#function of science fiction

[postersbykeith]

[victusinveritas]

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION (1987 to 1994) - Behind the Scenes

[annabelle--cane]

in isolation I think it's fine as a writing move for sasha and melanie to misattribute people weird to them at their Spooky Jobs as being because of misogyny, that is a reasonable conclusion for those characters to make when they are unaware of the Spooky Reasons that people don't want them involved, but alas it leads to this weird thing I see sometimes where fans get boiling mad at these characters and start saying "this stupid bitch thinks she's experiencing discrimination in the workplace when akshually she's being iced out for completely logical reasons due to her lack of skills, something she might realize if she weren't so self-centered with such a massive victim complex." like guys. you don't actually need to say this.

[not-poignant]

Hi!

Do you write stories for your characters or characters for your stories?

Thank you!

Sending good vibes your way 💛

Hi anon,

I've always been a character driven writer. And even if I have the seed of a plot (like, one sentence), nothing happens until I have the characters to participate in that plot and drive it forward.

There are authors who are plot forward, I am absolutely character forward. A lot of my stories are more character studies than anything. And the genre most of my stuff falls into is 'psychological (insert conventional genre here)' (psychological romance, psychological fantasy etc.) because it focuses so heavily on deep psychological issues etc. within the characters and prioritises that above everything else.

I do like interesting plots, but for me personally, I prefer when most of that is created by the characters themselves. I feel like this is also pretty obvious in my stories! If you know what to look for, the characters themselves are constantly generating the plot/s we read, through their responses to events outside of their control, and to each other through their own actions. A lot of my stories could not exist without the characters creating them through determination, stupidity, fear, strength etc.

[themyscirah]

Reading shit comics kind of sucks but at least I get the satisfaction of proving my own point w this

[omohole]

i am frothing at the mouth writing about plant biology with reference to existing species on earth. i gotta make a diagram or something to share my thoughts im losing it

[a-typical]

Superposition

A ‘motto’ at the core of the enigma that is quantum reality, is that what we see when we look at the world is seeming very different from what reality is. Take an atom, the classical view most of us have is a planetary type system with an electron circling a central proton/neutron. Almost all art and graphical diagrams of atoms reinforce this simple representation when in reality it works as a quantum electron wave function, and the best we can do is predict a probability of seeing an electron somewhere with a particular velocity.  Superposition is a key aspect of quantum physics that states subatomic particles appear to exist in multiple different states simultaneously and not as the orbiting electron image you have in your head from High School, – which is a child-like stick figure compared to the actual complexity of atomic quantum mechanics. Superposition is the key to many new quantum algorithms.

[princessaffirms]

you don’t hope to shift — you COLLAPSE the WAVE FUNCTION. 🍎✨

the SCIENCE of reality shifting/law of assumption

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is there any SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE that reality shifting is real? what about the law of assumption? you might be surprised by how much QUANTUM PHYSICS already aligns with the shifting/loa concepts you know and love.

in quantum mechanics, there’s this core concept called WAVE FUNCTION COLLAPSE, first introduced by the copenhagen interpretation. it says that particles like electrons or photons don’t exist in one set state — instead, they exist in a state of SUPERPOSITION, meaning all possible states at once. but the moment they are observed, the wave function collapses into a SINGLE OUTCOME (zeilinger, 1999).

Figure 3. The Copenhagen Interpretation: Wave Function Collapse (World Science Association, 2020).

before observation, there is NO FIXED STATE. reality exists as an infinite, limitless wave of probabilities. and the observer’s awareness is what selects one of those possibilities and collapses it into experience (zeilinger, 1999). this doesn’t just tweak physics. it REDEFINES what we call reality.

and in quantum mechanics? this isn’t just hopeful theorizing.

this is experimentally proven FACT.

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🤍✨ THE DOUBLE SLIT EXPERIMENT

this experiment is currently one of the CLEAREST PROOFS of how observation determines outcomes. when particles like electrons are fired through two slits without being observed, they act like waves — creating an interference pattern. they behave as if they went through both slits at once (arndt et al., 1999).

but the moment you observe which slit they go through, the interference disappears. the particle behaves like a solid object and chooses one path. the act of observation alone changes the result (arndt et al., 1999). this collapse is not metaphorical — it literally happens.

^ a visual of this experiment! courtesy of tumblr <3

this experiment is truly powerful because it physically DEMONSTRATES how conscious measurement collapses potential into outcome. aka, HOW YOU CONSCIOUSLY SELECT THE REALITY YOU EXPERIENCE!

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🤍✨ REALITY SHIFTING = WAVE FUNCTION COLLAPSE

this is what reality shifting and the law of assumption point to. you’re ALWAYS FOCUSING your awareness (consciousness, identity, energy, whatever you want to call it) into ONE specific reality from an infinite quantum field (thaheld, 2005).

that INTENTIONAL ASSUMPTION collapses the wave function, making that version real for you. you don’t chase it. you don’t pull it in. you assume it’s already yours, and the quantum field reflects.

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🤍✨ BELL’S THEOREM & EXPERIMENTAL CONFIRMATION

“but what if the particles are ALREADY in a fixed state, even with no observer present?”

WELL…physicist john bell mathematically proved that NO HIDDEN VARIABLES (aka no underlying mechanics) can explain quantum behaviour, UNLESS we accept that observation itself changes outcomes.

