.2b Additional worldbuilding elements
Technologies
The last thing I want to explain in this section is the technologies used during the time of Part Two in the 22nd century. I realized I would be unable to imagine what technology will be like in the future and how that would effect society, so most things would not be very different from the present, and I would justify this by saying the disastrous events of Part One slowed development. However, I did have some ideas for advanced technology. I drew many of them from Biomimicry, a book by Janine Benyus. This book is about technology modeled on the processes and materials found in living organisms which have been perfected by natural selection, but this is presented as part of a wider message of how an entire civilization can be sustainable in the same way natural ecosystems are.
The ways of collecting, storing and transporting energy are the most important part of all of this. Artificial photosynthesis converts carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and chemical fuel which can be stored. Perhaps requiring some processing first, this fuel can be used in car or jet engines, but other biomimetic technology can convert it directly into electricity or it could be metabolized by artificial muscles. These electrochemical generators or chemomechanical devices can or can be made to consume fossil fuels or biomass. Because chemoautotrophs use the heat from hydrothermal vents as an energy source(I am not sure if that is how it works, reading about it now), I thought it should also be possible to to use heat to create chemical fuel. Conservation of energy suggests that such a chemical reaction would have to cool its surroundings. This technology would be used to recycle the heat created by engines back into fuel as well as cool them. This could also be used to capture the heat from a nuclear reactor or a geothermal source, but for things like those, it might be better to have an efficient way to convert the heat into electricity.
The materials used in these technologies would be composed mostly of the same elements as biological materials. The processes of nanoscale self-assembly by which they are made do not use high temperatures and pressures. The equipment used is not specialized. One such device can make a large variety of products, like a 3-D printer can. In these ways, this biomimetic technology would be what I thought of as “disaster-proof” technology which does not depend on centralized energy sources or require complex supply chains to be manufactured. Energy can come from a variety of sources including the sun. Raw materials can come from the air, water and local vegetation.
Most of my thought about how this technology would be used was dedicated to the military hardware used by the Istarcanor, particularly their armor suits. I am sure I tried to find a Quenya word to use as a name for these suits and I would like a better name than what ended up calling them, which is an acronym for the various functions they perform: SSSMACCC (pronounced “smack”).
Stealth- the outermost layer is adaptive camouflage which changes colors depending on the surroundings. The suit should also reduce the wearer’s infrared signature and sound. Perhaps there could be a way to radiate all heat out of the bottoms of the feet. I had an idea that the form-fitting suit could be worn under clothes and the adaptive camouflage could make any exposed parts look like skin. Without a helmet, it would be difficult to tell someone is wearing one, but this is unlikely unless the other layers are very thin, in which case they would not serve their purposes. An additional use for the adaptive camouflage is displaying ornamental and ceremonial colors and insignias in times when that is appropriate.
Sensors- the suit needs cameras pointing in various directions in order for the camouflage to match the surroundings. These and a variety of other sensors detect things which the wearer cannot perceive, such as radiation, chemical and biological hazards, or sounds which are too quiet or outside the human hearing range. Everything the sensors detect can be recorded.
Survival- the suit protects the wearer from excessive heat and cold. The helmet protects against airborne hazards. The suit can recycle sweat. Its chemical fuel might even be edible. The suit can store air, and perhaps with additional tanks, can be used for diving. Some suits might even be made to be used in space.
Muscle- one of the two thickest layers would be artificial muscles which add to the wearer’ strength, like other kinds of power armor in science-fiction. At the time I was thinking of this, I was hearing about the dangers of devices being hacked. For this reason, I imagined the strength of these muscles would less than that of the average wearer, who would be a well-trained soldier. This way, the wearer would not be totally immobilized or forced to move and would be able to take the suit off if an enemy managed to get control of it. It thought it should be easy to make this impossible by designing the hardware and software so that the muscles cannot receive commands from external sources, but if it were that simple, it seemed like many of the possible dangers from hacking I was hearing about could be prevented. In any case, if the suit’s muscles were extremely strong, then they would consume more energy. Thinking about this also gave me the idea that the wearer could intentionally set the muscles to oppose his movements so that normal activities would be strenuous exercise. Of, course, the weight of the suit would be enough to accomplish this. Another possible function for the muscles is as part of a system which identifies targets and helps the wearer aim.
Armor- the other of the two thickest layers is armor consisting of overlapping plates enmeshed in fibers similar to spider silk. Benyus’ book and others discuss abalone shells as a strong ceramic-like material which is worthwhile for biomimicry purposes, so I imagined that is what the material of the plates is similar to, but I could never find out how strong abalone shell really is. Biomimetic materials might not work well for armor because no natural organism has needed to survive bullets until very recently. Perhaps the same materials used in modern armor would work fine or it should be something like graphene, but if something is a biological material, then that means it is possible to synthesize it with low-temperature and low-pressure processes. That may be a problem in itself because a material created at low temperatures might be easily damaged by high ones, meaning armor made from it would be negated by incendiary or laser weapons. If I wanted a biomimetic material, I have more recently read that the strongest biological material is limpet teeth. In any case, for the purposes of the story, I think it would be interesting if the effectiveness of armor in Part Two relative to the effectiveness of weapons is significantly greater than what exists now. The suit’s muscle allows the wearer to have heavier armor, but the enemies’ suits allow them to carry heavier weapons. Armor which is not part of a muscle suit would also exist, so the protective power of armor compared to its weight would need to be greater. Even if the SSSMACCC suit does not stop a bullet, it can still help the wearer survive by sealing the hole in the suit and stopping bleeding.
