The Design and Impracticality of the Etheric Wall

is a paper written by Rose Clintock theorizing on how a force field would work, and why it should never be employed.
== Summary ==
The paper begins by discussing the nature of atoms and why they do not pass through each other. These naturally-occurring stable waves in the aether create forces that repel each other more and more strongly as two atoms move closer to each other. As they are wavelengths of etheric energy, it should therefore be possible to create artificial short-lived wavelenths that strongly mimic these naturally-occurring ones.
The paper addresses some immediate issues with this approach. Naturally, since etheric energy does not have much weight to it, this would be like parting a curtain of water. For this method to be truly effective, it would require a tremendous amount of energy to be "poured" out. Clintock uses the water analogy again and compares the difference to a gentle stream and a high-pressure water blast that can cut through steel.
It is at this point that Clintock begins to delve deeper into what she believes to be the impracticality of the device. It would require such huge amounts of energy that to run it for even a minute would require vast wealth. She does hedge this by acknowledging that some of the energy could be recycled at a receiving point, but that it would lose over 60% of the energy put into the device in even the most efficient solutions.
What follows in the paper is a comparison of an "etheric wall" to a "mundane wall". Clintock shows that a 6" steel wall would be just as effective, if not more so, in nearly every use-case. As many have wondered on in speculation, she also considers its use in spacecraft. It is here that she shows that it would be nearly impossible to assure 100% coverage of a vessel due to the nature of the emitter/receiver combination needing to be visible somewhere. Traditional gunfire would have a high likelihood in destroying the device (approximately 1/20 shots). Furthermore, etheric cannons would be able to fire through it without any hinderance.
For these reasons Clintock concludes that no use case exists where an etheric wall would ever be more practical than a mundane wall and implores the reader to consider any other option.
Category:Academic Papers