#that's a drastic oversimplification of what was going on there

[grapehyasynth]

this song is so good and so funny

[tokujenny]

My extremely oversimplified theory of Kaiju is that they can all be categorized into one of four categories: Lizard, Monkey, Robot and Minor Eldritch Horror (Meh, for short)

Examples:

[left-reminders]

(Below are broad vibes for each of the numbers. They are not meant to represent every opinion one could have within those parameters. Some aspects of the description may apply to you while others won't. If you picked a number with a description that doesn't match your perspective, let us know what your actual perspective is in a reblog comment! Comments in general are nice too, of course 👍)

(You also might notice a bias in favor of 5; or at least a far deeper description of what it would entail when compared against the other four. This is partly just because I wanted to soapbox, but I hope it doesn't detract. I genuinely want to hear the perspectives of the 1s, 2s, and 3s, if you're out there and don't appreciate my potential oversimplification!)

1 — It does not factor in at all. Much of the discourse around green politics is a liberal distraction and/or a roadblock holding us back from organizing for socialism. Economic development and human concerns will always matter more. Capitalism was a necessary/justifiable component in the march of history towards socialism, even if it did have certain negative impacts on the environment. The ideal society looks like Star Trek or fully-automated luxury communism (FALC) — one where we overcome "the state of nature" and become masters of our own fate.

2 — It doesn't factor in much, even if I may recognize the reality of climate change and/or the need for environmental protections. We can solve the biggest climate problems with advancements in green technology or perhaps expanding resource frontiers into outer space. In general, other social issues take priority when building socialism.

3 — I care about combating climate change and solving ecological problems, but I find other issues to be more important in my life and I will leave most discussion of it to people more knowledgeable on the subject. The world could be doing far better on these issues and changes are needed, but most of the modern civilizational infrastructure should remain unchanged (albeit organized under a socialist mode of production).

4 — It is very important to my politics. We can balance socialistic technological development with the dire needs of a planet in crisis. Certain human activities and production methods will have to be curbed or eliminated entirely if we are to find this balance (fossil fuels, widget production, private jets, etc), while others will have to be uplifted (renewable energy, public transportation, shared living, etc). Modern civilization is ultimately redeemable, but it needs to undergo a radical transformation.

5 — It is among the most important factors in my politics. I take influence from eco-socialism, social ecology, degrowth, post-civ, anti-civ, deep ecology, or any number of other political perspectives which are ecologically-focused. Locally-organized economies; drastic reductions in working hours and energy throughput; rewilding of the land; emphasis on non-consumptive forms of leisure; an end to consumerism, growth-based economic metrics, and imperial conceptions of "development"; agroecology and polyculture as core methods for obtaining food; and a vast deconstruction of much of the civilizational edifice are all pieces to this puzzle and are required if we are going to have a habitable planet for the generations to come. The ideal society looks like a Miyazaki film, that yogurt commercial, or lightly-automated comfortable ecological socialism (LACES) — one where we "don't seek to become larger within socialism, but rather more realized" (Joel Kovel).

[reachartwork]

devlog #6

lets talk about precomputation

<vast oversimplification>

computers do math faster than you but that doesn't mean all math is fast. in fact, doing lots of math repeatedly, including complex math, is quite slow, relatively speaking in computer world. so we want to avoid math if at all possible.

what computers do even faster than math is looking things up. so if you can do your math *beforehand* and write down the list of answers to your math you can make your computer go much faster, because you can simply consult the answer sheet.

this is called "precomputing" and the thing that we made is called a "lookup table" but i call it a "codex" because that's fewer letters to type.

</vast oversimplification>

now lets talk about mazes

there are many ways you can make a maze. the most common ways to make a maze rely on a maze that is created one cell at a time (one grid square), which produces tight, winding, narrow mazes. this is great for some purposes. this is not great for my purposes, because the mazes do not look very designed, are slow to generate (relatively speaking), and are TOO twisty. we need more straight corridors! we need it to generate faster! and most importantly we need to be able to fill spaces in the map so that we can bridge the gap between prefab map elements (like the entrance/exit to a maze, campgrounds, shops, etc.) and the map elements we want to have randomized!

so instead, we are generating our maze in 3x3 "megatiles". minecraft fans might know this sort of thing as a "chunk" so we'll use chunk.

we can pre-define most of our common chunks. as it turns out, in a maze the only thing we really care about is "walkability" - we can do a second pass for decoration later, but in terms of map generation we really only care about walkability. you could make a very satisfying maze out of only these and it would be pretty good!

BUT!

we run into a very large problem, which is that its very easy for algorithms to understand a binary maze consisting only of "you can walk here" and "you can't walk here" in terms of graph theory. any 1 can traverse to any other 1. you can't traverse from a 1 into a 0. you can't traverse from a 0 into anything.

once you get more complicated then you need to start defining things more rigorously. the simple rule i'm using so far is basically an opening check - if the middle tile of a side is grass, then the tile is "open" on that side. if a middle tile of a side is wall, then the tile is "closed" on that side. you may see some of the example tiles don't really follow that rule but programming special cases is annoying and it works WELL ENOUGH that you can fix it in post by burrowing through any maze-blocking walls and turning them into floors for minimal overhead.

okay so what are we doing here. are we taking the grid (2d array) that represents the map three tiles at a time, comparing it to every other possible 3x3 array in real time, and plonking the best one down?

NO

that's STUPID.

remember when i mentioned precomputation? that was for a reason. an important thing you might notice is that all of these chunks are represented with exactly two values. either it's floor and walkable (1) or it's wall and unwalkable (0). that means that each chunk/megatile can be represented by a unique nine-digit binary number. and that can be turned into a decimal (base 10) number.

anyway, this is useful because this drastically shrinks our possibility space. not only are there only 512 possible arrangements of 3x3 walls and floor, there's really only about 80-90 that are useful, and specifically, only 63 in our lookup table.

so, here's what we can do:

we take all of these 63 arrangements on this sheet, these are our "common tiles". we compute its decimal number equivalents to create our indices, which happens to look like this;

for each of these tiles, we can "unfold it" back into its 3x3 binary representation, compare it to every other tile, determine which ones it connects to (NESW-wise), and store that. Sure, this is (relatively) slow, but the important part is that we can do it before runtime, which lets us create this;

this is not a perfect process, because a thing i did notice is that by our heuristics, all tiles with certain connections are topologically identical, so a lot of our work is wasted tbh. that is to say, any tile that has any bottom connections has the same bottom connections as any other tile with any bottom connections. this is not necessarily true, but figuring that out is a more complicated process and one we can save for next time.

anyway.

now that we have a bunch of tiles and the "rules" of how they can connect to each other, so then creating a maze is as simple as "put a tile down, look up all the tiles it can connect to, and randomly pick another one from that list to put down". we enforce some rules such as "all tiles put down in the main path must have two possible connections" and stuff like that to ensure the maze is coherent and traversible, but this is much faster to do than computing all that stuff during the generation of the maze.

as a bonus, by reducing our map in this manner, we also cut the size of the array by 1/9, which makes general computation on it faster as well.

anyway, so we lay down a bunch of these decimal "chunks" and produce a maze that looks something like this;

and "unfolds" into something like this;

and this is the level generation strategy i'm going with for now.

