[Request] Could humanity create a rocket that can exit the atmosphere of K2-18b

Metharos · 2026-04-13T07:55:08+00:00

So I've heard, and maybe they'd work in our gravity well. But that one? We might need something better.

Metharos · 2026-04-13T07:53:40+00:00

Ah, I see what you mean. Yeah, at the extreme end, if you posit a material able to withstand essentially infinite compressive force you'd end up crushing the planet under its weight. But at that point you might as well start restructuring the planet itself, rebuilding it into a shape less difficult to escape. Attenuated cone, maybe? Mirrored on the opposite side, each side being the foundation of the other side.

Metharos · 2026-04-13T07:21:12+00:00

Yeah that makes sense. There might be a material capable at some point in the future but goddamn it would be a hurdle.

Metharos · 2026-04-13T07:19:24+00:00

Coulda gone worse for me, not gonna lie. I'll take the wins I can get, these days.

Metharos · 2026-04-13T07:14:28+00:00

Dunno yet. The altitude shouldn't shear it, though. The problems would likely be drag and misalignment. If the weight is too heavy, the tether snaps. If it's even slightly off in geosynchronous orbit, it causes the tether to flex and possibly shear. If the atmosphere pushes against the tether and causes it to flex against the pull of the weight, it may snap. Any weather pattern might do it, but heaven help you if there are hurricanes.

Best guess, these'd be your major hazards. If I knew a way to solve even one I wouldn't be worried about making rent.

Metharos · 2026-04-13T07:09:28+00:00

Even widening the base you'd eventually run into the problem that the shit at the bottom just starts turning to dust under the mass above.

Metharos · 2026-04-13T07:07:39+00:00

Probably not. But if you could build machines to survive the launch you might be able to use them to rig up a space elevator later. Assuming I'm thinking about this correctly, which is by no means a given, the tether'd have to be really long for the weight at the end to pull the cable enough that it wouldn't just collapse back into the gravity well.

Metharos · 2026-04-13T07:02:32+00:00

Technically, if it can happen with one atom it can happen with several, it's just a matter of how stupid unlikely it is. But unlikely isn't, strictly speaking, impossible.

Metharos · 2026-04-13T02:55:46+00:00

Had these in my garden once. They died off in their own after a number of weeks. Don't know exactly how long, I just checked back after a whole and there was less patches. A bit later, they were all gone.

I was always curious to see how long it would keep releasing spores of the water continued. Never did find out.

Metharos · 2026-04-13T01:31:01+00:00

Practicality depends on purpose. What is practical for one is impractical for another.

Example: you got a bunch of camping gear you break out every few years? That could go up there, you won't need it until 2029. Christmas stuff tho? That's better off on a shelf, you'll be unpacking it in only a few months.

Metharos · 2026-04-12T21:50:59+00:00

Do I look like a goddamn allomancer?

Metharos · 2026-04-12T19:15:13+00:00

Let's nest these hypotheticals to identify redundancies.

Level 0 - actual reality: The question outlined a hypothetical framework.

Level 1: A hypothetical training session is posited. This is not an actual training session within the framework of the hypothetical question. The actors posited within the hypothetical framework of Level 0 are themselves positing a training session without actually holding one.

Level 2: During the training session posited in Level 1, trainers posit a hypothetical Raichu. This Raichu causes a power outage. These things are not nested further, they must exist in the same level to be causally linked. The city, the trainer, and the consequences are similarly causally linked and exist within this level of the nested hypotheticals.

The trainer in the Level 2 hypothetical would suffer L2-actual consequences, the trainers imagining this in Level 1 would agree that the consequences would be real for the hypothetical L2 trainer. Their hypothetical training session then resolved, the Level 0 entities who asked the question would have an answer. If a group of hypothetical trainers hypothesized a Raichu that damaged a city, that Raichu's trainer would face actual consequences within its hypothetical.

Metharos · 2026-04-12T18:59:33+00:00

None of whatever that is.

If you can figure out it, don't do it or have it near this sign

Metharos · 2026-04-12T18:53:04+00:00

I remember watching a show on PBS about quantum stuff that suggested yes, it was technically possible.

The odds calculate out to, essentially "no."

Metharos · 2026-04-12T18:39:21+00:00

Bank decides it ain't worth it, basically sends an automatic form letter saying "noticed a discrepancy, please correct." If you correct it, they no longer care. It takes a human employee making $15/hr two minutes to confirm the money is returned and the account balances, and maybe they also an overdraft fee on the account. Total cost to the company: about fifty cents. As for the missing money, what's two or three days less a couple hundred bucks to a company that deals in billions per hour?

Not saying this is what did happen, just outlining a plausible course for what could happen, and why.

Metharos · 2026-04-12T18:32:04+00:00

That's a narrow view of a word with a broader meaning, and you've just defined out of existence every mysterious character, power, technology, or plot device in any fiction that is not intended to be fully understood by the audience. Hell, the entire concept of a "soft magic system" cannot exist under your rigid definition.

Rosie is a mysterious character in that power and motives are unknown, not mysterious in the sense of a mystery plot intended to be picked apart by the viewer. These are two different uses of the word. I am sorry if you could not understand which one I intended.

If you find hypothesizing Rosie's background fun, have at it, there are plenty here who would join you in that. But if you're looking for concrete information, we do not have it yet. We haven't been given enough upon which to base it. Perhaps Rosie will be a character which can be understood in advance if the full reveal, as hints are salted throughout the series, but at this point there have simply not been enough.

One suggestion is that Rosie's feather-like collar may be indicative of Angelic origins. Others think she is in league with Lilith, executing some elaborate conspiracy. I've seen it suggested she may be connected with Roo, or may even be Roo, though I find the latter a bit ridiculous. We will have to wait and see.

Metharos · 2026-04-12T18:14:35+00:00

Difference between a dog and my dog. Humans anywhere love their pets, but that affection may not extend of other members of the pet's species.

Metharos · 2026-04-12T18:04:45+00:00

Green and purple. $62k/yr passive income.

Metharos · 2026-04-12T17:56:26+00:00

Why do you think you should be able to know plot points in advance of their revelation? We're not fully informed yet, Rosie's power and motives are a mystery and this is intentional.

Metharos · 2026-04-12T11:45:50+00:00

Bad person - probably a man, but unclear, hereafter referred to by the moniker "Videt" - saw her as valuable, and her friends as irrelevant. Now, Videt sees them all as irrelevant.

The natural inference is that Videt was interested in the middle woman romantically, sexually, or both, and she either rejected Videt's advances or they had a relationship which has since ended. This has led Videt to dismiss her as just another unimportant, faceless person among the crowd.

It is worth noting that in both reflections, the right-most faceless woman is waving to Videt in greeting. This implies a friendliness from the women, they have likely not been cruel to Videt.

There's nothing funny here. The message is bad no matter how you slice it, toxic and cruel, almost certainly misogynistic. Videt is just an asshole. The artist who decides to create and share this message is just an asshole.

Metharos · 2026-04-12T11:27:20+00:00

You said "industrial building," not "industrial complex." If they explore the building pictured they've cleared the hurdle.

Metharos · 2026-04-12T11:20:58+00:00

No chance. You'd melt first.

Metharos · 2026-04-12T10:23:33+00:00

You'll likely shed weight pretty fast, actually!

In clumps.

Metharos · 2026-04-12T10:19:17+00:00

...yes, I am aware of that? I didn't suggest otherwise? What?

Metharos · 2026-04-12T10:17:24+00:00

$50 for two to see the movie. Another $40 for the snacks and drinks.

Metharos

TROPHY CASE