The Factory Floor

Shalvenay

2:18 AM

hey there @Pleiades

Pleiades

Oh hi @Shalvenay I forgot I had this tab open

Shalvenay

how're htings going?

Pleiades

Good. Finally wrangled an idea I'd been wanting to use into something that fits well enough for what I wanted. It's still not perfect but ehhh... I'll probably mess with it again on a different sleepless night lol

Shalvenay

going alright here

Pleiades

Good. Whatcha been up to?

Shalvenay

2:35 AM

not a whole lot, haven't been paying too much attention to WB.SE really

Pleiades

How do you even do that? Unless I'm away from a computer for an extended period of time (usually vacations) I'm on here several times a day just browsing if nothing else.

Shalvenay

@Pleiades other stuff on the brain, rather more mundane stuff

Pleiades

Makes sense. More school stuff or work stuff?

Shalvenay

neither, really

I sometimes geek out on strange things, like "can you put elbows in an overhead electric service mast?" (still haven't found a straight answer, but there is an alternative solution using a gutter accessory in conjunction with a suitable meter-main)

Pleiades

Y'all are too smart for me a lot of the time; I don't even know what that means xD

Secret

2:48 AM

[Superpower]

State translocation

User has the ability to move a state from one place to another

for example, the ability for some Sharman to move disease from one body to another is a subset of this

Pleiades

@Secret Is that related to what Shalvenay said or are you starting a new conversation? Cause I honestly don't know

Secret

Uh, I can say it has nothing to do with Shalvenay since I just get on today

Pleiades

Mkay I'm just confusing myself then. Neat idea though ;o;

Secret

I don't think it is entirely new, but rarely used nonetheless

Pleiades

I don't keep up with stuff that contains superpowers really at all, so it's new to me at least. I also thought you meant moving entire US states from one place to the other at first too.

Just pick up some weird one like Nevada and WHAM! right on top of Rhode Island. Zero bothers given

Secret

2:57 AM

Moving the united state will be a telekinesis thing, I think

Pleiades

Probably, but it'd still be impressive and terrifying all at the same time.

Is this just a random idea or do you have plans for it yet?

Secret

5:00 AM

Idea so far, cause I am in the middle of something

James

1:12 PM

@Shalvenay Hi there! :D

AndyD273

@Mithrandir24601 Sounds like a plan

Ok, so why are there two Mithrandir?

Mithrandir24601

@AndyD273 'cause 2 Miths are better than 1 :)

AndyD273

@Mithrandir24601 Is it like your non-OP alter ego, sorta like the Clark Kent version of Mithrandir?

Mithrandir24601

@AndyD273 haha! Nope - normally people would ask the other Mith that sort of thing :)

AndyD273

I dunno. If I picture glasses on @Mithrandir24601 it might look like Mithrandir...

Green

1:24 PM

Happy Timezone!

Mithrandir24601

@Green rytsas!

Green

@Mithrandir24601 As in 'Rytsas, valar morghūlis'?

Ajnatorix Zersolar

valar dohaeris

AndyD273

Gah! why did the 10 dimension question get closed?

Green

@AndyD273 'cause it was broad as F.

AndyD273

1:28 PM

No its not!

it's one simple question

And it's already been answered in the book Spaceland

Spaceland (novel)

Spaceland is a science fiction novel written by the Silicon Valley mathematician and computer scientist Rudy Rucker, and published in 2002 by Tor Books. In a tribute to Edwin Abbott's Flatland, a classic mathematical fantasy about a 2-dimensional being (A. Square) who receives a surprise visit from a higher-dimensional sphere, Rudy Rucker's Spaceland describes the life of Joe Cube, an average, modern-day Silicon Valley hotshot who one day discovers the fourth dimension from an unexpected visitation. == Plot summary == Joe Cube is a high tech executive waiting for his company's IPO. On the New Year...

Green

@AndyD273 And that was an entire book.

AndyD273

It was an entire book exploring the idea. The answer to this question is about 2 paragraphs

Green

The OP asks for what creates from any of the higher dimensions would look like.

Mithrandir24601

@Green kessa :)

AndyD273

Yes, and that's easy to answer

Mithrandir24601

1:31 PM

@AndyD273 what was the question?

AndyD273

0

Q: What would a world be like with cross dimensional contact?

A universe of 10 dimensions I'm trying to build a universe with interactions between beings from different dimensions. Only dimensions 3 and up would be capable of spawning any sort of life. The most interaction would take place in the third dimension. So what would a being from another dimensio...

Green

One could take a linear algebra approach to this or use some kind of compression algorithm because that's really what's happening.

