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E M Berner said:
Ok. Let's just consider how Special and General Relativity treats something approaching the speed of light and has mass. The force needed to accelerate the object approaches infinity as the objects relativistic mass also does. What do you think happens to the math if you then set a speed for the object above the speed of light. Does the mass become two times infinity?
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Nope. Instead, if you look at the perfectly good SR math? It becomes _imaginary_.

You can't go through c to get to speeds faster than c, because no matter how much you speed up or accelerate, you're still JUST as far from c, in your reference frame, as when you started. (This is a sign that strangeness awaits past c, among other things.)

Will happily explain FTL + SR = causality violation - just need to check first which of these you already have a handle on: future light cone / past light cone, hyperbolae, Lorentz transformation (involving the t axis, so involving a change of inertial reference frame and a change in velocity)?

--Dave, it doesn't actually matter whether you BELIEVE the results. They're right there in the math; a suitable frame change can put a point in Elsewhere _anywhere else_ in Elsewhere

ps: a change in Velocity may involve the gender axis; continue? [ynwtf?]

pps: see? see what happens when you ask the author for _CONNNFLICTT_? You get Coil conflict in the imaginary realm! (Not that there's ANYTHING wrong with that.) You get Lisa vs Coil with the help of N+3 USA secret departments and a mysterious red-haired competent female straight out of Heinlein! (...Ditto.) And you get Taylor versus the annoyances of poorly designed Tinkertech, with the entire visible spectrum falling victim in the process! Be CAREFUL what you ask for! Eyebrows are at stake here!

p^3s: Dramatic Tension: Taylor versus the speed of light. It's still in the background, but if you listen with your math & physics ears, you can hear the slowly rising overture.
 
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Elfalpha said:
Why would the Undersiders be recruited?

For any government org that's not the PRT, being a parahuman should be a strike against you. If they're not holding the idiot ball, it's obvious paras are driven to combat and unstable to boot. You need to be useful enough in spite of being one, not because of it, to be a valuable resource. Only Lisa may qualify, and even then she'd need a dedicated handler to keep her in check.

Note that there's been no evidence of parahumans in the organisations protecting Taylor, and in fact very much the opposite. They've made clear they have a low opinion of parahumans and see the vast majority as easy and predictable targets.

Add to that the fact that any inclusion of parahumans near Taylor gives the PRT an opportunity to apply leverage.
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Hmm they may grab TT just for her use at parsing infomation they get though that would probably on a contract bases rather than full employment since I don't really like her or trust her enough.

The rest though I'd give each what they want have them sign the USA equivalent of the Offical Secrets Act then send them on their way but keep them under watch.
 
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More crack theories: the redhead agent is actually Emma, after Taylor cracked time travel and she's come back to ensure a stable time loop ... (though yeah I know MP3's opinion on time travel). DARPA is just as confused about who she works for as we are.
 
FaerieKnight79 said:
If you don't mind, could you share what story that is? I'm sure I'm not the only one wanting to know.



Couple things... If he's still in the Bay, Contessa's "keep Cauldron's existance secret" Path wouldn't know to abduct/kill Calvert right now. ALso, before whoever grabbed him could stop him from saying "door to cauldron base", they would have to know he has that option.
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Plus there's fact that he only bought power from them and still owes favors I think. He's not member, he's not affiliate, he don't have any Door privileges. He's just Cauldron's labrat in their Parahuman Feudalism project. His only hope is to start singing about Cauldron and hope that Contessa won't dispose of him with the rest. Presuming she can even PtV him right now.
 
FaerieKnight79 said:
That said, Doormaker can apparently still create portals to the Bay with Clairvoyant's guidance. Just look at Legend's visit.
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I believe those Doors were about 20 miles offshore so that Legend wouldn't be suddenly appearing out of nowhere on air traffic control radars. It'd just look like he's flying up from New York.

Taylor's equipment just happens to have a forty mile range.
 
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Let the spice Science flow. I imagine the development of science in the worm canon to be stunted due to the entities perceiving it as a threat and preemptively doing their best to co-op it. People who have the capacity and likelihood of making progress in the science/entropy thing are probably all made tinker so that their discovery is subverted/blackboxed and available only to the shards, and the science flows upward to the entity and nothing is left to the humans. Now that Taylor is able to reverse engineer discovery the many principals to science from examples of tinker tech, the science flows from shard/worm entities to the humans. So what happens when human society becomes as knowledgeable in science as the shards are. Peaple will be theoretically be able to build all the cannon superpower of the parahumans just with human manufactured machine. I guess this is one way to erase the human/parahuman division and PRT/Protectorate is dissolved as a separate entity and simply becomes a part of regular Police.
 
