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Post by csj on Jun 1, 2020 7:02:24 GMT
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Post by artezzatrigger on Jun 1, 2020 7:04:02 GMT
I love how clean this is. Having someone point it out is a lot cleaner than Kat stumbling on it herself.
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Jun 1, 2020 7:14:42 GMT
I wonder if the quartz is used to power a magnet in the alternator or the alternator regulates power from the quartz.
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Post by wies on Jun 1, 2020 7:16:51 GMT
"supposed"
Kat is starting to realize why the robots call her that, but it seems she is still struggling and unwilling to accept it wholly.
So looks like she has not yet fully embraced divinehood.
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Post by Eversist on Jun 1, 2020 7:20:44 GMT
"supposed" Kat is starting to realize why the robots call her that, but it seems she is still struggling and unwilling to accept it wholly. So looks like she has not yet fully embraced divinehood. I agree... But you might be looking for "divinity."  I wonder she's even able to reject something like this, or it doesn't matter since an entire population of beings think of her this way. Interesting concept there (that I'm sure has been brought up). Being made a god against your will. I do wonder why Robot initially thought of her this way, way back then. It all stems from him, after all. |
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Post by madjack on Jun 1, 2020 7:27:17 GMT
Why do small uses of technobabble seem like a bigger cop-out than stories that practically run on them? Is it just because the latter don't even pretend to care? I feel like GC runs the gauntlet between realism and suspension of disbelief so finely that small things like this stand out a lot more.
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Post by atteSmythe on Jun 1, 2020 7:27:57 GMT
I wonder if the quartz is used to power a magnet in the alternator or the alternator regulates power from the quartz. Right? If you tell me not to worry about it, that’s the only thing I’m going to think about! |
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Post by rafk on Jun 1, 2020 7:28:46 GMT
Do we think someone is about to use the words "timey wimey" to explain how this is possible?
Has Dr Who ever been mentioned in canon as a show Kat watches?
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Post by rafk on Jun 1, 2020 7:30:56 GMT
Why do small uses of technobabble seem like a bigger cop-out than stories that practically run on them? Is it just because the latter don't even pretend to care? I feel like GC runs the gauntlet between realism and suspension of disbelief so finely that small things like this stand out a lot more. Is quartz alternator more technobabble than the ether? This is a fantasy story that runs on made-up things to explain almost everything that happens. |
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Post by madjack on Jun 1, 2020 7:44:36 GMT
Why do small uses of technobabble seem like a bigger cop-out than stories that practically run on them? Is it just because the latter don't even pretend to care? I feel like GC runs the gauntlet between realism and suspension of disbelief so finely that small things like this stand out a lot more. Is quartz alternator more technobabble than the ether? This is a fantasy story that runs on made-up things to explain almost everything that happens. I guess that's my point, everything on the rational/Court side of things is firmly rooted in reality and the outliers to that are a variety of refugee magical creatures (Rey, Basil) or otherwise hybrid-magical being (Annie) or device (the golem robots, Anja and Kat's computers). Everything else fantastical there is presented as-is without comment to be accepted by the reader as 'a thing that the Court (or Kat) can do', like the modern robots or mag-lev train network, while never really needing to be nailed down. Everything involving the Forest or the Psychopomps is pure fantasy and is also there to be taken at face value. I suppose a 'quartz alternator' could be an etheric device but this is just why I think a purely technical 'break' feels very jarring. |
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Post by wies on Jun 1, 2020 7:46:20 GMT
"supposed" Kat is starting to realize why the robots call her that, but it seems she is still struggling and unwilling to accept it wholly. So looks like she has not yet fully embraced divinehood. I agree... But you might be looking for "divinity." I wonder she's even able to reject something like this, or it doesn't matter since an entire population of beings think of her this way. Interesting concept there (that I'm sure has been brought up). Being made a god against your will. I do wonder why Robot initially thought of her this way, way back then. It all stems from him, after all. Heh, yeah, 'divinehood' seems surprisingly non-existent! Does it stem from him, though? Like, robot even talked about the angel before he met Kat. And the Tic Toc is part of robot lore. So I think this is a paradox here. The robot got it from Kat, who got it from a robot who got it from Kat, etc ad nauseum. Do we think someone is about to use the words "timey wimey" to explain how this is possible? Has Dr Who ever been mentioned in canon as a show Kat watches?
