The Factory Floor

AndyD273

1:54 PM

Why Marvel Can't Recast Iron Man

►

He brings up some good points...

AndyD273

2:44 PM

They kind of apply to most of the major characters actually

James

3:02 PM

Does it basically say that RDJr is amazing in the role and acts as the glue between the characters?

@Shalvenay Wave!

AndyD273

3:21 PM

@James Pretty much. the TL;DW is that RDJ is Iron Man, and while other characters like Spider Man, Batman, James Bond, etc have survived actor changes, it would be very very hard for the MCU since the new actor would just act differently, bringing a shift in tone and chemistery, and unlike those other characters, you can't reboot the entire MCU.

If RDJ decides to be done after Infinity war, they should retire Tony Stark from the MCU, have the character go live on an island somewhere with Pepper, and maybe bring Roady or someone to be the Iron Man, or just wait 10 years to bring in a new actor for Tony.

TL;DR, RDJ is awesome, no one else can fill his shoes.

sphennings

@AndyD273 I hope they retire the character rather than do what Disney has been doing with Johnny Depp/

AndyD273

@sphennings I haven't been paying attention to what Disney has been doing with Johnny, but I can see them letting Tony retire after infinify war, and maybe just bring him back once in a while as a cameo or supporting actor

sphennings

@AndyD273 They've kept trying to milk him for money far after any fan good will towards him has evaporated.

AndyD273

@sphennings Ah, with the pirates thing you mean?

sphennings

With pirates, or lone ranger, or basically anything he's been in this decade.

The last movie I liked him in was Rango from 2011.

AndyD273

3:38 PM

Pirates keeps bringing in money, so at least some people still like him:

Pirates of the Caribbean (film series)

Pirates of the Caribbean is a series of American fantasy swashbuckler films produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and based on Walt Disney's theme park ride of the same name. Directors of the series include Gore Verbinski (1–3), Rob Marshall (4) and Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg (5). The series is primarily written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio (1–4); other writers include Stuart Beattie (1), Jay Wolpert (1) and Jeff Nathanson (5). The stories follow the adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley). Characters such as Hector...

The box office performance has been pretty steady, for the most part

sphennings

Those movies are still making money but if you look at the critical reviews there is a distinct downward trend.

AndyD273

And they can give existing characters a refresh without rebooting or replacing, kind of like they did with Thor in Ragnarok.

Future Historian

4:01 PM

Back.

So, is my question in need of some expansion?

sphennings

@FutureHistorian Did you read the three articles I linked you?

Future Historian

Yes, why?

sphennings

@FutureHistorian Did you go over the checklist with your question?

Future Historian

Problem: I feel like I need to expand on the capabilities of the Visitors' military forces for the sake of the question.

sphennings

@FutureHistorian How did your question do?

Future Historian

4:03 PM

Basically, I kind of left it a bit unclear for the capabilities of those drones, or the other robotic forces (which is the majority of the Invasion force).

sphennings

@FutureHistorian Are you limiting your question to a single, narrow facet of your world to keep it from being to broad?

@FutureHistorian Are you fishing for ideas?

@FutureHistorian Is your question about your world, instead of about your characters, possible actions, or plots?

@FutureHistorian Are you asking about a large number of impacts resulting from your original situation?

Future Historian

Unsure, no, no, and no.

Wait.

reads the question in further detail

Well, turns out that I may need to narrow it down to a specific geographical region of Earth.

@sphennings? Where to start? North America? Europe? Asia? Africa? South America? Or Oceania?

NOTE: I am referring to specific geographical regions instead of our entire planet as of the current edit.

sphennings

@FutureHistorian In one sentence what is your question?

Future Historian

Basically, "how would Earth's military forces respond to an extraterrestrial invasion of Earth?" (which I will narrow down to "How would Earth's military forces IN NORTH AMERICA would respond to an extraterrestrial invasion of Earth?").

sphennings

Look over those 4 questions again.

Future Historian

4:17 PM

Oh.

@sphennings? Please tell me I am not doing something wrong.

