Ok, I'll sit up and put my contacts in and grab the caliper. Since it's still daytime I take it there is a fair amount of light in the room. I'll try to examine the floor with the microscope I made yesterday. You mentioned that the floor was the hard plastic, and it seems this would be about as good a place as any to test the microscope and get my first glimpse at what this plastic steel might be. I'll do my best to hold the caliper steady as I focus the microscope using the adjustment nob to adjust the distance between the lenses. Once I have a focused image I can have some idea of the magnification this microscope can yield as well as what this plastic steel is.
Just to be certain I'm clear on this, I am assuming that this is the first time you have ever designed and/or built a microscope, but obviously not the first time you have ever used one. Assuming that to be true, what skill ability level would you give yourself at using a microscope?
Your microscope is not yet working. It seems that your taping job of yesterday is a bit crooked, and the lenses are poorly aligned. You undo the tape and start over, and this time you get it right.
Now, about that skill at using this....
--M. J. Young
Correct, I've never built a microscope before. As to my skill with microscopes, for light optical microscopes I've had a lot of practice due to the labs I've had to take for my major so far. Because using them is a critical step in analyzing microstructure the teaching assistants stressed being able to use the microscopes properly and without wasting time. I'm not exactly sure where this would put me with it.
In case it ever becomes important, I do have experience with other microscopes. Two of these are simply light optical microscopes outfitted with diagnostic and printing machines. One prints out a thermal print, which if focused right can highlight certain fields better and one produces a digital print so that a computer program can be used for tasks such as second phase composition calculations.
I've also been trained to use a scanning electron microscope, which is pretty much an entirely different skill set from a light optical microscope. I've only had maybe 5 hours training time with this as opposed to probably nearing 100 with light optical micrscopes.
We'll put you down as 2@1 Use Microscope T6@1, a low-end professional; it's obviously part of the skill set you're building as part of your professional training.
You would estimate the power of this microscope as about 50x. I'm not certain what you would see if you used a microscope of this power to look at plastic (and if you know, that might help me understand what you're likely to discover as you continue your work), but looking at this all you detect is a slight roughening of the surface.
--M. J. Young
50x would begin showing some of the basic macrostructure of the specimen if it were prepared with an macroetchant. An unprepped specimen examined under a microscope of that value would only lead to seeing deformities such as fault lines and microcracks in the material. If the plastic is anything like the plastics I'm used to in the way it forms I would see what would look like a topography map to an untrained eye. Under the magnification the ridges formed when the plastic cooled would look like lines penciled into it. I'll spend some time examining the specimen to see whether it has any cooling faults. The more brittle a material the more cooling faults will occur when the material goes from liquid to solid and as ductility increases the frequency of these faults goes down. Since I haven't heard of this plastic steel being treated to hasten the cooling rate, I'd expect few faults as it would have plenty of time making it more ductile, however some polymers of the more brittle nature to begin with have been known to form these faults even during air cooling.
I'm mainly trying to discern this to analyze what I can make out of this material. I take it to be at least somewhat brittle as the strength it shows by being used for floors and signs wouldn't be well suited by a ductile polymer. However, I do know that they managed to engrave letters into the sign, so it has to have some ductility not to shatter upon first imprint. As for the microscope I'm going to continue thinking of ways to improve it, possibly by taking the two current lenses and afixing them solidly to one another so that they act a singular lens of magnification 50x and then attach a sliding objective lens above it in order to increase this magnification. This will be for another day though, as I want to use my microscope in it's current state for a few things first, and I want to think about the new concept more before trying to enact it.
You've tested my memory severely; I built that house in 1993, if memory serves, and have done quite a bit since and never expected anyone to put it under a microscope--not even figuratively.
The way a flat surface was achieved was by stripping the top layer of grass off the clay and smoothing the clay surface beneath, wetting it and allowing it to dry as part of that process. Then the goop-like plastic steel was pressed into it and pressed smooth. When it hardened, it was lifted off the clay. The walls were made the same way. Always the side against the clay is used as the exterior side, the other side showing more visible marks of having been hand- and tool-worked.
