[GZG] Gzg-l Digest, Vol 37, Issue 12

On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 11:30 PM,  <gzg-l-request@mail.csua.berkeley.edu>
wrote:

> So no Star Trek replicators. Â Got it. Â Are your machine tools small

Honestly, I'm visualizing that every rinky-dink town, and some of the
bigger land owners will have the equivalent of a machine shop in the garage.
You'd have to, because of limited transportation infrastructure. Otherwise
you're doing the equivalent of importing every machine screw and spare part
from Spain when your mines are in Peru. So small arms would be no problem, the
limitation is on primers
and propellant for the cartridges, which are not high-bulk items.

> Have you considered the landing ability of spaceships or their support

True. You've also got to consider what you are assuming for scale of
space combat weapons/sensors.  If a habitable, Earth-style planet is,
in Full Thrust terms, 6" across, then I can throw an airtight blockade around
it with a half dozen frigates. Problem solved. If an inch in FT terms is 100
km, then my problem is wildly different.

> Now that I think about it, I don't think anyone has explored making

Here's the problem. Mini fusion plants are unlikely to be manufactured in bulk
quantities in the boonies. You might have a machine shop, but to build even a
modern car engine by yourself with a
small-scale machine shop is not going to be a small undertaking.  Now,
how dedicated to a cause you would have to be to take the engine out of your
car, and the generator that powers your home's electricity and keeps your
family's food from spoiling, and use them as bombs to blow up an invader's
tank, knowing that he's got a lot more and that this war is going to last a
decade at best. Remember, if you had
mini-fusion generator yesterday, and someone used one as a bomb, and
you can't explain where your mini-fusion generator is now, you are
likely to be arrested and hauled off for extensive interrogation, and then
either imprisioned indefinitely or shot.

> "The Interrogation Team" might be the one you mean. Â I can't find it

The one where the interrogator basically reads the subject's mind while his
partner questions the guy.