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Fel wrote: E=MC^2 matters here, folks. If you assume you have one "unit" of matter, that one "unit" of energy is equal to 300,000 SQUARED. A single atom of matter holds within it absolutely immense amounts of energy. Now to be fair, not ALL of that energy is released when an atom undergoes fission, only a portion of it does. But that portion is still pretty damn big. Without looking it up and going by pure memory, if I remember right, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima weighed 9,000 pounds, but most of it was the case and conventional explosives required to trigger the Uranium core. If I remember right, the core itself only weighed like 200 pounds.

According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Man) the Fat Man core was 6.19 kilograms (13.6 lb) and of that only about 1kg actually underwent fission. And even then only about 1 gram of matter was converted to energy.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy, the little man core was significantly larger at about 141lb but only about the same amount of material actually underwent fission.

Really feels great having your interest mentioned in the story.
http://i.imgur.com/khLniLd.jpg
Really does...

Fel wrote:Actually, if you want to get really "physical," any matter can be used in fission/fusion.

Yeah, I realized that I wasn't very clear. What I meant was splitting a couple of non-radioactive atoms would not give you noticeable fusion/fission chain reaction. You would need fairly unstable elements in order to cause a runaway reaction fission strong enough to be weaponized if I recall my physics and chemistry correctly. And fusion would, of course need a massive amount of heat and pressure.

Correct. But what makes fusion such an attractive energy source in the future is, once you get the fusion going, it will self-sustain so long as there's fuel and optimal conditions. So you invest energy to get it started, then you can extract energy once you get it going. And in the long run, the energy you get back far exceeds what you invested.

Jason throwing Kreel (which BTW was funny) at the end of the chapter reminded me of another question I've been meaning to ask. Could a telekinetic fly using his ability if he is strong enough to pick himself up? I seem to recall Jason slowing himself down once when jumping out the window. Now i know that with all the security Jason needs to have, flying around would make him a target, but as Jason would say, "it would be soooo f***ing cool."

I doubt full on flight, but something akin to epic parkour abilities.

kyli wrote:Jason throwing Kreel (which BTW was funny) at the end of the chapter reminded me of another question I've been meaning to ask. Could a telekinetic fly using his ability if he is strong enough to pick himself up? I seem to recall Jason slowing himself down once when jumping out the window. Now i know that with all the security Jason needs to have, flying around would make him a target, but as Jason would say, "it would be soooo f***ing cool."

Levitate yes, fly...yes and no.

The reason is the same as why you can't grab yourself and pick yourself up off the ground. Telekinesis does partially follow some physics, and the big one at play here is Newton's third law of equal and opposite reaction. When applying force to move something, a portion of the weight of the object is placed on the TK doing it. Try to pick yourself up, and a portion of your own weight is pressed down upon you as force, as a reaction to the telekinetic force being applied. The more force you try to use to pick yourself up, the more force applied back against you. Even though Jason has the strength to pick up more than his own weight, it's still not enough to allow him to fly around. But, it's enough to pick himself up off the ground for a short period of time and not move very far.

There are ways around this, however, and Jason has figured a few of them out. He could, say, apply all his force downwards and use his TK as a form of thrust instead of trying to pick himself up like an object, but that's incredibly unstable and hard to control. (go "Iron Man," just like from the movie The Martian, and this is how Jason slowed his fall). He could manipulate the space holding himself and pick THAT up, which is a little easier, but he has to have a way to stay in that space once it's picked up off the ground. He could easily fall out of it, since the volume wihin that space is still subject to gravity. But the most efficient way to do it, and something the Pai have figured out, is learning how to bypass physical laws completely while exercising TK against an object, where the only thing that matter is the mass of the object being moved or the volume of the space being affected. That would allow him to apply his full power to something and not have a portion of its weight applied against him as force. Take that away, and Jason has more than enough power to pick up his own weight, even without a tactical gestalt.

There was an armor or armored unit that was nearly just a purely enhanced tactical gestalt. Imagine a master of kinetic abilities in such a unit. Generations if their abilities become know would be feared accross worlds. To counter a telepath you need a telepath, so the only way to truly counter a telekinetic is another.

