Printer-friendly version
Author:
Blog About:
Taxonomy upgrade extras:
Hey everyone! I'm working on a MAU story that I want to take in a slightly different direction. In this case I have a question for you SF Fans out there in Big-Closet Land!
What gadget from from SF movies, TV, other media would you try to use a MAU to create?
For me, the Sonic Screwdriver or at least a version of it was a must. Also a Star Trek tricorder would be a great accessory tool to go with it. Any other suggestions?
Remember this is limited by Elrod's rules on MAU's so it has to operate by scientific principles. No magic please!
Ready, Set, Go!
Hugs
Grover
Comments
Obvious, really
A replicator, from Star Trek. Of course, by any reasonable definition, that was magic, but if you can fit the sonic screwdriver in there, that has to work too.
Titania
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
Thanks Titania and Rues
One Robby the Robot with his ability to synthesize/replicate material coming up. Hmmm... He just might be a little hard to hide from our friendly neighborhood MIBs. Maybe R2D2 with the same device? Of course you would have to have some idea of how it was suppose to work so the MAU could build it.
Thanks
Grover
Well, the MAU will do it's
Well, the MAU will do it's best if you don't know, but the results may vary.
well
if the MAU can change a body in to any other form with out the user knowing all the intricacies i am sure it can extrapolate
on how to build any gadget as most of the stories don't have characters that know DNA and RNA to build the perfect body . there is a bit of leeway there i think as they just want to be this or that and the MAU provides it
well, seeing as we are really close
via 3d printers now to create some simulacra of organs for med school, what is to keep us from taking the microgravitics from a sonic screwdriver, or a micro version of tractor beams to rearrange the molecular matrix of a solid piece of matter (although the taking apart could result in a possibly fatal dose of radiation/explosive force, anyone here up on their particle physics enough to perhaps guess on a way to bypass that? maybe utilizing the particle wave theory and keeping the energy of the particles in ALL forms simultaneously, thus keeping the potentials in balance?)? Or as Carl Sagan said, "If you want to build an apple pie from scratch, first you must create the universe."
replicator
at the lowest level, matter is just an assembly of energy particles. so take same energy particles, protons, electrons and neutrons, build atoms and molecules from it, then handwave them together to form complex objects. then all it takes is a lot of energy. E=MC^2, or 1kg * 300,000,000m/s * 300,000,000m/s = 90,000,000,000,000,000J or 25 billion kWh (compare that with your electricity bill) for every kilogram of mass so produced.
Mr. Fusion
Yeah, I really have to remember include a Mr. Fusion along with the accessory adapter kit. :)
Hugs
Grover
well, at the end of the day,
well, at the end of the day, the handwavium used to assemble particles into mass could be reversible. in other words, break particles out of a lump of mass, thereby transforming mass into energy, then use that for the assembly of the goods produced by the gadget.
The simplest is to use the
The simplest is to use the molecules in the air. We're mostly CHON, after all.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
gadgets
well if my memory is good there was sonic showers, any kind of robot, the thing stuck in spocks ear all the time on the ship lol, the holodeck its not magic lol. i am sure there are more but my own brain cells are farting to hard for me to think .
Spock's ear
The item in Spock's ear was just a Bluetooth earpiece connected to the ships computer (Uhuru usually wore it). Remember in the 60's when it aired there wasn't cell phones, much less wireless earpieces for them, so it was sci-fi, but much like the communicator which we now have, it's no longer the future, it's current tech.
Duh!
Green Lantern's Ring.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
And don't forget
the Power Battery!
Thanks Erin!
Hugs
Grover
I Want A Holodeck
I don't know if you can call it a 'gadget', but I'd want a holodeck. I can imagine the conversation if I was absent from my post on the Enterprise.
"He's pulled another sickie? He's not on that holodeck again, is he? I told you to delete that bloody Lord of the Rings program."
They'd never find me. No one takes very much notice of Arwen Undomiel.
And provide it with the
And provide it with the program that Voyager's Doctor used to transfer the personality of the Vidiian into a holographic body. The target body would not need to be the same as the original. One could then be transferred into the (female) body of anyone you wanted and experience life from their point of view.
Gadgets
Hmm you have covered the main ones I would think of.
Star Trek Communicator (planetary range cell phone)with universal translator. Won't bust the story line if you limit it to audio only.
Tesseract storage of some type.
Monomolecular cutting items of some type go to this link and click on "real life" http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SharpenedToASingl...
