Semi-OT: A General Tech Question Thread for me :)

[Slick]

Yeah, I really think the trick is in making it believable to the usually well educated SciFi reader without giving away too much detail that would let the reader realize that it wouldn't work, or would conflict with something else. This is harder than it seems at first. I would think the author should work out "the way things work" conceptually in the universe of his story before writing so that there is a consitency throughout as well as allowing future sequels/installments to pick up the story without having to reinvent all the technology. The story should focus on being a "good story" over the fancy techs. George Lucas once said that essentially if the story isn't good, it won't be saved by special effects. This is probably even more true in written stories over movies.

[Starhawk]

Well realistically are Anti-Proton stream weapons even possible according to physics?

The shields are easy enough to explain since I think I'll just stick to calling them "void shields" and just describe the multi-layered system that it functions on while not necessarily giving away all the hows and whys.

[Slick]

Anti-protons exist. Containing them is very difficult, but again, possible. And since they are charged, they could be accelerated into a beam pretty easily once you solve the containment problem, so yes, they are possible.

[Starhawk]

Thanks slick so from now on my I-lasers are now officially just extremely powerful AP stream weapons