I've been out of touch for a while, and haven't yet had the
time to wade thru the massive file of backlogged TMLs that accumulated over
the last 2 months, so forgive me if my comments don't quite hit the mark.
It is my understanding that GDW, for whatever reason, wishes to
establish a Traveller milieu that is several TLs lower than the current
Hi-Stellar Imperial levels, a Long Night of sorts. As a computer
scientist
who has cleaned more than one virus off of infected machines, I gritted
my teeth at the "Computer Virus" notion that has been mentioned, but
instead of dismissing it, my husband and I put our heads together to
come up with a plausible scenario for wrecking Hi-Stellar computers
around Known Space. If you like it, use it; pass it along to GDW, they
might like it.
This scenario is based on two assumptions:
1) High Stellar computers have some important material that is not
used at lower tech levels; perhaps a better superconductor that enables
faster
processing at a greater bandwidth or something. This material is one of
the
boundaries of Hi-stellar technology; you must have Hi-Stellar technology to
fabricate it.
2) It is possible to use nano-technology at Hi-stellar TLs, BUT
that
particular technology has been neglected by the Imperium for whatever
reason.
(Other paths were developed for the likelier applications, as in tailored
commensual organisms for medical applications, etc. Use your imagination.)
I have also assumed, based on Lester Smith's and other's comments,
that whoever developed the "CPU Virus" had vast R&D resources to work with,
and sufficient resources to implement this scenario.
Scenario: A nanomachine is developed with a two-stage program.
Stage 1 causes it to reproduce itself and spread itself across the
Imperium and beyond. The nanomachine is in the size range from bacterium
to amoeba; it obtains material for reproducing itself by scavenging from
its environment. It has a self-limiting feature in its reproductive
program
such that it will not reproduce when the local population density of
nanobugs
is over a certain level -- this is to prevent it being prematurely detected
and eliminated on an Imperium-wide basis due to hardware failures from it
scavenging excessively from the electronics. The nanobug is attracted to,
and reproduces in electronic equipment and computers using the "hi-stellar
superconductor" (The material mentioned in Assumption #1, above). Further
details are left to your imagination: the idea is that this nanobug is
spread
with Imperial electronic technology to every piece of electronics
contacting
it, over the next X years.
State 2 kicks in after some number of years have passed,
predetermined
by the designer of the nanobug, but long enough to allow the nanobug to
spread
across the Imperium and beyond. In stage 2, the nanobugs aggressively
attach
the "Hi-Stellar superconductor" wherever they come in contact with it, and
breed explosively. Any given infected computer will be destroyed in
minutes
to days, depending on the intial level of infection (and I wouldn't bet on
it
taking days...). Hi-Stellar electronics cease to exist; the effects of
this
have been adequately described by other posters.
Assumption 2 is necessary for two reasons: (1) nanotechnology has
never been implied at any level in previous Traveller, MT, etc. material,
except possibly by the Ancients, and yet it is a technology we (TL8) are
starting to build the first primitive tools in, and (2) if it were common,
there would be ways to detect and prevent this sort of thing from happening
in
the first place. The scenario depends on this sort of attack being totally
unexpected and unlooked for, which seems plausible given the implied lack
of
nanotechnology use in the Imperium.
If you don't want to permanently limit TL expansion to TL 13, tops,
you can assume that (1) there are alternatives to the "Hi-Stellar
Superconductor" that weren't developed because it was better, cheaper,
whatever, that could be developed during the Recovery, or you could assume
that the nanobug itself uses the "Hi-Stellar Superconductor", and, tho
programmed not to attack other nanobugs, depends on the stuff to duplicate
itself -- eventually, it will all be locked up in other nanobugs, and the
bugs
will just sit there until they wear out and "die", thus removing the threat
over time. It could be a long time - how long does it take for a well
designed nanomachine to wear out? Or you can (3) use your imagination and
come up with your own excuse for reviving Hi-Stellar, if desired.
Credit where credit is due department: this scenario came out of
trying to figure out how to make a version of Larry Niven's Superconductor
Plague from Ringworld that could be programmed to start after a delay time
for
spreading... Steve thought of the nanomachines.
-- Cynthia & Steve Higginbotham
- -- Via DLG Pro v0.985b
[email removed]