GO INTO THE FUCKING DUNGEON!

[steelthroat]

*Bust through the wall like the Cool-aid man* Did somebody say worldbuilding?

Cybertronian architecture has always been an interest of mine and sadly we never really get a proper look at its cities aside from ‘futuristic looking towers’ and the shapes are cool! But it’s also kinda boring. Unfortunately I severely lack knowledge in the field of architecture and have been using canon and fanon to create a general ~vibe~ but I do have some consistent ones.

Vos: Towers have holes to maximize airflow. No sharp edges and small over the top decorations like in Russian artistry. It might seem like a weird combo but I swear it Seekers = Russia just makes sense

Praxis: Asian inspired in almost all aspects but architecture, follows Korea philosophy of architecture mostly. Their buildings would flow a natural floor plan meant to balance out “energies” (I swear this is based of a real Asian philosophy but I cannot for the life of me remember what it’s call). You could probably get close with calling them Green urbanization because they include their singing crystals in everything 

Nyon: I don’t have any particular culture but it’s definitely super cramped together with tons of back alley and steep stairs. Scrap metal sheets protects against the acid rain and most roads are bumpy cobblestone, alt modes don’t see a lot of action here unless you’re a beast former. Bonus is cool parkour! I wanna say it’s like the Underground from Arcane but less sketchy people

Smaller noteworthy details include:

-Tarn having long strips of road with essential shops (Midwest mining towns)

-Polyhex has geometric engravings on the side of buildings. It’s also connected to water/liquid transportation somehow, canals, the Rust Sea, whatever it’s got ports and liquid.

-Helix, Antihelix, or any city with -Helix has roundabouts and a grid pattern

-The more “touristy” areas of Kaon Gladiator pits look Roman but the local places where regular people live are all American/New England Post-Industrial

I could go into so much detail about this stuff and my understanding is that the basics of design are pretty similar across cybertron where meeting the purpose and necessary accessibility requirements are top priority. However, Layout plans will vary depending on the majority frame class and style will be more distinct the more disconnected from Iacon they are (I’m using Iacon as the trend setting “ground zero” so to speak).

This message is all that I needed as I woke up, screw morning coffee, I don't even like coffee!!!

*smooch*

I super duper like these ideas!!! I was reading and googling the whole time ahahdhfh

Yes it is a little bit boring that every Cybertronian city is down "the same way" and especially after the idw continuity where the lore is thick and we learn that the culture varies from city to city I can't believe that there are the same architectural styles... like we have varying styles from region to region (Italy) and we're all humans, imagine a place where some people drive, some people fly and some other do weird things ahahdh.

Another thing that interests me is the artistic expression of the inhabitants of those cities, an Iaconian (Iaconi? Iaconist? Ia-whatever???) would never create the same kind of art as a Kaonian (Kaonite? Kaoni????) artist.

It's like when there where romanticism and neoclassicism at the same time and varying from where the artist came from they would lean more towards one instead of the other (this is an oversimplification but I hope I'mmaking myself clear)

Also the message behind the art:

Iacon is so fkn neoclassical in my head it's unbelievable, so attached to the past "the golden age" the "true art" amd the idealistic beauty

Kaon could NEVER embrace those ideals, Tarn and Nyon and Rodion neither.

So just like the art would drastically change, the architecture would follow the lead... also because different frame types and some cities like Vod tend to have a majority of its inhabitant with a specific frame/alt-mode

If I may headcannon even more I'd say that the richer parts of the cities resemble Iacon because of its hegemony.

Why not make laws about architecture excusing them with something like "this kind of building is dangerous to xyz" or "it reminds of x traumatic age"?

Lol Cybertonians have fought for AGES and if we take a look at the Restoration age where they changed even the interior design to destroy anything that reminded people of Napoleon... I'd say that this could work for Cybertron too. Who doesn't love a little bit of historical revisionism -_-

Why not make hostile architecture against specific frame types and castes?? If someone tells me that there's a fictional discriminatory and dystopic society I WANT TO FEEL IT.

[yr-obedt-cicero]

So… like, what was up with Hamilton and immigration?

Despite being an immigrant himself, Hamilton supported the Alien act of 1798, and he wrote under the name of Lucius Crassus that when it comes to Immigrants, it is: “unlikely that they will bring with them that temperate love of liberty, so essential to real republicanism.” (source: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-25-02-0282, by the way!).

I could go all in on this topic (hell, I might on my own history blog), but I’d like to hear your perspective on it. People rarely talk about Hamilton’s later attitude towards immigration, and it’s a rather interesting topic with a lot to uncover. Most of Hamilton’s points in the Lucius Crassus papers were political in nature (naturally), but would he have really insisted on shutting the ports on families escaping desperate situations, perhaps like he had so many years ago?

One again, it’s very strangely hypocritical of Hamilton to say this, so I think that you would find this interesting to cover! Apologies for the long ask!

A common fault when viewing this is the oversimplification, historical context and context in general is super essential here. And that's what I'll cover first;

The British West Indies were called such for a reason, they were British owned land. Nevis was prioritized as the international British trade for markets like the slave trade, sugar, rum, etc. But nonetheless, it was still considered part of the British Empire, and the citizens there were equally considered British subjects. So, Hamilton was already born a British subject just like the other founders. When Hamilton came to America in 1772, America was still also under British rule, and most of the people still considered themselves as “British”. And the term “American” didn't actually arise until much later during the revolution. Which essentially means, he was basically just moving around the empire.

