Unofficial Heroes NBC Forum and Message Boards

VeryBadOmen · Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2007 9:07 pm Post subject:

Hey thanks for agreeing with my part. Yeah it really seems that phasing can do something to a person. As what happens with any phased in object, the area is "warped" and the person is able to pass through. But seeing as there hasn't been much phasing seen, well used in a variety of ways, there is much room for speculation...

But, I think we should just drop the whole lung thing altogether. Because most of us aren't scientists and everyone is getting confused. You just love creating theories, even about scientific facts, like lungs Popkorn lol. Thanks for bringing up the facts Frying_Man.

popkorn615 · Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2007 9:22 pm Post subject:

Ooo, I totally missed it, Frying. Sorry! I'll check it out later tonight (I don't want you to think I'm ignoring it, lol). I've got to rush out for an Xmas Eve party now... I'M LATE!!! Cool

obsidianflame · Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 2:12 am Post subject:

*looks around*

Wow, I inspired a thread?
...Awesome! lol

Um, I think everything FM said sounds good. Don't know that there's much I can add to that, but on the other hand, Pops was just referring to the lung as a whole. It does look rather balloon-ish, since it's filled with air and all.

Honestly, though, I never really thought too deeply about what DL grabbed when he phased into her. I just figured he fiddled around with something and she blacked out. My "suspension of disbelief" switch had flipped on by that point. Wink

popkorn615 · Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 5:03 am Post subject:

Blufyre77 · Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 8:59 pm Post subject:

I have read OSC's Ender and Bean books, Frying Man, and I love them, but I think you might be misrepresenting the theory just a little. Philotics basically says that all Matter and Energy is really just information, and is all made up of "Philotic strings" that "resonate" to make matter as we know it in this universe. these philotic strings not only cause matter and energy to exist (and as a footnote, all matter is made up of energy anyway) but also "twine" with each other as the matter that they comprise is grouped with other matter, ex> neutrons and protons in an atom being part of one whole, so their strings will group together as well to make the atom be represented as a rope. Living organisms also have their whole body's particle's string's twined up, but also have a ruling philotic string called an aiua (Sanskrit for "life") that could also be called a soul. All of the philotic strings originated in the "Outside" a place with no dimension (no space or time)in which there are an infinite number of strings. A living organism's willpower is actually enough to affect the universe through the action of their aiua, and an aiua can actually bring forth matter from the Outside, but the extremely limiting rule of this is that that aiua must be strong enough (because they come in differing strengths) to be able to fully know everything about what they are bringing into existence. Therefore this can only be done by a being with god-like power (such as God himself, who is the supremely powerful aiua that created everything and exists outside of time). The god-like being in the Ender series, Jane, is a very huge aiua originally called into existence to bridge the gap between humans and the insectoid aliens called Formics, but grew and connected with the universe's computers and gained enough brain power to be able to bring people (and objects) to the Outside and back In to a different location

Frying_Man · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 4:35 am Post subject:

Blufyre, you summed up the philotic theory much more completely than I did, and you're right that I misrepresented it a little. I absolutely concede that most of the additional powers I suggested DL should have had might not be possible without a Jane-like consciousness. To avoid going off-topic, let's say that my theory is NOT strictly based on philotics, but is a similar theory. (I guess what I was thinking was that DL might have enough knowledge of himself, and a strong enough aiua, to continue to exist (while staying Inside) without being matter as we know it... perhaps by "slackening" the twine of his philotic strings. In the OSC books that I read, the potential for this was not discussed.)

Back on-topic, PK said:

popkorn615 · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 8:57 pm Post subject:

Geez, you're getting some rep points just for the sheer fact that I had to read your post twice over to get the gist of it!! Excellent!

I wasn't necessarily looking for a scientific explanation to DL's ability, since we know that most of the things we see on the show are scientifically inexplicable, but I like that you took it in that direction.

That watermelon experiment has gotten me interested. I may try that one day! lol

The dimensional swap theory is a cool thought! I don't necessarily think that it would be a plot hole if a part of Linderman's skin/skull were floating around in another dimension for the sole fact that we'd never find out about it in the series.

Your mentioning of holographic projection is interesting as well, Frying. However, correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't holographic projection be based on visible light? And visible light cannot travel through walls... hmm...

Here's my new thought going along the lines of scientific explanations - DL can change is body into gamma rays, or even radio waves, when 'phasing' to account for him traveling through objects (walls, doors, etc). The only problem with this, again, is the fact that we can still see him doing it, which means visible light is involved.

I think that if writers were to ever explain phasing to us, the issue of understandability would be taken into account more so than its scientific credibility, and IMO, I think that inter-dimensional travel and holographic projection might be a little too much for a typical Heroes fan to clearly understand. Time travel is one thing, but inter-dimensional travel is a whole other...

Thoughts?

Blufyre77 · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 12:27 am Post subject:

By projection I'm pretty sure he meant the existence of his matter in space as a result of the resonating strings, not turning into light. As I've said elsewhere, turning into light energy would be a pretty dangerous thing to do (e=mc^2) so that wouldn't quite work anyway.
Another scientific (and possibly even believable) way to explain this would be the quantum mechanical tunneling phenomenon. This is the probability that your electrons are not actually orbiting (or rather, spastically rattling) around your atoms, but are farther off and so cannot interact with the electrons of your surroundings (at least this is how I understand it to work. a more complete explanation is given in James Kakalios' The Physics of Superheroes.) this would allow you to slide past the atoms of your surroundings just like DL. The problem is that for a person of DL's mass, having all of his electrons do this at once is extremely unlikely, probably not happening for even a second in the entire life of the universe. DL's power, then, would be the increase of this probability to the point of certainty, however he does it (if we knew, it wouldn't be super, would it?). When his electrons get back in place, it would force the atoms of his surroundings away once more, and displace them. Mr. Green

Oh yeah! Not my idea, but I can still feel smart!

obsidianflame · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:01 am Post subject:

Blufyre77 · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 8:52 pm Post subject:

Of course, no matter how it is explained, you still have problems of DL being not being able to breath, think, speak, or be seen. Having your electrons off somewhere would mean you couldn't stay together, be seen, breath, walk, think (no electrical signals) and such. But oh well, everything's going to have some problem like that.
Another interesting tidbit is that apparently (according to James Kakalios, Physics PhD) youi would not be affected by gravity when tunneling. I'm not sure how this works, which means I probably misunderstood the tunneling process somehow Confused

. Which means that DL could "fly" (but not really) but jumping and turning on his power, continuing to glide upward through the air. To come back down, he would turn his power off until gravity starts him downward again and turn it on, turning it off when he finally reaches the ground. He needs to have his power off to change his direction, which makes going through flaming buildings a bit iffy.