:(

Because I have to ask: "What am I doing wrong?"

sphennings

@FutureHistorian I'm getting tired of telling you are doing things wrong. I want you to learn so that we don't have to tell you the same things over and over again.

Future Historian

Because I feel that the first question now is a "yes", and no, I am not fishing for ideas, it is, indeed, about my world, but the last one does fall into the "maybe" part.

sphennings

You should be doing this on your own before posting a question to the sandbox. You should be using the sandbox without needing to be reminded.

Future Historian

As for the second link you provided......

Well, there is an exception to the "No What If?" rule.

"Some subjective questions are allowed, but “subjective” does not mean “anything goes”. All subjective questions are expected to be constructive. What does that mean? Constructive subjective questions:

*inspire answers that explain "why" and "how"
*tend to have long, not short, answers
*have a constructive, fair, and impartial tone
*invite sharing experiences over opinions
*insist that opinion be backed up with facts and references
*are more than just mindless social fun"

It is literally in the "What types of questions should I avoid asking?" link.

At the BOTTOM.

So, I have to ask: does this question fit the exception or is that one a no-go?

Because I am having trouble deciding now.

sphennings

@FutureHistorian Are you asking about building a fictional world or are you asking how a scenario will play out?

Future Historian

4:21 PM

I am building a fictional world.

sphennings

Your question isn't.

Future Historian

Look, @sphennings. You skimmed over the question, hmmmm?

Just asking.

Please do not take that the wrong way.

gulps

sphennings

@FutureHistorian In you're own words "(which I will narrow down to "How would Earth's military forces IN NORTH AMERICA would respond to an extraterrestrial invasion of Earth?")."

You are asking how will people act in a scenario.

Future Historian

I think I said it wrong.

Oops.

So, let me rephrase that.

"How would Earth's military forces IN NORTH AMERICA respond to the Visitor Invasion of Earth?"

Now does it sound like building a world or still too much scenario?

sphennings

You haven't changed the question.

You removed the word would which was extraneous and swapped out extraterrestrial for Visitor.

Future Historian

4:25 PM

Oh.

:(

Well, fine.

sphennings

Think of it this way. Worldbuilding is about the setting, not the plot.

Future Historian

I have a better question.

"During the Invasion of Earth, how long could the world's armies (in North America) last?"

Is that better?

Or still too much scenario?

Because I am trying to make the question work.

sphennings

That's still a scenario.

It's a more specific scenario but it's still a scenario.

Future Historian

:(

Well, if I explained in detail, would that clarify things?

Say for example, I lay down the context of the world I am trying to come up with?

sphennings

Would making your scenario more specific make it not a scenario?

Future Historian

4:31 PM

Yes.

:P

I will see what I can do.

Bellerophon

Are you sure, because I doubt it will.

sphennings

@FutureHistorian I'm with @Bellerophon on this one.

Future Historian

:(

Hmmmmmm.

Well, I will fix the question later.

Future Historian

5:15 PM

@sphennings. I overhauled the question to be "Can Earth's forces REALLY last for four days against an extraterrestrial invasion of Earth or would it take less time (or more time) than that?"

Better?

64,812,816 military personnel (regular, reserves and paramilitary) vs 10,843,118 Visitor robotic troops, drones and organic military personnel.

Plus a 10 km long, 6 km in diameter spacecraft with the capacity to bombard much of Earth's assets, be that military, industrial, financial or political.

Bellerophon

@FutureHistorian That's the same question.

Future Historian

Oh. :(

I am trying to make it "reality check".

@Bellerophon? Just what am I doing wrong?

:(

Because I am trying to think of something.

Hmmmmmmm.

Wait a minute.

@Bellerophon? What would it take to make this stupid question NOT a scenario?

Because I am starting to feel like I should just give up on this question.

groans in frustration

dot_Sp0T

@sphennings oh boy that was sweet

Future Historian

Oh, BLOODY HELL!! What is it going to take just to fix this question?!

breathes heavily

I am sorry.

I had to let that out.