(which is literally THE BASIS OF SHIFTING/LOA!! 🤭)

his theory was put to the test in the ASPECT EXPERIMENTS, and the results confirmed it: entangled particles (more on quantum entanglement soon!) react to each other instantly, across vast distances, and ONLY WHEN OBSERVED (aspect, dalibard, & roger, 1982). these interactions defy space and time, and yet they STILL depend on measurement (aka observation).

“SO WHAT’S THE IMPLICATION OF THIS?” 🤨

form doesn’t exist until it’s consciously interacted with. MEANING: realities don’t “lock in” until your awareness CHOOSES one.

　 . ★⋆. ࿐࿔　✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.ੈ✧̣̇˳·˖

🤍✨ WHAT THIS MEANS FOR SHIFTING + LOA

so when we say reality shifting and loa are real, we’re not talking fiction — we’re talking PHYSICS. the universe literally doesn’t finalize outcomes until you observe them. your assumption is the observation. your inner state is the collapse (chalmers & mcqueen, 2021).

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🤍✨ FINAL THOUGHTS?

this isn’t “woo”. this is physics.

the universe is built on PROBABILITIES, and you are the one collapsing the wave function. every assumption, every shift of identity is a quantum-level decision.

your chosen reality is always waiting. so which version are you READY to assume?

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i tried my best to simplify this info so it’s more easily digestible, but as always i recommend doing your own research and reading up on the sources listed below if you’re interested in more! i hope this post helped bring you some insights and clarity. 🫶

love and light always <3

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🍎✨ REFERENCES

feynman, r. p., leighton, r. b., & sands, m. l. (1965). The Feynman lectures on physics: Vol. 3 Quantum mechanics. Addison-Wesley.

aspect, a., dalibard, j., & roger, g. (1982). Experimental test of Bell’s inequalities using time‐varying analyzers. Physical Review Letters, 49(25), 1804–1807. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.49.1804

zeilinger, a. (1999). A foundational principle for quantum mechanics. Foundations of Physics, 29(4), 631–643. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018820410908

arndt, m., et al. (1999). Wave–particle duality of C60 molecules. Nature, 401(6754), 680–682. https://doi.org/10.1038/44348

thaheld, f. h. (2005). Does consciousness really collapse the wave function? BioSystems, 81(2), 113–123. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0303264705000237

chalmers, d. j., & mcqueen, k. j. (2021). Consciousness and the collapse of the wave function. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.02314

a study on the interaction between human consciousness and artificial intelligence in refik anadol’s quantum memories: the creation of quantum memories by the many worlds interpretation of quantum physics – scientific figure on researchgate. (2020). world science association. available from: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Copenhagen-Interpretation-Wave-Function-Collapse-World-Science-Association-2020_fig2_380334190

[structures-of-perspective]

The greatest lie ever told was that lies don't exist. Well that's a bit of a lie, but how? As if i could say. And perhaps also it's just yet another metaphor, an asymetric characterization which has no effect on the truth of what it refers to, effected by it but not so much in the reverse, only insofaras it is inaccurately representing that thing which it points to as being (essentially) what it is, whether explicitly or not, directly or not, or from any way it is conveyed.

It describes, for a definition, as any may be or contain lies. Definitions don't determine truth, except to the extents to which defining impacts subsequent interactions, only under such influences do definitions make truth. If any words guide my actions, for example, they become realer than they were by doing more than just saying, but the critical difference there is still me and my own interpretations, for however observant I might be or not, rather than to attribute any supposed corporeal effects of the incorporeality of thought as being supernatural consciousness(es), which is an unfortunately common byproduct of any miscalibrated sense, as when off reasoning leads one astray from an accurate understanding of reality.

To consider any observation, we each have a limited perspective. For anything we can think of, there is more to it than all of what we might consider. No one knows everything. (No one knows it all and nothing can know it all; Everything can't but for a functionless counterfactual tautology, which would necessiarily conflate knowledge with existence ['all of the stuff is different stuff! pfft', if it were, we would be observing overlapping independent realities– each accessible, each operating entirely uneffected by the other, each cohesively occupying precisely the same space ... simultaneous yet different yet equally sound- laws of nature that map onto eachother and are symetric yet irreflexive]; and certainly not absolute Nothingness, because if that actually existed then nothing would exist, and that would preclude all thought.

For all our thoughts, we can guess until the end of our days and still be significantly different from hypothetical absolute accuracy; perhaps sufficient enough to warrant questioning of any idea in a cooperative environment. Any askers are capable of asking anything they can think of and convey. It takes time and effort but planning is the heading we've been going with, so thoughts ahoy! As we try to find the most efficacious view for anything we might consider. And there's much to consider about considering.

For example, supposing that it's ever better to pretend that 'Not is So', which of these is the better way to pretend it so (supposing a bias towards- more efficiently motivating towards relevant goals): Of deviance, is it radically or barely? Of bias, is it contrarian or supportive? Of significance, is it ... ? What're the tipping points in those terms? How and why? About anything, everything, all or nothing, or anywhere inbetween? How far do we think astray from reality, in what ways, and why?

