Humanity ends up on a spaceship swarm (RAR!)

SF: discuss futuristic sci-fi series, ideas, and crossovers.

Moderator: NecronLord

Post Reply
User avatar
Zor
Sith Acolyte
Posts: 5917
Joined: 2004-06-08 03:37am

Humanity ends up on a spaceship swarm (RAR!)

Post by Zor »

In this scenario, some friendly Aliens decide to help humanity and prevent earth's ecosystem from being ruined in a way which is a lot less dickish way. The first stage of which is using airdropped anesthetic nanites to render most of humanity unconscious (a small minority in submarines are unaffected, though the robots take care to get rid of any missile launches before they can do much damage) and collect the humans, pets and some prized possessions. When they awake, each member of humanity finds itself one of three billion spaceships in earth orbit. Children under 18 are with their parents and married/cohabitation couples share a ship while single adults get a ship to themselves.

Each ship is 80 meters long with long two storey rotating habitation ring 40 meters in diameter and 6 meters wide and weighs about a thousand tonnes. Half of the area of the habitation ring is put over to hydroponic gardens and meat culture stations to supply food, but their are also a series of large scale automated farming stations to provide specialist crops. The rest is given over to living space which includes several bedrooms, living rooms, bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, an infirmary and bridge (a command room with a command chair). The default decor is fairly neutral and minimalist though it does allow a wide range of customization. Each ship has a mechanical pressure spacesuit for all residents for making spacewalks. Each ship has a top acceleration of 0.2g and can perform a 180 degree turn in a minute. They also can generate a powerful shield bubble 160 meters in diameter which can take up to a 20kt of damage before it's projectors burn out. Each ship is part of the Q-net, an internet using quantum entanglement based communications.

Each ship has a set of ore processors and fabricators, both for making household goods as well as making larger external projects. Each ship is capable of setting up an set of fabricator satelites in a few months which, if supplied Raw Materials can build a new Starship in a year's time. It also has blueprints for drop pods (more on those in a bit) and (with some reasonable limitations) can accept new blurprints for human designed space stations and ships.

Each ship is mostly automated. It has a central AI and a staff a hundred six limbed spider-like robots ranging in size from 15cm to 1 meter across stored on several racks. These do a wide variety of tasks including cleaning, farming, providing medical care, repairing the ship, mining, defending against attack and assembling new ships. Said AI knows it's human owner and interacts with them via a holographic avatar (more specifically a recreation of Frank Sinatra).
Image
In general the AI (here-to referred to as Cyber-Sinatra) is quite intelligent and good natured. He's also a good doctor and can fabricate medicine. He will do what he's commanded to do by his master in most situations. However, he won't do the following thing...
  • Ram the ship any planets or Starships.
  • Allow his Fabricators to build explosives, firearms or ship mounted weapons. At the same time he'll have his drones take apart any guns or missiles that others might attempt to strap to them.
  • Follow orders to kill people (for example if you tell him to space someone who's in the airlock without a spacesuit he won't comply)
  • Follow certain orders when the user is inebriated or is deemed to be mentally unstable.
  • Build another ship with similar capacities which does not have the same AIs or reprogram them.
As well as a few other reasonable limitations. In addition he'll use his drones to protect against attackers and otherwise work to prevent people from killing each other.

If you feel like going back down the well, each ship can fabricate a landing craft which can deliver 4 people safely to the surface of any terrestrial body on the solar system and launch itself into orbit off any of said bodies save for Venus and Earth.

What happens and what do you do?

Zor
HAIL ZOR! WE'LL BLOW UP THE OCEAN!
Heros of Cybertron-HAB-Keeper of the Vicious pit of Allosauruses-King Leighton-I, United Kingdom of Zoria: SD.net World/Tsar Mikhail-I of the Red Tsardom: SD.net Kingdoms
WHEN ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE ON EARTH, ALL EARTH BREAKS LOOSE ON HELL
http://zortropolis.myminicity.com/
http://zortropolis.myminicity.com/ind
http://zortropolis.myminicity.com/tra
Terran Sphere
The Art of Zor
User avatar
Zixinus
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 6663
Joined: 2007-06-19 12:48pm
Location: In Seth the Blitzspear
Contact:

Re: Humanity ends up on a spaceship swarm (RAR!)

