From: fnord@sovietairforce.fen
To: allcall@nation.fen
Subj: Re: Theories
I'm with Fury in the sense that handwavium is technology of some sort. We haven't had the chance to do any really *deep* studies of it, but some time
ago the Central Committee paid off a friend of a friend to put a sample of handwavium under an electron microscope. What she found was, well, extremely
puzzling. There appears to be a fine structure to the 'wave at the nanometer scale, but it's completely unlike anything organic. Some of it looks like
the theoretical manipulators described in nanotechnology journals, but the manipulators seem to branch down to even *smaller* scales.
This actually makes a certain amount of sense if you think about it - handwavium gravity control and power generation *have* to be tapping into some sort of
tremendous energy supply in order to move anything at the accelerations fencraft normally move at. If the stuff is tweaking spacetime at that kind of level it
explains so much.
Is it alive? It could be, I'm no biologist. It does appear to be like and yet very unlike Life As We Know It.
Is it intelligent? In order to manipulate the unified field to such fine effect I'd think it would *have* to be. A better question is, is it sapient? That,
I'm not sure about. From my own experiences I think handwavium in the raw form is *sentient* in a limited way, with some form of technological empathy
reading the user's emotional state and translating it into reality with variable success. It's not sapient in the raw form, but consciousness *does*
seem to be an emergent property if the 'wave is given enough of a framework to shape itself.
--M. Fnord
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Fen of the Solar System, unite!
The Soviet Air Force is now hiring Pilot-Cosmonauts and support crew:
http://www.sovietairforce.fen/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
To: allcall@nation.fen
Subj: Re: Theories
I'm with Fury in the sense that handwavium is technology of some sort. We haven't had the chance to do any really *deep* studies of it, but some time
ago the Central Committee paid off a friend of a friend to put a sample of handwavium under an electron microscope. What she found was, well, extremely
puzzling. There appears to be a fine structure to the 'wave at the nanometer scale, but it's completely unlike anything organic. Some of it looks like
the theoretical manipulators described in nanotechnology journals, but the manipulators seem to branch down to even *smaller* scales.
This actually makes a certain amount of sense if you think about it - handwavium gravity control and power generation *have* to be tapping into some sort of
tremendous energy supply in order to move anything at the accelerations fencraft normally move at. If the stuff is tweaking spacetime at that kind of level it
explains so much.
Is it alive? It could be, I'm no biologist. It does appear to be like and yet very unlike Life As We Know It.
Is it intelligent? In order to manipulate the unified field to such fine effect I'd think it would *have* to be. A better question is, is it sapient? That,
I'm not sure about. From my own experiences I think handwavium in the raw form is *sentient* in a limited way, with some form of technological empathy
reading the user's emotional state and translating it into reality with variable success. It's not sapient in the raw form, but consciousness *does*
seem to be an emergent property if the 'wave is given enough of a framework to shape itself.
--M. Fnord
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Fen of the Solar System, unite!
The Soviet Air Force is now hiring Pilot-Cosmonauts and support crew:
http://www.sovietairforce.fen/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"