PICA updates

McGuiness wrote: quote="MTO" quote="captinjoehenry"
i was referring to the fact that the OBS would most likely be able to detect the automated mine as in order for it to function it would most likely be using industrial robots which are not as stealthy as the military gear they have been using up till now and in order to make a stealthy auto mine OWL would most likely have to do a fair bit of R&R now this is not necessarily hard but i would guess it would take a while./quote They have nannites! They don't need robots to mine! /quote Actually, both viewpoints may be true. TF tech may indeed have nannites that can dissolve the minerals that surround the ones they're mining. However, those nannites would need to be constantly directed and replenished, which would require a "nannite fabber" and controlling equipment, which could be an all-in-one mechanical creation of some sort.

It would still require a goodly amount of energy to create the needed nannites and to refine the ore so that only the bare minimum of required elements need to be sent to OWL. This all happens under the watchful eye of the OBS after all, even if most of it happens well under ground. So it would probably need a fusion-powered mining "robot" even if it uses nannites, and stealthed transports to carry the mined materials back to OWL.

And that's a sneaky way of doing it! If TF tech can't mine using nannites, then a bunch of robots would be required, and the odds of the OBS noticing would go up considerably, even with a deep shaft mine.

It may not come up in the series, but someday OWL is really going to need to create something for which he doesn't have the needed materials, and he's going to need to get them somehow. The OBS may need to be removed before that's possible, but the thought of mining right under the nose of the OBS is certainly intriguing!

McGuiness wrote:...

And that's a sneaky way of doing it! If TF tech can't mine using nannites, then a bunch of robots would be required, and the odds of the OBS noticing would go up considerably, even with a deep shaft mine.

...

fallsfromtrees wrote:

ETathome wrote:Can Owl replace the material? If the stock in question was easy to replace, wouldn't it be mentioned? Ultimately, we don't know what elements of the periodic table are present on Safehold. Most common elements have been mentioned already, but what about the less common ones?

I can accept the notion of time and story being why he doesn't do it. My original notion was to make a personality recording. Reformat the PICA, then restore the personality. I didn't think about how long a recording would take.

If OWL can't replace the materials, because they are not present, then they are in trouble, because it almost certainly will not be possible to build the ships required to fight the Gbaba.

Imaginos1892 wrote:I suspect that the depleted supplies are not raw materials but extremely complex components like, oh, molecular circuit modules, actuators, fusion reactor control bits, electronic "nerves", etc. OWL would have to make the machines to make the machines to make the....up through 10 or 15 generations and he's got a lot of other things to do.

As for backing up Merlin without the high-speed interface, why can't it be done "in the background" while he's doing other stuff? He's in pretty much constant contact with OWL anyway.
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If this ended well, it wouldn't be on "Funniest Home Videos".