Nanites

Re-reading LAMA and the assassination scene, I started thinking about the uses of Federation medical nanites.

If they can be manufactured en-masse, Merlin could produce a low-impact, partial, version. Improve recovery from wounds to some degree, and improve resistance to disease. Not enough to deliver improvements that Clinton's church could label as 'demonic', but enough that the Imperial forces (and, ideally, all Imperial subjects) suffer from fewer deaths from injury and disease.

This would improve the combat-readiness of Imperial forces, effectively delivering more firepower at the front, while saving lives.

I can't see any downside. Comments, anyone?

wyrm wrote:Re-reading LAMA and the assassination scene, I started thinking about the uses of Federation medical nanites.

If they can be manufactured en-masse, Merlin could produce a low-impact, partial, version. Improve recovery from wounds to some degree, and improve resistance to disease. Not enough to deliver improvements that Clinton's church could label as 'demonic', but enough that the Imperial forces (and, ideally, all Imperial subjects) suffer from fewer deaths from injury and disease.

This would improve the combat-readiness of Imperial forces, effectively delivering more firepower at the front, while saving lives.

I can't see any downside. Comments, anyone?

I think it is unlikely that he could produce enough medical nanites to provide to a million soldiers.

Even if he can produce that much it would be the least efficient way of using them. Better idea would be producing enough of them for higher ranking officers of Navy and Army and any high value target.

People are already saying things about the water in Chairs.

I'd also like something in the nanite mix that kills captured soldiers quickly when they are submitted to the question to reduce their suffering.

wyrm wrote:[Federation medical nanites for all!]

I can't see any downside. Comments, anyone?

I very much doubt Merlin's got any way to modify the standard Federation nanites, which, don't forget, either maintain themselves or reproduce in the target bloodstream; Merlin doesn't have to keep providing "booster shots".

Creating a modified version would become medical experimentation on non-consensual subjects; not something the good guys do. ("I'd like to try some magic on you" isn't consent, and it would take a lot of work to educate someone until they could produce meaningful consent.)

Production might not be a problem, if you can toss a few nanites and the right mix of elements in a bucket and let them make more of themselves, as the PICA self-repair capability implies. (Probably have to keep the bucket at 37 C and damp.) It's still got to have risks -- escaped nanites are a much worse version of the problem seen in drug plants where very fine dust has overdosed workers before now -- especially if they affect everything mamalian of Terran ancestry. ("the mice are now invincible" is not a small mistake.) The infrastructure to handle that sort of problem isn't there.

The standard version risks crises of faith because it looks like sorcery; it's not clear what the nanites do to aging but I expect Cayleb and Sharleyan are going to age very well, even without the antigerone treatments. Widespread crises of faith are supposed to be the next problem, not this one.

Draken wrote:Even if he can produce that much it would be the least efficient way of using them. Better idea would be producing enough of them for higher ranking officers of Navy and Army and any high value target.

Sure. Take care of the higher ranks.
Grunts don't ask why, just do or die!!!

TN4994 wrote:

Draken wrote:Even if he can produce that much it would be the least efficient way of using them. Better idea would be producing enough of them for higher ranking officers of Navy and Army and any high value target.

Sure. Take care of the higher ranks.
Grunts don't ask why, just do or die!!!

If you can't take a joke, you shouldn't have joined up!

Don

n7axw wrote:If you can't take a joke, you shouldn't have joined up!

Don

Only applies for those who join voluntarily (for values therein!)

We have extensive text of conscription on the CoGA side, especially Harchow, but is there a Charis Empire 'draft?' Even at the most patriotic heights of the British Empire, there was still legal conscription and Charis is the obvious analog for Britain.

Charybdis wrote:

n7axw wrote:If you can't take a joke, you shouldn't have joined up!

Don

Only applies for those who join voluntarily (for values therein!)

We have extensive text of conscription on the CoGA side, especially Harchow, but is there a Charis Empire 'draft?' Even at the most patriotic heights of the British Empire, there was still legal conscription and Charis is the obvious analog for Britain.

I don't recall any record of conscription on the EOC side. In fact what textev we have implies reliance on volunteers. Kinda surprising when you think about it...

Don

n7axw wrote:

n7axw wrote:If you can't take a joke, you shouldn't have joined up!

Don

Charybdis wrote:
Only applies for those who join voluntarily (for values therein!)

We have extensive text of conscription on the CoGA side, especially Harchow, but is there a Charis Empire 'draft?' Even at the most patriotic heights of the British Empire, there was still legal conscription and Charis is the obvious analog for Britain.

I don't recall any record of conscription on the EOC side. In fact what textev we have implies reliance on volunteers. Kinda surprising when you think about it...

Don

Actually, there was some textev that in fact conscription has NOT been necessary in the EoC, although apparently that option in on the table. Don't remember which book (that's the problem with reading them all over again, in one continuous orgy of consumption - the details of which book something occurred in tend to get lost)