The Lonely Galaxy Megathread (comments encouraged)

[lurker]

After that bit of melancholy, here's another stupid story idea: Ron plays a TTRPG with a group of friends on a regular basis, he invites Lodestar, and Iris joins in as well. The two aliens play a paladin and cleric, as you would expect. Shenanigans ensue, possibly involving a prophecy about "not being slain by mortal hands". Cue the two quadrupeds exploiting the fact that they have four feet.

[lurker]

I have the germ of another character incubating in my mind. All I have is a name and a physical description. His name is Blastpowder Blessed-guts. He's a folk hero from pre space-age yinrih culture. He's got a gun strapped to his back. He's missing a few thumbs and one eye. The eyelid is stitched shut. He's also got a chunk missing from an ear, and a few whiskers are burnt off.

He's got SOMETHING to do with gunpowder. Did he invent it? Probably not. I don't think he was one of the Cannonized Martyrs, either, although maybe he's the one who got the idea to use projectiles to try to achieve spaceflight. On the other hand, maybe he's just THAT obsessed with explosives and will not hesitate to use them at every opportunity, no matter how impractical.

He also talks like a stereotypical prospector. Other than that, I got nothin'

[lurker]

Dying one's fur began as a practical way to adapt to different environments. Hearthsiders often dye their whole coat white, or just their ears, in order to reflect more sunlight. They also may adopt a black mask pattern on their muzzle and around their eyes to prevent glare. In colder climes or on planets far from Focus, thermally absorbent black coats, whether on the whole body or just the ears, are preferred for similar reasons.

Just as Terran clothing tends to grow from practical tool to fashion statement, so too the act of dying one's fur became a means of self-expression. In particular, dying one's ears black grew from a practical way to cope with a colder climate to a fashion statement. It became so popular, in fact, that it became associated with vanity or self-absorption. Over time, vanity became stupidity, and merely dying one's ears black became having black ears at all.

While not common, naturally black ears do exist, usually accompanied by black 'socks' on the front and rear legs. Those with natural black ears became guilty by association. To be sure, black-eared yinrih weren't stigmatized any more than blonde humans are today. Bottle black ears are still quite popular in certain circles. However,those unlucky enough to be burdened with both naturally black ears and a red coat, an exceedingly rare phenotype, were cursed twice over, as they were not only stupid, but also chronically misfortunate.

While First Meeting didn't completely efface the former stigma, adopting black ears, in addition to a red coat with white countershading and a white tail tip, became popular among Terraboos who wanted to affect a vulpine appearance.

[lurker]

A bit of an update to The Farspeaker's Apprentice. I'll put it behind spoilers to save on scrolling.

---

Spoiler:

The main core of the network stretched out before me: rack upon rack of black boxes extending into the distance, their chassis scintillating with link lights blinking softly as packets rushed in and out of each interface. Meticulously bundled cables of various colors spilled forth from the racks and ran here and there along runways above my head. A cold breeze from the heat pump rustled my whiskers. Permeating this cavernous chamber was the rushing white noise of thousands of cooling fans. I turned my muzzle up, taking in the whole scene. This chamber so huge that I couldn't see the far wall, it was all but a tiny ganglion in the vast interplanetary nervous system, the body of the noosphere.

My mind wandered back to my puppyhood, to a catechism class where I was taught about the farspeakers, the ones who labored ceaselessly to maintain this network. They said that the sophonts who dwelt among the stars, whose bone is not of our bone and whose flesh is not of our flesh, that they must have internetworks of their own. Sapience, I was told, is much more likely to arise in a social species with an intrinsic need to communicate among themselves, and so a noosphere must in time fashion a body for itself as the species spreads across its homeworld and hearth star, and these sophonts find themselves needing to cast their thoughts across far flung space and deepest time. It was the Farspeakers' duty to tend to the body of our own noosphere, so that one day they could fulfill the Great Commandment by uniting these alien internetworks with our own. And now, I suppose, it was my duty as well.