Ohh the fun you could have with a bucket full of carbon buckyballs and a case of static cling.
Also if you want to get Neuromancer you can go for a Cyberspace Deck.
Ahz
Knowledge
Of course the most dangerous item of all is knowledge and the tools to use it. AI encyclopedia and a molecular replicator
Ahz
Sonic stiletto. Uses focused
Sonic stiletto. Uses focused high intensity sound to sever molecular bonds. Can't work unless someone is holding it properly.
a Shipstone necklace! Can convert light to electricity, or vice versa (see Heinlein's works)
(i'm assuming that whatever it is has to be able to be worn or carried, otherwise a MAU can't/won't duplicate it. It'll also have to be suitably generic, or the intergalactic patents would disable the ability to produce it without paying a fee)
Molecular disintegrator. Reduces inorganic/unliving material to constituent atoms - the perfect thing for recycling. Barring that, a portable recycler. Stuff in pieces of crap, get beads of materials out of it that can eventually be reused.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Intergalactic Patents...
There's a slight problem there, since over relativistic distances one can garble time, not to mention the fact that our patent law requires publication of the invention, and if the invention took place on a distant planet of which we are unaware, whose invention takes precedent? Does the patent run from the time of "discovery?" What constitutes "prior art" when the existence of the art is unknown? Is ignorance an excuse? Assuming a nearly infinite universe, not to mention the possibility of a much larger infinity of multiverses, one could easily assume that every possible invention has already been made *somewhere.*
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
They'd be based on the patent
They'd be based on the patent laws of the people that made the MAU.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
But those laws, if any, would be mired in similar uncertainty...
One can assume either that they have no patent laws as such, being dependent upon "impenetrable" secrets, or that – since they appear to be able to duplicate almost anything imaginable, including biological organisms – their own patents supersede all others, since the box itself constitutes prior art for anything that can fit inside it, since it's a machine that can build essentially anything imaginable, if not a starship, then a detailed miniature embodying the entirety of its operating and organisational principles, which at one time was the sine qua non of a patent demonstration. They only stopped because the models started to take up too much room in the closets and corridors.
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
I wish they'd go _back_ to
I wish they'd go _back_ to those. That would fix almost all of the patent problems we have right now.
Prove the process, show an example. If you can't do it, you can't patent it. No more patenting a pure idea and then trying to use that as a bludgeon on other people.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Very close to magic but...
How about a satchel with its own pocket universe, to hold all your other sci/fi gadgets?
with love,
Hope
Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.
Been done...
In Robots Have No Tails (1952) by Lewis Padgett (a pseudonym of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore) as I recall. The "chapter" (or short story) was "Time Locker." The notion has been reused since. One might consider the Tardis to be an example, for example.
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
I'm going to
assume that a Tardis and its time traveling abilities are beyond a MAU's capabilities to duplicate. Also added to that is psychic paper. I just can't see how it would work under Elrod's MAU limitations. However, if you have an replicator and a super-computer you could probably counterfeit just about any document you want anyways.
Of course you could get into big trouble with the Treasury Department too!
Hugs
Grover
Since we know that exotic physical weapons are possible...
...as well as clothing and other devices, a solid gold caveman club (or for that matter a few cases of gold billiard balls) would be sufficient for wealth, and involve less jiggery-pokery than counterfeit hundred dollar bills, which all have serial numbers.
I'm not sure if one can ignore the physical universe, so if time travel is possible, as it might be in a many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics – although of course the possibility of time travel in the Dr Who multiverse allows for incredible paradoxes which may threaten to destroy everything there is, much as Pauline was perpetually being tied to the railroad tracks – it may well be that the world is better off without time travel, so the makers of this marvelous gadget may have made it impossible, not because it is, but because it would be unwise, although we note that the makers of the gadget seem not to care a fig about unwise choices by "trial customers."
Perhaps the makers are, in fact, the Tralfamadorians of The Sirens of Titan and Slaughterhouse-Five, so already know exactly when the world will end, and don't much care, because they're all stranded in a chrono-synclastic infundibulum where all truths fit together magically, so almost anything is possible.
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
MAU gadgets???
Dr. McCoy's medical suite or maybe just the bag with all the little organ regrowing pills and equipment to diagnose illnesses.
edit: Just thought of another item... Don't remember if it was called Dr. Fusion or Mr. Fusion or something like that from one of the "Back to the Future" pics.
That would turn an electric car into something worthwhile.
