#meta science

[ingorohlfing]

Open Science is neither passé nor is it there yet

Is Open Science passé? is the question asked by Xenia Schmalz in this blogpost. I recommend reading it before I share brief thoughts on some points that are raised. I wish an open science movement was not needed anymore, but I agree this is most likely not the answer to the leading question. Neither has the open science movement failed; progress toward more transparent and credible science is…

[insanepsychologist]

Kelly shook her head. She turned away from Malcolm and moved up the boat, to sit alongside Thorne.

"Are you listening to all that?" Thorne said. "I wouldn't take any of it too seriously. It's just theories. Human beings can't help making them, but the fact is that theories are just fantasies. And they change. When America was a new country, people believed in something called phlogiston. You know what that is? No? Well, it doesn't matter, because it wasn't real anyway. They also believed that four humors controlled behavior. And they believed that the earth was only a few thousand years old. Now we believe that the earth is a few billion years old, and we believe in photons and electrons, and we think human behavior is controlled by things like ego and self-esteem. We think those beliefs are more scientific and better."

"Aren't they?"

Thorne shrugged. "They're still just fantasies. They're not real. Have you ever seen a self-esteem? Can you bring me one on a plate? How about a photon? Can you bring me one of those?"

Kelly shook her head. "No, but..."

"And you never will, because those things don't exist. No matter how seriously people take them," Thorne said. "A hundred years from now, people will look back at us and laugh. They'll say, 'You know what people used to believe? They believed in photons and electrons. Can you imagine anything so silly?' They'll have a good laugh, because by then there will be newer and better fantasies." Thorne shook his head. "And meanwhile, you feel the way the boat moves? That's the sea. That's real. You smell the salt in the air? You feel the sunlight on your skin? That's all real. You see all of us together? That's real. Life is wonderful. It's a gift to be alive, to see the sun and breathe the air. And there isn't really anything else. Now look at that compass, and tell me where south is. I want to go to Puerto Cortés. It's time for us all to go home."

—The Lost World, Michael Crichton

[undertalethingems]

Unexpected Guests Chapter 10, Act Two: Page 6

First / Previous / Next

Out of sight doesn't mean out of mind.... Gaster won't let anything interfere with his goal.

Look for the next update on Nov. 16th!

[thebubblesareevil]

Writing prompt: Danny failed science and Temperature affects the weather!!!

So when a cold front meets a warm front is can cause a storm, sometimes they can become extremely dangerous….

Danny has been really stressed lately with college applications and exams, plus the fact that his powers have been getting stronger lately. So one day he flys out to the middle of nowhere and lets off some steam in the form of letting his ice core go a little crazy. He does this every now and then to help him destress, today he used a little more power than usual but no big deal right?

Wrong. One week later the justice league is at his door and confronting him about a series of severe storms that have been created that they managed to track the energy source back to him.

Now they are trying to confront him about being a weather powered meta.

To be fair he was fighting the box ghost when they were learning about hot and cold fronts, how was he supposed to know they could form tornados?

[stuckasmain]

Hal’s deactivation is hard hitting across both the movie and the book. It’s been dissected a million times and likely more in the future. Most recently in the way of Hal having little agency…he has no arms to ward off his attacker or means of defense (but I’d argue killing Frank and the others was his defense, especially in the movie when his reasoning is more ambiguous). I do love the idea this is following and hope to see more of it in the future, however the way I’m approaching it is with a more romantic lense.

The entire lobotomy sequence is heart wrenching and almost worse in the novel purely because we get to see Dave’s thoughts on it. Not only do we hear Hal’s frightened pleas for his life but we get the ‘attacker’ perspective and it’s… an act of mercy.

While there is the themes of survival and violence this is approached with a softer touch. It’s much more that he is putting Hal out of his misery. Ending his suffering. Not putting him down like an animal but rather the harsh decision faced when one has an ill/dying lover.

