Fun with science! Tuesday

[what_the_shock]

Miguel rushed into the Danger Shop a little late and waved at the students. “Hey. Had a world to save.” Sometimes these things happened.

He hopped up on the desk. “So, introductions! Tell me who you are, where you’re from, a bit about yourself, and what science is to you. Not necessarily philosophically, though hey, feel free. I mean - horse and buggy, electricity, holonet, what?”

Comments

Re: Introduce yourself!

[what_the_shock]

At this point, Miguel was listening with a sort of horrified fascination.

"Why would we want ants to ride these things?"

Re: Introduce yourself!

[howareyanow]

"Just because we can," said Wayne, nodding slightly, squinting a lot, "...mostleh. And it'd probably be nice, for the ants."

His brow furrowed for a moment and he leveled that squinting gaze seriously on Miguel. "Let's say you're an ant coming up in a tough neighbourhood,"" he proposed, "never caught a break in yer life. All of a sudden, there's a team of scientist ouwtside yer door with a SeaDoo. Now, look me in the eye right now and tell me you don't ride it. How many opportunities like that you think the ant's gonna get? Not many. First ant in the colony to ride a SeaDoo; it's his legacy. They'll be talkin' about that ant inter-colonial. Fire ants wouldn't fuck with him. He rides SeaDoos."

Not that he'd thought about it much or anything like that.

Re: Introduce yourself!

[what_the_shock]

"You realize if an ant gets capsized, it'll probably die before it makes land?"

Hey, Miguel could go with this.

Re: Introduce yourself!

[howareyanow]

"Well, sure," Wayne agreed. "It'd still take a lot of concentration from an ant. Like that ant's gonna fall off....two or three times when he gets going. So it's just trial and error. But if a team of scientists was building a SeaDoo for an ant, and that team of scientists was also building a bionic thumb for the ant so's he could operate the gas, then I don't see any reason why that team of scientists couldn't figgur out some sort of...flotation apparatus for the ant. Wouldn't even need to be anything too fancy, realleh. Just, like....a life jacket....or water wings. ....fer the ant."

Re: Introduce yourself!

[what_the_shock]

"And I'm still left with, why would scientists want to do this?" Miguel asked. "Is the ant going to be working as a tiny spy, or helping construct things on the water, or do research for them? How are they going to communicate with it to accomplish any of this?"

Re: Introduce yourself!

[howareyanow]

"Why would they want to do this?" Wayne repeated the question, almost sounding mildly offended. Almost. "I've got a better question for you, super chief: why wouldn't they? And sure, sure, why not, an ant could probably do any of those things, if needed, especially if we're getting to the point where an ant's riding a SeaDoo, and they're the scientiests, they can fucking figgur ouwt how to communicate with it, can't they? And just imagine how that's gotta feel for the ant, too. How many more opportunities like that you think the ant's gonna get?"

He paused long enough to let him consider it.

"...Not many. What's the alternative? Work on an antfarm? That ant's got a life on the ouwtside. He's gonna live it, goddamit. His hours might have been cut, he might have mouths to feed, you don't know."

Re: Introduce yourself!

[what_the_shock]

"Linguistics is different from engineering, although I suppose if you could get a telepathic helmet miniaturized, that might work. It's hard enough to get reliable telepathic circuitry at human size, though."

Why was he even thinking about this?

"As far as 'why not', even most scientists tend not to do things just for science. That doesn't pay for itself. If nobody's financing the ant research, and your scientists aren't independently wealthy," looking at you, Stark, "it's probably not going to happen."

Re: Introduce yourself!

[howareyanow]

Why you gotta do that, Miguel? Why you gotta go and crush a boy's simple, whole-hearted dreams to one day have ants...riding SeaDoos, huh?

The expression that took over Wayne's face right then could only be described as a pout.

Italicized and everything.

"Well," he said, a moment after that pout, "not with that attitude, it won't."

Re: Introduce yourself!

[what_the_shock]

Miguel shrugged. "There's a reason most science's corporate in my world."