Schlock Mercenary VIII: insAIne in the mAInfrAIme

[Willie the Duck]

...I think the line is so blurred at this point that a person's backup could be restored into a vastly "superior" body.

No doubt they could. But none of the characters we have seen want to do that. Sometimes having limitations makes you much more inventive. Also the backups probably want to be the person they remember being.

'Because they want to' is fast becoming the primary reason for having bodies at all. This is the age old problem in sci fi of once you have something approaching a post-need society, what then are your goals (with the answer often becoming 'fight over who gets to have this bright future')? The most efficient way that people with this technology can live is sophonts inhabiting world-sized computers as dataforms; using total conversion for close to unlimited energy; teleporting where ever they need to be (although they no longer need to be anywhere excepting 'close enough to a reasonable amount of mass to use as fuel, but far enough away from anyone able to fight over it'); using robots, fabbers, and nano to achieve any physical end. Eventually it becomes 'yes, but what are we trying to do -- live to see the heat death of the universe?' For some, clearly, living in a biological body is a goal onto itself.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Given the size of the place I have no problem with them having multiple meat-space reserves.

They don't even have to have them all on the outside like this one. That might just have been a convenient place for the new parks they built for the dinosaurs, while the frog-people parks mostly sit deeper.

[memnarch]

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Odds that what the pa'anuri destroyed was set out as bait to make them quit looking for the outpost?

[HandofShadows]

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It's a TRAP! The DMB have control of the outpost and are trying to sucker the Toughs in.

[factotum]

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It's a TRAP! The DMB have control of the outpost and are trying to sucker the Toughs in.

Dunno why we're using spoilers here, but anyway:

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They're doing a really, really bad job of it, then, considering that the Toughs can see the Pa'anuri are already there.

[Lethologica]

Dunno why we're using spoilers here, but anyway:

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They're doing a really, really bad job of it, then, considering that the Toughs can see the Pa'anuri are already there.

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For the sake of completeness...do the Pa'anuri know that?

[Max_Killjoy]

It may be unknown to the Pa'anuri that the "baryonics" can now both see and directly attack them.

[Kornaki]

If it's a trap, the point would be to make the mercenaries think they can swoop in in the nick of time to save it, when in fact they are far too late.

[geoduck]

If it's a trap, the point would be to make the mercenaries think they can swoop in in the nick of time to save it, when in fact they are far too late.

"Swooping in in the nick of time" is pretty much what is being suggested.

[Kornaki]

"Swooping in in the nick of time" is pretty much what is being suggested.

I know. I'm pointing out that if it's a trap, it's working. The pa'anuri fully intend to be seen by the toughs

[Spojaz]

So, now we've had it explained to two different characters what the drivetide compensators are, and how they work, in a month. I'm sure that necessary system will continue to work correctly. Also, Aardy's paranoia has never been proven correct. Not even every single time.

[Willie the Duck]

So, now we've had it explained to two different characters what the drivetide compensators are, and how they work, in a month. I'm sure that necessary system will continue to work correctly. Also, Aardy's paranoia has never been proven correct. Not even every single time.

That would be the straightforward thing to happen. Schlock managing to weaponize his would be a play on it. Something else completely (perhaps something mentioned twice in a month sometime 8-10 years ago) would be an interesting subversion.

[JavaScribe]

They've been giving retired Kevyn a hard time over him not being in the command chain anymore. Is this some sort of hazing ritual for a formerly retired officer gone civvie?

[factotum]

OK, they really *are* showing off--I don't want to imagine what they made Cecil's bones out of to support his mass, or how he's keeping himself cool!

[Max_Killjoy]

OK, they really *are* showing off--I don't want to imagine what they made Cecil's bones out of to support his mass, or how he's keeping himself cool!

At some point, we may get a "why a skirt?" joke.

[lord_khaine]

OK, they really *are* showing off--I don't want to imagine what they made Cecil's bones out of to support his mass, or how he's keeping himself cool!

Good point about keeping cool.
I suspect his bones are made out of Trans Uranic Matter.
That stuff their former spaceship had a hull made out of.
I also suspect Cecil has more in common with a spaceship than a living being beneath the surface.

[Kornaki]

We don't have a good sense of scale. Maybe everyone else is 6 inches tall?

[factotum]

We don't have a good sense of scale. Maybe everyone else is 6 inches tall?

Then that just reverses the issue. A 6-inch tall human scaled exactly to a regular one would die rapidly of hypothermia because they wouldn't be able to maintain their body temperature. (The ability to generate heat depends on volume, while heat loss through the skin depends on the skin's surface area--since volume goes as the cube of the height, while surface area varies by the square, a person 1/12th their original size would have 1728 times less heat generation but heat loss would only be reduced by a factor of 144).

[HorizonWalker]

Cecil probably isn't made of meat. Remember Chinook's robot body, the one made of piezogels and suchlike? It was in Book 17 somewhere, I can't remember where.

[Ibrinar]

Considering focused gravity manipulation is a thing in schlockverse they could probably make just it weaker only for the giant. (Though he would still need better ways to get rid of waste heat.) But yeah who knows what the body is made of.

[Kornaki]

Then that just reverses the issue. A 6-inch tall human scaled exactly to a regular one would die rapidly of hypothermia because they wouldn't be able to maintain their body temperature. (The ability to generate heat depends on volume, while heat loss through the skin depends on the skin's surface area--since volume goes as the cube of the height, while surface area varies by the square, a person 1/12th their original size would have 1728 times less heat generation but heat loss would only be reduced by a factor of 144).

I don't know, there are like, hairless cats that are both small and survive with no fur. I am not convinced there isn't some choice of sizes for which both of them can exist at the drawn scales.

[factotum]

I don't know, there are like, hairless cats that are both small and survive with no fur. I am not convinced there isn't some choice of sizes for which both of them can exist at the drawn scales.

Cats are not the same proportions as humans.

[Kornaki]

Cats are not the same proportions as humans.

I'm very skeptical the difference in head to torso size matters that much. Either way there are also lions and tigers, which are both bigger than humans proportioned similarly to a hairless cat, and don't die of hyperthermia even though they have fur. So you can definitely have two mammals of the same shape with one being 12x as big as the other. I would believe their metabolism works differently or something, but you don't have to be a robot to make it work.

[HorizonWalker]

If their metabolisms were tweaked, then the several soldiers, former and otherwise, present would probably notice and comment on it, because soldiers tend to be fairly in-tune with their bodies and how they function.

[factotum]

I'm very skeptical the difference in head to torso size matters that much.

It doesn't. The torso of a cat, though, is much shorter compared to its cross-sectional area than a human torso. Oh, and small animals like that also have much greater metabolism then humans and thus don't live anywhere near as long.

As for lions and tigers, they are also not the same proportions as housecats are--they're much longer and more slender.

[Kornaki]

If their metabolisms were tweaked, then the several soldiers, former and otherwise, present would probably notice and comment on it, because soldiers tend to be fairly in-tune with their bodies and how they function.

They didn't even notice they HAD a metabolism.

[HouseRules]

https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2019-09-25

Pa'anuri are "Undead" that "clerics" create.

[Willie the Duck]

So, I guess we're finding out that HT plays MMOs.

[Kornaki]

So, I guess we're finding out that HT plays MMOs.

He published a table top rpg...

[Willie the Duck]

He published a table top rpg...

And?

I am working off the statement, "I believe the correct war cry for this kind of fight is Target the Healer," which sounds decidedly WoW-ish to my ears.