The Factory Floor

Redacted Redacted

08:59

TESTING

Looks like EE is dead

Journeyman Geek

09:12

experts exchange?

ee ain't dead. ee's pinging for the fjords....

Worldbuilding Meta

10:13

-2

Q: Why was this question put on hold as unclear?

How fast can a plasma projectile move before it begins to fuse with the surrounding atmosphere? Closing something as unclear is one thing, but not writing there how it's unclear is an act, which should be punished by BANHAMMER. And before you bring up minuses that came with downvoting: A Q ...

Enigma Maitreya

13:39

@JourneymanGeek They died to me when they went commercial.

Journeyman Geek

@EnigmaMaitreya heh, they had a different business model...

Web pages don't run for free

Enigma Maitreya

@JourneymanGeek And I was never compensated for participating and I do not particularly buy into that model. BUT your point is valid about the cost.

Journeyman Geek

Well, technically you are not being compensated here either

Enigma Maitreya

@JourneymanGeek And that works for me :)

Journeyman Geek

The difference here is SE uses some ads, a pretty big jobs site and VC money to fund things

Enigma Maitreya

13:45

I tend to see is paying each other by helping each other.

Journeyman Geek

Well in a sense, yeah

and we accidentally ended up forming fairly close knit communities.

(entirely by accident I suspect, but who knows ;p)

Enigma Maitreya

:) Here "NEW MATH UNTANGLES THE MYSTERIOUS NATURE OF CAUSALITY" - wired.com/story/…

I suspect there is going to be a segment in there that ... indirectly will apply to AI.

Bellerophon

14:29

@EnigmaMaitreya Did you see the article about making AIs less confident?

Feeds

15:06

0

A: Sandbox for Proposed Questions

Ensuring an endless war, and an endless stalemate My question has a touch of philosophy to it, but I promise to make a non-idea-generator out of it, so please bear with me. My son has pitted the Elves against the Dwarfs - The Elves control the sky - they have airships, gliders in their cloths ...

Enigma Maitreya

@Bellerophon Maybe, I seem to remember recently seeing an article about something like that. This one may suggest a way to create Goal Seeking autonomously. But certainly highlights one difference between current AI and Sentience.

JDługosz

17:02

Anyone around?

0

Q: How would people react to visible signs of magic users

So I'm creating a universe where only a small percentage of the population - approximately 0.01% (70,000,000 people) - have the ability to use magic, but those who do are very powerful.It enables them to perform a variety of tasks with ease that would normally take hours. A person born with the ...

society magic politics

Can we get some discussion on how it can be made not completely POB or too inherently broad?

@EnigmaMaitreya ha ha I read “new math” as the stuff in the 1970s where they had the bright idea to teach math theory and concepts to kids, when the teachers had no clue what it was and just recited a bunch of voodoo and pointless excercises without offering the intended enlightenment.

@EnigmaMaitreya what’s wrong with how expert's exchange was?

Shalvenay

17:22

hey there @Mithrandir24601

hello as well @S.Horgan

Mithrandir24601

@Shalvenay Rytsas - how are things?

Shalvenay

alright here

S. Horgan

@Shalvenay hey

Shalvenay

I think the biggest question is "how long have these magic users been around?" growing up with/around something is much different than suddenly encountering it for the first time ever when you're already an adult

and that's true at a civilization-scale as well

S. Horgan

I want them to be established in society, I just don't know how to fit them into modern life and I don't want to set something in the past because I've tried that and it went horribly for me

Shalvenay

17:26

@S.Horgan so -- society's grown up with them always being a thing...

that's probably something you should edit into your Q

S. Horgan

@Shalvenay will do

Mithrandir24601

@S.Horgan Have you ever read Ra? (it's free and surprisingly good) It might be relevant for what you're looking at

S. Horgan

@Mithrandir24601 never heard of it

Enigma Maitreya

18:26

@JDługosz Philosophical differences. I Understand there are two sides to this coin. How does a site pay its bills is one side, the other side is information and solutions should not be for sale. As in they should be available to all.

@JDługosz The article as some what about causality from different disciplines. I paid more attention to the Reductionist vs .... for a lack of a better concept, sentience. That after all is said and done a big question for us isn't it. Is what we think the results of things set in motion since the big bang or is it something .... else. I could say are our lives deterministic or do we have free will.

The part that applied IF it is real math, would be how to create goals and solutions to those goals as we .... do.

Shalvenay

hey there @TrEs-2b

TrEs-2b

howdy

JDługosz

@Mithrandir24601 Ra is pretty good. It has flaws, but so do many conventionally published works.

TrEs-2b

Here's a concept I need feedback on; giant snails that have evolved complex bone structure in the shape of shells. These 'shells' have compartments for organs and such to avoid the organs drooping. Thoughts?

JDługosz

@Shalvenay yes, one of the issues I'm thinking. It implies that they are suddenly happening? But that's not stated directly.

@S.Horgan if they were always with us, attitudes would be part of society. You might model it using autism or other TV-trope crazy gives genius idea.

sphennings

18:43

@JDługosz How would society react to x is kind of inherently story based.

JDługosz

@TrEs-2b how do they do that, considering that shells are secreted at an edge?

@sphennings yea, that too. @S.Horgan, have you seen the “high concept” post on meta?

TrEs-2b

@JDługosz well regular shells are simply calcium carbonate right? These snailians wouldn't really be born with the shell, rather as they grow, they excrete calcium and carbon through their slimy skin that bonds with their bodies to slowly build plates and covers over their body. Essentially ending in a shell built from the inside out.

sphennings

@JDługosz Questions in that form are also too broad, and probably primarily opinion based as well.