AndyD273

It's got a very simple answer with no math or stretching

Green

I think the idea behind the question is interesting but doesn't currently lead to answers that aren't overly broad.

AndyD273

I had my non broad answer almost finished. it's seriously only a paragraph long. It's not a hard concept

If you've ever grokked the concept of Flatland, then it's a very easy question to answer

James

1:42 PM

@Green I'm finally catching up on that series, I just started season 6.

Green

@James You assume too much. I haven't watched a complete episode of GoT ever. Google is my friend.

James

@Green You should...its good.

This may be the second time ever that I would say...just watch the show, the books are NOT better.

AndyD273

@James I believe that this is a true statement. I've only seen a few episodes, but read up to feast of crows. The books are... ok, but bloated. The show seemed a lot more streamlined.

James

@AndyD273 I've noticed a few things, characters and character arcs they have removed from the show and frankly all of the removals made the story better.

AndyD273

In keeping with the spirit of the books, I was going to describe it as "bloated, like a corpse in the sun", but that might make it sound like I thought the books were bad. They aren't bad. Maybe a better example, while still keeping to the spirit of the books, is "bloated, like a fat man after a day of feasting."

James

2:00 PM

@AndyD273 The books were frustrating to me but I kept reading. They seemed circuitous to the point of just...why...stop it...I don't care about "Random-ass Noble of House 'Nobody Cares'"

AndyD273

heh

James

The other series I read that I like the movies better was divergent. The books were good, it was a cool idea. But the author needed lessons on creating a picture of the world in reader's minds.

I saw the movie and went, "Oh...ok, I get how it looks and feels now"

AndyD273

Yeah. That's mostly why I stopped. I kinda wish I hadn't read the books before I started watching the show. I think it kind of soured the experience for me. I'm hoping that if I give it enough time I'll forget enough that nostalgia will kick in when I watch the show. Also, I actually want the series to end before I start. If it ends and everyone that's been watching it for years is happy, then good for me! If everyone is disappointed, then I'll probably give the whole thing a pass.

It's why I never finished Lost.

James

@AndyD273 Agreed...I mean the first two...maybe three were pretty good books...but then it got baaaaaad...and frankly painful to read.

@AndyD273 You should never give up the opportunity to be personally disappointed.

Green

@AndyD273 I wonder if Lost is as good now as it was perceived when it aired.

James

2:08 PM

No idea...never watched it.

AndyD273

@James I've been disappointed by TV shows too many times. I just can't take the pain of being hurt by things that I love any more.

James

@AndyD273 Take chances, you never know when magic will happen.

Don't make me go dear Abby on you.

AndyD273

@Green Someone that watched it live should rewatch it and tell me if it's worth trying again. I really enjoyed the first 2 or 3 seasons of Lost, then I missed too much, stopped following it, and then it ended and everyone complained, so I just gave the whole thing a pass.

Green

2:21 PM

@AndyD273 That feels like a good Wired article. "How well do good shows stand up over time?"

AndyD273

@Green Or possibly Tor's newsletter. they do show rewatches all the time

Green

@AndyD273 Oddly, I'd trust Tor's report more.

AndyD273

2:42 PM

@Green Right now they are doing a bunch of rereads, and "THE GREAT SUPERHERO MOVIE REWATCH"... I wonder if they take suggestions.

AndyD273

3:20 PM

@Mithrandir24601 I can show you my answer. It really isn't a broad question if you read what they are actually asking for. I think people are just overthinking it.

Green

@AndyD273 I wish that question was written such a way that it was much harder to overthink it.

AndyD273

@Green So for reasons it's a topic that I've thought about a lot over the years, so maybe that's why I'm not seeing it as too broad, since I've had time to distill down the concepts... It just seems really simple to me.

And maybe my answer is just dumb and off base, I dunno...

Mithrandir24601

3:41 PM

@AndyD273 I'd be interested to read it...

AndyD273

3:53 PM

@Mithrandir24601 I put it in a different room, so as not to clutter things up...

chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/76280/spaceland

Worldbuilding Meta

4:18 PM

1

Q: Not asking questions

I've seen a lot of users who are high in reputation but have never asked a single question. Are there any requirements, like "You have to have asked at least 1 question to ____"? Should there be? I've seen a mix of satisfactory and unsatisfactory answers from these users, so I guess it's just pa...

discussion privileges

1

Q: What to do when you receive unsatisfactory answers?

After waiting and receiving unsatisfactory answers (because everyone is misunderstanding what you're saying, even if you restate the important part several times) and not counting adding a bounty, what are solutions to finding a satisfactory answer? And what about stopping the flow of unsatisfact...

discussion questions answers

Green

4:56 PM

@AndyD273 I think that's the case. I'd have to go back to some infrequently touched linear algebra concepts to be able to answer that question.

