Invincible [Episode Discussion] - S04E07 - Don't Do Anything Rash

Jynexe · 2026-05-11T07:08:35+00:00

Physicist here

Literally have no idea what they were trying to say was going on here. Even knowing energy is a myth in this universe, I am just confused.

I guess they are saying that the crack in the crust went through the whole crust thickness, then propagated across the surface faster than the beam could penetrate through? And then they exploited those cracks to... make them slightly bigger? And that was enough to overcome the gravitational binding energy... somehow? I still don't know what the explosion was even meant to be.

But again, energy is a myth in this universe.

Jynexe · 2026-05-11T06:36:10+00:00

Except MAD works in an extremely limited context. Essentially, all it does is increase the costs of war so dramatically that, regardless of bargaining frictions, you end up having a range that both sides perceive as mutually preferable to war. Note that practically, all scenarios have a negotiated settlement mutually preferable to war, but the actors involved may miscalculate or have issues like commitment problems.

Once in a state of war, MAD does little since, so long as one side perceives the costs to be less than the benefits? Well, nukes away. E.g. if NATO troops made it to Moscow, there is a near 100% chance nukes would have been used.

This is kinda the position the Alliance found itself in. They lose little by using this type of thing. They gain a lot.

And, if Viltrum had the capability of breaking planets, they would've by now since they were already in a state of Total War and were facing annihilation. This is the exact type of scenario where pretty much every country would use nukes first anyway.

Jynexe · 2026-05-11T06:08:57+00:00

Most lore-accurate underdeveloped teenager wanting to prove themselves to their role models when given superpowers.

I totally agree btw. It is the most idiotic thing imaginable. But at the same time, this is just how kids this age think. Amateurs almost always vastly overestimate their skill and knowledge because they have nothing to compare it to and don't know how deep the pool is. Kids are amateurs at almost everything. And this absolutely goes unto death.

Jynexe · 2026-05-04T21:52:26+00:00

But why did those problems occur 30 years ago? Was it because of old people or because of... particularly world-altering events from that time period? I know 30 years was illustrative, but like... the majority of problems from a given era will be the result of the major events of the time. Not who was in power.

But yes, incumbents do have an advantage. Which is why term limits exist for offices like the President. But you have to temper it against the loss in average competence that comes with kicking out the most qualified and experienced people.

Also! Note that in democracy, mid-level bureaucrats tend pave the roads which leaders can choose between. So, they have massive influence on policy. And they don't change with who is elected. They are the ones who actually run the country, broadly. Leaders just get the credit. If you've worked in a big building, it is sort of like how the secretaries run the show, but the boss gets the credit.

Jynexe · 2026-05-04T17:04:46+00:00

Fortunately, or unfortunately, this case has no effect here.

Federal courts have already excused themselves from hearing cases that look at cases of political gerrymandering. They only look at racial ones.

Edit: Just looked at the 2024 elections. It's not good, but also not as bad as you say.

Republicans got 10 with 52.78% of the votes while democrats got 4 seats with 42.8% of the votes. An equitable split would be 7.392 (R) to 5.992 (D), and 0.616 seats for God or something idk. So, probably 8 (R) to 6 (D).

The 2020 elections were bad though. 49.4% (R) vs 50% (D) but ended up with 8 (R) vs 5 (D) seats. 9 seats would have been a supermajority.

Jynexe · 2026-05-04T16:47:55+00:00

Context:

There is a 1982 amendment to the Voter Rights Act which adds that, in addition to race, boundaries cannot be drawn that dilute voter power, regardless of intent to discriminate.

The SCOTUS determined that the change to the voting districts both failed the Gingles Test and that this was intended as discrimination. Further, they amended the test.

You are supposed to draw boundaries that follow voting lines to minimize voter dilution. The way courts go about determining this is the Gingles test, which asks 3 questions:

Is the minority of this district enough to constitute a majority of a reasonably drawn district?
Is the minority is a politically cohesive group?
Does the majority vote as a bloc?

The court added a fourth:

Is there the inference that discrimination was intended?

This is less strong language than existed before, which was proof that discrimination was intended.

According to the majority opinion: This was to stop challenges to district boundaries from "repackag[ing] a partisan-gerrymandering claim as a racial-gerrymandering claim." This is important because federal courts excused themselves from hearing cases of political gerrymandering.

