From: bbbl67@spammenot.yahoo.com   
      
   On 30/01/2011 5:01 PM, Brad Templeton wrote:   
   > In article<4d45ba10@news.bnb-lp.com>,   
   > Yousuf Khan  wrote:   
   >> I'm not sure how you got the idea that there was no FTL radio. The   
   >> reason that no cabinet members logged in to the transponder other than   
   >> Roslin was because everybody else was obviously dead.   
   >   
   > Because it was made clear many, many times there was no FTL radio.  In fact,   
   > we even had a long debate here about whether the Cylons had FTL radio, which   
   > I think they clearly had to (in order to download among other things) but   
   which   
   > many people here insisted they didn't.   
   >   
   > But the colonials very, very clearly did not.   There were literally scores   
   of   
   > incidents where ships were out of contact even a short jump away.   
      
   In the pilot episodes, we saw tv news reports coming in in real-time   
   from various colonies. That requires FTL communications.   
      
   I think the lack of communications for the rag-tag fleet is easily   
   explained by the fact that there weren't any communications beacons set   
   up outside the colonies. Even the Cylons couldn't communicate to places   
   where they had never been before. Once they'd been there, then they   
   probably left behind beacons which allowed them to communicate back from   
   that point onwards. As far as the rag-tag fleet is concerned, they   
   weren't going to leave any beacons behind, as they never expected to   
   ever go back in those directions. Plus the beacons might be picked up by   
   pursuing Cylons. When the group of rebel Cylons joined the ragtag fleet,   
   they too were out of communications range of the rest of the Cylons.   
      
   Just from a technology point of view, I'd say most civilizations would   
   be able to develop FTL communications before they can develop FTL   
   transportation. It's easier to send particles (such as electrons or   
   photons) at higher speeds than entire macroscopic objects. Physics has a   
   number of hypothetical methods for possibly going FTL today: (1)   
   wormholes, (2) Casimir Effect, and (3) Quantum Entanglement. In each of   
   these cases, it's more likely that a particle will be sent FTL through   
   one of these methods. An FTL communications beacon would be required to   
   act like a gateway through which photons can be sent on shortcut through   
   the dimensions.   
      
   >> Yes, that's true, but the entire Caprica experience seemed to be totally   
   >> minimize any hints that this was a science-fiction show at all. I   
   >> believe that's the entire reason behind its demise. And even whilst   
   >> minimizing the sci-fi aspect of fiction, it didn't really do a good job   
   >> of emphasizing the drama either.   
   >   
   > That it was a space opera with interplanetary empires and space battles, it   
   > did indeed minimize, because its goal was to be different from BSG in that   
   > way.  However, the thinking robots and virtual reality worlds did make me   
   > suspect it might be SF from time to time.  :-)   
      
   Thinking robots and virtual reality don't really grab sci-fi attention   
   like space empires do. Plus, they were barely part of this storyline   
   most of the time anyways. Most of the time, it was about a teenage   
   daughter rebelling against her parents; mind you it was about a *dead*   
   teenage daughter rebelling even after death, but somehow it didn't feel   
   all that different than a live teenage daughter rebelling against her   
   parents.   
      
   It really only started getting interesting when they introduced the   
   Tauron civil war into the picture. I wish they started out with that,   
   rather than the teenage girl angst stuff. They really messed this one up   
   badly: what should have been the main story (civil war) was just a side   
   story to what should have been the side story (teenager angst).   
      
   > No, FTL radio breaks many of the storylines, and in fact there are a few   
   > key Cylon storylines that I think need it.   However, the articles by Moore   
   > and the science advisor made clear that the jump technology was supposed to   
   > be wormhole based and the only way to go FTL, at least for the colonials.   
      
   Wormholes may be the only way to go FTL for ships, but I doubt he had   
   anything to say about FTL communications. Quantum Entanglement is the   
   basis behind quantum teleportation too, and Star Trek aside, for   
   teleportation you need transmit and receive stations.   
      
   >> It's possible, it was certainly my own first thoughts. However, any moon   
   >> the size of Earth would be creating a colossal gravity well around the   
   >> gas giant and flinging all other smaller moons out of orbit there. And   
   >> having 12 of those Earth mass moons would be impossible. At best the 12   
   >> colonies would have to be located on Titan-sized moons in that case.   
   >   
   > Well, I am suggesting 4 large moons, and they could have quite widely spaced   
   > orbits, possibly far enough to avoid much interference.  (Though if you put   
   one   
   > too far out it gets disrupted by the other gas giant after a while.)   
      
   At some point, these moons will be so widely spaced apart that some of   
   them will no longer be in orbit around the gas giant.   
      
   I think it's not impossible to have an Earth-massed moon in orbit about   
   a gas giant. However, that will be the only moon that gas giant will   
   have, as the combined planet and moon will have completely cleared out   
   the area between them. Other moons and asteroids will have either been   
   flung out into outer space, or they would've crashed into the big moon   
   or planet.   
      
   > However, you can go with smaller moons -- if you accept that this is a   
   terraformed   
   > system, constructed by the lords of Kobol to hold their 12 tribes.   
      
   Sure, but that brings up a question of surface gravity. On a   
   Titan-massed moon, you won't get 1G of gravity on the surface, it'll be   
   closer to the gravity you see on Earth's own Moon, approximately 1/6th   
   of Earth's. People evolving on such low gravity conditions won't look   
   like us anymore, they'll be taller. They will also move very   
   differently, like how we see astronauts walking on the Moon -- in big   
   leaps and bounds.   
      
   >> Even if you split the Earth-sized moons between two gas giants, it's   
   >> still too much. Plus having two gas giants in close enough proximity to   
   >> be both in the temperate zone of the star would mean that they would be   
   >> tugging at each other and pushing each other away from the temperate zones.   
   >   
   > They would, which is why I suggest that one is at the inner part of the zone,   
   > and the other is at the outer part, 3x further.  If the star is a very bright   
   > star, this allows the physical distance to be great and the gas giants large   
   > enough to hold 4 large moons, I would wager.  (You would need to do a   
   simulation   
      
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