@Bellerophon? Is this a better question: "How can a spacecraft survive a nuclear explosion in Low Earth Orbit?"

Bellerophon

Yes.

If you describe the spacecraft.

Future Historian

5:30 PM

Oh.

Right.

Bellerophon

But post it in the Sandbox first.

Future Historian

Did that.

:P

Secespitus

5:45 PM

@FutureHistorian Remember that it might be useful to take a step away from the keyboard if you feel the need to let something out so that you won't step on the toes of people who are trying to help you.

3

Secret

some of my dreams recently involve some strange magic and also me being both 1st and 3rd person at the same time and me as 1st person killing me as 3rd person

dot_Sp0T

Wassup @Secespitus ?

Secespitus

Not much @dot_Sp0T. How are you?

sphennings

@Secret That sounds fascinating. I hope it wasn't distressing to you.

Secespitus

@Secret You killed the narrator? Wouldn't the dream end at that moment

Secret

5:48 PM

no, my dreams are very strange and self referential at times

The best way to think about them is that I am always some kind of background controller or audience watching a tv show, and there are instance where I am some characters in the dream doing things according to the dream's script

dot_Sp0T

@Secespitus positive that I passed the first exam this morning, excited about a gamedev festival being held near me, tired from a lack of sleep due to preparing for the exam, anxious about the next 5 exams :D

Secret

There are dreams where I die alot, only to restart as if it is a video game

so in a sense, no matter who is being killed, the "audience" always survive since they are "outside the tv"

Secespitus

@dot_Sp0T Congrats; gamedev festival sounds cool - do you have a link?; lack of sleep is understandable; you'll make it - how long do you have to prepare? A few hours? :D

@Secret Cool. Are those dreams lucid?

Secret

Not always, there are some lucid ones, and there are some semilucid ones where it is lucid at one moment, but not in another

dot_Sp0T

@Secespitus Ludicious Festival ; prepping for exams takes working through 2-3 old exams that are, graciously, available to us. Working through these takes anywhere between 2 to 12 hours depending on the amount of looking up things and asking wtf the prof is thinking

Secret

5:52 PM

Over the past 6 years, I seemed to have got used to my dreams enough that the ability to fly no longer triggers lucidity

Secespitus

@Secret I never had a lucid dream as far as I am aware of. Any secrets?

@dot_Sp0T Thanks

Secret

@Secespitus Well, the thing I really did that start lucidity back in my grade 11 is reading the wikipedia page on lucid dreaming and then think about it

since that day, lucidity just comes and goes randomly

dot_Sp0T

Dang, envying you there - I never did manage to get past managing to force myself to dream

Secespitus

@dot_Sp0T Yeah, understanding profs should be a mandatory university course for people starting

Secret

Nowadays, my dreams blurs the boundary between lucid dreaming and non lucid dream so much (e.g. being able to do things that are impossible in reality, but I have no awareness of that impossibilty and thinking it is normal part of life) that I sometimes question my own freewill in my dreams

Unlike what is said in inception, there are almost no totems in my dreams, because the dreams are known to actively screw my memory so that I remember a different past. It is kinda scary in some cases

AndyD273

5:56 PM

@Secret The bad news is that this is a dream now, and you're going to wake up in 10 minutes to discover that the alarm didn't go off.

If it doesn't happen in 10 minutes, that's only because dream time and real time run at different speeds.

Secret

well I have no school tomorrow, thus that won't matter to me, lol

AndyD273

@Secret That's just dream tomorrow. It's really yesterday.

sphennings

@dot_Sp0T I was trying to make a point about all the ridiculously specific scenario questions that FH keeps asking.

Secret

Time is actually quite normal in my dreams. I can often read clocks that are not distorted, but space is often expanded by 2-4 times

Bellerophon gave some possible explanation on how that happens in terms the way memory works

Secespitus

@AndyD273 You are not supposed to talk to the subjec- I mean, there is no need to worry about this being a dream @Secret... Absolutely no reason...

