A SW-Tech Free Gift...

[Ace Pace]

Repulsorlifts, the problem with TLs or Hyperdrives is power, and TLs... come on, one shot destroys half the crust over the target zone.

Repulsorlifts also fixs the traffic problem, now multiple lanes of travel, saving money.

Fine, then I will point my TL at you and you will give me your Repulsorlifts. TL lets me take whatever I want

*cough* wheres the power for the TL *cough*

If you shoot it, no gifts for you.

[wautd]

Hyperdrives.

When we can go to new star systems, we'll have the whole galaxy to colonize, resources to draw upon, and overpopulation will be a distant memory.

It'll change everything. Our whole society would be changed. No need for fighting over resources, you can mine a whole starsystem if you need to, there are hundreds of billions to choose from. No overpopulation, cause trillions of planets to teraform and colonies, plus some probably Earthlike planets just waiting to be found.

Tought so too at first. Altough, even if you have the right engines, navigation will be tricky. Space is a big place to get lost in

So I vote hyper matter reactors. Energy problem solved and hopefully a new portal for loads of spinoff technology

[Darth Fanboy]

*cough* wheres the power for the TL *cough*

A benevolent Deity decides to grant you a wish, you have the ability to ask for any of StarWars magical Techs? What you would receive is several working examples of said Tech, Books and complete technical Data on how it works and the properties of how to build one.

Several working examples implies that its going to be powered and able to shoot.

If you shoot it, no gifts for you.

Mr. Eastwood if you would please:

"But being this is a Turbolaser - the most powerful heavy gun in Star Wars short of a Death Star, and will blow your continent clean off, you've got to ask yourself a question--Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk!"

[Mad]

Hypermatter Reactors are obviously the most powerful technology of the bunch ... but fuel's a bitch. The fuel for a starship's reactor outmasses the starship itself by quite a bit. We don't know what they use for fuel, and even though in this scenario we would be apprised of this, there's no guarantee that we could procure any of it.

So, unless there are no problems with fueling hypermatter reactors, I'd go with the repulsorlifts. They are apparantly relatively efficient. Plus, they would kick ass.

Where are you going to get the "enourmous, unmanned power refineries encompassing black holes" required to make the fuel (for lack of a better word to describe the "subnuclear knots of space-time" used in repulsorlifts) repulsorlifts work? (AotC:ICS, page 3)

So repulsorlifts have the same fuel problem as hypermatter. Except that, AFAIK, we don't know how hypermatter is created while we know that stuff required to continue working with repulsorlifts beyond our first batch of fuel is out of our reach.

What we can do with repulsorlifts may also be limited to what examples of the technology we are given. Flight is dangerous, and thus there would be a strong need for computerized safety features. Do we have the sensor technology and AI to compensate for the dangers of flying a hovercar? If we were given such a hovercar, most likely. (On the other hand, if our example tech is Yoda's liftchair, development of anything beyond that could take a while...)

[Ghost Rider]

Hypermatter. It's where it all starts and what is needed for each and everyone of anything remotely SW tech.

Still be a bitch, but it's the core at which you would need.

Though my much more genocidal side would prefer Turbolasers and see how fast we'd carve the earth down to nothing...but I can already guess the seconds.

[Lord Zentei]

TurboLasers: we already posess nukes. We are not about to face an invasion.
Shields: unneccesary.
Repulser Lift Generators: nifty, but unneccesary.
HyperDrives: my second choice. A toughy.

Hyper Matter Reactors: the most useful and all encompassing of the lot.

As for all posters who are saying "you cannot have A without B, C, D" it is a violation of the OP IMO. If we get repulsorlifts, we get functional repulsorlifts or their equivalent along with all prerequisites w/o gaining functional varieties of the other items.

[Mad]

As for all posters who are saying "you cannot have A without B, C, D" it is a violation of the OP IMO. If we get repulsorlifts, we get functional repulsorlifts or their equivalent along with all prerequisites w/o gaining functional varieties of the other items.

The question isn't "how do you get it?" so much as "how do you get more of it?" The functional copy of whatever we get will come with a supply of fuel, as is required for it to function. But how do you replace that fuel?

If we are given whatever is needed for maintenance (such as creation of more fuel), then that would change things a bit.

I'd still say hypermatter reactors are the most important technology of the lot, and that's without factoring in the supporting technology that would be included just to make the reactors work.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Well, and this is just me...

Concerning Repulser Lift Generators, considering how small some of the obgects we see using them, I really do NOT thinking that they use Hyper Matter Reactors in any form, but obviously a far more standard form of energy.

[Ra]

A repulsorlift could be powered by modern engines. Considering how such vehicles as landspeeders are able to keep hovering even with no power, those types may not even require power to run. However, the "flying" repulsorlifts would require power, but not more than modern engines or even nuclear reactors (in the case of the flying ship idea) could provide.
You don't need a fraking hypermatter reactor to power one, and building them would be far more practical than scooping hypermatter out of black holes! Black holes we can't even reach without hyperdrive!
Teh hyp3rm4tt3r r3actzor is teh 00b3r! Please. Hypermatter is good, but it would only provide limitless electrical power, not really revolutionize the world. I mean, did nuclear power revolutionize the world? Hardly. And I'm sure a hypermatter power plant would certainly be one of those NIMBY (not in my back yard) constructions. For that matter, have we even seen hypermatter reactors planetside? Sorry, my EU knowledge is close to nonexistent.
- Ra

[Mad]

You don't need a fraking hypermatter reactor to power one, and building them would be far more practical than scooping hypermatter out of black holes!

