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| Technology of Onyx Skies | |
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| Topic Started: Oct 1 2008, 08:39 PM (24 Views) | |
| Sapphire Flame | Oct 1 2008, 08:39 PM Post #1 |
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Psionics- It's not just technology that has improved in Onyx Skies. Mystical powers are now the norm, and these powers are collectively known as psychic powers, or psionics. Many users of Psionics have powers bordering on magic, with some using skills that the psychics of yesteryear could only dream of. Each person's psionic abilities are different. One person could use their powers to control wind, while another uses them to manipulate electromagnetic energy. Then, of course, there are the ones who can't use them at all. Some people, no matter how hard they try, cannot use psionics. Those people typically specialize in other areas. Transportation- While sub-light speed travel is fine for travel on the planetary surface, it's quite inadequate for the interstellar travel that has become so routine. Instead, spaceships have a special type of engine that uses gravity and antigravity to get around the constraints of light speed. The mathematics is quite complicated, but the result is incredibly fast travel without having the ship itself breaking the light barrier. Hooray for loopholes! Of course, travel this fast comes at a cost. It's nearly impossible to steer at this speed, and charging up takes a rather long time. In addition, use anywhere except deep space is incredibly dangerous. As a result, on the planet's surface people are forced to travel at sub-light speed. There have been experiments in missiles using this engine, but they were far too expensive to be practical, not to mention the fact it violated Federation sanctions. Wormhole travel has been proposes, and it is believed that this would allow travel into other galaxies. Attempts to create wormholes, however, have either not worked or ended badly for all involved. Because of this, wormhole technological development has been put on indefinite hold. Weaponry- Weaponry in Onyx Skies is quite varied. As opposed to 21st century Earth, when guns were the only option for handheld weaponry, swords are now a viable option. These aren't the swords of the days of old, however. These swords are created by a cylander-like handle that creates a 3-foot long or shorter glowing beam. The size of the handle more or less determines the size of the beam. The beam is made of plasma that is held into its shape by magnetism. As a side-effect of the magnetism, the collision of two beam swords will repel each other to prevent them from passing through each other. It's not uncommon to see flashes of light as what appears to be a duel between plasma swords unfold. Plasma guns are less powerful than their swordlike variants, but have much more range. Plasma guns fire energized plasma "bullets" at their foes. They do not need to be reloaded and recharging is simple and easy. They do have a drawback, however: Plasma swords can absorb the bullets, and some variants can even deflect them back at the user. Despite this, plasma guns are very popular, and come in many different variants. Computers- By far the most widely used piece of technology is the PDM, short for "Personal Data Manager". Part cell phone, part PDA, this device can store data, play games, contact people with text or voice, send files, play movies, analyze the surrounding area, function as a GPS (only on a galactic scale), or numerous other tasks. Think of it as the inevitable fusion of today's innumerable handheld devices. The PDM uses a hologram projector, but also has a 2-dimensional touchscreen for actual input. While PDMs can handle most tasks, for truly massive operations stationary computers also exist. These devices are the equivalent of supercomputers in the 21st century, and can do almost everything PDMs can do. Stationary computers can use both touch and motion control for input, but also come with a traditional keyboard. Even keyboards, however, are much different from today's. Keyboards look totally blank when not plugged in, however, upon turning them on they can display and even change what letters they show. This is used for multiple purposes. If someone that was typing in English wanted to switch to Telkazorian, for instance, the characters on the keyboard would chance to Telkazorian characters. In addition to all this, most of these computers also can wirelessly link to PDMs for advanced functionality. AI- While AI has yet to produce an organism with a level of sentience that is comparable to a human's, they have produced AIs capable of mimicking human emotion and thinking for themselves, even if emulating the human mind exactly is beyond them. Robots are typically non-sentient, the processing power necessary to run the kind of feeling AI that has been programmed by several companies is incredibly expensive. Robots are all programmed with a line of code to disallow them from taking any action that would kill a sentient being. This is a safety feature for the case of a robotic uprising; the particular method is different for all AIs and is very closely guarded. Any AI without a method of restraining them is illegal and considered dangerous enough to be seized and reprogrammed. Despite this, the fear that AIs will find a way to circumvent this protection is a fear that has driven several groups to campaign to get any technological device with both the power to destroy a human and the free will to conceivably decide to do so. These are usually considered fringe groups, however, and the vast majority have decided to accept robots. So far, semi-sentient AIs have yet to be mass-produced, however it's only a matter of time before robots become yet another addition to the sentient races of the galaxy Medical technology- Medical technology is incredibly advanced compared to the 21st century. Cures for most diseases have been found, barring some obscure illnesses and recently evolved strains of old diseases. However, it's in the area of regeneration that medical technology is truly different. Today, organs that have been damaged or destroyed beyond repair are replaced either with transplants or with artificial devices designed to mimic the function of the organ. In the world of Onyx Skies, organs, limbs, or even entire bodies can be grown from a few cells extracted from a patient, the only limiting factor being time. The technology has limits. It cannot be used to bring people back from the dead, so if a patient dies before a replacement organ can be made, there is no saving them. Also, if the brain is destroyed, a replacement brain does not contain the original's memories, even simple ones like walking and talking, and most ethicists agree that it really isn't the same person anyway. If the organ hasn't already been pre-grown ahead of time, a transplant or artificial organ is typically used while the custom-made organ is grown. Life support systems are also typically used when the patient is almost beyond saving. Cyborgs- A cyborg is a sentient that has decided to enhance their body with cybernetics. Cyborgs are typically rich eccentrics, mercenaries or soldiers, or medical patients who do not have the money to have new parts grown for them. The reason cyborgs are not more common is because for reasons yet to be fully understood, cybernetic implants reduce the body's capacity to use psionics. The exact nature of the implants is incredibly varied; some are designed to be indistinguishable from organics and are usually designed to replace missing body parts. Others, however, look much more like robotic limbs and are slightly cheaper yet slightly better because it wasn't designed to be as much like a human limb as possible. |
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8:25 AM Nov 28