Although despite the generalized perspective of labeling, it did not go without bias, and actually there was a massive division between cities and states. That is why you will commonly cross historical figures labeling others as Carolinians, Virginians, etc, because to them the difference truly mattered and that was mostly rooted with the different cultures and laws surrounding each state. This also evidently plays a part in the view of Hamilton as a citizen. Because that was just differences between states, so imagine how much more drastic it was for Hamilton who came from the Islands. Which here is where I'll start to delve more into Hamilton's identity as a “immigrant” that we all insist on calling him. The truth is, Hamilton wasn't an immigrant legally or metaphorically, and it's faulty to try and fit his identity in the cookie cutter modern terminology like “immigrant” because there are too many complications with all the layers of historical context you must take into account. I'm not saying Hamilton's struggles and the prejudice that he undeniably faced were not similar to the same turmoil many immigrants today endure, but he was moreso seen as an outsider or foreigner, rather than an immigrant. And that is majorly for two reasons;

Firstly, Hamilton placed himself between a rock and a hard space by moving to the Northern colonies—as a person who came from an area known for it's slave-trade, to an area that frowned upon the practice. And there's where there is a repeating distinction between states and their culture or beliefs, because the people in the North had a strong bias against the international trade Islands. The West Indies had a bad name to them for oftentimes being used as the penal colonies for petty criminals or the morally bankrupt by their definition, so many like women who committed infidelity, sodomites, thieves or smuggler traders were sent there. Additionally, their population was largely made up of enslaved workers and free people of color. So, assumptions were drawn about Hamilton when he came from this “lowlife” society.

Secondly, political disparage. A major culprit who utilized Hamilton's heritage and parentage against him that it became such a prominent part of his identity, was John Adams. For the same reason I just mentioned about the little respect the Northern colonies harbored for the West Indians. And as so, it made the perfect weapon of xenophobic stigma against Hamilton.

-

The overall point I'm getting to, is that it's debatable if Hamilton even saw himself as equal to the “Aliens” they were enforcing laws against. And I really don't think he did, Hamilton was able to separate himself from them because he was born a British citizen, and had been in the colonies by the time the Constitution was finalized and would have met the qualifications of an American US citizen. Also altering the residency requirements from five to fourteen years wouldn't apply to him anymore. Truthfully, Hamilton was ashamed of his Carribean roots (For obvious reasons, at this point), and naturally would have been inclined to hold himself in higher respect. Furthermore, during this time he was finally placed as second in command of the army and clearly thought lowly of the new immigrants;

To see the character of the Government and the country so sported with, exposed to so indelible a blot puts my heart to the Torture. Am I then more of an American than those who drew their first breath on American Ground? Or What is it that thus torments me at a circumstance so calmly viewed by almost every body else? Am I a fool—a Romantic quixot—Or is there a constitutional defect in the American Mind? Were it not for yourself and a few others, I could adopt the reveries of De Paux as substantial truths, and would say with him that there is something in our climate which belittles every Animal human or brute.

Source — Alexander Hamilton to Rufus King, [21 February 1795]

But in the end, Hamilton also knew he could never suit himself among the wealthy aristocrats and despite his shame, always knew he would forever be chained to his roots. He even refered to himself as a “Creole” (A derogatory term) and wrote to Jonathan Dayton;

But what avail laws which are not executed? Renegade Aliens conduct more than one of the most incendiary presses in the UStates—and yet in open contempt and defiance of the laws they are permitted to continue their destructive labours. Why are they not sent away? Are laws of this kind passed merely to excite odium and remain a dead letter? Vigour in the Executive is at least as necessary as in the legislative branch. If the President requires to be stimulated those who can approach him ought to do it.

Source — Alexander Hamilton to Jonathan Dayton, [Sometime after 21 December 1799]

It is my personal belief at least, that Hamilton accepted he would forever be in an in-between position in the classes of society. He saw himself as higher than most immigrants due to his citizenship and civil and military services meriting him a lot of respect, but ultimately knew he was different from most wealthy politicians and many were never going to accept him as anything but his Carribean heritage.

-

But something else that must be addressed, is what provoked the Alien and Sedition acts, more importantly the former, because there is a lot of necessary background. A large cause for the Alien acts was the French Revolution storming up. The rebellion for the French were becoming hostile, and tarnished their plausible foreign alliances after chopping off their king's head. But had still expected America - that was still in a fragile state of founding - to go to war with them and the British, when Americans had initially wished to remain neutral. So, while that hadn't worked out, that didn't stop many French citizens - who were not in support of their government, but still did not want to live under a monarchy - immigrating over to America. This may sound familiar, but many Americans believed that their country was not obligated to give refuge to these immigrants. And feared that they were dangerous, and part of the French government in a scheme. With that being said, this was rather an act against the French particularly, and the dangers they threatened the country with because of the ongoing war with Britain and France.

Take that into account, and it's also more than likely Hamilton didn't equate himself with these immigrants because they didn't even start out as British subjects. These were people all the way from Europe, and a country that at the time was hostile and pissed at them for not siding an alliance with them. The background and context could change the whole situation, and it could be that it was rather that Hamilton was merely against these immigrants under these conditions. But I do think my prior point is still worth noting, because we aren't sure what Hamilton's opinions were on immigrants in general, since in this context it is much less about innocent immigrants seeking refugee, but also the plausibility of the dangers they bring as being French. In the end, Hamilton's actions proved that jurisprudence likely took precedence over his own personal experiences or sentiments about the situation in question. But I do think it's fair criticism, but also expected? Hamilton could be an extremist in politics that it posed contradictions to his personal life, and also just sometimes he didn't live up to his own ideals. Hamilton even drafted the 1787 New York law that made adultery the only grounds for divorce, which excluded cruelty or abandonment. And, according to Chernow, he supported a bill against those who were divorced to remarry. Which is all quite questionable when you remember his own mother's situation.

[longroadtome]

i saw your tags please elaborate i am normal about this

I could write an entire essay about Lyctorhood as a metaphor for dissociative disorders and all the ways we see that play out through the different pairings in the series.

We see with Gideon and Pyrrha how their attempt resulted in her compartmentalization, and how she is the only one aware of it. Gideon spends ten thousand years knowing that he is losing chunks of time, but he has to assume this is a failure on behalf of his memory. And so he hides this from everyone around him out of some sense of shame and fear. We see this in his, “I sometimes—forget,” when confronted by Harrow after the time she speaks to Pyrrha. And of course Pyrrha is the one who knows what is happening, and she is presumably able to control which of the two of them is out. She is able to hide the fact that there are two of them for ten thousand years; nobody close to them would even consider it a possibility, even though the other Lyctors take notice of the way their behaviors defer from each other. This translates very easily to Gideon as a system member unaware of the fact he’s a system, and Pyrrha as a system member who makes sure this is never discovered by him or anyone outside the system.