I made my way to one side of the room, where a thick curtain separated the admin office from the data center. I pushed the curtain aside with my snout just enough to poke my rhinarium into the room. I smelled a lone yinrih, an older female. She must have seen at least six centuries by the scent of her. Over top her musk I detected the odor of a strong perfume, the sort that barked "leave me alone!" The roar of the machines outside became muffled by the thick cloth in the doorway as the rest of my head followed my muzzle into the office. The admin's large Hearthsider ears were silhouetted against the green glow of a terminal. Her right ear flicked as my claws clicked against the raised tile floor, and I detected a slight note of annoyance in her musk.

"You're finally here," she said, not looking away from the display. "So, the hearthkeepers pressed you into their service since you could not pay your tithe to your lighthouse."

I tilted my muzzle upward, though she didn't see my affirmation.

"We bought you," she spat the words with disgust, "for a hefty price off of those witches on Yih. They wonder why so many are wandering from the path. The Outer Belt is filling with apostates scandalized by the clergy's decadence. They blot out The Light's Truth with their sins!" she barked. "Forgive my outburst," she said more softly, "On Hearthside the faith flourishes while the slothful hierarchy allows it to rot across the rest of Focus. The Missionaries who dwell past Moonlitter are the only others who keep the old traditions."

She let out a sigh, and I could smell her trying to calm herself. "If it is any comfort to you, I detest your presence here as much as you do. We master admins prefer to keep no company. But if our holy work is to continue, we must pass down our knowledge to those whose muzzles are not silvered by age." She at last turned to face me. Her frosted snout contrasted with her sable pelage. She reared up and performed the holy greeting. "Light shine upon you, friend."

"Mistress--" I began, but she cut me off. "That's not my name! And your name isn't 'pup', or so I guess they called you on the homeworld. You will call me Seabreeze." I took a breath to speak, but she plucked the words from my throat. "I know, a strange name for a Hearthsider. A few of my dams were from Sweetwater. It is a tediously common name there, but quite refreshing here in the Nightless Desert. And you, sir, what is your name?"

I blinked all four pairs of bandpass membranes in astonishment at her deference. "It's Littlepaw."

She examined me nose to tail. "Littlepaw, eh?" Her earlier harshness had softened into a more maternal tone. "It suits you. The runt of your litter, were you?"

"Yes," I answered.

"Splendid!" she yipped. "A meager frame is an asset for a farspeaker. You'll be crawling through narrow conduit pulling cable in your tail."

My ears wilted. I had hoped that I could leave hard labor behind by becoming a Farspeaker's apprentice. Seabreeze saw my apprehensive expression and took pains to reassure me. "I won't ask of you more than you can give," she said gently. "We're not so mercantile here on Hearthside as they are on Yih. We take time to do things right, and that includes making sure you feel rested and ready. Of course you're not ready yet. You need to be trained first." She reached under the table, and giving voice to a grunt, I guessed for the weight of the machine, she pulled out a black box like the ones fastened to the racks outside. "This is an internetwork node," she said patting its metal chassis with her tail as a dam would a pup she's particularly pleased with. "You need to get comfortable with this before I turn you loose on the nodes out there. I'll give you the honor of turning it on."

I reached forward and depressed the power switch with my writing claw. The machine roared to life like a shuttle taking off. I couldn't help but pin my ears back and open my eyes wide with puppyish glee. The hearthkeepers back home would never have so much as handed me a wrench, but here I was going to be in control of that network node. It was an empowering feeling.

Seabreeze matched my expression, as though she herself were just beginning to uncover the mysteries of the noosphere again. Then she cleared her throat and her face grew solemn, and she began what sounded like a long rehearsed preachment. "The impious accuse us of obscuring plain facts behind a curtain of mysticism. We do no such thing. The noosphere is a complex and many faceted thing, and its body, which we farspeakers are charged to attend, reflects this complexity. One cannot grasp its wonder in a day, indeed, so intricate are its inner workings that no single farspeaker understands it from nose to tail."