JDługosz

@TrEs-2b have you considered looking at cuttlefish? They have the shell on the inside.

@sphennings yes, I tried to convey that to him already.

TrEs-2b

hmmm, do you think a Cuttlefish bone structure would support gigantism?

JDługosz

18:49

@TrEs-2b it's already on the inside. It could evolve a complex shape with projections and branches. They are mullosks.

@Shalvenay for sure! Currently its written that governments are reacting to it, which seems like a change in status quo.

TrEs-2b

So change in concept, similar effect. The snailians instead have an internal shell that allows for larger sizes?

JDługosz

@sphennings so, should it be closed, even with the latest edits?

sphennings

"How would the modern Western world - such as the UK/USA - be changed by these kinds of people? " That is the core of the question. It's asking how would society a react to x. I'd VTC

Bellerophon

I would say it is too broad.

JDługosz

19:50

I got an idea for how a youngster might earn money for himself, in the near future. Rather than going around the neighborhood pulling weeds and other traditinal jobs, he puts together a quadcopter toy and a “good” camera and does roof inspections after a storm. 4k video file with a map inlay showing actual flight gps over Google Earth view…

… and numbered squares showing the approx field of view for each still image (25 megapixel files). He can do the whole block and email files to everybody, automated.

Redacted Redacted

-8

Q: How fast can a plasma projectile move before it begins to fuse with the surrounding atmosphere?

Spheromak: The spheromak is a type of plasma configuration which enables the plasma to contain itself with its own magnetic field, even when external fields aren't present. Plasma's shape with this configuration resembles that of a smoke ring. How fast a shot of spheromak air can move without b...

science-based physics

Is this Q ok now?

@JDługosz Are you still there?

JDługosz

@RedactedRedacted sort of…

Redacted Redacted

I already knew the limitations of the vortex, so this question used the spheromak from the begining

JDługosz

I just finished for now. Need to put it on the charger and get a donut for self. I had some strange donutsb the shop ran out of holes! No discount though, unless I consider that I got about 10% more dough for the same price.

Shalvenay

20:38

hey again @Mithrandir24601

Mithrandir24601

@Shalvenay Rytsas again :P

Shalvenay

so...I've been meaning to ask this for a while now: how many Westerosian soldiers does it take to take down 1 dragon?

Mithrandir24601

@Shalvenay I think, off the top of my head, generally only dragons were able to kill other dragons, so a lot. An awful lot

Shalvenay

ah

I was kind of wondering for comparison's sake to the WB question where I pitted a dragon against a MEU

Mithrandir24601

22:23

@Shalvenay I've found a bit of time to look this up - the first thing is an ancient battle with an army a quarter of a million soldiers and including water wizards. There was a battle against an army 100 000 strong, with 100 elephants and 3 dragons. The dragons killed thousands, the water wizards saved thousands and archers managed to kill 2 of the dragons - the third fled.

In retaliation, 300 dragons were sent against what was left of the army - 10s of thousands burned and "the very waters of the river boiled and turned to steam"

So, in other words 250 000 + some water wizards v 100 000, 100 elephants and 3 dragons is victory, but at 'great cost'. 300 dragons then decimated the remains

Shalvenay

nods yeah -- as I suspected, it took an awful lot

it'd be hilarious to see that same flight of 300 dragons collide with the MEU from my WB.SE question, though (at least if you're me, that is)

Mithrandir24601

Because I've started and it's interesting, I may as well keep going :P - the second I've found is a battle between 3000 v somewhere between a few hundred and 3000 soldiers + 1 dragon (the leader on dragon was, to be fair, a legendary warrior). The battle was simply described as "one-sided"

A flight of 300 dragons would be literally awesome to behold

I kind of want to read the Temeraire books now...

"Aegon's enemies had no answer for his dragons"

So, the current bit I'm reading is talking about the strategic use of the dragons - they burn ships (like, all of the enemy's ships) and forests to find any hidden enemies

So it turns out that one dragon (plus accompanying legendary warrior, who didn't even need to fight) captured the biggest castle with garrison included (Harrenhal) and managed to melt some of the stone

Shalvenay

22:53

not that melting stone is that hard

now...getting that stone to actually burn on the other hand...

Mithrandir24601

yeah, they didn't manage that

Shalvenay

...that's the province of rocket scientists.

Mithrandir24601

Ah! I have some numbers! In a battle where they were outnumbered about 5 to 1 (against an army of 55 000) in terms of solders, the Targariens suffered less than 100 losses and 3 dragons killed more than 4 thousand and burned tens of thousands

Shalvenay

that actually makes me wonder just how amazed even Daenrys would be at seeing rocks burn...

Mithrandir24601

'I will destroy all who oppose me with this flaming rock!' :P

Actually, by that point, the Targariens had conquered everything. Using 5 dragons...

So, I think 3 dragons is probably also enough...

Shalvenay

23:07

gives Daenrys a ton cylinder of chlorine trifluoride disguised as a treasure chest for her birthday

Mithrandir24601

runs away to the other side of the world, begs NASA to build a spaceship and flies off to Mars

Shalvenay

heheh

if they don't all kill themselves by opening their birthday gift the wrong way around

Mithrandir24601

Well... If that's a possibility...

Shalvenay

(chlorine trifluoride being the mistake-incinerator it is)

I wonder what level of military force would do the trick for scaring House Targaryen into submission...

Mithrandir24601

Missiles? A tank or several?

Shalvenay

23:24

@Mithrandir24601 yeah -- I think blowing a dragon out of the sky would do the trick xD

Mithrandir24601

23:37

Yep... I'm sure it would... I'm off to bed now though - night!

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