Edit #2: The medical bag & pills were shown on "The Voyage Home".
The name of the Fusion device was Mr. Fusion and 'Doc' had it powering his car.
Sorry, if time travel isn't canon then the flux-capacitor is out.
Edit #3: Robby the Robot... from 'Forbidden Planet'... the Krell's device which turns mental thoughts into reality?
That could turn out to be something very nasty... "Something wicked this way comes".
A.
You have to get a
You have to get a light-saber, their a real life-saver, and we already know the MAU can make them.
Getting a hand held super supercomputer with a neural interface would also be a must.
And since we are talking neural you could go for your own miniature Matrix complete with downloadable skills.
If your character is on the desperate side he could order up a android mistress. It has plot potential when she ends up being more of a person than he expected thanks to the MAU trying to give him what he wants and ending up wide of the mark.
And of course you have to get one thing above all else, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, towel not included.
this is fun so if I think of more I'll add them in a second post. :)
All depends on HOW sci-fi something can be and still be...
*cannon" MAU.
OBVIOUSLY no "Make me GOD!" or Make me Super... WELL that one has been done a couple times but not sure if either is cannon.
For me... The blue police box... Hey if you HAVE the Sonic Screwdriver you need to accessorize it.
A Death Star?
Nah.
A warp ship? Maybe.
Phasers?
Maybe.
Or maybe something like Elrod's Seven of Nine clone?
If she is *canon* then much of Star Trek is *canon*, with in limits.
Somebody was turned into one of Odo's race.
Being a shape shifter would be uber kewlies. In particular if you were TG or gender variable. The best of both worlds or one or the other at your command.
Hum? Or he or she could wish to be immortal, eternal youthful, beautiful, always fertile, etc., able to regenerate from any injury perfectly but that would be a terrible trap as they would see everyone they love die.. Unless they could grant that to others. In a way the Seven of Nine gal has that as she can manipulate a MAU into working beyond its demo period.
But getting back to the TARDIS. Is time travel a *cannon* possibility in MAU?
Or getting mental abilities? IE the MAU making one an empath, telepath. Able to control others or take over their bodies?
Could be some really nasty possibilities there. IE some geek is invited to a Halloween party and wants to be a master vampire, incubus, succubus, Darth Vader, Lex Luthor etc and the MAU makes them that but too perfectly. Jack the Ripper. YUCK!
The MAU's do have some safeguards make to prevent you killing yourself but they seem capable of almost anything short of say making one into a genie.
But then that Typhoid Mary story was one version of what can go wrong and is cannon I believe.
Green Lantern ring and battery? Nah! That power limitation seems too muich of a crutch.
As the originators of Superman once said, who needs Kryptonite. Even as fast as he was .. mind you he gained more powers and speed as they came up with things to stop him like his vulnerability to magic . Where was I? Oh, simply one even Superman can't be everywhere at once. The first of the Christopher Reeves films showed that limitation with the two nukes.
Hum, your machine from The Wheels on the Bus would be handy or some device like it.
But please no Krikkit Ball... from HHGG? THAT KRIKKIT BALL.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Oh, THAT Krikkt Ball!.
Absolutely not! So in addition to the Sonic Screwdriver, and Tri-corder (Handheld scanner and super computer) we have Dr. McCoy's Medical bag and instruments, and one robot companion with replicator.
Good stuff everyone!
hugs
Grover
Well,
What are your protagonists interests/hobbies?
Does he/she watch Anime? Which ones?
Favorite movies and books?
Comic books?
Defining those might help guide you to the "perfect" gadgets because only a Dr. Who fan would think of a Sonic Screwdriver or even know what it does.
-- Sleethr
Ironman (Marvel) costume would be neat
With enough fusion power it might be possible.
Kim
Nanotechnology
That gets you just about anything else.
Like the MAU
guidelines say, it does help to have at least a vague idea of how things like nano-tech works. The more you know, the more likely you are to get what you asks for.
Still a portable nano-tech factory is a bit more reasonable than one that is matter transmutation. (Replicator)
Of course you still need the designs of the things you want to make, but that is where the tri-corder (Super-computer) comes in handy.
Hugs
Grover
What I would want is....
The transporter.... Beam me up Scotty!! oops, the transporter is on the blink and James T. Kirk is now Jane T. Kirk.....:)
Really, I'd love to have the USS ENTERPRISE....There must be a planet that would welcome GLBTQ people!!