Secret

6:00 PM

@AndyD273 In time travel themed dreams, however, time can go really crazy: Imagine dreaming about yesterday that tomorrow in the past future 5 hours later you have dreamt about something within the dream, yet you remember a mixture of your waking life and that dream within a dream

The more common variant I had is a year ago in dream time, I had a past dream about something, which caused me to use that idea in the present day in dream time to do something. Only when I woke up I realised that said past dream is either different or never happened at the date specified

sphennings

My dreams feel like I'm remembering something that hasn't happened. There are times where I will dream an event then effectively go "that's not how I remembered that" the "memory" will role back before the conflicting event and play out differently.

Sometimes there will be disagreements in the narrative and events will play out and roll back multiple times.

Secret

My dream will often continue to roll after that realisation. But it also like to repeat scenes, sometimes with more detail than the previous repeats

But most of the time, e.g. I won't remember I never had a brother before waking up

Events in my dreams are also kinda mixed, in that they can repeat, they can change (by me or the dream's script), and they can incporate part of real life memory and in-dream memories (the memory that is only relevant in the reality defined by the dream itself)

most of the time, they are pretty stable, I only start seeing abrupt discontinuity in the scenes just in these two months

dot_Sp0T

@Secespitus it's not even that bad most of the time, but some questions you just.... shudder

Secespitus

@dot_Sp0T Then I wish you the best of luck :D

Secret

The most favourite part of any dream, however is what I called Part X

Part X is a rare scenario in some of my dreams. Often took the form of a gray cloudy void, sometimes with monitors that looks like a CCTV room. Part X allows me to revisit any segment of the dream, which greatly helps in recalling the dream when awake

dot_Sp0T

6:11 PM

The worst are those that don't even provide any actual solutions to exercises, etc. but mainly Lösungsvorschläge. Stating that we're at uni because we want to learn/get good at things. If you then ask them why you're paying money for the education if you can't be sure that you learned something at the end of the semester because you can't compare your own solutions to something that is guaranteed correct they get angry

Or the even better answer: "You will find out at the exam" - Like I don't frikkin know that? But they know, as well as I do that I have to pass the exam at the first go in order to keep to the model-studying-plan

AndyD273

6:30 PM

"That's ... unsettling." "Yeah, those definitely don't sound like the normal dreaâ ï¼¬ï¼¡ï¼´ï¼©ï¼´ï¼µï¼¤ï¼¥ ï¼´ï¼¨ï¼²ï¼¥ï¼¥ ï¼¦ï¼©ï¼¶ï¼¥ ï¼°ï¼¯ï¼©ï¼®ï¼´..."

dot_Sp0T

@AndyD273 That's a beautiful take on the subjects in this chat during the last hour

Whassup @NexTerren

Nex Terren

@dot_Sp0T Not much, you?

dot_Sp0T

@NexTerren lots and lots, how have you been?

Nex Terren

@dot_Sp0T Good. One would assume life would quiet down at some point, but it never seems to.

Which is in contrast to my "not much" statement, although I suppose I meant "not much worth talking about."

How has World Building been over the last few months?

Secret

6:48 PM

My dreams are a mixture of all the dreams, common, weird, consistent, inconssitent, movie like, slice of life etc.

The exam dreams are easy to interpret for my case, they often a warning that I have some homwork or stuff need to be done before it is too late

dot_Sp0T

@NexTerren oh there's been plenty good stuff happening, check out the meta for a brief overview. Inter alia we started a story-writing effort which is currently on hiatus most presumably due to the holidays taking time from everyone

Secret

I wish to continue on my magic worldbuilding, but PhD stuff is catching up, thus 's going to be busy

The philosophy SE gave me some leads to investigate the ??? aspect in my setting, which will mean I have to restructure the whole tech tree again

1

Q: What branch of metaphysics studies things like "Nowhere", "Limbo", "Non-being", "Neither dead nor alive", "neither present nor absent"?

Recently, when thinking about metaphysics and in particular the notion of abstract concepts, while also reading various settings of movies, games and books, I noticed that usually, entities that are often branded as mysterious and unknown have the terms similar to what is described in the title. ...