[OOC] From Stardust, To Stardust

[TehAlphaGamer]

Oh, forgot about including the Sazkarjhit God of War, which may play an important part later on.

[Keyguyperson]

Name of nation: United Terran Federation (UTF)
Species: Human
Description of government: The UTF is a federation made up of multiple member nations. Each one elects their own internal government as well as a representative who represents them in all Federal meetings. Federal law has higher authority than national law, and any laws which the Federal Council deems wrong are repealed.
Description of military: The UTF has extensive ground, sea, and air forces. Ground forces (Terran Federation Ground Warfare Forces) mainly use coilguns for infantry and railguns for vehicles. The air forces (Federal In-Atmosphere Force) uses almost nothing but lasers, though many craft are equipped with railguns for precision strikes. The navy (Federal Navy) uses small, maneuverable vessels equipped with laser turrets. Most vessels also have a forward-facing railgun, which can only be used on calm seas due to the effect large waves have on aiming. The space forces (Federal Star Forces) are made up of small patrol ships, usually quipped with only a few lasers and maybe a spinal mount railgun. They use primarily boarding tactics to win battles, as they rarely have to fight anyone but illegal debris dumpers.
A "Special Response" air/space squadron exists as well, but little is known about them.
Technological Overview: The UTF uses plasma engines in all spacecraft, and has extensive coilgun/railgun and laser technology. No FTL has been invented, but they have colonies on all bodies int he Sol system. Full immersion virtual reality exists and is used both for recreational and training purposes.
Cultural Overview: The UTF is made up of dozens of different cultures, but most people share an interest int he exploration of space.
History: The UTF was founded in 2021, after a five year WWIII during which a nuclear exchange almost occurred. Humanity quickly began expanding through the solar system, and eventually reached Pluto by 2060 in an amazing display of human ingenuity. Solar power allowed Earth to recover from all of the pollution, and space elevators made travel to other planets cheap and reliable. Throughout the colonial period, millions flocked to the colonies with the hope of starting a new life. However, many opposed the expansion into space, saying that humanity was not ready. Terrorist attacks began on all planets, targeting places like the floating city near Dubai and the Beijing Pyramids. Even the Bering Strait bridge was attacked, resulting in ten billion Federation Credits being spent on repairs. In response, the UTF cracked down hard on the terrorists. A full mobilization occurred, with the intent of eliminating the terrorist groups.

All the crackdown did, however, was cause the terrorist organization to grow. The situation seemed hopeless until an enigmatic group approached the Federal Council, offering their services int he war. Tests showed them to excel at all types of combat, and all of them had exceptional g-force and radiation tolerance. The UTF gave these twenty individuals full access to experimental technologies. With this new group, they were able to successfully fight back against the terrorist threat. Interestingly, all twenty had previously applied for the Federal Star Forces and were declined on psychological reasons. There is much speculation surrounding the group, mostly over their name (Wings of Gliese). This has led many to begin conspiracy theories saying that they are, in fact, aliens. The Federal Council denounces all of these theories, but they still thrive as conspiracy theories tend to do.
Other: Sorry for the bad app.

Accepted! We may now begin!

[darkwolf687]

And so it begins on another world...

[darkwolf687]

Changed my post

I figure outpost A-5 may be very tast- I meant interesting for first contact...

[null123]

Soooooo
How did you already break into my military comms network with high level encryptions?

[darkwolf687]

You never mentioned that for a start, so that's your problem (Things people assume: Your ships have ftl, your ships have shields. Thongs people don't assume: Your messages that have been sent in plain English are going to be heavily encrypted so nobody could break the cipher and read them)
Regardless, I don't need to break into your network, I just need to have detected a signal.

[null123]

I was kinda of tired when I made my app
Should have been mentioned under the military section, its there now.

[darkwolf687]

Very well. I still have the location of your signal

Now, additionally I am playing a hive mind linking many 'mind' forms, but also countless infected sentients across the hives, its entirely possible that the hives have a collective computing power in excess of your nations entire computer network and organic intelligence combined. I wouldn't put decryption of any level past such a formidable entity should it have access to a computer network, and indeed given the manner in which it intertwines biology and technology, it may well be terrifyingly quick.

Hm. I may need to reevaluate some of my strategies given that. It might not be entirely fitting to rely so heavily on brute force.

[null123]

Decyrption isnt brute force with lots of computer power, its a very tedious process that can takes months. And this is only further problematic by the fact that the two nations are most likely using entirely different operating systems, programming, and processor type and such. At that point its near impossible to decrypt it.

