Inspiration
The inspiration for Disposal, Inc. came from two things. The first bit of inspiration is the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. The second source is the Canadian Government's plan to store nuclear waste in a bunker just 1.2 kilometers from Lake Huron, one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world; the lake that just happens to be the source of my drinking water. The blithe disregard of community concerns is all the more aggravating when you consider that some of the waste and dismantled reactor parts they intend to store will remain radioactive for more than 100,000 years. I mean, what could possibly go wrong in a hundred millennia?
"Wouldn't iit be great,"I thought, "If I could teleport all the nuclear waste to the Moon for disposal?" Who knows, maybe that single act might make nuclear power a little safer. On the remediation side, maybe we could decontaminate the Chernoble and Fukushima sites without creating problems somewhere else on Earth.
Technology
Given this premise, I started thinking about transporter technologies. Like Bones in the original series, I have real concerns about Star-Trek inspired transporter technologies. The thought of disassembling (aka, killing) people and sending them through space as a pattern, then re-assembling them at the destination makes me wonder about the nature of humanity and the value of human life. Are transported individuals natural or artificial entities? Heck, you can probably use the pattern buffers to create soldiers, slaves, or organ donors. In the real world, people and organizations are trying to patent genetic sequence information. In the future, who would own your pattern once you stepped through the transporter? What would/could they do with that pattern?
The very thought makes me shudder so this story won't use Star Trek-based transporter technologies. Instead, I plan to use a fold-space transporter. In my imaginary world, the device would fold space so that the two quantum-entangled units are permanently connected through subspace. The units act as if they are adjacent to one another, but separated by a wall. Once the mechanism is activated, the matter transmitter acts like a lazy Susan, rotating a defined volume of space from one side of the subspace wall to another. At the same time, the volume over the far unit is rotated to this side.
Think about it. We could colonize Mars by sending a large and a small matter transport pad to the red planet. Once the pad is on the ground and functional, people could step off the Moon and onto Martian soil. (We don't want to bring Mars bugs to Earth.) If something happens to the large platform, you could send a repairman through the small door. We could also send a spacecraft to Alpha Centauri, popping in in every now and again to see how things are going.
That"s it for now. Next time we can discuss the story arc. Leave a comment if you have ideas or comments.
The inspiration for Disposal, Inc. came from two things. The first bit of inspiration is the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. The second source is the Canadian Government's plan to store nuclear waste in a bunker just 1.2 kilometers from Lake Huron, one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world; the lake that just happens to be the source of my drinking water. The blithe disregard of community concerns is all the more aggravating when you consider that some of the waste and dismantled reactor parts they intend to store will remain radioactive for more than 100,000 years. I mean, what could possibly go wrong in a hundred millennia?
"Wouldn't iit be great,"I thought, "If I could teleport all the nuclear waste to the Moon for disposal?" Who knows, maybe that single act might make nuclear power a little safer. On the remediation side, maybe we could decontaminate the Chernoble and Fukushima sites without creating problems somewhere else on Earth.
Technology
Given this premise, I started thinking about transporter technologies. Like Bones in the original series, I have real concerns about Star-Trek inspired transporter technologies. The thought of disassembling (aka, killing) people and sending them through space as a pattern, then re-assembling them at the destination makes me wonder about the nature of humanity and the value of human life. Are transported individuals natural or artificial entities? Heck, you can probably use the pattern buffers to create soldiers, slaves, or organ donors. In the real world, people and organizations are trying to patent genetic sequence information. In the future, who would own your pattern once you stepped through the transporter? What would/could they do with that pattern?
The very thought makes me shudder so this story won't use Star Trek-based transporter technologies. Instead, I plan to use a fold-space transporter. In my imaginary world, the device would fold space so that the two quantum-entangled units are permanently connected through subspace. The units act as if they are adjacent to one another, but separated by a wall. Once the mechanism is activated, the matter transmitter acts like a lazy Susan, rotating a defined volume of space from one side of the subspace wall to another. At the same time, the volume over the far unit is rotated to this side.
Think about it. We could colonize Mars by sending a large and a small matter transport pad to the red planet. Once the pad is on the ground and functional, people could step off the Moon and onto Martian soil. (We don't want to bring Mars bugs to Earth.) If something happens to the large platform, you could send a repairman through the small door. We could also send a spacecraft to Alpha Centauri, popping in in every now and again to see how things are going.
That"s it for now. Next time we can discuss the story arc. Leave a comment if you have ideas or comments.
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