(urth) Problematic element in chronology

[Sergei SOLOVIEV]

By the way, I don't remember any mention of a fuel used by landers. They
depend for AI part on "cards" (much like chips nowadays) but... Does
any of the personages say/ask/wonder about that? Also, how does the Long 
Sun work?
(The description makes me think about some fusion technology,
but I don't think there are any clear indications. And I think that no form
of fusion can provide sufficient energy to accelerate Whorl to near-light
speed. Roughly, fusion converts about 1% of mass into energy, and the
mass of an accelerated body grows - very roughly, if the mass grows
twice, you have to spend at least an equivalent of this mass in energy.
This with very high efficiency, not as our chemical rockets.
Similar for braking. Antimatter? In the beginning of this voyage Whorl 
had to have
about half of its mass in stored antimatter? Gamma-rays if it annihilates
in the Long Sun?)

Sergei

Gerry Quinn wrote:
>
> From: "James Wynn" <crushtv at gmail.com>
>
>
>> Perhaps the only the Rajan could see the light of Sol's sun. He was 
>> only asking the others to imagine it. Perhaps he wasn't seeing it 
>> with human eyes. Just sayin'.
>
> He says it will be visible to everyone.
> "Soon it will be evening," he said. "If we still haven't gone, we'll 
> go up onto the roof of this house. Standing on the tiles I will point 
> and you will peer until at last you see a certain dim red star. It's a 
> long, long way from here. Think of it now, the sky like black velvet 
> strewn with diamonds in the bottom of a grave, and among the diamonds 
> a minute drop of blood.
>
> [The grave imagery echoes Silk's dream early in BotLS.]
>
>> There was a discussion on this list between Mantis and (I think) 
>> Jerry Friedman some years ago about the distance between Urth and 
>> Blue based on 350 years of travel, 500 years of travel, 1000 years of 
>> travel.
>>
>> Don't we know (based on the vase Lemur destroyed) that they've been 
>> in transport for just over 500 years? Assuming this all occurs during 
>> the time of Severian's childhood., that just suggests an overall time 
>> dilation of 2, right? That's fast, mind-blowingly fast, but not 
>> impossibly fast.
>
> I think there is a fair amount of text suggesting that the journey 
> took in the region of 300 years subjective.  I assume the vase was 
> already old when it was brought aboard.
>
> Time dilation factor of 2 or 6, I'm not sure it matters all that 
> much.  The energy needed is equal to the Whorl's mass multiplied by 
> the time dilation, and in either case is enormous!
>
> - Gerry Quinn
>
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