Post by Zixinus »

A lot of people decide that fuck this space shit and try to land back on Earth? Maybe live in these new ships that provide them all the necessities in life that previously we did not have? Also live much more cleanly and with far less pollution now that we have this kind of technology?

Can we talk to the friendly Aliens? If I ask my Cyber-Sinatra to change its appearance will it comply? Will it teach us how to make technology that is on the ship? Do the Cyber-Sinatras talk to each other? Can they make plans? If a group of humans decide to be suicidal towards the aliens, will it stop? Does the Cyber-Sinatra also have safeguards for the friendly aliens? Can I ask Cyber-Sinatra to make new AIs with new functions and personalities, even if under the same safeguards?

What are the spaceships powered by? Does it have sensors and equipment for asteroid mining? Does it have detailed starcharts and charts of other solar systems, possibly indicating resource-rich areas or even planets inhabitable by humans? Does it mark if those resources are claimed? Is there information available about other alien species and more importantly, interstellar societies and their rules?

Because the latter is going to be the most important question long-term.

Short-term, it is going to be who and what factions will rise to prominence after the initial chaos. Because regular societies as we know them will cease to exist and will have to be reformed. Now that people are not tied together by shared land and infrastructure, culture and ideology are going to be much more important from now on.
Credo!
Chat with me on Skype if you want to talk about writing, ideas or if you want a test-reader! PM for address.
User avatar
Joun_Lord
Jedi Master
Posts: 1211
Joined: 2014-09-27 01:40am
Location: West by Golly Virginia

Re: Humanity ends up on a spaceship swarm (RAR!)

Post by Joun_Lord »

Rebellion probably. Some humans don't like to be caged, even a comfortable cage. And thats what this is, a cage. Earth is home and to be uprooted without permission, without consideration of their feelings would leave a sour taste in many peoples mouths right from the get go. The fact they can't return to Earth (or Venus oddly) is going to make even more people angry. The crowning bit of anger is the level of control Cyber-Sinatra has over peoples lives, won't allow them to build prohibited stuff, won't allow them to even build new ships without him on it, and is in many ways humankind's new master.

Some people would accept it, some would violently rebel. How Cyber-Sinatra deals with rebels trying to damage their new cages or hurt themselves or others would really decide if others join. Even if people cannot do damage to the ship or hurt others they damn sure will find ways to hurt themselves. Is Cyber-Sinatra going to straitjacket them up and put gags in their mouths so they can swallow their own tongues? People kill themselves over less, kill themselves in protest or because they cannot handle major change. Being uprooted from their lives, communities, families, jobs, possessions, and homes to be stuck alone on some spaceship would really not do well for some people. Could wind up with a situation like the I, Robot movie where the AI has to forcefully control people for their own good.

These aliens might be friendlier then some but they are still dicks. Maybe they could have asked if people wanted to leave, maybe offered the same tech to help fix Earth, not just treat them like children and act like space white man's burden.

Personally I'd love to get my own personal spaceship. But I'd want to take all the garbage I've accumulated over the years, would want to be able to build or own firearms if I wanted even if I never choose to, be able to return to Earth to fuck about on the grass and enjoy nature, and probably most importantly I want to be asked. Again, I'd love to have the opportunity to have my own spaceship, to explore the solar system and beyond, to leave the bonds of Earth, but I want to decide to do so, I don't want it forced on me.
User avatar
Zor
Sith Acolyte
Posts: 5917
Joined: 2004-06-08 03:37am

Re: Humanity ends up on a spaceship swarm (RAR!)

Post by Zor »

Zixinus wrote:Can we talk to the friendly Aliens?
Not now, the Aliens want.
If I ask my Cyber-Sinatra to change its appearance will it comply?
Yes.
Can I ask Cyber-Sinatra to make new AIs with new functions and personalities, even if under the same safeguards?
Yes.
Joun_Lord wrote:Rebellion probably. Some humans don't like to be caged, even a comfortable cage. And thats what this is, a cage. Earth is home and to be uprooted without permission, without consideration of their feelings would leave a sour taste in many peoples mouths right from the get go. The fact they can't return to Earth (or Venus oddly) is going to make even more people angry.
They can leave. The landers are fully capable of getting of touching down on any planet in the solar system. They can't LAUNCH again from the Earth's Surface and get back into space due to gravity.

