Author Topic: Lehm's theory.  (Read 5100 times)

Daikun

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Lehm's theory.
« on: August 22, 2013, 04:42:46 pm »
A thread where we discuss Lehm's theory that the "sorcery" in this world is caused by nanomachines rather than magic.

It's an interesting idea, but I do have a bit of a problem with it. Thinking back to earlier chapters, it seems like these Qualias can perform tasks which I feel should be beyond impossible.

If there is supposedly no magic in this world, then how could a machine rearrange an entire room which can cause someone to teleport from one end to the other instantaneously?

Does this contradict Lehm's theory in any way?

weirdguy

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Re: Lehm's theory.
« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2013, 11:14:12 pm »
It could be an optical illusion....

the more worrying part is how interdimensional bags work

Stargoat

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Re: Lehm's theory.
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2013, 08:00:10 am »
Lehm's a nut.  You should trust him like you would trust a were-weasel in a henhouse on a full moon after he's been in the moonshine.

9_6

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Re: Lehm's theory.
« Reply #3 on: September 24, 2013, 07:53:00 am »
The more technology advances, the more indistinguishable it becomes to magic.
Why do you want it to be "magic" magic instead of "magic" anyway?
What is "magic" magic other than plot convenience?

And what does it change?

If the borg queen who made all this and has control over it decides to attack, what could they "realistically" do?
If they come close to uncovering some sort of meaningful secret, how could they protect themselves from getting deconstructed into atoms or getting their neurons rearranged by millions of nanomachines that are literally everywhere at all times including the air and their bloodstream?

It's technology and not whatever other thing that was never explained anyway.
So? It's still a deus ex machina, a literal one even.
« Last Edit: September 24, 2013, 08:13:06 am by 9_6 »

Enkida

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Re: Lehm's theory.
« Reply #4 on: October 08, 2013, 02:52:12 am »
It's an interesting theory.  But it's also something I sort of wished wasn't introduced into the story, along the same lines of George Lucas explaining that the Force is really just mitochondria or something.  I wants me magics and I don't wants no rational explanations of me magics etc.  On the plus side this plot point is much more central and much more gracefully introduced into the comic than Lucas' stupid ass explanation of the Force, which was completely unnecessary IMO.
2 kids = no more comics, but you can still find me doing BG portraits now and then

Azure Priest

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Re: Lehm's theory.
« Reply #5 on: November 01, 2013, 09:43:14 pm »
A thread where we discuss Lehm's theory that the "sorcery" in this world is caused by nanomachines rather than magic.

It's an interesting idea, but I do have a bit of a problem with it. Thinking back to earlier chapters, it seems like these Qualias can perform tasks which I feel should be beyond impossible.

If there is supposedly no magic in this world, then how could a machine rearrange an entire room which can cause someone to teleport from one end to the other instantaneously?

Does this contradict Lehm's theory in any way?

Actually, the long-running plot device for a technological portal is some sort of machine taking people and objects apart at the molecular level and then transmitting that information somewhere else where the person or object is re-assembled in the same state as before transport.

For the most part, sci-fi has glossed over the grievous problems inherent in such a method of transport. For starters, the human body is constantly undergoing millions if not billions of chemical reactions simultaneously. Attempting to "Pause" all that molecular activity and restart it in the same exact state is highly problematic. (In fact, Neelix and Tuvock were once temporarily fused together as "Tuvix" because the crew of Voyager unknowingly introduced a symbiotic bacterium that fuses different species of simple life together as a basic function, and during transport, Neelix and Tuvok were nothing more than a large number of "simple life forms.") Plus even if that were possible, "noise" during transmission could cause something called "transcription errors" like say having an "A" appear where a "G" is supposed to go in your genetic code.  Now a single letter over millions or billions of lines of code isn't likely to be noticeable, but these errors add up until eventually you're no longer viable as a living being.

A more recent method of "instant" transport utilizes a spacial anomaly, like a wormhole, to bypass the restrictions of space-time, as shown in the series "Stargate-Sg1." This, of course, introduces its own perils. Spacial anomalies are, by definition, objects that ignore certain aspects of the laws of physics and tend to be quite unstable.  They also can do rather nasty things to an unprotected human body. A wormhole is often quite similar to a "black hole" or quantum singularity and can rip apart a human body through sheer gravitational force, or as shown in the movie "Event Horizon" take you someplace you REALLY don't want to go.