English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

tchrist

1:51 AM

@MetaEd soundcloud.com/suck-poppet

tchrist

3:27 AM

@Cerberus Hey palaeo person:

3

Q: What was Ꝧ (thorn with stroke through descender) used for in middle/old english?

I was doing some research online and I saw that a thorn with a slash through the ascender was a common abbreviation for "that," but the same website (wikipedia) also listed this character: "Ꝧ". What was it used for? I tried to find out, but the best I could find was that it simply existed and had...

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@tchrist listen to Mr. Ohio say wash.

soundcomparisons.com/#/en/Englishes/language/Ohio

I have to go to bed though. Good night.

tchrist

3:45 AM

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 What an odd vowel he has in [wɜ̠ʃ ]!

Færd

What's the difference between a cat and a compound sentence?

One has claws at the end of its paws; the other has a pause at the end of its clause.

Tonepoet

The voting system on this website makes me want to sigh sometimes. Based on the upticks in the comments, it seems to me almost as if all of the six people who voted for this accepted answer realized it was the wrong one because it's not a noun.

Tonepoet

6:59 AM

@curiousdannii Also it's too many to be practical apparently.

M.A.R.

@Tonepoet Doesn't it always? People always less know than you about how to vote

Tonepoet

@M.A.R. Hmm, I think always is a little too hyperbolic for my taste.

M.A.R.

Aren't we all?

Tonepoet

Hmm, I suppose by that all you mean all hyperbolic. Is that right? Well, I can't say I haven't been guilty of it in the past, but I try to avoid it presently.

This is especially so since people can't distinguish a joke from a serious statement much anymore.

M.A.R.

We know who to thank for that

Tonepoet

7:14 AM

Forgive my impudence, for I did not know I was speaking to royalty.

M.A.R.

@Tonepoet We accept your apologies, and we relieve you of your duty. Come back to we in one hour and a score of minutes so we give you further orders

Zeta.Investigator

7:57 AM

Should I say "90 percent of the time" or "90 percent of the times" ?

M.A.R.

@Zeta.Investigator 'time' usually

SmokeDetector

8:14 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer, bad keyword with email in answer, email in answer: What do you call someone who either borrows money, or receives equity funding? by Richard on english.SE

englishstudent

10:20 AM

Are both these correct: "The company wants your number so they can talk to you in private if they wanted" and "The company wants your number so they can talk to you in private if they want"?

SadBunny

12:37 PM

@Hell

@Hellion THANKS! "Rigging the system" is exactly the kind of expression I was looking for! (Sorry for the late response, don't know if this will still reach you.) you are awesome.

@eng

@englishstudent "to prep" would be applicable as well I guess, but "to rig" is better suited for what I indended to communicate in my piece of Javadoc.

@englishstudent Answering your other question, "SadBunny" is a very old nickname from back in the day, my good old Unreal Tournament period :)

M.A.R.

12:57 PM

@SadBunny It apparently will

Being a sad bunny is sad

englishstudent

1:14 PM

@SadBunny Oh ok :)

When I used to play Unreal Tournament with my mates my nickname was "warrior" but I was average at the game not good. Like I would die instantly in "capture the flag" part of the game :/

But good memories, yes.

M.A.R.

@englishstudent Have you watched Warrior?

It's the superawesomest movie evar.

englishstudent

@M.A.R. Yes I hear it is pretty good. A friend once told me to watch that movie with them but I didn't feel like watching mixed martial arts at the time. I will definitely try it some day.

M.A.R.

@englishstudent It's not like the other movies in its theme

englishstudent

Tom Hardy is one of my favorite actors.

M.A.R.

It relies heavily on character drama than action sequences

englishstudent

1:27 PM

oh ok.

M.A.R.

@englishstudent Yeah, and dang he devotes himself to his movies

MetaEd

6:40 PM

Well, crap. Hope that's the last time I accidentally cite a white supremacist website in an answer. :"|

Færd

The term is coming back into fashion. I'm hearing it a lot more these days.

Maybe following the recent election.

Funny I don't know if I count as white or brown or what.

M.A.R.

