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Pharaoh RutinTutin

Q&A Monday April 15, 2019

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http://egscomics.com/comic/qa8-16

 

 

Dan doesn't know the details regarding the construction or operation of Grace's Antennae.

But at least he admits it.

It reminds me of Quantum Mechanics.  We don't know WHY it works.  We can barely describe HOW it works.  It just works.  Get over it.

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After reading the commentary, I imagined some archaeologist digging up Grace's grave thousands of years in the future, and finding only some teeth, fragments of bone, and the fur-free cores of her antennae, still in perfect condition. 

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This definitely seems like one of those "I did it because I thought it looked good" things that Dan eventually fleshed out to have neat abilities and such, but never really thought about them in anatomical terms.

We've seen them go stiff when surprised or shocked, and all sorts of flexibility which suggests some sort of bone structure, like a cat's tail. But one thing to consider is Grace's telekinetic ability seems to only be usable when her antennae are out, so it might be possible that it's telekinesis moving them around, this would avoid the idea of a double set of tailbones growing out of Grace's forehead, but it still raises questions about Noah's antennae, yeah we've seen him fly but it's unclear whether it's telekinesis or magic, the way his antennae fan out like wings suggests they're the source, but the only time we've seen him like that is when he was in the shadow form, it might be his only Uryuom ability but no conclusive evidence yet.

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Ok. My questions remained unanswered.

11 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Dan doesn't know the details regarding the construction or operation of Grace's Antennae.

The information that it's really just like Uryuom antennae is still useful. I mean, I find hard to imagine how something so thin can support such weight of fur, but at least it's consistent. They LOOK so different this possibility didn't really occured to me before ...

11 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

It reminds me of Quantum Mechanics.  We don't know WHY it works.  We can barely describe HOW it works.  It just works.  Get over it.

Quantum Mechanics is counterintuitive: if you try to understand it, you very likely get it wrong (compared to computing the results).

9 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

After reading the commentary, I imagined some archaeologist digging up Grace's grave thousands of years in the future, and finding only some teeth, fragments of bone, and the fur-free cores of her antennae, still in perfect condition. 

Must happen all the time on Uryuom parent planet. Very useful.

9 hours ago, Scotty said:

We've seen them go stiff when surprised or shocked, and all sorts of flexibility which suggests some sort of bone structure, like a cat's tail.

We also saw Grace do this with them. I mean, not sure what exactly she's doing but it seems to suggest very interesting kind of movement.

And then we have Archie, who holds drum stick in them.

On the other hand, compare bug antennae, which can do all sorts of tricks without true bone.

9 hours ago, Scotty said:

But one thing to consider is Grace's telekinetic ability seems to only be usable when her antennae are out, so it might be possible that it's telekinesis moving them around, this would avoid the idea of a double set of tailbones growing out of Grace's forehead, but it still raises questions about Noah's antennae, yeah we've seen him fly but it's unclear whether it's telekinesis or magic, the way his antennae fan out like wings suggests they're the source, but the only time we've seen him like that is when he was in the shadow form, it might be his only Uryuom ability but no conclusive evidence yet.

It's also possible that Uryuoms can use their shapeshifting to move the antennae. I mean, however the shapeshifting works, it certainly involves moving something, and moving the antennae might be exception to the general limitation of only switching between forms Uryuoms without lespuko blood have.

... still, what Noah does with his "wings" certainly suggest much greater variability in antennae shapes than anything else, so maybe there is something else in play there ...

 

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4 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Quantum Mechanics is counterintuitive: if you try to understand it, you very likely get it wrong (compared to computing the results).

Yeah, we are not evolved to understand quantum stuff. What use would understanding quantum be to a caveman? The closest he would ever get to quantum anything is a crude grasp of chemistry. It's Newtonian mechanics that describe the environment of everyday low-tech experience, which is why that was the first mathematically-consistent system that we figured out.

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35 minutes ago, ijuin said:
5 hours ago, hkmaly said:

Quantum Mechanics is counterintuitive: if you try to understand it, you very likely get it wrong (compared to computing the results).

Yeah, we are not evolved to understand quantum stuff. What use would understanding quantum be to a caveman? The closest he would ever get to quantum anything is a crude grasp of chemistry. It's Newtonian mechanics that describe the environment of everyday low-tech experience, which is why that was the first mathematically-consistent system that we figured out.

Actually, caveman can describe his environment quite well just with Aristotles physic. That's why it took so long before someone realized that it doesn't work. But yes, Newtonian mechanics can be understood intuitively. Relativistic physic is on border where you need to be very careful ... and quantum physics is impossible.

However, I wouldn't be so sure it has anything to do with evolution. We didn't evolved to understand Newtonian mechanics ... well, actually, we did ; the part which EVOLVED to understand Newtonian mechanics is the part of brain allowing us to catch thrown ball ; but the understanding of, say, orbital mechanics is handled by part of brain which actually evolved to be capable of learning and reprogramming itself, and it's original purpose was likely predicting behavior of predators, prey and fellow caveman. (That may be the reason why it's so easy to personify things. We may see Zeus behind storm because the part of brain we use to predict behavior of storm was designed to see someone behind the behavior.)

We may be able to learn the correct kind of intuition for quantum mechanics if we had enough experience in different kind of environment. Like, the starting point would likely be Alice in Wonderland. The problem isn't our brain not being capable of learning that ; it's that we don't have where to learn that from, as learning it directly from the equations of quantum mechanics is too big jump.

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11 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

I picture Grace's antennae being more like cephalopod appendages, which can be extremely adaptable.

That would actually make more sense BEFORE we found that they look like Uryuom antennae covered with fur, meaning that most of their volume is actually fur.

... but maybe it's still big enough to use the same tricks ...

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