With Harrow and Gideon we have a scenario in which neither of them are aware of what’s going on. Harrow goes to drastic measures to ensure that she knows absolutely nothing about her cavalier, because to do so would be to destroy them both. In this way, Harrow effectively acts as a gatekeeper on her own memory, drawing a very specific outline around the memories she is not allowed to access. All of which pushes her into a deep dissociative state for nearly the entirety of the second. And as for Gideon, she is stuck unable to access the body, but still able to experience consciousness at varying levels. Harrow’s memory blockade is only one directional, so while it limits her access to knowledge, Gideon’s remains unhindered. And when Harrow is pulled into her River bubble, Gideon remarks that she could access Harrow’s “memory files” if she bothered to. This translates to a system in total disarray for safety reasons (though this is a pretty gross oversimplification).

And then we have Camilla and Palamedes in Nona. Both of them are fully aware of the other’s presence, and even though they can’t be out at the same time, they find ways to communicate around this barrier. They divide up work and tasks, and will do things solely to make life easier for the other person (for example Pal eating food he knows Cam doesn’t like). They’ve found very effective tools to adapt to living with each other: the timer, the tape recorder, the notebook, the sunglasses. Both of them treat the other as an equal, and they constantly check in with each other to make sure they’re on the same page. Even before they’re in one body, we see the way they rely on each other goes far beyond typical friendships; they seem to function as a whole collectively rather than each on their own. Ultimately, their choice to fuse and become Paul comes across as choosing integration as a form of healing and radical self-love. Neither option (fusing and staying separate) is treated as a bad thing (at least not between the two of them), but they make the decision they do because it’s “the best and truest and kindest” option for them specifically. And even though other characters might disagree, the narrative itself does not condemn them for making this choice.

Anyway uh. I too am normal about this

[rybonucleic-ket]

so I'm back with another scene rewrite *Dustin purring sound thing*

we got the s2 steve-dustin relationship advice scene but with bicon steve and henclair

enjoy

Steve throws more of the raw meat they'd been lugging around as bait for Dart on the train tracks. "Alright, so let me get this straight. You kept something you knew was probably dangerous to impress Lucas, because, what, you're jealous of this girl he just met?"

Dustin sighed, exasperated, tossing more meat on the tracks. "Alright, that is grossly oversimplifying things."

"I mean, why would he like some nasty slug anyway?"

Dustin scoffs. "An interdimensional slug?Because it's awesome."

"I mean, even if he thought it was cool, which he didn't, I just- I don't know, I think you're trying way too hard."

"Yeah, well, not everyone can have perfect hair like you, Steve."

"It's not about the hair, man. It isn't about the hair with girls, and it definitely isn't with guys."

Dustin paused, surprised. "Are you, Steve 'the Hair' Harrington, about to give me relationship advice with guys?" he laughed.

Steve scoffed in mock offense. "Listen, kid, I'm a man of equal opportunity." He pointed an accusatory finger at Dustin. "Don't assume. It's rude."

Dustin raised bloody, gloved hands in surrender. "My bad, my bad."

"Yeah, shame on you." Steve scoffed. "I mean, Lucas, he's your best friend, has been for years, yeah?"

"Yup."

"And- and you're worried about some girl who beat you at an arcade game?"

"Like I said," Dustin sighed, "that's a drastic oversimplification."

".. which means that's what's happening but you're like, really invested in it." he cut off Dustin's denial. "Listen, kid, I'm not gonna act like I know what the situation with you and Lucas is, but from what you've told me, you're worrying way too much about it."

Dustin glared at him.

"Fine, okay, y'know what? If you really wanna test whatever you've got going on with Lucas, pretend to be into this girl."

"What?"

"Yeah, getting guys can be more complicated, but with best friend types, pretending to be into some girl makes em jealous as hell, drives em crazy. Giving someone else the attention you were giving him is the way to go. And hey, if you're so worried about this girl, he might be too, y'know?"

"Even though I don't like her?"

Steve laughed. "Uh, yeah, if you did like her, it wouldn't really be about getting Lucas. Then we'd be having a different conversation entirely. I'm telling you, it'll drive him nuts."

"Then what?"

"Then you wait."

"Wait for what?"

"Wait til you feel it."

"Feel what?"

"It's, uh, it's like before it's gonna storm. You can't see it, but you can feel it, like this uh-" Steve clicks hus tongue. "electricity, y'know?"

"Oh, like the electromagnetic field, when the clouds in the atmosphere-"

Steve cuts him off, confused. "No no no no no no. Like- like uh, sexual electricity."

"Oh."

"You feel that- and then you make your move."

"So that's when I kiss him?"

"Woah, slow your roll, Romeo! Nah, I mean...with guys, it's," he sighs, "it's a little more complicated. You hit on the wrong guy, bad shit can happen. I'm sure you trust Lucas, he seems cool, just, uh...just take it slow. I mean, guys are weird. They can be totally into you, there can be a lot of electricity, but....but they get scared. y'know, even if he's not a douchebag, other people are. it's scary." he pauses, sighing, clicking his teeth. "Just, uh, just be careful."

Dustin is quiet, contemplating, tossing meat on the tracks, rubber gloves squeaking. "Have you...hit on the wrong guy before?"

Steve laughed humorlessly. "Once or twice. I mean- I mean, I'm sure you'll be fine. I don't think any bad shit will happen to you. That Lucas kid, he seems pretty cool. That's uh, that's kinda rare. Unfortunately."

Dustin smiles. "Yeah. Lucas is pretty fucking awesome."

it's on ao3

[in-uthenera-we-wait]

I've been playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard for a hot minute now... And I have... Opinions...

Spoilers under the cut.

I've only finished the first act and am stepping into the second. But I've managed to finish a certain quest that is necessary to make sure we get a happy Solavellan reunion.

Mythal... wasn't what I expected it to be. I mean, yeah most of what was revealed has been common inference within the fandom so, there wasn't any "aha!" moment there, but I don't think that is entirely the fault of the writers ... I mean, you leave enough breadcrumbs and ten years for them to be discovered, someone's going to follow the trail, am I right?

