Tag Archives: technology

Powering the Space Elevator

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Notes from a presentation by Larry Bartoszek at Capricon 45, Chicago, Feb. 8, 2024. Any mistakes are mine. The speaker is not responsible for any errors here.

A recent International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) study showed that a 20 ton Space Elevator climber needs tens of megawatts of electrical power to begin climbing from the surface of the Earth, but the power required falls off as 1/r2, as gravity does. This talk will look at options for delivering the large amount of power to get started and the design of a laser power beaming system to power the climber at higher altitudes. Non-laser options will also be discussed.

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Automatons, Robots, and Other Humanoid Creations

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Notes from a panel at Capricon 45, Chicago, Feb. 7, 2024. Any mistakes are mine. The panelists are not responsible for any errors here.

Brian U. Garrison, Micaiah Johnson, Ada Palmer (moderator)

In the arc of human invention, automatons predate paper. That means before we thought “sure would be nice to write things in a convenient and portable manner” we thought “sure would be nice to have an inhuman creation in our shape that moves.” Why have automatons been with us so long, in reality and in fiction, and what roles and purposes do they fulfill in writing and culture and philosophy?

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Where’s My Flying Car?

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Notes from a panel at Capricon 44, Chicago, Feb. 3, 2024. Any mistakes are mine. The panelists are not responsible for any errors here.

Chris Gerrib, Bill Higgins, Mark Huston (moderator), Jeffrey Liss, Henry Spencer

Once upon a time, SF “promised” us all manner of wondrous thing that never came true. Flying cars. Rocket packs. Even aliens (maybe). What happened to these promises? Did something better come along? Were they not practical? Or are we still working to make them come true? How does our view of the future differ from what we once expected? Our panelists explore these questions and more!

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Hittite Iron

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I am currently taking a class on the Languages and Writing Systems of Anatolia, focusing on the ancient Hittites and some of their neighbors and successors in the region. One of our readings was Alfonso Archi, “When Did the Hittites Begin to Write in Hittite?” in Pax Hethitica: Studies on the Hittites and their Neighbours in Honour of Itamar Singer. On p. 39 I read:

The words of the Tabarna, the Great King, are of iron. They are not to be thrust aside, not to be thrust aside, not to be broken. He who changes (them) his head will be cut off
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Beam me up Scotty

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German scientists invent working teleporter, of sorts

An object at one end of the system is milled down layer-by-layer, creating a scan per layer which is then transmitted through an encrypted communication to a 3D printer. The printer then replicates the original object layer by layer, effectively teleporting an object from one place to another.