I'm kinda brown I guess

But a lot of Europeans my age are called white but look brown

So it's pretty confusing

Færd

Nice complexion. We call it green in Farsi though, I guess.

سبزه

It's all a mess.

M.A.R.

I'm only greenish when I wanna vomit

Færd

Next time check in a mirror and make sure.

Mitch

6:55 PM

@Færd wipe off the mirror first

Færd

Just before, I meant.

So wipe it off in the end.

Mitch

@MetaEd wait...which link?

MetaEd

@Mitch See the edit history on my answer to the "Germaic" question.

Mitch

@Færd The term has been used commonly for a long time. The topic has been more common lately because of politics in the past year and a half.

@MetaEd Oh. storm front. I won't be clicking

sigh

Færd

@Mitch Yeah, that.

MetaEd

7:01 PM

@Mitch Yeah. That sinking feeling when I went back to get the name of the site in order to credit them.

Mitch

I was just trying to point out that the term itself isn't the thing that is fashionable (because really I can't think of another term for it).

So my point on the whole Germaic thing is ...wait... I have so many points!

1) why does that parent trust the internet more than herself. She's been around a lot longer.

2) there are mistakes. just because people do it, it can still be a mistake.

MetaEd

@Mitch Maybe because crowdsourcing does work.

Mitch

ok. two points.

Færd

White supremacy is not an issue in Iran, maybe because Iranians don't feel threatened by blacks or otherwise colored people.

But they have their own prejudices; some Iranians can be pretty mean toward Afghans for example, of whom we have a lot in some of our cities.

MetaEd

> Our four...no... Amongst our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again.

Mitch

7:04 PM

@MetaEd except (oh and I hinted at that) that it a) doesnt always work and b) is not implemented everywhere i) for good reason because PEOPLE MAKE MISTAKES

MetaEd

@Mitch Yes. A search engine is a great way to find mistakes that a lot of people make.

Mitch

@MetaEd just the search bar look ahead. always go through with the search to makes sure it itself is not a mistake.

@Færd Afghans (in the west of the country) are more Persian than lots of other subcultures in Iran (Azeris, Kurds, Arabs, Turkomani, etc etc)

Everybody is racist.

Færd

Heh. Right.

Mitch

In English (a least in AmE) 'white supremacist' is a very american term for a very american subgroup which gets a lot from German Naziism

M.A.R.

@Mitch Yeah, this one I agree

Mitch

7:09 PM

So I would feel weird about using 'white supremacy' for groups outside of the US, even though it applies almost exactly right to AfD and PEGIDA in Germany.

M.A.R.

And actually the ones trying hardest not to be racist are the ones you should despise most. O.O

Mitch

@M.A.R. I don't see that.

Færd

@Mitch It's only natural, right?

Mitch

that could go in lots of different directions

M.A.R.

@Mitch The politically overly correct people

Mitch

7:11 PM

@M.A.R. OK. Then I totally don't agree.

M.A.R.

It's good not to insult people and their races.

But it's not good to keep bickering everyone about it to make yourself seem more entitled

We prolly don't have the same type of person in mind, Mitch

Mitch

It's like saying "I hate hypocrites. They're always talking about how murder is bad, but secretly they'd like to murder some people and they're covering up. But those guys over there who are calling for murder, they're OK because we know where they stand."

M.A.R.

No, I didn't mean that

Argh, I'm just dropping it

Færd

An example would be illuminating.

Mitch

@M.A.R. sure. 'holier than thou' is annoying. But not even trying to be holy is worse.

M.A.R.

7:14 PM

Generally, yes

Is that autocorrect?

Or mindcorrect?

Mitch

haha no, it was a mistake! but fixed

a thinko

mindcorrect is good

M.A.R.

Mindcorrect it was. I sometimes type something in chat and just look back at what I typed and I go OMG

Mitch

i just was looking at the 10 (really 9) ways of pronouncing '-ough-'.

Færd

Let the fact that everyone makes them bring you solace.

Mitch

but that's not an excuse. I really thought it was 'though'

@M.A.R. haha. I sometimes look back, expecting to see some witty thing I said (because that's what I hoped it was when I wrote it). And I look at it and wonder what was being talked about, it doesn't make any sense.

