Dom
asked
Peter Cawdron:
This question contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)[Just finished listening to Wherever Seeds May Fall- I really enjoyed the book! I've been binging your First Contact series and loving them!
Had a couple questions:
1. Was it ever explained how exactly Anduru rendered all of Earth's nuclear devices inert?
2. How was Anduru making any course adjustments if it had no power? (hide spoiler)]
Had a couple questions:
1. Was it ever explained how exactly Anduru rendered all of Earth's nuclear devices inert?
2. How was Anduru making any course adjustments if it had no power? (hide spoiler)]
Peter Cawdron
This answer contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)[Hi, thanks for supporting independent science fiction. If you've enjoyed Wherever Seeds May Fall, be sure to check out the sequel Generation of Vipers where I go into what they learned after the events in Seeds.
——
In answer to your questions, a neutrino storm can be triggered by fusion, which is what happened when Anduru passed through Earth's atmosphere. It was moving so fast the pressure wave in front of the object became super-heated and caused this effect. In the afterword, I talk about how this isn't scifi handwaving but an actual predicted effect that has been studied (the biggest neutrino generator in our solar system is the Sun). Neutrinos are harmless. There are millions of them passing through you every second of every day—even at night, they pass through the entire planet (including you) without hitting anything. In high enough concentrations, though, the probability of an impact goes up (particularly when it comes to heavy metals as they're a bigger target). The paper I quote in the afterword talks about how (theoretically) this effect could be used to target nuclear weapons on the other side of the planet. In other words, there's a day coming when the US, Russia or China, etc, could develop a nuke-disabling weapon. You could fire it harmlessly through the center of Earth and it would cause the high concentration of nuclear material in a bomb to "cook" the rest of the electronic components in the bomb, rendering it harmless. It's a very cool idea and something that MIGHT be possible within 50 years. It'll be a gamechanger when it comes to nuclear proliferation. Anyway, click on the link in the afterword if you want to know more. So for Anduru, it was an unexpected side-effect rather than intentional, but so too is snake poison (meaning, evolution can unexpectedly come up with lethal options).
——
In regards to your second question, from our perspective, there was no visible means of propulsion and Anduru was uncannily accurate. I address this a little in Generation of Vipers, pointing out that there are birds that circumnavigate the globe without GPS—meaning they accomplish something naturally that we can't do without technology. They've evolved to navigate with a sense of accuracy humans cannot match without putting satellites in orbit!!! That's quite astonishing when you think about it. Anduru had some means of motion/steering, but not traditional rocket engines. In my mind, this is similar to how there are seeds with tiny wing-like leaves that fall and catch the wind currents. There is a concept known as space manifolds which are the by-product of orbital mechanics. These are ways of coasting with a minimum amount of effort between planets at various speeds. It's what allows rocks from Mars to reach Earth AND vice versa, rocks from Earth to reach Mars! Again, this is a legitimate scientific concept. You can learn more about this from Anton Petrovic on his YouTube channel. —— https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrXHw...
——
I hope this helps
Thanks again for supporting independent science fiction. (hide spoiler)]
——
In answer to your questions, a neutrino storm can be triggered by fusion, which is what happened when Anduru passed through Earth's atmosphere. It was moving so fast the pressure wave in front of the object became super-heated and caused this effect. In the afterword, I talk about how this isn't scifi handwaving but an actual predicted effect that has been studied (the biggest neutrino generator in our solar system is the Sun). Neutrinos are harmless. There are millions of them passing through you every second of every day—even at night, they pass through the entire planet (including you) without hitting anything. In high enough concentrations, though, the probability of an impact goes up (particularly when it comes to heavy metals as they're a bigger target). The paper I quote in the afterword talks about how (theoretically) this effect could be used to target nuclear weapons on the other side of the planet. In other words, there's a day coming when the US, Russia or China, etc, could develop a nuke-disabling weapon. You could fire it harmlessly through the center of Earth and it would cause the high concentration of nuclear material in a bomb to "cook" the rest of the electronic components in the bomb, rendering it harmless. It's a very cool idea and something that MIGHT be possible within 50 years. It'll be a gamechanger when it comes to nuclear proliferation. Anyway, click on the link in the afterword if you want to know more. So for Anduru, it was an unexpected side-effect rather than intentional, but so too is snake poison (meaning, evolution can unexpectedly come up with lethal options).
——
In regards to your second question, from our perspective, there was no visible means of propulsion and Anduru was uncannily accurate. I address this a little in Generation of Vipers, pointing out that there are birds that circumnavigate the globe without GPS—meaning they accomplish something naturally that we can't do without technology. They've evolved to navigate with a sense of accuracy humans cannot match without putting satellites in orbit!!! That's quite astonishing when you think about it. Anduru had some means of motion/steering, but not traditional rocket engines. In my mind, this is similar to how there are seeds with tiny wing-like leaves that fall and catch the wind currents. There is a concept known as space manifolds which are the by-product of orbital mechanics. These are ways of coasting with a minimum amount of effort between planets at various speeds. It's what allows rocks from Mars to reach Earth AND vice versa, rocks from Earth to reach Mars! Again, this is a legitimate scientific concept. You can learn more about this from Anton Petrovic on his YouTube channel. —— https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrXHw...
——
I hope this helps
Thanks again for supporting independent science fiction. (hide spoiler)]
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