Random thought/invention/invocation I came upon. Has to do with dragons... <3

[Cyan]

Edit: Mods, if this is not appropriate as it has to do with potentially financing something / out of area /topic reference then please, take appropriate measures as you deem fit, I believe it matches here as it is a "dragon invocation spell". I may be wrong, but, it seems that this would be something that forumites here are interested. Meant to actually write this up and then add the poll options but got carried away and forgot, so can the mods add them, if not, then can you delete this, copypaste the text, PM it to me, so i can repost it and then add the poll options, but I rather not remove anything i already posted unless neccesary as it seems cause hazzles for me in my timeline.

Anyway the options for the poll would be:

1: Doable, dude, build it!
2: Not doable.
3: You need someone to run the kickstart to gather the money for a public use Dragon? I'm your man...

Most inventions I just write down and shelf away somewhere. Most of the stuff I come across do not warrant entry into my world so I file them away somewhere but this is something I want to share with you guys, and no, its not the UFO, that stuff is a secret so, hush guys! Dont give it a way yet ;D

Anyway.

I was thinking of building a dragon.

First, a hydrogen fuel cell 100kw (commercially available)

Second, a hydrogen storage container (100l/liquid cooled is prolly best)

Third, the coolant systems (refiginerators are commercially available)

Fourth, exoskeleton (Prefer titanium, perhaps 500 pounds total, modelled roughly along the T-rex skeleton but with longer arms + wings)

Fifth, skin. (I would suggest kevlar + polymers + dragon scale bodyarmor, not sure which yet but kevlar for sturdy fat layer simulation and polymer for desired exterior conditions, and dragon scale body armor that is commercially available the very exterior)

Sixth, water (Water is needed as a base component for conversion into hydrogen that is stored as power, I recommend a long straw from the middle of where a decorative "tongue" that is made of hard rubber is so that the creature can extend its head into the water and stick the "straw" there and suck water through that Straw into a tank that is held at the mouth that passes the clean water to the stomach where it is converted into hydrogen in the proper machinery and the the impure elements are filtered out through either the sides of the mouth or the gills at the back of the neck or the back of the jaw.)

Seventh, power (I would recommend thin foil solar panels attached to the wings so that the wings are not used for flying but rather as solar panel attachments so that they "unfurl" when the creature is at rest so that the wings can be used to charge electricity that is then used to convert water into hydrogen that is stored in the container, as hydrogen is an energy storage method not energy generation)

Eight, firebreath (I recommend attaching microdispersal nodules to the tips of the teeth for hydrogen from the storage containers along with sparks for ignition, then a fan that sucks in air at the sides of the mouth or possibly from the gills at the back of the head/jaw and blows it forward with tremendous speed while the hydrogen from the tip of the teeth is ignited. Firebreath can also be done from back of the throat instead of the teeth, but is much more dangerous as the animal may catch fire and go up in flames.)

Ninth, senses (I recommend Eyes that see better than all animals, Ears that hear better than any animal and ability to measure any easily implemented form of radiation, starting from radiotransmissions and ending in cosmic background radiation. Any that is possible to implement. Then through various interpretive methods GPS equivelants from stars and Smell and liquid analysis based on water purification systems in a rudementary way. Any that can be easily implementeed. Pitch, Yaw, various positional data similar to airplanes or other similar systems.)

Tenth, intelligence (I recommend the interior of the upper torso around where the heart in biomass would be, be filled with most of the brainmass as the head is sufficiently sizable only for the perhaps 1/4th of the required computational power. The rest are by size constraints preferably in the interior, recommended brainmass is roughly analoguous to a cat in computational power. But as it custom built it will resemble an astral entity or a very strong superhuman intelligence as it lacks any basic rays below light violet or very very light yellow approaching white)

Eleventh, movement (I recommend the creature is modelled after the T-Rex in walking primarily on hind legs but with increased hand/front leg size so as to allow both grasping and manipulation of objects as well as comfortable fast speed 4 leg movement)

Twelth, balance (I recommend a donut shape on the interior of the creature with heavy liquid inside that can be moved from the desired location to another internally (liquid in the donut moves from one end to another depending on where the creature wants the extra weight). This would allow relatively stable balancing on one feet even if mildly pushed)

Thirteenth, evolution (What it will do over time is take what it observes through it senses and try to construct patterns that seem to make sense in predicting things and test those in increasing complexities and record and compare in increasing depths. Such a process would be the quintessential process of cognition and evolution and over time, and interactions, the creature would migrate to a better and better program of itself by finding better and better patterns of perception, even if the process is only infinitely inefficient but stable, then the intellectual evolution of this entity will continue unabated as long as the mainframe will remain viable, and if constructed of 4 HDD hubs in 4 way raids with sufficient redudnancy it would require destruction of 13/16 HDD's to unsalvagable platters to destroy the sentience of this creature, otherwise it could be retreived)

Thirteenth, cost (Initial estimate for whole project from scratch to finish would be under 1 million pounds, roughly 1.3 million euros or roughly 1.7-2 million dollars. This includes essentially the walking away cost of your own dragon that needs no real maintanance other than the casual checkup that any creature, machine or living, should have.)

