n7axw wrote:JeffEngel wrote:I sometimes think there was a second PICA with a very, very light touch who got behind that bit of bribery out of Harchong.
I agree. If gunpowder didn't waken the Rakurai, it does call into question the thought they are on automatics.
Don
Whilst I agree a ground station in the Temple is possible (and based on textev probable) the knowledge to use it is another question entirely. I suspect the key probably contains a AI database to lead the user through the activation and use of the system (if not a stored personality) and was separated to keep a man in the loop and prevent the stored personality becoming unstable. We know that there were limits on how long a PICA could stay active autonomously, why not the same hard coded limits for an armed self aware AI? (Particularly as we have textev of AI's going a little strange over long periods alone (just like people do...))
The issue for a dumber AI is what is detectible from orbit, emissions of electromagnetic radiation certainly (particularly if you don't know about electromagnetic theory). Possibly nitrous oxides, if they creep above natural background.
Synthetic fluoride and chloride compounds (CFC's and the like) but only as gases (including venting from production facilities).
Nuclear events would attract attention so a WWII era bomb or artillery shell would probably be a step too far (but are build-able with current Safehold technology).
Sulphur Dioxide & Carbon Dioxide from gunpowder would vanish into the background, the difference from background noise would be very hard to see. A large smelter (or town gas works) could be within the limits of technology as the emissions would be similar to a coal seam fire (lots of smoke, soot, sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide and miscellaneous hydrocarbons). Given traditionally smelters were located near coal seams this would be conceivable. A town burning coal for heat would have emissions that would dwarf any but the largest single iron smelter (London's smogs in the 18th to 19th centuries were positively lethal - and that was largely from burning coal shipped by sail ship from Newcastle)(Beijing's isn't much better now, Seattle's smog is shipped in to a large degree(how's that for out sourcing production)).