Wordz, Glorious wordz! It's always good to get another readng bite before bedtime, even if my brain now gets to spin up options based on the new input. One thing occurs to me is that Taylor seriously needs to start thinking about ways to merge some of her devices. At the rate she's going, she's going to be like Doc Brown with his multiple watches and clocks, only in her case it will be a fanny pack stuffed with chunky cell phones.

"Taylor, why do you tote around so many cell phones?"

"They're older models, and the batteries are pretty much shot. Dad's got some money coming in a few months that he's tagged to get me a new phone, but till then I just lug a bunch of spares in case one dies on me."

SIDoragon said:
That sounds less like "buy stock" and more like "Amy, we have a business proposition for you."

Also, I would order the hell out of that whiskey.
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But that's not what she's likely to make. We all know that for a physics/engineering genius, their traditional first step is 307 Ale.
 
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I could see the Undersiders becoming a black ops team.

And I also shudder at the thought of Taylor getting her hands on Leet's or String Theory's stuff.
 
Personally I'm hoping that the first person the PRT tries to accuse of being a parahuman for reverse engineering tinker proves to just be one of the scientist that studied Taylor's theory. That way they prove that this is simple because of new understanding physics rather than parahumans. It would be so much egg on there face.
In fact I imagine there probably plenty of old tinker devices which can know be understood because they have the theory and by regular scientists not Taylor
 
FaerieKnight79 said:
There's this fantastically good novel I know about. The main protagonist is a teenager who never has anything bad happen to them. They also never suffer. Both of these are true because he lives in a utopia. The only 'conflict' in the novel is this kid being told the real history that is hidden from 99.9% of every generation. That novel? It's called The Giver.
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You and I have very different understanding of utopia. The only difference between 1984 and the Giver is that Big Brother is more overt in his cruelty and methods
 
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I kinda have to wonder how Armsmaster will react when he sees Taylors increasingly ridiculous phones. PRT/Protectorate phones are top end, but a slightly clunky brick that would justify multiple parahuman threat ratings is going to give him hives. I could see some mobile phone factory being quietly bought and repurposed into a source of hypertech wonders that justify a nigh unlimited budget. Because theory is nice, but mass production is what they're after, and easily portable stealth or energy shields or detectors really change the game. The Secret Service would go nuts over some of those options given their threat environment.

Suit: "Mr president, we've got an addition to your protective equipment."
Pres: "It looks like a clunky mobile phone. Could ya'll lay it out for me?"
Suit: "It's from the Prime Asset, sir. Push the little ghost icon and you'll turn invisible."
Pres: "You're (Bleep)ing me."
Suit: "No, though the battery life still sucks."

But yeah, DARPA now has a reason to directly push for the PRT charter to be modified - "You have authority over Tinkertech, but we know what we're doing with it rather better. Hand over the jurisdiction and we'll let you take a look at our catelogue."

Rolling out even occasional bits of reverse engineered tinkertech would be enough to change the game there - most tinkertech has a short shelf life, so anything useful enough to hold onto 'just in case' is also useful enough that letting her look is hard to argue against.

It might just be the thing that lets Costa Brown get a look inside, though. Probably not all the way in, but a little.
 
o dear the meme's for the pentagon are not going to be good when this become's public they cant keep track of nations and now they will have tanks and plane's that can cloak there going to be replacement cost override's couse of this forgetting where they placed there toys :D
 
Arimai said:
You and I have very different understanding of utopia. The only difference between 1984 and the Giver is that Big Brother is more overt in his cruelty and methods
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The society is initially portrayed as a utopia. As in a society which meets every single need without any drawbacks.
Nobody suffers
Nobody is left without enough food, shelter, and other needs
Everyone is content with their life

As the novel continues the other side of the coin is shown. Nobody suffers grief, depression, or other bad emotions. Nobody hates or feels greed. But the positive emotions are also subdued to the point of near non-existence. Everyone has food and shelter, but society is stagnant and trapped exactly where it is without ever progressing. Everyone is content with their life, but they also have never experienced anything else. For it's problems, the society portrayed does have it's benefits too. Nobody is tortured, unlike in 1984. Nobody feels the need to rebel, because everything they need is right at hand.

Can you really claim that a society without hate, without greed, and where there's no need for law enforcement because there's no crime isn't a type of utopia? To be honest, I've been tempted to want to live in that society more then a few times. Especially in the past 4 years. I'm not sure if the price paid for it is something I'd be willing to pay, or if it's too high. And I've never been able to decide on that question.
 
