Fictional physics
Dec. 15th, 2008 07:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackQ. But if bodies physically enter death, and yet deeper in death people seem to be entirely formless, what happens to them? Is the world being slowly depleted of physical matter?
We don't know. It seems clear that immediately following death, a person still inhabits their physical body -- because it can be brought back into life. But that very far into the veils, they no longer do so, because most bodies no longer resemble physical humans, and many change at will.
The body is initially maintained by something, but whatever that something is, it seems it becomes self-sustaining. Indeed, it's conceivable that the undiscovered-- trick of returning from death into life is that of being able to form a constant physical body around a being which didn't, or never, had one, with enough detail that it can step into life and function.
It's possible the veils are constructed of matter like in the world, or of some other substance. In the Veil Albicant, immediately after death, people have seen simple scientific experiments report that physics appears to govern much as in our world. In the deeper veils, that does not seem to be the case at all, and magic functions so effectively it scarcely seems to be magic.
It's possible matter never progresses beyond the Veil Albicant and the nearer veils, and leaks back into the world in an undetectable fashion.
Q. In that case -- you recently referred to the "place" where someone died. Does that imply an absolute frame of reference?
Apparently, on the other side, but not on this side. That is, there does appear to be a notion of absolute rest on the other side. Or so I understand it.
Points of contact appear to be stationary on the other side (I think), and of constant acceleration on this side. That is, two contacts into the veil from the same place on earth will reach the same place.
Is that what people mean by skyhooks? If you created a portal and were somehow able to anchor on the other side, would you have a fixed, floating physical platform on this side?
Umm. I think that's not physically impossible, but you'd always end up having to use more energy to keep the portal open according to how much stress you put on it.
In fact, I'm not sure the previous two answers make sense. An alternative way of beginning would be:
Apparently, on the other side, but not on this side. Points of contact appear to be associated with large masses; typically with the ground, but sometimes with a vehicle of some kind.
But I'm not sure that becomes consistent either. Would anyone like to hazard a consistent physical interpretation? :)
We don't know. It seems clear that immediately following death, a person still inhabits their physical body -- because it can be brought back into life. But that very far into the veils, they no longer do so, because most bodies no longer resemble physical humans, and many change at will.
The body is initially maintained by something, but whatever that something is, it seems it becomes self-sustaining. Indeed, it's conceivable that the undiscovered-- trick of returning from death into life is that of being able to form a constant physical body around a being which didn't, or never, had one, with enough detail that it can step into life and function.
It's possible the veils are constructed of matter like in the world, or of some other substance. In the Veil Albicant, immediately after death, people have seen simple scientific experiments report that physics appears to govern much as in our world. In the deeper veils, that does not seem to be the case at all, and magic functions so effectively it scarcely seems to be magic.
It's possible matter never progresses beyond the Veil Albicant and the nearer veils, and leaks back into the world in an undetectable fashion.
Q. In that case -- you recently referred to the "place" where someone died. Does that imply an absolute frame of reference?
Apparently, on the other side, but not on this side. That is, there does appear to be a notion of absolute rest on the other side. Or so I understand it.
Points of contact appear to be stationary on the other side (I think), and of constant acceleration on this side. That is, two contacts into the veil from the same place on earth will reach the same place.
Is that what people mean by skyhooks? If you created a portal and were somehow able to anchor on the other side, would you have a fixed, floating physical platform on this side?
Umm. I think that's not physically impossible, but you'd always end up having to use more energy to keep the portal open according to how much stress you put on it.
In fact, I'm not sure the previous two answers make sense. An alternative way of beginning would be:
Apparently, on the other side, but not on this side. Points of contact appear to be associated with large masses; typically with the ground, but sometimes with a vehicle of some kind.
But I'm not sure that becomes consistent either. Would anyone like to hazard a consistent physical interpretation? :)
no subject
Date: 2008-12-15 10:08 pm (UTC)Not sure what the thing is though. Perhaps a link to the other world of some kind?
Mind you, it would be fun if it was an actual physical object you could pick up. About the size of a coin, perhaps. People might keep those belonging to their ancestors.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-16 01:41 am (UTC)Which might be possible, but I'm not at all sure you can have a point which, eg. rolls around on a car floor during braking :)
On the other hand, coming home tonight, it occurred to me that something that my previous idea of maintained position modulo maintaining velocity modulo maintaining acceleration ought to work for stationary objects (maybe?) but also have the interesting property that some points of death would be possible but extremely difficult to capture. If, depressingly, someone dies in a car crash, or by falling, you may not be able to ask them anything afterward (at least not, without either a proper magician or skydiver).
Mind you, it would be fun if it was an actual physical object you could pick up
Ooh. I resist adopting it for this universe for the moment, since I wanted to base it on people entering death and potentially returning, which implies contact at constant places other than the moment of death.
But it clamours out for a whole world built on that. It reminds me of the amulet things in the end of Lives of Christopher Chant. You have a thing which is some sort of person's accumulated life. That might under some circumstances contact them again. (Think of King Arthur?) Or might be a convenient gateway into death (following the centuries-death soul's long ago path, imagine magicians seeking out such totems that provided especially tractable paths, or ones to especially valuable regions)...
no subject
Date: 2008-12-16 11:29 am (UTC)On a rotating earth? My physics is a bit rusty, but it sounds to me like almost all points would end up a *long* *long* way away in space, very quickly. And before long they would leave the light cone, because with constant acceleration there's nothing to stop them breaking the speed of light.
At the point of death a 'stationary' point on earth has acceleration towards the centre of the earth and velocity at right angles to that in the direction of spin. So if acceleration remains constant after death (unlike that of the *other* objects on earth) the point will just zip off faster and faster in the direction that the centre of the earth was at the moment of death.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-16 11:31 am (UTC)I was thinking of it as the link, with the intangible point embedded in it, rather than a crystallised life. More like the gateway into death thing.