“The only answer was to cut out the higher centers of this sick but brilliant brain, and to leave the purely automatic regulating systems in operation” 155

After the job is done Dave forgives Hal incredibly quickly once all of the facts are in. He can quickly pull together the mental break that must’ve happened and recognizes that Hal had the very human ‘fight or flight’ response to what he had been through. He had always been treated like a sixth crew member, respected and talked to like anyone else but it is only “post Mortem” that Dave recognizes how human Hal was and that true emotion might be more than theorizing.

“And yet, in one very real sense, he was not alone. Before he could be safe, be must be lonelier still.” 153

The fact that Dave genuinely sees Hal as his last true connection. Even after the murders. How he fights and forgives and comes up with excuses to not have to go through with the enviable because then will he be truly alone… but he also knows logically- Hal isn’t right and can’t be left active. Despite his feelings safety and protocol come first.

Hal is human in Dave’s eyes and it makes things all the more tragic, it’s what turns shutting off functions into lobotomy, into murder. He thinks he won’t feel pain, not because he’s machine but because there’s no sense in the human cortex. So human that his “true” voice is unrecognizable and horrifying.

“Bowman could bare no more. He jerked out the last unit, and Hal was silent forever.” 157

It’s not rage which he makes the final blow, it’s sorrow. It’s pulling the plug.

Some of Hal’s lines in the book particularly, as we get more insight into him as well and some of his pleading. His honest to god confusion and panic because he’s so young and has no idea of sleep and …

“I don’t understand why you’re doing this to me. . . You are destroying my mind. . . Don’t you understand? I will become childish. . . I will be nothing. . .” 156

I don’t know, I’m becoming borderline incoherent but there’s something here that’s so tender and sorrowful that I have to address it. I’m a sucker for the violence = intimacy metaphor just as anyone but the unwitting murderer is also an angle I have to adore.

Maybe in another life Hal got to be a little gay Victorian with someone to hold his hand on his sick bed rather than be murdered. I just think he deserves better; they both do.

Computer death sad -> he should be fed soup

This is when you know you should go to bed.

[mzminola]

Dragonflight was published in 1968.

The Environmental Protection Agency, tasked with such things as making rivers in the US stop catching on fire, clearing up smog, and so on, was not formed until 1970, and they had a lot of work ahead of them.

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which finally let women open lines of credit in their own name, was passed in 1974.

Roe v. Wade was 1973.

Pern is a fascinating look at how speculative fiction is shaped, both in the constraints and rebellions, of the time it's written.

[mollysunder]

For now, it's about 50/50 for whether or not these mysterious people that were included in the new trailer are members of the Gloriously Evolved. For fun, I'm going to break down why these people might be entirely unrelated to Viktor.

First, their bodies are clearly inlaid with gold, which does not replace their flesh. In the brief scene we get of these people the gold works as a conduit between their melodies and the magic around them. Meanwhile hexcore has entirely transformed Viktor's hand and leg into metal.

We know that Viktor's entire hand and leg have turned completely into metal because not only do his limbs make metal clinking noises and conduct electricity, but the animators on Bridging the Rift confirm it.

I've also seen some mention that the markings on the faces of these unknown characters represent Viktor's touch when he "healed" them. Upon closer inspection each character does have a five markings on their face, but they're detailed runes rather than Viktor's hand print, implying this may be related to a more intricate ritual rather than Viktor simply laying his hand on them and transforming them with the hexcore.

Really, these people have magic more similar to Mel Medarda. Mel is the one who appears to wear magical gold embedded in her skin to serve as protection magic. What Mel is doing with magic is likely far more simple compared to these people, but it's in the same vein. And that may be the entire point.

Viktor and his cult are the outliers. Whatever Viktor has done in season 1, and what he will continue to do in season 2 is a divergence (possibly perversion) of how magic should work/be treated in the rest of Runeterra, which makes sense! Viktor literally said he doesn't know what he's doing, he just keeps going.

What's likely happening in this scene is that some sect of mages, maybe they're acolytes of the mage that saved Jayce have become aware of the magical shenanigans in PnZ... and it's bad.

Then again, I haven't seen the leaks. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think this is all worth pointing out. (This is not a solicitation to tell what happens in the leaks).

