Standard Wolfean Riddle

Gerry Quinn · 16 Aug 2010, 16:57 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: gerryq at indigo.ie (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:57:38 +0100
Subject: (urth) Standard Wolfean Riddle
References: <SNT123-W6197C26BEFD9A437D4C725CF980 at phx.gbl>	<4C65544B.7080301 at gmail.com>	<0542F1EE-1D99-4671-9E9E-B80B19CF8C11 at liftingfaces.com>	<4C658AD6.5020902 at verizon.net><4C65A642.4090900 at gmail.com>	<4C6741B7.70908 at gmail.com><4C6925B9.50009 at verizon.net>	<4C693AA0.4090309 at gmail.com>	<C13CF7F0-454B-49B4-8CC7-6C39FB6B3594 at liftingfaces.com>	<4C6942CC.3070300 at gmail.com>	<DF30DAA7-4B41-4DA9-A80C-5FCD31955348 at liftingfaces.com>	<4C69473C.7030309 at gmail.com><8674746F-59B2-4B63-B975-D7595B97F818 at liftingfaces.com><4C695327.4030407 at gmail.com><50144B84-4F99-4675-8D37-55781FAAC37C at liftingfaces.com><02D279C5C8154FF38A595E9711D5B783@jill>
	<2C0E7AC7-B124-4C8A-9E11-3FB9F8CA8287 at liftingfaces.com>
Message-ID: <1F58C08284B3409D95AC9B0CA106BEEB@jill>


From: "Ryan Dunn" <ryan at liftingfaces.com>
> On Aug 16, 2010, at 12:20 PM, Gerry Quinn wrote:
>
>> The spacecraft are not from the '60s
>
> Fair enough, but even if these are the last space shuttles ever flown with 
> the "propulsion chambers" we've come to associate with the current 
> technology (as described by Severian in his passage about the examination 
> room), when do you estimate that this shipyard was abandoned and then 
> reinhabited to be the Citadel?

A few chiliads before Severian, i.e. many chiliads from now.  Just because 
solar sail technology is often used in Severian's time doesn't mean that 
other propulsion systems don't exist.  The Whorl doesn't seem to have sails, 
though I suppose they could have been furled on reaching the system 
containing Blue and Green.

The ships seem to have gun emplacements, something not known to have been 
installed on US or Soviet spacecraft even at the height of the Cold War!

- Gerry Quinn

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