Science-Fiction and Imaginary "Real" Things

A project that I've been slowly and casually working on over the last decade almost a science-fiction setting for a tabletop role-playing game - like Dungeons & Dragons or Shadowrun.  I wasn't really aware of the distinction between Science-Fiction and Science-Fantasy, or perhaps more accurately I wasn't familiar with the term Science-Fantasy.  I bring this up because it has been a big part of trying to create the setting of the Visceroth Cluster, a group of star systems that are near each other, at least in astronomical terms.

My main concern for FTL(faster-than-light) travel at first was simply a name that sounds... like it might do that?  I don't believe I had seen Cowboy Bebop by the time I had started to imagine them, but upon seeing its solution to interstellar travel with hubs/gates - wait no I'm pretty sure I'd played Mass Effect by the time I started this and they are also akin to the Relays, at least to say they are large structures which are necessary to travel great distances - because science and it seems like it would take a LOT of energy to do.  So I came up with Warpshot Hubs, and the most basic mechanic of them as a gate to pass through into a special travel state - a ring to fly into that is all warpy in the middle.

I've recently been revisiting the project, and besides work on a story for some players I've also recently been thinking about some of the brief impulses that led to my choice in the name Warpshot, one of which was ideas about "propulsion" through warping space-time more than something like super-powered engines.  I know it isn't a new concept again, and space-time on a theoretical and mathematical level is crazy and I'm not gona say I know a ton about.  Oof, all in all I just keep slowing this down to make clear I'm gonna do some fake science for this, and here let me give it a try then-

Instead of moving the object, the idea is to move the space-time that it occupies, perhaps a small buffer around it I would assume and maybe hope.  So my stretch takes us from gravity is the warping of space-time, gravitational waves are a thing(that I know little about), waves - sound has waves and pressure, and things that use lift are "moved" by differences in pressure and the reactions caused by that.  So, the large structure is used to generate not only a very specific gravitational wave, but whatever process essentially encapsulates the ship in its own space-time. 

Observations of a recent neutron star collision also came with gravitational waves, and if the gravitational waves were indeed from the same event, it suggests to me that the effect of the waves transfers at the speed of light, since they seemed to be observed together.  I suppose it still isn't perfect and I don't think I should expect it to be, but I will keep developing it.  But there you go - a hopefully science-fiction lore for my interstellar travel in a game setting.

Sorry for reading through that mess, but if you did, thanks!  You're super, and maybe you're interested in sci-fi and rpg's, if so look forward to eventually see more of the Visceroth Cluster, as it gets another pass of polish and development.

-Alturiigo

Below is something I did to create a list of part names of what might break, and maybe how, why, and what the effects might be - but mostly just so I had something engine-soundy to tell them has broken and they now need to repair.  This is unrelated to warpshot stuff, but I had it accessible and I like how it came out for how simply I approached the concept.

Personal Icons and Celebrities

There's likely a few figures who have been highly influential or important to you throughout your life, I can certainly say that there has been for me.  It's something I find interesting to think about, and lately I've been thinking about not only some of the people I'd love to meet, but thoughts on why and how it came to be those people.

Growing up I watched a lot of Bill Nye the Science Guy and several shows with the Kratt Brothers, who had educational shows about wildlife, so I started watching informational and educational entertainment from a young age.  Bill Nye has been someone that for most of my life I've described as someone I would love the opportunity to meet.  Broadcast television wasn't a strong source of entertainment for me, and in 2006, a major change started with YouTube.

I mostly ignored the phenomenon of YouTube for quite some time, mostly reducing it to stupid videos of little importance - which was more of a short-sighted comment on its use, rather than the tool itself.  Some six or seven years later, I found myself visiting YouTube more frequently, as I had discovered a myriad of content that was not only informative, but educational as well.  This EduTube, the "educational" side of YouTube, contains most of the other people I find a personal desire to meet.

Why is that though?  Like, why do I want to meet them?  I think there's a lot of things at work, one of which I think ties to the idea that they are of personal influence to me, possibly being a desire to have a direct personal experience/interaction with said influence.  Shows like Bill Nye the Science Guy helped my love of learning as a youth grow, and shows like It's Okay to Be Smart and SciShow help me stay curious when my daily life has shifted away from schooling and education.  I've thanked my parents and friends for the work they did in helping me become the person I am, and I'd love the opportunity to personally thank some of the other people who helped shape that journey.

