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Hermione learns a thing

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What the wizarding world lacks, is a skunk works.
That is to say, a bunch of Geeks going "what happens when I....."
Theoretically the Department of Mysteries does that, but I get the feeling they are more of an arm of the guild concept, who experiment within the fixed paradigm. As opposed to the Linux community who are full of people experimenting with manipulating variables and dedicated to finding ways to break things so they can make it better.
 
@mp3.1415player said:
"Think of police boxes," she replied mysteriously. Then she sniffed. "Ooh, I can smell roast chicken!" Hopping to her feet and tossing her notebook onto her desk, she ran out of the room as he stared after her. His mind had immediately jumped to something very familiar, but he honestly wasn't sure if she was joking or not.

After a few seconds, he heard his wife call, so he headed downstairs as well, whistling the theme to a popular television show under his breath and wondering what the next surprise would be.
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I always loved this one and it even has the tune as well.
Do wonder who of them, will go for that one, though.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6uGx7kf4Ng&ab_channel=PolgytheLamphunter

Do hope they can get one for her to modify, properly.
Just watch the groans happening.
Then the next Doctor Who episode gets a bit more real then ever expected.
Who knows, maybe Hermoine can pull off a Grey Ghost.
The SuperHero introduction, that is better then any Superman one.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-7H6u5v7Lc&ab_channel=DoctorWho

Just watch it, things might end up quite MiB like, you know, though that one could actually be quite funny, as well.
Especially if they are also around.
And if not, a good way to troll the Wizarding World, right?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPIhKLmO7WU&ab_channel=Eternaldarkness3166

Now, is Granny also coming along as well?
Might finally give her something else to do, besides sitting around, trying to make the time go by.
Just being able to openly knit, without causing potential trouble...
Why, she might find it fun, yet tiring.

Lets hope Hermoine ain't starting to make a working Flying DeLorean Time-Machine, because then she would break sooo many thinks, right from the start, it would not be funny.
On the other hand, Steam Engines, suddenly become quite clean, with not needing any actual fuel in order to run.
Just consider how many steam trains there still are running in Great Britain.
If Hermione can figure out the Repair Spell, then things can get really broken, see sudden government investments into restoring certain train lines, coming from nowhere, that sees quite a few of those lines restored.
And with forcefields, even the Battleship might be able to make a come-back, like say a heavily upgraded G3 class Battlecruiser, updated to the more modern times, turret C is now a missile silo bank.
And she has a Well-dock/Moon-pool in the stern, turbo-electrical drives, in order to better hide the hub-field effect, in the beginning and have some back-up in place as well.
Could lead to them buying up copies of the USA it's Des Moines(?) class in order to get that 8 inch turret blueprint, for some real upgrading to be done.
en.wikipedia.org

USS Salem (CA-139) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
And if they can figure out how to add in a helideck with hangar...
But more likely, they make a heavily upgraded version of the NS Savannah, while mixing her with a supply ship for her front cargobays, while her stern one gets a hangar with helideck, sitting above a well-dock.
And if they want to then be ironic with the naming, they could go with HMS Toundra.
en.wikipedia.org

NS Savannah - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Has Hermione figured out how to alter colours?
The US Navy it's first fleet, The Great White Fleet, had the best looking warships, ever made.
It's at the end of the Cold War, so see the other countries their reaction to such a move.

But I think they will probably construct a Hunter/Killer Submarine, that is lacking it's reactor system.
Fun thing, the Americans are needing to construct new carriers, because their powerplants can't power all the new modern electronics, that seems to be rising all the time, they need more reactors that each are more powerfull, to supply the raising energy needs.
See the Brits actually removing the powerplants to the confusion of everybody, while powering even more stuff, that needs electrical energy, with no problem at all.
Worse, they also somehow, seem to have gone entirely silent, as well, are those screws even turning around, at all?

Worse, the YT-1300 Millennium Falcon, from Star Wars, was actually ordered by Lucas, from a Britisch shipyard.
Does that shipyard still exist and would they still have the blueprints?
Yeah, I think that certain Sci-fi movie stuff, could become real, in story, thanks to a bored ten year old, since it's fun.
Like say that hoverboard from Back To The Future
Heh, would be cool if she could combine that flight modus with that James Bond 007 Lotus Submarine Conversion System.
Just see MI-5/6 their reaction to that one
....
MIB
......
MI-B
O boy, MI-Bullshit, Hermione might get the Q designation, just for hilarity sake.
Remember, it's bigger on the inside. :);):D

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeBqf6bYZak&t=8s&ab_channel=Movieclips

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKLs9ynZEH0&ab_channel=PLyons10
 