Chemistry- the layer under the camouflage layer is absorbs light to power the synthesis of fuel using light. This layer should be black, or perhaps some other color for the same reasons plants are green, to absorb the light optimally. This would be the default color of the suit when the camouflage is not active. This means using the camouflage would cause the lower layer to produce less fuel. When underwater or in space, the carbon dioxide consumed in this reaction could come from the wearer’s breath and the oxygen produced can be stored. Thinking about this now, it might make more sense for this photosynthetic process to just produce electricity and the muscles would be powered that way. Either way, light would probably not be enough for all of the suit’s energy needs and it would need to be recharged or refueled externally. The suit may also be equipped with microscale structures which can synthesize other useful chemicals such as medicines.
computing- The suit would have computers to control its functions as well as for other purposes. The user interface would be in the head up display in the helmet, but the adaptive camouflage can be used to create a display on other surfaces.
Communication- I do not need to explain this very much. However this might be as good as any place to mention that, after I learned about quantum entanglement, I thought it could be used for instant communication across any distance. The fact that quantum entanglement can be studied made me think this should be possible with today’s technology. This would be commonly used in Part Two. It would be useful for communication across the distances in the solar system, but even only on Earth, it would be an advantage to be able to communicate without sending a signal which can be jammed, intercepted or obstructed. I later specifically read that quantum entanglement cannot be used for communication, so forget about all this.
Each of the technologies used in the SSSMACCC suit is used elsewhere. The Istarcanor, being the iconic warriors in this story, needed iconic swords. Inspired by the colorful iridescent swords of Paolini’s dragon riders, every Istarcano would have a unique knife. They would be made of a variety of materials. An important character would have one made from steel salvaged from an aircraft carrier sunk during Part One. However, most would be made of the same abalone shell-mimicking material used in the armor. These knives would be extremely sharp with edges only a few atoms thick made of diamond or something of comparable hardness. Of course, at that point it is not really biomimicry anymore. I thought it would be cool if full-sized swords were made with this same technology, even if it would be impractical, so I decided that the people who make the Istarcano’s knives would also make one ornamental sword just for fun and it would eventually become a symbol of the Republic and be referred to simply as the “Sword of the Republic”. I tried making a picture of it.
Instead of control surfaces, airplane wings would contain muscles which change their shape. I was very interested in warplanes when I began to imagine this story. In the initial version, the two main kinds combat aircraft used by the Republic’s Department of War were originally designed and built at the order of Vladimir Tromedlov for use in his delusional adventures. They were then seized by the evil wizard who tried to kill him and were then seized again by the protagonists who founded the Republic and versions of the same designs would continue to be used in the time of Part Two. Both are stealthy, partly as a result of having almost no metal outside of their engines, and both have modular designs which allow them to be outfitted for any purpose.
The role of fighter aircraft would be filled by a drone which I never could decide what to call. I wanted to use the Quenya word for “bat”, but I was unable to find out what that it is until I wrote this and I found out it is “quildare” and I will refer to it as that. I had heard that manned fighters would become obsolete in the future as unmanned ones would be able to do everything better. There would be no pilot who would risk his life, be affected by G-forces, or become exhausted during long flights. I thought this would be especially true in my story because the ability to communicate instantly without sending a radio signal would eliminate any potential problems with remotely piloting drones. However, because that technology would not exist in the new version of the story until after the time of Part Two and because of the distrust of artificial intelligence, then maybe there would be a place for manned fighters.
In any case, not needing to accommodate a pilot reduces the weight and allows the design of the Quildare to even more closely imitate a bird or a bat. The only other parts which would get in the way are the engine and weapons bays, but it might be able to do without those also. Instead of missiles, bombs, and guns, the Quildare could often be only equipped with a laser. This would be lighter and would consume the same fuel the aircraft uses for flying. I imagined that such a weapon could hit targets in the air or on the ground with extreme precision and no collateral damage, perhaps being able to destroy a weapon someone is holding without severely harming him. I considered the possibility that the Quildare might not need a jet engine, but could instead flap its wings like a bird. I had trouble imagining that this would work. On one hand, biomimetic muscles must be the most efficient way to convert chemical energy into motion or else they would not be used. It might make sense that they would be more efficient and compact than animal muscles because they would not be made of cells and would not use energy on cellular functions. On the other hand, the Quildare would be larger than any flying animal and combat would require it to move faster than any. I imagined that a Quildare could be used for extremely long-term surveillance missions for either military or scientific purposes. It could take off with a rocket engine which is dropped after it runs out of fuel. The Quildare would then be propelled only by flapping its wings, but would use as little energy as possible and extend the time it flies by gliding and using air currents. The fuel consumption would be offset by collecting energy from sunlight. I imagined that it could fly for months or years, but I do not know what a realistic amount of time would be. Of course, thinking about this now, a drone with this capability and without a jet engine should be a completely separate design from one which is intended for air-to-air combat at supersonic speeds.