We account for such things as thoughts to clarify any rendered model of a mechanism for self improvement in any approach (rigorously formulated or not, does the account account for the breadth and depth of critical factors within relevant contexts?), seeing as how we have persisted by being biased towards the impetus of persistence, as self preservation is individuated as a parsing of effective capabilities within one's environment. For any interaction, to the extent we might consider its possibility in relation to any other speculation: how do all relevant predictibles culminate? and in what ways would the biggest potentials change things? and what would be the long term effects of adopting either a one-time decision or a policy, as opposed to any other, supposing expectations with an expected accuracy? We can try to improve, but the plan doesn't always go according to plan.

To put it another way, looking backwards instead, our stories are not the events we describe. We can only speak more or less accurately. So how do we decide what is best to relate? And how do we best relate any information? ... what are the most accurately, efficiently, significantly related measures for any context?

I heartily agree that no question isnt worth asking, if that's what's of concern enough to ask, then who am i to question what questions any may have. To wit, in witnessing several assertions of refutation, i've heard combative questions aplenty– some intentionally defiant responses, guised rebukes probing for the limits of purposelessness, in the form of absurd irrelevance or otherwise rhetorically vapid questions. But for these I only characterize, not reiterate, yet enough to say that any joke might diminish any otherwise sound question. I'm barring it in my mind, if a question isn't a question to me, then it ain't a question; but it could also be a question for someone else, and that's mostly just how it is. Atleast we tend to coordinate around reality.

Try forming questions out of any of your known answers and see if you don't find even more questions there. "Why ... ?" is a shortcut to reverse engineer "How ... ?"; from a past perspective of the future, thru the present; or from plan to process. Why? Because with goals we can do more, better. How? By choosing our own (adventures) questions, we're more relevantly, significantly, and thereby efficiently able to learn from reality and improve, certainly. For example consider:

∀P(E) = x, Let ⁱ = 1 :: impartiality, for ⁱ an exponential curve thresholding sufficient credence (since things can be in want of more convincing or are more convincing), for ⁱ approaching 1 treading linearly determined, with neutral bias at linear until determined otherwise, find non-impartial biases not otherwise explicated. Ok but why? To be determined. How might ⁱ be determined for the following to hold?:

f(x) = |2(x-½)|ⁱ :: certainty

The outcome of a fair coin flip is maximally uncertain at zero. Indeed every equiprobable set of possibilities has maximum uncertainty by this definition and certainty approaches the impossibility of all but one possibility at one, from probability x at either 0 or 1.

[bleezebrew]

I am reading about the Perfectly Normal and Functional Spaceship right now, please don't distract me with cool spiders (noting it down for later)

Writing another weird short story that will demonstrate once again that there is something deeply wrong with me

[fawnnlvr]

club infatuation | spencer reid

pairing: spencer reid x bombshell!reader

masterlist

summary: in which spencer reid decides to attend a club to experience what he didn't in his early 20s and there, he meets a beautiful woman who volunteers to show him why one should enjoy clubbing

word count: 3.1k

author's note: hiiiiii :3 i hope you all enjoy this. i know i did while writing it. i tried something new with the format of my writing so i hope its alright. thank you for reading!!! maybe part 2. sorry this reading is so long. UPDATE: i wrote this right after i found that studies showed that dancing can help with mental health. i have a strong need to rewrite it now... :(

The club was loud.

Music blared throughout the establishment with colorful flashing lights from the dance floor occasionally leaving him partially blind. This was not Spencer's normal scene. He wasn't too keen on crowded places, especially breeding grounds for human fluids and bacteria which is amplified with the factors of alcohol and the high of having letting loose for a night out.

Spencer wove through the crowd of people, politely excusing himself as he did his best to try not to make contact with anyone. He came to the club for one thing and one thing only.

Fun.

Well he wanted to experience fun. He was nearing his late twenties, his entire life filled with further advancing his knowledge and brain power with the help of his eidetic memory. Due to this memory, he has never once remembered a time where he ever felt normal. Like he belonged. Like he could consider himself apart of the rest of the people his age. He has long come to terms that something like that wasn't possible, yet there was always a desire to experience it. Just for one simple night.

Normally, his weekends and leisure time off of work were filled with 'boring topics' his coworkers didn't consider fun in the slightest. Any chance for Spencer to try and connect with the BAU outside of work through film festivals, horror movie showings, and science fiction conventions were all turned down without a spare thought.

Spencer was used to being alone. He was so his entire life, so he led himself to believe that the rejections of his colleagues didn't affect him much but it all so did. His colleagues possessed a knowledge that wasn't in his realms of understanding and that were the abilities to socialize so easily with others. When out at bars, he'd watch the girls easily make friends with a group of girls they meet and Morgan would always find a way to flirt with girls to the point where he would quickly leave the function with somebody in his arms. Spencer, wasn't quite like them.

He wasn't too sure why he chose to go this club in particular. It was a twenty minute subway ride from his home, newly opened which meant heavily popular, and most importantly, he never had a good time at clubs, but he decided on a whim, that tonight would be the night to change that.

Now Spencer was sat at the bar, seeking asylum for his sensitive hearing and eyes away from the dance floor. He asked the bartender for a mocktail, carefully making sure that he participated in safe and healthy behaviors as he is already in a place he felt uncomfortable in.

He held the drink up to his lips, taking a small sip as he let his eyes wander over his environment. The main center was filled with a lot of people dancing fervently to a pop song with more drum beats than a marching band and the constant repetition of one syllable of a word that fades into a remix of another pop song. He watched as couples drunkenly put their hands on one another. He furrowed his eyebrows at the corny smirk a man would have as he introduced himself to a group of women. Then finally, his eyes roamed towards the booths near the corners of the club, tucked in a place that was separated with a velvet rope.

