Technology

Post here about any of the technology in the BoH universe.

I really liked the idea of the military ships using ramming techniques and other fixed weapons to batter and destroy enemy ships. Anyone else?

Hyper-sleep is a technology only about fifty years old. It was developed by Isely for the purpose of being able to travel longer distances without taxing food or life-support and, though effective in most regards, it is far different from the perfect systems of science fiction.

Humans cannot endure more than a maximum of 24 days in hyper-sleep. There is a risk of cellular damage at 20 days, and current regulations restrict the time limit to two weeks for safety’s sake.

Hyper-sleep is effected with the use of devices known as hyperbands. These are bioelectronic bracelets that fit around each of the person’s wrists. They contain a chemical to induce and maintain hyper-sleep, a medical regulator and monitor and a wireless comm. that links up to the ship's main systems.

Hyper-sleep can only be achieved successfully when the subject is in the deepest stages of REM sleep. To be put into hyper-sleep, the subject puts on the bands, activates them, and then falls asleep as he or she normally would. The bands monitor the subject and inject the chemical via a painless hypospray once optimum REM has been reached.

During hyper-sleep, the bands transmit biofeedback to the ship’s computer. If something becomes irregular, the computer issues a command that has the bands bring the subject out of hyper-sleep as quickly and safely as possible.

If things go well, the computer waits the allotted and pre-programmed time and then signals the hyperbands. It is dangerous for subjects to come out of hyper-sleep while in an REM cycle, so the bands wait until the subject is closest to consciousness before rousing him or her. So, entering and leaving hyper-sleep feels almost exactly like just going to bed and waking up normally.

The most common side-effects are disorientation upon waking (the degree of which usually corresponds to the amount of time in hyper-sleep), nausea, dizziness, dehydration and headaches.

About 1 in 20,000 die during hypersleep. About 1 in 10,000 suffer what’s known as HSDD, or Hyper-Sleep Dementia Disorder. The symptoms can include distorted vision, colorblindness, hallucinations, heart palpitations, anxiety, paranoia and stroke.

I saw this trailer on YouTube today: Made me this of this game!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMEhkTxs3_E

I was thinking about what Haley wrote in Cotton's story, when Cotton said that all the ship needed was "a military medic in case someone bumps their heads comin’ out of the hypersleep pod." I think Cotton might be understating (as he is wont to do) the importance an experienced med tech would play in making sure everyone woke up alive and more or less in one piece.

The Ship's doctor would probably have to spend less time asleep, to periodically check the status of the sleepers, go over their bands' logs to check for any irregular activity, and bring any sleepers awake more quickly in case of any emergency. Much like caring for coma patients, in a way. It might require less technical and medical savy than it would attention to detail, and repetitive scutwork, so Cotton is right, in a fashion, but it would still prove very necessary.

I was thinking about trying my hand at designing a more advanced and sophisticated band for Cotton, to reflect the fact that the ship's doctor would need to have a more advanced model. Their band would have to keep them in a more closely regulated sleep, keeping their sleep from going too deep into a REM state so they could be brought out in a medical emergency, and also contain some basic "autodoc" procedures that might help keep the Doctor alive in case of an difficulties with his hypersleep. The idea would be that most passengers are monitored coming out of hypersleep by the ship's doctor, who would be woken first before the rest of the hypersleep bands receive their signals to start waking up the other passengers and crew. The doc would keep an eye on the computer during this time, trying to keep an eye out for any red flags during the waking process, making sure the passengers and crew were safe as possible during the procedure. The doctors and medical techs, however, would have only their hypersleep bands and the computer's automatic medical responses when they were waking up, which is why their hypersleep bands would be five times more complex and ten times more expensive than the regular ones. The prohibitive cost of the advanced bands, and the fact that the normal ones are just as effective (probably more so) when used under the watchful eye of a medical professional, would keep them from being used by all passengers.

...I just had too much free time at work. But that was my idea.

Josh,

I really like that idea. :g:

BTW - I'll swing by UCF after work today and check prices and sizes on lab coats.

Jake

Ooooooh!!! Toys R Us has tricorders and communicators! http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3335536&CAWELAID=323941769

Admin wrote:

Ooooooh!!! Toys R Us has tricorders and communicators! http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3335536&CAWELAID=323941769

Target also has them intermittently in stock. The communicators are a little harder to find, but I have to admit that they are rather crappy. There isn't much to them, and they don't play any noises, just a sound clip of Kirk yelling about falling without a parachute, and Spock demanding to be beamed up. It's dissappointing, because the old Next Gen toys were a bit better. I still have my old tricorder and communicator somewhere.

I'm not sure if this should go under "Culture," but I wanted to add it.

While not expressly forbidden, most medical professionals are extremely wary of allowing children to travel on extensive hypersleep journeys, and STRONGLY disapprove of children dwelling on ships that spend extended amounts of time in space.

In addition to the usual dangers of hypersleep process and the drugs used to achieve it, there are increased difficulties for children. In the hypersleep process, there is a slight retardation effect on the aging process in adults, since the low nutrients and extremely relaxed state of the body inhibits the usual wear-and-tear the body endures on a daily basis. In childen yet to reach maturity, this effect is exaggerated, and can lead to a dissociation between the physical, emotional, and mental maturity of the subject.

Obviously, the primary difficulty lies in the fact that the body can continue to grow while the mind, slumbering, will not mature as rapidly, even as the physical aging process slows. If a child spends much of his childhood and adolescence in space, it can take them 30 years to physically mature, and still leave them with the emotional maturity of someone much younger.

Worse , in about of third of children, especially those of Caucasian and Asian descent, the aging process can slow down greatly, or even stop altogether, and then be slow to start up once again when the subject leaves hypersleep. This can lead to people who have the minds of adults but the bodies of children, perhaps forever, if they spent a year or more primarily in hypersleep.

As a result of this, while large families are encouraged by the GAF, extended travel with said families is not. Children are recommended to travel space at a bare minimum, and must be examined by a physician before and after they travel. (In cases of vacations and short trips, they are allowed to travel to their destinations and back.) In cases of travel that is less than a month, if the ship is big enough, it is usually recommended that the children not even enter hypersleep, and be attended by ship-board tutor and care provider. This is, of course, contingent on the food and staff supplies of the ship traveling.