Information I'd love to know

There is a broadcast range for communication, but the BOND itself is different. How different is a good question. There is evidence that forcibly separating bond-mates causes severe emotional and physical strain. Like direct cause of death severe.

cthia wrote:We have to be careful here, my niece's brain works like a computer. First, she posits that memory singer to memory singer could represent the farthest possible connection. Secondly, if it indeed works FTL then there's the obvious military application if the ability can be controlled. I argued that even if so it would probably be limited what could actually be sent. She countered that it would simply mimic the limitation of the RMN's initial FTL. She conceived of a possible use to circumvent the need of the KISS principle when attacking in several systems simultaneously. A treecat could send an emotion to kick it off. If it worked FTL (instantly) and if it could be controlled at great distances.

As others pointed out the distance appears to be a few tens of kms, not likely to be all that useful militarily.

Even on a planet radio is effectively instant over that piddling range. And even if the signal is FTL treecat brains still take finite time to process the signal - so even a very long relay chain of treecats seems unlikely to beat radio. Any advantage in transmission speed should be swamped by the delays inherent in perceiving and rebroadcasting it every 10 km or so.


And all that is assuming psychic signals are FTL; something I don't offhand recall any text-ev for in the Honorverse. (Though yes, that has been a staple of other sci-fi; Heinlein's Time for the Stars springs to mind)


The one place it might be somewhat useful militarily is in small unit ground combat when radio silence is needed to avoid detection. That might be in a small enough area that, with multiple treecats, you could pass messages that couldn't be detected by any electronic monitoring systems. (But for that the transmission speed is fairly irrelevant) That said, even with unbonded treecats volunteering I don't see them getting attached to platoon or smaller ground or marine units - there are too many place they'd be more likely to be useful.

Jonathan_S wrote:The one place it might be somewhat useful militarily is in small unit ground combat when radio silence is needed to avoid detection. That might be in a small enough area that, with multiple treecats, you could pass messages that couldn't be detected by any electronic monitoring systems. (But for that the transmission speed is fairly irrelevant) That said, even with unbonded treecats volunteering I don't see them getting attached to platoon or smaller ground or marine units - there are too many place they'd be more likely to be useful.

I think Treecats might well volunteer for combat units despite their usefulness in less aggressive roles. Special Operations and Scouting for conventional ground forces is a task which Treecats are naturally well suited for. They might not take well to regular military discipline, but would do well in the Beowulf Survey Corps or Torch Special Operations/Ballroom Action Teams.

Weird Harold wrote:

Jonathan_S wrote:The one place it might be somewhat useful militarily is in small unit ground combat when radio silence is needed to avoid detection. That might be in a small enough area that, with multiple treecats, you could pass messages that couldn't be detected by any electronic monitoring systems. (But for that the transmission speed is fairly irrelevant) That said, even with unbonded treecats volunteering I don't see them getting attached to platoon or smaller ground or marine units - there are too many place they'd be more likely to be useful.

I think Treecats might well volunteer for combat units despite their usefulness in less aggressive roles. Special Operations and Scouting for conventional ground forces is a task which Treecats are naturally well suited for. They might not take well to regular military discipline, but would do well in the Beowulf Survey Corps or Torch Special Operations/Ballroom Action Teams.

Special Forces. Grey Beret. Rambo with retractable P-38s. Master of camouflage. Hear, smell and feel you coming. Ambush proof. Attack from trees. Throw vibro blades like frisbees. They'll strike fear all around the Honorverse. And you don't even dare consider hand to hand combat.

Amaroq wrote:

cthia wrote:I remember several incidences when Honor was listening to someone talk, yet preoccupied. She would decide to listen half heartedly with the intention to replay the entire conversation later. Is there textev stating what that ability is? I seem to remember something. I don't think textev stated that she had a photographic, or eidetic memory or something similar. Can anyone tac-witch-it?

I think this is the relevant quote from HAE:

She floated in zero-gee, and the surface of her brain listened attentively to everything Schubert said. She knew she'd be able to replay the entire conversation verbatim later, but for now her inner thoughts were busy with what she'd already learned about Project Trojan Horse.

