The Factory Floor

dot_Sp0T

7:34 AM

I have slept very well, how have you slept chat?

Secret

8:04 AM

Natural magic

Natural magic in the context of Renaissance magic is that part of the occult which deals with natural forces directly, as opposed to ceremonial magic, in particular goety and theurgy, which deals with the summoning of spirits. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa so uses the term in his 1526 de vanitate. Natural magic so defined thus includes astrology, alchemy, and disciplines that we would today consider fields of natural science, such as astronomy and chemistry (which developed and diverged from astrology and alchemy, respectively, into the modern sciences they are today) or botany (herbology). In a modern...

I prefer metaphysical magic

Gryphon

10:53 AM

@dot_Sp0T I have slept quite well (although shifted several hours timewise, compared to you)

dot_Sp0T

you should not shift your sleeping patterns, that's unhealthy

Gryphon

@dot_Sp0T It's more because we live on opposite sides of the Atlantic, and less because I've actually shifted my sleeping patterns at all.

dot_Sp0T

Excuses

Gryphon

I mean, from my perspective, you posted at 3:34 A.M., which is probably not my ideal time to wake up.

dot_Sp0T

As I said, you need to look after your health

Gryphon

11:04 AM

So I'm going to continue waking up at 7:00ish.

dot_Sp0T

very good :)

see you then?

Secret

Previous night dream:

Later outside, at a campus playground like place and a open kitchen stall like corner, we met an old woman who is a powerful clairvoyant. We brought some vegetables for her which she used to cook some soup which as it is ready, she reads the message from the distribution of the vegetables. My man partner also drink some of the soup which give him abilities which I forgot the details. This scene is rewound many times by me for some reason, we keep returning to her so that she and her soup will inform the next step of the mission.

Secret

In short, clairvoyant soup that doubles as a potion, but if you brought the wrong ingredients, or the ingredients are put in the wrong order, then the resulting soup will become weird and filled with new ingredients that were never present

Put it in another way, matter and energy is not conserved in the cooking process and e.g. elephants can appear out of nowhere

Gryphon

@dot_Sp0T See ya around!

Secret

pretty sure that many ingredients appearing out of nowhere is likely inspired from this passage in Infinite Farm:

Last night dream is a scifi story:

A woman with black leather jacket is on a mission. In a gray capsule, her man partner creates a patition between them as he dons some kind of mecha suit and prepare to blast off into the smoky black mountains outside to carry out some mission (the capsule also have the words Mission Impossible written on it, suggesting this is the opening of some Mission Impossible film). There's one point where the capsule ceiling hatch is breached, and exposing the woman to the atmosphere of the planet as she let her hand go of her partner as he urged her to get back inside.

> Based on the woman's reaction and the volcanic environment, the atmosphere of that planet is probably very dry that it instantly desiccate people upon exposure by sucking water out of them. It is also either lack of oxygen or nearly vacuum and its atmosphere is suspended with some irritating cream yellow fine powder which is only visible in large amounts

dot_Sp0T

12:33 PM

@Gryphon btw got a space-colonization question up for your challenge

@James you should probably star this bit too, dont you think?

Worldbuilding Meta

1:08 PM

1

Q: What's in the newsletter, exactly?

The newsletter ad has some problems; you can't read what it's about: unless you select the text: Only Worldbuilding seems to have this problem; I checked a couple of other sites (e.g. Puzzling) where it looks normal: (tested in the latest Firefox and Safari on macOS High Sierra)

Gryphon

1:18 PM

Hey, @dot_Sp0T I've answered your question on interesting droplets. I think my answer provides a way this could plausibly happen often on a large scale (albeit with some atmospheric tweaks).

dot_Sp0T

@Gryphon saw it, interesting approach indeed. I was mostly putting a bounty on it because i had gotten quite some rep recently and to increase views and upvotes on the existing answers :)

Also welcome back, did you sleep well? Is it this late already again?

Gryphon

@dot_Sp0T I wasn't asking for the bounty, just letting you know I'd answered your question.

dot_Sp0T

I assumed so, just like to push data out there into the void

Gryphon

@dot_Sp0T I'm hoping it gets some more views. It's an interesting question and deserves more than the ~250 it has.

dot_Sp0T

It will get them now

Mithrandir24601

1:36 PM

@dot_Sp0T Evidently - I've spent most of the day cleaning, making (then eating) food and learning Valyrian, so it's flown by so far

Shalvenay

hey there @Mithrandir24601, how're things going?

dot_Sp0T

@Mithrandir24601 I am proud of you :D

Mithrandir24601

@Shalvenay Rytsas! Syrī glaesan, kirimvose. Skorkydoso glaesā?

dot_Sp0T

I have spent most of the day doing research into the sizes of houses, fields, cities. etc. in medieval times and translating old English and German measures into values that I can relate to

Shalvenay

@Mithrandir24601 :P

Mithrandir24601

1:39 PM

If it's not clear, that means "[generic greeting]! I'm good, thanks. How are you?