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Golden Eyed King said:
Them discovering spells and magical effects must be them blasting magic at the wall and see what sticks and doesn't turn into some horrifying monstrosity that kills them.
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Wonder how many magical beasts and similar are the result of wizard trial and error. The Dementors looks like a likely candidate for attempted animated guard with limited intelligence (or paperclip maximizing invisible butler designed to keep the drinks cold) that turned into a "class 4 free roaming HOP".
It is actually a bit surprising that they haven't unleashed a magical grey goo scenario yet. Possibly geometric doubling free roaming HOPs are such an astronomical draw on the H-field that it temporarily changes enough that HOPs rapidly become non-selfsustaining.
 
mp3.1415player said:
It also tends to produce learning that stays in the guild, as it's deemed too secret or valuable to pass on generally. Again, this is very much something we have historical evidence for, and in a lot of cases we know that people in ages past knew how to do something, but we have no idea how since they hid the information so well that it died with them.
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And sometimes we have the documentation and still can't figure it out because the creators assumed some essential part is self explanatory. The best example would be Roman concrete which inexplicitly lasts for thousands of years when modern concrete struggles to last decades.
In the end we did figure out that when the Romans wrote "water" in their recipe, they meant "sea water". Which finally made the whole thing work when we tried to replicate it.

We still don't know the recipe for Greek fire though.
 
Daemion said:
And sometimes we have the documentation and still can't figure it out because the creators assumed some essential part is self explanatory. The best example would be Roman concrete which inexplicitly lasts for thousands of years when modern concrete struggles to last decades.
In the end we did figure out that when the Romans wrote "water" in their recipe, they meant "sea water". Which finally made the whole thing work when we tried to replicate it.

We still don't know the recipe for Greek fire though.
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Seawater and use of an iron containing colloid to treat it after curing. As it turns out, pouring blood on fresh concrete actually does help, though including the iron particles in the seawater helps more. Though we discovered the benefits of blood in concrete before we figured out they meant seawater. Turns out, Ferrocrete is not only real, but damn useful and hardy, like the SciFi Writers thought.

Edit: To be clear, the Romans would pour goat and other sacrificial blood on their concrete toward the tail end of curing, and we've found that for some reason adding iron suspended in something at that part really does help. Though you can just mix in iron particles while it's mixing, it doesn't seem to be quite as effective for reasons related to how the material forms. But adding the Iron-Liquid to semi-porous concrete fills in some of the gaps.
 
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mp3.1415player said:
"Think of police boxes,"
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*Hopefully* T-t-time travel?

rdmcmains said:
Assuming she makes that trip to Scotland in a year and a half
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Yeah, but... that would be sooooo~ boring. What they gonna teach her there? Novel and effective ways to tear your own hair in frustration?

Like, she's few crucial steps away from making a force field dome on a the surface of Europa to warp there for a picnic with her parents and Dr. Hawking.
Heck, with sufficiently advanced psionics in a few years Stephen Hawking can open his own wormhole across spacetime to see a black hole swallowing a star with his own pair of eyes.

Hogwarts-schmogwarts...
 
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mp3.1415player said:
"How does this connect to their odd modular HOP construction, I wonder?" she murmured, writing a few more lines. "Perhaps they aren't even aware how obvious the joins are? They just push subassemblies together until they work… That could be very dangerous if you made a mistake. And where do the subassemblies come from to begin with? They don't really look like they were properly designed from first principles… Possibly it really is simply empirical experimentation? But that would imply…
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I'll be honest, this part makes me imagine some alien creature looking at a human with a steel sword and saying "I can understand the shape of it, but the material! Carbide strands going nowhere in particular, uneven distribution of seemingly random inclusions! Even the carbon content is adjusted by heating the metal and bashing it with a hammer! Can't those primitives feel the crystalline structure of the metal? Have they even tasted it?"
 
FourmyleOfCeres said:
Seawater and use of an iron containing colloid to treat it after curing. As it turns out, pouring blood on fresh concrete actually does help, though including the iron particles in the seawater helps more. Though we discovered the benefits of blood in concrete before we figured out they meant seawater. Turns out, Ferrocrete is not only real, but damn useful and hardy, like the SciFi Writers thought.
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Blood (and eggs) were used in mortar during the middle ages, yes.
 
mp3.1415player said:
"Stop it," she instructed firmly, her lips twitching. "We will gather data, not jump to conclusions. It's unscientific to do otherwise. And that particular issue isn't currently the most important one. I'm sure it can wait for now. I have other work to do first."
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This is peak Ravenclaw. "There are psions like me in hiding somewhere in London, apparently organized and using psionic tools, but who cares? I've got math to do. Their stuff is inefficient, anyway."
 
