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On Miracles

Started by trdsf, January 09, 2018, 11:38:24 AM

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Unbeliever

Very satisfying. I hope there's a sequel.
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

omokuroi

#61
Quote from: Unbeliever on January 16, 2018, 02:03:15 PM
A couple of months back I read a book called The Long Earth, by Steven Baxter...

It's a fascinating look at the implications of the connection of all the parallel Earths.
That does sound quite interesting. I might need to check it out myself...

Though, in my case, the many-worlds interpretation is present but really just used as a plot device. Unlike many stories, it doesn't end up being a major theme or plot element or anything.

I did have an idea for a side story which was supposed to take place in the universe they used as a testbed for the technology, but other than that, it all takes place on "our" Earth.

The major themes revolve more around transhumanism, political philosophy, metaphysical idealism, Taoism, and some Jungian character analysis here and there.

(As an aside, I'm not sure whether I should be happy or sad to see a Reimu and a Byakuren here, when one of my major characters was designed while listening to an orchestral arrangement of Septette for the Dead Princess... She is, of course, immortal. Not a vampire though.)

Unbeliever

It would be nice if we could do our dangerous manufacturing in a different universe, it would keep us from so polluting our own. It would also be nice if we could garner energy from other universes, a potentially infinite supply. I've speculated that if hell really existed, we could tap it for thermal energy, but unfortunately it doesn't exist.
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

omokuroi

Quote from: Unbeliever on January 16, 2018, 03:04:34 PM
It would be nice if we could do our dangerous manufacturing in a different universe, it would keep us from so polluting our own. It would also be nice if we could garner energy from other universes, a potentially infinite supply. I've speculated that if hell really existed, we could tap it for thermal energy, but unfortunately it doesn't exist.
My thinking goes that that would be about like using a heat pump to control the temperature of a building.

I.e. not very efficient, especially in the long-term.

trdsf

Quote from: Unbeliever on January 16, 2018, 03:04:34 PM
It would be nice if we could do our dangerous manufacturing in a different universe, it would keep us from so polluting our own. It would also be nice if we could garner energy from other universes, a potentially infinite supply. I've speculated that if hell really existed, we could tap it for thermal energy, but unfortunately it doesn't exist.
See Asimov's The Gods Themselves: using the structural differences between our universe and a neighboring one as a power generator.
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

GSOgymrat

Quote from: Unbeliever on January 16, 2018, 03:04:34 PM
It would also be nice if we could garner energy from other universes, a potentially infinite supply. I've speculated that if hell really existed, we could tap it for thermal energy, but unfortunately it doesn't exist.

I'm not so sure about drawing vast amounts of energy from other universes. As a child, I always built my secret subterranean lair inside an active volcano so I would have limitless thermal energy for the death ray, spacejet and zoo of genetically engineered man-beasts. Every time something would go horribly, horribly wrong.

omokuroi

Quote from: GSOgymrat on January 16, 2018, 04:22:51 PM
I'm not so sure about drawing vast amounts of energy from other universes. As a child, I always built my secret subterranean lair inside an active volcano so I would have limitless thermal energy for the death ray, spacejet and zoo of genetically engineered man-beasts. Every time something would go horribly, horribly wrong.
I built mine deep underground in the Antarctic so people would leave me alone.

It must have worked. Nobody has found any bases there.

Baruch

Quote from: GSOgymrat on January 16, 2018, 04:22:51 PM
I'm not so sure about drawing vast amounts of energy from other universes. As a child, I always built my secret subterranean lair inside an active volcano so I would have limitless thermal energy for the death ray, spacejet and zoo of genetically engineered man-beasts. Every time something would go horribly, horribly wrong.

Yes, moderns don't have any mythology ;-)  Our gods are mad scientists or magic wielding neuro-surgeons ;-))
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Baruch

Quote from: omokuroi on January 16, 2018, 04:35:08 PM
I built mine deep underground in the Antarctic so people would leave me alone.

It must have worked. Nobody has found any bases there.

Per the sequel to Iron Sky, Hitler lives under the South Pole.  So are you Hitler?
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

omokuroi

Quote from: Baruch on January 16, 2018, 06:57:04 PM
Per the sequel to Iron Sky, Hitler lives under the South Pole.  So are you Hitler?
It's complicated. I actually had multiple characters who represented different aspects of myself, one of them being an important figure in the eeeeevil organisation and the other being one of the protagonists infiltrating the base.

So if we split the difference I guess I'm slightly less than 50% Hitler? 98 Proof Fuhrer Ale.

Baruch

Quote from: omokuroi on January 16, 2018, 06:59:47 PM
It's complicated. I actually had multiple characters who represented different aspects of myself, one of them being an important figure in the eeeeevil organisation and the other being one of the protagonists infiltrating the base.

So if we split the difference I guess I'm slightly less than 50% Hitler? 98 Proof Fuhrer Ale.

Did you see any of Iron Sky or the sequels?  Sarah Palin as POTUS.  Yes, all fiction, including Vulcans and Klingons, are just projections of subordinate parts of our archetypical personalities.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

omokuroi

Quote from: Baruch on January 16, 2018, 07:03:23 PM
Yes, all fiction, including Vulcans and Klingons, are just projections of subordinate parts of our archetypical personalities.
Obviously. Any character written by a person will only say things, take actions, and express sentiments the writer is also capable of saying, taking, and expressing.

Even when you base a character off "another" person, you're actually basing them off your image of that person, and your image of that person uses the mirror neuron system of your brain, which means that you're only writing that person to the extent that you are capable of actually being that person yourself.

...Sorry, maybe that was a little confusing?

Anyway, that's not to say people actually ever do act like their characters. Just that they can't write a character who doesn't exist inside them, even if it's a part of them they never let out.

Blackleaf

Quote from: Unbeliever on January 16, 2018, 03:04:34 PM
It would be nice if we could do our dangerous manufacturing in a different universe, it would keep us from so polluting our own. It would also be nice if we could garner energy from other universes, a potentially infinite supply. I've speculated that if hell really existed, we could tap it for thermal energy, but unfortunately it doesn't exist.

Hey. Maybe that's why God created Hell, so he could feed off of the energy of the countless souls burning in it. That would explain why he would make it so goddamn impossible to avoid it, and so impossible to escape once you're in it. A being of such incredible power would require quite a large source of energy.
"Oh, wearisome condition of humanity,
Born under one law, to another bound;
Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity,
Created sick, commanded to be sound."
--Fulke Greville--

omokuroi

Quote from: Blackleaf on January 16, 2018, 09:10:50 PM
Hey. Maybe that's why God created Hell, so he could feed off of the energy of the countless souls burning in it. That would explain why he would make it so goddamn impossible to avoid it, and so impossible to escape once you're in it. A being of such incredible power would require quite a large source of energy.
But can God create an energy source so bottomless even He can't exhaust it?

Cavebear

Quote from: Baruch on January 10, 2018, 02:19:26 PM
You aren't an ancient Greek either, let alone Thales.  No, you can't explain anything ... you can assume an electron with a magnetic moment ... and that is something consistent with the Dirac equation.  But nobody understands quantum mechanics, so no, nobody understands the electron, or magnetic fields formed by electrons.  Everyone here is just like that guy with the 200+ IQ ... full of jargon, that has no real meaning.  Idiot savants, just like a talking ape would be.

I saw film of a uranium atom once.
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!