M.A.R.

7:18 PM

@Mitch That wasn't a thorough thought though

Mitch

Tough

Færd

I sometimes can guess if someone (actually I have a particular person in mind) is doing their bedtime chat. The nature and amount of the mistakes show it.

M.A.R.

@Mitch That's only this chat

I sometimes look back and I see my wit was actually harshness

Færd

Looking-back obsession.

Mitch

OK so we're putting the oil refinery-in-a-box idea on the back burner (hahahha, I make myself laugh)

But let's pivot to a more food related replicator-in-a-box

how about soda?

coke, sprite, vanilla coke, cherry coke, mountain dew, etc

all from a box the size of...well those soda dispensers in a fast food restaurant

Færd

7:21 PM

Ammonia spirits.

Mitch

nice. That's it? That's the solution?

won't that taste a little ... off?

Færd

It has its use.

Mitch

Hey man, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate

Færd

@Mitch Where did the idea of a box come from?

@Mitch Not if I'm a gas.

(Cheap quip)

drugs.com/cons/…

So it's not a drink. Heh.

M.A.R.

Aromatic ammonia?

Færd

7:31 PM

Yeah.

M.A.R.

O.O

Færd

I don't know chem, OK?

M.A.R.

How can ammonia be aromatic?

Why facts don't change our minds

Færd

Maybe not in the sense of smelling good.

Does ammonia smell at all?

M.A.R.

It does

I was thinking of the technical aromatic

If I'm not mistaken, there are three different 'aromatic's

Færd

7:35 PM

Aromaticity

In organic chemistry, the term aromaticity is used to describe a cyclic (ring-shaped), planar (flat) molecule with a ring of resonance bonds that exhibits more stability than other geometric or connective arrangements with the same set of atoms. Aromatic molecules are very stable, and do not break apart easily to react with other substances. Organic compounds that are not aromatic are classified as aliphatic compounds—they might be cyclic, but only aromatic rings have special stability (low reactivity). Since the most common aromatic compounds are derivatives of benzene (an aromatic hydrocarbon...

M.A.R.

Smelling good, smelling, and yeah, that

Conjugated to a great extent

Færd

I didn't know about the technical one, and am not sure if the second one exists at all.

> 1 : of, relating to, or having aroma :
a : having a noticeable and pleasant smell : fragrant <aromatic herbs> <aromatic wines>
b : having a strong smell <The peat burns with a pungently aromatic smoke.>
c : having a distinctive quality
2 of an organic compound : characterized by increased chemical stability resulting from the delocalization of electrons in a ring system (such as benzene) containing usually multiple conjugated double bonds — compare alicyclic, aliphatic

Maybe it does exist then.

Dream blue, when sleep alights on you.

M.A.R.

@Færd Do you doubt me?

Mitch

@Færd From Star Trek. The replicator

"Give an Earl Grey, hot"

I thought soda would be easier than varieties of tea

M.A.R.

@Mitch Depends on how close to soda you wanna get

Mitch

7:46 PM

Oh and the extra bit to it is that you should be able to give it a sample and have the machine reproduce it

Færd

@Mitch Didn't see it.

Mitch

@M.A.R. I presume it has access to water

also soda

but the flavor is what needs to be synthesized

Færd

@Mitch What's the use of drinking carbonated water?

M.A.R.

@Færd Nice, they use 'delocalization' instead of that stupid term 'resonance'

Færd

@M.A.R. Not anymore.

Mitch

7:47 PM

@Færd look man i dont drink it myself, it's nasty. but lots of people will want it on their space station or star shi.

....p.

M.A.R.

@Færd Keep not doubting me when I make further dubious claims in the future

Mission accomplished

Star Shi sounds Kung fu-ish

Færd

@Mitch It tastes like you've solved stars into your drink, if you want to be poetic about it. To me it's just carbonated water though.

Mitch

@Færd google or alphabet or whatever they call it these days has a sub company created everyday simply to address on piece of scifi tech mentioned on Star Trek.

transporters. tractor beams. ear buds. tricorders.

@M.A.R. like feng shuip

M.A.R.