She looked at the node now humming quietly, having finished its boot sequence, then back at me. "You're a young pup climbing his first tree. You will fall many times before you reach even the lowest branch. Each time it will hurt, but don't let the pain discourage you. I was in your paws once, too. You won't be judged by how many times you fall, but by how many times you pick yourself up, shake the dust from your fur, and start climbing again."

[lurker]

It just occurred to me that the missionaries on Earth might be out of luck when it comes to pharmaceuticals. They likely brought the typical stuff like anti-inflammatory drugs, pain killers, antibiotics, etc, not to mention Sunshine's balding drugs, but I have a hard time thinking they'd still be good after 250 years. Then again maybe they have some means of preserving stuff for that long.

I think it would be funny if Sunshine slowly got fuzzier over the course of the year.

They probably have a store of whatever fungus they use to grow leasemeat from, though, and could rely on that if needed, but food is a moot point since they land on Earth and are biochemically compatible with our food.

[Arayaz]

It just occurred to me that the missionaries on Earth might be out of luck when it comes to pharmaceuticals. They likely brought the typical stuff like anti-inflammatory drugs, pain killers, antibiotics, etc, not to mention Sunshine's balding drugs, but I have a hard time thinking they'd still be good after 250 years. Then again maybe they have some means of preserving stuff for that long.

I think it would be funny if Sunshine slowly got fuzzier over the course of the year.

They probably have a store of whatever fungus they use to grow leasemeat from, though, and could rely on that if needed, but food is a moot point since they land on Earth and are biochemically compatible with our food.

Surely they'd have brought with them the technology to synthesize pharmaceuticals, no?

[lurker]

Surely they'd have brought with them the technology to synthesize pharmaceuticals, no?

Perhaps. Keep shelf stable precursors stored that can be fabricated into usable meds on the fly.

---

In other news, I just learned that the ADHD trait of being super into one thing for a while only to suddenly abandon it is called hyperfixation. This is project is likely a result of that. I lasted a few years going hard with ham radio. That picture I posted in this thread represents an embarrassing amount of money, and those aren't even all my radios. I say that with shame rather than pride. Impulse buying is another consequence of ADHD. So on the plus side, this current obsession is VERY wallet friendly.

The sad part is that I might abandon all this someday, and feel like it was all wasted time.

Of course, oversharing is also an ADHD thing.

[Arayaz]

In other news, I just learned that the ADHD trait of being super into one thing for a while only to suddenly abandon it is called hyperfixation. This is project is likely a result of that. I lasted a few years going hard with ham radio. That picture I posted in this thread represents an embarrassing amount of money, and those aren't even all my radios. I say that with shame rather than pride. Impulse buying is another consequence of ADHD. So on the plus side, this current obsession is VERY wallet friendly.

The sad part is that I might abandon all this someday, and feel like it was all wasted time.

Of course, oversharing is also an ADHD thing.

I've become more and more convinced lately that I have ADHD or something similar. It always makes me sad to think that whatever matters to me now might not matter to me in the future. Then again, I've stuck with conlanging for several years now.

Edit: 1800 posts :0

[TBPO]

The yinrih use a dozenal numeral system. The highest place value is closest to the beginning of the line, which means the digits decrease in value going from right to left. The yinrih also use a set of symbols representing orders of magnitude similar to how we use K, M, G etc to represent thousands, millions etc. Instead of being based on powers of 1000 (or every third power of 10) they're based on powers of 1728, which is 1000 in base 12, or 1 great gross.

Not pictured is the negative sign, which is a small upper half circle placed before first digit on the midline. There is also a similar symbol to denote imaginary numbers (which the yinrih call perpendicular or orthogonal numbers) which is a small lower half circle. You can denote a negative imaginary number with a full circle.