TGSine --958
K9 from Dr. Who. A Starfury
K9 from Dr. Who.
A Starfury from Babylon 5
A giant Japanese style manned "robot."
(Among others already mentioned.)
A flying car from too numerous to mention.
Where my mind goes
My first thought was a phaser. Set it on stun and fix a lot of "problems". But everybody else was dreaming big (although the Enterprise might be a bit "too big") so I decided on a warp engine with a complete set of engineering drawings and necessary tools. And the necessary power source, with drawings and tools.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Graet ideas, all,
but sadly, several not feasible from a scientific standpoint. the energy released from disintegrating a body would have to go somewhere, but where? The electrons from one atom hitting another is nothing short of critical mass of an atomic explosion. one might be able to do it via a nano-black hole brought into existence for a specific duration, but the Hawking radiation would kill everyone around it. A lightsabre? how does one stop light from keeping on going short of a black hole (although the idea of a monomolecular (monophoton?) blade is cool, how does one make it strong enough?))? why not a 3DBB portable door? etc...
All that said, it is nice to think of new ways to use new technology. Oh, and nano-tech? at the level we are speaking of, most would need to be pseudo-biological to work, and they would have to be specialised and semi-mechanical in nature, as electricity at a nano scale would wreck their structures
One could always use EE (Doc) Smith's Sixth Order Rays...
and convert the particles into an equivalent mass of neutrinos, which would simply fly away, very neat, no muss, no fuss.
Ref. Skylark of Valeron
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Unobtanium
Many theoretical things are made of that hard to find material.
I believe Niven stuck his "Variable Swords" in a stasis field.
Speaking of Niven.
Puppeteer stepping disks.
Slaver spacesuit.
Flashlight-lasers.
Slaver Disintegrators.
I'm not sure if a Flycycle would fit in the MAU.
Light-sabers and Nano tech
Light-sabers and Nano tech have already been established in canon as possible.
Comes to mind
Autodoc, site to site beaming technology, shields, any kind of faster than light communications, complete tech specs for every part of a faster than light spaceship, universal communicator that pins on your shirt but doesnt weight enough to warp the material, structural integrity field, any cloning mind transfer device, oh and my fave a factory sized replicator for fabricating stuff. Oops almost forgot. MR FUSION!!!
That ought to keep you occupied
Dayna
Why not K.I.T.T. from Knight
Rider? [the original with the upgrades from the other series as well a K,A,R,R? Well, a fusion of the two. There is the Argo/Yomato from Star Blazers and the Airwolf helicoptor, Then you could have the Star Force from Battle Of The Planets ship or two as well as those nifrt Star Trek shuttles.
May Your Light Forever Shine
So many people are forgetting
So many people are forgetting the biggest limitation here.
_It's the size of a shower stall, at best_
It fits in a room with an 8' ceiling, and someone can turn around inside of it. Obviously, it's not big enough to hold a car, or a warp nacelle. I doubt it can hold a centaur!
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Thinking inside the box
Or in this case inside a MAU. Nothing was said about a warp engine big enough to drive the Enterprise. As I recall, Startrek had warp drives small enough to fit in photon torpedos and still leave room for a warhead. And I believe Voyager carried scientific and message pods that contained small warp drives. A functioning unit can be scaled up to most any size.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
And yet it held a full sized
And yet it held a full sized jabba the hut. I don't think a limit has been established on how big of a something can come out of or into one of those. It has strange spacial properties where the size on the inside can be different from the size on the outside.
A Burrough's device...
The device that powered Gay Deceiver and later on Dora, allowing travel through both time and the multiverses.
How about a Dalek
How about a Dalek that was superior to any earth military technology. We've already had a fully functioning 7 of 9 with assimilation ability that took control of a MAU.
Stairs
But we have mastered the technology of stairs, and the Daleks shall be defeated...
Daleks
But they found an MAU and added anti-grav to themselves. Be afraid!
Wow at all the great ideas. The space limitations of trying to see just much you can cram into a MAU is an interesting question because we have seen some rather big 'people' come out of one including that improbable centaur. Just how did he fit and more to the point how does he get back in? :)
What has been the largest in canon transformee to use a MAU anyways? Does anyone know?
I'm rather surprised that no one has mention any of the 'Adaptive Armors' as TV Tropes call them. The living suit/symbiont like Guyver, Blue Beetle's new armor and of course Witchblade (Yeah, I know that one is magic, but I was just giving examples of the type.)
Hugs
Grover
Pages