Expansion of the Empire: where to?

Brigade XO wrote:We have been told that the Harvest Joy was a RMN survey ship and the captain had, what, 50 years experience in survey and investigation. So what, in addition to doing the system equevelent of a geological survey and looking for evidence of a possible wormhole, was she doing for all that time? And where? If I recall, she is a one point described as an older light cruiser converted to a flying science lab for system and wormhole surveys. Along with a 4 month cruise endurence of consumables etc, she was armed and expected to be able to at leasts take care of herself in strange places and probably "discourage" unfriendly interests by people who might want to grab some merchant ship if the oppertunity presented itself.

The average stellar density in our region of space is .004 stars per cubic light year. A cube 100ly per side would have around 400 stars in it. I am sure they can find things to go look at - just head out beyond the edge of currently inhabited space and pick a direction. There will be something there.

Sure, most of those stars won't have anything useful but you won't find the good stuff if you don't go out and look.

To be honest, I was just as surprised - even if not as miffed as the SL - that the SK decided to call itself an Empire. I always thought it is a bit misleading.

Also, there is a legitimate notion of minimum and maximum density. Once upon a time, I created a thread which is a bit too cerebral that tackles the concept in depth. It was too much too soon.

cthia wrote:Also, there is a legitimate notion of minimum and maximum density. Once upon a time, I created a thread which is a bit too cerebral that tackles the concept in depth. It was too much too soon.

The "Game of Life" was a curiosity when first presented and there is some cerebral content to cellular automata; but it was mostly irrelevant to the Honorverse (despite for the title of the thread).

zyffyr wrote:The average stellar density in our region of space is .004 stars per cubic light year. A cube 100ly per side would have around 400 stars in it. I am sure they can find things to go look at - just head out beyond the edge of currently inhabited space and pick a direction. There will be something there.

Sure, most of those stars won't have anything useful but you won't find the good stuff if you don't go out and look.

You're off by 10x there. A cube 100 light-years on the side is (10²)³ = 10⁶ = one million cubic light years in volume. Times .004, that's 4000 stars.

As for where Harvest Joy went exploring, I expect out past Basilisk or the Matapan Cluster. That seems to be the frontier.

cthia wrote:To be honest, I was just as surprised - even if not as miffed as the SL - that the SK decided to call itself an Empire. I always thought it is a bit misleading.

Aside from having to call itself something, what's wrong with Empire? What would have been more appropriate for a monarchical regime that extends over far-flung regions?

ThinksMarkedly wrote:

cthia wrote:To be honest, I was just as surprised - even if not as miffed as the SL - that the SK decided to call itself an Empire. I always thought it is a bit misleading.

Aside from having to call itself something, what's wrong with Empire? What would have been more appropriate for a monarchical regime that extends over far-flung regions?

Technically it is accurate, but within context of the political climate that existed at the time, I thought it a bit... confrontational, especially to the SL. I wasn't surprised in the least that the League was antsy about it. I also thought it would send the wrong message to the Andermani, who already thought of itself as competitors.

Perhaps Star Kingdom(s). Empire may imply expansionist to your neighbors, or natural competition, or potential enemies.

tlb wrote:

cthia wrote:Also, there is a legitimate notion of minimum and maximum density. Once upon a time, I created a thread which is a bit too cerebral that tackles the concept in depth. It was too much too soon.

The "Game of Life" was a curiosity when first presented and there is some cerebral content to cellular automata; but it was mostly irrelevant to the Honorverse (despite for the title of the thread).

It was simply a curiosity. It isn't anymore. It's applications are many, currently, in science, mathematics and medicine and ... it is only limited by small minds. Besides, minimum and maximum density's right down its alley, so very much applicable to the Honorverse, and this topic.

But, still too cerebral, I see. At any rate, I don't intend to argue it again.

cthia wrote:Technically it is accurate, but within context of the political climate that existed at the time, I thought it a bit... confrontational, especially to the SL. I wasn't surprised in the least that the League was antsy about it. I also thought it would send the wrong message to the Andermani, who already thought of itself as competitors.

I thought the opposite. I thought aligning their form of government with the Andermani might help. Remember that the Andermani did not trust Republican governments that were fickle and changed their minds with each administration.

As for the League... by the time the Empire formed, it was already very adversarial. The name of the government wouldn't have made a difference one way or another. Aside from serving a purpose in Peep propaganda (democratic republican government versus tyrannical, expansionist monarchy), Solarians and especially the Mandarins couldn't care less what a bunch of neobarbs called themselves.

Well, aside from calling themselves Solarian.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:You're off by 10x there. A cube 100 light-years on the side is (10²)³ = 10⁶ = one million cubic light years in volume. Times .004, that's 4000 stars.

Thats what I get for doing quick mental math first thing in the morning.

zyffyr wrote:

ThinksMarkedly wrote:You're off by 10x there. A cube 100 light-years on the side is (10²)³ = 10⁶ = one million cubic light years in volume. Times .004, that's 4000 stars.

Thats what I get for doing quick mental math first thing in the morning.

That's why I ready the coffee maker the night before, so I just have to turn it on the first thing in the morning.

Anyway, what gets me is how common stars are, but how much bigger the Galaxy and the Universe are. The distance between Earth and Manticore is 512 light-years, so a sphere with that radius centred on Earth is over half a billion cubic light-years in volume (562 million), so it should contain 2.2 million stars. Three quarters of them are going to be red dwarfs, but a full 170,000 of them should be G-type.

And yet, you could find a single star in a volume of 250 cubic light-years without swaying the average. Out here in the Sol System, we're even more isolated: the closest star system is 4.24 light-years away, so we're alone in a sphere with volume 320 cubic light-years.