AndyD273

@Green Hmm, I'd like to see that answer :) Since it wasn't asking for Hard-Science, and the whole concept is super theoretical in any case, I didn't think that heavy math was needed in any way.

Green

...or I'd have to think of it in terms of a compression algorithm. Some information from the higher dimension is going to get lost; that or it's going to need to be compressed then rerepresented in a way that will make sense to 3d beings.

@AndyD273 Did the question reopen?

AndyD273

@Green Oh, it's definately going to get lost. And that's ok

@Green Not yet. I keep refreshing

Need one more reopen vote...

Green

@AndyD273 try again.

AndyD273

Cool. Got my answer in at least :)

But yeah, you can't really compress a n-dimensional object down into a lower dimensional space, because no matter how hard you compress it, the extra dimension is still there. What would happen though is that anything that doesn't fit in the lower dimension is still there, it just isn't visible.

If you put your hand through the plane of Flatland, someone living on that plane would at first see several objects appear, and then merge together into a single object, as first your fingers and then palm passed through.

Green

5:27 PM

@AndyD273 I'm not sure that mine is all that great. It makes sense to me but I've probbaly missed something.

AndyD273

@Green I think it works just fine

Green

@AndyD273 Thanks. I could probably do better with some more time but I've got three things vieing for my attention at the moment.

And I can't overclock my brain.

Bellerophon

You probably can with the right drugs and electrodes.

Green

@Bellerophon The lack of warrantee on my original parts is what worries me. If I overclock and blow my CPU, replacement is impossible.

AndyD273

heh. It would make for a really interesting explanation for telekinesis, depending on what extra appendages a higher level being has available. if it can literally reach across the room in higher space and take hold of something to move it, then no one living on the lower dimension would be able to say it wasn't magic/psycic, because there is no known instrument that can see the higher space. It's a built in limit to our slice of the universe.

Green

5:35 PM

It's a very custom made part and the OEMs are still reachable for support but the production lines have shutdown and the tooling destroyed.

Hah! My parents are OEMs!

AndyD273

I can't wait for a third party to reverse engineer it and start providing upgrades

Green

@AndyD273 Yeah, no kidding.

Do you know if anyone has written a story about what it's like to open your eyes for the first time after a brain transplant? Getting used to new gut flora, new physical dimensions, new circadian cycles...what a weird experience.

AndyD273

Ghost in the Shell is really interesting... the concept is both terrifying, and really really attractive.

I'm pretty sure I've read mind transfer stories before, but I think they conveniently leave those things out...

Green

@AndyD273 Yeah, those are the bits I'd like to read about.

What if it was written in a somehow readable medical study? "We observed the patient..."

Getting used to a new hormone bath would be so trippy!

Bellerophon

Is circadian rhythm not mostly brain. Sure when you first wake up you may be weirdly tired/awake but presumably that would level out after one sleep.

Green

5:45 PM

@Bellerophon I don't know. I have this nightmare idea that you'd have monster jet lag + hunger pangs + acne. Ugghhh. Shifting bodies like that would probably be more along the lines of withdrawl symptoms or puberty. Your body and brain have to get used to each again.

Bellerophon

It would depend on how similar the donor and recipient are in hormonal and geographical terms.

Worldbuilding Meta

6:43 PM

1

Q: Would a question about classifying certain actions as rape be on topic?

I will say in advance that this isn't the most cheery subject. For my writing, I need to know whether a situation is classed as rape or not. However the situation involves a character who, using magic, changed his appearance to look like someone else. If it weren't for this I would ask on Law....

discussion on-topic

Feeds

6:57 PM

0

A: Sandbox for Proposed Questions

Would this situation be classed as rape? Background info: There are three characters involved, two men, let's call them Liam and Connor and one woman, let's call her Ashley. Liam and Connor are brothers, and Ashley and Connor have been going out for a while. Unfortunatly Ashley and Liam hate eac...

Efialtes

7:59 PM

@AndyD273 so, you wished me to appear in this chat to discuss stuff about my question...

3

A: What would a world be like with cross dimensional contact?

There's going to be a lot of mumbling about "You cannot see my true form" Depending on how much control these high dimensional beings have over their representation in lower dimensions, their appearance may be completely arbitrary. Their appearance will completely depend on the needs and whims o...

Shalvenay

10:17 PM

hey there @Mithrandir24601 and @James

Mithrandir24601

10:46 PM

@Shalvenay Ni hao! Just watching Matt Easton again :)

Shalvenay

ah. things are OK here.

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