"Jeff Utz" wrote in message
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"Bob White" wrote in message
news:_OARa.82779$Ph3.7611@sccrnsc04...

"Lawson English" wrote in message
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"Daniel Prince" wrote in message
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"Steve Harris" wrote:

Unless of course it contains time machines, FTL drives,
force-field "shields", antigravity, Wesley Crusher, or
workable libertarian utopias. Then it's okay to laugh all
you like. g.

There is one type of force-field "shield" that is possible. It is a
magnetic field that can shield a ship or station against certain
types
of radiation (charged particles only).
--


Actually, there is already a force field in use that acts as an air
valve
(plasma valve).

I see no reason why you couldn't create such shields of any arbitrary
power
(e.g., Star Trek's deflector shields), except, of course, that the
power
requirements would be beyond insane.

That used to be said concerning computing power. Now I can carry the
portable equivalent of a UNIVAC to my seat on the airplane in my
knapsack
(with wireless networking and a nice color LCD monitor built in).

http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/univac/case1107.html


Really? Calculators have color monitors and networking built in too? I
knew
laptops do, but you said the equivalent of the Univac, essentially a giant
calculator + printer.

Even a palmtop is much more powerful than a Univac.


My point precisely, knucklehead.