The house was built first by making the five lower walls (one wall is split to provide access beneath) and driving them into the ground several inches, then applying more plastic steel to the corners to cement them together. The floor was made about two inches larger in each dimension so that it would overhang the walls by about an inch, rested atop the walls, and then similarly cemented to these. The upper walls required more patience, because they had to stand freely on the floor aligned with the walls beneath, but the use of plumb bobs for leveling and plastic steel along the bottom edge got them in place easily enough, and they, too, were cemented together, both inside and out to fill the cracks. The roof was a repeat of the floor; a ladder had been built to reach the roof.
Thus you will see the texture of the clay in your microscope, and probably bits of it that have remained stuck to the surface all these years.
When fresh, plastic steel is softer and more malleable than Play-Dough, but tends toward rougher edges. When hardened, it will do most things that steel will do, and can be used for wire, plating, and solid objects. Most of the machines in Umak Tek are made from it, including looms, stills, spinning wheel, rope twisters, the water tower, piping, stills, the pottery oven, and the frames for the paper making equipment. The only other materials in use here seem to be a white thin flexible plastic (used in sheets), a burlap-like cloth, a paper similar to paper bags, a silky woven cloth, two kinds of thread and two kinds of rope.
In addition to the machines, it appears that someone used this material to make gymnastic equipment, a bowling alley, and a pool table with equipment.
It is also said that the Architect used it to make a rickshaw and a kau sin ke.
--M. J. Young
Glad to be doing the unexpected. :)
What time is it now? I'd like to make sure I get to the tanks in time for cleaning it.
Is Paul or Annie there? or both? Also, I've noticed Annie hasn't spoken much. Have I been able to discern any clear social order as to why? What I say when I get to the tanks largely depends on which one or if both are there.
I'd like to use some of the plastic steel that is cleaned out though to fashion a contact case so that I can stop using the two glasses to hold them at night.
When you ask the time, what means are you using to determine it? (If you are using a watch, we will have to make a guess as to what time the watch said when you arrived, and track time from there, or you will have to tell me what time you set it for by what marker here in NagaWorld.)
Paul and Annie are both at the tank to clean it, and to collect the alcohol and start a new batch to ferment. You are welcome to all the plastic steel you want--they don't really have a use for it as they are not building anything at present.
You don't know why Annie doesn't talk so much. Sometimes she looks at Paul and laughs, and sometimes he smiles for no obvious reason. They work together rather well, as if they know what the other is going to do, but then, they've been doing this for decades as a conservative estimate.
I am curious as to your designs of the contact case, and specifically whether you are intending to create (a) lid(s) and if so how you expect to achieve that.
--M. J. Young
I'm mainly trying to judge the time based on the sun or moons position. I don't have a watch and I'm keeping my cell phone off as to preserve it's battery.
When I see Paul and Annie I'll say "Hello, how are you two doing today? I was hoping to make a case for my contacts with the plastic steel, if there are no objections to me taking some."
Assuming no objections, which was clarified above already and I just wanted to phrase it to get a better picture in my head, I'll try and make that contact case. For making the case I'd like to take a chunk of the material outside and press it against the ground. Then I'll shape it to as close to a rectangle as I can and make two ditches using my thumb to hold the contacts and water. I'll then take a second piece of the plastic steel and flatten it on the ground to a slightly larger plate to be used to cover the contact case. This is a very crude design that I'll hopefully upgrade later when more suitable materials present themself, but it'll do the job for now I hope.
After I'm done making my contact case I'd like to put them by my bed and then head over to the psionic museum. In particular I'd like to examine the psionic computer more closely to try and figure out how it works or how to turn it on.
It will of course be the position of the sun that you are watching, since you are sleeping during the day; you used some of the morning supply to make your microscope, so you need the evening supply for your contacts case.
There is plenty of plastic steel, and Paul encourages you to use as much as you wish to make whatever you like. One of the driving forces of construction around here is, apparently, what to do with all the plastic steel, byproduct of the process that provides the alcohol to power the generator in the truck.
You manage to make a quite serviceable sort of case. You couldn't carry water in it (it will leak), but it is unlikely that the contacts would fall out if you tied it closed.
The psionic computer is, as described, an octagonal prism, transparent white, standing on one end and thus eighteen inches tall and nine inches across the ends. You can see through it, but it is cloudy--much like you can see through colored glass but see the color of the glass. There are imperfections in the glass within.
I will expect you to describe your actions step by step in the course of your examination; I will give you results to each action you describe. If you list multiple actions and any of your actions will have a result which might be unexpected, I will let you respond to that result before continuing your actions, and allow you to change your untried actions.
