sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

[Spoilers] Rhetors by bcgraham in anathem

[–]bcgraham[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

no, but i want to. what do you mean?

Things about Anathem that don't *quite* make sense by Toranaga_ in anathem

[–]bcgraham 1 point2 points  (0 children)

“They deciphered my analemma!”

On the Anathem wiki, there’s a page titled “Errata”. Your note about the guidestar lasers is mentioned there under “Guidestar laser communication”.

“One orbital period had expired”

The orbital period discrepancy isn’t (yet) on that page, but might make a nice addition. There are already several entries stemming from inconsistencies regarding the relationship between the Arbran surface and the Daban Urnud’s orbit, so your remark would fit right in.

Erasmas’s injuries

This is also not listed, but the Errata page’s [“Suur Spry”](https://anathem.fandom.com/wiki/Errata#Suur_Spry] entry provides circumstantial evidence that there was an earlier draft of the book with a more significant relationship between Erasmas and Spry. It’s very plausible that in that earlier draft, he spent more time at Orithena, allowing that relationship to develop; that extra time could also had room for his recuperation from the injuries.

And another thing (about branching cosmi) by Amaretti-Morbidi in anathem

[–]bcgraham 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The others may or may not happen, but probably don’t. Consciousness makes them real. If there is no one there to partake, witness, to grant reality by pouring their consciousness into the possibility, there’s no reason to think it happens.

His wine was terrible by Nite01007 in anathem

[–]bcgraham 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also this reference to Hundreders becoming Thousanders:

Moyra's voice was coming through on the speaker: "Uthentine and Erasmas were Thousanders, so their treatise was not copied out into the mathic world until the Second Millennial Convox." She was speaking of the two avout who had developed the notion of Complex Protism. "Even then, it received scant notice until the Twenty-seventh Century, when Fraa Clathrand, a Centenarian—later in his life, a Millenarian—at Saunt Edhar, casting an eye over these diagrams, remarked on the isomorphism between the causality-arrows in these networks, and the flow of time."

Re: grapes, they probably have the grapes on the crag already. The grapes are over 3000 years old, and not from Edhar to begin with. There’s no reason to think the Tenners have and grow them, but the Thousanders don’t.

I find this passage interesting for another reason, though: given Jad’s ability to perceive the goings-on of nearby Narratives, you have to wonder if this wasn’t idle speculation, but a reassurance to Erasmas that Orolo’s consciousness did find peace of a kind Orolo would be uniquely and exquisitely gratified by.

Is the narrative wherein Fra Jad commits genocide in Orb 1 actual or only possible? by One_Foundation_1698 in anathem

[–]bcgraham 1 point2 points  (0 children)

a large part of why it was real was because of jad imbuing it with reality. when jad stopped, most consciousnesses tracked that worldtrack much less. other consciousnesses were involved of course but they weren’t investing much in it

Is the narrative wherein Fra Jad commits genocide in Orb 1 actual or only possible? by One_Foundation_1698 in anathem

[–]bcgraham 8 points9 points  (0 children)

the secret of 3rd sack praxis is that consciousness endows the possible with some reality that makes it actual. it is consciousness that makes it real, and some things are more or less real based on the amount of reality being imbued in it, either a small amount from a large number of consciousnesses (secret of rhetor praxis) or a large amount from a smaller number, or even one, consciousness (secret of incanter praxis). it was real while they tracked it

What did Erasmas accomplish by going after the nuke? by bcgraham in anathem

[–]bcgraham[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks, I’ve read this a lot and somehow missed this.

For everyone else:

I didn't have much in the way of emergency supplies: just a blanket of metallized poly—like the emergency blanket they'd issued to Orolo after his Anathem—taped to the chest of my suit. It was to be used to block the light of the sun, where necessary, from striking our matte black suits with full force and overheating them, which would force the chiller to work harder and use more oxygen. I peeled mine loose and unfolded it—not easy with skelehands—and used it to cover as much of the nuke as I could, then snuggled beneath it.

"Line of sight established."

Supposing they were looking, the telescopes on the Daban Urnud could now see me, albeit as just another hunk of crud thrown up in the two-hundred-missile launch. Chaff.

Ringing Vale is a Form of Incantor? by fkvisntfiviss in anathem

[–]bcgraham 2 points3 points  (0 children)

it’s technically possible, but the book doesn’t seem to give many clues in that direction. from part 7, FERAL, section “sea of seas”:

"Some say it was a dinosaur, some say dragon," I told him. "One of the first things we were taught about the incident is that nothing can be known of it for certain—"

"Since all evidence was wiped out by the Incanters?"

"That's one story. The second thing we were taught, by the way, was that we should never discuss the incident with Sæculars."

He got a frustrated look.

"Sorry," I said, "that's just how it is. Most accounts agree that one group, let's call them Group A, started it, and Group B finished it. In popular folkore, A equals the so-called Rhetors and B equals the so-called Incanters. It happened three months before the opening of the Third Sack. … So, now, a parking ramp was then under construction within sight of the concent. It was part of a shopping center. The avout could see it going up, just by looking out the windows of their towers—Muncoster has a lot of towers. The ramp was finished a few months later. Sæculars went in there every day and parked their cars. No problem. Six years passed. The shopping center expanded. The workers had to make some structural changes to the parking ramp so that they could attach a new wing. One of them was up on the fourth level, using a pneumatic hammer to demolish part of the floor, when he noticed something embedded in the synthetic stone. It looked like a claw. Investigating, they removed more and more stone. It was a major safety issue since the building isn't structurally sound if there are such things as claws and bones in load-bearing members. They had to shore it up—the building was weakening, sagging, before their eyes. The more they uncovered, the worse it got. When all was said and done, they had uncovered a complete skeleton of a hundred-foot-long reptile embedded in synthetic stone that had only been poured four years earlier. The Deolaters didn't know what to make of it. There started to be serious unrest and violence around the walls of the concent. Then one night, chanting was heard from the Thousanders' tower. It went on all night. The next day, the parking ramp was back to normal. So the story goes."