Huh, why would it be called 'alphabet'?

Feeling un-updated here

Mitch

I dunno, but that's what they called it

the super company of which google is just one part

Færd

7:51 PM

(I used solve incorrectly, and I don't know how to correct it)

Mitch

you know like how Tom Petty got together with Van Halen to make the supergroup the Traveling Willburry's (spelling?)

Færd

@Mitch I should watch it then?

The name doesn't appeal to me.

M.A.R.

@Færd It's better than Star Wars

Færd

Haven't seen that either.

M.A.R.

but if you want something remotely scientific, don't watch a Hollywood movie

Except 'Interstellar'

Mitch

7:53 PM

@Færd The Original series is from the 1960's and is very cheesy looking. and the acting and dialog...also cheesy. but the plots and ideas and tech are all great

M.A.R.

Alphabet Inc.

Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate founded on October 2, 2015, by the two founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, with Page serving as CEO and Brin as President. It is the parent company of Google and several other companies previously owned by them. The company is based in Mountain View, California, at Googleplex. The reorganization of Google into Alphabet was completed on October 2, 2015. Alphabet's portfolio encompasses several industries, including technology, life sciences, investment capital, and research. Some of its subsidiaries include Google, Calico, G...

Ahh, 2015

That explains it

Mitch

@Færd agasp

I bet you haven't seen La La Land either

Færd

Is that a thing?

Mitch

sigh

'La La Land' is both a long-standing disparaging nickname for Los Angeles...

M.A.R.

@Mitch I'm a bit disappointed that it's harvesting Oscars though

Mitch

7:55 PM

and a recent movie that will probably win a lot of Oscars.

M.A.R.

It was good, but not 14-Oscar-nominations good

Færd

A recent thing. I don't particularly try to keep up with these things.

Mitch

@M.A.R. It's an entertaining movie, but...

M.A.R.

But indeed

Mitch

@M.A.R. exactly.

M.A.R.

7:56 PM

@Færd You don't need to

Mitch

@Færd you should try to keep up with things that are coming out in the next 10 years. That's really an effort.

M.A.R.

Especially when Inception and Interstellar win only one/two Oscars.

I mean, I'm biased because I'm a Nolan fan, but come on, all the cheesier movies get the Oscars

Mitch

@M.A.R. Interstellar was just not as good as Inception.

M.A.R.

@Mitch It wasn't, but both are fantastic nonetheless

Mitch

They should have Oscars only for real movies which means scifi

M.A.R.

7:58 PM

Movies that make you think about them for the next week are fantastic

@Mitch What about 'The Dark Knight', that only won two Oscars?

'Mad Max' and 'The Revenant' prolly deserved their Oscars though.

Færd

@Mitch I'll be briefed just chatting with y'all. That's enough.

Mitch

I only thought about La La Land for 10 minutes after I saw it wondering 1) wow, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling had to learn dancing real fast for this movie 2) wow, how did they close down that LA freeway for that long for filming.

then I stopped thinking about it.

@Færd probably more then enough.

@M.A.R. action adventure movies I feel like they just aren't Ocsar worthy.

M.A.R.

@Mitch What is Oscar-worthy though? Anything that gets to ride on people's hype?

Like 'La La Land' and 'Gravity' just did

Mitch

there was a recent bank heist movie which .. maybe... is oscar worthy. but though I enjoyed it, it doesn't feel like a memorable quality movie

@M.A.R. gravity kicked ass.

and also had a good story.

@M.A.R. hype is a distraction

arrival ... great scifi ... but...

manchestter by the sea... heart wrenching... but ...

my pick ... Babe

it's been twenty years but I'm expecting the Academy to realize their mistake.

Færd

One of my students was so crazy about Gravity (the sound effects and techniques and stuff) it put me off watching it even though it aired on one of the IRIB channels.

Mitch

8:04 PM

look man it's not even science fiction (unless you count talking animals as that)

M.A.R.

@Mitch Well, it was new, but it shouldn't have beaten Hans Zimmer's Man of Steel soundtrack

Mitch

@Færd yeah, that's annoying. other people's enthusiasm is never matchable by the experience.

M.A.R.