Within those booths held the prettiest girl he has probably ever come across.

You.

You sat in the booth, your legs crossed over one another as you leaned back into your seat. Your booth was surrounded by a few people, all of whom looking nice but for some reason, Spencer couldn't tear his eyes off you.

He didn't mean to stare with the intent of lust or romantic pursuence, but simple admiration. You had a unique beauty he could have only ever imagined in fantasy books, but when the human mind imagines something not seen before and creatively put together, it gets blurry. Yet you were like the ethereal goddess of a fantasy book being brought into real life.

The way you carried yourself, the energy that surrounded you that he could feel even meters away, and your features made it almost impossible for him to turn away. Keyword being almost.

It seemed as if you had this feeling that somebody was staring, very intensely, and your eyes quickly glanced in the direction it was coming from. Spencer felt the heat rise to his cheeks as he hastened turned away, taking another sip of his drink with nervous gulp. His adams apple bobbing up and down to emphasize his racing heart.

His eyes betrayed him by flickering back so soon after the initial eye contact and you were still looking at him. Instead of your body facing those at your booth, it was now open towards him, arms crossed as your eyes freely roamed his entire body before stopping at his face.

Spencer could've sworn he saw you bit your lip but the lighting of the club made the validity of his eyes seem weak. He felt as if all his senses became numb the more he stared.

You stared at him with half lidded eyes, giving the effect of being simply tired or maybe your eyes were strained from the events of the day.

The only thing that snapped him out of his daze once again was when you broke away your gaze to quickly mutter some words to your friends; an apologetic yet happy smile on your face as you stood up, waving goodbye.

The bouncer that was stationed at the section protected by velvet ropes had opened it for you and Spencer noticed that you were walking in the direct path towards him. His mind started to race. Did you think he was creepy? Was the staring too much? Were you about to throw him out? He had gotten the feeling that you were a V.I.P guest since you were in an inclusive area so maybe you held power to throw out whomever you pleased.

Having an IQ of 187 did not help him at all in making a quick decision on what to do as you neared.

"Hi." You smiled as you sat down in the seat beside him, body fully facing him as you rested your arm on the bar table to rest your head on.

"H-Hi." Spencer stuttered and quickly regretted even opening his mouth.

"Come here often?"

"Considering the club just opened last month, not really. It's my first time."

"First time here?" Your soft voice inquired. Despite the chaotic sounds surrounding the two of you, Spencer felt as if you simply calmed down and slowed the world around him.

"At any club actually." He felt almost ashamed to admit it aloud but his mouth moved faster than his rational at that moment. Nervous brown eyes met yours, expecting to be met with judgement but you simply had no reaction.

"Not your thing?" You asked and he nodded, feeling understood for once.

He looked down towards his lap, the sense of nervousness not really going away, "I just came here to see what it's like. Why people find it so fun."

"What do you think of it so far?"

"Loud. Messy. Crowded. Breeding grounds for bacteria." He could go on with the list but decided it'd be better to not rant about negatives on his first time meeting someone new.

"Yeah, you pretty much hit all the points on clubbing." you laughed at his descriptions, watching the mild disgust in his face as he recounts all the things he disliked about the club and clubbing culture within the small times he's been there.

"Do you enjoy it?" he inquired, wanting to see your opinion on this event that he believed only advertised to extroverts who were good at socializing like you.

"It can fun at sometimes, but you really just need to go with someone to make it fun and to ignore all the, "you paused to think, "unfavorable aspects of it."

Spencer wasn't an idiot. He knew what you were insinuating and to some extent, he still wasn't sure if he wanted to believe it or if his mind would allow him to believe it.

Your eyes flickered to the drink on the table, his fingers her fidgeting with the ends of it. "Mocktail?"

"I don't want to drink." Addictions are something he doesn't take lightly. He doesn't want to participate in any of it really as statistics show that one can be more susceptible to an addictions if one had another prior.

Nodding your head, you left it at that. "Well drinking no alcohol and sitting by your lonesome self here doesn't quite sound like fun. To see why people enjoy clubbing, you should immerse yourself in the experience." You looked at him through your eyelashes, "Do you want me to show you?"

Completely enamored by your entire person, who was he to deny such a reject.

He nodded his head, almost too fast, and you moved his drink away from his hand while using the other to grab his hand. The two of you stood up and he simply followed your lead.

As you moved through the crowd, it was like they made a way for you. He watched as those looked towards your figure with suprise before quickly falling out your way. Oh's and small gasps escaped their mouths as if it was their first time ever seeing somebody like you.

You walked with such confidence— head held up high, indifference on your face as men tried to stop you (while you clearly held the hand of another) but you swatted them away with your hand, and you walked so professionally that one may have mistaken you for some sort of a celebrity. You might just have been one if Spencer had to guess but due to Spencer's great memory, he figured he would've known if he had.

Before he knew it, you and him were in the middle of the dance floor and you kept your grip on his hand, very loosely, as you locked eyes with him, pulling him closer.

This was different.

Spencer has never danced before. Well never danced in front of people, let alone a gorgeous woman who he considered way out of his league. And he has also never had a woman dancing in front of him. He was scared to look down, scared to see her.

That was until she brought a hand to his chin, pulling his focus down. "Come on, join me."