But still... The way they're portraying Solas' motivations to do what he's doing ... To be purely linked to Mythal and not to any of the other mistakes he'd made... I'd have loved to explore the crossroads and have murals depicting his other regrets... Like the betrayal of Felassan that spawns a huge demon in one of the locations but is never elaborated on in the narrative (at least where I've encountered it), that could have been such an interesting place of discussion... Solas killed the one friend who stood beside him even as Mythal betrayed him. But all he is bothered about is Mythal? I think that is a gross oversimplification of his complex character... Ugh... I hated having to admit that!

Also, the companions mostly feel stilted to me (except for Bellara... And Emmrich). Perhaps things improve as I play along? I'll wait.

The lack of choices from the previous games is very VERY apparent. This ends up with characters behaving in ways almost antithetical to their earlier principles, Morrigan accepting Mythal being one of them... I don't mind her having Mythal in her but I wish they could have elaborated it or shown it better... Also, this is where the well of sorrows would have come into play quite nicely!

I'm feeling very meh about the game so far to be honest... The combat is cool! And the whole siege of Weisshaupt had just the right amount of urgency and high-stakes feel to it.

I don't regret getting the game, to be honest but I wonder why the writing has taken so many drastic changes from before...

[cr-noble-writes]

I think its an oversimplification to say he's obsessed with the old empire, elvhen glory, and the restoration of Arlathan. I also think its an oversimplification to say that he isn't.

I fully believe Solas' primary motivation is that he believes he made a mistake when he created the veil, and he intends to fix it by whatever means necessary. I don't think that motivation is driven entirely by an obsession with the good ol' days, as it were, but I do think that's part of it.

If there were no part of him that wasn't trying to bring that back, I don't think he'd be so salty about the current state of Dalish traditions. I think he absolutely does want things to go back to what they were then. Its pretty clear, imo, in the way he talks about the old ways and the way he talks about the new. And ultimately, I think the fact that things have become so drastically different than they were before the veil is what led to him believing he'd made a mistake.

Ultimately, I think Solas is an incredibly complex character, and to try to turn the issue of his motivations and desires into something black and white does him an incredible disservice.

Once again genuinely confused by people who claim Solas is obsessed with empire and elven glory and restoring Arlathan the way it was??

[despondent-beauty]

Little irritated. The efficiency of your heating system doesn't affect how much heat your computer produces or even over what period of time it produces that heat.

Basically, the hotter something is, the faster it sheds that heat. A low efficiency system will shed heat slowly. A high efficiency system will shed heat quickly.

Simplification for demonstration purposes:

LES (low efficiency system):

30 C: sheds 1 C per second.

40 C: sheds 2 C per second.

50 C: sheds 3 C per second.

60 C: 5 C/sec

70 C: 7 C/sec

80 C: 10 C/sec

HES:

30 C: 3 C/sec

40 C: 5 C/sec

50 C: 7 C/sec

60 C: 10/sec

70 C: 13 C/sec

80 C: 18 C/sec

An easy way to test this is to have a piece of metal and a piece of wood at room temperature. Leave them out for an hour or two. Feel them with your hands. The metal will be colder, and the wood will be warmer.

Put ice on each one. See which one melts faster. This is heat transfer.

So you have this computer. The components themselves haven't changed. It's using 500 Watts. That energy is getting directly converted to heat in the CPU, GPU, RAM, motherboard, etc. as lost energy. It climbs into your cooling system.

Let's say that the computer, at 500 watts, produces 4 C of heat per second. Drastic oversimplification, but it works on the same basic principles that are important to understand here.

If the computer is producing 4 C of heat per second, the LES will eventually reach about 55 C because it is at that heat that it exchanges energy fast enough with the surrounding environment to stay at equilibrium. The rate at which it receives energy (in the form of 4 C of heat) equals the rate at which it dissipates that energy into the air of your room.

But the HES does the same thing. It only reaches 45 C -- it is colder -- but it puts out 4 C every second as well. The overall heating of your room is the same because the base hardware itself in your computer is still producing 4 C of heat every second.

If your computer isn't heating up infinitely, that means it's reached equilibrium with the rate at which it exchanges with the atmosphere. That rate is going to be the same no matter what heating system you have, so your room will heat up at the same speed regardless.

The key variable is the wattage of the components, not the efficiency of the cooling system.

In fact, the way that computers are made these days means that they will increase the wattage as far as possible before getting into critical zones for heating, meaning a more efficient cooling system might actually heat your room more; let's say that the computer can handle 80 C. The LES heats up to 80 C and puts out 10 C per second.

The HES heats up to 80 C and puts out 18 C per second, nearly twice what the low-efficiency system is doing. This is because the computer has revved up its wattage from, say, 400 W to 650 W.

These numbers aren't meant to be realistic. They are meant to be demonstrative. This is the best way I can think to show why the heating system doesn't matter when it comes to heating your room. The wattage that your parts are running at is the primary variable. How fast your room heats up is a direct result of how many watts your components are running at.

Btw, this is assuming that the cooling system has the efficiency to absorb that heat to begin with. Lower efficiency systems often can't actually absorb as much heat as higher efficiency systems. Think of the wood/metal example. Metal can absorb more heat (and therefore radiate more heat) per second than wood, so the metal will heat the room up faster than the wood, but that's just because more energy is actually making its way into the metal to begin with. With the wood, for a given temperature, it's not going to absorb nearly as much, so its level of equilibrium will naturally be lower.

And in the case of computers, this means that the LES will frequently run colder than the HES since the computer is limiting its wattage. The point is that the cooling system is outputting heat at the rate that it's going into the system to begin with, and wattage can be thought of as a direct analogue to heat, though technically wattage is energy over time and heat is just energy.

[ourbygoneage]

Ch 22: Noah's Box Verse 1

Tailor walks into Noah's office, feeling a mixture of nervousness and curiosity. He'd heard so many things about Noah, both good and bad, and he'd not quite sure what to expect. He'd always been fascinated by the idea of transhumanism, but he's also wary of anyone who claims to be able to change a person's biology in such a drastic way.

Noah greets Tailor with a smile, and Tailor can't help but feel a little intimidated by their confidence. "Welcome, Tailor. I've been expecting you."

Tailor takes a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. "Thank you for seeing me, Noah. I wanted to ask you a few questions about your patients."

Noah nods, gesturing for Tailor to take a seat. "Of course. What would you like to know?"