--M. J. Young
I'll start by looking at the psionic computer for a few minutes, clearing my mind of other distractions so I can focus on anything I see, hear or feel while interacting with it.
Then I'll run my hand lightly over the surface, trying to feel for any irregularities and seeing if it feels like glass since that's what it looks like.
After which I'll get my microscope and begin examining these imperfections you mentioned. I'm mainly trying to tell whether they share a similar shape and whether they are air bubbles or cracks.
If there is no success so far I'll focus on what seems to be the screen of this computer (the largest flate plane) and try to concentrate and will it to turn on. I'll try this for about hour at which point I'll close my eyes and imagine projecting my mind into the device. I'll also try this for an hour.
The moment you touch the object, lights appear within it, related to the irregularities. They are very like Christmas tree lights in brightness and color, and although there are only a few they keep turning on and off while you are touching it.
Since the imperfections are in the interior, I think it would be difficult to adjust the focal length of the microscope to view them; also, since they tend to illumine when you touch the device, looking at the lights through such a focusing device might be hazardous to your vision. But if you still want to use the microscope, clarify what you are viewing with it.
There is no "largest flat plane", as the octagon is perfectly regular and the ends are equivalent. I am not certain, though, whether you still would try to "will it to turn on" once it has started flashing its lights inside. They stop, incidentally, when you remove your hand.
I believe that brings us to the point at which you "close...eyes and imagine projecting my mind into the device." Before I adjudicate that, are we good to that point?
--M. J. Young
I think I was visualizing this a little wrong. The octagonal faces are facing up and down I take it from what you said? So there are 8 rectangles of equal size?
I definitely won't be using my microscope then, wasn't expecting this thing to start lighting up when I touched it. I'll still try closing my eyes and imagine projecting my mind into the device but I'd like to keep my hand on the computer while doing this, to keep the lights on.
If this does nothing I'll open my eyes and keeping my left hand on the computer I'll take my right hand and try touching the spots where the lights are on the computer. I'll try tapping it with my finger, putting my palm against it, and trying to drag it as if I were using a touchscreen. I'll do those things in that order.
I'll then take my hands off the computer and put my microscope on the top face of the computer and then step back to see if the lights turn on when it's just another object resting against it. Then I'll touch the microscope making sure not to directly touch the computer and see if the lights turn on then. Then I'll touch the computer again with my hand, lightly and then increase pressure slightly. I just want to see if the light increased with pressure. Then I'll see whether having both hands on the computer makes the lights change at all.
Your first approach fails.
Your physical contact with the computer does not seem to correlate to the lights. It does not light when the microscope is touching it but you are not, and using both hands does not change it.
--M. J. Young
My first approach failed but did I realize I was approaching it in a way that might work? From the behind the scenes post I saw I was trying to teach myself a skill in doing this (I'm really unsure of the fundamentals so I'm probably fumbling through this really akwardly). Does my character realize he's in any way on the right track or should I be convinced that I'm entirely on a wrong path with how to use this thing?
Either way, formulating what to do and the process itself is enough for one day. I'm going to rest my mind for a bit. I'll head back to the truck and see if Paul and Annie are still there.
If Paul is there I'd like to say "Hello Paul, I know you mentioned you don't teach versers but do you know if there are any books around I could read? In particular on anything related to psionics? Or perhaps a verser who was successful with the psionic devices mentioned how to activate them vaguely? I'm not making too much headway with the computer past making the lights come on. Also, if there is anything I can do to help out around here please just let me know, I want to help contribute any way I can."
You ask Paul, and suddenly thoughts come into your mind as if from outside, as if a channel has been opened between your mind and his. It won't be easy, he says. Nothing in NagaWorld is easy. You'll find that the computers, the data cubes with their pyramid accessors, and the spheres are the easiest, but they are not at all easy. Begin like this, though, trying to open a channel between your mind and the device.
You feel as if there is a channel open, and that you could respond simply by thinking your answer to him.
He says he and Annie appreciate the offered help, but around here people pretty much do whatever they think needs to be done--make stuff, gather grass, run stills, hunt or forage, pretty much as you like.
