Story Friday, December 22nd, 2023

[AFNB 39]

Has vibes of The Dresden Files, Book 4 (Dan has indicated that he's a reader).

There's a point when Harry Dresden goes on for a few paragraphs about how, when you really think about it, airplanes are amazing.

[mlooney 3,417]

As y'all know I said that Pandora was my waifu.  She has done nothing as Hope that changes that.  Her sense of wonder about the mundane makes me want to hug her. 

[AFNB 39]

2 minutes ago, mlooney said:

As y'all know I said that Pandora was my waifu.  She has done nothing as Hope that changes that.  Her sense of wonder about the mundane makes me want to hug her. 

But do you want Adrien as a stepson?

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

 

Gazing at the flourescent tube, Hope hears an angelic choir. 

Then, with a commanding voice heard by no one else, James Brown asks Hope a profound question.

"Have You Seen the Light?"

Hope begins to repeatedly mumble somthing with growing conviction.

Finally she looks Justin in the eye and shouts, "The Band Justin!  THE BAND!"

 

[Amiable Dorsai 70]

I took it as an indication that she still remembers a time when candles were high-end illumination tech.  So she probably remembers quite a lot.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

This comic is troubling from the aspect that it portrays Justin as particularly unobservant and clueless. Hope has come into his store, appearing unsure of herself and easily startled, and he has reached out to her to reassure her. All fine and dandy. But Justin has magic, and is aware of magic, and has interacted with less than benign supernatural beings, so his Spidey sense should be alerting him to 'something is not right here'. This already strange girl is fixated on a normal illumination device, then makes a statement indicating that it may not be within the realm of her common previous experience. That's not, 'Gee, I should be more introspective', that's a red flag, 'What the Hell is up with you?' Hope's use of the word 'summon' for turning on a light is another red flag, dude. And referencing fire as a source of illumination? . . . When is the last time you lit a candle to read by?

Panel seven should have Justin asking, "Who are you?"

Hope is not very good at this hiding in plain sight thing.

[ijuin 572]

1 hour ago, Amiable Dorsai said:

I took it as an indication that she still remembers a time when candles were high-end illumination tech.  So she probably remembers quite a lot.

Practical electric lights were only developed about 140 years ago. The typical Immortal Regeneration cycle is every “200 years and a bit”.

5 hours ago, AFNB said:

There's a point when Harry Dresden goes on for a few paragraphs about how, when you really think about it, airplanes are amazing.

A lot of things that are now common would seem magical to medieval people and would have been out of reach even to King Louis XIV despite all of his wealth and power. Keep your home cool when it is blistering hot outside? Have any food you want ready within minutes? Fly to the opposite side of the world in a single day? Pick up a hand-sized device and talk to anyone, anywhere in the world in real time?

[Darth Fluffy 302]

4 hours ago, ijuin said:

Practical electric lights were only developed about 140 years ago. The typical Immortal Regeneration cycle is every “200 years and a bit”.

Pandora has been in Sarah's room, Tedd's basement, and the Mall, all recently. If Hope remembers 'fire' she should remember 'lights'.

Plus, a good deal of her extended life was voyeurism into the EGS world. I don't think she gets a pass for not knowing.

 

4 hours ago, ijuin said:

Pick up a hand-sized device and talk to anyone, anywhere in the world in real time?

Seriously, that seemed unrealistic on Star Trek when it first aired. Mine seems more sophisticated than the communicator and tricorder combined.

 

[Amiable Dorsai 70]

5 hours ago, ijuin said:

Practical electric lights were only developed about 140 years ago. The typical Immortal Regeneration cycle is every “200 years and a bit”.

Sure, but Hope was regenerated at most a few weeks ago, comics time. That she thinks of electric lights as something exceptional indicates that at least some of her retained memories predate Edison. It seems unlikely that Zeus, for example, would think that way.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

19 hours ago, Amiable Dorsai said:

I took it as an indication that she still remembers a time when candles were high-end illumination tech.  So she probably remembers quite a lot.