I believe another reason I'd like to meet these people is that I imagine they would be fascinating to talk to, and while I can't say there's any reason to think they'd enjoy meeting me, I'd like to imagine that the conversations would be amazing.  I don't think I'm alone in a desire to meet personal icons or celebrities, and each person's list ends up being not only different, but an interesting look into who they are and what's important to them.

Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo

My List of People I'd Like to Meet:
John Green
Bill Nye
Mike Rugnetta
Joe Hanson
The VSauce Squad(Micheal Stevens, Kevin Lieber, and Jake Roper)
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Lindsey Doe

Have your own list? Leave it in the comments!

On Friendship and Responsibility

I'll start by trying to frame what I mean by friendship and responsibility - the responsibility one may or may not feel towards keeping or maintaining a standing relationship.  I've been thinking about this a fair bit since the 2016 US Presidential Campaign, in relation to posts about whether politics is something to lose a friendship over.  A note here, I'm not interested in swaying you either way on this subject, as all things in life, you feel how you feel and it is simply up to you to understand your own feelings and your relationship to said feelings.

I've met a lot of people that I feel as though I like, or at least want to like as people, and often enough I will encounter something that's rather important to me which they have a conflicting opinion upon.  It happens enough that sometimes I feel conflicted about how I should "see" them.  I may generally get along with someone and eventually find myself in a conversation wherein defending my beliefs starts to encroach attacking their beliefs.  I think this is an important point for me to look at, because it appears a bit like a threshold or clashing point between the importance/responsibility of friendship, against the importance/responsibility of my own beliefs.

I am also thus admittedly highly privileged, because I am much more able to pick and choose what battles I fight - generally nothing about who I am challenges the status quo as a straight white male.  I'd like to have a separate more complex discussion of privilege and expectation, but I felt it was important and pertinent to mention it here.

Back to the subject at hand, I will take the time now to say that I believe you do not inherently have a responsibility to any friendship or relationship, because you need to evaluate said relationship.  You have a responsibility to your own life, and the relationships you keep - or don't - fall into that responsibility.  If you find yourself at a point with a friend where you don't want to think of them as a friend - listen to that, find out why, and decide if you truly want that relationship to be a part of your life.  Ultimately, you are responsible for your own actions and choices, and the relationships you keep are one aspect of that responsibility.

Always know though, being able to pick your battles is a privilege, one of the greatest privileges to have.

Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo

Being Wrong

I've been wrong a lot in my life, and I've certainly made more than my fair share of mistakes(that's an interesting concept, a fair share of mistakes).  I was always credited with being smart, and I know that for a lot of growing up I liked to know the right answer, and show that I knew it.  One of the effects of this was an eagerness to let others know when they were wrong, and another effect was a reluctance to accept when I was wrong.

I always seemed to let myself feel attacked by the idea of not being right, whether it was right about some data/information/knowledge, or when my understanding of something was challenged, even when I was honestly in the wrong.  I don't think it's hard to understand the urge to defend or excuse oneself, I have that same feeling.
I've hurt people unintentionally before, and because I wasn't trying to, my reflex is to excuse or defend myself.  While defending yourself when attacked is a natural instinct, that doesn't always make it "right" or "correct" - I put those in quotes because they are admittedly subjective - and that's what I'd like to actually talk about, not defending yourself or making excuses.

I know it sounds holier-than-thou, which is a poor way to convey almost anything meaningful in my opinion, but in the same way I feel like on principle it's more like the opposite.  I'm not saying that I always am right or that I do the right thing, far from it - but I've grown a lot more willing to try to understand the ways in which I am incorrect, or how I might be misunderstanding something.  I want to think of myself as someone who sees the world complexly, and that makes it hard to accept the idea that maybe, I'm as narrow-minded and as much of a bigot as anyone else.

Maybe I am, maybe I'm not, but I'm always trying to be better, and I know that slowly learning to accept when I wrong without simply excusing myself has helped me to learn a lot.  One of the biggest things that's helped though is a lot of friends whom I cared deeply about, taking the time to help me understand things from beyond my limited perspective and experiences.  Because I trusted them and their opinion, it helped me to accept it a little easier.

It's hard to accept when I'm not the person I'd like to think I am, but it is also the only way I can ever hope become that person.  The more that I've accepted I could be wrong, the closer I can bring myself to being right.  Well, that's the idea anyway.

