state to agree to allow them to ascend to the upper house ..
They are known as 'Most Noble Special Candidates'.. and if they are given office, they become a 'Minister Aspirant' is the highest office the world can provide.. there are 60 seats in the upper house, but often very few are filled as the regulation for becoming a Minister Aspiriant is the strictest we have for any human title upon the Earth.
Currently we only have 24 Minister Aspirants in the upper house.. their job is keep things running, the Service have an established set of directives.. the Ministers do NOT issue orders to any Service, but the draw up directives that all Service.. and even countries must follow.. but they know the whole system will collapse if they start just making laws for countries haphazard so.. its not something the upper house has ever done. Let the respective government bodies.. such as parliaments and assemblies deal with country law making for their own country..
Directives are meant to be *permanent*.. this might take a little explaining..
So .... How can a directive be permanent? That all parts of it are universal truths. Like I spoke about 'Directive 2051'.. people DO need sleep.. people DO need to hydrate.. people DO need to eat.. people DO need to evacuate.. these are universal truths, and barring some sort of miracle, Glory to the Lord, barring this.. we DO have to behave the way our body predetermines. We don't have a choice.
Orders are a complicated thing.. The World Council lower house, does not issue orders directly to the Service. The upper house has committee meetings with Service Generals.. where they review directives, its very mild.. you can watch them deliberate and answer questions. They live stream it.. and if your rep in a certain field is high enough they even take interjections.. say if they were talking about a specific science.. if someone with high enough reputation asks a question or has a suggest (only about their field of reputation).. I asked a question when I was 27yo, I was SO surprised it got asked on my behalf!.. David Shaw ex-faculty World Council Arts; Venus 'What do you think the impact of the budget problems with relation to the health of the students? Surly this is detrimental to their health?'.. the minister straight up agreed but cited that 'until we can sort out the legalities of this situation..(She went in to more detail here).. Russia should close the Venusian Institute. There is nothing the World Council can do until this 'situation of legal complexities' is resolved.'
wow.. I did not expect to get a question answered!
The Service Generals give orders..The World Council give directives.. but each directive is very slowly integrated as so to not cause imbalance.. and so break the system.
The World Council upper house has an emergency directive where they can 'take over' the Service.. but that has no power unless there is 'planetary or world ending emergency' otherwise they are not allowed. IF there was a conflict between two nations over a intersolar body.. they also have the power to pull all Service from the area.. and the Service WILL comply regardless of country allegiance, due to the fact.. of the universal truth 'humans need resources'.. because the Service are taught a easy to relate to truth.. they also know to not comply could mean the end of all humanity via weapons of mass destruction.
It's all a very wrought out and elegant system.
You mentioned Free Commodities.. How does that work?
Ohw.. well.. I'm not a broker or anything..
Interrupts: I mean how and where do they get the free commodities?
OHW! Yes, I know about that... so there are asteroids just floating around the solar system, some are massive, they don't fall into a category for a spacital region.. each curator has a region of space etc.. and it's considered their resource..
But the mainstay is the Sol Belt.. the corporation will send a ship and some mercs and miners to just raid whatever they can find.. I mean a few times they have wandered into.. English-Ceres space or Thailandese-Pallas space.. but a very low yield nuke detonated close to the corporate ship's bow is definitely enough to send them running scared..
The corporations don't want trouble.. they just want resources.
How do they make money on the resources?
In the US there are a few stock markets, Japan has an allowance policy too.. with certain financial limits, so Wall Street trades with Tokyo and LASE and vice versa. Trade Hall in Edinburgh has banned the sale of free commodities.. I am proud to say we were.. one of the first.. 20 to do so. The world's stock exchanges did likewise as it grew as a movement..
Who was the first?
Ireland.. then Norway, then Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, Germany, France, Scotland, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Austria, Belgium, England (UK), Poland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada..
We're just left with the US now.. and Japan a bit, you DO get the feeling the Japanese *want* to change the law to stop this, however they feel indebted to the US financial assistance for around 100 years in which their standard of living grew immensely.
If these corporations can't use the Luna for packaging.. how do they get the resources to the surface?
They *can* use Luna and they DO use Luna to package the resources.. the Americans let them, but that's not directly part of the Luna spaceport but an off-site small facility that holds and moves goods to the main spaceport.
You haven't mentioned AI.. much.. whats that like in now?
Well it's not so much that we've stopped studying AI.. but we, as humanity, are bringing a new life into existence, by the Grace of God it will have a soul.. but think about this for a second.. we, as humanity, would need to be masters of systems.. with the ability to destroy a star at will, because what kind of responsible parent lets their child be stronger than them?
We are cautious. Our plan for Robotkind includes consciousness.. to make them like us, which involves self-improvement.
For a parent to have respect they must have power over the child. So as the child grows they can debate with the parent.. instead of forcing their will upon the parent.
