Asimov and Heinlein went to laborious detail on the physics of travel. Early Heinlein very much so.

The janitor is the least respected person till there is puke to clean up, then he's the man of the hour.

I've been writing myself, and my jealousy spiked when i saw this thread. Primarily for the reasons you cite. Why didn't i think of this a year ago when I was pouring through physics texts and examining long voyage conditions of the seafaring days?

I am an OTR truck driver... and this is no longer accurate. I use verizon tethering for my internet and in the two years I have been using it thus, I have not had a single failure within reason. (broke down in the middle of the mountains of nevada... no signal. But there was NO signal of any sort there, no radio, no TV, no cell of any company..)

There are many of us from back when there were no degrees in the field. The rare individual who had a degree at all had one in mathematics, or electronic engineering. Steve jobs- No degree Steve Wozniak - BS- E.E. Bill Gates - No Degree (harvard drop out) Steve Ballmer - BS mathematics and economics