The RDA can't do physics

[Human No More]

Originally Posted by Clarke

Engines hundreds of times more powerful than VASIMIR have fuel ratios to get up to 0.5c around about 10^26 or so. That's not possible to construct.

Again, you misunderstand 'possible' as 'economical'.

Unobtanium has to be worth non-neglible fractions of Earth for that to be true.

YEt again, only if energy generation follows the current day cost paradigm. there is no reason for it to, even with fusion.

Not all sci-fi has to be hard sci-fi.

Hence the distinction between soft scifi and space opera. If something could work with all references to space/science removed (e.g. SW), it is not scifi.

It's a network cable

Exactly - and hence, no, it is not used for reproductive reasons.

And it won't make a difference whether or not the things the Na'vi meet are human or humanoid robots. It's not as though they can tell the difference.

Right, now you're really pissing me off.
THE NA'VI ARE NOT STUPID. They understand far more than people like you would like to believe.
Humans are a sentient, biological species. At first they don't understand where humans are from, but that easily changes, and humans are VERY like the Na'vi. One of your fantasy robots would not be.

Then use non-transistor cirucits. I know that's not technically Moore's Law, but it's still the same march of technology. If the RDA have access to computronium, there are far more useful things they could be doing than mining unobtanium.

Great if you have them... considering the fact that all non-mechanical computers since the last thermionic valve designs have been transistors, and there is still no sign of a replacement.
Also... you're trying to justify why unobtainium should not be found... by inventing a different fictional material?

R&D is cheaper in this case. Or didn't you notice the astronomical energy involved?

You're still working on assumptions about availability.

Robot = war machine since when?

People tend to react badly to nonhumanoid beings of unknown origin, especially when noncommunicative and potentially hostile.

I mentioned this already.

I rebutted it already.

Are the mining robots remote-controlled or not? (Ideally, they wouldn't be, they'd be directed by AI.) Because that entire list can't be true at the same time.

It's your 'spess mehrens kill everything' fantasy, not mine. You tell me.
you're right, the list is general problems - ones that are true with either approach and significant enough to prevent their use.
Do you honestly believe the way seen is the most efficient possible way? It isn't. It's the best way they are allowed to do without causing massive damage to sentient beings, not to mention treaties about the militarisation of space.

Solid-state lasers? Or is that what you mean?

Technically it's a COIL, and the only one anywhere near usability in any form.

Dual-rotor gunships armed with what appear to be either incinderiary or anti-tank missiles are "basic security?"

Well, numbers certainly seem excessive, as do some of the missiles (the Dragon itself is vastly excessive, but that's beside the point), but the Scorpions themselves aren't actually advanced (in terms of spec, they're perhaps a generation beyond modern day). The rotor design is completely beside the point, and actually far more suited to Pandora than a single and tail one would be.

And yet we have petawatt lasers in the lab.

when did the lab performance of anything end up representational of real performance?

AGAIN: Some kind of energy weapon MAY exist on Earth, likely similar to Firefly in that they would be effective but unreliable, rare and expensive. None are mentioned anywhere in the background, and even IF they existed, advanced military hardware is not going to be required here.

again,

Originally Posted by Human No More

Do you honestly believe the way seen is the most efficient possible way? It isn't. It's the best way they are allowed to do without causing massive damage to sentient beings, not to mention treaties about the militarisation of space.

"...for the relavent property of being affected by EMPs."

Forgive me for not seeing how that property is 'relavent(sic)' - EMP weapons are only mentioned in fluff as a point on how some older hardware is back in mainstream use.

1) EMPs are easy to defend agianst if you know they're coming. Not only are Faraday cages cheap, the actual circuits can be shielded against the blast.
2) Non-nuclear EMP generators would require the very supercapacitors laser weaponry would also require. Building the latter would almost be a case of plug-and-play. [/slight exaggeation]
3) Handheld gauss weapons are impractical. Recoil much?

1. A faraday cage is not practical for such, especially if you want windows (unless you expect the weapon to very courteously use extremely long wavelengths).
2. Yet again: Lasers are not impossible per se, only never mentioned, presumed impractical, and, at any rate, advanced military hardware.
3. WRONG. One of the points of one is that recoil is comparable to or slightly smaller than a firearm of comparable size. You're thinking of a railgun.

Who said anything about highly advanced? I was expecting them to be practically invented in 2050 or so and improved from there. Building a given device with 100 years manufactured start over the original designers is probably not difficult.

Yes, but not to specs of the pinnacle of its development, hence my point. One in 2050 could well be a white elephant, or a gimmick.

But they're being around for a long time suggests that constructin them would be quite easy.

Yes, but would those automatically be better than the firearm that resulted from nearly 900 years of development? Likely not.

There's... 10, 12 gunships hovering around when Hometree is destroyed, all but one of which is firing some high explosive rocket? That's "basic security?"

Ammunition is from onsite, as is the actual capacity to build the helicopters (only requiring specific parts. Certainly, it's excessive - that's Selfridge and Quaritch's fault while trying to be aggressive with what they are capable of using, and not an indictment of the equipment that were allowed to use.

Not in-flight it doesn't. A faraday cage isn't necessarily one static piece.

Considering the intended purpose of the weapon, actually, it would need to be, or otherwise, it's redundant (the intention isn't to destroy, but to knock out systems).

Earth has woefully inadequete energy for what they're trying to do; Pandora has functionally infinite energy for what they're trying to do. What's the problem?

A few thousand iron-age tech warriors managed to overrun it! That's not "sufficient."

Because they were not supposed to be antagonising the Na'vi, just providing internal security and stopping the odd animal from charging in, or some stingbats deciding to nest on the buildings.
You'd know this, if you'd watched the film at all.

Yet there's enough of them to constitute a ground attack force. That shouldn't be necessary.

There are twelve of them!! (13 with Quaritch's)
That really is not that many.

I mean, why do the Na'vi ever contact humans and not Avatars? It's the Avatars' job to do that. (The most efficient way of interacting with the Na'vi is another topic entirely, though.)

Human contact predates the avatar program.

On paper, yes, I'd agree.

...then why the previous post about Quaritch?
Selfridge's being a spineless idiot doesn't change the actual position.

"We don't see any of Selfridge's bosses..."

We still hear their attitude.

Current research is basically doing that anyway, and we're getting somewhere. Albiet slowly.

As slowly as random chance, by any chance?

Knowing something's characteristics means that you cna build a model of its actual structure. Once you've got that, and it works, then it's snythesisable.

Assuming a structure can be found.

The limit of fusion is that size yes, but the limit of magnetic confinement is quite a lot lower. Probably 1-10 million times lower.

...and with superconducting magnets?

That must be for a reason other than expense, considering the energies involved.

Perhaps all the attendant problems of living on Mars anyway, especially when it would still take a long time to become self-sufficient.

Because you mentioned that all of Pandora's fauna/flora were physically possible, and I'd argue that Hometree is not unelss it's made out of some magic carbonfibre clone.

Again, you're sounding like you've never watched the film.

And Hometree is not built out of stainless steel. Also, Hometree is leaning sideways. Sheer force is not your friend.

Humans could still build such a structure, and do much better in terms of structural cross-section and size for that. That is the point.