TCL Technology is a Chinese electronic giant that has quickly grown to become America’s fastest-growing TV brand and is also the world’s second-largest TV manufacturer. Hailing from an electronic rich background, the corporation has assets and products in almost all platforms of tech from cassettes in the 80s to mobile phones in 2004 and even a large television manufacturing contract with Samsung.
Make no mistake, TCL has its roots deeply embedded in the technological revolution and is a brand that you can trust! (if you’re interested in more wall mounts you should check out our picks for the wall mount for 65 inch tcl roku tv)
I have been thinking about the 878 days, on the grounds that high-budget TV series don't have random numbers, only Easter eggs. These are my two favourite ideas:
1. The maths idea
878/323 is a good approximation of number e, to 4 decimal places. (Number e is the base of natural logarithms, and anybody who studies maths to a high enough level will know about it). It's especially easy to remember because 878-323=555. Number e is needed to describe the Gaussian bell curve, which is an essential tool of statistics, and psychohistorians need to be familiar with it.
2. The history idea
878 AD isn't a very interesting year. It's in the middle of the Dark Ages, it has a couple of big battles in it, but lots of years have battles.
But the Galactic Empire is inspired in the Roman Empire. And the Romans counted years from the foundation of Rome. 878 AUC (Ad Urbe Condita) is 125 AD, and a much more interesting year. It's in the middle of what's been described as the Golden Era of the Roman Empire, and it's when the Pantheon was built. Other parts of the world were prosperous, too: the Parthian Empire in the Middle East, the Kushan Empire in India, the Han Empire in China, and even the Javanese calendar starts on this year. Long-distance trade was happening, and a few years later there were reports of Roman merchants arriving in China, and Roman coins have been found that appear to confirm this.
Surely the contrast between the sad state of the world in 878 AD and the prosperity of 878 AUC would be of great interest to any psychohistorian.
I think you are on to something. Impressed by your use of math too. There are three universal languages in my opinion. One is math, two is music and three is love.
I have read a lot of Asimov, and I don't think he suggested anything like that.
You could say that the ship was moving at a fraction of lightspeed and 878 days was relativistic time inside the ship. The problem with that is that you would have to assume that at least 50.000 years had passed for the Empire while the ship arrived at destination, and I don't think the way the series is going it looks like that much time passed, but maybe I'm wrong.
Another option is that the ship has an Alcubierre warp drive. This doesn't require jumping, and it's theoretically feasible within the existing physics framework.
A third option is that the ship is using wormholes, that are in many ways equivalent to jumping.
I don't remember Asimov stories with warp drives or wormholes, but I could be wrong.
@Maria White you're totally right and you made excellent points, all of them. Lightspeed limit is one of the scientific data Asimov always pointed out as unbreakable, and he spent a lot of ink each time he proposed jumping in order to justify it. In fact, in the books he wrote about several jumps between Synnax and Trantor... Maybe the showrunners will say a word about this in a non relativistic future.
Or, otherwise, maybe they just flown on the season's 8 GOT crows... They were also ultra lightspeed devices 😅
TCL Technology is a Chinese electronic giant that has quickly grown to become America’s fastest-growing TV brand and is also the world’s second-largest TV manufacturer. Hailing from an electronic rich background, the corporation has assets and products in almost all platforms of tech from cassettes in the 80s to mobile phones in 2004 and even a large television manufacturing contract with Samsung.
Make no mistake, TCL has its roots deeply embedded in the technological revolution and is a brand that you can trust! (if you’re interested in more wall mounts you should check out our picks for the wall mount for 65 inch tcl roku tv)
I have been thinking about the 878 days, on the grounds that high-budget TV series don't have random numbers, only Easter eggs. These are my two favourite ideas:
1. The maths idea
878/323 is a good approximation of number e, to 4 decimal places. (Number e is the base of natural logarithms, and anybody who studies maths to a high enough level will know about it). It's especially easy to remember because 878-323=555. Number e is needed to describe the Gaussian bell curve, which is an essential tool of statistics, and psychohistorians need to be familiar with it.
2. The history idea
878 AD isn't a very interesting year. It's in the middle of the Dark Ages, it has a couple of big battles in it, but lots of years have battles.
But the Galactic Empire is inspired in the Roman Empire. And the Romans counted years from the foundation of Rome. 878 AUC (Ad Urbe Condita) is 125 AD, and a much more interesting year. It's in the middle of what's been described as the Golden Era of the Roman Empire, and it's when the Pantheon was built. Other parts of the world were prosperous, too: the Parthian Empire in the Middle East, the Kushan Empire in India, the Han Empire in China, and even the Javanese calendar starts on this year. Long-distance trade was happening, and a few years later there were reports of Roman merchants arriving in China, and Roman coins have been found that appear to confirm this.
Surely the contrast between the sad state of the world in 878 AD and the prosperity of 878 AUC would be of great interest to any psychohistorian.
Alfa I like your acid humor. And ... Maria the calculation of the slow trip does not close in any universe
I have read a lot of Asimov, and I don't think he suggested anything like that.
You could say that the ship was moving at a fraction of lightspeed and 878 days was relativistic time inside the ship. The problem with that is that you would have to assume that at least 50.000 years had passed for the Empire while the ship arrived at destination, and I don't think the way the series is going it looks like that much time passed, but maybe I'm wrong.
Another option is that the ship has an Alcubierre warp drive. This doesn't require jumping, and it's theoretically feasible within the existing physics framework.
A third option is that the ship is using wormholes, that are in many ways equivalent to jumping.
I don't remember Asimov stories with warp drives or wormholes, but I could be wrong.