[darkwolf687]

duck55223 said
Decyrption isnt brute force with lots of computer power, its a very tedious process that can takes months. And this is only further problematic by the fact that the two nations are most likely using entirely different operating systems, programming, and processor type and such. At that point its near impossible to decrypt it.

Decryption is simply deciphering a code. As with any code, if you have a system that it able to do so at a fast enough speed, it may be entirely feasible to brute force the code. If you have enough computer power, a brute force attack might be the more logical method than, as you say, undergoing a tedious task.

Also, if you would care to look at the tedious task, you would see it is tedious because of the amount of thought that has to go into it. If you have a being that can think quicker, run the tests quicker etc you will reach the conclusion quicker. A tedious task is less tedious if the beings involved could combine their processing power and share all thoughts instantly. More brain = more power = faster results.

Also, its not. Impossible or unfeasible. If one was able to translate the language (Computer encryption is generally done in binary. It might be harder to translate the language than to break the encryption, all things considered)

As for the processor type thing, I don't really understand where you are coming from. Jim the hacker down the street might have a different processor to me, that doesn't stop him from being able to hack my computer. Neither would him using a Mac and me using Windows... Which both have different programming. Which again has a lot of binary and numbers involved, and numbers are universal in value and thus meaning.

Edit: Also, isn't this conversation entirely pointless as we are discussing whether I could translate the words "Eternal Mother" and "High Command" in order to have the tribunal jab at the beliefs and make incredibly bad jokes? The important part is the knowledge of location, which doesn't need me to crack the encryption anyway...

[null123]

By Processor Type I meant Processor Architecture. No point in hacking if the processor of the computer your hacking can't run anything of yours.

And bruteforce attacks are actually still painfully tedious, even with ridiculous amounts of power behind them. Encryption methods and technology evolve just as fast as processor technology does, and it is possible, and has been done, to make unbreakable encryptions.

And its not a issue of translations, its the issue of you being able to break into one of my most secure networks without lifting a finger.

[darkwolf687]

duck55223 said
By Processor Type I meant Processor Architecture. No point in hacking if the processor of the computer your hacking can't run anything of yours.And bruteforce attacks are actually still painfully tedious, even with ridiculous amounts of power behind them. Encryption methods and technology evolve just as fast as processor technology does, and it is possible, and has been done, to make unbreakable encryptions.And its not a issue of translations, its the issue of you being able to break into one of my most secure networks without lifting a finger.

Ah, I thought you meant different makes of processor, I was sitting their scratching my head lol

True enough, but we aren't talking an upgrade in technology here, not some upgrade of processors. This is a being which can upgrade its intelligence by building a new brain, by absorbing individuals into it. To date, no computer has outdone the human mind. The power of the mind is insane, if one could connect even a handful of brains together and operate them, they could put the power of computers to shame... And we're not even talking about superior intelligence in aliens or constructs. I do believe unbreakable encryptions are generally "unbreakable" in the terms that it is unfeasible for us to bother due to complexity and time, not that they are literally unbreakable... And if you were able to acquire the key, say the one inside your computers being used to decode the messages, then it would be solved instantly. I would like to point out an autistic guy from the UK broke into the pentagons top secret files searching for UFO evidence... These files were heavily encrypted and he was using a desktop computer.

Technically speaking, its possible that none of this matters as the collective intelligence outstrips the computers, we probably have the problem with a brute force attack that both our systems might crash from the massive amount of data that such a powerful collective intelligence would be trying to force through, only for it to resume when the systems are rebooted, subsequently crashing our systems again. It could very well become an annoying situation for all involved, until one of the systems inevitably gets completely toasted and has to be replaced

[ASTA]

FTL and weaponized particle accelerators, yet organic technology is still magically superior to machinery.

[null123]

darkwolf687 said
Ah, I thought you meant different makes of processor, I was sitting their scratching my head lolTrue enough, but we aren't talking an upgrade in technology here, not some upgrade of processors. This is a being which can upgrade its intelligence by building a new brain, by absorbing individuals into it. To date, no computer has outdone the human mind. The power of the mind is insane, if one could connect even a handful of brains together and operate them, they could put the power of computers to shame... And we're not even talking about superior intelligence in aliens or constructs. I do believe unbreakable encryptions are generally "unbreakable" in the terms that it is unfeasible for us to bother due to complexity and time, not that they are literally unbreakable... And if you were able to acquire the key, say the one inside your computers being used to decode the messages, then it would be solved instantly. I would like to point out an autistic guy from the UK broke into the pentagons top secret files searching for UFO evidence... These files were heavily encrypted and he was using a desktop computer.Technically speaking, its possible that none of this matters as the collective intelligence outstrips the computers, we probably have the problem with a brute force attack that both our systems might crash from the massive amount of data that such a powerful collective intelligence would be trying to force through, only for it to resume when the systems are rebooted, subsequently crashing our systems again. It could very well become an annoying situation for all involved, until one of the systems inevitably gets completely toasted and has to be replaced

Yeah likely.