:P

dot_Sp0T

@Mithrandir24601 allow me to apply some guesswork: 'Syri' is 'I', or a reflexive pronoun pointing at me. 'Glaesan' and 'Glaesä' are forms of the same word/verb standing for well-being, the latter being the question-form of it, similar to the japanese sufixxing 'ka'? 'Skorkydoso' seems to be a variation similar to 'Syri', maybe same roots? and pointing at another person. What is 'kirimvose'?

Mithrandir24601

Hmm... I mean, it's more like "my [state of] life/well-being is good" but you get the point :P

@dot_Sp0T Nope. You're totally wrong

dot_Sp0T

@Mithrandir24601 yay

Shalvenay

@Mithrandir24601 ah :)

dot_Sp0T

@Mithrandir24601 teach me sensei?

Mithrandir24601

1:46 PM

'Syrī' (the ending has to be adjusted depending on context) is 'good', 'glaesan' and 'glaesā' more-or-less end up being derived from 'glaeson', which means 'life', so 'glaesan' is like 'my well-being/my life' (ish) and 'glaesā' is 'your well-being/life' (...ish). 'skore' is 'what' and adding '-ydoso' makes it into 'in what way', or as we say in English, 'how'. Kirimvose is 'thanks'

Another phrase I like is "Ñuhor sūmar sȳrior issa", which means "my tea is good"

dot_Sp0T

very interesting

Mithrandir24601

So hopefully you can see that we've gone from 'syrī' to 'sȳrior' because we've changed gender and declension of the corresponding noun :)

('sūmar', which is 'tea')

dot_Sp0T

gender and declension of the adjective fitting the noun? so nouns are heavily genderized?

Mithrandir24601

@dot_Sp0T Yep... There are four genders - lunar, solar, aquatic and terrestrial

dot_Sp0T

ah, so genders as in 'attributes'? If trying to translate to english

I was considering something similar for the main language for my con-world (main, as in the language of the area(s) i work most on) - having the standard male / fem / neuter, and another set of living / non-living / maybe something more

which combined make declination weird and beautiful

Mithrandir24601

1:53 PM

@dot_Sp0T I'm not sure what else to call it - it's a 'grammatical gender' or something

@dot_Sp0T Yeah, there's a distinction between animate and inanimate here as well... But not in gender :P (although there's a tendency for animate things to be lunar or solar)

dot_Sp0T

languages are great

Mithrandir24601

@dot_Sp0T A nightmare to understand and learn, you mean :P

dot_Sp0T

i need to spend more time workin g on mine again

@Mithrandir24601 you learn fast

i wanted to first create a society to some degree, so i can then base the language

Mithrandir24601

Valyrian is exquisite though - it just rolls off the tongue

Or just use High Valyrian?

dot_Sp0T

i got 27hr days :D

Mithrandir24601

1:58 PM

@dot_Sp0T And how many cycles of a caesium atomic clock do you have in an hour? :P

dot_Sp0T

They don't have atoms yet - isn't it beautiful? :D

Mithrandir24601

:O Mind blown

3

dot_Sp0T

I really just wanted to have long enough days to make two periods of resting more of a necessity in a subpolar environment than they would be in our world

actually I might just write it up as a Q finally to get peer feedback

Mithrandir24601

@dot_Sp0T Hmm... That's not a bad idea

dot_Sp0T

@Mithrandir24601 thank you!

Anyone in the mood to do some brainstorming with me before I start putting the idea into a question?

Secret

2:55 PM

New idea: Ambigurity holes

Instead of having a black hole, we have a region of spacetime so erractic that at its center, spacetime became so eracttic that it mixed up with everywhere else

The result is that you put a human being in, all its atoms get scrambled so much you get an atomic mush in the middle

AngelPray

@Secret What?

Mithrandir24601

I'm now beginning to realise how confusing English is :P

Secret

Ok for convenience, let a human being be like this:

1--2--3--4--5

AngelPray

That's already essentially what black holes do.

Secret

Under a black hole, humans become something like this o where all the 1,2,3,4,5 get squished into a point

AngelPray

3:03 PM

And how do you mean? @Mithrandir24601

Secret

Under this "ambigurity hole" you get something like 5--1--3--4--2

(possibly there are extra -- between say 5 and 3 and so on and so on)

AngelPray

@Secret Mmm, so in essence all the information about what enters into this ambiguity hole gets destroyed.

Secret

yeah, they get hopelessly scrambled

AngelPray

This is already what black holes are theorized to do.

Secret

Well, I want something that behaves like "dissolving something into reality"

AngelPray

3:05 PM

What does that mean?

Secret

Black holes are too violent for that and makes the process obvious

AngelPray

What does dissolving something into reality mean?