It does seem like a unique ability. I know I couldn't do it without actually listening to the conversation. Maybe it's some sort of Meyerdahl byproduct?

This is a real Ricardo Montalban moment for me. It tasks me. No doubt it is some Meyerdahl byproduct. But to what end? I am beginning to think that the Meyerdahl mods haven't run their course. There are hidden talents just waiting intro. What degree of Honor's talent will manifest itself in her child? Will each successive gen become more capable? Grayson's treecats are an unprecedented bunch as they are the first to grow up amongst humans. I recall Nimitz' communication with Raoul moments after birth. I'm thinking of the effect an auxilliary training horse has on the star horse. Seabiscuit had a sparring partner. It serves to push and fully develop natural abilities. I cannot shake the feeling that latent talents of treecats and human interaction hasn't peaked...and as a result of human and cat interactions, that treecats may discover hidden abilities themselves.

I've always wondered why battleships are designated BB. Battlecruisers are BC, battleships BB. It's obvious why they aren't designated BS. 'Course, that'd be fine, even appropriate, if they were Solarian.

Does anyone know what BB stands for? (asks the kid in class reluctant to raise his hand to sound...stupid)

cthia wrote:I've always wondered why battleships are designated BB. Battlecruisers are BC, battleships BB. It's obvious why they aren't designated BS. 'Course, that'd be fine, even appropriate, if they were Solarian.

Does anyone know what BB stands for? (asks the kid in class reluctant to raise his hand to sound...stupid)

Same reason destroyers are DDs and frigates are FFs. It is how it is done.

cthia wrote:I've always wondered why battleships are designated BB. Battlecruisers are BC, battleships BB. It's obvious why they aren't designated BS. 'Course, that'd be fine, even appropriate, if they were Solarian.

Does anyone know what BB stands for? (asks the kid in class reluctant to raise his hand to sound...stupid)

Apparently when numeric designations were first invented, all the designations were doubled letters. So they had BB, CC, DD, FF. Then they started making subclasses, CA and CL. Then they invented new classes which started with the same letter as existing classes, CV. Weber extended that by inventing DN and SD.

So the answer is that it is the designations which aren't double letters which are the oddities.

Amaroq wrote:

cthia wrote:I remember several incidences when Honor was listening to someone talk, yet preoccupied. She would decide to listen half heartedly with the intention to replay the entire conversation later. Is there textev stating what that ability is? I seem to remember something. I don't think textev stated that she had a photographic, or eidetic memory or something similar. Can anyone tac-witch-it?

I think this is the relevant quote from HAE:

She floated in zero-gee, and the surface of her brain listened attentively to everything Schubert said. She knew she'd be able to replay the entire conversation verbatim later, but for now her inner thoughts were busy with what she'd already learned about Project Trojan Horse.

It does seem like a unique ability. I know I couldn't do it without actually listening to the conversation. Maybe it's some sort of Meyerdahl byproduct?

It seems to be a variation on a Husband Skill that allows a man to think about whatever he wants while simultaneously subconsciously scanning what his wife is saying, thus alerting him to problematical statements like "They can do it in pink" or "it was really very cheap". At that point, the subconscious pulls up the previous couple of sentences and knocks on the mind's door.

In Terry Pratchett's book "Thud!", it is noted that Sir Samuel Vimes is a noted expert at this skill, having developed it to the point that he can offer relevant opinions without actually paying attention to what was going on!
Sybil (his wife) found it to be a fascinating phenomenon...

SWM wrote:

cthia wrote:I've always wondered why battleships are designated BB. Battlecruisers are BC, battleships BB. It's obvious why they aren't designated BS. 'Course, that'd be fine, even appropriate, if they were Solarian.

Does anyone know what BB stands for? (asks the kid in class reluctant to raise his hand to sound...stupid)

Apparently when numeric designations were first invented, all the designations were doubled letters. So they had BB, CC, DD, FF. Then they started making subclasses, CA and CL. Then they invented new classes which started with the same letter as existing classes, CV. Weber extended that by inventing DN and SD.

So the answer is that it is the designations which aren't double letters which are the oddities.

I seem to have found something. Apparently it is an identifying Hull No., as a VIN is to an automobile and stands for battleship-built.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_number