[robo-milky]

Mason jar decorating! 💥💥

[its-fucking-tangerine]

witcher tumblr!! i have an essay due from school and i need your help!! it's about how the witcher put poland on the global stage, working as soft power, giving it cultural recognition and influence

i have a slightly-longer-than-expected form, please fill it out!!

i would REALLY REALLY appreciate if you took some time out of your day to fill this out!! i have a grade that relies on this!! thank you so much :DD

[beautifulterriblequeen]

so, the guy in the ace flag colors

(ace flag made with colors picked from Aaravos turnaround model)

✨Reproduces through asexual reproduction✨

Aaravos really be out here spawning the caterpillar from his own mouth like he's budding, huh.

mlem mlem plop

Step 1: spit out a bug Step 2: bug receives primal radiation to begin growth Step 3: pod Step 4: open pod

Leaves me to wonder, from a scientific perspective: if Sir Sparklepuff is indeed a clone/bud of Aaravos, maybe Sir Sparklepuff actually has Aaravos's true form. Ahaha, god that would be wild.

(But don't you think it's a little sus that these godlike beings just so happen to look exactly like elves, even though they're thousands of years older? I do. I don't trust that beauty. Something's up. Maybe it's benign, or some kind of "become an aspect of what you're worshipped for" or something. But if you could bend reality then why would you keep looking like elves 24/7? And you know I'm asking seriously because I'd be an elf for like 2479 years first before I tried any other shape. So: if god, why elf?)

Anyway, this asexual reproduction is the funniest thing in the whole show to me. Aaravos is the sluttiest slut who ever slutted, but he doesn't understand sex at all... unless he does, but with his Startouch brain, sex is just the same as everything else.

Which is extremely, extremely asexual of him.

Y'all can pry genius idiot asexual Aaravos from my cold dead hands. I'm keeping him forever.

[girlfromenglishclass]

Alicent Hightower and Criston Cole's friendship makes sense for a number of reasons, but the foremost is the fact that he has always taken her completely seriously.

Alicent's life can moderately be described as a series of indignities and humiliations. Not least becoming a child-bride, mocked by her husband, disregarded by her princess, and played by her father. All of this contradicts this fact that she is the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, and mother of two princes and a princess. (Three if you count poor Daeron)

Fire and Blood notes that she is beloved by the people, which I imagine is a consolation. But in her daily life, she's mostly beloved by Criston Cole.

She's so disregarded as the Queen that she can be openly laughed at, but never by him. Obviously he's wretched, but that's not the point.

In the scene where he confesses to her, her every mannerism does not communicate the image of a powerful Queen, but he still treats her that way. She speaks with rigid formality, gives concessions to members of the royal family, prefaces her question that she would never question Rhaenyra who she holds "in highest regard." She even addresses her formally as "the Princess." She's even wearing the same clothes she wore as an unmarried lady in the court. She's acting like a child, not a Queen.

But Criston speaks to her with deference as his Queen anyway - because she is. He refers to her as "Your Grace," begs her pardon, and asks that she only kill him if she is "a clement Queen." Even in asking something of her, he puts her on a pedestal. This is entirely unlike her prior treatment, where she is an afterthought.

It is notable that her green dress scene, the moment when she symbolically embodies her power as Queen, comes after this revelation by Ser Criston. She starts acting like a queen once someone finally treats her like one. This is what she wears to spare him, earning his loyalty.

We see this respect again in how he treats her children. When he rebukes Harwin Strong for putting hands on Aegon, he says "you forget yourself; that is the Prince." He makes no concession to the fact that Lucerys, who Harwin has interceded on behalf of, is also a Prince, and ahead of Aegon in line. Criston is making no appearances to respect the illegitimate line, but acting as though Alicent is the true Queen, and her children uncontested heirs. Whether he is correct to do this is a less interesting question than what it means to Alicent.

This respect finally comes to head when he kills Beesbury, claiming he "will not suffer insults to Her Grace, the Queen." Obviously this act is barbaric, but it is also, twistedly, chivalrous. Beesbury WAS insulting her - accusing her of a regicide she, decidedly, did not commit. As her sworn protector, these are fighting words. It is only when Alicent, not his commander, tells him to yield, that he does.