Trot On Everypony
Alturiigo

What's The Point? Thoughts On Life

What is the meaning of life? - A question that often feels high-minded and silly to discuss, I've always found it an interesting question.  What IS the meaning of life?  Firstly, I think the question itself is flawed and vague - but I still like to explore it.  There are myriad of perspectives or scopes to think about, and since everyone has their own concept of what their life is and means, there is a different answer for every person.  That being said, here are some of my thoughts on the matter.

     I like to think about it in different ways, one of which is to think about it as a goal - what is the goal of life?  I suppose from there it goes into personal goals, or perhaps goal of existence - as in what are we meant to accomplish?  This one feels super tricky, probably because it's easy to see that there is no one clear-cut answer.  One issue with this is agency - does the ability to do something confer right or responsibility?                 Sometimes I think about how much humanity seems to shape its environment to fit its needs, rather than working harder to find a balance or shape itself differently in many cases.  I'm not sure I could argue that humans should be living as hunter-gatherers in small communities either though, and the things we have accomplished as a species/civilization is astounding- in both a positive and negative way. It seems pretty safe to argue that humanity has made a lot of progress in our time on Earth, but that can really depend on what you call progress.  I find this highlighted when thinking about genetic engineering, which is not too far in the future.  There are many things that can be improved or "fixed" by our standards, but should that necessarily be called progress?  When we discovered the ability to use atomic reactions to create incredible energy and then made a bomb with it, was that progress?  Due to the nature of "progress" as a concept, it really boils down to the person using it to describe something.  Maybe thinking about the goal of human life is a bad thought-cloud, so let's hop to the personal goals cloud.
     What is the goal of life?  Is it a goal like a target or finish line, or maybe more like a checklist?  Is it in the journey, or the destination?  What would you call success? Power? Wealth? Happiness?  Is life a means, or an end?  I think these are important questions to consider, and even these small questions are open to a lot of personal interpretation.  For me, I find myself most drawn to the feeling that it is more in the journey, that finding what makes you happy is one of the most important things, and being true to yourself.  I also think that the journey is one of self-discovery, and the being true to yourself involves a lot of trying to figure out how you really feel, and being honest with yourself.  I have all these thoughts about the person I am and want to be, I think it's best to sum up by saying - I hope that I can be the person I want to be, and that that person is a good human being, whatever that truly means.
     One last way I'd like to talk about the idea of life and existence having a meaning, and that's in thoughts about consciousness and self.  Something that's always been interesting to me is the idea of quantifying consciousness, a quest for something tangible and scientific which we can call our "self" as individuals.  When you think about anatomy and physiology, it kind of boils down into electrical signals and a big fleshy machine partially ran by bacteria and a big ol' mess of neurons, so what in, about or around that is us.  I mean, I know that I am me, at least, I'm pretty sure, and you probably feel rather confident that you are you.  Our ideas about self have grown past just your irl self I think, and I don't think that it's a trend new to humanity.
   In our quest to explain how we are different than animals, which we are by general definition, I think we start to see some of our ideas about consciousness and identity.  As a species, we are pretty good at identifying and recognizing things, looking for patterns and structure, and determining differences.  Our search to better understand what makes us different than "animals" is an expression of that trait in humans, at least in my opinion.  Our ability to recognize faces has only recently been able to be matched by computers, and mostly in specific conditions, and the ability to recognize that the image in a mirror is your own is actually something much more human.  We hear and see things and are able to recognize things, like the sound of a band or style of a painter.  These are patterns that we create though, but we do try to find patterns in life through science as well.  As far as a point, I'm not sure there is one - except the one that we create.  We've created the patterns that we see in the world in our quest to understand and explain life, and so the only point is to continue to create patterns and structures to understand it.

It's not a question with a singular answer, or really any "answer", because the question of "What is the meaning of life?" is flawed, both by being too vague and hinging upon a highly subjective concept.  The best that I can boil down my thoughts on that matter would be to say - The meaning of life is to be experienced, to feel, to try, to fail, to succeed - Life is to be lived, it is a means to its own end, a journey which is the destination, and endless stream of metaphors and comparisons....

I'll just let myself out, til next time-
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo

Thoughts On Writing, Stories, and Echoes(My Story)

I was just sitting and thinking about Echoes, and I guess you could say writing the story a bit, but how is what I'd actually like to talk about.