@Færd All movies aired on IRIB channels are off-putting.

They destroy the sound mixing.

Mitch

@M.A.R. there was music in Gravity?

M.A.R.

Hehe

Mitch

8:06 PM

@M.A.R. with dubbing?

M.A.R.

@Mitch And it won an Oscar

Mitch

@M.A.R. haha really?

M.A.R.

@Mitch No, dubbers are actually quite good. I dunno why they destroy the music.

Mitch

well, the effects were great. most realistic since 2001: A Space Odyssey

M.A.R.

Action music playing in scenes of peace, and peaceful music in scenes of action

@Mitch Yeah. IIRC it was the music producer's first movie to produce music for, and it won an Oscar

Mitch

8:08 PM

@M.A.R. nice

M.A.R.

What music producers do you like?

Færd

I like myself. I sing walking along sidewalks.

Mitch

OK, so maybe not a soda machine but candy flavorings? aren't those just a combination of some basic organic chemicals and sugar?

M.A.R.

Or which movies, for that matter?

@Mitch Everything is a combination of some basic organic chemicals . . .

Mitch

@M.A.R. I don't know what a music producer does. All they seem to do is tell Adele 'Uh...yeah... more of that."

Or with Beyoncé the producer just stands there with mouth open.

M.A.R.

8:11 PM

@Mitch Produce music

Duh

They write the notes, and lead the group the plays the notes with different instruments

Færd

@Mitch Yeah, like, I realize how stupid it is when I enjoy chewy stuff just 'cause they feel nice in my mouth.

Mitch

@M.A.R. AHA! Got you! Now you're thinking! All we need is an organic chemical lab-in-a-box. So what are the basic chemicals we'd need as inputs?

M.A.R.

So they get credited for the movie's music, although it's usually a coordinated effort of some 50 people

Mitch

@M.A.R. Notes? Pfft... let's just jam man, you're so uptight.

M.A.R.

@Mitch One side of the problem is that the less basic and general compounds you use, the harsher conditions you need to apply

Færd

8:13 PM

@Mitch Quarks and electrons and the rest of the elementary particles.

M.A.R.

Physicists . . .

Mitch

@M.A.R. part of the engineering process is to work out the most efficient cutoff point. which are basic chemicals that should be special case industrially produced in order to make it easy to miniaturize a maker that can then produce a number of things itself.

M.A.R.

I knew you'd say that

Mitch

Current soda machines, you just send the preprocessed syrup in canisters, and add carbonated water

M.A.R.

But we're not talking quantitatively here

Mitch

8:15 PM

(I don't think a soda machine replicator is the real thing we want to create, it's just an illustrative device)

@M.A.R. Right, I'm not thinking of a replicator to produce mass quantities, just quick one-offs.

eg the analogy to a 3d printer vs an automated assembly line.

M.A.R.

BTW, this is relevant

Miller–Urey experiment

The Miller–Urey experiment (or Miller experiment) was a chemical experiment that simulated the conditions thought at the time to be present on the early Earth, and tested the chemical origin of life under those conditions. The experiment confirmed Alexander Oparin's and J. B. S. Haldane's hypothesis that putative conditions on the primitive Earth favoured chemical reactions that synthesized more complex organic compounds from simpler inorganic precursors. Considered to be the classic experiment investigating abiogenesis, it was conducted in 1952 by Stanley Miller, with assistance from Harold Urey...

Mitch

you send the little machine the recipe and it creates it. not the best maybe, but faster and easily configurable, to allow different single things.

MetaEd

@Mitch You're thinking of a transporter.

Mitch

@M.A.R. haha. not exactly the direction I was going. Takes a few billion years to really get something good.

actually, maybe only 500M years (supposed first sign of single-cell life on Earth after it started.

M.A.R.

@Mitch We should decide what the starting materials are exactly, and what we want to produce. There are no general rules and this is a case-by-case thing.

Mitch

8:19 PM

@MetaEd by sci fi rules, it could very well be the same technology that makes the transporter work and the replicator.

M.A.R.

And I should prolly study some practical stuff before we attempt to build anything

Mitch

sort of like tractor beam, shields, and antigravity

Færd

A replicator is a transporter that transports from memory, or a recipe.

