What's next for the Honorverse

kzt wrote:

ldwechsler wrote:Problems do arise. And Simoes was a WORKING member of the team there. That means he was getting data from working streak drive ships to make them even faster.

No. He had never even seen the hardware. It was apparently a one-way thing.


"Is he in a position to damage anything that's already been accomplished?"
Bardasano leaned forward over her desk, folding her forearms on her blotter and leaning her weight on them while she watched McBryde intently.
"No, Ma'am." This time McBryde spoke without even a shadow of a reservation. "There are too many backups, and too many other members of his team are fully hands-on. He couldn't delete any of the project notes or data even if he were so far gone that he tried—not that I think he's anywhere near that state, at this point at least, you understand. If I did, I'd have already yanked him. And as far as hardware is concerned, he's completely out of the loop. His team's working entirely on the research and basic theory end of things."

First of all, McBryde might have been stretching the truth. Second, there are a lot of connections between the theory and the engineering. If you know the theory and you know that it works, the engineering is a lot simpler.

ldwechsler wrote:
First of all, McBryde might have been stretching the truth. Second, there are a lot of connections between the theory and the engineering. If you know the theory and you know that it works, the engineering is a lot simpler.

You can see this in how Edward Teller is remembered as the father of the commercial fusion reactor.

kzt wrote:

ldwechsler wrote:
First of all, McBryde might have been stretching the truth. Second, there are a lot of connections between the theory and the engineering. If you know the theory and you know that it works, the engineering is a lot simpler.

You can see this in how Edward Teller is remembered as the father of the commercial fusion reactor.

This belongs in the humor thread!

But, really, you’re comparing bananas and plantains or string beans and butter beans. Teller made a bomb; no one has made a fusion reactor. Simoes is a theorist on streak drives; streak drives have been made. Probably what GA needs is one more spy like Stalin had to get nukes or a working example.

ldwechsler wrote:First of all, McBryde might have been stretching the truth. Second, there are a lot of connections between the theory and the engineering. If you know the theory and you know that it works, the engineering is a lot simpler.

kzt wrote:You can see this in how Edward Teller is remembered as the father of the commercial fusion reactor.

ncwolf wrote:This belongs in the humor thread!

But, really, you’re comparing bananas and plantains or string beans and butter beans. Teller made a bomb; no one has made a fusion reactor. Simoes is a theorist on streak drives; streak drives have been made. Probably what GA needs is one more spy like Stalin had to get nukes or a working example.

And where should the GA send this spy?

Many of KZT comments are both humorous and pointed directly at a post in the current thread (so would lose much of the bite if moved to a humor thread). In this particular case: knowing the theory and knowing that a working example exists somewhere, does not help you much in the engineering of your own version. Another example in universe is Manticore's miniature fusion plant used in their missiles, which Haven has not been able to duplicate.

In fairness; if you do not know the theory nor that a working model has been built using that theory, then it is unlikely you will do much and so it is certainly better to know one or both. The problem is that you are still light years from your own working model at that point.

tlb wrote:

ldwechsler wrote:First of all, McBryde might have been stretching the truth. Second, there are a lot of connections between the theory and the engineering. If you know the theory and you know that it works, the engineering is a lot simpler.

kzt wrote:You can see this in how Edward Teller is remembered as the father of the commercial fusion reactor.

ncwolf wrote:This belongs in the humor thread!

But, really, you’re comparing bananas and plantains or string beans and butter beans. Teller made a bomb; no one has made a fusion reactor. Simoes is a theorist on streak drives; streak drives have been made. Probably what GA needs is one more spy like Stalin had to get nukes or a working example.

And where should the GA send this spy?

Many of KZT comments are both humorous and pointed directly at a post in the current thread (so would lose much of the bite if moved to a humor thread). In this particular case: knowing the theory and knowing that a working example exists somewhere, does not help you much in the engineering of your own version. Another example in universe is Manticore's miniature fusion plant used in their missiles, which Haven has not been able to duplicate.

In fairness; if you do not know the theory nor that a working model has been built using that theory, then it is unlikely you will do much and so it is certainly better to know one or both. The problem is that you are still light years from your own working model at that point.

Teller HAS been called the father of FISSION reactor. How real that is I don't know.

But it would be difficult to do the theoretical work on something like a streak drive without knowing what was happening on a practical level.

If something doesn't work right off, what do you do, walk into his office and say "It didn't work right. What did we do wrong?" without telling him what went wrong. He might not know all the component parts but he had to know the basics and from there it makes it far easier to replicate.

I;m hoping for some more pre-Honor books. A novel or trilogy concerning Edward Saganami, a short story or novel covering Manticore's first interstellar war, and a Crusher focused short story anthology.