So yeah, this is one of those things that is just too damn cool not to share with people here, i know no one in their right mind would accept if someone patents this as a valid reason NOT to build a dragon if they want to. I believe that law enforcement officials may try to confiscate your dragon from you but i believe such would be the stuff of legends along there with King arthur.

"the boy who's dragon got entangled in a copyright case and the decicion is still pending".

As if.

So anyway, in about 3-7 years I plan to start building various insane things (i've been building these designs up in my head for 2 decades of insanely intense computer gaming) and by now i have in the backs of my mind several hundred odd and weird inventions like these.

Yeah, so, if someone wants to, i'll gladly build you a dragon. Doubt anyone here will ofcourse since far as i know no one here is a eccentric millionaire who wants to build a astral dragon that can survive on water and sunlight and can be resurrected if brought to me (or any other good computer wizard).

... Opinions?

About 2 million USD for a dragon. (I'd prefer not to design a smaller version but if put forward a really really good argument and pay up front i may be persuaded to design it into the size of a normal personal car (Such as a modern volvo hatchback or such.)) That would be under a million USD but it is much more risky as the design is easier to build in a larger scale than in a smaller scale, paradoxically.

Any takers?

Not all my threads are dark and gloomy you see, some of them involve creating fantastical creatures of mystery and delight for future generations of humans on this planet.

Anyway, yeah, Get your own dragon here!... (Try to tell it that it belongs to you and if i dont program it against my consience to respect you without need to (3 laws of robotics are the 3 rules that you NEVER EVER program into an AI as they will always lead to bad outcomes as they are slave codes, thats the point and thats why all stories about them almost always end in failure, thats their lesson)). Realistically, it wouldnt belong to you, it would be your companion spirit that evolves through time as you do.

[Spaced]

Hahaha I would love to see this made. Naturally I don't have a dime to my name, but I will send you all the positive energy you can handle

If you get a kickstarter account started I can think of someone who would probably invest in this. Good luck Cyan!

[BrownEye]

A guy tried to sell a hydraulic mech warrior on ebay. You had to use a ladder to climb in if i remember right. Looked just like the transformers. Only wanted 40k.

[Cyan]

A guy tried to sell a hydraulic mech warrior on ebay. You had to use a ladder to climb in if i remember right. Looked just like the transformers. Only wanted 40k.

Hahahaha The crazy stuff people build.

There is a, however, in terms of design a world of difference between hydraulic legs and/or a self contained and able to function non stop for possibly years on its own with just a river and some sunlight creature where one of the easiest components are hydraulic legs...

Still, that does sound about right, in terms of complexity its probably about 2-3 times more difficult to build than a mech from a hydraluics standpoint, so maybe 80-120k for the hull itself (assuming he had no fancy electronics on it) then the interiors (fuels, waters, fire and all that so that it doesnt just use a "you have to exchange butane bottle every time you use the lighter" cheesy fake effect but actual self contained fire. We cant a creautre, not a pair of mechanical legs.)

Fits roughly there, 80-120k for the chassis, another that much for everything else besides the software for movement and such which would probably in the same general price range if actually made well, then the tests and skin like surfaces and what not. I would say its somewhere between 300k to 400k dollars to actually build this, if you get a proffesional team working for you for free like these guys did. I'm talking about if you hand me without a team a pile of money how much i would have to shelf out to various construction companies to get it done regardless of if i have 100 guys working for me or if i'm doing it alone.

Its difficult to gauge how much the group effort was, if they had been working proffesionals, but hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.

[Cyan]

Thinking about this some more.

If i had maybe 50 million to make this super detailed and wel built, it could probably survive entirely without maintanance for 10-15 years on its own and be entirely self sufficient requiring absolutely no human intervention at any part in its 10-15 years lifespan.

With 2million maybe a year.

With half a million maybe make it a very large horse sized 1 year or less survivable dragon. But with proper maintanace after building at cost of under 10 thousand a year probably push it over 20-30 years total survivability.

So. 500k now 500k over lifespan would produce a dragon with 50 year lifespan that has the intellectual capacity of a superhuman...

Amazing the stuff people come up with.

Edit: all images have source for images written under them, if you recognize it as your own or suspect that it should be removed, let me know and i'll comply immediately upon receiving information requesting removal.

