Put teleporter infrastructure somewhere where you can generate lots of cheap electricity, even if it’s in the middle of nowhere. Then just teleport things in and out from that central hub. If the tech requires infrastructure at both ends (so, The Fly not Star Trek), figure out some scheme to process renewable fuel that you bootstrap with old power tech and then process with renewables and teleport to the place where you need on-site generators.
Like, build big water cracking hydrogen farms in Iceland where there’s plenty of geothermal or the desert where there’s lots of solar, use enough oil to run the teleporters to get the hydrogen fuel cells to the off-site locations where the fuel cells are then used to run the teleporter infrastructure on that end. As long as teleporting the fuel takes less energy than the fuel itself contains, this is sustainable.
Control of living organisms would be wonderful, even if it was limited, to exclude humans for instance, or microbes. Just a single animal species, you could do so much with, and even if it wasn’t full control, but just communication and persuasion. I’ve probably used this example before, but my house has mice, and I don’t need them gone, I just wish I could like negotiate a treaty with them.
Ostensibly we already have control of machines, and I don’t think much of what we’ve done with that power. Whereas to the extent that we’ve used our arts to control the living, there’s at least sometimes a sense of reciprocity. The dog got something out of its bargain with us, not a fair exchange by a long shot, but still, some degree of mutual profit. Machines? I’m still hoping we manage a Singularity at some point, but until then, it’s all just cold dead matter, having far too much power over the lives of our thinking, feeling selves.
Well okay, let’s assume people are off the table. Would you pick controlling machines (possibly including sentient AI if they are developed within your lifetime) over controlling animals?
My experience is with either PC or lightweight versions of Linux; I find the latter somewhat counterintuitive, but Mac significantly more so.
I’d still probably choose machines. Controlling animals is less wrong than people, but still wrong. (This reminds me of that scene in Avatar: TLA’s sequel where Noatak bloodbends those wolves and bison.) I’d still be reticent to control a sapient AI like Omni-X, though. But I’d still choose machines because I could use that power to control some non-sentient things, whereas animal control always involves controlling sentient things.
QotD #171 Reply: I’ve primarily used a Mac, but I think if I were to get a new one, I’d get a PC.
Question of the Day #172: Marvel or DC or Sentinel?
It’s tough to generalize of course, but overall I’d go DC > Sentinel > Marvel. While I love the lore this game has built up, if I detach myself from the game and just think about the characters as characters (obviously derivative, though well-evolved beyond any simple Expy), they are only about half likely to appeal to me more than whatever they’re aping or homaging or taking loose inspiration from. I’ve always said that DC is a little more my style than Marvel, and putting Sentinels in the middle feels about right.
More specifically, I’d go DC Comics > MCU (including X-Men and Spider-Man films) > Sentinel Comics > Marvel Comics > DCEU. I’m a little disappointed that C&A didn’t put a cinematic universe into their Metaverse, though I can certainly see the logic. High-quality animated films are more cost-effective, not to mention better for the environment and the economy (I cringe at the thought of how many perfectly drivable cars are blown up by Hollywood every year), but overall there’s just no substitute for being able to see a real person on screen, with the full range of subtle facial expressions and so forth. Not many of the storylines C&A have imagined seem like they’d work well in a movie format, but given how badly the well was poisoned by the bad Green Lantern movie a decade ago, using similar technology to turn Jeremy Renner or someone into a live-action Captain Cosmic seems like it would be well worth the effort.
QotD #172 Reply: I don’t play favourites. DC is the most nostalgic for me, and I probably know the least about Marvel. But still, I’d never say I like one of them more than the others. Individual characters, on the other hand, I do have some opinions about (e.g. Stark is overpopular.)
Question of the Day #173: Earth has one weather condition for all of time. What would you want it to be?
Total overcast whitecover, but no rain (I’m presuming that the plant life of the world somehow survives this condition). Air temperature of around 55, light breeze, maybe autumn colors if that’s included. No direct sunlight. Perfection.
WE ARE THE ZOMBIE ROBOTS. LOWER YOUR SHIELDS AND PREPARE TO BE BOARDED. YOUR BIOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVENESS WILL BE ADDED TO OUR OWN. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.
QotD #174 Reply: Hmm, a Ninja Pirate is only someone with an unusual skill-set. A Zombie Robot seems fairly more interesting.
Question of the Day #175: How popular/well-known do you think Sentinels of the Multiverse and the rest of Sentinel Comics really are? (In our Universe, that is.)
Kinda niche, IMO. Not sure how much the Venn diagram of comic book nerds (beyond MCU viewers) and cooperative tabletop/RPG enthusiasts overlap. That is to say, the RPG group I played with was stuck on their favorites and didn’t branch out much.
I only stumbled across Sentinel Comics a few years ago when SotM: the Video Game was part of a Humble Bundle. Didn’t delve any further than that until the beginning of this year when I found The Letters Page and devoured every bit of lore!
I think it’s a modestly popular and well respected item among tabletop gaming hobbyists, but not famous enough to have touched the mainstream at all. I saw an article about the game Wingspan on the Internet a few years ago, talking about how the woman who designed it is now an industry sensation; it wasn’t in a gaming specific publication, but just some random “magazine”. I doubt similar articles exist about SOTM, even though it has a similar rags-to-modest-riches story. And honestly I think gender politics is the reason.
Wingspan probably sells a lot more than Sentinels of the Multiverse. Honestly, at this point I’m not sure whether Sentinels sells as well as Spirit Island.
(I don’t have any bad feelings about any of this. They are all awesome games, and the more people are playing them, the more people I can play with!)
QotD #175 Reply: Well, on one hand, SotMwas#1 on Board Game Geek when it first came out. But, yeah, I am inclined to agree with the general consensus above. I’d say between 5% and 65% of tabletop hobbyists know of it. It is not super obscure, but it’s also not in the 25% most popular games. I’d be quite surprised if any non-tabletop game enthusiast had a passing awareness of it.
(Tangentially, it seems like the only modern board game I ever see folks play on television is Anti-Spirit Island.)
Question of the Day #176: Which of The Doctors is the best?
My personal favorite is Eccleston, but I’m inclined to think of Tom Baker as the one who most embodied the role. I haven’t seen much of the others, I’d be most curious to see more of Hartnell, since I am the most impressed by him just based on looks, Pertwee because of an old buddy of mine who talked him up, and Tennant because I’ve seen a couple of his eps and wanted more.
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) and Swaptober’s Visionary (because I could actually wear that costume 
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