Tailor fidgets with his hands for a moment before speaking up. "Well, I've heard that you perform surgeries that can change a person's entire biology. Is that true?"

Noah nods, their expression serious. "Yes, it's true. The nanites give humans quite a tolerance for surgical reconfiguration. I perform surgeries that can change a person's sexual attributes, or their physical abilities, but I only do it for those who are willing. No one is ever forced to undergo these procedures."

Tailor raises an eyebrow, surprised. "Really? I've heard that you've done some pretty extreme surgeries on people. Like, turning them into cats or something."

Noah laughs, shaking their head. "No, that's a criminal oversimplification. I've done surgeries to enhance people's abilities, sure, even surgeries to limit or alter their abilities, but I can't alter the mind, not surgically. That's far to complex a task for my skills. I have to do that the old fashioned way." They smile.

Tailor nods, considering this. "Okay, I see what you mean. But what about Alice? I heard that you did some kind of experiment on her, without her consent."

Noah's expression darkens, and Tailor realizes he may have touched on a sensitive subject. "Alice was a special case. She came to me asking for help, and I did what I could to ease her suffering. I never intended to hurt her, and I made sure she knew what was going on every step of the way. I don't know if it was a misunderstanding, or if she has deeper issues."

Tailor nods slowly, starting to understand. "Okay. I think I see what you mean. I'm sorry if I came across as accusatory. I'm just trying to understand."

Noah smiles again, their confidence returning. "No need to apologize. I understand your concerns. But I promise you, everything I do is for the betterment of humanity. I believe that we can transcend our limitations, and become something greater than we ever thought possible."

Tailor nods, feeling a growing sense of respect for Noah. "I can see that. Thank you for talking to me, Noah. You've given me a lot to think about."

Noah stands up, offering his hand to Tailor. "Anytime, Tailor. It was a pleasure to meet you. And who knows? Maybe someday, you'll be one of my patients."

Tailor shakes his hand, feeling an unexpected sense of excitement at the prospect. "Yeah, maybe someday. We'll see."

[bathtub-bastard]

“Scientifically work out when Jesus died” is a drastic oversimplification that ignores both the possibility of Christ’s nonexistence and actual divinity.

The event I believe you’re referring to is a solar eclipse in about the right location and timeframe? I’m having difficulty finding a reference to it. But the idea is that that coincided with the sun going dark (as documented in the Bible). HOWEVER, the Bible describes hours of darkness, an impossibility for any solar eclipse (they max out at about eight minutes), AND the Bible describes the event as taking place during Passover.

(Passover always occurs at a full moon, making a solar eclipse impossible (full moons occur when the moon is to the far side of the earth from the son, solar eclipses occur when the moon is between the earth and the sun))

Bottom line, if the Bible is accurate a solar eclipse could not have caused the darkness, and if the Bible is inaccurate it’s just as likely Christ never existed at all.

Also, most people don’t get Good Friday off so I’m not sure what OP is going on about.

If Jesus really loved the world, he would have died on a Monday so we could have a three day weekend.

[bitcofun]

This is a viewpoint editorial by Shinobi, a self-taught teacher in the Bitcoin area and tech-oriented Bitcoin podcast host. The Bitcoin white paper is among the most crucial files composed this century to everybody reading this. Every Halloween, someplace in the back of our minds, "this is when it took place" attacks our awareness. It actually was among those random, harmless minutes at the time that simply inserted out of no place something that would drastically move the characteristics of the world. It set out the structure of a concept that even today, at an extremely small size and significance on the planet and its economy, has still had an enormously outsized impact on this world. It was innocuously dropped on the cryptography subscriber list at 18: 10 UTC with the paper abstract and this little blurb: I've been dealing with a brand-new electronic money system that's completely peer-to-peer, without any relied on 3rd party. The paper is offered at: http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf The primary homes: Double-spending is avoided with a peer-to-peer network. No mint or other relied on celebrations. Participants can be confidential. New coins are made from Hashcash design proof-of-work. The proof-of-work for brand-new coin generation likewise powers the network to avoid double-spending. Only a fairly little handful of individuals saw this post or engaged with it, however that was where the very first domino fell and the waterfall of all the ones to come started. In that regard it is a critical piece of history that need to be kept in mind and valued. In the grand plan of things, the white paper is not what numerous individuals in this area have actually held it up to be. It is not a requirements of the Bitcoin procedure. It is not the meaning of Bitcoin. The white paper did not really develop the Bitcoin network. The code and customer that Satoshi Nakamoto launched approximately 2 months later on did. What The Bitcoin White Paper Left Out The white paper is simply a top-level description of ideas. All it actually does is go through, in an extremely simplistic way, the truth that a service to the double-spend issue was discovered. There is no deep analysis of the general procedure and network structure, there isn't a detailed meaning of the procedure itself, it's basically simply the scholastic equivalent of "Hey, I had this concept, inspect it out." Much of the procedure itself is not even discussed at all in the paper. For circumstances, area 2 of the paper states: " We specify an electronic coin as a chain of digital signatures. Each owner moves the coin to the next by digitally signing a hash of the previous deal and the general public secret of the next owner and including these to the end of the coin. A payee can confirm the signatures to confirm the chain of ownerships." There was an absurdly-complicated scripting system utilized to lock and open coins in the procedure of negotiating them. It would permit the building and construction of scripts, or "asserts" (a formula that assesses to real or incorrect) as Nakamoto described them here, that might need all sort of approximate conditions to be satisfied in order to invest a coin. It is completely possible, as has actually been done prior to, to produce a coin that does not need any digital signature at all to invest. The method the white paper explains what a "coin" remains in the 2nd area is a huge oversimplification that neglects all of the possible performance of multisignature, escrows, hash locks and whatever that can be constructed (and has actually been developed) utilizing those primitives. Since the point of the white paper was not to clearly specify the information of the procedure, it just looked for to make clear the standard principle of having the ability to safely manage a coin without depending upon a main authority. Making use of signatures, and all the other approximate conditions that can be developed with script, can all be openly validated by everybody scanning the chain.