"I don't da—"

"Just let loose and follow my lead."

His heart must've skipped multiple beats the moment you gently grabbed his hands and placed it on your figure as you moved to the music. Hands resting on your waist, he couldn't find it in himself to get a grip because he still wasn't sure if this was alright at all.

The moment you took a step closer, making your bodies just slightly touched, paired with the friction of your movements, he was sure he was in fact not dreaming.

Loosen up. Your words echoed in his mind. His eyes searched those around him, wanting to try to copy their movements but with you so close to him, he did his best to match your movement— then he quickly stopped when he realized he was not at all coordinated or blessed with groovy rhythmic genes.

A small smile crept up on your face as his awkward movements made even him cringe.

"Sorry."

You laughed, "Let's start with what your comfortable with."

"The robot?" He questioned with a nervous chuckle.

"Okay, then let's see it, handsome."

Oh how that word flowed off your tongue so easily and carelessly yet it was the beginning of his demise. His brain blew a fuse but thankfully, the added factors of your touch had disappeared when you stepped back to watch him work.

He once again looked around, seeing if anybody was watching him about to make a fool of himself but your voice called him back to focus.

"Are you worried about people watching?" he nodded, "Shall I blindfold you with my bra?"

He laughed. It was more of a yell than a laugh because of the absurdity. You stared at him, head tilted with the most genuine yet teasing smile when you stated such a random thing like it was the best solution.

You laughed along with him, seeing his body relax a bit more. "There you go. Release all that tension in your body."

"I actually needed that for the robot so your little trick to make me laugh and dance better just actually made it worse."

A gasp escaped your lips, "You're right. Let's catch it in the air before it leaves forever." You acted out grabbing the air around him before pushing it towards his body, making little sound effects to complete it all. "Phew! Phew! Phew!"

Spencer joined in on your little show as he wiggled his body to act as if your efforts were fully affecting him.

And at the last little sound effect, you sent a flying kiss, to which he smiled, caught, and placed it to his heart.

"I can feel the music monsters taking over my body now." Spencer smiled as he mimicked robotic movements, making angles with his arms and moving very stiffly. Now this was a move he could get behind.

"Oh no, its spreading to me too." You imitated Spencer, mirroring him almost exactly.

How did Spencer get to this moment? He went from sitting alone at the bar drinking a mocktail to getting woman he deemed to have a beauty, that could compare to no other, dancing like a robot. He wasn't sure what suprised him more, the face that he was doing a nerdy robot move in front of a crowd of people (most of which already has their attention on the woman he was with) or the fact that you were doing it with him.

The fact that you adopted your dance moves for him to feel comfortable when he was so out of place and visibly uneasy, made him feel special. Like he was listened to.

After a small moment of doing robotic dance moves, his and yours eyes connect once again before your lips opened to laugh.

"That was the first time I had ever done that at a club." you admitted.

"I feel honored to be the first one to experience it."

"Well you should feel so honored, it's not everyday one gets blessed with such a scene. Although, I guess it'll be safe to say your ready for another step towards being the dancing queen as ABBA put it."

"More than ready."

You smiled, more of a smirk, as if telling him he won't be prepared for what you had in store. Sometimes Spencer hated when he was right and this was a moment that nothing could have prepared him for.

The music the DJ had played thus far was very pop and chaotic that was perfect for when one wanted to simply let loose and dance crazy. However, one glance and nod towards the DJ table, most importantly, the clock behind the table, had completely changed the scene.

Blue lights that danced along the bodies of the people of the floor had slowly faded into a purple and the music changed into this sort of jazzy but pop instrumental with a sultry voice that completely changed the mood of the scene.

"It's 10pm."

"What does that mean?"

It seemed like everybody around him had found a partner and were beginning to move in a seductive manner. Spencer looked down towards you, you seemed closer than you were before. A small difference but it had a huge impact nonetheless.

"Watch, pretty boy." you walked closer to him and turned around, pressing your back side to his chest before reaching for both his hands and guiding them to the sides of your figure. Leading his hands from the sides of the top of your waist, all the way down to your hips, and towards your thighs. Very, very slowly.

You felt his breath hitch, his heartbeat start to speed. Unsure fingers slowly finding its way as you held it.

He stuttered, "I-Is this alright?"

You gave him a small nod, before moving your body to the music, creating more friction between the two of you. The heat of both your bodies created this bond, an intertwinment that none of you were willing to break.

This was the second time you've done this move, yet this time it felt much much more intimate than before. Bodies fully pressed against one another while the mood was set with the slow and erotic music, Spencer felt the last strand of his uptightness let go.

All he could focus on was you. Your intoxicating, confident, beautiful self.

He felt a sort of confidence with you by his side, a confidence that only you brought out because you made him comfortable in the first place. A confidence that only you could've brought out of him within only thirty minutes of knowing each other.

His hands slipped towards your stomach, pulling you closer and your head tilted back in his chest to look up at him with a smile. You used one arm to rest on top of his arm that was wrapped around your waist, before using your free one to touch his face, down his jaw, and to his neck.

You both swayed to the music; he used your body to guide his. His hot breath kissed your skin.

"Hey." you softly called out.

"Yes?" he exhaled, in a total daze.

"What's your name, handsome?"

"Spencer. Spencer Reid." he sounded breathless, maybe due to the fact that the two of you shared such an intimate moment, or maybe because they two of you did that and still didn't know each others names.