Well, Coil was foiled by his two biggest weaknesses, Competence and NOT being willing to play his game, and Taylor just went from being an Asset to being a Necessity. If she doesn't soon have a platoon of invisible marines accompanied by several invisible roaming black ops squads, I'd be very surprised.
 
Avernus said:
Also, if they hadn't gone after Coil preemptively he might have actually managed to do some damage. He's much more dangerous on the attack than the defense as he can just keep on trying things without anyone else realizing it, for years if necessary. But on the defense he doesn't have basically unlimited tries, and if you know his power you can double-team his timelines like happened in this story.

And it was very satisfying to watch Lisa get to go Maximum Smug on him.
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Well, double teaming him is easy. In fact, it should happen naturally. The only way it does not happen is, if you react to him directly. But if you plan your attack for a few days, have a certain time Span as Go, it will happen.

Coil is a surprisingly weak boogeyman. And that is, because he can get very dangerous as long as you do not know about him. As soon as you know about his mere existence as a threat he gets a lot less dangerous, and as soon as you know about his power, you wait 24-48 hours and he is gone... (Assuming you have the required resources to put him under observation.)
 
Well... Taylor just told the higher ups that she reverse engineered Tinker Tech.

The fact that reverse engineering Tinker Tech wasn't the source of Gravitech's advancements was a key part in keeping the PRT away. This is no longer true.

The PRT now actually has a valid reason to know what's going on in Gravitech. Someone's gonna need to be read in.
 
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deathgeonous said:
Well, Coil was foiled by his two biggest weaknesses, Competence and NOT being willing to play his game, and Taylor just went from being an Asset to being a Necessity. If she doesn't soon have a platoon of invisible marines accompanied by several invisible roaming black ops squads, I'd be very surprised.
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I'm figuring cloaked gunship loaded with troops, mostly, especially now they have stealth and potentially personal gravity generators for jump troops. Based on the descriptions, it would be able to hover silently above Arcadia for her full day, then tail her home.

I now need to write the Omake about Vicky crashing into a giant invisible gunship filled with troops...
 
FaerieKnight79 said:
I laugh at the thought of Leet's shard finding out a human got ahold of it's work, thought it piss poor, and did a much better job building a copy.
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Given that his Shard is canonically trying to kill him, it would be interesting if Taylor realized that the tech was subtly designed to fail destructively.

"His tech is made to blow up in his face? Why would Leet do that? Is he some kind of...Tinker masochist?"
 
Aurora Moon said:
like another person said, copyrighted.

How about Multi-Use Scanning and Recording device, M.U.S.R.D for short? maybe even jokingly call it the mustard device because of the initials that it spells out.
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Quite a few years ago, I heard a rumor that Gene Roddenberry had put in place rules about naming devices/tech after ST stuff.
Basically, if it worked anything like what was shown in the show, then they were allowed to use the name.

Of course, since then, the Great Bird of the Galaxy has headed back home to the stars so teh rules may have changed with Paramount running the show.
 
Abacus said:
I kinda have to wonder how Armsmaster will react when he sees Taylors increasingly ridiculous phones. PRT/Protectorate phones are top end, but a slightly clunky brick that would justify multiple parahuman threat ratings is going to give him hives. I could see some mobile phone factory being quietly bought and repurposed into a source of hypertech wonders that justify a nigh unlimited budget. Because theory is nice, but mass production is what they're after, and easily portable stealth or energy shields or detectors really change the game. The Secret Service would go nuts over some of those options given their threat environment.

Suit: "Mr president, we've got an addition to your protective equipment."
Pres: "It looks like a clunky mobile phone. Could ya'll lay it out for me?"
Suit: "It's from the Prime Asset, sir. Push the little ghost icon and you'll turn invisible."
Pres: "You're (Bleep)ing me."
Suit: "No, though the battery life still sucks."
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Those phones wouldn't be the Nokia bricks would they?
They are practically indestructable but their battery life tended to suck.
 
Icemanau said:
Quite a few years ago, I heard a rumor that Gene Roddenberry had put in place rules about naming devices/tech after ST stuff.
Basically, if it worked anything like what was shown in the show, then they were allowed to use the name.
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It's mentioned on Wikipedia, but not cited.

The company was permitted to call this device a "tricorder" because Gene Roddenberry's contract included a clause allowing any company able to create functioning technology to use the name.[citation needed]​
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Although as the article says a lot of people have used the label so it probably doesn't matter.
 
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