I feel like one of the more interesting conundrums of a world like this is ‘Where do you draw the line?’.
Like, if you lived in a ‘regular’ modern world and then learned vampires exist and then someone said ‘Hey, so do Werewolves’ would you believe that? I probably would. But it could also be wrong. If Vampires exist, why not magic or werewolves or goblins or- so on.
But really, the Groovitron teleporting them to the Mothership is like… a Tuesday for Mad Scientists.
It also depends on what your normal is to start with.
If you’re living in 16th century London, and someone finally convinces you that rhinoceroses aren’t just unlikely traveller’s tales, you might well think “Okay, then why not dragons?”
If you’re living in 16th century Lisbon, and grew up knowing there’s a rhino in King Manuel’s menagerie, this doesn’t affect your opinion of dragons at all.
Not necessarily. Dave’s brother couldn’t even see Artie, but he could hear Dave talking about him. He just thought Dave was crazy.
It was established long ago that everyone has some degree of reality blindness. It all depends on where your own brain draws the line of “too weird to accept”.
So where on the line does that put Ginny. She’s always claimed to be a scientist that straightens out the silly and the mad. But Ginny was completely immune to the epidemic of reality blindness that followed the possums departure on the Groovetron.
As I have repeatedly said, I firmly believe that she is fully Mad. She just doesn’t realize it because she’s been that way since she was a year old. That’s how she can actually comprehend the work of other Mad scientists in the first place.
It seemed to me that if Dr. Lee were normal, she wouldn’t even notice Nick. But if Dr. Lee were normal, nothing that’s happened to him of late would have happened to him at all.
Or – just maybe! – Sweetheart’s BS detector is on the money? After all, they did mention Pavane just before the Groovitron “exploded”. It would be simpler to fake than achieve.
What if this is an elaborate con by Pavane to trick Tigerlilly into some rash action?
Skin Horse often veers from what I might call “SFnal mad science” to “fantasy mad science.” Robots and genetically engineered animals are standard SF. Zombies are more of an edge case, although I’d consider Unity (Nanomachines) passes the sniff test (hah) better than zombie-virus-which-does-stuff-no-virus-could-possibly-do zombies.
And then there’s stuff like being able to summon personally themed clothes out of thin air and build teleporters out of clothes hangers, which is simply magical. (I require at least some AA batteries, aluminum foil, and a carefully angled mirror as well as the clothes hangers before I’ll accept it as Super Science rather than sorcery.)
Not that I _mind_: it’s comedy, and you really can’t have stuff like Steampunk Mad Science without fantasy elements. But I can certainly see how Sweetheart finds some forms of mad science more mentally distressing than others.
Ah, BMunro, be not so quick to discount Clarke’s Law!
A pocket Bag of Holding is no more magical than a TARDIS. Constructing a tesseract from coat hangers requires merely finding a geometric form echoing the spring’s torsion in the ZPF, warping spacetime (e=mcc=√i, even if only a 3D shadow of a 4D construct). A healing draught can be easily formulated using nanites, as you point out.
Earth is currently at only a Stage 3 (of 9) technological level. Illustrative examples: The Federation is a mix of Stage 4 and 5. The Gallifreyans are Stage 6, while the Organians are Stage 7. The Oans are Stage 8 while Stage 9 achieves direct reality manipulation (Q).
What you’re describing is the difference between Hard and Soft sci-fi. Hard sci-fi works based on actual science (or “sane” science in this setting) whereas Soft sci-fi runs on “I reject your reality and substitute my own” logic (mad science obviously).
There’s a page on tvtropes called “The Sliding Scale of Sci-fi Hardness”.
And yeah, Soft sci-fi works way better for comedy than Hard, since it runs entirely on author fiat.
Well. Zombie virus is based rather uncomfortably closely to leprosy + rabies. The only thing really unrealistic about it is how fast it infects. The shambling, jerky walk and using more of one’s muscle power than the body usually allows (because rabies doesn’t care if the ligaments tear) is realistic. Body falling apart while still moving is leprosy. Trying to bite others is rabies. Rabid things are afraid of water (still unexplained), which doesn’t usually show up in zombie media, but the rest… It’s creepy because it’s mostly realistic.
Our doctrine Cosmognothics
Was shining like a supernova star
We are following
Through the funk
In the middle of the old New War
We’re going to Lovetron, Lovetron,
Planet refugee.
Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh, Lovetron.