He felt you stop for a moment before you completely turned around, your hands steadying his as his hands rested on your hips.

"As in Doctor Spencer Reid that wrote those articles about psychology and neurology."

"Y-You've read them?"

Your hands rested on his chest as you stared him up and down, your teeth catching your lip. "Gosh, your brain is hot and so are you. God really does have favorites."

Spencer felt his face and ears heat up even more.

"Wanna get out of here?"

It didn't take much for Spencer to start nodding like his life depended on it like he did when you first asked him if you could show him how to have fun. And just like earlier that night, you grabbed his hand and led him to a new night and adventure towards fun he wouldn't have thought was ever possible.

—

"What the actual f—" Emily Prentiss stared at the scene in front of her, utterly speechless as her jaw was like a magnet to the floor. Her eyes trailed towards the two figures leaving the establishment. Her coworker followed around this beautiful, bombshell of a girl like a lovesick puppy. She also watched as the youngest of her team was dancing with a complete stranger in a place he would've been screaming about the different bacteria.

"I am either not sober enough or too drunk." The pair had disappeared into the night and that's when Emily took a deep breath, before minding her own business and getting to work on why she came in that night.

[pluralsword]

yeah as much as it feels imminently obvious to us based on IRL erasure/loss of knowledge of historical expansive genders around the world (including in the West and long before interoceanic colonialism that is a more easily remembered context for many) and accompanying gender systems whether inequal or with parallel power or equality, erasure due to conquests that enforced a loss of rights and knowledge (basically a form of genocide, to us this is what the loss of gender equality in Illyria due to Rome taking over, and the despair that colored the last of the rebellions by Illyria are particularly stark) or declines of countries involving the rise of patriarchies (ancient Sumeria is a very good example, the furthest back the concepts of transfem and drag equivalent gala and transmasc pilipili among other genders can be traced. to be clear Sumeria was at least as much as archaeologists have determined a country that was patriarchic for much of it's history, it just got worse around the time when farming became more difficult and people started to move elsewhere, iirc. the context and collective identity of the galli was something later held by people in Babylon, Phyrgia, and later in Rome, where some viewed them with contempt that became more widespread during the Late Roman Empire) that it is very, very easy to read the loss of knowledge of gender due to the reign of Nova Prime who inspired Functionism, there isn't anything in the text that explicitly says this. it's not particularly clear what the original plan for Functionist Universe Anode's gender stuff was, what is clear is that in the finalized form she at some point figured out gender stuff before or after quitting from being a blacksmith, and we do see other transfem characters among the Anti-Vocationist League side (thinking of the one who looked like Rung on purpose and tossed out her T-Cog). There was a sort of structural discrimination in that the Primal Vanguard peacekeeper members in the main timeline who came back from service beyond Cybertron with she pronouns due to contact with other species helping them realize themselves were seen as, in Anode's own words for her view at the time, something not understood, and society didn't really go to the effort of trying to unlike the Cybertron that welcomed and helped out Ask Vector Prime Arcee (from the December 23rd 2015 entry) and had a very endearing trans revolution after she wrote a paper based on her own gender realizations and observing the 'transformations' of lifeforms of another world.

The indie videogame Phoning Home actually does explicitly explore this premise, the organic species the mechanoid protagonist is descended from abandoned gender in a male as genderless sort of way, he pronouns becoming standard for everyone, and they went about wiping out organic life on their planet in order to cultivate resources to expand and have done so on other worlds, in fact the planet Ion and his ship partner crash on is a world they were supposed to scout out. they encounter a bot and ship duo who both use she pronouns, who want knowledge of gender variation to be reinstated and for harmony with organic life to be had, including for people who want to be organic to be allowed to do so (we haven't finished the game so we don't fully know where the plot went but we deeply enjoyed it), the game came out in 2017 so we definitely wonder if this was inspired by a read of IDW1 at all, it was interesting to us because it doesn't conflate gender with being organic.

IDW1 on the other hand by the time it was digging more deeply into transfem narratives was juggling a lot in Phase 3 and there was knowledge of cancellation of IDW1 in 2018 as far back as 2016, iirc, so it's understandable that they didn't explore how androcentrism happened on Cybertron after contact with the colonies due to collapse of the spacebridge network was lost. so there's nothing explicitly stated, but it does make sense and is something that could be explored, which we ourselves due in a rather lengthy fanfiction focused on IDW1 Arcee starting with the period of Nova Prime's reign around the time knowledge of gender was walked away from by the majority of bots... hell of a time to try and seek a gender-affirming surgery, we think that must have been difficult for her emotionally. it could further explain why she took to Jhiaxus and didn't fully see the betrayal that was coming in terms of gatekeeping, unnecessary procedures, rigid gender ideals, and abandonment.

also, arcee went from tank to car for her surgery, which would be something Functionism would oppose due to changing alt mode

the thing w talking about which transformers in MTMTE are LGBT is that by human standards the answer is prolly 'all of them'? like it's textually the case that they've only had contact with masc-presenting he/him transformers for millions of years so sexual orientation is presumably a matter of 'yes please' or 'no thank you' so in human terms they're all either gay or ace

which means from an in universe perspective the answer is potentially 'none of them' bcos being into other guy transformers is socially normal (like. they marry each other.) and there's no indication that not being attracted to anyone isn't socially normal

i suppose it's possible that there might be guy transformers who are exclusively attracted to girl transformers (presumably thought they were attracted to no-one prior to Dark Cybertron fdgkhfdgkj) but no indication of that in canon

gender is a separate matter bcos Arcee is trans which is not socially normal but for different reasons than on earth (former oppressive government made being a woman illegal)

[reasonsforhope]

"When a severe water shortage hit the Indian city of Kozhikode in the state of Kerala, a group of engineers turned to science fiction to keep the taps running.