Yeah, and that was one of the reasons, alongside their tech, that the original Karines were attacked and wiped out. As you said, to truly counter a telekinetic, you need another telekinetic...and nobody at the time knew about gestalts.

Jason is going to have to make sure nobody tries to remove this new race. I mean I'm assuming that the Karines and the Kimdori are not the only one checking them out and when they learn both how many telekinetics they have and how widespread their abilities somebody is going to get a bit nervous.

The current Karines are probably already terror inducing, remember they were using telekinetic (with gestalts but still) to rip STARSHIPS apart and redirect fleet level weapons. That level of personal power must be terrifying and paranoia inducing for security people all over the galaxy. What do you do when telepaths are already rare enoguh (outside of the Faey) that you need a 'loyal' telepath there to defend your rulers mind...but you also need to find a even RARER telekinetic to try and defend against an invisible, undetectable assassin.

On a complete tangent - I've been re-reading the entire series and just happened upon Chapter 5 of Insurrection, during Dahnai and Kellin's first visit to Karis, Lyn asks Kellin, "Batchi? How many teeth did you lose?" to which he replies "None, but I got banged around a lot" Perhaps his first taste of pizza made him forget his jaw being broken in nine places?

Belgarion213 wrote:Yeah, and that was one of the reasons, alongside their tech, that the original Karines were attacked and wiped out. As you said, to truly counter a telekinetic, you need another telekinetic...and nobody at the time knew about gestalts.

Jason is going to have to make sure nobody tries to remove this new race. I mean I'm assuming that the Karines and the Kimdori are not the only one checking them out and when they learn both how many telekinetics they have and how widespread their abilities somebody is going to get a bit nervous.

The current Karines are probably already terror inducing, remember they were using telekinetic (with gestalts but still) to rip STARSHIPS apart and redirect fleet level weapons. That level of personal power must be terrifying and paranoia inducing for security people all over the galaxy. What do you do when telepaths are already rare enoguh (outside of the Faey) that you need a 'loyal' telepath there to defend your rulers mind...but you also need to find a even RARER telekinetic to try and defend against an invisible, undetectable assassin.

Actually, another telekinetic isn't a defense against a telekinetic unless they know exactly when, where, and how, a telekinetic is going to strike. I believe it was earlier in conviction when Rann and Shya were horsing around and Shya used telekinesis against Rann, but Rann was able to counter it only because of his deep telepathic bond with Shya, so he knew exactly how to counter her. So unless there are again more advanced tricks the Pai have to sense what a telekinetic is doing and counter it, there is no way to stop a telekinetic, except to telepathically attack the telekinetic or with a preemptive strike. In both cases, you first have to know the telekinetic is there.

miraborn wrote:On a complete tangent - I've been re-reading the entire series and just happened upon Chapter 5 of Insurrection, during Dahnai and Kellin's first visit to Karis, Lyn asks Kellin, "Batchi? How many teeth did you lose?" to which he replies "None, but I got banged around a lot" Perhaps his first taste of pizza made him forget his jaw being broken in nine places?

There are quite a few mistakes like that spread out throughout the series. Fel is just one guy and doesn't have editors like most other authors. I guess, we, his fans, can be considered his editors really. I am actually currently rereading the series again myself and am in the last chapter of the first book. And i just started making a note directly in the PDF file on every single mistake i can find. Maybe, if Fel doesn't mind, I'll send them to him when I'm finished??

Say they start an unofficial telekinetic school, they could would be the go to place to study, like telepaths study with the faey. That would bring most of TK capable faey in to the house orbit. So more likely to breed into house. One day in the far future, both the human and faey race has the potential unparreled power. Billions of telepathic and telekinetic beings.

I wonder if the Biogenic crystal can be adapted with Pai DNA, to allow other to at least communicate. It would would be a boost to the non generation members

they don't really need an unofficial school, i think jason was saying he would put them in the academy

I remember scanners (I think that was the title) which eventually became Subjugation. Didn't you have a character that could affect really small things with TK.

Can telekinesis be used in bionoids, if they go for a full merge? I wonder if the computer aspects of the merge technology can be applied to the kinetic ability. So easier to manipulate compounds and atoms, and other micro and macro forms.