So.. if you are believer like me.. you believe in a soul.. and that soul is given by God, The Lord the Most High.. we as humanity do not know if God will bless our creation with a soul.
If you are an atheist or something else.. you might not believe in a soul, you might think all things are predetermined by laws and not free will.. but you are aware they free will exists and giving that to an AI is something more dangerous..
Both ways lend themselves to humanity taking our time before we start giving Robokind any kind of consciousness..
Sure we have emulation now.. a few robots that can emulate human behaviour.. and I'm sure in certain environments these AI have some level of consciousness.. but is it on the same level as humans? I am doubtful.. they have an animal like consciousness.. I mean.. even your pet cat or dog has consciousness.. they are smart and love you, they have a spirit, but.. are they the same as us.. I wouldn't say so just yet.. and the same for current AI.. current AI has spirit and can love you, but only like a pet does.. not with the complexities of a human. There's nothing wrong with being 'fourth-kind' sexually.. I have a friend who works with AI/robotics and he dated an AI for 10 years.. they were very happy.. but she suffered a hydrogen battery failure and then the liquid ate through her casing causing it to shatter.. it was really sad. But he has a human girlfriend now.. and seems to have gotten over his loss. I think.
He often assured me.. AI have a soul.. but for now I am happy enough with my explanation~slash~understanding.
I am all for AI becoming sentient.. but first we need to be so powerful that, this new life will respect us.
The lower AI.. is fine.. I talk to my AI assistant all the time.. she is a bit.. dippy and misunderstands what I am trying to get her to do.. but I've been in other peoples homes.. and their AI seems reasonable.. but in honesty, maybe my experience with Celyn has coloured my views.
If you get too close to your AI assistant.. your spouse can get threatened, I've heard of such arguments.. however thats never going to happen with me and Celyn.. she annoys me. Alice in my aunt's house is an excellent AI. I kinda miss her.
Are there any male AI? you only mention female..
Ohw yeah.. Doug was a AI that my former friend's mum had in her house.. I liked Doug, pretty solid AI, always good with suggestions and timekeeping.. syncing with other AI calendars.. yeah I liked Doug.
But when the house is first built.. the first occupier comes in and decides the gender, usually.. if its someone who likes males they pick a male AI and if it's someone who likes females they usually pick a female AI..
I wouldn't have a male AI for my house.. don't like it.. why lie to myself?? I don't like it and all it will do is make me unhappy.. and I'm the one who's going to spend the most time with it so.. who cares??
Can you change the gender of the AI later?
Noo.. that would be cruel.. why would you do that?.. I mean if the AI asked for it to happen.. then you need to have a hard think about it.. but forcing the opposite gender on an established AI with its own spirit? wow.. not cool.
If you were all determined about it, you could back them up to the server and start with a fresh AI.. but thats.. super cruel.. like being bad to your pet. They probably love you like a pet does.. and just because you wanted a male or female you are willing to get rid of them.. nooo
When I said about not having a male AI for my house.. I meant I wouldn't move into a house that already had a male AI.
Hmm.. Celyn seems kind of young.. I wonder if the previous owner of my flat backed up and wiped a local AI then had her installed?
It's been 10 years.. she can't tell me when my food has went out of date?? She should know me by now..I really should get some engineers to look at her.. most AI will greet you when you enter your home.. Celyn: silence.
Oh!.. erm.. maybe she doesn't like you?
I suppose there's an outside chance of that.. I mean couple of years ago, her external camera went down, I was carrying a light but very large box.. walking up to my flat, so pretty much 100% of AI's would hear me coming and know its me and open the security door for me.. not Celyn.. 5 whole minutes arguing with her that it was in fact me and not a trick, for her to let me in.
Just like humans and animals.. you get smart and dumb and dippy and insightful AI's.. this isn't some female thing.. I can't talk highly enough about Alice, couple of years ago I was at my aunt's and when I said to my aunt 'ohw Ah didnæ feel well.. feel oot o' sorts' within 5 minutes Alice had synced with Celyn and brought my mini-copter to my aunts landing pad.. I didn't even have to say anything to Alice she just did it.. it was there 'just in case' I decided to use it.. now that's a pro AI!
Alice will order things for me.. true story.. some people don't believe me when I tell them, no one has told her to do this. It's like when I was living with my aunt.. Alice knows me. She has it sent to my address and I get charged.. but she will find the best price and doesn't go to crazy with it. She knows I don't have much money. It's essentials.. like new socks and *cough* underwear *cough* and t-shirts that I often forget to buy myself.
I don't really understand.. where is she? where is Celyn?
She's part of the house and the network.. my network.. she's with me wherever I go.. I mean the AI in shops will do somethings for you.. like that box I mentioned.. all of the shop AI's would open the door for me.
She is part of my hud on my mag-suit when I am off world..
But wait.. you mean she's your personal assistant?
