"WHAT THE HELL ELSE WOULD TECHNOLOGY BE BASED ON?"
Karkat punctuates this by drawing a sickle made of some purple and black banded metal out of thin are; the hook is angular, shaped like an incomplete hexagon, and thick with something viscous and yellow.
He politely ignores his question. Any significantly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, etc. "So do you have some kind of energy-matter conversion system?"
Hey, he's not just the aliens-are-heeeere conspiracy theorist. He moonlights as the science geek, too. He expects the answer not to make much sense, but he wants to try it anyway.
"NO, OUR CYNICISM IS BASED ON OUR SCIENCE, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO KNOW HOW IT WORKS, IF YOU WOULD RATHER MAKE SHITTY REMARKS ABOUT EACH OTHER'S CULTURES I AM ALWAYS DOWN FOR THAT TOO."
"OKAY I AM GOING TO LIST OFF SOME BASIC AND COMPREHENSIBLE PRECEPTS AND YOU TELL ME WHEN WE LEAVE YOUR PRIMITIVE EARTH SCIENCE BEHIND."
"IN PRINCIPLE ALL EXISTENCE AND SUBSETS OF EXISTENCE, MEANING MATTER, CAN BE FORMALLY DESCRIBED BY A SERIES OF EQUATIONS. THOSE EQUATIONS ARE INTERRELATED, THOUGH, AND THE MORE DATA YOU ACCUMULATE ABOUT SOME VARIABLES THE LESS IS AVAILABLE ABOUT OTHERS."
"BUT AVAILABILITY IS A MISNOMER AND A MISTAKE FROM THE START, BECAUSE THE DATA ISN'T INACCESSIBLE. IT LITERALLY BECOMES LESS DEFINED. THESE FUNDAMENTAL INTERRELATIONS MEAN THAT IF YOU COULD EXHAUSTIVELY CAPTURE A SET OF VARIABLES, ANOTHER SET OF VARIABLES WOULD BECOME EFFECTIVELY NULL, NOT JUST MATHEMATICALLY BUT IN REALITY, BECAUSE REALITY IS MATHEMATICS."
He gives himself a minute to process the information. The only thing he's having slight issues with is causing the non-existence of other variables. He's going to guess that either picking your set of variables means permanently excluding the possibility of finding another set, or that the process of finding them actually affects the variables themselves. Insert the 'I can tell you how fast I was driving or where I was, but not both' joke here.
"BUT IN REALITY YOU COULD NEVER OBSERVE THEM THAT CLOSELY, BECAUSE AS THE VARIABLES SHIFTED YOUR OBSERVATIONAL FIDELITY WOULD COLLIDE WITH QUANTUM UNCERTAINTY. YOU COULD NEVER KNOW SO MUCH ABOUT SOMETHING THAT IT TEMPORARILY CEASED TO EXIST USING YOUR EYES, NOT EVEN IN THEORY. OBSERVATION VIA PARTICLE INTERACTION IS NO GOOD FOR MATERIAL CANCELLATION."
"THAT TAKES DIRECT PSIONIC PERCEPTION, AND EVEN THEN IT IS WAY TOO DIFFICULT FOR ANY GIVEN PSIONICIST TO ACHIEVE ON A MASSIVE SCALE. BUT IT IS MATHEMATICALLY POSSIBLE. A PSIONIC CAN THEORETICALLY KNOW SO MUCH ABOUT AN OBJECT THAT IT CEASES TO EXIST IN ANY MUNDANE WAY."
"THAT PART IS EASY, YOU JUST COLLAPSE THE WAVEFORM AND IT POPS BACK OUT. YOU JUST HAVE TO STORE THE DATA IN THE MEANTIME WHICH IS WHAT THE CARDS ARE FOR."
This time he stops halfway through and shows Sam the playing-card sized flat object in his hand; it is notched in one corner, and split in half, blue and red, with an image of the weapon on the white inset screen. "TECHNICALLY THIS IS A SPECIALIZED CASE OF THE GENERAL PRINCIPLE, THAT WE USE TO MAKE IT A LITTLE MORE CONVENIENT TO ACCESS A SPECIFIC CLASS OF OBJECT. THAT IS A LOT HARDER TO BE BECAUSE OF THE ZEMBLANITY THAT DIS* PROGRAMMING IS BASED ON."
He remembers Karkat using largely scientific-ish terminology in describing the bar, so it seems like a good assumption.
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Karkat punctuates this by drawing a sickle made of some purple and black banded metal out of thin are; the hook is angular, shaped like an incomplete hexagon, and thick with something viscous and yellow.
SO SCIENTIFIC.
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He puts the honeysickle in the "useless crap" pile.
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"How?"
Hey, he's not just the aliens-are-heeeere conspiracy theorist. He moonlights as the science geek, too. He expects the answer not to make much sense, but he wants to try it anyway.
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"IT'S ALL PROGRAMMED IN DIS*. DO YOU KNOW WHAT DIRECT PSIONIC PERCEPTION, FUNDAMENTAL QUANTUM PERVERSITY, AND ZEMBLANITY ARE?"
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"Do you have science based on cynicism or something?"
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"IN PRINCIPLE ALL EXISTENCE AND SUBSETS OF EXISTENCE, MEANING MATTER, CAN BE FORMALLY DESCRIBED BY A SERIES OF EQUATIONS. THOSE EQUATIONS ARE INTERRELATED, THOUGH, AND THE MORE DATA YOU ACCUMULATE ABOUT SOME VARIABLES THE LESS IS AVAILABLE ABOUT OTHERS."
"BUT AVAILABILITY IS A MISNOMER AND A MISTAKE FROM THE START, BECAUSE THE DATA ISN'T INACCESSIBLE. IT LITERALLY BECOMES LESS DEFINED. THESE FUNDAMENTAL INTERRELATIONS MEAN THAT IF YOU COULD EXHAUSTIVELY CAPTURE A SET OF VARIABLES, ANOTHER SET OF VARIABLES WOULD BECOME EFFECTIVELY NULL, NOT JUST MATHEMATICALLY BUT IN REALITY, BECAUSE REALITY IS MATHEMATICS."
"HAVE I LOST YOU YET?"
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Okay. He nods. "Keep going."
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"THAT TAKES DIRECT PSIONIC PERCEPTION, AND EVEN THEN IT IS WAY TOO DIFFICULT FOR ANY GIVEN PSIONICIST TO ACHIEVE ON A MASSIVE SCALE. BUT IT IS MATHEMATICALLY POSSIBLE. A PSIONIC CAN THEORETICALLY KNOW SO MUCH ABOUT AN OBJECT THAT IT CEASES TO EXIST IN ANY MUNDANE WAY."
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(Unless they were actually trying to make something cease existing.)
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He picks up a sickle and passes it in and out of his sylladex rapidly; vanishing in and out of his hand.
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Just, you know. Saying.
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This time he stops halfway through and shows Sam the playing-card sized flat object in his hand; it is notched in one corner, and split in half, blue and red, with an image of the weapon on the white inset screen. "TECHNICALLY THIS IS A SPECIALIZED CASE OF THE GENERAL PRINCIPLE, THAT WE USE TO MAKE IT A LITTLE MORE CONVENIENT TO ACCESS A SPECIFIC CLASS OF OBJECT. THAT IS A LOT HARDER TO BE BECAUSE OF THE ZEMBLANITY THAT DIS* PROGRAMMING IS BASED ON."
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