In the 4th area, on evidence of work, absolutely nothing in regards to real specifics is discussed in relation to the problem target. The trouble duration is not specified, the variety of blocks typically, absolutely nothing. In the reward area going over the block benefit aid and the capability to shift from brand-new coins being provided to simply deal charges, no overall supply is gone over, no rate to determine the slowing down of brand-new issuance, no time at all schedule for it-- all of these things are left totally undefined in the white paper. Due To The Fact That it is not a meaning of Bitcoin It is simply a conceptual intro at an extremely high level to the crucial things that make the system really feasible. Talked About, But Never Implemented Some things in the white paper that were clearly discussed were never ever even carried out in the genuine system. In talking about streamlined payment confirmation (SPV) in area 8 of the paper, Nakamoto talked about the capacity for harmful miners to make void payments if they had the ability to subdue the remainder of the network and technique SPV customers into accepting void deals. This is possible since all they are utilizing to confirm anything is a blockheader and the Merkle tree course consisting of that specific deal, they see absolutely nothing from the remainder of the block. Nakamoto recommended the possibility of nodes on the network sending out "informs" to SPV customers whenever they come across a void block, so they can download and confirm it. This was never ever constructed out due to the fact that it's not possible to confirm a block without having actually confirmed the block prior to it, and so on and so on back to genesis. It actually wasn't possible to do. Now, the door may be opened in the future for such things by zero-knowledge evidence, however the unclear concept set out to resolve a significant issue here in the white paper has, since yet, not been executed. Nakamoto hypothesized on the possibility of zero-knowledge evidence in Bitcoin, however they were much less established of an innovation then and something plainly above Nakamoto's level in regards to deep understanding. How To Think Of The Bitcoin White Paper Today Looking at all of these examples, we can see that there were really vital and specifying elements of the Bitcoin procedure that was released in January 2009 that were not even pointed out in the paper at all. We can likewise see that an extremely vital security defense recommended in the paper is still to this day not in fact carried out in any Bitcoin software application. The white paper is a really essential file in historic terms, and a really crucial file in regards to communicating one of the most fundamental principles underpinning the style of Bitcoin as an abstract system, however in regards to the real particular technical information of the procedure and network, it is basically unimportant. This was the failure of numerous Bitcoiners that have actually wandered away from the system in favor of damaged procedures like Bitcoin Cash or Bitcoin Satoshi's Vision-- they dealt with the white paper like a procedure requirements. It's not. It never ever was. This is a visitor post by Shinobi. Viewpoints revealed are totally their own and do not always show those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine. Read More

[uni-seahorse-572]

Internalization vs. Externalization & Keeper

this ended up longish, fair warning. I’m going to go ahead and tag everyone who expressed interest: @gay-otlc, @if-only-wishes-were-answered, @keepersofthelostbullhorn, @spellbound-fire, @simpbito

~

~

In KOTLC, Keefe and Fitz represent a fascinating dichotomy also present in society as a whole. 

As an oversimplification, most people tend to either externalize or internalize their mental health issues and emotions. Those who tend to internalize repress it all, refusing to seek help, holding it together outwardly while also deteriorating inwardly. Those who tend to externalize lash out and hurt those around them. I’d like to emphasize that I’m not here addressing which one is “better” - they’re both simply ways to cope with difficult emotions and affect people in different ways. 

It’s easy to assign Fitz the externalized method of coping. The fandom may theorize that he has unaddressed issues from the pressure of his upbringing, but in canon, his emotions are completely externalized in times of major strife. 

Keefe seems a little more difficult at first. After all, his actions are so often drastic and negatively impact those around him, right?

What I’d like to argue is that this doesn’t matter. Part of internalization is the fact that it primarily focuses the hurt on the person who’s doing the internalizing. They lack any way to let their emotions out, and thus when their facade cracks others may see a glimpse of what they’re going through. Furthermore, internalization can lead emotions to boil over as they’re being repressed instead of dealt with, at which point they do harm those around the person in question. Sounds like Keefe. 

Here’s where society comes in: we glorify internalization over externalization. This connects to the whole “go in even if you’re sick” mentality that, well, kind of really backfired. (please note: when I say society, I am here discussing American society. I can’t speak for other cultures, though if anyone has more knowledge on how a different culture regards externalization vs. internalization I’d love to hear your thoughts). 

Among the mentally ill, the false perception that one must somehow prove their mental state to deserve help causes major issues. What this means is that people will attempt to internalize their problems until they can’t anymore, with the idea that what they’re going through is only “real” if they can no longer keep it hidden and someone else notices. This repression of feelings is legitimately dangerous. 

On the other hand, people who externalize are often blamed for any outbursts they may have. This occurs especially frequently if all it takes is something small to push them over, as they’re seen as overreacting even though it’s more related to having problems no one else can see than anything else. Emotions that are externalized are often treated as if there’s nothing deeper behind them.

Heroes in general who don’t care about their well-being are hailed. Sacrifice is hailed. Characters who are angry are demonized, and while anger is a major and damaging problem to many, when was the last time you saw a character who struggles with anger who wasn’t morally grey at best? How often do you see depictions of those who get angry, occasionally to the point where it’s controlling them, as just... people who aren’t perfect?

In all honesty, Shannon Messenger herself handled this pretty well. Fitz is often made to apologize in ways Keefe isn’t, but the narrative as a whole is pretty understanding of both of them. We can also see how Fitz’s externalization does lead to disastrous fury but also means that’s both released and obvious, instead of festering into a huge mistake like it does with Keefe. Grady is a good example of this as well, as someone who gets protectively angry and may go too far once in a while but still means well and is a good father and husband. This complex representation of anger isn’t all that common. 

But it’s the way that the fandom reacts to the two of them that’s revealing. 

Fitz receives an incredible amount of hatred for his anger. By many, it’s viewed as toxic towards those he cares about. Among many, the general consensus seems to be that he’s so privileged he needs to stop getting so angry because everything isn’t perfect and be quiet (allegedly because “Keefe has it worse”, yet so many things have happened to the Vackers that if Fitz internalized his emotions I believe the hatred wouldn’t be near as much of an issue). Depending on the site you go on, there’s a good amount of blatant bashing in fics and comments, largely centered on somehow both his anger and apparent perfection at once - would they view internalization of feelings a legitimate flaw that makes him complex and less than perfect?

Keefe, on the other hand, is embraced by most of the fandom. People talk about his trauma quite a bit from what I’ve seen, his quiet inner pain that he only lets Sophie see, that he tells her she shouldn’t have to deal with. Unlike with Fitz’s occasional bouts of anger, his penchant for running away, putting himself in danger, and his lying to Sophie isn’t, on the whole, seen as toxic. His internalization has led to a lack of self esteem and perceived worth that creates a selfless sacrificial streak too often hailed. 

