ASB Challenge

[Romulus Augustulus]

Using a timeline that has at least the pretensions of being plausible with a POD no earlier than January 1st, 1800, and changing as little else as possible form OTL, make it so that instead of Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier on 04101947 in a rocket-powered aircraft, a Bell X-1 named Glamorous Glennis, make it so that he breaks the light-barrier in a spacecraft named that instead. No alien interference or anything. Humans must have developed the technology by themselves. And there must be as little change from OTL in other areas as possible. And nothing silly.

[Douglas]

Using a timeline that has at least the pretensions of being plausible with a POD no earlier than January 1st, 1800, and changing as little else as possible form OTL, make it so that instead of Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier on 04101947 in a rocket-powered aircraft, a Bell X-1 named Glamorous Glennis, make it so that he breaks the light-barrier in a spacecraft named that instead. No alien interference or anything. Humans must have developed the technology by themselves. And there must be as little change from OTL in other areas as possible. And nothing silly.

Is it really ASB then, or just extremely unlikely? :confused:

[Max Sinister]

Breaking the light barrier contradicts the laws of science, so it must be ASB. Unless we could make the tachyons work somehow...

[Nekromans]

Well, the Rosetta Stone gets ISOTed with an instruction manual on how to do it. From an Alternate Future, understand? Humans develop it, no Alien Inteference. CIAgents start working on building a spaceship that can do it, but the work can't be completed until whenever Chuck Norris (or whatever his name was) is able to fly it. This is completely secret, of course, so Human History doesn't get changed. It's called Glamorous Glennis because, "It just felt right".

[Romulus Augustulus]

Breaking the light barrier contradicts the laws of science, so it must be ASB. Unless we could make the tachyons work somehow...

Well, an Alcubierre drive could technically do it, or else a jump drive, or else a stutterwarp drive, or some kind of drive system where you only have a pseudo-velocity and are tricking the universe into letting you get from point A to point B in less time than light would, except you're really not moving faster than light. You're just jumping a whole bunch of times really fast so there's no stoppage in continuity...

[Leej]

This is impossible to do considering none of us knows the way that FTL can be done (if we did...Wow we'd be rich!).
You can't work towards a goal if you don't know what it is.

[Romulus Augustulus]

This is impossible to do considering none of us knows the way that FTL can be done (if we did...Wow we'd be rich!).
You can't work towards a goal if you don't know what it is.

Make one up. Do I have to spell everything out?

[Mike Stearns]

Make one up. Do I have to spell everything out?


This isn't possible. In order to have a superluminal starship flight in 1800 you'd need to have huge butterflies that would make that TL completely unrecognizable from ours. Taking into account our current state of technological sophistication and then taking into account how long it may take us to start making interstellar spaceflights (figure around 100 years) and then to figure out how to build an FTL drive system (figure around another 50 years), you'd probably push back the Industrial Revolution to sometime in the late 1400s. That also means that you'd have push back all the precursors to the Industrial Revolution even farther to the late 1300s. And on top of that, you want as few changes to the TL as possible. Unless you can find a way for the Roman Empire to not fall for another 3 or 4 centuries, in addition to beceoming way more efficient then it was and become a hotbed for technological innovation, this won't work because that's the only it'll happen without having to go through the Middle Ages first.

[Romulus Augustulus]

This isn't possible. In order to have a superluminal starship flight in 1800 you'd need to have huge butterflies that would make that TL completely unrecognizable from ours. Taking into account our current state of technological sophistication and then taking into account how long it may take us to start making interstellar spaceflights (figure around 100 years) and then to figure out how to build an FTL drive system (figure around another 50 years), you'd probably push back the Industrial Revolution to sometime in the late 1400s. That also means that you'd have push back all the precursors to the Industrial Revolution even farther to the late 1300s. And on top of that, you want as few changes to the TL as possible. Unless you can find a way for the Roman Empire to not fall for another 3 or 4 centuries, in addition to beceoming way more efficient then it was and become a hotbed for technological innovation, this won't work because that's the only it'll happen without having to go through the Middle Ages first.

This IS an ASB timeline.

[Mike Stearns]

This IS an ASB timeline.

Yes and you asked us to avoid alien interference which means no ASBs which means it can't be done.

Your exact words:

No alien interference or anything. Humans must develope the technology BY THEMSELVES.

[Romulus Augustulus]

Yes and you asked us to avoid alien interference which means no ASBs which means it can't be done.

Your exact words:

No alien interference or anything. Humans must develope the technology BY THEMSELVES.

Yes, but I mean that it can be incredibly unlikely.

If this contradicts earlier statements I made, disregard them. I typed them under the influence of Fresca, which actually gets me drunk.

[Psychomeltdown]

I typed them under the influence of Fresca, which actually gets me drunk.
Fresca? Who the hell drinks Fresca anymore?

[Archangel Michael]

If this contradicts earlier statements I made, disregard them. I typed them under the influence of Fresca, which actually gets me drunk.

What are you, some sort of moth?

[danielb1]

The only reasonable explanation seems to be, without aliens, that humans from the future travel back in time.

This might well happen in the SHWI-ISOT... well, no Chuck Yeager, but an analogue :p.