Post by ErnestBorgnine on Aug 9, 2004 7:38:13 GMT -5
There are some things in 40k that are basically possible now (bolters (more or less), railguns, bionics, etc.), things effectively impossible using modern knowledge of physics but that could conceivably be done with some disbelief as to how far tech could go (ceramite armor, power armor's power source, power armor muscles, genetic engineering of primarchs and marines, energy density of 40k power cells, plasma weaponry, the Golden Throne as a life support device, "solar sails") , and then there are things that simply break with what we know about physics today.
The latter things are (not an exhaustive list):
One thing I've been thinking about recently is what was the breakthrough that took the 40k world out of modern physics and into the science-fantasy realm? What was the one seminal discovery that opened these doors - did warp travel come first, or did they discover a new theory that enabled them to project forces, which then enabled them to pierce the veil so to speak? Was it the emergence of psykers that lead to everything else, by science discovering how it was possible to affect the outside world with the mind? Or are the various things unconnected?
You can tie a lot of the above techs together with gravity manipulation - if you can manipulate it as a field, you can use it as a force field (a few tens of thousand g's of accel ought to deflect most incoming attacks) or powerfield (alternating thousands of gravities in different directions at 1000Hz ought to tear anything apart on contact), and can use it to offset acceleration as an effective inertial damper. Gravity control could theoretically be used to create an artificial singularity, which might be relevant to warp travel. This would mean there were two basic tech discoveries - how to manipulate gravity, and psyker abilities.
The latter things are (not an exhaustive list):
- Inertial dampers
- Gravity manipulation (nova cannon launchers, land speeders, grav chutes, ar-grav on BFG ships, possibly a drive system)
- Warp travel (and the existence of a warp at all)
- Geller Field
- Psykers
- Psyker technologies (Psychic Hood, Null Rods, etc., using psykers as a power source for the Golden Throne)
- FTL Astropathic communication
- Powerfields (on weapons)
- Void Shields
- Force fields
- Teleportation
- Stasis Fields
One thing I've been thinking about recently is what was the breakthrough that took the 40k world out of modern physics and into the science-fantasy realm? What was the one seminal discovery that opened these doors - did warp travel come first, or did they discover a new theory that enabled them to project forces, which then enabled them to pierce the veil so to speak? Was it the emergence of psykers that lead to everything else, by science discovering how it was possible to affect the outside world with the mind? Or are the various things unconnected?
You can tie a lot of the above techs together with gravity manipulation - if you can manipulate it as a field, you can use it as a force field (a few tens of thousand g's of accel ought to deflect most incoming attacks) or powerfield (alternating thousands of gravities in different directions at 1000Hz ought to tear anything apart on contact), and can use it to offset acceleration as an effective inertial damper. Gravity control could theoretically be used to create an artificial singularity, which might be relevant to warp travel. This would mean there were two basic tech discoveries - how to manipulate gravity, and psyker abilities.