Re: Theoretical help

natjbrown@xxxxxxxxx wrote: 
I'm writing a short science fiction story, and I need some help.  There
is a force attacking earth, and they have mastered artificial gravity,
plasma weaponry/drives, fusion power plants, and FTL communication.
(Einstein's theory of relativity, like Newton's laws before him, have
been found to have certain limits.)

I'm more interested in _why_ they're attacking Earth; what could we possibly have that they want that isn't easier to get elsewhere without wasting time/energy/lives on a fight?

We discover how to duplicate these alien technologies, and we mesh them
with our existing technologies to develop new technologies.  What
technologies could we develop?

Technology is just applied physics; if we see things they missed in the physics, damn near anything. Frinst, can their physics be reworked to give monopolar repulsive gravity fields? If so, a ZPF tap is possible.

For the purpose of artificial gravity, they have found a way to
generate gravitons.  They can be unidirectional, and can be generated
some distance from the generator, although with a steep drop-off.  In
other words, you can generate gravity to pull your ship forward, or to
pull a bullet to the side so it misses you, but it takes an
insurmountable amount of power to generate gravity any significant
distance away.

If they've _really_ "mastered artificial gravity", there's no such power limit; just make and use a Kerr-Newman black hole as a "battery" (Google "Charles Sheffield").

Also, that "steep drop-off" is likely due to their particular technological embodiment of the basic physics; a different embodiment probably would have better range though it might force other tradeoffs (like the differences between a land-speed record car and a SUV).

The difference between a plasma weapon and a plasma drive is simply in
where it is aimed, and how dispersed the spray is.

If they can generate gravity, they don't need plasma weaponry/drive tech. Well, I wouldn't.

The main new weapon that I have thought of is a graser, a "graviton
laser", also known as a gravity lance.  Got any other good ideas?
Could we pulse radiation through a gravity lense to form some kind of
weapon?  Focus the results of a nuclear or atomic bomb?  Focus an
electromagnetic pulse into a beam?

You're working very old territory here. Read some Sheffield, then check out Robert L. Forward's _Dragon's Egg_ series.

Meantime, try asking in rec.arts.sf.science for more useful ideas and dead ends to avoid.


  Mark L. Fergerson

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