Some explanations for this have been that his feelings are romantic. I disagree heartily, mostly because Alicent is not adulterous even with reason to be, but also because Criston is treating her as a Queen, not a woman, exactly as he should be, per his roles. When she says "everything you feel for me," it is pointedly followed by, "as your queen."

Many people pointed out his hypocrisy in saying that "every woman is an image of the Mother, to be spoken of with reverence" even though he curses vulgarities at Rhaenyra. And it IS hypocritical!! But it is also interesting. Because of the two of them, it is Alicent who reflects this image of the Mother, this "clement queen," that he reveres. He doesn't have to want Alicent to worship her. He lost respect for Rhaenyra because she disrespected his sworn chastity. It makes sense that he loves Alicent chastely.

This reminds me of a line in one of Jaime's chapters in which he remembers having to stand by while Aerys abused his own Queen. He protests that they're supposed to protect her too; she's also the blood of the dragon - they have to protect her. Ser Barrison replies "yes, but not from him." Criston takes this attitude with a bit more teeth. He protects her from everything, except him, also known as, everything in his power.

[pocketseizure]

The school in Hateno Village bothers me on a profound level. Zelda was always interested in scientific inquiry and the natural world, and her frustration with ritual and tradition was an essential element of her character in Breath of the Wild. If Zelda were going to establish a school, it would make sense for her to create a curriculum in which children learn physics and chemistry, both of which are major components of gameplay in Tears of the Kingdom.

Instead, a key goal of Zelda's school is to teach children that ancient legends about heroes and demons are literally true. She wants the younger generation to understand the history of Hyrule, even despite the fact that Hyrule no longer exists in any meaningful sense. I understand that being trapped inside Calamity Ganon for a century might have changed Zelda's priorities, but it's jarring to see her personality transform so radically without the trauma she experienced ever being acknowledged.

[cassiopeiathe1st]

so as a biology major, here's some things i've been chewing on after reading the unwanted guest. this post is brought to you by the part of my brain that saw the 7th's hereditary blood cancer and thought ok but what KIND of cancer is that.

the phrasing of "permeability of the soul" makes me think of semipermeable membranes and diffusion. diffusion is a passive process -- our molecules, when left to their own devices, want to be everywhere because entropy, but the semipermeable membranes that make up cells organelles etc make life possible by keeping things organized. this dividing & filtering process is required to keep things in place. with me so far?

to me, this concept of permeability emphasizes that souls are objects with boundaries. there's a line somewhere, however blurry (clearly very very blurry) or porous, that divides self & other, and! and!! that line only exists because it is somehow constructed, maintained, enforced. see: ianthe working so hard to convince herself/pal/the hypothetical audience of this play she's putting on that she's just ianthe with no babs mixed in. or john's ritual of retelling his story to alecto/harrow in NTN. something something being the unreliable narrator of your own identity.

palamedes calls the process that merges him and camilla to give us paul grand lysis vs. the "petty", incomplete lysis of eightfold word lyctorhood. lysis = the disintegration of a cell by rupture of the cell wall or membrane. the boundaries of their souls are sliced open so their contents can be poured out & mixed together to make someone new. but even in conventional lyctorhood, there's some kind of exchange of whatever material makes up the soul between cavalier & necromancer. as our boy tells ianthe at the end of the unwanted guest,

This is the real truth of Lyctorhood, Ianthe--it's not some bloodless swapping-out of batteries. It's grafting; transplantation. When you absorbed Naberius Tern's soul, you didn't swallow a diamond. You swallowed a piece of meat...and the longer you digest that meat, the more its proteins and lipids and molecules mix in with yours, until you can't tell them apart anymore.

idk where i'm even going with all of this, i'm just rotating it in my head, but:

tamsyn muir is so precise with her necromancy jargon & anatomical terms that i feel like there's definitely meaning to be found in the imagery here. there is poetry in biology, the universe is made of stories not of atoms, etc etc

it turns out lysis is also the title of a dialogue of plato on "the true nature of loving friendship," so if any classics enjoyers have thoughts on that connection i would love to hear them!

if lyctorhood is transplantation, is it possible for that transplant to be rejected? can the graft refuse to take?