Well, Tom made an interesting video.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ps8bEmeoM0 |
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Post by philman on Jun 1, 2020 7:57:18 GMT
Is quartz alternator more technobabble than the ether? This is a fantasy story that runs on made-up things to explain almost everything that happens. I guess that's my point, everything on the rational/Court side of things is firmly rooted in reality and the outliers to that are a variety of refugee magical creatures (Rey, Basil) or otherwise hybrid-magical being (Annie) or device (the golem robots, Anja and Kat's computers). Everything else fantastical there is presented as-is without comment to be accepted by the reader as 'a thing that the Court (or Kat) can do', like the modern robots or mag-lev train network, while never really needing to be nailed down. Everything involving the Forest or the Psychopomps is pure fantasy and is also there to be taken at face value. I suppose a 'quartz alternator' could be an etheric device but this is just why I think a purely technical 'break' feels very jarring. Ah, like those super-real sentient robots, and anti-gravity devices you mean? We accept tht these things exist in the universe, so why is accepting a made-up component like a quartz alternator so hard? I assume it is only mentioned as a reason to explain the tic-toc sounds, which Tom probably introduced early on in the comic because he thought it looked cool rather than with any reason in mind, and now is only mentioning the quartz alternator to stave off any theories as to what the sound means. (Either that or it is a big fake-out and the sound actually is going to be super important later on for some reason) |
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Post by madjack on Jun 1, 2020 8:20:04 GMT
I guess that's my point, everything on the rational/Court side of things is firmly rooted in reality and the outliers to that are a variety of refugee magical creatures (Rey, Basil) or otherwise hybrid-magical being (Annie) or device (the golem robots, Anja and Kat's computers). Everything else fantastical there is presented as-is without comment to be accepted by the reader as 'a thing that the Court (or Kat) can do', like the modern robots or mag-lev train network, while never really needing to be nailed down. Everything involving the Forest or the Psychopomps is pure fantasy and is also there to be taken at face value. I suppose a 'quartz alternator' could be an etheric device but this is just why I think a purely technical 'break' feels very jarring. Ah, like those super-real sentient robots, and anti-gravity devices you mean? We accept tht these things exist in the universe, so why is accepting a made-up component like a quartz alternator so hard? I assume it is only mentioned as a reason to explain the tic-toc sounds, which Tom probably introduced early on in the comic because he thought it looked cool rather than with any reason in mind, and now is only mentioning the quartz alternator to stave off any theories as to what the sound means. (Either that or it is a big fake-out and the sound actually is going to be super important later on for some reason) I think I hit on why it's bugging me while thinking about a reply and it's because things like the robots and anti-grav were consciously introduced, even if the anti-grav was deliberately ridiculous. 'Quartz alternator' just seems dropped in there to explain something. Not a big deal in any case. |
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Post by Eversist on Jun 1, 2020 8:23:15 GMT
I agree... But you might be looking for "divinity." I wonder she's even able to reject something like this, or it doesn't matter since an entire population of beings think of her this way. Interesting concept there (that I'm sure has been brought up). Being made a god against your will. I do wonder why Robot initially thought of her this way, way back then. It all stems from him, after all. Heh, yeah, 'divinehood' seems surprisingly non-existent! Does it stem from him, though? Like, robot even talked about the angel before he met Kat. And the Tic Toc is part of robot lore. So I think this is a paradox here. The robot got it from Kat, who got it from a robot who got it from Kat, etc ad nauseum. Ah, well. I guess that's right... I was thinkin' all the way back to here, but I take your point! www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=221 |
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Post by speedwell on Jun 1, 2020 9:05:54 GMT
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Post by speedwell on Jun 1, 2020 9:08:56 GMT
A quartz alternator is the part that is used to make the machine maybe one thing and maybe another, maybe both or neither (which is one of my professor's definition of "liminal" and will be familiar to those who have scritched Schrodinger's Cat between the ears). I predict it will be used in the machine that Kat uses to resolve the Antimony Existence Paradox.  |
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Post by AluK on Jun 1, 2020 10:09:52 GMT
I wonder if the quartz is used to power a magnet in the alternator or the alternator regulates power from the quartz. Maybe it's an alternator that relies on the piezoelectric effect rather than on magnetism, so, no magnets. |
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Post by kayback on Jun 1, 2020 10:20:17 GMT
It also doesn't have to be an electric alternator. It could very well be an aetheric device or even a switch of some sort that alternates based on quartz vibrations.