Roguevictory wrote:I;m hoping for some more pre-Honor books. A novel or trilogy concerning Edward Saganami, a short story or novel covering Manticore's first interstellar war, and a Crusher focused short story anthology.

I'll take anything in the Honorverse. But I would prefer to move ahead. Let's get started on the new arc. The first book would pretty much get us caught up on most of our old friends from the series.

ldwechsler wrote:

Roguevictory wrote:I;m hoping for some more pre-Honor books. A novel or trilogy concerning Edward Saganami, a short story or novel covering Manticore's first interstellar war, and a Crusher focused short story anthology.

I'll take anything in the Honorverse. But I would prefer to move ahead. Let's get started on the new arc. The first book would pretty much get us caught up on most of our old friends from the series.

To me the space battles since the SLN conflict started have been very boring because the GA has such an overwhelming tech advantage. The same thing happened late in Ashes of Victory but it was just a short period so it got better. How long will it take for non-GA forces to develop weapons and technologies that withh make fights between their ships and GA vessels dangerous enough to be interesting again?

tlb wrote:

ldwechsler wrote:First of all, McBryde might have been stretching the truth. Second, there are a lot of connections between the theory and the engineering. If you know the theory and you know that it works, the engineering is a lot simpler.

kzt wrote:You can see this in how Edward Teller is remembered as the father of the commercial fusion reactor.

ncwolf wrote:This belongs in the humor thread!

But, really, you’re comparing bananas and plantains or string beans and butter beans. Teller made a bomb; no one has made a fusion reactor. Simoes is a theorist on streak drives; streak drives have been made. Probably what GA needs is one more spy like Stalin had to get nukes or a working example.

And where should the GA send this spy?

Many of KZT comments are both humorous and pointed directly at a post in the current thread (so would lose much of the bite if moved to a humor thread).

Oops; that was suppose to be a compliment that I found his remark funny, not a complaint (more emojis perhaps next time).

In this particular case: knowing the theory and knowing that a working example exists somewhere, does not help you much in the engineering of your own version. Another example in universe is Manticore's miniature fusion plant used in their missiles, which Haven has not been able to duplicate.

In fairness; if you do not know the theory nor that a working model has been built using that theory, then it is unlikely you will do much and so it is certainly better to know one or both. The problem is that you are still light years from your own working model at that point.

Hmm, good example with the micro-fusion plants.

And where would they send the spies? Aye, there's the rub!

ncwolf wrote:

ldwechsler wrote:First of all, McBryde might have been stretching the truth. Second, there are a lot of connections between the theory and the engineering. If you know the theory and you know that it works, the engineering is a lot simpler.

kzt wrote:You can see this in how Edward Teller is remembered as the father of the commercial fusion reactor.

ncwolf wrote:This belongs in the humor thread!

But, really, you’re comparing bananas and plantains or string beans and butter beans. Teller made a bomb; no one has made a fusion reactor. Simoes is a theorist on streak drives; streak drives have been made. Probably what GA needs is one more spy like Stalin had to get nukes or a working example.

And where should the GA send this spy?

Many of KZT comments are both humorous and pointed directly at a post in the current thread (so would lose much of the bite if moved to a humor thread).

Oops; that was suppose to be a compliment that I found his remark funny, not a complaint (more emojis perhaps next time).

In this particular case: knowing the theory and knowing that a working example exists somewhere, does not help you much in the engineering of your own version. Another example in universe is Manticore's miniature fusion plant used in their missiles, which Haven has not been able to duplicate.

In fairness; if you do not know the theory nor that a working model has been built using that theory, then it is unlikely you will do much and so it is certainly better to know one or both. The problem is that you are still light years from your own working model at that point.

Hmm, good example with the micro-fusion plants.

And where would they send the spies? Aye, there's the rub![/quote]

If you know the theory and know that it is correct because there are working examples, that just ratifies the theory. And in something like the streak drive, which is after all essentially a drive that can just work better (you also operate in lower bands out of necessity), you have more than a few advantages.

And the nonsense about not having the theory guys knowing much about the tech is just so much nonsense within a particular development. How would you theorists help if things went wrong unless they knew what you did?

Remember that MAlign is an onion, not a mushroom (you know the old joke about the mushroom diet: keep us in the dark and smother us in bullshit). He would not get information about better bombs, let's say, but he would get info on his project and possibly some linked ones.

Security was tight but it didn't have to be as tight as the Manhattan Project. It was expected that spies would have a particularly difficult time on the planet and their secret police was far more efficient than J. Edgar Hoover's.