limits of handwavium and other questions

[Murmur the Fallen]

Wow, first post in a looong time. Damn, did grad school and masters really eat up my time.
Anyway, this is the first time I've noticed this new section and I decided to ask how a) one gets into it, and b) the limits of handwavium.
Because it seems to me that if a bunch of sci-fi fans got this magic mystery thing, they'd do something really outrageous as soon as they got into space if they could.
I'm not even talking about DNA-hacks to get functional immortality or increase brain power or anything like that. Handwavium would probably do something like that easily.
I'm talking about something a lot more ambitious, like mass upload to Matrioska brains, re-engineer the universe anthropically, really bootstrap to Kardishev IV.
Or perhaps something less ambitious, like colonizing the beginning of the universe, or going to the end of time itself to see just how it'll end.
Can handwavium create a higgs-field manipulator? increase gravity to offset dark energy? Vacuum metastability event doomsday weapon?
-murmur

[CattyNebulart]

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Wow, first post in a looong time. Damn, did grad school and masters really eat up my time.

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I know I feel the same way.

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a) one gets into it

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Congratulations you have now joined.

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b) the limits of handwavium

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It's in more detail in the Rules thread sticky, but basicly Handawvium tends not to make weapons but other than that it follows the needs of the story.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

[robkelk]

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this is the first time I've noticed this new section and I decided to ask how a) one gets into it,

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Hi! By posting here, you're in.
Creative writing in the setting is highly encouraged, but not absolutely required.
Many, but not all, of the regular characters appear in this current thread - I'd suggest giving it a look-see to get a feel for the setting.

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and b) the limits of handwavium.

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There's a "Rules" sticky that discusses the major do's and dont's on 'wavium.
Universe re-engineering is probably beyond the capabilities of 'wavium right now; I'd think that's a "generation after the next generation" application if it's possible at all. Time travel is also off-limits, as are actual superpowers. Immortality... who knows? The stuff's been around for less than a decade...
Increasing gravity is definitely possible; my character's done it once. Increasing gravity to offset dark matter... dunno.
Just a suggestion - any character with godlike powers is going to have to have some godlike limitations to be at all interesting. My character isn't godlike; he's "only" filthy rich... but that's enough to make a lot of people dislike him. This was done on purpose, for the story possibilities.

-Rob Kelk
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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