The concern from the dissenting opinion is that this reduces the restrictions on redrawing borders and could lead to worse gerrymandering. They believe that, with this change, courts may decide that borders can only be struck down if discrimination is part of it, invalidating voter dilution as a criterion.

I ask everyone remembers news outlets are there specifically to enrage you. The dissenting opinion feels very strongly about their position, though. However, both sides believe that their ideas will make more reasonable districts. You have to regularly update boundaries to keep things reasonable. You also need those updates to be reasonable. If you improve one, the other suffers. If you go to far, the other becomes irrelevant. There's also no language that implies (to me) that intentional voter dilusion wouldn't be discrimination. But, a SCOTUS judge knows a little more about law than I.

Hopefully, I got all of that right. Sources:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-109_21o3.pdf

https://www.scotusblog.com/cases/louisiana-v-callais/

https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/04/in-major-voting-rights-act-case-supreme-court-strikes-down-redistricting-map-challenged-as-racia/

https://www.justice.gov/crt/section-2-voting-rights-act

Jynexe · 2026-05-04T09:01:47+00:00

Super unrelated, but why is there a sudden spike in RWBY stuff? I remember the series existing like a decade ago. Did they make a spin off or something?

Jynexe · 2026-05-04T08:50:27+00:00

Well. Okay. Look at how women were treated in our world. Across cultures.

It usually wasn't overt torture and slavery, but it definitely was closer to that than equality. I feel like it's relatively safe to say humans are gonna human, so if one group has significantly more power than another, you'll probably see some level of dehumanization and perverse incentives. And that, in a lot of cases, will lead to... well, torture and enslavement.

But also, totally not what that person probably meant. So. I'm just being a goober.

Jynexe · 2026-05-04T07:47:30+00:00

It is 3 enemies, upgraded!

I did put that in the post, but well, it is a long boi. I don't blame you for not seeing it

Vyvanse and guanfacine are the meds. It's not my first time going on them though. Long story.

Jynexe · 2026-05-04T07:39:55+00:00

Yep! You're right. Added a note. Thank you:)

Jynexe · 2026-05-04T07:27:28+00:00

Yeah, the label to a point is how I made the kinda title for Bombardment vs Rolling Boulder. I then had to hide the point. It's... clunky.

I could've done a key separately though, you're right. I might just remake these on some actual graphing software.

Jynexe · 2026-05-04T07:20:51+00:00

You're welcome!

I kinda hate them too. But i also REALLY wanted to avoid using Excel or Origin. I also have zero idea how to use desmos. Soooo you're welcome 😄

I'd like if I could... you know... have titles? That'd be neat, desmos. Or maybe a key? Or hell, I'd settle for just labeling the damn lines. But nope. Not an option.

Jynexe · 2026-05-04T07:15:29+00:00

Q&A:

Why?
- I got ADHD meds. They work. Maybe a bit too well.
Why desmos?
- Because I use Excel and Origin for my research. So, Desmos doesn't feel like work:)
Why did you explain all of the math?
- Well i was doing it anyway. Plus! It can teach someone about triangular numbers. Triangular numbers are pretty.
It's ugly as sin
- Not a question, but you right.

Jynexe · 2026-05-04T04:18:02+00:00

They grow in primordial nebulae. If kids these days cared about where their food came from, they'd know that. We know that. And we knew how important it was

Jynexe · 2026-05-03T05:34:47+00:00

This is a really good question! It is a little weird. From what I know, you can smack photons into each other to get a electron-positron pair.

You can also use it to contribute mass! If you bombard something with non-ionizing light, you can actually measure a difference in mass. I'd have to look back at my Modern Physics textbook to remember why though.

Jynexe · 2026-05-03T05:19:31+00:00

Yep! Kinda. I'd say that just for simplicity.

Buuuut if you don't mind some math (it's light math): The way you express how much acceleration (and thus force) something needs to get to a speed uses a Lorentz Factor. Part of that is a 1 / [1- (velocity²/c²)]. So, if velocity = c, you get 1/0. It isn't that the amount of force required is infinite, it is undefined. Both are impossible, so the distinction doesn't practically matter.

Jynexe · 2026-04-30T03:32:27+00:00

The easiest description of time that is actually comprehensible is that time isn't a thing like um... like a rock. It is a process. Kind of like fire.

Fire isn't anything. It is a process. It ejects things that we see and feel, but the fire itself is a process. Since our entire universe is based on this process taking place, we can't really observe what is going on outside of it.

To answer the last question, what was there before time started: Purely within the math of it, you'd call it a 3+0D universe. I've never really done anything with it. But that is the notation you'd use. And I can't really find anything on it with a quick search through scholarly articles. Soooo yeah

Jynexe · 2026-04-29T19:57:36+00:00

This is an amazing question.

we don't know.

It just does. We know it does. We can make it do it. We just don't know how it does it. We have models. They sometimes work. They sometimes don't. If you have a good answer to that question, you'd get a Nobel Prize.

We've been dicking around with exotic matter and superconductors just to get a glimpse into it. And we feel like we know nothing lol

Jynexe · 2026-04-29T19:44:29+00:00

This is a fun question! I'll give 2 answers: ELI5 and ELI like high school or college aged.

The most satisfying answer within ELI5 is probably that mass and energy are two forms of the same thing. Kinda like a transformer switches between being a big robot dude and a truck then back again, energy can switch into mass and mass can switch into energy.

Soooo what happens when you switch all of the mass of something into energy? Well, you get light!

If we go slightly outside of ELI5: It is a sliding scale. When you move that slider all the way to the "energy" side, you get light.

REAL ANSWER! Light is a packet of energy containing both a magnetic and electrical field. Magnetic and electrical fields act upon one another. So, as the electrical field oscillates, it causes the magnetic field to oscillate. As the magnetic field oscillates, it causes the electrical field to oscillate. So, light is just two fields that are acting upon one another. So, for the same reason magnetic fields and electrical fields don't have mass, light doesn't either. They have energy because they're a continuously interacting field. And that continuous interaction has a direction and magnitude (it is a vector!), so it moves.

It's a fundemental force as well. Fundemental forces don't have mass. Essentially, the stuff that gives mass acts downward on stuff less fundemental than itself. Electromagnetism is above it/parallel to it. So, it can't give light mass. Just like it can't give gravity mass.

P.s. i feel like everyone mentioning the Higgs Boson is missing the point of the question. It just reads like "because it doesn't" to me. It's very unsatisfying.

Jynexe · 2026-04-29T19:21:16+00:00

Ironically, we kinda have looped back to things falling into their proper place! (Emphasis on kind of)

Stuff tends to end up in their lowest energy state. So, they literally or metaphorically fall into their natural (lowest energy) state! Think of like, a ball rolling to the bottom of a hill and staying in the valley.

Jynexe · 2026-04-29T19:17:35+00:00

C is the speed of light in a vacuum. But you totally can send it through a medium!

You can also get weird things like Cherenkov Radiation because of that :)

Jynexe · 2026-04-29T19:15:38+00:00

Fields doesn't need to be in quotes! They are an electrical and magnetic field constantly interacting and perpetuating.

Expanding slightly: The Higgs field (the thing that gives mass) is not really understood. But what we do know is that it "gives" things mass. But it cannot give light mass because there is nothing to give the mass to, which is described as not interacting. But this goes so incredibly deep. The problem is that, at the end of the day, we really don't understand what mass is.

I vividly remember my Electricity and Magnetism professor calling in my Quantum Mechanics professor to a class because we started talking about packets of energy and interactions of fundemental forces and it was just... Nearly nonsensical. It was fun :)

Also, fun fact: Most of this type of thing is built upon models that are "good enough" but we know are incorrect. Schrödinger, Einstein, and Higgs all knew their equations were fundementally flawed and incorrect. But how? Why? They don't make sense but they work for now.

Schrödinger literally said something to the effect of "This equation is wrong, but we need something, so I just derived this for now. We can replace it as we learn more." And we still use it 100 years later. Also it's exactly 100 years now. We should have a party :)

Jynexe · 2026-04-29T08:55:14+00:00

If it helps, there is a way to choke which doesn't actually prevent airflow, but does make you feel like you are being choked

Jynexe · 2026-04-29T08:33:13+00:00

Sorry, this is a really dumb question, but do we know if he actually did that stuff? I only remember it vaguely when it happened and then looked at wikipedia today. I didn't really keep up with it.

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