Little floaty triangular things from the future.

Kieran · Post by **Kieran** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 11:54 am

Sorry for the double post.

Do the little floaty triangular things that have appeared with just about all of our visitors from the future remind anyone else of Peggy Seuss' orb? Seems rather familiar looking to me.

I had first noticed this back when we met the orb in the first place, and looking at the most recent strips has brought the resemblance home once again.

Given Alan's efficiency of detail I find it hard to believe the floaty things are not in some way significant...

DetailBear · Post by **DetailBear** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 5:37 pm

Somewhere in the missing forum topics, Allan tells us that they're sort of floating PDA/online devices with several features. I think he said that they can also do holographic projections of whatever info you need.

Kieran · Post by **Kieran** » Sun Feb 22, 2004 4:01 pm

Sounds like just the kind of gadget that I'd love.

They still remind me a bit of the orb though

Come to mention it, I'd be quite happy to have one of those of my own too...

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Sun Feb 22, 2004 5:01 pm

For what it's worth, the Triticle does float using exactly the same technology as the Orb. However, the Triticle's protrusion into the ana and kata directions is greatly reduced to prevent hyperspatial oscillations such as the ones caused by Peggy's little "project".

Kieran · Post by **Kieran** » Sun Feb 22, 2004 5:51 pm

allan_ecker wrote:For what it's worth, the Triticle does float using exactly the same technology as the Orb. However, the Triticle's protrusion into the ana and kata directions is greatly reduced to prevent hyperspatial oscillations such as the ones caused by Peggy's little "project".

Aha, And would I be correct to infer that the aforementioned hyperspatiall oscillations might have had a somewhat functionally destabilizing influence on the poor orb? Things begin to become clear.

The orb was hoist by its own petard.

Alfador · Post by **Alfador** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 3:13 pm

Kieran wrote:
allan_ecker wrote:For what it's worth, the Triticle does float using exactly the same technology as the Orb. However, the Triticle's protrusion into the ana and kata directions is greatly reduced to prevent hyperspatial oscillations such as the ones caused by Peggy's little "project".
Aha, And would I be correct to infer that the aforementioned hyperspatiall oscillations might have had a somewhat functionally destabilizing influence on the poor orb? Things begin to become clear.

The orb was hoist by its own petard.

It has a destabilizing influence on everything. The orb was only affected when its beam was reflected back on itself. And really, all that did was overload its optical sensors.

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 6:47 pm

Relative time scales are funny:

T=-1s

Begin charging flash

T=0

Begin discharging flash

T=100us

Finish scan of area of hyperspatial insertion

T=100.001us

Activate Graviton Emitter

T=100.015us

Deactivate Graviton Emitter

T=150us

Flash Discharge Ends

Or, if you're in front of a mirror

T=0

Begin discharging flash

T=5us

Emergency deactivation of optical nodes 56, 34, 19, 04, 03, and 11:
ABORT INSERTION
FULL SYSTEM SHUTDOWN

DetailBear · Post by **DetailBear** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 4:13 pm

allan_ecker wrote:T=100us

Finish scan of area of hyperspatial insertion

T=100.001us

Activate Graviton Emitter

Hyperspatial Insertion???!!!! I didn't think the orb did that to them!

Fallwind · Post by **Fallwind** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 5:13 pm

so many jokes involving Saundra and her "area of hyperspatial insertion", so few places to hide from her wrath....

Kieran · Post by **Kieran** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 6:00 am

Alfador wrote:
Kieran wrote:
allan_ecker wrote:For what it's worth, the Triticle does float using exactly the same technology as the Orb. However, the Triticle's protrusion into the ana and kata directions is greatly reduced to prevent hyperspatial oscillations such as the ones caused by Peggy's little "project".
Aha, And would I be correct to infer that the aforementioned hyperspatiall oscillations might have had a somewhat functionally destabilizing influence on the poor orb? Things begin to become clear.

The orb was hoist by its own petard.
It has a destabilizing influence on everything. The orb was only affected when its beam was reflected back on itself. And really, all that did was overload its optical sensors.

I was actually thinking more of the reason why the Orb ended up going wandering in the first place. It was confused by the hyperspational oscillation, and decided to go wandering to clear it's perceptions. Or just for the heck of it.

Afterall, it seems perfectly reasonable to me to look around to see if the undesirable oscillations might be less noticable elsewhere. The fact that they would tend to follow one around might be a bit frustrating after a while.

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 8:07 am

The Orb has the approximate mentality of a ferret, but nowhere near the intellect. It would never do anything to "clear it's head", and if let out of its protective enclosure would likely run off in a more or less random direction until it encountered something that made it forget what it was doing in the first place, and then zap it.

Nyamaza · Post by **Nyamaza** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 12:14 pm

Ahh, now we get to a so far unanswered question... just what was the orb doing when it zapped things? Improving them? what's the logic behind the "booosh"?

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 2:42 pm

Allright, allright, I'll tell you.

There isn't a damn bit of rhyme or reason to the transmogrifications. They really are random, and here's how it works:

Scan an area. Identify objects. Pulse gravitons with a directional content into them evenly.

The result: The objects begin to oscillate in the fourth dimension, clattering back and forth amongst their alternate universe duplicates. Somewhere, somehow, Calvin was standing in that exact spot in bondage gear and was suddenly poofed into normal clothes.

How Leonard managed to be completely transmogrified without becoming somebody else is a question for the ages.

Cyril_Dran · Post by **Cyril_Dran** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 6:33 pm

So, in some alternate dimension, some Saundra had her eyesight reduced, and some random origami became porn. ....... By the by, if it works on 4th dimension principles, why did the thing get reflected by a mirror? You'd think it'd just affect the mirror anyways, if it wasn't working on some light principle.

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 7:12 pm

Funny thing: the calibration flash works in three dimensions, so it just bounces right off the mirror, directly into the very sensitive optical array.

Kesh · Post by **Kesh** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 10:17 pm

I love the Orb even more now.

Kieran · Post by **Kieran** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 3:36 pm

allan_ecker wrote:The Orb has the approximate mentality of a ferret, but nowhere near the intellect. It would never do anything to "clear it's head", and if let out of its protective enclosure would likely run off in a more or less random direction until it encountered something that made it forget what it was doing in the first place, and then zap it.

This has just driven home to me the same object lession about mad science that Rick seems to have experienced.

A floating ferret with graviton projectors.

A floating ferret of sub-normal intellect with graviton projectors.

Graviton projectors capable of causing interactions between people and objects here and their spatial equivalents in other parallel realities.

** Shudder **

This is much more frightening the more I learn...

Still cute, but I think I'd hold out for a slightly more intellectual AI, or a slightly less scary set of tools for interaction with the rest of the universe.