Like everyone else in the city, engineering student Swapnil Shrivastav received a ration of two buckets of water a day collected from India’s arsenal of small water towers.

It was a ‘watershed’ moment for Shrivastav, who according to the BBC had won a student competition four years earlier on the subject of tackling water scarcity, and armed with a hypothetical template from the original Star Wars films, Shrivastav and two partners set to work harvesting water from the humid air.

“One element of inspiration was from Star Wars where there’s an air-to-water device. I thought why don’t we give it a try? It was more of a curiosity project,” he told the BBC.

According to ‘Wookiepedia’ a ‘moisture vaporator’ is a device used on moisture farms to capture water from a dry planet’s atmosphere, like Tatooine, where protagonist Luke Skywalker grew up.

This fictional device functions according to Star Wars lore by coaxing moisture from the air by means of refrigerated condensers, which generate low-energy ionization fields. Captured water is then pumped or gravity-directed into a storage cistern that adjusts its pH levels. Vaporators are capable of collecting 1.5 liters of water per day.

Pictured: Moisture vaporators on the largely abandoned Star Wars film set of Mos Espa, in Tunisia

If science fiction authors could come up with the particulars of such a device, Shrivastav must have felt his had a good chance of succeeding. He and colleagues Govinda Balaji and Venkatesh Raja founded Uravu Labs, a Bangalore-based startup in 2019.

Their initial offering is a machine that converts air to water using a liquid desiccant. Absorbing moisture from the air, sunlight or renewable energy heats the desiccant to around 100°F which releases the captured moisture into a chamber where it’s condensed into drinking water.

The whole process takes 12 hours but can produce a staggering 2,000 liters, or about 500 gallons of drinking-quality water per day. [Note: that IS staggering! That's huge!!] Uravu has since had to adjust course due to the cost of manufacturing and running the machines—it’s just too high for civic use with current materials technology.

“We had to shift to commercial consumption applications as they were ready to pay us and it’s a sustainability driver for them,” Shrivastav explained. This pivot has so far been enough to keep the start-up afloat, and they produce water for 40 different hospitality clients.

Looking ahead, Shrivastav, Raja, and Balaji are planning to investigate whether the desiccant can be made more efficient; can it work at a lower temperature to reduce running costs, or is there another material altogether that might prove more cost-effective?

They’re also looking at running their device attached to data centers in a pilot project that would see them utilize the waste heat coming off the centers to heat the desiccant."

-via Good News Network, May 30, 2024

[bogleech]

All the science fiction I grew up on told me some day there would be adorable quirky robots in every home and business that could hold at least a passably realistic conversation with you and help you out with little tasks and kid-me daydreamed endlessly about what that whimsical utopian life might be like. I even had an ongoing little kid daydream about being in the robot biz designing them my own way, maybe having a weird house full of my wacky machine creature family.

Now we have chatbots convincing enough that people get as hooked on interacting with them as they can any real person, we have near perfect voice synthesis and visual recognition software, we have actual robots that can jump around and dance with better balance than a human, we are RIGHT on the edge of little robot buddy world.

But absolutely none of that fiction framed robots as a heartless corporate product that would really just take opportunities from poor people and gather your data for advertising algorithms. Anyone who did not like the robots was supposed to just be mean and quite often a stand in for a *racist.*

Now that it's likely going to happen in the next 20 years I'm just ready to be one of those villains. If you send me a real functioning C-3p0 or Johnny 5 or Data and I see a Tesla or Google logo I am going to gouge out his eyes with a claw hammer and drink his microplastic blood.

This is probably a lie and at best I'd be crying the entire time but I hope you understand the sentiment behind the hyperbole

[gallusrostromegalus]

Hi! I see your OC Oscar LeColéreux is studying Patent Law. as someone who is literally right now studying patent law, I can tell you that (in the USA), that's not a thing. to be a Patent Agent or a Patent Lawyer, one must first have a technical background (i.e. a degree in science/engineering). Patent Lawyers then go to law school, Patent Agents don't. regardless, both must pass the Patent Bar Exam, administered by the USPTO. this permits them to assist in Patent Prosecution, the process of applying for a patent, including appeals and post-grant proceedings before the USPTO's PTAB. Patent Lawyers can also represent patent holders through litigation in federal court. now that my trap card activation is over, what is Oscar's technical degree in? will he go to law school?

So all of The Lads (All the dogs in this post) have completed their undergrad degrees and are in grad school. They're in the same fraternity, which is to say: they're all renting the same house near campus and convinced a national engineering fraternity to count them as a chapter and help them with the rent and groceries.

Oscar's undergraduate degree is in Materials Science Engineering and he was planning on becoming a research chemist but quickly discovered he liked arguing with people and picking apart contracts more than being exposed to major industrial hazards. He's currently in the law program at College University along with his fellow engineer-ishes.

