Inhumi in the Whorl

DAVID STOCKHOFF · 09 Feb 2011, 18:56 · from 2011-February.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (DAVID STOCKHOFF)
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2011 10:56:52 -0800 (PST)
Subject: (urth) Inhumi in the Whorl
In-Reply-To: <4D52CCBF.2050105 at io.com>
Message-ID: <743304.13496.qm at web84101.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Not in an asteroid, no. I meant a real Whorl emergency, like rising temperatures and weather disasters that sweep the Whorl, or the collapse of the electrical power network. Not a knock on the door.

But let's straighten out our assumptions. If "rebels" (as proposed) could get spacesuits and open a hatch, then either (a) a close watch must be kept on the airlocks by still-functional automatic systems to prevent it or (b) no one cares/has foreseen such an event and there is no such system, at least not a sophisticated one. Or else (c) there is a system of automatic responses to breaches and pressure drops, and that's that.

If (a), where is there any sign of this? The Whorl is not an Imperial Starbase. It's an asteroid maintained, if at all, by computers---if they still function---and by human tradition from generation to generation. There's no 911 to call if someone burgles your asteroid. Therefore, why bother even defining an "unauthorized person"? 

Far easier to just lock up the space suits and put the hatches far away from the cargo and hope for the best. I don't think they have space suits anyway. Multiple redundancy is a far more likely engineering approach than training people to go out and fix things. Anyway, that's only led to disaster in any movie I've ever seen. ;)

--- On Wed, 2/9/11, Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com> wrote:

> From: Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com>
> Subject: Re: (urth) Inhumi in the Whorl
> To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
> Date: Wednesday, February 9, 2011, 12:19 PM
> On 2/9/2011 7:09 AM, David Stockhoff
> wrote:
> > My guess is the Crew would have little natural motivation to do 
> > anything at all in the way of exploration. Without direct orders to the > > contrary, or an emergency, why not just continue as your traditions 
> > dictate? You run the place, after all.
> 
> Unauthorized access to the tunnels and airlocks don't count
> as an emergency?
> 
> -- Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
> Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M
> Texarkana
> < http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >

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