Minor point in the discussion between Hermione and her father. What she was talking about and warp drives are two very different critters. The closest theories we have to an actual warp drive is an Alcubierre Drive which actually involves warping space itself in front of and behind the drive. The space itself is actually travelled, it's just been tweaked more than a bit. Wormholes are a direct point to point connection where the intervening distance is bypassed completely. To simplify it, wormholes are Stargates and warp drives are Star Trek. The shows actually do a good job of demonstrating the two different concepts.
BTW, hyperspace/subspace involves dropping out of the dimension altogether to where our laws of physics a bit different in exploitable ways, then popping back into our dimension where you want to be.
 
beleester said:
This is peak Ravenclaw. "There are psions like me in hiding somewhere in London, apparently organized and using psionic tools, but who cares? I've got math to do. Their stuff is inefficient, anyway."
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It's more Slytherin. Her ambition is more important than anything else. She'll talk to the wizards once she is at least equal to them, so she can negotiate from a position of power.

It is good science either way though. Go as far on her own as she can, without contaminating her processes with the inefficient methods.
 
There is always a reason things are done the way they are - even if that reason is now obsolete or looks silly from our current perspective.

I am scared that this story is going to end with something like:

'...And then the Oblivators were sent in. It took months - but we eventually wiped out all traces of the 'HOP' knowledge from the world, outside of the DOM - via the final ritual...'
The apprentice unspeakable came to stop, carefully releasing a shaky breath as the ICW Most Unspeakable nodded with satisfaction at the completion of the report and pronounced with finality, "It is good that we caught it in time - the seers were going catatonic from all the ripples caused by the Old Ones stirring."

"What is to stop some well meaning idiot from breaking away from tradition in the future?" questioned another Unspeakable in annoyance, "damn muggleborn are making even wizards think magic can be experimented with. We got lucky this time, but the muggles are pushing forward with their Physical Alchemy and always poking... poking... there's good reasons not to experiment! Curse Aristotélēs Stagiritis!" they exclaimed in frustration.

"May he and his be known as 'the fish-tailed*' for ever more," the other Unspeakables mouthed the ritually required response with an air of tired dislike.
After a moment, another Unspeakable spoke up, "Perhaps a planet wide magic noise ward?" they suggested in a speculative tone of voice, "the old records show spells always have to emit a broad spectrum of magic to blend into the general thaumic field and avoid attracting unwanted detection... if we make sure there's always enough noise - it doesn't matter how many signals the muggles or well meaning idiots send out...'

"Maybe provide a plausible reason why spells have to be created with oversight?" suggested another thoughtfully, "we can't let the average wizard know about... well... but maybe find a reason to discourage Physical Alchemy methods being used in spell creation...? Arrange a few accidents 'caused' by efficient designs - no room in efficient spells designs for safely releasing excess magic perhaps?"

The Most Unspeakable sighed, "It will take another generation at least for everyone to go back to, 'doing it the way we've always done it' - but you're right, there should be a solid 'reason' to point to. The Lovegood Incident proves accidents aren't sufficent, given the current situation. Perhaps a suitably ancient work on the dangers of experimenting outside of the tested spell matrixes could be discovered..."

"Any blank Atlantean tablets left?" inquired another...
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*muggle - c. 1200, "a fish-tail," also, apparently, "a person with a fish-tail" (only as a surname), a word of uncertain origin, perhaps from Latin mugil "mullet."
 
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mp3.1415player said:
"Think of police boxes," she replied mysteriously. Then she sniffed. "Ooh, I can smell roast chicken!" Hopping to her feet and tossing her notebook onto her desk, she ran out of the room as he stared after her. His mind had immediately jumped to something very familiar, but he honestly wasn't sure if she was joking or not.
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FTL travel of certain varieties and speeds explicitly postulates time travel, as any good student of science fiction knows, so I don't think she's joking there.

Also, it occurs that Hermione could shorten the parameters considerably by simply limiting where the wormhole can form from a set of positive requirement rather than disregarding negative ones. IE: require a certain band of temperature, pressure, etc... instead of incrementally forbidding the life-threatening ones.
 
The Stormbringer said:
She definitely needs to teach some other people how to sense/use the H-Field. Including Stephen Hawking!
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It's interesting to note that right now we don't actually know whether there are limits on who can learn psionics.

We know it isn't limited to those Wizarding society recognizes, since Hermione's parents and grandmother picked it up well enough. So far she's 100% on managing to teach it, but the sample is small and biased. It's possible that even with Hermione's teaching not everyone can learn.

I'd guess it's not restrictive, but it could be.
 
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