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[RFC] The History of the Crystal Millennium
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Mm. It seems to me that the "crews" of those assorted busloads -- not to mention the various pastors and ministers encouraging them who of course remained safely behind on Earth -- perfectly typify the label of http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Glossary#D]"Dursley".
-- Bob --------- Then the horns kicked in... ...and my shoes began to squeak. 
Yes indeedy. Can we think of any other groups that would typify such a definition? I'm pretty sure that a good deal of Capitol Hill would qualify, as well as just about every bureaucrat in Beijing.
blackaeronaut Wrote:Yes indeedy. Can we think of any other groups that would typify such a definition? I'm pretty sure that a good deal of Capitol Hill would qualify, as well as just about every bureaucrat in Beijing.I am not sure this would be fair... the reason why both the leaders of the USA and China are opposed to Fenspace is that they are used to be in control... the USA was/is used to be the "single World Superpower" and China is used to be totally in control inside its borders (and expands its influence currently). Both see the concept of Handwavium in random peoples hands as a power/loss of control... they just want the Handwavium for themselves (I think there is a story in the wiki that mentions the USA releasing carefully waved jet fighters, twice as good as anything before).
They can covet it all they like - they were never meant to have sole ownership. The wave, as a quirk in and of itself, finds ways of 'getting out'. A prime example would be the incident at 36 Atalante that is simply referred to as The Incident where, due to improper maintenance, they lost containment of their main Gray Goo reserve and a good number of people wound up getting accidental biomods - including Ben's family! For this reason, specialty strains such as AC Peters's Mnemosyne's Honey and Jessica Ayanami's Quick Clone/Replicator strains are made in limited, as-needed quantities to keep it from falling into the hands of others... say, the Chinese.
First off, Mnemosyne's Honey is The Jason's, second the 'wave doesn't always 'get out'. As noted in her Wiki write up, the 'wavium of A.C.'s body only works for her. It can be downright dangerous for anyone else to use, and she doesn't hand out samples anymore (because it doesn't grow that fast in her anyway, and the results of the one theft that occured).
That's not to say she doesn't have various private strains, anyone worthy of the 'Mad' distinction has several.
Call it a base quirk of the Miracle Goo that can be overwritten by specialty strains, then. Information and Handwavium want to be free. The idea keeps well with all these people randomly stumbling over it.
BA, I'd be very hesitant to call anything "Grey Goo" when Handwavium's around. We cannot afford certain types of accidents.  Proginoskes Wrote:BA, I'd be very hesitant to call anything "Grey Goo" when Handwavium's around. %[link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo]We cannot afford certain types of accidents.]http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... ium_Quirks]No worries there - the namespace collision is accidental. (Unless some Fen decided http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Humourists]it would be funny to http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... s_Esoteric]increase confusion, of course.) -- Rob Kelk "Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of the same sovereign, servants of the same law." - Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
I'm not afraid of Handwavium going Grey on its own, but it can modify any hardtech, which I assume includes exotic stuff from the Whole Fenspace Catalog. The WFC includes nanotech. If people go around calling Handwavium "Grey Goo", and something happens to bring it into contact with WFC-nanotech, that namespace collision could have some pretty serious consequences. On the other hand, I've just remembered about the Genre Directive, which shields (at least) Fenspace's Mainline from Grey Goo disasters along with other dystopian events.
I fully expect that Handwavium coming into contact with nanotech would, worst case, merely be subject to the Slapstick Effect. Or, perhaps, would have no effect at all except to absorb the nanos and leave you with slightly more Handwavium than when you started.
-- "You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor
... I forget: has it been settled that handwavium is or is not actually some wild nanotech?
blackaeronaut Wrote:... I forget: has it been settled that handwavium is or is not actually some wild nanotech?Let's see... Handwavium is... er... Handwavium is... umm... Handwavium is. That's as far as we've ever managed to get in the definition (as opposed to the description). So, no, it hasn't been settled. -- Rob Kelk "Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of the same sovereign, servants of the same law." - Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
I fully expect that looking at it in different ways gets you different images: it might respond to one person's efforts at chemical analysis as though it were an aqueous solution or a pure substance, while another person's electron microscopy might reveal nanostructures similar to those in a WFC nanofac. Jessica A.'s Quick-Clone strain probably presents as transmutation-capable nanofac devices with lots of extra CHON. The spiritual and mythological influences The Jason used to create Mnemosyne's Honey and its attendant quirks suggests that it might defy scientific analysis altogether, appearing to be a chemically nonreactive pure substance.
Hmmm.... I always thought of it as raw quantum mechanics. Given how much the human consciousness is clearly hooked into this stuff anyway, what it is depends on the observer and their pre-existing ideas and theories. It a strange form of matter who's wavefunction collapses as much based on the human idea of what it could be, compared to what it physically should be. By it's very nature, it'll be what you want it to be... or what you expect it to be.... although it may not be what the end user expects it to be.
________________________________ --m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig? Dartz Wrote:Hmmm.... I always thought of it as raw quantum mechanics. Given how much the human consciousness is clearly hooked into this stuff anyway, what it is depends on the observer and their pre-existing ideas and theories. It a strange form of matter who's wavefunction collapses as much based on the human idea of what it could be, compared to what it physically should be. By it's very nature, it'll be what you want it to be... or what you expect it to be.... although it may not be what the end user expects it to be.Y'know, that would explain why it defied magical analysis in the prologue to Legend of Galactic Girls. Doug was approaching the question "what is handwavium?" with a completely open mind, expecting nothing... and that's exactly the answer he got. -- Rob Kelk "Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of the same sovereign, servants of the same law." - Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012 |
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