I've had the story of Kelly and Gus bouncing in my head for a little over eight years, and it has slowly grown and evolved over time, with more of the story being created piece by piece.  I have this... vision perhaps, of the whole story in a way, ideas about the overall experience and events that make up Echoes.  That being said, it can be difficult to look in closer at individual parts in some ways, trying to imagine given moments and more precisely how they transpire.  I feel inclined to describe it as trying to experience the story, to be witness to the story as it floats in my imagination.

That's not to say I don't feel the direct and conscious writing of the characters, but it almost feels a little apart of myself, as though the characters and story exists without me.  I'm aware that it only exists in my imagination, but in that way, I feel like it exists through me.  I might have ideas about how the story goes and who the characters are, but trying to write and imagine each piece of the story feels a lot like more like discovery than creation.

This is also true in a lot of the other things I create, most so with the various worlds and settings I've dreamed up over the years.  I might have some ideas about the world- its name, some of the terrain, maybe a few rules or details that help shape the world as guidelines - but I have to explore the world more closely to find the details that make it whole.

I'm sure the experience of writing and imagination is different for everyone in their own way, I just wanted to share some thoughts on what it feels like to me.  Thanks for letting me share! :)

Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo

Trying: Practice and Progress

One of the biggest privileges I've had is the fact that no one besides myself has really ever told me I couldn't do something.  That being said, I'm aware that there are many things which I will never be able to do.  There are even more things that I am capable of doing, which I simply tell myself that I can't.

Many things which I would like to do often fall into this category, much like telling the story of the Echoes saga, or in fact, a complex drawing even.  I've even been bold enough to attempt some, which have at least been lessons in ways I could do better.  I know my creations will never be "perfect", but I've also learned that what I'm capable of is not only more than I give myself credit for, but also, a more valid target than "perfect".

This is a picture I'm working on, and far exceeds what I thought I could do, or was even going to do.

Whether I can finish the picture and achieve my goal is yet to be seen, but even at this point I have already surpassed what I thought I could put together in a drawing.

Trot On Everypony, 

Alturiigo

On A New Year And Time

As we roll into the year 12017 of the Holocene Era(Age?), I thought a little about some of the humbug thoughts such as "time is just a construct", "units of time are arbitrary", and in certain arguments those may have their merits, though the biggest question I can't answer is how to pick a certain day.  Here are some of my thoughts, mostly about "re-validating" the concept of time.  I hope this makes sense.

While "units" of time could be arbitrary, so could any construct of communication.  The goal is common understanding.  That's cool and good about it, but something else we use for time(roughly now) is how our star system operates.  Before we were using atomic vibrations and a strongly defined "second", days were rotations of the Earth, not 24 hours, months are an expression of the concept of using moons to track the passage of time, and years were markers of the seasonal cycles.  So cool, but what is time anyways?

This is a great reference to think about time - a short series of videos about Time and Entropy from MinutePhysics on YouTube.

So time is something we experience, even if defining that can be a difficult task, which is not my ultimate goal here.  I'd rather try to argue that it's almost just as important that it is so hard to define.  I cannot imagine what time feels like to a dog, or to a house fly, nor can I currently(or possibly ever) travel "backwards" through time.  The future is a mystery, and even the notion of what I call the present is delayed by my ability to experience it.  Despite all of this, humanity all seems to feel time and its pull through varied expressions, and we are able to talk about something so integral to our idea of existence yet difficult to define.

The New Year is a widely shared concept, somewhere between a solar cycle and 365 days(24 hours,etc).  Due to the fore mentioned utility of common understanding, the idea that the Year is 2017 is almost a shared human concept.  We've done a lot and came a long ways, and our ideas of time and its keeping predate our "Year 0", and while I understand how and why that came to be, I also feel as though we sell ourselves short. As something that we use to help coordinate efforts and lives around the globes, the numerical value of our current Year is important, because it is almost "universally" recognized.  What if the number we used was a closer representation of the time humans have spent coordinating, cooperating?

We've been working together in some fashion as a species for around 12000 years, which also makes for an easy calendar change to 12017, as proposed by the YouTube Channel Kurzgesagt.  While "time" may be something that is hard to define, it is also something that we share as humans in a "shared perception" of it.  I suppose in some ways this may be an argument of faith- that the New Year is a celebration in our belief of time as a shared construct, driving us forward on a road it paves itself.

Holy hay it's getting rather late and I'm tired, but I hope you all have a bright solar cycle ahead of you in the 12017th year of Humanity.
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo