Bright End of Nowhere

Crack fic fusion has gone and developed sections. And I think the Epic dial got broken somewhere around "11".

It's been a long time since a story has eaten my brain in such a way.

( Some observations on fusion fic and the writing thereof )

Although it could be my brain is chewing on Gateverse science again.

I, um, may have just created the handwave of "naquadah-ion" (even though it is not an element *hums REALLY loudly*) batteries. For those neat Dell laptops and tablets used on Atlantis. Why? Because I've never seen one run out of power, and I don't think 120V, 60A AC power outlets are exactly common in the Pegasus galaxy. And since every naquadah generator on Atlantis isn't sprouting about 500 daisy-chained power strips and extension cords that run down every single hallway, causing traffic hazards...

Why the hell do I think about these things at 4AM?

Why I keep doing this to myself, I'll never know. But, once again, I am trying to make sense of Gate'verse science. May god have mercy upon my soul.

Question: how effective is the ATA gene therapy? 30%? 50%? 60%? 85%? All I remember is McKay at one point got the therapy and it took, so he could fly the jumper. Aaand...that's about it. How much does the city respond to just people, regardless of the gene or not? Because if Atlantis requires that you have the gene to open a door, the gene therapy better damn well have at least 97% effectiveness, or people like Sheppard would be running around the entire time opening doors for people. Which, um, no.

On the other hand, if the gene just lets you play with the really cool stuff, like jumpers, then I can believe a 50% or lower success rate. But that doesn't really make much sense, if the Ancients wanted to make sure no one but them or people like them (read: NOT THE WRAITH) could play with their toys or city. Then again, I may be giving the Ancients too much credit.

(Can you people tell it's the end of the semester? Whee, I can't control my brain anymore.)

Okay, LJ hivemind, I've got a 'gateverse question maybe you could help me out on:

Consider ring transports from ship to planet and vice versa. Does this method of transportation from planet to ship require at minimum two people: one to beam up and one at the controls? I know we've seen on the show the reverse can be done with only one person (set it and then dive for the rings). But I can't seem to remember if we've seen one person be able to beam themselves up. (If so, probably via remote control.)

Of course, the absence of this capability would kind of explain the overall superiority of Asgard beaming tech, except I thought the rings were yet another piece of Ancient tech cannibalized by the Goa'uld. I could, of course, be wrong.

(Why, yes, I have nothing better to think about at 9:45AM on a Monday morning right before class.)

(going to try to type this up before the Mountain Dew wears off. I've been awake 36 hours.)

So, once again, friends and I were at a restaurant: (paraphrased conversation)

"So, the Stargate, it disassembles you and reassembles you on the other side."
"So are we saying it acts more like a teleporter or is it actually a wormhole."
"Well, remember E=mc^2."
"Yes. That's a heck of a lot of energy. Also, c is constant."
"Right, but wormhole."
"Okay. But it disassembles you and sends you as energy? Or are does it also send your atoms?"
"E=mc^2..."
"Okay, okay. Still. Lot of energy. Or does it simply reassemble you on the other side using the fundamental particles to create the appropriate atoms. Because it can't be down to atoms only if you bring, for example, an element that doesn't exist on one end through."
"Also, remember that you can pass matter through to a 'gate in a vacuum."
"Oh right. So it's impossible to recreate a ship for example on the other side if the other 'gate is floating in space. So it's probably sending fundamental particles."
"Yes."
"That's kind of impressive. Especially if its loss-less."
"Hey, can you create matter just out of energy?"
"The answer is: the plot."
"Okay, with boundary conditions of "the plot", can you create matter out of just energy?"
*digression on nuclear reactors*
"Yeah, you can create matter out of energy all the time. You're just also creating antimatter at the same time."

And then we digressed to ships powered by antimatter engines to small black holes and the LHC at CERN (I believe the idea for a tabletop "The Pirates of Dark Matter" came up again) and how the world might end this summer or at least we should all be ready with crowbars in case there's a dimensional breach and the headcrabs come through.

I've somehow managed to find myself rereading Utopian Entrepreneur by Brenda Laurel. (It was one of the required texts for a class I took 1.5 years ago.) It's a really wonderful little book, and it's a very easy read. As background information, Laurel is a Silicon Valley veteran who's managed to participate in four of the major computer tech bubbles of the last 25 years (those being games, multimedia, virtual reality, and the infamous dot-coms). She was also one of the founders of the late girl's software company Purple Moon, a company that actually made games aimed at the adolescent female demographic, not cheap marketing tie-ins to earn an exploitive quick buck. (I have issues with a lot of the so-called "games" intended for girls back in the 1990s. It's gotten a bit better these days, but it's still pretty bad.) Really, it's a really good read.

But I wanted to share one thing she had to say on storytelling:

( Brenda Laurel, on stories )

Note to Self: Trying to understand the inherent difficulties in dealing with mathematical systems based in octal and their subsequent technologies in terms of marrying them to mathematics and technologies developed in decimal and/or binary is just flat-out a bad idea when it's 2AM and you're suffering from a headache.

( In which I proceed to give myself a headache )

Clearly, I need to stop because the only way I'm getting anywhere further tonight would be by downing Jolt, and that's just Not A Good Idea when I'm trying to unfuck my sleep-schedule.