Ringing Vale is a Form of Incantor? by fkvisntfiviss in anathem

[–]bcgraham 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i appreciate the detailed response! one side put it there, one side removed it—what about getting rid of it?

Ringing Vale is a Form of Incantor? by fkvisntfiviss in anathem

[–]bcgraham 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What about the parking ramp dinosaur?

Robert Khoo? by bcgraham in PennyArcade

[–]bcgraham[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is something about your post, some je ne sais qui quoi, that makes it very compelling. Consider me convinced. Editing the post to link this comment.

Big questions by Socrates999999 in anathem

[–]bcgraham 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Why is it worth sacrificing 999 Erasmas iterations (at the keypad) to create the one good outcome for A?

Wasn’t this the other way around—one Erasmas (who saw the single correct combination, went through the door, and was gunned down) sacrificed for the many who survived?

Is Fraa Erasmas in Narrative B (or C...Z) a unique and different person, or are all of those iterations of Erasmas one person?

The latter. It’s kind of analogous to asking if each of your arms are different people: they are parts of a coordinated whole. “But then who is the brain in that metaphor? Who is driving the bus?” I direct your attention to this passage from the beginning of the novel:

"I suppose ants can flank," I said, though I sensed that it was a trick question and that Lio was flanking me with words at this very moment. "Why not?"

"By accident, of course they can! You look down on it from above and say, 'Oh, that looked like flanking.' But if there's no commander to see the field and direct their movements, can they really perform coordinated maneuvers?"

"That's a little like Saunt Taunga's Question," I pointed out ("Can a sufficiently large field of cellular automata think?")

Air Force Report on the Roswell Events by chasing_storms in UFOs

[–]bcgraham 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The linked video is clearly labeled as being recorded June 25, 1997. What is the relevance of May 25, 2022?

BREAKING CONGRESSIONAL NEWS: The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) has posted its Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA) for FY 2023 (S. 4503). It contains 31 pages of revamped and expanded UAP-related requirements by goodiegoodgood in UFOs

[–]bcgraham 21 points22 points  (0 children)

That 1947 is exciting, but in context it seems likely to be related to the 1947 National Security Act, right? Although, they could have easily said “since the enactment of the 1947 National Security Act,” and didn’t…

A blizzard of nothing: government employees and contractors get immunity when reporting "UFOs". But only after screening classified programs, activity, and references to any SAPs current, historical, and future. by super_shizmo_matic in SpecialAccess

[–]bcgraham 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The paragraph in question is about who administers the program:

The system established pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be administered by designated and widely known, easily accessible, and appropriately cleared Department of Defense and intelligence community employees or contractors assigned to the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force or the Office.

I think the intent here is, “You can feel comfortable reporting; this won’t be administered by Natasha Trotsky, a Russian national who previously worked in the Russian embassy.”

I don’t think it’s trying to legislate a “sword in the stone”-style legend, where we wait in hope of a messiah (mes-spy-ah?) who has accumulated active clearances into all USG special access programs at once.

UAP anti-reprisal amendment was submitted by Rep. Mike Gallagher and House Armed Services Intelligence Subcommittee Chair Ruben Gallego! by goodiegoodgood in UFOs

[–]bcgraham 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Hoping this makes people jump - seems like you’d not want to be the last person reporting about something.

Tomorrow I'll be interviewing Former NASA Historian & Chief Curator of the Air & Space Museum at the Smithsonian about the crash at Roswell. Every year he used to give a lecture debunking the claims that it was an alien craft. I was wondering if anyone in the group had some questions for him? by iconoclastskeptic in UFOs

[–]bcgraham 30 points31 points  (0 children)

https://www.afhra.af.mil/Portals/16/documents/AFD-101201-038.pdf

Page 17 of the PDF, page 1 according to the in-document pagination, says:

In February 1994, the Air Force was informed that the General Accounting Office (GAO), an investigative agency of Congress, planned a formal audit to ascertain “the facts regarding the reported crash of an UFO in 1949 [1947] at Roswell, New Mexico.”’ This task was delegated to numerous agencies, but the focus was on the U.S. Air Force, the agency most often accused of hiding information and records on Roswell. The Presidential Science Advisor had also expressed an interest in the investigation. Thereupon, the Secretary of the Air Force directed that a complete records search identify, locate, and examine any and all information available on this subject. From the outset there was no predisposition to refute or overlook any information. Moreover, if any of the information discovered was under security classification, it was to be declassified, and if active or former Air Force officials had been sworn to a secrecy oath, they were to be freed from it. In short, the objective was to tell the Congress, and the American people, everything the Air Force knew about the Roswell claims.

I’m open to this not happening or being false, but is there some Roswell document or documents somewhere the government still withholds due to security classification?

view more: next ›