Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thread

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Daegondrake
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Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Daegondrake »

So I was wondering on 2 questions.

Will we find out how big Umiak space is during the comic.

Will we see a spacebattle between the historians and the Umiak.

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Arioch
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Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Arioch »

Daegondrake wrote:Will we find out how big Umiak space is during the comic.

Will we see a spacebattle between the historians and the Umiak.
Known Umiak space is roughly this big:
Image

There is a limit to how much bigger it can be, since past a certain point it reaches the boundary of the local bubble, indicated by the contour lines.

As for the rest, I don't think it's a good idea to say what will or won't happen in the future comic pages.

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Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Daegondrake »

Do the Umiak get genetic disorders with there artificial/ possible cloning or do they have the technology to fix this.

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Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Arioch »

Daegondrake wrote:Do the Umiak get genetic disorders with there artificial/ possible cloning or do they have the technology to fix this.
Currently we have problems with cloning and direct manipulation of genes because we don't really understand the epigenetics (how the genes are expressed, in addition to changes in the DNA itself) and other interactions. But they'd need to understand that to do it successfully, which they obviously have.

There will always be unexpected consequences of genome changes and errors in the process, but one advantage of artificial reproduction is that you can just make changes for the next batch; you don't really have to worry about hereditary disorders because there are no natural offspring.

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SaintofM
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Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by SaintofM »

Arioch wrote:
Daegondrake wrote:Do the Umiak get genetic disorders with there artificial/ possible cloning or do they have the technology to fix this.
Currently we have problems with cloning and direct manipulation of genes because we don't really understand the epigenetics (how the genes are expressed, in addition to changes in the DNA itself) and other interactions. But they'd need to understand that to do it successfully, which they obviously have.

There will always be unexpected consequences of genome changes and errors in the process, but one advantage of artificial reproduction is that you can just make changes for the next batch; you don't really have to worry about hereditary disorders because there are no natural offspring.
So its like with the Asgard from Stargate SG1. They ran out of viable DNA to clone that could not be corrupted during the process.

Now with a clone race like this, is there a chance that they could suffer greatly from disease as there is little room for adjustments, or how have they dealt with that in the past and present?

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Arioch
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Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Arioch »

SaintofM wrote:So its like with the Asgard from Stargate SG1. They ran out of viable DNA to clone that could not be corrupted during the process.

Now with a clone race like this, is there a chance that they could suffer greatly from disease as there is little room for adjustments, or how have they dealt with that in the past and present?
The Umiak aren't clones; they aren't simple copies of a single genome. The mechanical problems of the cloning process (degradation of the source material) can be solved at TL10+ just by editing out the errors, but the primary disadvantage to using troops who are identical copies of each other is that there is no diversity; a flaw in one is a flaw in all of them. And while it's clear that most of the Umiak the Loroi encounter have been genetically engineered, they are not identical. On the contrary, the diversity is extreme.

The Umiak never do anything only one way, and so there undoubtedly a variety of different processes at work here, but what they are probably doing in the majority of cases is that they have a library of genetic sources, some of which are manually modified, and then they induce artificial mitosis and fertilize the resulting gametes in vitro with other gametes from a different genetic source. This results in the same sort of diversity that you would see in a naturally conceived individual, but with precise control over the parental genomes, and quality control over the resulting embryo. The embryo is either implanted into an egg to be hatched conventionally, or it is introduced into a special artificial womb of sorts to be matured at an accelerated rate.

Genetic manipulation can introduce new diseases through technical errors in the process, or through unintended interactions with other genes, but any such errors can be fixed in the next batch, and any diseases or disorders in the current generation aren't passed on, since there is no next generation, because the Umiak aren't breeding naturally. Well, most of them, anyway.

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orion1836
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Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by orion1836 »

Arioch wrote:
orion1836 wrote:Most importantly, do Umiak taste like lobster? :mrgreen:
No. Umiak meat is black, stringy and acrid.
I... did not expect an answer to that question.

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Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Murph »

Arioch wrote:
Daegondrake wrote:Will we find out how big Umiak space is during the comic.

Will we see a spacebattle between the historians and the Umiak.
Known Umiak space is roughly this big:
Image

There is a limit to how much bigger it can be, since past a certain point it reaches the boundary of the local bubble, indicated by the contour lines.

As for the rest, I don't think it's a good idea to say what will or won't happen in the future comic pages.
In other words...BIG. Then you have issues such as birthrate, and industrial production rate.

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Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by SaintofM »

A Historian Question: How fast do you think the pocket Historian it read through and analyzed the data on the Human ship, particularly Alex's record.

Would you also say it has a firm understanding of him from those records?

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Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Arioch »

SaintofM wrote:A Historian Question: How fast do you think the pocket Historian it read through and analyzed the data on the Human ship, particularly Alex's record.

Would you also say it has a firm understanding of him from those records?
Let's put it this way: the Historian's message displays a pretty firm grasp of English, right down to witticisms involving the trademark symbol and the PORN alien head icon, so I think it's logical to assume that it read and processed most or all of what was in Bellarmine's data banks.