(more under the cut)

Oscar, Alexander, and Issac are all have proper engineering undergraduate degrees and are following engineering-related pursuits. Ewan is cutting it fine with an interdisciplinary engineering degree and now getting fully into the humanities. Ujin shouldn't even be there because his undergrad was in education, but that guy could talk the devil into piety so convincing the frat rep that his presence benefited the organization was a breeze.

It should be noted that this is a fantasy universe where the world is populated by anthropromorphc talking animals, so they are not, strictly speaking, in the united states of America, so I can play it a bit fast and loose with the laws and academic processes. They are, functionally, in the furry version of Danville from Phineas and Ferb: not a fixed geographic location, but a small city with any geographic feature or cultural center or political issue is required for the story.

College University is likewise an academic institution so much as an excuse for the characters to spend time together, like how nobody in Ouran High School Host Club ever goes to class. They've got a sportsball program and a law school and the art department regularly explodes and anything else that might be needed for the narrative.

The world itself doesn't even have a name, but of various anthropromorpic universes, this one leans more Beastars than Zootopia- there's birds, reptiles and even fish people, social tensions that arise from the radical differences in body types and break along different axes of power than you might expect, and the whole thing is a metaphor before it is a setting. To resolve the two big problems of any anthro universe:

Where does the protein come from? There are animals in this universe, some of which are farmed or hunted. There was an outbreak of Anthropomorphization that caused the existence of these animal-people like 50,000 years ago. There are no humans, except in the speculative fiction written in this universe. The issue of "What counts as a person?" regularly comes up for debate, and is often a political wedge tool, so the definitions of personhood vary widely across time, location, class and culture.

How does everyone continue their genetic line? Any Anthro can produce issue with any other anthro (barring individual fertility issues), but they are rolling the dice on what kind of creature the resulting offspring will be. Two rabbits are most likely to produce more rabbits, but there's a solid chance they'll produce a chinchilla, a lesser chance of having a swan, and a remote-but-still-possible chance they'll give birth to a hybrid anthro like a rabbit-duck, and an even remoter but still possible chance of making a hybrid with species not seen in either parent, like an eel-horse. Ujin's parents are rats. Most of his siblings are rats, except for his oldest sister, who is a marbled polecat. The more disparate the two parent species are, the less predictable the resulting offspring. An elephant can marry a trout and have a baby tyrannosaur. A notable exception is hybrid/hybrid pairs, which consistently produce single-species offspring, usually from the selection of species available in both parents. A hybrid/single-species can produce superhybrids, (sometimes called Tribrids, but this process can continue well past just three species). Another OC in this universe is a Jackayote, the result of the union between a Jackalope (jackrabbit/pronghorn antelope) and a coyote. 2.1: Nobody in-universe calls themselves by breeds or subspecies. Most of the time they identify more with a broader taxonomic group: all The Lads are all Canines, as are what we'd call wolves, foxes, jackals, tanuki etc. and being more specific than that is pedantic and weird. Knowing your specifc specific species is only important for your medical history or if you're going to have kids. In fact, touting around your specific species in public is seen as over-sharing and kinda suspect, like a guy who is a little TOO into his ancestry. Some groups will distinguish themselves if there is a notable practical difference: Fruit Bats include the Fruit so that a well-meaning host doesn't accidentally serve them crickets, and bears are the same because there's a big dietary difference between polar and panda bears. Cats typically call themselves "purrcats" or "roarcats" because Max, a 4'11" Purrcat has very different accessibility needs than her Roarcat cousin Tony (tiger, 7'2") Birds can be outright secretive about their species, with "singers" keeping their exact taxonomy a secret except among other birds. Birds of a feather flock together, and there's strength in numbers for this historically persecuted group.

--- Anyway, the real answer to this ask is that you probably shouldn't worry too much about the greater worldbuilding here, because all of this is in service of a smut comic.

[tanadrin]

Sometimes, Chris Hayes' podcast goes off on these weird tangents, and the most recent episode is one of them, quite explicitly. It's about the history of Polynesia, which is always a fascinating subject--the Polynesian expansion, and really the whole history of the Austronesian-speaking peoples, seems like one of those feats with rare equal in human history. It's one thing to roam over the vast steppes of Asia--it's quite another to take a canoe, stick some outriggers on it so it doesn't tip over, and start faring the open ocean.

One point his guest makes that I found interesting is that for the most part the atolls and little islands of the Pacific are a very harsh environment. Big volcanic archipelagoes like Hawaii and Aotearoa/New Zealand are rare. Atolls and other reef islands especially are functionally big limestone slabs, often without any source of fresh water, with no large mammals, and with few native plants you can eat. The weather is nice, sure (when there isn't a typhoon--and I can't help but think a typhoon on a little island must be terrifying indeed), but these are not inherently resource-rich places. That the Polynesian (and Micronesian and Melanesian!) peoples not only could travel those distances, but make permanent habitation on the islands they came across, is kind of crazy! You have to be really prepared, with a package of supplies and technologies that set you up for success. Long-distance trade is possible, but you're not gonna be running any kind of substantial import economy across hundreds or thousands of miles of ocean via catamarans.

The comparison that springs to mind to me isn't a historical one like the European age of exploration, which was overwhelmingly to places already peopled and productive, but to science fiction scenarios of space exploration. You'd have to have a little bit of the wild-eyed zealot to be the sort of person who ignores the cries of "there is no possible useful return on this investment" to settle most of these places. But they did! And they thrived for centuries!