Message-ID: <20020206194727.44741.qmail@web11101.mail.yahoo.com> Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2002 11:47:27 -0800 (PST) From: Brian Welch Subject: Re: Suggestions for A!MS Technical FAQ To: megami@ml.usagi.org In-Reply-To: <20020204182021.75737.qmail@web11106.mail.yahoo.com> Reply-To: megami@ML.usagi.org X-ML-archive: http://www.win.ne.jp/~doi/ML/ Precedence: bulk Critiqueing with my own post, here! > --- Edward Chang wrote: > > However, can that 2 dimensional image do much to > > affect > > us while we are looking at it from 3 dimensional > > space? > > Of course not. Likewise, there is very little > anyone attacking in 3 dimensional space can do to > > significantly harm Belldandy. Even if her 3 > > dimensional > > form were destroyed, she would simply regenerate > it since she has to constantly do so anyway. Of > course, > > Belldandy isn't completely immune to events in 3 > > dimensional space. Remember how she gets drunk > from > > cola? Little unexpected vulnerabilities seem to be > a part of goddesses and demons alike. And this behavior is what I began wondering about. > > Not true. > There is a > > hyperdimensional > > maxim that says that "An n-dimensional volume > > bisects a n+1-dimensional > > volume". So in the Lord of Terror arc, if the > > superstring were 10-dimensional, > > in fact, he only needed a 9-dimensional scythe. > > Alternatively, the > > superstring could have been 11-dimensional > > (11-dimensional supergravity > > does exist), in which case it would have truly > have had to been 10-dimensional. > > I see your point about my 2-D vs 3-D analogy. I'll > use > something else. However, unless SP/DH really messed > up > in the translation of the chapter where Belldandy > explains how this works, it seems Fujishima is > pretty > clear on how he sees this point of extra-dimensional > beings appearing in 3-D space. The Flatland analogy > is > interesting, but if Belldandy is 10 dimensional then > she is n+6 dimensional and the point is moot. ^_^ After I wrote this, I got to wondering about my flippant dismissal of the effect of actions in one dimensionality vs. that in another. If an n dimensional volume bisects an n+1 dimensional volume in a plane, and similarly a point with n vs. n+2 dimensions, then maybe the rule would hold past n+2 and we would have some kind of quantum-like analogy between n and n + 6. This might explain stuff like Urd getting drunk off sake while it doesn't affect Belldandy, who gets drunk off cola instead. Unexpected, freaky stuff like that. > > 2. The second kind of attack is the spell. While > > less > > spectacular and requiring more time and effort on > > Belldandy's part, it is virtually unstoppable by > > anything in the universe. This is because spells > in > > AMG > > are actually programs running on Yggdrasil. When > she > > forms a spell, Belldandy is actually writing a > > program > > on Yggdrasil. In fact, spells are often called > > programs > > in AMG. Since Yggdrasil can change the universe to > > look > > like or act like anything it wants, nothing in > this > > universe can resist one of Belldandy's spells any > > more > > than the image on your TV screen can resist when > the video signal begins sending a new scene. Let's > > consider an example. Belldandy is confronted with a > character > > who is capable of blowing up the entire planet. > > Belldandy, of course, thinks this would be a bad > > thing and tells Yggdrasil that the character should > become a > > turnip. Yggdrasil tells the superstring, and > voila! > > Instant turnip. Not a turnip capable of destroying > a planet (unless Belldandy defined it as such), but > a plain old, everyday turnip. There is no possible > > defense to such an attack unless the character can > > also > > control the superstring and tell it that they are > > not, after all, a turnip. > > > > I think this is an oversimplification of things. > > First, > > there is no indication that Yggdrasil is superior > to the universe; just because it's outside the > universe doesn't > > mean it can change it to its will, much like how > we three- > > dimensional beings cannot manifest two-dimensional > > planes however we wish. Didn't address this the first time through. Since the superstring IS the universe, and Yggdrasil can control the superstring, then Yggdrasil (or, more correctly, those who control Yggdrasil, i.e. Belldandy & co.) can do anything they darn well please with the universe. The only limitation is the degree to which a god/goddess/demon can exert that control. Given what we know from Belldandy's teaching of Skuld it isn't that easy to formulate the program and get it to reduce friction to zero in a mecha or float a rock. Brian W.