Do yinrih have numbers that humans see as forbidden, or vice versa? For example, yinrih can accept division by zero, but consider an infinity as unexisting.

[WeepingElf]

Do yinrih have numbers that humans see as forbidden, or vice versa? For example, yinrih can accept division by zero, but consider an infinity as unexisting.

I am not lurker, but the laws of mathematics are truly universal - they hold in every conceivable universe. And these laws mandate that division by zero is forbidden. In every universe.

[TBPO]

Do yinrih have numbers that humans see as forbidden, or vice versa? For example, yinrih can accept division by zero, but consider an infinity as unexisting.

I am not lurker, but the laws of mathematics are truly universal - they hold in every conceivable universe. And these laws mandate that division by zero is forbidden. In every universe.

Yes, division by zero do not exist in any universe, but in the same way that negative numbers do not exist. Every mathatical theory that isn't related to physical world is purely hypothetical, and most can be potentially useful. The most groundbreaking theories, not only mathematical, say things that are considered as forbidden, but only in mathematics this teories can agree with previous, because abstract part of math can be streched infinitely and we must just add new type of numbers, like negative or imaginary, to make things work. In antique times philosophers were saying that negative numbers are forbidden, and now they are used everywhere. Humans see abstract math in one way, other species in another. Hunans in one epoch see things in other way than in other epoch.

[lurker]

The yinrih use a dozenal numeral system. The highest place value is closest to the beginning of the line, which means the digits decrease in value going from right to left. The yinrih also use a set of symbols representing orders of magnitude similar to how we use K, M, G etc to represent thousands, millions etc. Instead of being based on powers of 1000 (or every third power of 10) they're based on powers of 1728, which is 1000 in base 12, or 1 great gross.

Not pictured is the negative sign, which is a small upper half circle placed before first digit on the midline. There is also a similar symbol to denote imaginary numbers (which the yinrih call perpendicular or orthogonal numbers) which is a small lower half circle. You can denote a negative imaginary number with a full circle.

Do yinrih have numbers that humans see as forbidden, or vice versa? For example, yinrih can accept division by zero, but consider an infinity as unexisting.

Not that I'm aware of at the moment, but they do refer to what humans call "imaginary numbers" as "lateral numbers".

[TBPO]

The yinrih use a dozenal numeral system. The highest place value is closest to the beginning of the line, which means the digits decrease in value going from right to left. The yinrih also use a set of symbols representing orders of magnitude similar to how we use K, M, G etc to represent thousands, millions etc. Instead of being based on powers of 1000 (or every third power of 10) they're based on powers of 1728, which is 1000 in base 12, or 1 great gross.

Not pictured is the negative sign, which is a small upper half circle placed before first digit on the midline. There is also a similar symbol to denote imaginary numbers (which the yinrih call perpendicular or orthogonal numbers) which is a small lower half circle. You can denote a negative imaginary number with a full circle.

Do yinrih have numbers that humans see as forbidden, or vice versa? For example, yinrih can accept division by zero, but consider an infinity as unexisting.

Not that I'm aware of at the moment, but they do refer to what humans call "imaginary numbers" as "lateral numbers".

What do you mean?

[lurker]

What do you mean?

"imaginary" numbers are what you get when you take the square root of a negative number. More precisely, imaginary numbers are multiples of the imaginary unit, which is the answer to the equation x^2 = -1. They're often conceptualized as a number line perpendicular to the normal "real" numbers, forming a complex number "plane".

They're used in electronics a lot. I had to work with imaginary and complex numbers to get my ham license. Impedance is a complex number, with a resistance component that's a real number added to a reactance component that's an imaginary number to get a complex impedance. When you see an impedance rating on speakers or headphones that's actually the absolute value of the true complex impedance.

Yinrih denote an imaginary number by preceding it with a lower half circle. (A pic is forthcoming).

[lurker]

Here are the negative and lateral (imaginary) number signs. A negative sign is an upper half circle placed before the number. A lateral sign is a lower half circle placed before the number. A full circle indicates a negative lateral number.