Now, you may say, however, that not everyone has these opinions. But the truth is this often exists in a way that inadvertently reinforces society’s treatment of externalization and internalization. 

Those who dislike Keefe tend to focus on the ways he’s hurt others with his decisions. While this makes sense, as he doesn’t have to do much for forgiveness in the narrative, it also attempts to frame his emotional reactions as externalization. Fitz, on the other hand, is often depicted as someone who struggles with internalization, particularly when it comes to pressure. Just look on AO3 for proof - in all honesty I’m guilty of it. This interpretation of his character isn’t necessarily wrong, as it can allow authors to write what they relate to and addresses the issues Fitz must have in a way the narrative ignores, yet still focuses on internalization. 

We as a society are deeply uncomfortable with externalization. We don’t know how to discuss it. And we continue to glorify internalization.

At this time, I can’t say I have a good conclusion as to how we might try to counter this, though approaching both Fitz and Keefe from a more complex viewpoint would be a good place to start. Consider looking for this in both society and other fiction as well, perhaps. It’ll be interesting to see where Keeper itself goes going forward. 

[skyfcx]

     The instinct is to retract his previous ask— were tarot readings something that involved prep time? If Amy's reaction to the question was anything to go off of, it was commonplace to allot a fortnight's worth of time to get the session ready. Excuse the kit's ignorance, but tarot seemed like pulling some cards and stitching together some meaning from the randomization of it all... To need time to set something like that up just wasn't a consideration that passed his mind before making the request...

     —Then again, if someone came up to him and said, 'okay fine, if you're so smart, build a plane right now!', he'd be a little miffed about the drastic oversimplification of what goes into doing what he does. He can build a plane if you give him time, materials, tools, and the blueprints of the specific type of plane you want him to build. So maybe it was a little callous to have Amy cook up a spectacular showing of the arcane arts off the top of her head.

     A hand goes to hold itself up, ready to wave away the notion. But already are a slew of cards being pulled from seemingly nowhere. Once again, a baffling display of sleight of hand... from her sleeveless dress. And there wasn't a glove large enough in the world to comfortably conceal that many cards at once. Oh, he'd just let that one go, he could feel his mind splitting trying to pin logic to such a display.

     "Definitely! I-If you wanna, of course. Kinda rude to put you in the hot seat like that, but... I'd be a liar if I said I didn't wanna see one in action." His unfamiliarity expected an exact telling of his immediate future, but it sounded like it was going to be a loose prediction of a future to come eventually. Hey, he wouldn't start getting picky now. Just her taking out the cards was something special to the young one, clearly there were surprises yet to be made known.

     Speaking of surprises, the kit was just full of them, apparently! "Slightly alive," he'd chuckle, reiterating his point. "I don't think they're growing arms and legs to work a nine-to-five while they're out of our possession, but they have enough to bond with certain people who are tuned into their energies.

     Knuckles never mentioned having any full conversations with the M.E., just feelings and sensations that it gave him. And when it had to be shattered for protection, he spoke on receiving mental images of zones where the shards were. ...Vaguely. It wasn't a pinpoint location. But it helped him start searching somewhere strong instead of having to scan the entire planet from head to toe."

     As for her following question? The usual intelligence that brought forth confident answers wavered that small bit. His response was far from immediate. Like the pink heroine had caught the yellow-tailed genius flat-footed. Sights fell in contemplation, only returning to meet Amy's emeralds once they had some fleck traces of apprehension throughout.

     "...Gosh, I hope not." FOR THE KID WHO COULD SEEMINGLY THINK OF EVERYTHING— "I didn't even think to ask Knuckles that. Um... Well, I mean... probably not?" Probably? "I'm almost certain it wouldn't!" ALMOST. "...Then again, Knuckles never has let me do direct tests involving the Master Emerald... I always just assumed it's because he's so protective of the thing and isn't familiar with too many forms of technology. So the notion was an uncomfortable one for him!

     Gaia, you don't think they're upset by having a little bit of their energy extracted, do you?! Surely the most it would ever be akin to is having blood drawn at the doctor's, right? I'm always sure to be careful and respectful whenever I have the chance to work with a real Chaos Emerald. Even though they're seemingly infinite, I only ever take enough to work with!"

     If he was upsetting the Emeralds in some way, shape, or form, surely he'd know by now, right? Knuckles or Shadow or Sonic or something would've surely told him, right?! "Can your tarot cards tell me if the Chaos Emeralds hate me?" He's only panicking a little.

...IS she losing him? Tails isn't saying anything, but Amy has known him for long enough to pick up on certain quirks-- and his tails betray him right away. She can't tell exactly what is it about her explanation that's troubling him, though...ohhhh, she's really dug herself into a hole, hasn't she? Magic isn't as clean-cut as science seems to be...if she could've had at least time to prepare something instead of winging it like this--

"--A reading? Now?" Oh! Huh. Somehow this hadn't occured to her-- she'd used her tarot cards as a quick example more than anything, but she'd assumed Tails would show interest in THAT aspect of Magic the least. Tarot readings tend to be very open-ended; more than anything, they're a suggestion of the future instead of an accurate prediction of it...but if Tails is asking for an example, she's got no reason to deny him. "O-okay then, guess we'll keep it simple with a general reading. Is that okay with you?"

Another flick of both wrists-- and a slew of cards are shuffled into one neat stack in her hands, 78 in total. And no, it doesn't seem like she's going to elaborate on how she did that any time soon. Have fun rationalizing THAT one, Tails!

That being said, as she works on her arrangement, she continues to listen closely to Tails' explanation. Leave it to the fox genius to find a way to replicate infinite power if he can't find a way to get the real thing. Other people would probably be...concerned over such feats-- but Amy knows Tails. She knows he'd never use his own inventions with ill intent, and thus has no reason to fear. If anything, even if she doesn't quite pick on everything he just explained, she still feels fascinated by it...

...until something in particular catches her attention.

"The Emeralds are ALIVE?" Well, all things considered, she supposes something like this shouldn't surprise her anymore-- and it does explain quite a number of things, in retrospect Particularly Knuckles. No, that's not what really shocks Amy, but rather what it implies. "But...doesn't experimenting on her hurt them or something, if that's the case? Doesn't it...bother them?"

Again, she would never think Tails as capable of something so cruel if it were the case. And yet the thought won't leave her alone now that it's been planted in her overly sympathetic heart-- therefore, an explanation from Tails himself would be greatly appreciated.