You have this reversed to an extent. Repulsorlift drives use "subnuclear knots of spacetime" as the active ingredient, so to speak, that are obtained from black holes (reference: AotC:ICS, mentioned earlier in this thread). Hypermatter, to my knowledge, is not related to black holes in any way.

It seems that these knots are consumables, and, as such, finding replacements for them once they are used up will be difficult.

If you are going to argue this route, then you are, in effect, arguing against repulsorlifts because we can't get (or will have much difficulty in obtaining) more of what seems to be a required consumable for them to operate.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

The whole "hypermatter coming from black holes" is some damn brainbug. Hypermatter doesn't have anything to do with black holes; repulsorlifts do.

[Ra]

Unfortunately, I don't have the AOTC ICS handy, so I never heard this "repulsors work on black holes" thing. In fact, considering how the tech is as common as bricks in Star Wars, I figured it must be somewhat practical.

[Crossroads Inc.]

The whole "hypermatter coming from black holes" is some damn brainbug. Hypermatter doesn't have anything to do with black holes; repulsorlifts do.

Just out of curiousity, can someone tell me where this developed from?

[Ra]

I think some non-canon source said that hypermatter could be extracted from black holes and neutron stars. It's the only thing I've heard that even remotely explains the stuff. So, I concede that.
And we're evading my main point anyway. Have we ever seen a hypermatter reactor planetside? Even in an EU source? I doubt it. And orbital reactors wouldn't do much good, unless you want to use microwave beams to send the power down, the very reason orbital solar projects were abandoned at the theoretical stage; they were a serious hazard to air traffic.

[Stofsk]

Have we ever seen a hypermatter reactor planetside? Even in an EU source?

Off the top of my head: either Yavin or Hoth were powered by a starship reactor, which implies hypermatter - or directly states, I'm not sure - this was in the ITW: OT.

[Ra]

Very well. I see your point. It's just... I wouldn't want to be near a roaring reactor that pours billions of terawatts out. Scarry thought. And I doubt neither would the typical citizen...
- Ra

[Crossroads Inc.]

I think the point is is that in StarWars this Tech is ancient, tried and tested. Everyone knows it, trusts it, and understands it. Things like massive terratons of fuel being annihilated just doesn't faze the people of the StarWars universe, it would be like asking someone today if were afraid of the 'horrible' pressures in a steam engine.

But, try building a StarWars Reactor today, thats when things could get messy... I will concede it IS the most useful in the long run, and it would lay the foundation for all other StarWars tech, BUT, I wouldn't want to mess with it until we could establish a Research base somewhere remote... Like the Moon...

[Hellfire]

Hyperdrives.

[NhikRath]

I would choose repulsors since they seem to represent the most maleable form of matter distortion (or at least "gravitron" distortion), a tool that would ultimately lead to the other SW techs mentioned. After all, having the power to manipulate gravity suggests you can contain intense forces/pressures of anykind, making cold fusion and other machines previously unimaginable possible because you don't have to worry about material or power restrictions, the energy would simply be floating inside a large canister. This, of course, assumes that you'd ask for a huge planet-moving repulsor-device similar to Centerpoint Station, but really, who wouldn't...

Also, we'd be an instant space-civilization. Even with hyperdrive, we'd have a huge hurdle of energy restrictions and the cost of launching the items into orbit. And I hate to be the cynic, but I'm not very interested in going across the galaxy for something that we could probably get in the neighboring star system or even in our own star system. I mean, intergalactic space travel sounds great until you realize it's boring as hell until you actually have a place to go that has people. Even if we could go across the galaxy, the cost and bureaucratic bickering involved in the journey would make it painfully stupid.

I say we mine our own star system (which would be insanely easy with repulsor-lifts) and see what we get for a few centuries. Afterwards we can worry about going to the next star system. Maybe by that time, another deity will come down and give us more free stuff when we complete two necessary acts of worship and refer five other civilizations to the same offer using our referral code.

[Robert Treder]

Where are you going to get the "enourmous, unmanned power refineries encompassing black holes" required to make the fuel (for lack of a better word to describe the "subnuclear knots of space-time" used in repulsorlifts) repulsorlifts work? (AotC:ICS, page 3)

So repulsorlifts have the same fuel problem as hypermatter. Except that, AFAIK, we don't know how hypermatter is created while we know that stuff required to continue working with repulsorlifts beyond our first batch of fuel is out of our reach.

What we can do with repulsorlifts may also be limited to what examples of the technology we are given. Flight is dangerous, and thus there would be a strong need for computerized safety features. Do we have the sensor technology and AI to compensate for the dangers of flying a hovercar? If we were given such a hovercar, most likely. (On the other hand, if our example tech is Yoda's liftchair, development of anything beyond that could take a while...)

True you're not going to get much out of repulsorlifts, but that's just exactly my point ... we couldn't get much out of any of these things, hypermatter reactors included. We can't recharge a repulsorlift, but we sure as hell can't recharge a hypermatter reactor, either.

Nothing in the OP could be used beyond the gift example. A better tech gift to take would be SW data storage, computer processing power, or artificial intelligence. Any one of those would be a huge help to us, and we have some semblance of a chance of being able to reproduce them (if, as stated by the OP, we are given full understanding of their construction and functioning). They might require special materials and resources, but at least they don't require black holes or masses expressed in complex numbers.

[Vanas]

I'd go for Repulsors. Then, combine my love of navies with my love of flying things. I shall create the Space Battleship Yamato. (or Air Battlecruiser Delphinius, whatever's closer)

Though shields would be neat, if only there were backpack sized generators.