Greetings all -
I finally got a chance to read Hard Times, and was pleasantly
surprised - Finally, a GDW book written by someone who
UNDERSTANDS ECONOMICS! There is now no need for the much
loathed killer computer virus. Hard Times correctly zeros in on the
disruption of trade, and the resultant collapse of most of the finance
industries as the cause for the TL drops being more than temporary.
Sure, the knowledge exists - but someone has to pay for the
new plants, new tools, etc for the planet to become self-sufficient at
its OLD TL - which it never was before. In most places people are
devoting most of their resources to survival, and they can't borrow
from anyone else now.
As for the low tech space stuff, I suppose it was too much to expect
the writer to know enough physics to correct the gross error in the fuel
consumption for the Fusion Rocket - copied from COACC (bleah).
I believe that a while back someone wanted some reasonable
values for said rocket, and I have worked them out. For the standard
Fusion Rocket, fuel = ~3.3 kl/hour of LH2, or ~0.75 kl/hour of water
(using the oxygen as extra reaction mass). This is based on 1% of the mass
of the hydrogen being converted to energy, and the fusion products are used
as reaction mass.
Capt. Kagarillian Grant
Alias:
W. Dow Rieder
When the only tool you have is a hammer, all your problems
start to look like nails...