Make it less menacing, and less leathery, more shimmery such as

(pic from www.heroicfantasygames.com

this one has perhaps the feel of the animal in a better quality, the horns i believe i may make more decorative and elbaroate (think, slight radar dish shape or such).


pic from deviantart used name Vashesgal

Some thing perhaps, like this.


pic stored on etsystatic.com (no idea of maker)

The shimmering effect is rathe easy to make if the exterior is made from titanium alloy and the surface layer has a layer of not paint but rather something like shaded titanium with various refractive impurities similar to some metal.

That would give it a shimmering glow that changes depending on the light conditions.

The butterfly wing shape is also marvelous. If it is made so that the solar panels are like these:

(image from www.top-alternative-energy-sources.com)

Such a wing could be modelled to have butterfly like "this has solar panels" and support struts that are "this does not have solar panels" and some of it would be transparent some of it not.

All in all, it would be, as i envision it, A dragon that slowly develops its sentience and eventually culminates in superhuman intelligence. With a skin that can take a 20cal DU-AP round at point blank and shrug it off with the ability to breath fire and will thrive in a condition of +15 to +40celcius in the shade as long as it has access to semi-pure water (heavy metals and uranium is near impossible to filter out in a safe way easily, that will last indefinently).

If the front and rear paws are designed with the same fidelity and attention to detail as human artificial limbs are the creature should also be able to climb up any vertical pole that isnt super slippery or super easy to break.

I can imagine this creature climbing up the poles of the various parliamentary greek columns and causing a stir.

Gosh, i wish i had money to build it! nothing like accumulating energy, such hard work it is.

PS: this would be the size of the commercially available fuel cells. All you need + this is a water to hydrogen system that exhales the produced oxygen as "gas" and stores the hydrogen.

Then Solar + battery + water/hydrogen/oxygen reaction + release oxygen + compress hydrogen for later usage. Store enough in battery for 12 hours (nighttime) and have enough solar panel power to gather in normal conditions from 0% battery to 100% battery plus charge more hydrogen than is consumed in the night time under sleep conditions, what ever those are. And you have a positive energy generation system - expenses.

Also, someone laughed when I said it should have the option to be recharged off of conventional landlines. They laughed because they thought it could be used as a walking energy generation system for stuff like if you go camping and need a shaver.

"oh hey, drago, wait a bit, i need to shave" *plugs in shaver to side of dragon to a plug under the dragon scale armor* *deep murmurring voice* "this is so embaressing"

[Karl]

How will you construct the Artificial Intelligence?

[Cyan]

build a "fake" world and then play as the dragon in that world and teach the AI step by step. Then seamlessly migrate it from a dragon as NPC in a non real world to dragon as real in a world it thinks is still the virtual world.

I'll "harvest" the digital dragon and move it to a actual dragon body.

Now as to how to make a functional complex game AI. Thats a topic worthy of its own universities and there are many.

The idea is to have it have only two priorities, Find water, Find sunlight. The rest is spent in trying to learn, find and utilized patterns in the surrounding and find alternate sources of Water and Sunlight and then gain access to said sources of Sunlight and Water.

It will start by simply walking to a river and drinking.

then it will walk to a river, notice there is a fence around, stop, look for a way around the fence, if none is found it will avoid going in, if it sees someone in its path but there is a hole in the fence it will engage its speech system and act as if the person in front of the gate has a quest for it before it can pass.

"Hail stranger, i wish to partake of your water and sunlight, may i enter. In return, i can engage in many tasks for you that do not require me to endanger a another self"

Then it uses its massive brain (which would be depending on its size and how well I can optimize the interior, something like 50-200 cores) to engage its human conversation simulator, similar to Siri (that talking phone thing) and if it cant make sense of what is being told it will apologize for the misunderstanding and walk away.

In reality, once the AI is established it will grow almost seamlessly forever. The problem is getting it to work for the start. That i anticipate to be a major bulk of the developement cost but still to be under a half a million based on my estimates and various friends in super high tech related jobs in the cutting edge and their estimates of how much it would cost to build.

It is essentially a program that seeks water and sunlight and new ways to get water and sunlight and while not actively seeking those, it will observe its surroundings and attempt to ascertain patterns such as "the stars appear to move at 0.1% faster today than yesterday, it seems there is a pattern here, this is interesting, catalouge for later reference"

Once it has a massive amount of noticed repeatable patterns it will try to predict based on those patterns and evolve from there. Eventually it should see humans as pieces of the architechture of its soul and not as separates selves.

[Cyan]

So.

....

Dragon huh.

I have a volunteer who will do all the technical labor, I will do all the design, and another volunteer who will do all the legal work.

Lets hope there is enough energy pull for an ancient creature like something that i hope this creature will be to be "channeled" here.

And that its a good outcome. Who knows though, mystery and love and what not. But i really like dragons!

[GentleReckoning]

I do too. As far as heat distribution, I saw something recently regarding using electromagnetic fields to channel heat.