However, the Pocket Historian™ is now running in a data pad, which presumably does not have the storage capacity to fit everything that was in Bellarmine's data banks, much less the entire intellect and experience that we might expect a Historian to have, so it's important to consider that the Pocket Historian™ is a scaled down version of a Historian construct. We should expect that the information it has at hand is going to be limited; it may not even know the full reasoning behind its mission. So, what the Historians now know about Alex may or may not be the same set of information that the Pocket Historian™ knows about Alex.

In the upcoming pages we will get some more concrete examples of what the Historian construct is able to do.

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GeoModder
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Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by GeoModder »

Which begs the question how much storage space is available for a Construct in on of those Loroi 'waste bins'.
Its pretty clear (or at least the Construct hinted so) it wasn't enough to allow a full holo display of a Construct. But maybe at the time of the interview on Tempest' bridge it traded data space for graphics?
Also, I assume the Construct in the container aboard Highland-7 can stay in intermittent contact with the Pocket Historian on Alex' tablet?
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boldilocks
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Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by boldilocks »

GeoModder wrote:Which begs the question how much storage space is available for a Construct in on of those Loroi 'waste bins'.
Its pretty clear (or at least the Construct hinted so) it wasn't enough to allow a full holo display of a Construct. But maybe at the time of the interview on Tempest' bridge it traded data space for graphics?
Also, I assume the Construct in the container aboard Highland-7 can stay in intermittent contact with the Pocket Historian on Alex' tablet?
I'd assume that the waste bin is being used as a relay, as it is more likely to contain the technology necessary for historian "secret transmissions" than a handheld human device.

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GeoModder
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Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by GeoModder »

IIRC, the container is Loroi-made.
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Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Krulle »

I hope this'll be clearred up a bit for us in the upcoming pages, of which Arioch hinted we would learn a bit about the capacities of the Pocket-Historian.
The Ur-Quan Masters finally gets a continuation of the story! Late backing possible, click link.

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Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by SaintofM »

I guess this is more of a any and all race question here, but how do the races in this setting handle waste. This is in relation to biological (urine and fecal mater), trash, and byproduct of using fuel, either on planet or in space.

How do they do the space toilet when a representative from one of the other races need to go on each other's ship (the smallest adult Barsum are going to need a bigger john than Alex for example).

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Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Murph »

SaintofM wrote:I guess this is more of a any and all race question here, but how do the races in this setting handle waste. This is in relation to biological (urine and fecal mater), trash, and byproduct of using fuel, either on planet or in space.

How do they do the space toilet when a representative from one of the other races need to go on each other's ship (the smallest adult Barsum are going to need a bigger john than Alex for example).
Maybe self resizing toilet seats?

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Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

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Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by Arioch »

SaintofM wrote:I guess this is more of a any and all race question here, but how do the races in this setting handle waste. This is in relation to biological (urine and fecal mater), trash, and byproduct of using fuel, either on planet or in space.

How do they do the space toilet when a representative from one of the other races need to go on each other's ship (the smallest adult Barsum are going to need a bigger john than Alex for example).
Planetside waste management is kind of a large topic, so I'll just say that most garbage and sewage contains valuable resources and potential energy, so in most cases it is processed to reclaim those, rather than simply dumped into a landfill or pumped into the sea.

Most primary energy is generated by solar collectors (both electronic and biological), fusion or taimat reactors, and so the chief waste product is radioactive cooling agent (usually water) that has to sit in holding areas until it is safe to dispose of. In the few cases where fissionables are still being used, they have to deal with the radioactive by-products the same way we do: dig a deep hole and monitor it carefully.

Aboard spacecraft, refuse and waste must usually be stored aboard until the ship can make port. It can be jettisoned into space is some instances, but this is rarely a good idea, as it presents a navigation hazard to other vessels. While it's possible to put the ship on a collision course with a star or uninhabited planet before jettisoning waste, I think in practice this is not as simple as it sounds and is probably against official protocol.

Once it reaches a spaceport, waste is stored and eventually processed (either in orbit or planetside). Really toxic or radioactive waste can be stored indefinitely. I can imagine disused wings of old space stations with rotting cargo hulks moored.

The various different species of the Union each have their own "sanitary" requirements, but for most of those that are likely to cohabit (especially the Loroi, Neridi and Barsam), toiletry needs are not that different... a bowl with a seat will do. On a vessel such as Prophet's Reason which has both Barsam and Neridi crewmembers, the toilet facilities are designed accordingly: a large bowl with a "kiddie seat" attachment. Loroi vessels do not normally host alien crewmembers or passengers (with the exception of Golim engineers, who have their own facilities... though they do not require toilets, as Golim feces are dry and odorless, resembling charcoal briquettes), and so if there are visiting aliens, appropriate facilities must be installed. These can be elaborate and permanent such as the facilities for the ambassadors aboard the Imperial flagship, or they can be crude and temporary like a TL10 port-a-potty. In the worst case scenario, portable solutions such as one might use when camping can be employed.


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Re: Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thre

Post by asaenvolk »

Honestly, at their tech level their plumbing should be short and nearly self contained at each unit with an extra sterilization unit for Alien units just to be safe. The processed based material then being collected for reuse.

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