Tornado

Right, but isn't lifting power in gravity also determined by the force you can bring to bear? I mean, if I lift a car over my head, I have to apply more force to it than gravity is already. Right? Okay, thinking about it again, the damage is probably related to the force from deceleration, which is not necessarily 1:1 correlated to the force from acceleration. Is that correct? If so, what is the maximum reasonable relationship?

Is the idea of a character who can lift a lot but can't punch super hard sensible? It seems like to lift something requires you to apply a level of force greater than that of gravity (i.e. 9.8 m/s^2 * its mass in kg), which is a very substantial. So in order to lift a 2000 kg object, you need to apply at least (preferably substantially more, if you want to do it in any reasonable amount of time) 19,600 newtons of force to it. The human fist has a surface area of ~110 cm^2, according to some googling. Even assuming you can only apply half that force per hand, that's about 130 psi or 2,000 lbs of force. For comparison, the hardest punches the best boxers can manage are around ~1000 lbs of force. The amount of damage becomes more ridiculous the more you can lift. Am I not understanding something? I want a character who can lift a tank but not necessarily kill someone in a single punch. Is this even physically plausible? Yes, yes, it's an RPG not real life, but I need to know.

Re: The (possible) dearth of habitable terrestrial worlds explained!

Re: The (possible) dearth of habitable terrestrial worlds explained! The wheel isn't truly random, though. The Eudaemons created a roulette predictor that managed an average 44% percent profit on every dollar in the 1970s.

Re: The (possible) dearth of habitable terrestrial worlds explained!

Re: Sentients native to low-gravity worlds operating on "normal" gravity worlds? Yeah, it's an aquatic species, the gravity on Titan is .14g (this moon's gravity is .16g). Is neutral buoyancy going to mean they can operate in any environment as long as they're still suspended in the appropriate density of liquid? It seems like there would be other problems.

How does this work out? I have a species that's native to depths of about 20km on a moon quite similar to Titan. If they wanted to interact with humans and other species native to more Earthlike environments, would there be any way for them to do so personally? Some sort of suit could easily compensate for the pressure, temperature, and their aquatic nature, but is there any way to deal with the gravity? The only thing I can think of that works would be telecommuting from LEO, which kind of reduces the amount you can threaten such a character.

Re: Personal Companion Bots. and a months long voyage....

Re: Personal Companion Bots. and a months long voyage.... I find this rather unlikely. Dehumanization of humans is hardly a healthy practice, and I don't imagine that the dehumanization of sexbots capable of appearing to be human for all intents and purposes would be much healthier.

Re: Personal Companion Bots. and a months long voyage.... Sexbots reflect some bizarre mésalliance between futurism and regressivism. It simultaneously involves technologies far in advance of the present (effective simulation of most every element of personhood) and the most backwards idea of how relationships should work (cook, clean, give me a blowjob).

Re: Campaign Setting: Age of Avarice Nah, though at this point reputation is a little silly! I've got a five digit rep, I guess because of compound interest (???). Huh. I didn't realize you could cram languages. Might have to add that. Ah well, doesn't really matter. I think its like a 1 point difference, maybe? I'm not sure I even did the calculation correctly in the first place. In other news: * Adjusted speeds of spacecraft (from 10 m/s^2 to 1 m/s^2) * Added Transhuman entry on species page. * Added Organizations page, which currently includes the structure of the IEU (to be filled out some, with more suborganizations), as well as a basic idea of what its members and the public think of it.

Suppose we have a quite advanced civilization that has managed to get a decent clip going with genetic engineering and social science. They've been going over the human genome for decades, comparing and contrasting to animal genes, etc. They've isolated and uncovered various human mental peculiarities in terms of genetics. They've got an excellent understanding of in utero effects and childrearing. They carefully tailor a specific, homegrown individual's genetic code and youth to predispose them towards a specific activity, say, assassination. Legally, this individual is an adult, capable of making all their own decisions. They don't have to do their job if they don't want to. They completely understand that they were specifically created and tailored for this purpose. But, in 99% of all cases, they will do their job until they die or are retired. Is this a form of slavery? Legally, it obviously isn't - the individual has given informed consent - but morally?

Re: Near-human genetics

Re: I need cheap(-ish) liftoff. Okay, I should probably clarify: the 900 metric ton mass is the space craft's "final stage." Its delta v is for moving between planets (it has a high efficiency D-T fusion drive), not for reaching orbit. A "normal" launch (with SRBs, railguns, or whatever else excess mass) is used to actually get to orbit, and its mass in this stage can be as large as necessary. Recalculating some numbers based on a noticed economic problem, I'm turning the calculation into: total cost $550M for two liftoffs, one lifting 900 mt, the other lifting 150 mt.

Re: I need cheap(-ish) liftoff. It's definitely not a one-off, there's "plenty" of Earth-to-space movement. I don't think the main problem with getting into space is actual fuel requirements. The fuel supply for a single SRB is about 80 metric tons of aluminum (http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/technology/sts-newsref/srb.html), which costs about $200,000. Significant to us, but compared to the cost of one SRB ($60M), very little.