The Eternal Flame

[Jorlem]

The Eternal Flame, also known as God Wrote in Lisp Code. It's a filk of a filk, by Julia Ecklar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-OjTPj7K54

I was thinking it would either open a comunication link to the OMG! universe that Doug visited, or allow him to view the universal source code. Any other ideas?
-----
Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber."  --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.

[ECSNorway]

It manifests a Washuu-style holo-laptop that opens an IRC session to the current Yggdrasil Sysop.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[The Wanderer]

I suggested this some time ago, but the post appears to have been lost at some point. I seem to recall that I came up with two power suggestions: either it lets him view and possibly edit the source code to whatever universe he happens to be in (presented and interpreted, of course, as if written in Lisp), or it provides him with absolute fluency in any and/or all of the languages mentioned in the song.

The core of Bob's response was to provide an excerpt from an unwritten "Firefly" Step, on the topic of magic spells as "hacking the universe"...

[Bob Schroeck]

You know, Wanderer, I don't remember that at all, but yeah, I have that passage from "Firefly" still around. (Maybe it'll get turned into a Steplet some day.)

Yes, I like the "universal source code" idea, but I think letting him edit it except in the smallest ways might be too much power.
(ETA:  A quick search of the forum suggests that the original thread might have gotten nuked in the Great Hack Attack a few years back.  Oh, well.)
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[The Wanderer]

That's what I figured had happened to it, yeah.

I agree that letting him do much editing would be overpowered - but there's an obvious first step to limiting it: he can only edit (and possibly can only view) the code for things within his AOE, and if they're things which fall under the category of universal constants (e.g. gravity), any changes will be rewritten back to normal by the rest of the system once the song is over. (Also, just because he can view the code, that doesn't mean he can understand it well enough to do much editing; even if he knows Lisp, reading an unfamiliar codebase - particularly one of that scale - would be a daunting task, to say the least, especially given the very limited time involved.)

Add in the fact that he's not going to be willing to edit people, most of the time, just out of his own code of ethics - and the possible major consequences if he accidentally puts a bug in the code (this is especially bad if you don't use the "no universe-wide alterations" interpretation of the effect his AoE has on this) - and the fact that almost any edit of this nature is likely to attract the attention of the local universe's deities, who are unlikely to react positively - and I think that might bring it down to within acceptable power scales. If not, I think there are still other things which could be done to limit it... and if those aren't enough, in the end the "editing" aspect isn't a 100% necessary component; it would just be nice.

[Jorlem]

Maybe editing powers could be limited to universes that are already based on computer code? 
In a semi-normal universe, like, say, Sailor Moon, all it would do is let him read the code, and maybe extremely small alterations, like triggering an event that could occur normally.  For example, reopening a just closed portal to the Dark Kingdom.
If he were to end up in Tron or the Matrix though...
-----
Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber."  --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

Seems like it'd be kinda hard for him to land directly in either of those situations.
Rick Cook's Wiz series, where magic is explicitly the ability to program the universe, now...
Or maybe ReBoot!, as I tend to think of Mainframe as akin to our level of reality and the "User" as an incomprehensible, transdimensional Eldritch Horror, because nothing it does and nothing about the Games makes any sense when you try to compare them to the way we use computers and the things we do with them.
--Sam
"No more splainin'!"

[Bob Schroeck]

he can only edit (and possibly can only view) the code for things within his AOE

Completely within his area of effect. Otherwise he could affect a whole planet because the ground under his feet is in his AOE
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

Oh, and here's that Firefly passage for anyone who was curious about it:

"What are you doing?" Kaylee asked as she stared with frank
fascination at my circle.

"Well," I said without looking up, "one of the key things you
need to know about the universe is that how you see it and how it
works are dependent on the... um..." I thought for a moment. "On
the *metaphor* you use. Or maybe 'filter' would be a better
word. Each metaphor has its strengths and weaknesses -- the
scientific metaphor took humanity to the stars, for instance,
because it handles physical processes so well. Hold on."

Kaylee waited patiently as I frowned, my tongue slightly stuck
out at the corner of my mouth, while I tried to shape the next
symbol correctly. After a moment, I scribed it.

"No." River was at my side, having crept there without my
noticing somehow.

I turned to her. "No?"

"No." She took the chalk from my hand, rubbed out the glyph,
and scribed a slightly different one with sure, swift strokes.
It was, I realized, what I had actually wanted there.

I lifted my eyes to stare at her. "How...?"

She shrugged nonchalantly. "Once you see the pattern in the
language, it's obvious." She handed the chalk back to me, and
sat back on her heels, her arms wrapped around her knees.

For a few seconds I stared into her huge eyes. "Riiiight," I
finally said. Maybe Simon's boasts about her early genius
weren't just the fond exaggerations of an affectionate older
brother. I studied the chalk for a moment, then the circle.

"Metaphor?" Kaylee suddenly said.

I started; I'd quite forgotten she was there. "Right, metaphor."
I went to work on the next symbol, excruciatingly aware of River
watching my every move. "The thing is, your choice of metaphor
affects what is and isn't possible. Like a piece of tinted
cellophane over your eyes affects what colors you can and can't
see."

"But if you change metaphors..." Kaylee began in a speculative
tone.

I looked up and nodded. "You got it. You can change the, well,
for lack of a better word, the set of tools with which you can
affect the universe."

Kaylee got down on her knees and studied the circle. "And this
is one of those tools, I bet."

Without looking up, I nodded. "Exactly. There's a metaphor which
accurately describes the universe in terms of a program running on
an infinitely powerful computer. And this..." I gestured with the
chalk.

"...is a program for that computer!" Kaylee declared triumphantly.

I chuckled and looked up to grin at her. "Actually, Kaylee, it's
more like a little tool that'll run a utility program that isn't
normally available to someone with my privilege level."

A huge grin spread across her face. "You're hacking the universe!"
she crowed with glee.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Sounds like magic." This in a more wistful tone.

"Actually," I declared as I scribed another glyph, "magic is
something else entirely."

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.