I axed the idea of self replicating bots. The new idea is self-combining/aligning bots. The idea against replicating bots is that since we're not talking nano-scale stuff, the bots would have to be fairly complex individually, and it would be outside of the scope of ability of the bots to clone itself. It basically wouldn't be able to have the tools to manipulate the matter sufficiently to create all the materials needed for the electronics controlling the little guys along with the power sources.MC707 wrote:And so should the production of these bots. These bots can self replicate and so the companies would have 0 costs, only to then hard-wired so people themselves cannot make the bots to self replicate. By the laws of supply and demand, companies could produce infinite amounts of these bots without having production costs, which therefore would make the supply of bots increase by almost infinite. This in turn would make the prices of these bots reach infinitely low prices.safemode wrote:Traveling has to have a cost, that means in time and in supply of transportation. Otherwise prices tend toward 0 due to capitalism.
Since we're no longer talking about self-replicating bots, we dont have to worry about infinite supply.
This isn't a black box of legal enforcement of trade secrets. This is a black box of practicality and scope. The old school CRT tv's aren't trade secrets in how they function, nor do they have secret technology only available in one place. But do you have the tools and the knowledge to build a working TV? Similarly, a car engine operates by principles generally understood by most mechanics, but can they build an engine ? I'm not talking about taking the block and putting the pieces together, i'm talking about casting the block and creating the parts.Not only it would be illegal to keep the technology a "black box" out of the reach of everyone, it would be impossible as long as long as there is a government powerful enough to enforce laws. They HAVE to make the blueprints public, after the legal patent expires. If they would have technology that only they control, they would have a monopoly that controlled ALL traffic in space, since every ship would need that technology to travel those far distances.safemode wrote:Corporations can hold various aspects of technology without becoming sovereigns themselves. For instance, if Intel and Amd survive another hundred years, they would be the only companies that can produce IC's at the size and quality that they do. Nobody else would be able to fabricate them if they tried. That wouldn't change the fact that they're still just companies. It would not catapult them into some controlling status. We're not talking about 1 man holding the key to the technology, we're talking about publicly traded businesses. They have a self interest, but ultimately that self interest is answerable to their share-holders. Even today, intel and amd produce chips at a size and quality that just about nobody else can match. That hasn't made them anything more than just businesses. Despite everyone (governments and all) depending on their product without an ability to simply produce their own.
Technology in the future is going to get more closed off, more black box and way out of the reach of meddling tinkerers and hackers and mom and pop shops' grasps. As the complexity of it's fabrication increases, the number of entities able to produce it decreases. Not only does the physical difficulty of creating the products force out everyone but the biggest, but the complexity of what it does forces out all but the most skilled from designing it, let alone understanding its function.
For instance, do you think a puny generics company could create ANY of the medicines that Pfizer has ever created? No. Never. But what happens afterwards? The patent dies off and generic producer companies can produce medicines which took incredible research, knowledge and resources.
Similarly, again, even comp engineers may be able to understand how a particular IC works. But could they build it? Not if you need a multi-million dollar fabrication plant and the workers and machines to do so. Now imagine almost everything needing to be built in such highely expensive and specific fab plants like that where the material is being operated on at a sub-atomic level.
A soldering gun and some schematics aren't going to help you. Wrenches would be pointless. Screwdrivers to access the bulk-head panel HAHA. What are you gonna do when the bulkhead panel is off? Stare at the pretty fiber optic cables and microscopic circuitry until it fixes itself?
The technology will be so complicated and advanced that the only way it can be created and repaired is with highly specialized, highly expensive equipment that is operated by highly trained and relatively rare technicians.
Astronauts are probably the most trained pilots in the entire world. They have to be part physicists, part engineer and part pilot. That's pretty much the pinacle of multi-faceted knowledge when it comes to what you can expect from a pilot. Yet, if something on the shuttle breaks, the guy up there calls down to the team of specialized engineers that build and maintain the shuttle to find out how to fix it (if it's anything relatively important). And that's with today's tech. Where things like screw drivers, duct tape and a hammer actually can repair something. Now imagine everything is on the level of the core of an Intel I7. Everything. There is no "dabbling" in how to repair that kind of stuff. That's life-long training and research and skills.
I kind of touched on this in the last quote. But yea, a truck driver today isn't going to repair their turbo on their turbo diesel engine on the side of the road. They aren't going to take apart their ECU and desolder a faulty memory chip and replace it with another one they happen to have on hand. They're not going to be welding subframe connectors back in place if they happen to break free during some really bumpy roads. They're not going to be able to do a majority of the repairs, which is why mechanics exist. Now you can take your mechanic on the road with you ala firefly, but there's just a lot of stuff that you can't bring with you. All kinds of equipment and parts and modules that would require precision calibrations and such that firefly glossed over since it's just a tv show.Do you think today's truck drivers ONLY know and need to know how to move a steering wheel and press a bunch of pedals and buttons? No. Unlike in VS, they need special licenses that take years to acquire, not only to get experience but also knowledge. Truck drivers need to take tests covering unique handling qualities of driving a large, heavily loaded 18-wheeler, and the mechanical systems required to operate such a vehicle (air brakes, suspension, cargo securement, et al.), plus be declared fit by medical examination no less than every two years. They need to know what they are doing and what to do if they suddenly find themselves with an overheated engine. Pilots in VS HAVE to know how to fix stuff ala firefly if they want to survive the coldness of space.safemode wrote:Do you think pilots of VS's ships are going to be able to fix their stuff ala firefly in the future? Maybe some minor electrical wiring issues, some metal fabbing to fix stress damage and such. But definitely not when it comes to anything remotely related to being electronic. The population of VS aren't all quantum physicists, computer engineers, astro-physicists, mathematicians and mechanics at the same time. They're not all going into specialized schools for 35 years to learn everything you would need to learn to be able to even understand how their ship's systems work, let alone fix them and even less so, have the tools you'd need to do the job.
Think of VS's pilots as being the commercial truck drivers of today. That accounts for the vast majority of them. Then scatter in a few who would be considered military pilots and commercial jet pilots. All of those people have varying levels of skill at moving their vehicle around, but that's about where it ends. They're not capable of doing much more than that. and that's with today's tech. VS tech would likely require so many layers of knowledge to fully deal with that you'd necessitate specialization, because there simply isn't enough years in a life to grasp multiple facets.
Basically you have to either say that for the majority of things either the ship has to have self-repairing circuitry, frequent mechanic visits, or a lot of self-contained replaceble generic "modules" that take care of functions that end up being throw-away and plug-and-play.
But the the whole idea that it's a "Black box" isn't something protected by patents. It's simply out of reach to anyone but the companies that have so much invested in the technology needed to create the stuff. Plus the people needed to design the stuff are employed by these companies, and they dont just grow on trees. in vs Technology is everywhere, people would have a general understanding of it. It's just that unlike today, a general understanding of it isn't nearly enough to tinker with any of it. Even a good understanding of it isn't. You still need the tools and the tools are too expensive for anyone but the biggest companies to deal with. Even the mechanics who do repairs would basically only be installers, not repairers. Parts would have to be either trashed or sent back to the factory. all the tech would be too precise, too exotic for field stuff.