ASTA said
FTL and weaponized particle accelerators, yet organic technology is still magically superior to machinery.

From what Darkwolf said he's not entirely organic. He just incorporates whatever tech he finds, which has led to certain ships being some of the most advanced things in the galaxy, to a few having stuff barely above what we considered a fire-arm today.

Edit:Also what you said about the processing power of the brain is true Dark. They have actually built a super-computer more powerful then the human brain, but being a computer it cant preform the same-types of operations as our brains, and our brains are much more efficient.

[ASTA]

Additionally, that's modern technology. Not technology a century or two in the future. Unless you're trying to adhere to a number of science fiction tropes and sterotypes, theres no reason why an organic hivemind should be on the same level as a vast network of advanced computers.

[darkwolf687]

ASTA said
FTL and weaponized particle accelerators, yet organic technology is still magically superior to machinery.

Its sort of a bio-mechanical design, the technology is altered to be connected to the biological design of the hive (noting the hive can construct whatever nerve pattern or biological form it needs to given enough resources) thus allowing them to quickly access the functions of the technology at a moments notice from the mind. Its cutting out the middle man, instead of having someone waiting to press the button, the mind just sends the signal. This sort of technological usage reflects their nature, while they could make their own technology they far prefer to leech off of others achievements and add it to the hive

If you can build a gigantic brain and leech off the brain power of infected individuals, then I dare say that in that respect organic tech would be better. In terms of trying to make an ftl drive or gun, obviously organic technology isn't too enticing at all, nor would an organic construct be superior for transport compared to a car. What organic tech would be useful for in the case of a car would be if you grew a being within the workings of the car and changed the cars design to suit this, you could build a car that is controlled by the hive.

Edit: Considering the tribunal hives alone have slaved worlds to their will and all the inhabitants of these worlds, and built massive brains to act as central units I think the Hives as a collective entity might very well outstrip the advanced computer network in processing power and creativity. As well as being able to set themselves up a vast computer network of their own to handle this input with all that stolen technological knowhow.

[null123]

ASTA said
Additionally, that's modern technology. Not technology a century or two in the future. Unless you're trying to adhere to a number of science fiction tropes and sterotypes, theres no reason why an organic hivemind should be on the same level as a vast network of advanced computers.

Well yeah buts it pretty much we all got to go on.

You still cant deny the power of the human brain, and with the right cybernetics and certain AIs he could have power comparable to a advanced computing network.

[ASTA]

Honestly from how you've described it, this hivemind sounds like a watered-down synthetic collective intelligence.

Also, I'm not denying the power of the human brain, but I'm not going to worship it either. Unfortunately, the limits of an organic construct are more strict than the limits of a synthetic construct. This is why you have trucks possessing the physical power of hundreds of horses, for example.

[Kyelin]

So, working on an NS now. Evil space ghosts from another plane of existence XD

[darkwolf687]

ASTA said
Honestly from how you've described it, this hivemind sounds like a watered-down synthetic collective intelligence.Also, I'm not denying the power of the human brain, but I'm not going to worship it either. Unfortunately, the limits of an organic construct are more strict than the limits of a synthetic construct. This is why you have trucks possessing the physical power of hundreds of horses, for example.

The term synthetic is already being used by duck to represent war machines made through genetic engineering combined with cybernetics.
These are distinct from the parasitic L'Er, so although technically the term Synthetic is correct in both definitions (The forms are indeed artificial and they are generally combinations of seperate components) I am avoiding the use of the term. Organic compound is likely the easiest way to describe the majority of organisms as the Synthetic meaning in terms of combination comes into play when interwoven with technology, such a vehicles and computers.

The limits of an organic construct are indeed stricter, but I'm not proposing the replacement of all mechanical devices with organic ones... I'm flying a mechanical spaceship (granted, one that has been intertwined with and overgrown by the hives biomass compounds). The replacement of all mechanical devices with organic ones would be ludicrous, one might go so far as to say suicidal.