The other aircraft I imagined early on is a large bomber which I referred to as the “Nazgul” because it is dark, powerful and employed by someone who believes himself to be dark lord. After deciding that the story would no longer be related to Harry Potter, my in-story explanation for this name was probably that it was one of those warnings against the misuse of power, but deciding that the antagonists of Part One, who would first use it, would be called the Burzghash also provides an explanation. Even more than the Quildare, the Nazgul would have a highly modular construction which allows it to be outfitted for many different purposes. Besides being bombers, they can be equipped to carry cargo or passengers or function as tanker for mid-air refueling. One Nazgul could carry soldiers, who would covertly parachute into enemy territory, and give them air support with its precision weapons. Inspired by the Bus in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a Nazgul could be a kind of mobile base for Istarcano teams. This aircraft can be equipped for vertical or short take-off when only carrying a light load and would probably be the largest airplane with that capability. Some would be equipped to be used as space shuttles. I originally imagined the Nazgul as having a similar appearance as the B-2 with a flying wing design (as seen in the upper picture below), but because I always thought it would be very fast and could be equipped with secondary scramjet engines which allow it to reach hypersonic (greater than Mach 5) speeds, its wings should probably be more swept than I originally pictured them. I thought I read or heard that the reason why variable-sweep wings are not used in new airplane designs is that the mechanisms are too complex and heavy and thought that biomimetic muscles might be a more efficient way for this to work, so variable-sweep wings could be a part of the new design for the Nazgul, but trying to find out about this matter now, it seems that the reason why this is not used anymore is that better technology now exists.
Because of the name, the Republic would have eighty-one of these planes in active use. There would be nine squadrons of nine. The each squadron would be outfitted for different roles. Each plane would have a name like a ship. The names were all names from Lord of the Rings or Paolini’s Inheritance series which I thought sounded cool. The names of planes in the same squadron would all have a theme. For example, the space shuttles were all named for stars and constellations with names such as Helluin, Valacirca, and Menelmacar. The names of the nine original Nazgul used by the Burzghash in Part One would be words of the Black Speech, but because there are so few of those, the names I thought of would just be the English translations. I tried to think of things which sounded terrifying, powerful, and also strange. Looking at the list, the names I like the most and least ridiculous are Infernal Thunder, Concealing Darkness, Incandescent Shadow. Of course, this raises questions of why the Republic and the Burzghash would both have multiples of nine and further show how absurd it was to use “Nazgul” in the first place. Additionally, one aircraft performing so many different roles probably would not work very well. I looked at the dimensions of bombers and cargo planes when trying to decide those of the Nazgul, and it is clear that those two kinds of aircraft are very different.
However, while the Republic should be able to afford specialized aircraft, the kinds of organizations in the new version of this story would have much more limited resources and something like this might be what they need. I also imagined a smaller airplane for when something as large as the Nazgul is not needed and is otherwise similar. It would be more like a quinjet rather than the Bus. There would also be a helicopter which is like all of these in that it can fill various roles. It would mostly resemble an attack helicopter, but would have a small amount of cargo and passenger space. I do not remember if I chose a name for the Helicopter, but the one I chose for the smaller airplane was “soron“ meaning “eagle“.
Biomimetic technologies could be part of what leads to the development of devices which can be used with or make use of Sanwe-latya. I have imagined that such devices might be truly exotic and made of materials and structures unlike anything which exist or has been imagined as they function by the foundational mechanisms of reality. However, because the human brain is the only place where such phenomena can be observed normally, imitating its structure is the logical first step for developing such technology. Instant transfer of data from one device to another would be one of the first things people figure out how to do. Before or during Part Three, this kind of technology eventually leads to the invention of the most efficient means of faster-than-light travel. When operated by a skilled Samatir, one of these devices can almost instantly transfer a ship to any known location using very little energy, or rather it uses the same source of energy as all other uses of Sanwe-latya and the amount needed does not change with the distance traveled. The methods of faster-than-light travel used before this were far less practical. The Alcubierre drive has a finite speed and uses large amounts of energy. It might be possible to create wormholes, but they would only be in particular locations and would be very expensive. However, travel by Sanwe-latya has its own set of problems. “Knowing” a location may be a complicated matter for either a human or a computer. Any mistake by the Samatir operating the device could be disastrous. The operator does not need to be near the device to use it, so that means enemy Samatiri can attempt to do so. There would be security measures which make doing this prohibitively difficult or dangerous, but there may also be ways of overcoming them. There could be other dangers to traveling by Sanwe-latya. This could be what draws the attention of the remnants of the Seoaisaoei and causes a large part of the conflict in Part Three. Another thing to note is that humans have the potential ability to travel by Sanwe-latya without the aid technological devices just like the Seoaisaoei, but they were never forced to do so, although certain characters might be at some point in the story.