Wargh! Finally, a chance to catch up (the life of a contractor is not all sweetness and light, my children).
Anyway, in no particular order:
On props and the power of belief: The key to this is "versimilitude = functionality." Particularly with stuff coming out of visual-genre fandoms, the more realistic it *looks* the more likely it'll *work* on the first try. "Hero" props, the ones designed for closeups and to be in the shot on a regular basis, are going to work better than props designed for distance shots or to be carried by extras (which are often just lumps of wood or polystyrene painted to look vaguely like the hero prop).
Now, does this matter? For the vast majority of devices, I'm not so sure it does. Fan replicas, toys & whatnot are all based off the blueprints for the hero props, and sometimes they have more innate function than the props they're emulating. For stuff like tricorders, handlinks, even wands to an extent, one of the big things is that they're ubquitous - *everybody* has 'em. If you're a Trekkie, having Captain Kirk's communicator may provide some social mojo, but 'waved it's just another cellphone.
If belief has an effect it's on special things, objects that fen *know* there's only One of in the (story) world. Excalibur, Anduril, the Elder Wand, the Genesis Device, the Oscillation Overthruster... stuff like that. If you got your hands on the props for *those* and 'waved them, colelctive belief would enhance the effect within the limitations of the handwavium.
On magic and handwavium: I suppose it depends on what you mean by "magic." We already have two major examples in Fenspace of neopagan ritual workings being used to manipulate handwavium to pretty strong effect - the Jason and Grover's Corners. There, the ritual acts as a focus for delivering a clear mental image to the handwavium, and it works. Really well, in fact.
We also have - back in the Inelegant Truth's opening story, IIRC - a throwaway reference to Potterites handwashing sticks and remotes to create wands. This doesn't work out as well, partly because handwavium needs a base to work from, and dead wood just doesn't have the structure to latch onto properly, and partly because wands have a number of blatantly offensive functions, and with enough bloody-minded Wizards out there the collective unconscious may trip the weapons lock on wands.
On handwavium zombies: Given that ritual works very well with handwavium, and that zombies are (in fantasy fiction, anyway) often created by rituals, I don't see any major obstacles in the way of Buckaroo Banzai Against the Zombie King. All one needs is one wack hougan with a supply of biomod guacamole, and the whole thing just gets weird...
On handwavium and CSICOP: The fun thing about handwavium is that while a lot of minor effects aren't reproducable, the *major* ones are. That alone is enough to win the JREF Prize and ensure the next two generations of scientists go nutty trying to unravel the hows and whys of handwavium.
On the spontaneous generation of AI: Consciousness is an emergent property of handwavium. This is the True Knowledge.---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
Anyway, in no particular order:
On props and the power of belief: The key to this is "versimilitude = functionality." Particularly with stuff coming out of visual-genre fandoms, the more realistic it *looks* the more likely it'll *work* on the first try. "Hero" props, the ones designed for closeups and to be in the shot on a regular basis, are going to work better than props designed for distance shots or to be carried by extras (which are often just lumps of wood or polystyrene painted to look vaguely like the hero prop).
Now, does this matter? For the vast majority of devices, I'm not so sure it does. Fan replicas, toys & whatnot are all based off the blueprints for the hero props, and sometimes they have more innate function than the props they're emulating. For stuff like tricorders, handlinks, even wands to an extent, one of the big things is that they're ubquitous - *everybody* has 'em. If you're a Trekkie, having Captain Kirk's communicator may provide some social mojo, but 'waved it's just another cellphone.
If belief has an effect it's on special things, objects that fen *know* there's only One of in the (story) world. Excalibur, Anduril, the Elder Wand, the Genesis Device, the Oscillation Overthruster... stuff like that. If you got your hands on the props for *those* and 'waved them, colelctive belief would enhance the effect within the limitations of the handwavium.
On magic and handwavium: I suppose it depends on what you mean by "magic." We already have two major examples in Fenspace of neopagan ritual workings being used to manipulate handwavium to pretty strong effect - the Jason and Grover's Corners. There, the ritual acts as a focus for delivering a clear mental image to the handwavium, and it works. Really well, in fact.
We also have - back in the Inelegant Truth's opening story, IIRC - a throwaway reference to Potterites handwashing sticks and remotes to create wands. This doesn't work out as well, partly because handwavium needs a base to work from, and dead wood just doesn't have the structure to latch onto properly, and partly because wands have a number of blatantly offensive functions, and with enough bloody-minded Wizards out there the collective unconscious may trip the weapons lock on wands.
On handwavium zombies: Given that ritual works very well with handwavium, and that zombies are (in fantasy fiction, anyway) often created by rituals, I don't see any major obstacles in the way of Buckaroo Banzai Against the Zombie King. All one needs is one wack hougan with a supply of biomod guacamole, and the whole thing just gets weird...
On handwavium and CSICOP: The fun thing about handwavium is that while a lot of minor effects aren't reproducable, the *major* ones are. That alone is enough to win the JREF Prize and ensure the next two generations of scientists go nutty trying to unravel the hows and whys of handwavium.
On the spontaneous generation of AI: Consciousness is an emergent property of handwavium. This is the True Knowledge.---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"