(urth) Hard SF

[David Stockhoff]

Well, the cited Jahlee reference has them burning up on reentry if they 
are dead. So the commingled atmosphere theory is not part of the story.


On 11/28/2012 5:48 PM, Daniel Petersen wrote:
> Yep, that's what I was worried about, but I have no scientific 
> training so I didn't know if there were some exquisitely rare 
> scenarios where this might be just barely plausible.  (It's such a 
> breathtakingly awe-inspiring thought:  worthy of a fantasy at least - 
> if no one has written such a thing, someone needs to!)  But come to 
> think of it:  doesn't the passage say rather explicitly that they fly 
> through /space/?  (Does anyone have a page number reference for this?)
>
> -DOJP
>
> On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 4:21 PM, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com 
> <mailto:danldo at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Not really -- they both seem to have about one G of surface
>     gravity, so getting close enough that their atmospheres
>     meaningfully touched would involve massive tidal effects up to and
>     including immense tsunami and disastrous earthquakes.
>
>
>     On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 8:04 AM, Daniel Petersen
>     <danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com
>     <mailto:danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>         That's a wonderful thought, Antonin!  Is this feasible?  (Both
>         generally and in the text?)
>
>         -DOJP
>
>
>         On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 3:57 PM, Antonin Scriabin
>         <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com <mailto:kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>>
>         wrote:
>
>             Do we have any idea just how close Blue and Green get
>             during conjunction?  I seem to remember that from Blue,
>             Green is more of a spec than a moon, but perhaps they are
>             close enough, or have unusually expansive atmospheres,
>             such that during conjunction their atmospheres merge and
>             allow the Inhumi to fly from one to another.  If they are
>             this close though, they would most definitely fall under
>             the sway of one another's gravitational field, which
>             doesn't seem to be the case.
>
>
>
>             On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 10:51 AM, Lee Berman
>             <severiansola at hotmail.com
>             <mailto:severiansola at hotmail.com>> wrote:
>
>
>                 >David Stockhoff: We're not talking about hard SF here.
>
>                 Just for the sake of discussion, I'll disagree.
>                 Perhaps Wolfe isn't diamond-hard
>                 but I'd give him ruby- or sapphire- on the MOhs scale.
>                 I think he makes a
>                 sincere attempt in most of his work, as the quote
>                 below illustrates.
>
>                 Where fantasy writers are content to give us shape
>                 changers without explanation,
>                 Wolfe provides us with a sponge cellular analogy for
>                 Tzadkiel and flexible bones
>                 and muscles, make-up and hypnotic abilities for Inhumi.
>
>                 If the Inhumi really fly through space I'd want more
>                 than the skimpy evidence we
>                 are provided (and less evidence for their lying nature).
>
>                 >Nick Gevers: Speaking as an engineer, how might the
>                 godling be constructed so as to
>                 >walk as a giant on land, where the undines [submarine
>                 giantesses] cannot?
>
>                 >Gene Wolfe: There are a number of ways you could go.
>                 First, get rid of the notion that
>                 >the godling is going to be proportioned like a human
>                 being. Changes in size always mean
>                 >changes in build. (Dr. Crane touches on that.) A man
>                 fifty feet tall, proportioned like
>                 >you or me, would sink into the ground a lot -- had
>                 you thought of that? Take a look at
>                 >the really big dinosaurs. Bone density could be
>                 increased, and the legs and pelvis made
>                 >more massive, and so on
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>         -- 
>         Daniel Otto Jack Petersen
>
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>
>
>     -- 
>     Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
>
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>
> -- 
> Daniel Otto Jack Petersen
>
>
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