souls are contained within their edges not unlike how a cell membrane contains its cytoplasm. or how a capri sun pouch contains its juice. and lyctors slurp that shit up and digest it baby

why choose to link the soul so closely with water? (the river, bubbles, currents & waves in the river, nona saying the water of the river "doesn't want to touch us.") contents of souls = liquid in the same way that the river is a liquid??? the river = spirit version of the primordial soup???

dulcinea refers to the river having two shores, not just a generic "shore", so it sounds like they're different in some meaningful way. but that may be conditional on what happens in alecto ("if this ends well you'll find that out")? is the point of the river the river itself, or is the point of the river to separate those two places?

[stuckasmain]

Something that really separates Hal from the AI charecters he grandfathers is his ambiguity and his lack of want, allow me to explain. I’m sure I talked briefly about this before but it’s come back to me recently, it’s been said that what makes Hal scary is the realization he’s not human. The humanity is ascribed by charecters within the narrative and people watching the movie and depending on who you are you give more or less than what’s really there.

What differentiates him from other AI charecters is that he knows what he is and is comfortable with that. He takes pride in it. He is a 9000 series supercomputer. He doesn’t crave or find himself jealous of humanity but he’s also not entirely lacking in it. The audience and human roles are left to wonder how much of his personality is to make us comfortable and how much is programmed. If it were any other movie it would probably over explain him and make him more human than computer but not here.

The government ascribes him more humanity than he has by assuming he’ll be able to interpret the “no lies” order properly. For as complex as Hal is he isn’t capable of that sort of nuance (yet). While his very nature and manner of glitching also provides him humanity that goes ignored. It comes across more as developing a mental illness. He is made to learn and thus, picks up human behaviors and mannerisms as he goes along.

This is derailing a bit so I want to share my particularly hot take:

If Hal had been of a sounder mind I believe he’d go along with the plan to disconnect him.

How much of the “self defense” aspect of his murder spree is prescribing human traits and how much of it is actually him? Hal’s breakdown makes it hard for him to proceed logically, thus making it a greater threat to him and murder all the more logical (self defense also plays a much smaller part than audience likes to state, as it was mostly getting rid of those he’d have to lie to). If he hadn’t been caught up in the loop and more aware of the fact he was malfunctioning he’d probably agree that turning him off or rebooting the system would be the best course of action. And they’d explain to him what it meant, again midigating the “sleep = death” panic.

[theriverbeyond]

thinking about this post (abt how even if circumstances were perfect, John would never have been able to touch the world-soul without losing his mind), and i was thinking more and more about how, like, everything was doomed as soon as Alecto got involved.

because humanity had become unsustainable on Earth, but Alecto wasn't just humanity, right? she was everything: she was the land, the saltwater and the salt, the oceans and the lakes, the fish and the birds and every creeping thing. green thing. if she had done nothing and let humanity die, billions of organisms would have survived and billions more would have thrived in the time after. the world has ended before and will end again and eventually all that pain would have been just a blip in her unfathomably long lifespan.

and yet despite everything, despite being everything, she CHOSE humanity. she chose humanity over every single microbial life, over every cockroach and bacteria and weird little extremophile living in deep ocean vents. she chose humanity over the unknown and aborted future of the planet without humans. she chose John.

so like as much as we can criticize John for his rage and terror and selfish revenge, Alecto made a selfish choice too. and you know what? who can blame her. this is just what love does to us, isn't it? once you are loved, you cannot bear to live without it. it is terrifying. you want to eat and hold and chew it and never let it go even if it is ruining you.

[six-of-cringe]

So the "Jesper is Wylan's sugar baby" jokes don't bother me TOO badly, but they irk me slightly because they're pretty much based on the fact that no one knows what an allowance is beyond the context of "spending money a parent gives to their child". An allowance in business is an amount of money given to someone for a specific business-related expense, so the "allowance" mentioned at the end of CK is just the amount of money they budgeted to put into the stock market, which Jesper is in charge of. Because you know, he's smart and also Wylan's business partner, not his incompetent pet. Ok maybe the jokes bother me some