Post by grogrock on Jan 15, 2017 16:09:12 GMT
Steam/Forum Name: Grogrock the Black Knight
Technology Name: Nutrient Paste, "Cryptosleep" Casket, "Belinski's Auto-Tap"
Tech Development Date:
Nutrient Paste: Continuous development from 2012 to most updated iteration coming to market in 2948
Cryptosleep Casket: Originated 2256. Most recent version of hardware hit market in 2931 with software being updated annually for bugs and energy efficiency improvements.
Belinski's Auto-Tap: Originated 2373, hardware updated every decade to accommodate for the discovery of new foods and to reduce processing time. Most recent version released in 2950 with a processing time of 10 seconds.
Tech Description:
Nutrient Paste appeared in a primitive form at the turn of the millenium, being used as a filler in beef products made out of the intestines and unused parts of cattle. In 2253, a more advanced paste was formed using beans, kale, and spinach on Earth in order to produce a high-yield diet substitute to prevent mass starvation. The critical flaw of this paste was that it lacked any flavor, and despite attempts to add salt and pepper to make it more palatable, it refused to accept the seasoning. As more tasteful and rich solutions were found to cope with the strains of the growing impoverished population, nutrient paste was banned from the market in 2413. Few reacted negatively to the ban, as almost nobody wanted to consume the slop and subsitutes were readily available and affordable. Paranoia was the driving force behind the ban, as many feared that unscrupulous capitalists could get away with putting whatever edible substance they wanted into the paste without the general public knowing; the taste was the same regardless of the ingredients. However, nutrient paste remained unbanned from usage during extended periods of travel. The paste was found to be more suitable than storing entire meals on board the ship, and had a far superior shelf life (even in refrigeration) to meat. Lorillard Dietary Solutions rose to the top of the nutrient paste industry through its collaboration with various companies in the interplanetary-travel and long-term stasis industry. Nutrient paste was found to be the perfect substance to sustain individuals within a Cryptosleep Casket, as its viscous nature allowed it to pass through tubes and its rich content of vitamins and other essential nutrients made even small portions able to sustain those in cryptosleep for an extended period of time. Nutrexo held the second largest portion of market share in 2786, but it rapidly surpassed Lorillard Dietary Solutions as its scientists integrated patented their "taste-acquisition technology", which allowed nutrient paste to finally begin acquiring not only the flavors of seasoning added to it in the production process, but any artificial flavors as well. Only ten years later, in 2796, the company patented technology that enabled the paste to not only take on different colors (the paste had been a sickly green color since its advent thanks to the kale and spinach), but various patterns of color as well. By 2800, nutrient paste was no longer exclusively used in interplanetary travel, as it became a tasty alternative to the gruel produced in fledgling colonies and poor urban societies alike. Unfortunately for Nutrexo, they could not change the appearance of the paste, and the consumption of the paste still had a stigma associated with it that made eating unprocessed foods a more popular alternative still. Over the course of the next hundred years, the development and improvement of the paste stagnated. But, it still remained a critical part of people's diets in underdeveloped colonies and in societies with incredible poverty, just as its early versions had served the poor of Earth. In 2948, Lorillard Dietary Solutions announced its bankruptcy, as years of competition with Nutrexo and recent stagnation in the market had made its operations unsustainable. Nutrexo acquired the company, further asserting its market dominance, but even then the firm was barely staying alive with increasingly small profit margins. It wasn't until later that year that Nutrexo had its first breakthrough since 2796, as their paste had its viscosity reduced from a thick syrup to a softer jelly. Quickly, nutrient paste became a healthier and cheaper alternative to sweet filling in confections, and revolutionized the pastry industry.