Another tidbit: Yinrih divide the natural numbers {0,1,2,3...} into two sets. One is called "natural" as before, and includes the number zero. They also have "tangible numbers" which are the set of all positive integers {1,2,3,4...}

I like math, but math doesn't like me.

[lurker]

I was asked what I'd think if I turned into a yinrih. Here are my thoughts:

Pros:

+ Extra thumbs. I could open jars with one hand (paw) because I could use a finger and my inner thumb to twist the lid, and the rest of my fingers and outer thumb to hold the jar.

+ Prehensile tail: Do I even need to elaborate? It's as dexterous as a tail could possibly be. It has enough tensile strength to support my weight, and just enough compressive strength to act as a cane when walking on my hind feet. I'd be prehending the crap out of everything with that bad boy.

+ 2 extra li'l grabbies (my rear paws).

+ Built-in writing utensils. Random guy: "Do you have a pen?" Me, holding up my two writing claws: "All the dang time! Oh, you want to BORROW it? Sorry I'm not amputating my fingers." And you better believe I'd be sniffing my own ink. I love the smell of rain.

+ All the extra colors I can see thanks to my much wider visible spectrum. Oh, and I could actually see, too. That's a plus.

+ Built for an arboreal lifestyle. I'd brachiate all over the place making silly gibbon noises, or as near as my cynoid vocal tract would allow.

+ Prodigious sense of smell and hearing: Cancer detection let's go!

Cons:

- Covered in fur: I hate it when my hair covers my ears, and I hate having facial hair. Being covered in hair all over would be a sensory over-stimulation nightmare.

- Whiskers: Same as above, but on steroids.

- Wet nose: I don't think I'd like having a slimy mucus membrane at the tip of my face. Yes I know it helps with the sense of smell, but I'd dislike it all the same.

- Claws: With the exception of the writing claws, I think having sharp claws would be hard to manage.

- Humans trying to pet me: get your paws off me you dirty ape! Do you want an assault charge? because that's how you get an assault charge. This would only be a problem right after First Contact, though. I think after a while humans would wise up to the fact that yinrih aren't dogs and don't like being touched.

- No sweat glands: No more persistence hunting :(

Mixed:

~ My hands are now also my feet. Boo! (but on the plus side, my feet are now also hands, yay!)

~ Longer lifespan: NGL living for seven centuries would be both awesome and terrible.

~ Can't speak English anymore, but now I can finally speak Commonthroat!

~ Not being able to go unconscious. If my chronic insomnia translated into a difficulty going into or remaining in torpor, I think I'd go nuts. On the plus side, I'd no longer have the existential dread of wondering whether the me that wakes up in the morning is the same me that went to sleep, or just an exact copy that has the same memories.

On the whole, I'm happy to be a member of H. sapiens, but being a V. fidelis would be cool in its own way.

[TBPO]

What do you mean?

"imaginary" numbers are what you get when you take the square root of a negative number. More precisely, imaginary numbers are multiples of the imaginary unit, which is the answer to the equation x^2 = -1. They're often conceptualized as a number line perpendicular to the normal "real" numbers, forming a complex number "plane".

They're used in electronics a lot. I had to work with imaginary and complex numbers to get my ham license. Impedance is a complex number, with a resistance component that's a real number added to a reactance component that's an imaginary number to get a complex impedance. When you see an impedance rating on speakers or headphones that's actually the absolute value of the true complex impedance.

Yinrih denote an imaginary number by preceding it with a lower half circle. (A pic is forthcoming).

I know it all, but... Oh, I now understand. I didn't wrote about imaginary numbers because you already mentioned about they and I don't want to make it non-canonical or something.

I was asked what I'd think if I turned into a yinrih. Here are my thoughts:

Pros:

+ Extra thumbs. I could open jars with one hand (paw) because I could use a finger and my inner thumb to twist the lid, and the rest of my fingers and outer thumb to hold the jar.