Secret

Let's use an analogy: Picture a human being as a piece of salt, and reality as water. I want something such that it bascially the same as putting salt into water

Mithrandir24601

@AngelPray Take a sentence like [thing1] does/likes/hates/wants... [thing2] - subject, verb, object. However, [thing1] is [thing2] looks exactly the same but for reasons I don't understand is different :/

AngelPray

@Secret Okay... So you want to disintegrate a human?

Well the easiest method to do that is just add heat.

Secret

3:08 PM

That's too violent, I want something unnoticeable

like literally rearrange spacetime so that everything is scrambled

AngelPray

But of course it's noticeable, how could you possibly think disintegrating a human wouldn't be noticeable.

Even with your analogy: salt dissolving is noticeable.

Could you give me a concrete example @Mithrandir24601?

Secret

well, I guess to phrase it more correctly, I want to get something that generalise this "molecular disequlibrium" effect

marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Ghost

AngelPray

@Secret Okay... Well to do that there are many ways. You could have the human travel slightly along a 4th spacial axis for instance.

Interestingly the explanation given for the character you linked is absurd. One's cells being torn and restitched would just leave you dead.

And it certainly wouldn't let you walk through walls.

But that's hollywood for you.

Worldbuilding Meta

6:55 PM

0

Q: Bounty reason isn't showing up

A couple days ago, I started a bounty on this question, selecting the reason "Authoritative reference needed". I didn't add any supplementary text; I felt that the default wording said enough. When I checked on it today, I saw the following: Now, if I'm not mistaken, the words "Authoritative r...

bug bounty

0

Q: Why is there zero moderator accountability on this stack?

So, I've been participating in the stack for a few months now. And I say the following to emphasize that I understand what it can mean to run a space for online discourse, and that these circles are fraught with all sorts of challenges. Over the last few years, I participated in multiple forums, ...

discussion deleted-answer moderation deleted-questions

FoxElemental

@WorldbuildingMeta Ow. A bug on bounties, a bug on the newsletter, and a user upset with mods. Not a good day for you, huh?

dot_Sp0T

7:15 PM

@Secespitus I got myself thinking about the votes, and now am wondering if your decision to stay with the generated user-picture in opposition to using a custom one has hampered the votes you've received

Mithrandir24601

7:44 PM

@WorldbuildingMeta "And of all the places I've visited, or participated in, this stack has been probably the most inhospitable and unaccountable online environment I've seen so far." This is one of the friendliest SE sites I use... O.o

6

Shalvenay

8:19 PM

hey there @Mithrandir24601

Mithrandir24601

@Shalvenay Rytsas arlii!

Shalvenay

hey as well @TheMattbat999

The Mattbat999

8:43 PM

@Shalvenay hello!

Shalvenay

hey as well @MikeNichols

how are things going?

Mike Nichols

@Shalvenay Just fine, thanks for asking.

The Mattbat999

@Shalvenay Things are good.

Shalvenay

good to hear

The Mattbat999

@Shalvenay how are you?

Shalvenay

8:46 PM

doing fine here

The Mattbat999

Good. Just to strike up conversation, but do you play video games or...

dot_Sp0T

quick query, does a two mile diameter for a ringwall strike you as huge?

Secespitus

9:02 PM

@dot_Sp0T That is an interesting hypothesis... Sadly it will be difficult to test it :D

Secret

Random stuff just before I forgot:

A scifi lab with a huge spherical tank filled with water. Upon pressing a button, the space inside get diced up such that it is just large enough to contain one water moelcule. It is said that this way the water tank cannot spoil because there is no virus the size of water molecules

Secespitus

@dot_Sp0T No clue... How big are ringwalls normally? And what's the reason for the size?

Secret

Inspiration pathway: Australia is expected to go into drought. Recalling my family advice not to waste water, I then think about pre storing a huge tank of it, but then I realise it will nto quite work because there is no way to prevent it from spoil. Then I imagined that if there is a wayto prevent the spoil from spreading into every droplet, then I will be able to have a water tank for indefinite amount of time. This idea is then born

---> Huge opportunities if we can reversibly dice spacetime in anyway we like

Shalvenay

@TheMattbat999 I do, but i'm an admitted MP junkie, and I don't really keep up with the latest and greatest

dot_Sp0T

@Secespitus I needed an arbitary size when starting to work on it, and decided upon a 1 mile radius^^

The Mattbat999

9:16 PM

@Shalvenay unless it is Elder scrolls or Fallout I don't keep up much either. I like Single Player games a little more than Multiplayer ones, and love RPG games

dot_Sp0T

the Manhattan peninsula seems to have a mean width of about 2miles

Shalvenay

@TheMattbat999 ah

The Mattbat999

9:33 PM

@Shalvenay I also do my own development. I am working on an Old-styled RPG.

dot_Sp0T

11:04 PM

I'm going to keep the mile

Gonna be a pain to fill it, but it's more awesome

The Mattbat999