--M. J. Young
I'll think Thank you Paul, I wasn't sure where to even start before. I have a few questions about what we're doing now though. Will I only be able to respond to you this way directly after you talk to me? Also how far away can people be and use this form of communication and can others around here the conversation? If I'm apable of managing to talk with you this way is it ok if I try and continue to do so for my stay here so that I may practice how to? Also, can I get a glass of that soda from yesterday?
If I can get the glass I'll gather a bit of the tangerine grass and take the glass over to the psionics museum. I was intending to wait until the next day but a breakthrough like advice from Paul here is well more than enough to motivate me to try some more.
When I get to the psionic museum I'm going to focus on the computer. I'll close my eyes, have my hand on it, and keep in mind what it felt like when I was talking to Paul. Then I'll try to form a connection between the device and myself like Paul said.
I'll stick with this either until I would be too exhausted from trying to continue or until the sun comes up. I'll take periodic breaks to drink the soda like substance if I could get some or water if I couldn't get some of the soda and eat some grass.
After which I'll go to bed, take my contacts out, and see how long I can sleep this time.
He gets you the soda.
Will I only be able to respond to you this way directly after you talk to me?I opened the link; it stays open until either I close it or the time runs--which is unpredictable.
Also how far away can people be and use this form of communication....The first time you contact a particular person, you have to be able to see them; after that, as far as I know it's limited to the same universe. In any case, I've never been contacted by someone who was not in this universe when they contacted me.
...and can others around hear the conversation?I only know how to do one-to-one communication. Probably you could devise a means of communicating with multiple people, but I've never had any reason to do so.
If I'm capable of managing to talk with you this way is it ok if I try and continue to do so for my stay here so that I may practice how to?It's risky. It gets easier as you get better, and it gets easier as you get to know someone's mind better. However, the fact that I contacted you successfully does not mean that you know how to contact me. If you can do it at all, you know my mind well enough to find it anywhere in the universe; but that doesn't mean you've learned how to initiate two-way telepathic contact. Only that if you have any telepathic skills that work on people, you can use them with me.
Again, though, I wouldn't want you to botch and verse me out. I'd rather you reserved efforts to contact me to emergency situations, at least until you've gotten considerably better at it.
You return to your efforts to access the computer, and in a minute you suddenly have a sense in your head of an expanded mind. It is as if a door opened and your thoughts were able to travel through them into another space, where you find a directory, the first item of which is the directory. After the directory there is 2) an instructional on use; 3) ordering information for additional computers; 4) math processor; 5) language processor with translation device for strange script; 6) martial combat games; 7) ranged combat games; 8) strategy games. You have the sense that the directory entries have subheadings which you can access by selecting the entries, and that you can use the directory to access the other areas of the computer.
--M. J. Young
I'll try and use the directory to use the instructional on use then.
The instructional tells gives you a number of shortcuts and techniques you can use in conjunction with the computer. Not all of them make sense to you right away, but here are a few:
- You can shift to the subdirectory of any level by actualizing in your mind the level number as such.
- You can move to any function by actualizing the proper name of that function, such as "Three-Dimensional Checkers" or "Volume of Sphere".
- You can backtrack through your movements by the command "Backtrack".
- You can open a second visual image by using your visual cortex for one and your clairvoyant imager for the other.
- You can switch what information is on which screen with a "Reversi" command.
You explore these complicated instructions for about three minutes, and then feel your connection to the device fading.
--M. J. Young
I'll try and extend my time I have left immediately as I feel my connection fading.
Either way, I'd like to actualize the number 5 then with my remaining time. If I understand correctly this should the bring up the language processor with translation device for the strange script.
You fail to extend the time; you do reach the language processor before losing contact, but then your connection fades.
You note that the lights continue to flicker slightly while you are touching the device, but that they were considerably more active when you were using it.
--M. J. Young
I'll take a brief break and eat some of the grass and drink some soda and then try and start the computer again, going to the language processor right away if I manage to get it running.
I'll have my eyes closed and hand on the computer like before when trying to turn it on.
Although the lights come on when you touch it, you fail to make contact with it this time.
--M. J. Young
I'll give the computer a rest for the day and try to activate the telepathic vacation sphere. I'll try the same method of closing my eyes and resting my hand on the sphere and try and open a connection between my mind and the sphere.
If that fails I'll rest for the remainder of the day until the sun rises then take my contacts out and put them in the contact case and go to sleep.