We came back to tell you we’re gone.
Oh, as if we didn’t see that.
As if we didn’t see the Groovitron
As if we never noticed the big explosion.
We’re going to Lovetron, Lovetron,
Planet refugee.
Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh, Lovetron.
There’s a walking moving building
Whose rooms are known to have some trampolines.
And sometimes when it’s fuzzy, fractured,
Or trampled into town, we say,
This is what it means:
It means that we’re bouncing off to Lovetron, Lovetron,
Planet refugee.
Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh, Lovetron.
You know confusion stuff
Is still a winner on the chart.
All you witnessed saw us blown apart
It’s all right, it’s all right,
It’s all right, you fellas,
‘Cause we’re goin’ to Lovetron, Lovetron,
Our planet refugee.
Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh, Lovetron.
We’re goin’ to Lovetron, Lovetron,
Planet refugee.
Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh, Lovetron.
Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh, Lovetron.
Just wanna go to—Lovetron—oooh.
—from “Graceland,” written by Paul Simon, sung by Big Daddy.
So Sweetheart can’t come to believe the info from them she’s received. Reality blindness brings no open mindness. Their thing, well, it can’t be conceived.
It my seem corny, but I still find this funny. So is this being paranormal with reality blindness or just denial?
I feel like one of the more interesting conundrums of a world like this is ‘Where do you draw the line?’.
Like, if you lived in a ‘regular’ modern world and then learned vampires exist and then someone said ‘Hey, so do Werewolves’ would you believe that? I probably would. But it could also be wrong. If Vampires exist, why not magic or werewolves or goblins or- so on.
But really, the Groovitron teleporting them to the Mothership is like… a Tuesday for Mad Scientists.
It also depends on what your normal is to start with.
If you’re living in 16th century London, and someone finally convinces you that rhinoceroses aren’t just unlikely traveller’s tales, you might well think “Okay, then why not dragons?”
If you’re living in 16th century Lisbon, and grew up knowing there’s a rhino in King Manuel’s menagerie, this doesn’t affect your opinion of dragons at all.
Well, I mean, the Yeti has a scientific classification now. But when people say “why not the Loch Ness Monster”, scientists say no
The Loch Ness Monster has been officially classified. It’s a whale wang.
I’d say that she’s like Piro from Mega Tokyo. It’s not that she’s blind to the paranormal but she avoids it as much as possible.
Yeah, the way reality blindness works, she’d not have registered it at all. This is “I know what you said, and I hate it”.
Not necessarily. Dave’s brother couldn’t even see Artie, but he could hear Dave talking about him. He just thought Dave was crazy.
It was established long ago that everyone has some degree of reality blindness. It all depends on where your own brain draws the line of “too weird to accept”.
So where on the line does that put Ginny. She’s always claimed to be a scientist that straightens out the silly and the mad. But Ginny was completely immune to the epidemic of reality blindness that followed the possums departure on the Groovetron.
As I have repeatedly said, I firmly believe that she is fully Mad. She just doesn’t realize it because she’s been that way since she was a year old. That’s how she can actually comprehend the work of other Mad scientists in the first place.
It seemed to me that if Dr. Lee were normal, she wouldn’t even notice Nick. But if Dr. Lee were normal, nothing that’s happened to him of late would have happened to him at all.
Tell my *what* that? Panel 1, Boss!
I think it was “Don’t try to tell me….”
Poor Sweetheart! She was born to be Mundane, but the world won’t let her. 🙂
Or – just maybe! – Sweetheart’s BS detector is on the money? After all, they did mention Pavane just before the Groovitron “exploded”. It would be simpler to fake than achieve.
What if this is an elaborate con by Pavane to trick Tigerlilly into some rash action?
The lampshade is so big it could be seen from space.
It’s dialog like this that that keeps me coming back!
Skin Horse often veers from what I might call “SFnal mad science” to “fantasy mad science.” Robots and genetically engineered animals are standard SF. Zombies are more of an edge case, although I’d consider Unity (Nanomachines) passes the sniff test (hah) better than zombie-virus-which-does-stuff-no-virus-could-possibly-do zombies.
And then there’s stuff like being able to summon personally themed clothes out of thin air and build teleporters out of clothes hangers, which is simply magical. (I require at least some AA batteries, aluminum foil, and a carefully angled mirror as well as the clothes hangers before I’ll accept it as Super Science rather than sorcery.)