Also people are free to travel from ship to ship.
What are the spaceships powered by? Does it have sensors and equipment for asteroid mining?
Nuclear fusion and yes they do.
Does it have detailed starcharts and charts of other solar systems, possibly indicating resource-rich areas or even planets inhabitable by humans?
Does it mark if those resources are claimed?
Yes.
Is there information available about other alien species and more importantly, interstellar societies and their rules?
Their is a bit of rough information about the builders: they decided to upload themselves about thirty thousand years ago and have lived in a small cluster about 30,000 LY away. As for other information on other alien civilizations well that's a bit sketchy. See they've found several thousand worlds that bear life but no ones with extant sapients. They have, however found the ruins of several dozen extinct ones that had either wiped themselves out (either through war or ecological damage) or were unable to deal with major disasters. They don't want that fate to befall humanity.

Zor
HAIL ZOR! WE'LL BLOW UP THE OCEAN!
Heros of Cybertron-HAB-Keeper of the Vicious pit of Allosauruses-King Leighton-I, United Kingdom of Zoria: SD.net World/Tsar Mikhail-I of the Red Tsardom: SD.net Kingdoms
WHEN ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE ON EARTH, ALL EARTH BREAKS LOOSE ON HELL
http://zortropolis.myminicity.com/
http://zortropolis.myminicity.com/ind
http://zortropolis.myminicity.com/tra
Terran Sphere
The Art of Zor
User avatar
madd0ct0r
Sith Acolyte
Posts: 6259
Joined: 2008-03-14 07:47am

Re: Humanity ends up on a spaceship swarm (RAR!)

Post by madd0ct0r »

Time to ask Sinatra to print off some Starfleet uniforms.


I'm not even kidding. There will be people who decide to resettle earth, and there will be boomerangs who will go straight back because they can't believe or accept there's no one else there. There are people who are tied to another's grave, to their holy lands or to their farm.

Everybody else, with the breakdown of all certainties will fall back on family tribe and clan links. Even a small fraction of the spaceships moving about the swarm to link up will produce a stirring motion that seperate even more people. There will be an authority vacumn if not a power one.

If some wingnut turns up next to me, claiming to be vice admiral of the USA and trying to draft me into his flotilla, I'm not inclined to take it on face value. A lot of the old models will try to replicate themselves, based on the same ideas of dependency as before. Quite a few will advocate a return to earth, a return to the status quo.

Creating a new faction, recognisable to most as relaxed peaceful explorers and builders will put a pressure valve on that. At least until politics and status monkeys cause it to tear into parts.
"Aid, trade, green technology and peace." - Hans Rosling.
"Welcome to SDN, where we can't see the forest because walking into trees repeatedly feels good, bro." - Mr Coffee
User avatar
The Romulan Republic
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 21559
Joined: 2008-10-15 01:37am

Re: Humanity ends up on a spaceship swarm (RAR!)

Post by The Romulan Republic »

Wingnuts aren't a big problem initially, due to the limitations on weaponry/combat. The biggest risk, as Joun_Lord said, is people going suicidal.

I probably just go off and do my own thing, explore, enjoy my fancy new technology, maybe link up with some friends/family. Though if I were more politically experienced, I might be willing to try putting together a confederation based on principles of direct democracy.

Edit: Oh, and petty as it may be, I spam insulting messages at the pods of Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump. :wink:
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
User avatar
The Romulan Republic
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 21559
Joined: 2008-10-15 01:37am

Re: Humanity ends up on a spaceship swarm (RAR!)

Post by The Romulan Republic »

The wonderful thing about this scenario, and the real shock to humankind (besides the simple facts that we are in space and aliens are incontrovertibly real) is that for the first time in history, all humans are truly equal (or as close to it as we've ever been or are every likely to be, anyway). No person has the power to enforce their will against others on a large scale. Their is no government, except those we choose to recognize (unless you count the restrictions the aliens put on how we can use their technology). Also no resource shortages.