Mitch

@M.A.R. We're working out general principles first, planning, and feasibility. next is a prototype.

M.A.R.

@Mitch Again, what are the things that we plan to produce, if possible?

@Mitch I don't know voodoo

Mitch

8:21 PM

@Færd You're a gas.

@M.A.R. well that's part of the exploration phase

M.A.R.

I guess there are a lot of things we can produce with reasonable starting materials

Mitch

we discussed the petroleum product distillery, but you said that miniaturization has been attempted already and it's a really hard problem.

@M.A.R. Oh?

M.A.R.

@Mitch Mhm, and the likelihood of encountering good ol' oil in your Star Trek journey is small

Mitch

I thought 'soda machine' would be a good thing to think about in terms of how it is engineered, but not really what I'm hoping for.

M.A.R.

That's why it doesn't make much sense to distill something you can't find

@Mitch Ohhhhhhhh

Mitch

8:24 PM

@M.A.R. well, that's a consideration. yes, base oil would have to be brought along or found.

like there's the idea of using moon dust and local moon water to make concrete for building using one of those 3d building printers

M.A.R.

@Mitch The natural oil is really gooey and a mixture of a zillion compounds

So it can't reasonably be distilled to something you can actually use

Mitch

so on mars there are probably some mineral deposits for basic chemicals (the moon is probably too simple)

M.A.R.

@Mitch The moon has some fine quartz or similar minerals I think

Mars is full of iron

Prolly

skullpetrol

And cheese.

Mitch

so for the star trek replicator for food, the idea is to have a tiny factory that can produce 'many' flavors. vanilla, chicken fried steak, tabasco, bacon.

M.A.R.

8:27 PM

@skullpetrol No that's Jupiter

Mitch

@skullpetrol yeah. Cheese.

M.A.R.

@Mitch OK, that's another level

Mitch

Wait. You were kidding

M.A.R.

It's usually easier to make a drink

Mitch

@M.A.R. I want that level!

@M.A.R. like a fruit drink or alcoholic?

M.A.R.

8:28 PM

Both

Any drinkable drink

Mitch

excellent... let's start there.

obviously water.

what else?

sugar

M.A.R.

The problem with flavoring industry is it's hard to get the flower you want, and solid stuff usually has a solid flavor which is hard to tune

@Mitch Sugar, yeah

Mitch

many kinds of sugar or can you create all of them starting with glucose, galactose, uh... forgets chemistry altogether

M.A.R.

Does the planet we're moving to have bacteria or similar?

@Mitch Glucose would suffice

Mitch

@M.A.R. OK for the prototype let's shoot for 'mostly like the real thing'

doesn't have to be perfect

@M.A.R. wait...which is better?

M.A.R.

8:30 PM

@Mitch Stuff that taste are usually esters

Mitch

@M.A.R. yeah...vanilla right?

M.A.R.

@Mitch We could identify useful bacteria and make them do what we want

It's usually easy to keep stuff microbe-free

Mitch

hm... that might be the better strategy but let's stick with chemicals for the moment. Just for the engineering problem

M.A.R.

@Mitch Almost anything. Pineapple, vanilla, apple etc.

Mitch

@M.A.R. woohoo! yeah that's what I'm talking about.

M.A.R.

8:31 PM

I don't know which is which though

Mitch

Oh

It's in a book somewhere I'm sure

M.A.R.

I think ethyl heptanoate is pineapple

Oh, grapes!

Basically you can work with the carbon chain length to produce different flavors

Mitch

As an aside, you know those hard candy fruit drops? strawberry cough drop, a cherry lozenge, a watermelon flavored candy?

They never taste right

M.A.R.

And the good thing about it is the small ones are prolly all tasting good

Mitch

They don't taste like real strawberry or cherry or watermelon

I always thought they were synthesized flavors.

because they were all a little off.

M.A.R.

8:34 PM

Oh, pineapple is ethyl butanoate

Mitch

lemon drops! don't taste like lemons! well sorta, but pretty off.

M.A.R.

