Thanks guys you the real ones.
Necessary abstraction agreed.
COMMENTARY
I hope he isn't feeling inadequate?
A custom cluster for Cyberdevils is, well, a definition of a techbro startup, where we use our strong AI to dominate the market.
No, I am not. Not when we can produce working samples, and apply our key abilities (those being social ones) for sales pitches. If we are selling a portable fusion reactor, we can, in fact, wheel it out in front of the CEO board, and have its output melt steel blocks. All the while providing the best wine and dine entertainment they have ever experienced (unless they wined and dined in the courts of Summer / Winter as guests of highest honor).
Yes, I do, in fact. I am personally familiar with some of chief officers of several commercial fusion firms. Their credibility does not come from huge money investments at all. It doesn't work like that. Like, it really doesn't. The credibility of a scientific startup lies in two main things: 1) scientific credibility of their chief science officer / founder, and 2) willingness to engage with the community and be tested by others. It's easy to spot people like Rossi - there's a general set of behavioral patterns to look out for. And even they get invested in and perpetuate their scams for a long time. If you have a working prototype that actually delivers what you promise? You wouldn't need more than a million dollars to get everyone interested. It's not hard. You just need to avoid certain behaviors, and you must, must, must, be willing and eager to submit to outside confirmation.
And his emotions match the ones on his face. He must feel really relaxed in Harry's house.
Fallen map pretty strongly to Earthbound in Demon the Fallen. I would be mindboggled if they dont count as CoD. Especially since the Swords were designed to work against them.
I hope not.
No it isnt.
1)Fulltime megacorp work.
1)Good.
Why? I don't know why you are always so against spreading cyber devils around. They don't have any sort of scaling limit.
Do you want me to quote you ITER regulations? Not USA, but they are pretty indicative. It's exactly because fusion (since we are using that as an example) is not well understood (and doesn't work) that it's badly regulated. You basically have 1) High voltage regulations, which are easy - that's standard industry thing. Chicago synthetics certainly would have to comply with those; 2) Dangerous gases - you are using hydrogen, so that's a thing, but, again, standard industry stuff (and, again, if we are claiming PECVD technology, or even just CVD, Chicago Synthetics has to fall under these); 3) radiation safety. Now, this one is tricky. You can get three types of radiation out of a fusion reactor. Roentgen always, because bremsstrahlung, beta decay of tritium (can be stopped by a thin sheet of metal), and neutrons, if you are actually running hot D-T reaction and have a commercial fusion setup. This one would be heavily regulated, and require certification and special construction of the buildings where reactions take place. That's a multi-million dollar thing. However, that's only for neutronic reaction. If you are claiming aneutronic reaction (and it's actually like that), then you have someone certified check for neutron flux, and that's that.
Not any more than learning and then using divination for what amounts to an elaborate insider trading. Plus, again, most of this can be outsourced. If you have actual high TRL product (be it technology, device, program or anything else), you don't need to be a superhuman to sell it.
No, I used a fusion reactor as a possible example of what our kingdom might have. It wouldn't be the first thing I'd offer to the world as it is. I'll sell ever-increasing quality lithium-ion, then lithium-air batteries staying ~ 5 to 10 years ahead of the competition. If we have viable high temperature (meaning nitrogen or higher) superconductors, I'll sell those. I'll also sell chip architecture, then chip manufacturing technologies. X-ray lasers (again, for chip manufacture, that's a big thing). I would also capture the 3D printing market (even with what we have today, back in 2006 one could totally dominate the market and rake in billions). Depending on what we have access to, material science would be my next go to - advanced steels and other metal alloys, composite and meta materials (the latter ones synergy greatly with 3D printing), hydrogen storage technologies (as an energy storage system), etc. Everything that I listed in multi-billion profitable. All of these can be relatively easily independently tested and verified to be genuine. All of these are not over-regulated.
Rossi was able to persist for decades. There are many like him. Unlike them we would have an actual working thing, and not in prototype stage, but as a mature technology. We would also have superhuman social skills, which they lack. Also, I obviously wouldn't lead with complex stuff like "compact fusion reactors" (not unless our kingdom cracked simple cold fusion systems that can be built in a cave with a box of scraps by complete mundanes the moment they learn one weird trick). See the list of stuff (in rough progression; if asked for, I could outline a more detail roadmap) I mentioned above.
You have a lot of faith in regulatory and oversight. That people will only throw millions or billions at ideas that show strong signs of not being a blatant scam.
Except when it does. The regulatory infrastructure exists, and while you can get around it if you want to do it for long you better be rich player already imbedded in the system before you start, which itself doesn't always work.
Because we don't want everyone else in the setting to constantly be on the alert for our Cyberdevils in every piece of electronic hardware. Or to avoid using electronics altogether. Its an advantage you can lose by overuse.
I absolutely have a lot of faith in regulation and oversight when rich people's money is involved.
The point needs to be made:
Look at how the Wizard suffer from not having access to modern tech. It is a major win for us, if our enemies abandon tech. Going from potentially having your tech stuff subverted to not having it at all, is shooting your foot over a hangnail. Advanced tech provides such an overwhelming advantage, that not having it makes thing much much harder.
Honestly the bad guy avoiding using electronics altogether sounds like something of a win to me. As for the scaling limit we are nowhere close to reaching it and we aren't going to reach it without actually putting a little effort into summoning more Cdevils
Forcing enemy factions to stop using electronic devices (or at least internet) altogether is a major, perhaps decisive, win in an ongoing conflict for the future of humanity. It gives us an unfathomable advantage. If denarians or Red Court have to send messengers through NeverNever in order to relay information, while we and our allies can send e-mails or call someone using a cellphone, that's strategic advantage of multiple hours, always. If they can't rely on access to traffic cameras, can't book a plane, can't check a background of an infiltrator, can't pay using credit and debit cards and have to carry and exchange cash... Those are wins. Major, major wins. Finally, and at least as importantly, if they can't catch new talents seeking information in the net, and we can? We win strategically, as we catch the next generation, and they don't.
I specifically didn't say "this blade specifically". I said "such blades". You are assuming a hell of a lot when you are saying that "we'll get no insights at all". At the very least I expect to find clues that we could pursue later.