Aside from the mass-kidnapping, this is both a libertarian's and a socialist's dream.

Edit: Granted, we can't really overlook the mass-kidnapping thing.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
User avatar
Zixinus
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 6663
Joined: 2007-06-19 12:48pm
Location: In Seth the Blitzspear
Contact:

Re: Humanity ends up on a spaceship swarm (RAR!)

Post by Zixinus »

I would be careful with spamming insults. People will follow established leaders out of charisma, ideology and sheer habit.

A possible point of reference for what people will do is resource-expenditure between places. Most will go back to Earth. Venus is a pressure cooker, Mars is a barren rock, so next is the asteroid belt (and the Kuiper belt). Next are mayor resource points like the gas giant's moons (Saturn's rings will be a thing of the past as it will be mined out). From there on, it is the question of other star systems. So it will be Earthers, belters, moonies and the people desperate enough to get away from it all to risk crossing solar systems.

The whole dream will brake down once such factions do not settle for power gained by charisma but start making equipment that is not under the control of the AI safeguards. Meaning weapons (unless the Cyber-Sinatras CAN work together to prevent this). If they succeed, that will mean warfare. Which means that however great this situation is, it will be ruined by a few, stupid and shortsighted people as always.
Credo!
Chat with me on Skype if you want to talk about writing, ideas or if you want a test-reader! PM for address.
User avatar
The Romulan Republic
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 21559
Joined: 2008-10-15 01:37am

Re: Humanity ends up on a spaceship swarm (RAR!)

Post by The Romulan Republic »

The OP seemed pretty clear to me about the AIs not building weapons or helping us/allowing us to kill each other. Perhaps people will figure out loopholes eventually, but at present, their is basically no way for a human to use force on another.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
User avatar
The Romulan Republic
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 21559
Joined: 2008-10-15 01:37am

Re: Humanity ends up on a spaceship swarm (RAR!)

Post by The Romulan Republic »

You know, the more I think about this, the more I think this would be a very interesting idea for a novel or television series. Especially if you really got into the social and political implications of such a complete upheaval of human society, and the pros and cons of such an intervention in our civilization by aliens.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
User avatar
madd0ct0r
Sith Acolyte
Posts: 6259
Joined: 2008-03-14 07:47am

Re: Humanity ends up on a spaceship swarm (RAR!)

Post by madd0ct0r »

It's basically a less handwavy version of Fenspace, and there's some good stories from that setting on this board.
"Aid, trade, green technology and peace." - Hans Rosling.
"Welcome to SDN, where we can't see the forest because walking into trees repeatedly feels good, bro." - Mr Coffee
User avatar
Joun_Lord
Jedi Master
Posts: 1211
Joined: 2014-09-27 01:40am
Location: West by Golly Virginia

Re: Humanity ends up on a spaceship swarm (RAR!)

Post by Joun_Lord »

I've actually thought of writing a story somewhat along these lines. Not the whole of humanity but like a city's worth. A bunch of people shoved on an alien city ship. They are there because the aliens foresee the destruction of the city (maybe caused it though an accident?) but because of their prime directive type deal cannot warn humanity and have no way of preventing it. So they right before the destruction abduct the whole population and out them on the ship. The ship provides all the basic needs, food, water, oxygen, but anything else it doesn't. However the ship has the capability of replicating anything they have pretty much unlimited as long as they have something to copy. The population is abducted with anything they have on their person or carrying so there is some stuff to work with.

I'd want to explore how people would deal with the situation, how tribes and societies would form, how inventive people would get with what they have, and so on. Also explore the mystery of the gigantic ass ship they are on and the aliens who built it. Was thinking about to add some conflict have some members of the population be designated crew members of the ship, would have special access and privileges and maybe even abilities but also responsibilities. How would people act to these "chosen ones", would the power they have turn them into saints or tyrants.

Of course this is one of aboot a dozen shitty story ideas I have floating around my brain meats.
Post Reply