Vernor Vinge’s Peace War has balls of stasis, which you can’t see in to tell if the person trapped is alive or dead. So when they figured out how to calculate the lifetime of the bubble, they started putting the guilty party into a bubble timed so they both popped at the same time, which would quickly be followed by your court date if it turned out to be murder.
This sounds really interesting but I have absolutely no idea what you mean. Is the ball the same as the bubble? Why does someone go into it? Who is the “guilty party”?
I think - it was a very very long time ago when I read this - but a bad person can put someone into a stasis field without their consent. The stasis field is the shape of a perfect bubble or ball. IIRC it's also perfectly reflective. Anything inside the stasis field simply doesn't participate in time.
Once Bob puts Alice into statis, the stasis ball is impenetrable, so the cops don't know if Alice was alive or dead when she was involuntarily put into stasis.
However, they do know that the stasis bubble containing Alice will eventually open up and pop Alice back into the current time. And they know when that will happen. So, the state puts Bob (the guilty party) into stasis too; with Bob's stasis timed to end when Alice's ends.
In this way, both stasis fields pop at roughtly the same time, and Bob can be tried either for murder, or for whatever the name is when you transport someone into the future against their wishes.
I recommend just reading the books, they're pretty entertaining (in particular, "Marooned in Realtime"). Has some of the best near-singularity tech I've seen.
What if the guilty party wasn't guilty? Isn't that like putting someone in prison for life on the expectation that eventually evidence will come to light that it was the right call?
Well it’s science fiction not a model for the Rule of Law, so there’s some hand waving to get back to the story at hand. To prove a murder without a body today you need a lot of corroborating evidence. Bodies make everything easier.
He only goes as far as he does because his protagonist in the second book is a detective (and a victim).
I thought this too until the most recent xkcd book taught me that if a black hole is big enough it's actually possible to pass through the event horizon without getting torn apart. It's a question about soup. Good stuff.
The story says the black hole was "wreaking havoc in the Kuiper belt," which implies that it's not very big (else it would be wreaking havoc in the entire solar system). So spaghettification on a human timescale is quite possible!
Since they discuss deliberately skimming the event horizon, I assumed that there were some form of protections against that (perhaps they no longer inhabit biological bodies, which would increase the available options).
Hoo boy, the first Gateway book really stuck with me. It really hit me when the protagonist explained their suffering. Even if it's decades later for you, how can you get over something or forgive yourself for it if, for them, it's still happening. “She's thinking I betrayed her, and she's thinking it now!"
Not a lawyer, but doesn't the direct and intentional actions (sabotage of the steering) by the narrator put Xaiver into a position that would ultimately end in death (with no possible escape or rescue), then the time it takes to achieve that is irrelevant from a law perspective. It was first degree murder.
If the FBI created a sting wherein they gave you a gun you thought was real, but wasn't actually capable of firing, and you pointed it at someone and pulled the trigger, you could still face a murder a charge even though there was no way the gun would do any harm. It was your intent followed by action to achieve that intent that mattered.
As I had the introduction of the Murder chapter in a criminal law textbook explained to me, "Death is inevitable. So what we are really talking about here is acceleration."
Since the victim's demise here was decelerated, at least from the point of view of everyone in the trial, it can't be murder. Maybe some kind of kidnapping.
Interesting, but I would say its the victim's POV that matters. In a relatively short amount of time from his perspective, he will be torn apart by tidal forces or smashed to bits by debris impacts (he can't steer). Even if that time is long, then he'll die of starvation or dehydration when his supplies run out. His life span, from his perspective, is greatly shortened.
I'd rule out kidnapping, because unlawful detainment presumes that the person can be released from that detainment. There is no possibility of release for Xavier.
That's the most recent set, but they've had a long history of publishing fiction and speculation in addition to research papers. It's important to remember that Nature is a bit of an oddity among scientific publications (although its American equivalent Science is somewhat similar) in that it is really two publications in one -- the journal part where it publishes papers, and also a magazine about science where non-papers get published -- news stories, book reviews, obituaries of famous scientists, and yes, sometimes fiction as well.
It’s a magazine. Many magazines have a readers’ letter section, an opinion column, a short story, … and in case of science magazines, the short stories are traditionally science fiction.
Readit News
Once Bob puts Alice into statis, the stasis ball is impenetrable, so the cops don't know if Alice was alive or dead when she was involuntarily put into stasis.
However, they do know that the stasis bubble containing Alice will eventually open up and pop Alice back into the current time. And they know when that will happen. So, the state puts Bob (the guilty party) into stasis too; with Bob's stasis timed to end when Alice's ends.
In this way, both stasis fields pop at roughtly the same time, and Bob can be tried either for murder, or for whatever the name is when you transport someone into the future against their wishes.
He only goes as far as he does because his protagonist in the second book is a detective (and a victim).
But it's finite time (an assertation left as an exercise for the reader) until murder .. when the tidal forces tear the husbands atoms asunder.
But I love the story. Clever use of time dilation.
P.S. I love this discussion
Basically you catch up to everything that has ever fallen into the black hole before you.
My guess is that it would look like another big bang.
https://youtu.be/BdYtfYkdGDk?t=4126
Black Holes and the Fundamental Laws of Physics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laKp1XeEF74
https://www.myabandonware.com/game/frederik-pohls-gateway-1e...
If the FBI created a sting wherein they gave you a gun you thought was real, but wasn't actually capable of firing, and you pointed it at someone and pulled the trigger, you could still face a murder a charge even though there was no way the gun would do any harm. It was your intent followed by action to achieve that intent that mattered.
Since the victim's demise here was decelerated, at least from the point of view of everyone in the trial, it can't be murder. Maybe some kind of kidnapping.
I'd rule out kidnapping, because unlawful detainment presumes that the person can be released from that detainment. There is no possibility of release for Xavier.
https://www.nature.com/nature/articles?type=futures&year=200...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omni_(magazine)