+ Prehensile tail: Do I even need to elaborate? It's as dexterous as a tail could possibly be. It has enough tensile strength to support my weight, and just enough compressive strength to act as a cane when walking on my hind feet. I'd be prehending the crap out of everything with that bad boy.

+ 2 extra li'l grabbies (my rear paws).

+ Built-in writing utensils. Random guy: "Do you have a pen?" Me, holding up my two writing claws: "All the dang time! Oh, you want to BORROW it? Sorry I'm not amputating my fingers." And you better believe I'd be sniffing my own ink. I love the smell of rain.

+ All the extra colors I can see thanks to my much wider visible spectrum. Oh, and I could actually see, too. That's a plus.

+ Built for an arboreal lifestyle. I'd brachiate all over the place making silly gibbon noises, or as near as my cynoid vocal tract would allow.

+ Prodigious sense of smell and hearing: Cancer detection let's go!

Cons:

- Covered in fur: I hate it when my hair covers my ears, and I hate having facial hair. Being covered in hair all over would be a sensory over-stimulation nightmare.

- Whiskers: Same as above, but on steroids.

- Wet nose: I don't think I'd like having a slimy mucus membrane at the tip of my face. Yes I know it helps with the sense of smell, but I'd dislike it all the same.

- Claws: With the exception of the writing claws, I think having sharp claws would be hard to manage.

- Humans trying to pet me: get your paws off me you dirty ape! Do you want an assault charge? because that's how you get an assault charge. This would only be a problem right after First Contact, though. I think after a while humans would wise up to the fact that yinrih aren't dogs and don't like being touched.

- No sweat glands: No more persistence hunting :(

Mixed:

~ My hands are now also my feet. Boo! (but on the plus side, my feet are now also hands, yay!)

~ Longer lifespan: NGL living for seven centuries would be both awesome and terrible.

~ Can't speak English anymore, but now I can finally speak Commonthroat!

~ Not being able to go unconscious. If my chronic insomnia translated into a difficulty going into or remaining in torpor, I think I'd go nuts. On the plus side, I'd no longer have the existential dread of wondering whether the me that wakes up in the morning is the same me that went to sleep, or just an exact copy that has the same memories.

On the whole, I'm happy to be a member of H. sapiens, but being a V. fidelis would be cool in its own way.

Do you will write a story in which you wake up as yinrih in real world?

[WeepingElf]

Do yinrih have numbers that humans see as forbidden, or vice versa? For example, yinrih can accept division by zero, but consider an infinity as unexisting.

I am not lurker, but the laws of mathematics are truly universal - they hold in every conceivable universe. And these laws mandate that division by zero is forbidden. In every universe.

Yes, division by zero do not exist in any universe, but in the same way that negative numbers do not exist.

No, it is not the same way. I am not a mathematician, but it is apparently impossible to extend the concept of number in a consistent way such that an equation like 0*x = 1 (which is equivalent to division by zero) becomes soluble. At least, no mathematician has ever proposed such an extension, and probably not due to a lack of trying.

[Creyeditor]

That's not true. Mathematicians have come up with systens that allow division by zero. They just lack many interesting and practical properties, IIRC. It's called wheel theory.

[lurker]

Do you will write a story in which you wake up as yinrih in real world?

No don't think so.

I wouldn't mind living on Hearthside though. No more seasonal affective disorder!

Since Hearthside is a tidally locked planet, I don't think it would have a significant Coriolis effect. That would make it viable to bore tunnels though the planet to rapidly move between antipodal points, like a high-tech version of digging to China. This could mitigate some of the issues of living in constant sunlight or constant darkness.

The slow rotation also means no magnetic field. I may ignore this lore-wise, or I may try to explain it as they have a constellation of satellites generating an artificial magnetosphere, or they have synthetic aerosols in the upper atmosphere that both lower the amount of insolation to make the climate on the day side more livable and block solar wind... somehow.