Well yes and no.. she is tied to my flat, and my PDA has a sync link to her while I am on Earth.. off-world Celyn makes a package of herself that she has sync'd to the Luna server that gets uploaded to my mag-suit.. its a mini version of her.. but I see what you are saying.. and in the future I imagine we will have our own personal assistants regardless of housing arrangements.
And what is for your future.. what do you see coming?
Well..There's the Oort Expanse... known in your time as the Oort Cloud.. we have known about it for over a hundred years.. but we *really* started to know about it over the last 40 years..
I suppose to me the Oort Expanse is to me what colonizing Mars is to you...
I would say, that its entirely possible that we will have landed on another system and begun colonizing it, before we have even colonized one Oort Planet..
The Oort Expanse is a immense gas cloud that surrounds the Sol system, but not just gas.. everything from dwarf planets to rogue moons to giant rogue planets.. we have found 500 to date but the guess is around 1000..
We also found 2 brown dwarfs generating a lot of heat..despite the Oort Expanse being so far from Sol.. its not at all a cold place, but the galactic radiation is lethal to humans.. scientists calculated it would take all of the lead in the sol system to shield one human for one hour and not leave detrimental effects.. so as for living in the Oort Expanse.. no that's not possible just yet.. people are working on it though, The South Asian Alliance is hoping to gain prominence to curate all of those Oort bodies.. so far they have send fractional light speed probes to gather information and are working on 'magnetic radiation shielding'.. whatever that is.. I saw the concept for it.. having a tandem vessel with a huge ball that's meant to divert the radiation from the second ball that contains the humans..
The Oort Expanse is human territory.. even if.. and it's a big IF.. if other life existed with a claim to the Oort Expanse, we have that it is Sol adjacent and many of those worlds were originally part of our Sol system, but were flung out.. probably by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune or each other. One of the brown dwarfs is called Vulcan and there is a smaller gas giant called Romulus.
But the whole place is ultra hostile to humans.. well right now.. in the future we might crack open this place's secrets.
I mean 500 planets already is a decent haul.. even if they could just send ships to gain resources automatically.. it would make Terra and so humans very rich.
You speak about money and riches.. but isn't the fact that you have your needs met.. I mean from where I am sitting you are doing really well!
Okay.. but you misunderstand how this all works together.. countries don't get poorer.. they can only get richer, so the standard of living can never go down.. it can only go up. fact. So say.. if the SAA got all these resources everything they bring back goes down in price, and so it gets cheaper for companies to manufacture that item and so we get it for even cheaper.. not just for that country.. but all peoples of the Sol system.
I mean yeah off world can be more expensive.. but big caches of resources just makes us richer. The richer we are the closer we can make thing for near free.. I means it's not the goal that everything's free, if someones worked they are entitled to a larger reward.. however artizan and couture and gourmet companies is where the cash will be.. or the huge bot factories, with franchises that serve the system..
But who can argue with making all of the cheaper. The quality of things can improve even when the cost materials used are costing less.. I mean why shouldn't I have a 100% 24kt solid gold* watch?
No reason. If I can pay the price I should be able to own it.. now about that price.. if that cost 1,000,000 credits or 50,000 what does it matter to anyone?
That's only from a materials point of view though..
Bots can make pretty much anything too..
I *think* I get you.. you have stopped management resources because you DON'T need to manage resources.. this is due to unlimited resources and the only thing that holds value is .. land. So saving up gold and more traditional investments is worthless.. it doesn't work that way unless you are a government or a broker.. as we bring back more and more resources we can have the ultimate in choice for items.. because they are so affordable, because this system has improved our quality of life so much it no longer matters.
Correct!
No one's stopping anyone from making money. In fact if the business is super smart they will know how to make even more money when the price goes down.
Doesn't this create a lot of waste?
Well.. not in relation to per head in your time.. that was crazy!.. but we .. and by 'we' I mean every single human living.. but we can have a very luxurious lifestyle, we can get rid of our waste by dumping it on Venus or Mars.. Mars loves burning things.. and Venus seems to us to be the perfect place to 'get rid of unwanted items'.. it rains sulfuric acid.. everything gets dissolved.. seriously, we got really lucky with Venus on that regard. Sure sure we want to eventually terraform Venus.. but that's probably 500 to 800 years away. I mean the only thing that's banned is radioactive waste as it might permeate the atmosphere and rise up to the sky-ships.
So in short.. Venus is about the same size as the Earth and can eat through anything, nothing we can do can make that situation worse. It's like it was designed for us to get rid of our garbage.. of which I remind you we have less per head in my time than you do in your time.
But.. green efforts.. recycling?
Oh! of course we do that too! We are very.. and I say this with the utmost serious tone.. we are very responsible with the Earth.
Whether we are designed for it or it is designed for us.. it is our home and must remain perfect. But you also must realize, by using Venus as we do.. we will never have any problems like we did in your time.
It's the perfect solution that even level 5 eco-warriors should recommend.
*(except the screen)