The "Deep Sleep Facilitator" produced by Pilarmin Industriesused ancient Aztec vampire technology and first arrived on the market in 2256, and it was an absolute disaster. The machine was, for all intents and purposes, a glorified freezer. In order to sustain its occupant for long periods of space travel, the device used a small nuclear reactor. Not only was the reactor incredibly noisy and was about the same size as the sleeping compartment, but cut corners during the development process revealed that the sleeping compartment had an insufficient amount of lining to prevent radiation from entering the compartment. The result: subjects that remained in the device for periods greater than ten days were found to have varying degrees of radiation sickness and in many cases cancer. The debacle that followed the investigation into the product, along with a hearty amounts of class action lawsuits against Pilarmin, led to its ban until Pilarmin could produce a less harmful version. In 2267, Pilarmin debuted its new "Deep Sleep Facilitator Mark 2". The problem? Years of research and development, and billions of dollars, had gone into just making the lining on the sleeping compartment thicker. In turn, the Mark 2 was even larger than its predecessor, and heavier. However, immediate safety concerns were accounted for. Over the years, several incidents occurred, such as the reactors failing and incidents where insufficient nutrients or oxygen were being put into the container. The publicity of these events gave the Deep Sleep Facilitators the nickname of the "Cyro Casket", and eventually a clever journalist coined the term "Cryptosleep Casket". Pilarmin Industries went bankrupt in 2332, after one of their reactors in a casket had a meltdown and filled an entire compartment of an interplanetary frigate with radiation, despite the fact that the casket was not even sustaining an occupant. It was not until 2383 where another company decided to pick up the reigns, known as Tripp Expeditions LLC. Tripp Expeditions quickly refined the Cryptosleep Casket (they held onto the name for its recognition, and as a bit of a joke), and reduced its size while also improving safety. Nutrient dispensing systems and methods for sustaining the circulation of blood in a suspended occupant were improved alongside reductions in the size and pollution of the reactor. By 2412, Tripp Expeditions had produced a Cryptosleep Casket that had a reactor only 1/10 the size of its sleeping compartment with the ability to safely contain an occupant for around fifty years, and said occupant only needing about 100 pounds of nutrient paste annually to sustain them. These successes did not come without their drawbacks however. TE LLC, which had been the darling of the cryogenic suspension industry for years, found itself swarmed with competition after recent successes. Despite patents, the appearance of a Tripp Casket was easy to mimic, and the market was diluted with incredibly similar products with product differentiation done on the margin. The breakthroughs of improved safety and reduced size that had come in the past had been replaced with frivolous additions such as the implementation of memory foam cushions within the casket and a body-waste disposal system that emitted the smell of salt-spray instead of methane. Improvements were barely noticeable, such as the amount of muscle tissue being lost during the 50 year span being reduced by 1%, or the amount of vomit that an individual awaking from the chamber being reduced by 0.5 (this was a gimmick done simply by also reducing the amount of paste given to the occupant towards the end of the journey). By 2952, the caskets were far better than their debut in 2256, but only about 25% better than they had been centuries ago in 2412.
The Belinski's Auto-Tap is a relatively simple device, and has not changed much since 2373. However, its appearance revolutionized the beverage industry. At first, it was merely a simple system that utilized a computer to mix drinks in various amounts. Up to a dozen different fluids could be combined together at once to produce a concoction at the customers request. This was simply a time-saving device, and was quite trivial. However, later versions of the device contained onboard casks and vats for fermentation. When the Belinski's Auto-Tap first came to market under Fyodor Belinski's Beverages Incorporated in 2373, it built off of its more simple counterparts by adding these fermentation vats. In a mere day, the tap could produce different alcoholic beverages, with champagne and vodka having the most rapid production cycle. As the years passed, improvements were made to shorten the brewing cycle and to improve the flavor, as many associated the beverages that were produced by the auto-tap as being "lowly" and a "two buck chuck". By 2952, the process of dispensing beverages takes only about ten seconds to produce the concoction, while the process of producing alcohol with the same methods has been reduced to about 6 to 18 hours depending on the kind of alcohol and the quality sought after.
Tech Rarity/Cost:
Nutrient Paste: Readily available and cheap, but usually sold in bulk and marketed more towards restaurants, interplanetary liners, and militaries. Eating it as-is still has a stigma associated with it, while consuming it alongside a pastry or as a nutritional supplement to a meal is frowned upon less.
Cryptosleep Casket: rare on the general market, common on the commercial market. Usually only purchasable if a business license is owned, and said license must be for travel or for a medical practice. High cost regardless. Can be purchased on the black market or taken from salvage as well, but the caskets are still incredibly expensive and are often far more dangerous.
Belinski's Auto-Tap: quite common, and quite cheap. Brewing-capable variants are more expensive, and size makes them practical for those operating a brewery or with substantial houses.
Technology Name: Nutrient Paste, "Cryptosleep" Casket, "Belinski's Auto-Tap"
Tech Development Date:
Nutrient Paste: Continuous development from 2012 to most updated iteration coming to market in 2948
Cryptosleep Casket: Originated 2256. Most recent version of hardware hit market in 2931 with software being updated annually for bugs and energy efficiency improvements.
Belinski's Auto-Tap: Originated 2373, hardware updated every decade to accommodate for the discovery of new foods and to reduce processing time. Most recent version released in 2950 with a processing time of 10 seconds.