@Mitch They always are, even when they get it right

It's too costly to get fruit concentration and turn it into flavors in the end

Mitch

my point is is that no those tastes in the hard candy, that's just what happens to the taste of the real original flavors after sitting around for a while and forced into candy.

M.A.R.

Lotsa separation problems, fruits rotting etc.

Mitch

so I'm ok at the beginning with getting cough-drop-flavor flavorings because that's as good as natural sometimes gets.

also as an aside, we'll have to have some people working on faster than light travel. You realize of course that this is a big thing.

M.A.R.

8:36 PM

The reason the candy doesn't taste right is usually stuff they add other than flavors though

MetaEd

@Mitch That's how it looks to me too when Picard gets his tea.

M.A.R.

@Mitch Only easy in imagination. Einstein said you can't get to light speed, let alone faster

Mitch

@M.A.R. OH yeah. Screw bilions of years of evolution, we wanna do this with combining and modifying a handful of chemicals

@M.A.R. Oh.

Don't ruin my story with reality man!

M.A.R.

Ruins his story

@Mitch Hoomins have been fighting billions of years of evolution since their dawn

Mitch

@MetaEd Oh. you mean like it is transporting it from another part of the ship where the trolls are slaving away in a kitchen?

@M.A.R. uh dude we're not letting his 20th century physics limit us.

M.A.R.

8:39 PM

I dunno why we need to be faster than light

MetaEd

@Mitch I figure it works from a database, takes some kind of gray good as input, but uses a stored pattern buffer from the database.

Mitch

uh duh it's faster

M.A.R.

Getting close to a good fraction of lightspeed is indeed well enough

Mitch

@MetaEd sure, there's a 3d printing part of it, but getting the chemicals right is what I'm after.

M.A.R.

And wormholes seem like a more plausible theory

Mitch

8:41 PM

@M.A.R. to be serious, there are theories where you actually do (not making this up) warp space between two areas, and the warping allows you to reach the destination sooner than light.

M.A.R.

@Mitch Yeah, that's wormholes

Mitch

but you have to envelope yourself in a ... here I'm getting fuzzy on the theory... a bubble of ... hm... not substance but ... anyway, it doesn't seem exactly practical right now.

M.A.R.

But I'm no expert in astro

Not that I'm an expert in chemistry, heh

Mitch

@M.A.R. Oh.

@M.A.R. wait... I was thnking of this slightly different thing:

Alcubierre drive

The Alcubierre drive or Alcubierre warp drive (or Alcubierre metric, referring to metric tensor) is a speculative idea based on a solution of Einstein's field equations in general relativity as proposed by Mexican theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre, by which a spacecraft could achieve apparent faster-than-light travel if a configurable energy-density field lower than that of vacuum (that is, negative mass) could be created. Rather than exceeding the speed of light within a local reference frame, a spacecraft would traverse distances by contracting space in front of it and expanding space behind...

M.A.R.

Oh nice

Mitch

8:46 PM

also makes shielding against particles slamming into the front of your vehicle unnecessary.

I think

But I'm sure there's a wiki page on ghosts too so there's that.

MetaEd

@Mitch The replicator starts with energy. You synthesize the matter you need from that.

Mitch

@MetaEd hm... oh... sure... if you have transporter tech (which has to do what you say it does) then you could modify that to make a repilcator.

But then why bother with a hologram for the holodek when you can just make something real right in front of your face?

MetaEd

@Mitch After reading that article, I understand why the Enterprise kept finding rubble instead of planets in front of it when it dropped out of warp: "particles energetic enough to destroy anything at the destination directly in front of the ship".

Sorry, about Omicron Seti 4, captain. I was a little late in braking.

Mitch

9:04 PM

haha. Sorry.

Tonepoet

11:21 PM

@Mitch In an early episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, maybe even the first, they do actually establish that some of what the Holodeck produces is in fact replicated matter. I think efficiency might be one concern, but another more appreciable benefit is that replicators can not actually replicate something that's alive, which is something that spoils Worf's meals of Gagh, a dish made out of what are essentially living worms.

So unless you want to be talking to a facsimile of Benjamin Franklin's corpse, using a hologram simulation of his likeness is probably the best you can do in that regard.

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