Greetings and a Question

[srjskam]

That's why I'm on this forum, asking if it is okay to even be here. I included the link because I don't want to be one of those obnoxious people who appear out of nowhere to ask "can I ask a question" or "I saw a great movie last night" and don't bother mentioning what/which to begin with.

I do welcome frankness, so thank you for that. I have never administered a community, so while I do see how it could happen, it is still strange to me that anyone would grow vexed enough towards outsiders as to see potential new contributors with rather innocent questions as rude spammers that should be stopped.

In any case, you are free to ignore me or to use your power as an administrator and deal with me. Some others seem to see some value in me having presented this idea to them here.

[Drashner1]

So, stepping in here wearing my Admin hat...

Due to a bit of a communication failure among 'the management' - of which I am a member - Rynn was not aware that I had approved this thread on the forum after giving it due consideration against our normal protocols re first posts and such.

The fault is entirely mine and I apologize for any misunderstanding and stress it may have caused, either among my fellow Admins or to you, srjskam. I blame being a bit busy and rushed in RL.

Going to go clean up from throwing myself on my sword now

Please feel free to continue the ongoing discussion with the assurance that you are welcome to do so. It looks like it could turn into something interesting. I'll be continuing to look into the conversation (and possibly throwing my 2c in the mix) as time permits.

Thanks!

Todd

Administrator - Orion's Arm Universe Project

[Rynn]

It wasn't really Todd's fault, it was mine for not keeping up to date and realising the thread had been properly looked at and approve. I didn't mean to come across as aggressive and if I did I'm sorry for that.

[srjskam]

Drashner1: You'll probably need new wallpapers too after that much sacrificial bloodshed.

Rynn: Ditto on my part on coming across as rude. This is not the first instance of that happening, and I am consciously trying to fix it... Apparently I'm friendlier IRL :| .

[Rynn]

Honestly you were fine, I misread the situation. My cynicism when it comes to stealth spam has been pushed high to the point it’s firing false positives.

[Drashner1]

So giving this a bump. The discussion sounds interesting and OA relevant and would like to keep it going.

Thanks!

Todd

[srjskam]

One thing is why would you bother making something like this. Of course it's living space for anyone who prefers 1 g, but here's a rather frivolous use:

I once read a fantasy short story, where when you travelled around the Earth, there'd be magically more of the planet as you went around. At the same time you'd go 'back in time', the species would be older and older. The heroes travelled round and round in a steampunk flying contraption and got stranded on where/when there wasn't land life, or something.

Anyway, you could use one of the hoops, or part of it, as a massive 1:1 zoo where the exhibits would get more and more primitive when you followed the hoop. A Lazurogenic Park, if you will. Of course you could have sophonts living along the 'history', maybe for studies, hunting, primitive lifestyles, tourism, ...

[Rynn]

If you have the economic capacity to do so the question will more likely be: why not? Megastructures of this sort are almost certainly built by autonomous, self-replicating machines (self-repping either directly or because machines run the machine factories). At that point the economic justification for embarking on projects like these become more questions of politics/ideology.

[stevebowers]

A star-straddling 'hoopworld' like this would be significantly smaller in surface area than a ringworld, unless the ringworld were very narrow. We have a few ringworlds in the OA scenario, so a star-encircling hoopworld would probably only be made as a tour-de-force by some grandstanding archai. Maybe there is a certain amount of social capital among certain archai, associated with the manufacture of extravagant megastructures.

If the hoopworld were made of relatively rigid slices a few kilometres wide, and connected and reinforced by a fairly sparse grid of magmatter cables, it could probably be made to work. The slices would be separated by a variable gap of a few inches, which would probably be a constant source of mild earthquakes.

Anything made of baryonic matter alone would probably break up into a string of different-sized planetoids, which would then continue to collide until you got a dense superplanet or two. Not a particularly inhabitable scenario.