Tech Description:
Nutrient Paste appeared in a primitive form at the turn of the millenium, being used as a filler in beef products made out of the intestines and unused parts of cattle. In 2253, a more advanced paste was formed using beans, kale, and spinach on Earth in order to produce a high-yield diet substitute to prevent mass starvation. The critical flaw of this paste was that it lacked any flavor, and despite attempts to add salt and pepper to make it more palatable, it refused to accept the seasoning. As more tasteful and rich solutions were found to cope with the strains of the growing impoverished population, nutrient paste was banned from the market in 2413. Few reacted negatively to the ban, as almost nobody wanted to consume the slop and subsitutes were readily available and affordable. Paranoia was the driving force behind the ban, as many feared that unscrupulous capitalists could get away with putting whatever edible substance they wanted into the paste without the general public knowing; the taste was the same regardless of the ingredients. However, nutrient paste remained unbanned from usage during extended periods of travel. The paste was found to be more suitable than storing entire meals on board the ship, and had a far superior shelf life (even in refrigeration) to meat. Lorillard Dietary Solutions rose to the top of the nutrient paste industry through its collaboration with various companies in the interplanetary-travel and long-term stasis industry. Nutrient paste was found to be the perfect substance to sustain individuals within a Cryptosleep Casket, as its viscous nature allowed it to pass through tubes and its rich content of vitamins and other essential nutrients made even small portions able to sustain those in cryptosleep for an extended period of time. Nutrexo held the second largest portion of market share in 2786, but it rapidly surpassed Lorillard Dietary Solutions as its scientists integrated patented their "taste-acquisition technology", which allowed nutrient paste to finally begin acquiring not only the flavors of seasoning added to it in the production process, but any artificial flavors as well. Only ten years later, in 2796, the company patented technology that enabled the paste to not only take on different colors (the paste had been a sickly green color since its advent thanks to the kale and spinach), but various patterns of color as well. By 2800, nutrient paste was no longer exclusively used in interplanetary travel, as it became a tasty alternative to the gruel produced in fledgling colonies and poor urban societies alike. Unfortunately for Nutrexo, they could not change the appearance of the paste, and the consumption of the paste still had a stigma associated with it that made eating unprocessed foods a more popular alternative still. Over the course of the next hundred years, the development and improvement of the paste stagnated. But, it still remained a critical part of people's diets in underdeveloped colonies and in societies with incredible poverty, just as its early versions had served the poor of Earth. In 2948, Lorillard Dietary Solutions announced its bankruptcy, as years of competition with Nutrexo and recent stagnation in the market had made its operations unsustainable. Nutrexo acquired the company, further asserting its market dominance, but even then the firm was barely staying alive with increasingly small profit margins. It wasn't until later that year that Nutrexo had its first breakthrough since 2796, as their paste had its viscosity reduced from a thick syrup to a softer jelly. Quickly, nutrient paste became a healthier and cheaper alternative to sweet filling in confections, and revolutionized the pastry industry.
The "Deep Sleep Facilitator" produced by Pilarmin Industries
The Belinski's Auto-Tap is a relatively simple device, and has not changed much since 2373. However, its appearance revolutionized the beverage industry. At first, it was merely a simple system that utilized a computer to mix drinks in various amounts. Up to a dozen different fluids could be combined together at once to produce a concoction at the customers request. This was simply a time-saving device, and was quite trivial. However, later versions of the device contained onboard casks and vats for fermentation. When the Belinski's Auto-Tap first came to market under Fyodor Belinski's Beverages Incorporated in 2373, it built off of its more simple counterparts by adding these fermentation vats. In a mere day, the tap could produce different alcoholic beverages, with champagne and vodka having the most rapid production cycle. As the years passed, improvements were made to shorten the brewing cycle and to improve the flavor, as many associated the beverages that were produced by the auto-tap as being "lowly" and a "two buck chuck". By 2952, the process of dispensing beverages takes only about ten seconds to produce the concoction, while the process of producing alcohol with the same methods has been reduced to about 6 to 18 hours depending on the kind of alcohol and the quality sought after.
Tech Rarity/Cost:
Nutrient Paste: Readily available and cheap, but usually sold in bulk and marketed more towards restaurants, interplanetary liners, and militaries. Eating it as-is still has a stigma associated with it, while consuming it alongside a pastry or as a nutritional supplement to a meal is frowned upon less.
Cryptosleep Casket: rare on the general market, common on the commercial market. Usually only purchasable if a business license is owned, and said license must be for travel or for a medical practice. High cost regardless. Can be purchased on the black market or taken from salvage as well, but the caskets are still incredibly expensive and are often far more dangerous.
Belinski's Auto-Tap: quite common, and quite cheap. Brewing-capable variants are more expensive, and size makes them practical for those operating a brewery or with substantial houses.