I'm more or less ok with the technobabble, at least it's more than robots moving without any motive source or somevother examples.
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Jun 1, 2020 10:28:12 GMT
I wonder if the quartz is used to power a magnet in the alternator or the alternator regulates power from the quartz. Maybe it's an alternator that relies on the piezoelectric effect rather than on magnetism, so, no magnets. Okay but if so where does the quartz come in? Piezoelectric actuators using quartz alternators could be incredibly accurate but too small to be applied here, I'd think, and the Toc would be Tiking in a seemingly-erratic way. What happened to our resident electrical engineer? Didn't we have one on this forum? |
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Post by arkadi on Jun 1, 2020 10:33:44 GMT
Just popping in quickly to say that Arthur still gives me these incredybly creepy Uncanny Valley vibes, and I hope Kat can eventually make him a better body.
Edit: also, I can't believe that, of all the crazy stuff happening right now, the one thing we're going to discuss is the quartz alternator. It's just a quartz alternator, guys. And it makes tic toc noises. That's all there is to it.
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Post by AluK on Jun 1, 2020 10:48:55 GMT
Maybe it's an alternator that relies on the piezoelectric effect rather than on magnetism, so, no magnets. Okay but if so where does the quartz come in? Piezoelectric actuators using quartz alternators could be incredibly accurate but too small to be applied here, I'd think, and the Toc would be Tiking in a seemingly-erratic way. What happened to our resident electrical engineer? Didn't we have one on this forum? Quartz crystals are piezoelectric. Supply them with current and they suffer mechanical stress (usually as vibration), but the opposite is also true: deform them and they generate power. Since an alternator just transforms mechanical movement to AC power, if the same movement deformed a quartz crystal cyclically, you could theoretically generate power directly that way (I'm sure Kat has this figured out, should be quite easy for her considering her powers). |
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Post by Eily on Jun 1, 2020 10:58:19 GMT
I do wonder why Robot initially thought of her this way, way back then. It all stems from him, after all. I'm not so sure about Robot starting it all actually. He was expecting the arrival of an angel, and it's starting to look like it wasn't just a crazy theory that happened to be right, the information probably went back in time. But it feels to me like robot didn't just recognize Kat, but mostly understood who she was through her actions. Meaning past Robot only had second hand knowledge of the angel. I'm sure there's a big chance that Robot himself will tell his past self about Kat* but if not, he wouldn't be the first event in the Kat cult. *I wonder if who he saw (assuming he did see someone) in the past looked like that |
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Jun 1, 2020 10:58:49 GMT
Okay but if so where does the quartz come in? Piezoelectric actuators using quartz alternators could be incredibly accurate but too small to be applied here, I'd think, and the Toc would be Tiking in a seemingly-erratic way. What happened to our resident electrical engineer? Didn't we have one on this forum? Quartz crystals are piezoelectric. Supply them with current and they suffer mechanical stress (usually as vibration), but the opposite is also true: deform them and they generate power. Since an alternator just transforms mechanical movement to AC power, if the same movement deformed a quartz crystal cyclically, you could theoretically generate power directly that way (I'm sure Kat has this figured out, should be quite easy for her considering her powers). But why? I'd be more inclined to think that the quartz would be a power source for an exciter in the alternator for whatever the main power source is, seeing as the Toc would typically be perching on power lines and such. I suppose that it could be a reference to crystal stack and/or flextensional actuators related to the actual movement of the Toc, particularly minute wing shape changes in flight. |
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Post by pyradonis on Jun 1, 2020 11:04:32 GMT
Man, Arthur looks huge. "supposed" Kat is starting to realize why the robots call her that, but it seems she is still struggling and unwilling to accept it wholly. So looks like she has not yet fully embraced divinehood. I agree... But you might be looking for "divinity." I wonder she's even able to reject something like this, or it doesn't matter since an entire population of beings think of her this way. Interesting concept there (that I'm sure has been brought up). Being made a god against your will. I do wonder why Robot initially thought of her this way, way back then. It all stems from him, after all. Well, the robots seem to see Kat as beautiful and angelic. A theory I like is that they see Kat just like Zimmy sees her. After all, why should they conform to human standards of beauty? (On the other hand, they were originally programmed by Diego and seem to have adopted some of his personality, so it's not too outlandish for them to actually have human standards of beauty for humans. After all, most of the robots also identify as male without any need to.)