 

18 hours ago, ijuin said:

Practical electric lights were only developed about 140 years ago. The typical Immortal Regeneration cycle is every “200 years and a bit”.

 

14 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Pandora has been in Sarah's room, Tedd's basement, and the Mall, all recently. If Hope remembers 'fire' she should remember 'lights'.

Plus, a good deal of her extended life was voyeurism into the EGS world. I don't think she gets a pass for not knowing.

 

13 hours ago, Amiable Dorsai said:

Sure, but Hope was regenerated at most a few weeks ago, comics time. That she thinks of electric lights as something exceptional indicates that at least some of her retained memories predate Edison. It seems unlikely that Zeus, for example, would think that way.

 

This train of thought raises good points. I think the deal is that as a people, in a world building sense, the Immortals were not well thought out when introduced. Not trying to cast shade on Dan here; this is more or less normal. Fictitious people are as detailed as the plot needs them to be. As the milieu grows, the need for detail grows as well. It can, to some extent, grow organically, but often reaches a point where much is uncomfortably grafted in, or more jarringly, is retconned in.

In EGS, immortals were initially a pervasive, significant side show. They've grown in importance, an now a main character is one. It would be odd if this went smoothly and did not require adjustment.

Think Klingons on Star Trek. "We don't talk about that."

At some point, Dan will have to decide on an overall back story for immortals, 'what are immortals, exactly?' Did they evolve in their spirit realm? Or did the ascend to their realm from more mundane origins? Are they universal - touching all multiversal realms? (It seems so, Magus ended up in Pandora's realm.) Do the ones from different universes communicate? (Apparently not; we've seen they have different rules.) Can they travel between these universes? (Corollary of previous, it seems unlikely, or they'd communicate.)

Taken as a whole, the scant parts we already know are inconsistent. Magus, from another universe, was thrust into a non-material realm that adjoins the EGS universe, yet the EGS universe immortals have different rules than the griffin universe immortals.

We are watching different shows based on the same material, and the Klingons on the new one do not match the old show.

Hopes observations are not untoward, but they don't match the old show. She is currently fascinated by the muggle technology. Hmm.

Another inconsistency is mind reading. Zeus was pretty clear that he does not. Yet Hope was shown as overwhelmed by the shear volume of surrounding thoughts.

Re: Did they evolve in the spirit realm, it seems highly unlikely that they would have a default human-like form if they had.

Related; how do aberrations happen? Is this like a failed ascension?

Why was Magus unable to cast spells in the Immortals' realm? Why would he need his body to do so?

Why is Steve, the crystal turtle frog, considered to be a deity? What does that even mean in this context? Just an order of magnitude more powerful spell caster? The griffins know of him, so I guess he is multiversal. That seems to place him above the Immortals. Is he one of a race, or is he unique? What is his origin story?

Re: planning; a lot of Dan's non-canon eventually becomes canon. The Q&A crew are this.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

 

Hope is a wandering phillosopher.

With a child's question, she can make an adult reexamine every belief.

 

[ChronosCat 155]

On 12/22/2023 at 7:30 PM, Darth Fluffy said:

Seriously, that seemed unrealistic on Star Trek when it first aired. Mine seems more sophisticated than the communicator and tricorder combined.

Depends on what you mean by "sophisticated". The communicators have a much greater range than the average cell phone (I'm pretty sure mine couldn't communicate with a ship in orbit without relays), and the tricorders have much more comprehensive and detailed scanning abilities than today's phones (though the gap is closing). Of course a smart phone is far more versatile than a communicator and a tricorder combined, and the design of the communicators and tricorders in the Original Series looks very retro these days (but that's more a matter of changing tastes in aesthetics than technological sophistication).

[Darth Fluffy 302]

1 hour ago, ChronosCat said:

Depends on what you mean by "sophisticated". The communicators have a much greater range than the average cell phone (I'm pretty sure mine couldn't communicate with a ship in orbit without relays), and the tricorders have much more comprehensive and detailed scanning abilities than today's phones (though the gap is closing). Of course a smart phone is far more versatile than a communicator and a tricorder combined, and the design of the communicators and tricorders in the Original Series looks very retro these days (but that's more a matter of changing tastes in aesthetics than technological sophistication).

