I would like to propose a discussion on how you would actually go about inventing or implementing something totally fictional and utterly insane from a movie. Ignore such mundane stuff as budgets, whether anyone would be insane enough to try the idea, etc. The only condition I ask that you follow is that it has to actually be possible, which is why this is a random discussion and not roleplaying.
My invention/implementation, which I'll use to illustrate the idea, is Real World Quiddich.
The idea is simple enough. There is already work on having inflatable hotels in space, the primary problem being making an inflatable material that won't degrade from radiation and won't allow the radiation in to harm the occupants. That has been solved, apparently. To make a Quiddich playing field requires only that you don't have internal walls in the playing area.
The brooms are easy. You have an ordinary broomstick and two air cannisters - one facing forwards, one facing back. Space has negligible gravity, so the flying part is a cinch. You just push upwards and you'll fly. Careful use of the air cannisters will cause you to accelerate or decelerate. Ok, you might want to have some way of turning the air nozzles, but that's just a wire and a handle for each.
The self-steering balls would work in a similar way. The snitch would be a highly pressurized container with a multitude of holes that open and close at random, allowing it to move in much the same way as in the movies. It would need to be larger than the book/movie version - largely to hold enough air and the mechanisms needed to guide it.
Bludgers would be much lower pressure and have only a handful of nozzles, which would mostly open and close on impact with something.
Aside from the lack of magic, the biggest significant difference is that players and game pieces would need recharging every so often. The next biggest difference is that if you fell off the broom, you'd float and not fall. The former is unavoidable if you're using compressed air, and the latter is probably a Good Thing.
At $15,000,000 for a spectator seat, I doubt this would happen any time soon, however there is nothing obviously impossible about such a game in space. Impractical, yes - impossible, no.
So. If you had infinite money and resources, but had to stick to the known laws of physics, what would you build?
23 Jul 2007, 10:25 pm
