@marian.hawke

[championofsnark]

Hello you lot. I know people might still be pissed about what went down, so ignore if you don't want an update, however.

So Riverstone sent us medical reports but since I don't know what any of it means, if someone with modern/medical know-how wants to look and explain shite, I'll send it to you. These are the summaries I think I understood:

Our powers don't seem to be biological? So when we used them they didn't show any biological changes? I think? Don't know what that means.

I agreed to do a dream study to try and figure out why I keep showing up in your dreams, they said strangely our brains appear completely awake when we're doing it. No wonder I'm bloody tired.

Also can someone who's been around for a bit explain what the Mariana Trench was?

Added: I got weary of not letting other people take the buck on this one, they gave us the name James Henries and said if we told you lot they'd lose their advantage. Hopefully not, but there you go!

Comments

[wittingly]

It took until the year 1800AD for John Dalton to prove the existence of the Atom. Science takes a while. We're still trying to understand and measure the properties of the Higgs boson, and thanks to the large hadron collider we're STILL discovering new particles predicted by supersymmetric theories

Just because they haven't pinned it down yet doesn't mean they won't

I don't see how what we believe about the nature of it changes anything about what it is. I don't need to give up on my passion for learning about it just because we don't already have the answers.

[evocation]

yeah
and i'm saying i'm passionate about learning magic, too
i live and breathe this stuff
our understanding of it might not be explained by some undiscovered particle or rule of physics
in my experience you find more important, directly usable information digging into the non scientific evidence
folklore, mythology, history, cultural touchstones
i think that's where we're going to find our answers here
not through blood tests

[wittingly]

I'm not saying you're wrong. The methodology you use back home to deal with supernatural phenomenon obviously works, and may wind up working here as well.

I want to understand the science behind that, too. The lore, I mean. I'm an engineer, not a particle physicist, so it's with a grain of salt that I pitch the idea, but

I wonder if the answer can't be found in string theory. Somehow where you're from maybe species have evolved to interact with and influence reality organically the same way that

I don't know

bats use echolocation, or fish see in ultraviolet light

Your approach works short term, but with enough learning it may one day be possible to come up with even more effective, efficient approaches to dealing with threats or interacting with it in general

Not here and now, obviously, this is a purely hypothetical discussion

[evocation]

yeah, i know, every discussion the displaced has is hypothetical
maybe that's half our problem
my 'short term solutions' have saved a lot of people, by the way, and they're based in thousands of years of study and practice
i don't need some kind of midichlorian explanation to make a tangible difference, and i don't think that's something we should be reaching for right now

[wittingly]

we're not reaching for it right now
and you don't have to be interested in it
that's fine
I am
we can be different and have different opinions or interest levels, and that's okay

[evocation]

yeah, i know that
i've seen your mp3 player
looking for a scientific explanation when everything's pointing against us getting one is part of the reason people decided to waltz into riverstone and hand their dna over
that's all i'm saying

[wittingly]

I think the miscommunication here is you're assuming I plan on breaking this all down into a defined science right now, or even in the next fifty years. I'm not. I'm also not saying we're going to find all the answers in a lab right now, when it's time sensitive and critical that we use the means at our disposal even if we don't understand them. We agree on that, I'm not being dismissive of pursuing leads on what we call magic. We should follow them if we have evidence and a means to do so.

What I'm saying is a one-day daydream in the distant future, I'd like to understand it all. That's all.

[evocation]

i don't mean you want to start writing a dissertation or whatever
but people are pushing for a scientific explanation
right?
that was half the point of the riverstone thing
and the stupid 'maybe they'll tell us where our missing friends are' idea
i don't want it getting us into more trouble

[wittingly]

I think at this point people are looking for ANY explanation. I don't think I've seen anybody outright refute the possibility that gods and magic are a potential answer.

There's a big difference between saying 'no, it absolutely cannot be that' and saying 'it might be that, but it might also not be that, we should explore both avenues'.

The potential for trouble exists no matter which belief someone prescribes to.

[evocation]

don't you think at some point we're just trying so hard to look for an alternative that we're ignoring the right answer?

[wittingly]

Not really, but I'm open to hearing any examples you have of people outright refusing to consider it.

I think right now it feels very much like you and your friend are trying to unequivocally declare one thing the right answer, and ironically you guys are being inflexible and rigid about it. You'll only allow it to be called one specific thing, it can only be dubbed magic, and if anyone has an open mind about any other solution they're being accused of rejecting that path entirely.

I see myself and I see Lance both saying 'yes, that could be right', but being willing to accept it doesn't seem to satisfy you guys.

[evocation]

all the evidence we've gotten points to us not getting a scientific explanation
someone cut open their chest and didn't find anything
riverstone ran a ton of tests and didn't find anything
a bunch of people have said that they have powers back home that can't be dampened by science and technology, but they are here
we can share dreams, share emotions, pull shit out of our chests, change reality, teleport
what i'm trying to say is, maybe we should stop having hypothetical discussions and signing up to let corporations fuck with us and focus on like
who did this to us
who brought us here
what it all actually means

[wittingly]

A lack of evidence is not evidence, but setting that aside

We ARE focused on that, there's a constant drive and initiative to find those answers with no bias against any particular source that I've seen.

I don't agree with the Riverstone testing, and I'm one of the more scientifically motivated members of the Displaced.

What you're asking people to do is think less and consider fewer alternatives. There are dozens of minds here. We're not losing anything by letting different people come at this problem from all possible angles. We're not even excluding the one you're passionate about. In fact, it's entirely possible that in the pursuit of one theory we find answers that get us further with another.

There's always room for discussion. There's always room for thinking.

[evocation]

you don't think people shut down when the god thing is brought up?
i did it too
it freaks people out so they don't want to talk about it

[wittingly]

I think it makes some people uncomfortable, but that's natural. I've seen more people from worlds that have gods than worlds without. I haven't seen anyone outright reject the notion entirely.

Science is freaking you out, too, and you don't want to talk about it. People balk at different things, but we're not collectively writing it off.

[evocation]

i'm not freaked out by it, though
i just think we can get plenty done without one

[wittingly]

Fair enough, and you're right. We don't need the full explanation to use the tools given to us. I don't think any of us will be turning down a path or a solution just because we don't understand it wholly.

[evocation]

yeah, i hope you're right
and you'll help me kick someone's ass if they don't, right?

[wittingly]

Of course.
We all have to be willing to compromise and work together, even if it defies our understanding or traditional belief at the time. Constantly learning and evolving is how humanity's survived this long.

[evocation]

yeah, sure
you know i'm not like
some 1600s puritan who thinks science is scary
right?

[wittingly]

I do, and thank you for being willing to be open minded about that

It might be nice if you mentioned it to your friend, who seems to think I'm betraying you and disrespecting you like a cowardly dog, or a sheep, or some other zoo animal I might've missed along the way

[evocation]

the weird thing is
i think he's being protective in his own way

[wittingly]

So that makes it okay with you?

[evocation]

you want to copy and paste where i said that?
is my implant glitching and typing shit i'm not telling it to?

[wittingly]

I don't know, I just kind of hoped instead of excusing him maybe you'd
say something about it