Cell phones indeed have a very limited range. You can boost this, external to the phone itself, but it is prohibitive to do so within the phone for power consumed, and also size and weight, and has diminishing returns. Presumably, much of the communication capability of the communicators would be based on the ability of the Enterprise to send and receive the signal as an efficient tower surrogate.

The range to a ship in orbit is ambiguous, especially in the show. Most human activity in space is within a couple hundred miles of the surface. We have not sent people beyond this since the Apollo Program, unless it has been clandestine, and we don't generally know about it. (This seems unlikely to me.) The show had images that showed 'orbiting' well beyond this; it seems likely for esthetic effect, 'We are clearly in space', but often mentions 'orbital decay' which is a significant phenomenon close in, not so much at great range. In the Gary Seven episode, the Enterprise is a large object visible in the sky. There does not seem to be more than a nod to how far away the Enterprise orbits from show to show.

Tricorder  *  Tricorder  *  Tricorder  *  Tricorder

Canon is the 'tri' is GEO(LOGICAL), BIO(LOGICAL), and MET(EROLOGICAL). This is a fantasy ensemble of capabilities that make more sense for the ship itself to have than for a handheld device to have. Realistically, in a Star Trek-like setting, meteorological data would be analyzed from the ship before sending an away team, and would be kept up to date; even in our era, the military keeps track of weather that affects ops. The away crew would get updates from the ship. Bio would be done in a lab or in sick bay because precision and verification is important, a local suite of sensors would augment the data and keep it up to date. If you wear a bio-sensing watch, that does not mean you do not visit a doctor. Geological data is trickier, but any observational data would likely occur from the ship, because a larger lens resolves smaller details. Anything close up looking through material would probably involve deploying bulky sending units and bulky sensors that are actually on the surface.

Our phones cannot come close to the imagined capabilities, but we can use them to access the information, assuming you have a good signal and internet access. You can get auxiliary components to monitor health variables, and meteorological data is within the grasp of a cell phone if the demand was there to incorporate the sensors. You could also feed your phone from your own weather station.

Direct geological observation through material is beyond the reach of your cell phone. However, ground penetrating radar has become an available technology for some public services to ensure they to not cut buried lines and pipes. Sonar is available to fishermen wanting to spot schools. these could be linked to a cell phone through Blue Tooth if the demand is there; I'm not aware that this has been done or not.

So, what can a cell phone do? Baseline modern cell phones sense rotation (at least two sets of three axis accellerometers), inclination, can listen and record, can record images and video, can sense location via GPS, keep track of time, and report their charge. They can store internally, to the cloud, on a removable flash drive, or to an attached device. They can access a vast wealth of information through the Internet. With a health monitoring auxiliary device, the combo can record various aspects of one's well being.

A TOS tricorder is also technologically inferior in several ways. It is bulky, heavier than a cell phone, and the attendant storage items are a fairly large item, a disk somewhere around the size of two nickels or quarters stacked together. Yes, it fit the esthetic of the era the show was aired; gear was still bulky, and at the time the tricorder appeared to be less so. But you weren't going to fit it in your pocket, like you do with a cell phone.

 

[ChronosCat 155]

22 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

A TOS tricorder is also technologically inferior in several ways. It is bulky, heavier than a cell phone, and the attendant storage items are a fairly large item, a disk somewhere around the size of two nickels or quarters stacked together. Yes, it fit the esthetic of the era the show was aired; gear was still bulky, and at the time the tricorder appeared to be less so. But you weren't going to fit it in your pocket, like you do with a cell phone.

I had forgotten how cumbersome the TOS tricorder was. (While I've seen most of TOS I don't think I've seen all of it, and I definitely haven't seen all of it more than once; it's also been a couple years since I watched any of it.) When I think "tricorder" the TNG-era version comes to mind; those are still bigger and bulkier than a phone, but not nearly as much as the TOS version (also, while it might not fit in the average shirt or pants pocket, it could fit in a large jacket pocket or something).

[Darth Fluffy 302]

2 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

I had forgotten how cumbersome the TOS tricorder was. (While I've seen most of TOS I don't think I've seen all of it, and I definitely haven't seen all of it more than once; it's also been a couple years since I watched any of it.) When I think "tricorder" the TNG-era version comes to mind; those are still bigger and bulkier than a phone, but not nearly as much as the TOS version (also, while it might not fit in the average shirt or pants pocket, it could fit in a large jacket pocket or something).

I was an older child, but still a child, when TOS aired. It was ground breaking in its day. Has not aged well. I believe there are only three of the TOS cast left, William Shatner, George Takei, and Walter Koenig. I think none of them were in the pilot, Shatner was there for the full run, George came in early, maybe first season, and Walter was maybe from second season onward? Not sure, and need to get out the door, so I'm not going to check.

Walter Koenig has caught flack for his Russian accent; I knew a translator who said it was not authentic, but he learned the accent from family that came from Russia. I suspect it is a regional thing. His surname is German for king.

Now I need to find a station that's playing Jingle Bells in the original Klingon. It looses a lot in translation, the Earth version has very little bloodshed.

[AFNB 39]

On 12/25/2023 at 2:28 PM, Darth Fluffy said:

Now I need to find a station that's playing Jingle Bells in the original Klingon. It looses a lot in translation, the Earth version has very little bloodshed.

I have never met this "Holly" person, but she must be a great warrior if we are encouraged to deck our halls with her bowels. 

[ijuin 572]

On 12/25/2023 at 11:28 AM, Darth Fluffy said:

Now I need to find a station that's playing Jingle Bells in the original Klingon. It looses a lot in translation, the Earth version has very little bloodshed.

Oh what fun it is to sing a slaying song tonight!

[Darth Fluffy 302]

5 hours ago, ijuin said:

Oh what fun it is to sing a slaying song tonight!

I see you have the accurate translation.

[Amiable Dorsai 70]

On 12/24/2023 at 0:03 PM, Darth Fluffy said:

The show had images that showed 'orbiting' well beyond this; it seems likely for esthetic effect, 'We are clearly in space', but often mentions 'orbital decay' which is a significant phenomenon close in, not so much at great range. In the Gary Seven episode, the Enterprise is a large object visible in the sky. There does not seem to be more than a nod to how far away the Enterprise orbits from show to show.

I think a lot of the problems with "orbital" mechanics in Trek can be solved by noting that there's no particular reason for their ships to actually orbit--they can just hover over whatever part of a planet they find interesting. Say, the part with an away team on it. Would that require fantastic amounts of energy? Sure, but these guys get their power from matter-antimatter reactions.  'Orbital decay' seems to happen when something goes wrong with the engines. We would probably refer to the phenomenon as 'falling'.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

4 hours ago, Amiable Dorsai said:

I think a lot of the problems with "orbital" mechanics in Trek can be solved by noting that there's no particular reason for their ships to actually orbit--they can just hover over whatever part of a planet they find interesting. Say, the part with an away team on it. Would that require fantastic amounts of energy? Sure, but these guys get their power from matter-antimatter reactions.  'Orbital decay' seems to happen when something goes wrong with the engines. We would probably refer to the phenomenon as 'falling'.

That is a possibility. It seems the ships are capable of whatever the plot demands at the moment.

I would have to re-watch a TOS show, but I think the planets were shown rotating under them, which would say they are actually orbiting. And they call it 'orbit'. And, even with anti-gravity tech, it would still be a safety factor. Might interfere with operations to not be in line of sight. They could have deployable relays to take care of that. Good grief, we already have those, several ways.

For Gene Roddenberry, it was a platform for story telling more than it was a technical exercise.

[ijuin 572]

If they need to stay above a specific site, then they can choose a synchronous orbit (assuming that the planet doesn’t have ultra-slow rotation, in which case a Milniya orbit, which spends over 75% of its time over a target site, would be preferred). Federation transporters from Kirk’s era onward are stated to have a typical range of at least 25 thousand miles (40 thousand kilometers).