You hold the sphere in your hands, noting that it has about the weight of a solid glass ball of the same size. Closing your eyes, you reach out with your mind.
Abruptly you are on a dirt trail through a forest, dry leaves scattered over the ground. Sunlight pours in warmly between brightly colored leaves in the comfortably cool afternoon air. You hear what might be a brook or waterfall to your right, not far, and recognize ripened blackberries alongside the trail.
--M. J. Young
I'll pick a few of the blackberries and eat them and then I'll follow the sounds to the nearby water.
They taste like blackberries. You feel them in your mouth, feel the moisture of the juice, feel them sliding into your stomach as your tentacle places them in your mouth.
You then turn your body, and move on your multiple legs toward the sound of water, soon perceiving the brook pouring over stones.
--M. J. Young
That's awesome, I'll go over to the brook and look into the water to see my reflection as best I can. I'll also look at my tentacles and body and try to figure out how many legs/arms I have, what color I am, and whether my skin looks smooth or rough.
From the reflection I'd just like to see what I look like and check if I have teeth.
Other than that I'll rest by the brook sitting by the brook with my feet (is feet the correct term? I'd like the tips of my legs to be in the water whatever they are) in the water.
The brook is a bit too rough to get a clear reflection, but you do manage to work out that you have something of an octopoid frame, although your tentacles are strong enough to support your weight and still hold and manipulate several objects. The skin is a gray-brown color, and otherwise you very much look like the little octopoid glass statuette in the museum.
You can't really see your mouth.
--M. J. Young
Is there a grassy area on an edge of the brook? If so I'd like to lie down in the grass and look up at the sky with my feet in the water and take a nap. This sounds like a really relaxing place so I might as well take advantage of it.
There is a grassy area, and you put your tentacles in the water and rest on the grass--but you do not fall asleep. Your senses are fully aware of these surroundings, but there is a part of you that says you can only be here as long as you are awake.
--M. J. Young
What color is the grass here, orange or green or some new color?
Either way, I'll get up and follow the brook downstream and see what it leads to.
Well, it might be a bit on the bluish side, but not more so than some of the bluer grasses cultivated on earth; it's basically green.
It is essentially a brook running over a sometimes rocky and sometimes sandy bed down a barely perceptible slope through the woods; it is early autumn. How long will you pursue it?
--M. J. Young
I'd like to follow it until my tentacles start getting tired of walking. For the most part not sure where to go or what to interact with here, so just trying to look around.
You walk downstream for about twenty minutes, and then feel the world slipping away as you begin to lose the connection to the sphere, which you are starting to feel in your real hand once again.
--M. J. Young
I'll rest for a few minutes gathering together what just happened and taking the chance to examine the statue that I was in the form of just a second ago. Then I'll try using the data storage device(atlas) with the data access device. I'll attempt to place the atlas atop the access device and then connect with the access device. I'll be touching the access device with my eyes closed as before and try to open a connection between the device and myself.
The statue is made of the same kind of glass-like material as the other devices, of uniform coke-bottle-green color. It is octopus-like in its head/body and limbs, and has eight such limbs, although the head is shaped a bit differently and there are a few other structures which are inconsistent with the octopus, bulges near the tops of the tentacles which may be organs or muscle structures in the original.
The atlas data storage device is a cube; the access device is a rectangular pyramid. It is evident that the square side of the pyramid matches the square sides of the cube; there does not seem to be a particular "up". I mention this because it would be difficult to balance the pyramid on one point and place the cube atop it, but before I "correct" you to say that you are placing the data access pyramid atop the data storage cube I thought I should be certain you do not have a different image in your mind. (I can envision ways in which the cube would be placed atop the pyramid, but I don't want to prejudice your response.)
--M. J. Young
I'm envisioning the cube below the pyramid and the contacting surface being a square face of the cube (obviously) and the square face of the pyramid.
You stack them as described and close your eyes, reaching out telepathically toward the device as you did with the computer and the sphere.
An image comes into focus in your mind. It displays a land mass with a city in the center, the city gleaming as of glass, the land extending a long distance from it in all directions. Outside the city the land appears to be heavily wooded. At the extreme edges of the image the land is surrounded by water, and then comes to an end, the edge of the map forming a seemingly perfect circle.
--M. J. Young