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Post by speedwell on Jun 1, 2020 11:21:27 GMT
Well, my last post was clearly written before my morning coffee, heh.
Right now I am merely fizzing quietly over the fact that Our Artist has represented Kat with much longer hair in the so-called flashbacks (orange shirt) than she has in the current timeframe (blue shirts).
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Post by AluK on Jun 1, 2020 11:36:36 GMT
Quartz crystals are piezoelectric. Supply them with current and they suffer mechanical stress (usually as vibration), but the opposite is also true: deform them and they generate power. Since an alternator just transforms mechanical movement to AC power, if the same movement deformed a quartz crystal cyclically, you could theoretically generate power directly that way (I'm sure Kat has this figured out, should be quite easy for her considering her powers). But why? I'd be more inclined to think that the quartz would be a power source for an exciter in the alternator for whatever the main power source is, seeing as the Toc would typically be perching on power lines and such. I suppose that it could be a reference to crystal stack and/or flextensional actuators related to the actual movement of the Toc, particularly minute wing shape changes in flight. Dunno man, maybe magnetism plays funky with time travel and Kat intuited she had to get around it |
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Post by imaginaryfriend on Jun 1, 2020 11:42:24 GMT
But why? I'd be more inclined to think that the quartz would be a power source for an exciter in the alternator for whatever the main power source is, seeing as the Toc would typically be perching on power lines and such. I suppose that it could be a reference to crystal stack and/or flextensional actuators related to the actual movement of the Toc, particularly minute wing shape changes in flight. Dunno man, maybe magnetism plays funky with time travel and Kat intuited she had to get around it I'm sure Kat could make a nifty actuator using crystal that could control minute fluctuations in an EM field with applications to cartoon time-travel... but was she working on time-travel at this point? Doesn't seem so. |
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Post by Jelly Jellybean on Jun 1, 2020 11:45:47 GMT
Flux capacitor had already been done, so quartz alternator it is. Well, my last post was clearly written before my morning coffee, heh. Right now I am merely fizzing quietly over the fact that Our Artist has represented Kat with much longer hair in the so-called flashbacks (orange shirt) than she has in the current timeframe (blue shirts). The dawning realization of her divinity made her trim a few inches off the bottom. |
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Post by AluK on Jun 1, 2020 11:46:46 GMT
but was she working on time-travel at this point? Doesn't seem so. She doesn't seem to know exactly what she's working on at all, really. She's just building something. |
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Post by saardvark on Jun 1, 2020 11:47:24 GMT
Man, Arthur looks huge. I agree... But you might be looking for "divinity." I wonder she's even able to reject something like this, or it doesn't matter since an entire population of beings think of her this way. Interesting concept there (that I'm sure has been brought up). Being made a god against your will. I do wonder why Robot initially thought of her this way, way back then. It all stems from him, after all. Well, the robots seem to see Kat as beautiful and angelic. A theory I like is that they see Kat just like Zimmy sees her. After all, why should they conform to human standards of beauty? (On the other hand, they were originally programmed by Diego and seem to have adopted some of his personality, so it's not too outlandish for them to actually have human standards of beauty for humans. After all, most of the robots also identify as male without any need to.)
bucket-bot reacts to the "transformation guide", who looks fairly Botticelli-like (ie, human perfection, not robot), and thinks she is an angel.... seems to indicate human bias. |
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