Qianlong Archcannon

[Revolver]

Longzhu spheres are made of human souls!

How very Soylent Green of you...

[evilbob]

Longzhu spheres are made of human souls!

How very Soylent Green of you...

reminds me of "C&C red alert". one of the cheats turned the ore tht you collected for money into people...

[OddBob]

Slaves are cheaper to power than robots. Just throw them some protein and carb goo with a bit of water and put em to work.

In space? Next to that big flaming thing putting out more energy than you could ever use? Planetside, yeah, but machines don't sleep, complain, or try to escape. I'm not sure there's a whole lot to do in space for a slave.

I think the Sung are, you know, selling the slaves. Maybe putting them to work in the meantime, but there are always people that like having unconditional power over people. Places that have problems with robots (They don't like robots, and they don't like robot-lovers, like you), newly colonized places temporarily reverting to lower tech, etc. would have a good need for manual labor.

Yeah, not to mention experiments and stuff.

[ThorWarriorX]

But I still think they are human souls... What could possibly power a weapon that could kill Iocryms? George, is my silly thought correct? xD?

[palmiche]

I think the Sung are, you know, selling the slaves.

They are making them suffer, there is no better raw material for the longzhus than tormented souls, that's why they keep them for so long in the slave camps. Tradition in most cultures says ghosts are tormented souls incapable of breaking the bonds with their memories of "life". That, I suppose, is a powerful energy source, even for the most devastating weapons.

[OddBob]

But I still think they are human souls... What could possibly power a weapon that could kill Iocryms? George, is my silly thought correct? xD?

Antimatter?
Longzhu spheres are antimatter.

"Longzhu spheres are antimatter containment vessels used by the Sung Slavers as power sources."

[ThorWarriorX]

You know, there are two things called transformation and willpower. Put these things along with human suffering, and PIMBA! You have a whole new and powerful destructive force.

[OddBob]

You know, there are two things called transformation and willpower. Put these things along with human suffering, and PIMBA! You have a whole new and powerful destructive force.

Explain to me exactly how one does this so that I may do it at home and maybe it'll make sense. However, using 'souls', objects not actually known to exist, and when said to, are not even tangible, let alone providing any energy, I'd say is probably inferior to antimatter, a tangible (I wouldn't, though, ), real thing with a guarantee of a lot of energy with a simple bit of ordinary matter.

[george moromisato]

However, using 'souls', objects not actually known to exist, and when said to, are not even tangible, let alone providing any energy, I'd say is probably inferior to antimatter, a tangible (I wouldn't, though, ), real thing with a guarantee of a lot of energy with a simple bit of ordinary matter.

It's true that 'souls' are not actually known to exist. But 'consciousness' is something that exists. Nobody knows whether consciousness is a physical phenomenon or an emergent property of a certain kind of self-knowing intelligence.

Imagine it is the former. Imagine that consciousness is a physical phenomenon, perhaps related to quantum uncertainty. Under certain interpretations of QM (though not mine) the quantum wave collapses only when 'observed' by a conscious entity. If that's the case, then it is not inconceivable to imagine that consciousness could be a source of energy. 200 years ago nobody would have believed that atomic nuclei could produce immense energies when properly fused.

p.s.: None of this is to confirm the theory about slaves and longzhu spheres.

[Fossaman]

Hey cool! Philosophy AND quantum mechanics from the Game Developer!



I like the calligraphy scroll=map idea...you wouldn't even necessarily have to do it only for QACs.

[ThorWarriorX]

But then, how are Longzhu Spheres made? And OddBob, each one with each one's beliefs...

[the_holy_thom]

well, to contain antimatter, you really need an antimatter container, unless you are planning on suspending it using an EM field. Although, if the container is made of antimatter, then the gun would have to be (unless again the container is suspended) and so on, until we live in the antimatter univers, rendering an antimatter weapon less useful.

At a guess, I'd say EM fields in the container would work, although getting the antimatter there in the first place would be no fun. Perhaps that's what the slaves are for... transporting antimatter, and when it all goes wrong, a nice source of energy!

Under certain interpretations of QM (though not mine) the quantum wave collapses only when 'observed' by a conscious entity.

Not a fan of Schrodinger's eponymus cat then?

[george moromisato]

Not a fan of Schrodinger's eponymus cat then?

I have no problem with the idea that quantum indeterminancy can apply to cats as well as protons. But I don't believe that the "observer" that causes the wavefunction to collapse has to be a conscious entity. I believe that any measurement, conscious or mechanical, would cause the cat to be in a determined state (dead or alive).

[dvlenk6]

I always thought the slaves were being used for nefarious purposes: illegal medical experiments, organ harvesting, sex slavery, etc.

On the archcannon and antimatter:
I was under the impression that antimatter was an inverted form of matter, i.e. a negative atomic nucelus orbited by positrons.

Since positrons have many many times the mass of electrons, the force holding them in their atomic orbits would have to be ENORMOUSLY powerful and comprise nearly all of the energy in the antimatter atom. Breaking that would result in vast numbers of high mass positrons flying off at near light speed. Much more powerful than a mere nuclear reaction, which only uses a small fraction of the available energy of an atomic nucleus.

I think the Longzhu Spheres are vessels that house a tiny amount of antimatter, which is infinitely unstable when contacting normal matter. The archcannon launches the sphere, which breaks on impact, causing a matter/antimatter reaction.

As for refuelling or repairing items . No idea.

[ThorWarriorX]

Well, maybe neutronium-armored reactors can hold onthe blast of the positronic discharge and absorb that energy...