Not that I _mind_: it’s comedy, and you really can’t have stuff like Steampunk Mad Science without fantasy elements. But I can certainly see how Sweetheart finds some forms of mad science more mentally distressing than others.
Ah, BMunro, be not so quick to discount Clarke’s Law!
A pocket Bag of Holding is no more magical than a TARDIS. Constructing a tesseract from coat hangers requires merely finding a geometric form echoing the spring’s torsion in the ZPF, warping spacetime (e=mcc=√i, even if only a 3D shadow of a 4D construct). A healing draught can be easily formulated using nanites, as you point out.
Earth is currently at only a Stage 3 (of 9) technological level. Illustrative examples: The Federation is a mix of Stage 4 and 5. The Gallifreyans are Stage 6, while the Organians are Stage 7. The Oans are Stage 8 while Stage 9 achieves direct reality manipulation (Q).
What scale are you measuring these techological levels on? (There appear to be several, mutually contradictory scales out there)
Just something I made up myself decades ago.
Your mouth may be saying technobabble, but all I hear is “a Wizard did it.” 🙂
What you’re describing is the difference between Hard and Soft sci-fi. Hard sci-fi works based on actual science (or “sane” science in this setting) whereas Soft sci-fi runs on “I reject your reality and substitute my own” logic (mad science obviously).
There’s a page on tvtropes called “The Sliding Scale of Sci-fi Hardness”.
And yeah, Soft sci-fi works way better for comedy than Hard, since it runs entirely on author fiat.
Well, I mean, we do see Tip’s luggage
I’m referring to Tigerlily Jones. http://skin-horse.com/comic/todays-comic-191/
Dr. Jones is a special case. Her brilliance is on a level that discomfits Sparks while her Belief approaches Stage 9.
Well. Zombie virus is based rather uncomfortably closely to leprosy + rabies. The only thing really unrealistic about it is how fast it infects. The shambling, jerky walk and using more of one’s muscle power than the body usually allows (because rabies doesn’t care if the ligaments tear) is realistic. Body falling apart while still moving is leprosy. Trying to bite others is rabies. Rabid things are afraid of water (still unexplained), which doesn’t usually show up in zombie media, but the rest… It’s creepy because it’s mostly realistic.
Tony and Merc have several different “things” going on. Hard to pick just one.
I love a webcomic ,whose commentators can be just as entertaining as the webcomic itself. Thanks
Indeed! Skin Horse is one of the few comics I follow that I actually religiously read the comments, because SH fans are awesome!
I want a shirt that says “Please Ignore My Zombie Girlfriend.”
+1. And congrats, jdreyfuss, on calling Tony and Merc’s astral journey!
Hey, Unity got her churros!
I actually know a lot of people who are so open-minded their brains fell out.
Yeah, I can see how that could happen.
Our doctrine Cosmognothics
Was shining like a supernova star
We are following
Through the funk
In the middle of the old New War
We’re going to Lovetron, Lovetron,
Planet refugee.
Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh, Lovetron.
We came back to tell you we’re gone.
Oh, as if we didn’t see that.
As if we didn’t see the Groovitron
As if we never noticed the big explosion.
We’re going to Lovetron, Lovetron,
Planet refugee.
Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh, Lovetron.
There’s a walking moving building
Whose rooms are known to have some trampolines.
And sometimes when it’s fuzzy, fractured,
Or trampled into town, we say,
This is what it means:
It means that we’re bouncing off to Lovetron, Lovetron,
Planet refugee.
Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh, Lovetron.
You know confusion stuff
Is still a winner on the chart.
All you witnessed saw us blown apart
It’s all right, it’s all right,
It’s all right, you fellas,
‘Cause we’re goin’ to Lovetron, Lovetron,
Our planet refugee.
Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh, Lovetron.
We’re goin’ to Lovetron, Lovetron,
Planet refugee.
Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh, Lovetron.
Uh-huh-huh, uh-huh, Lovetron.
Just wanna go to—Lovetron—oooh.
—from “Graceland,” written by Paul Simon, sung by Big Daddy.
To paraphrase Douglas Adams, reality is lot more fluid than most people think.
Sweetheart will probably be wrong here, but “I won’t be so open-minded my brains fall out” is my new favorite quote.
So Sweetheart can’t come to believe the info from them she’s received. Reality blindness brings no open mindness. Their thing, well, it can’t be conceived.
Their thing is weird but AWESOME!