#technobabble

[andyoullhearitagain]

[dduane]

Sorry if you’ve answered this before, but any tips on improving your technobabble?

I originally came at this problem from two different directions. The first one took considerably more time to enable.

(a) Be familiar (or get familiar) with the languages in which most scientific terms are coined: Latin and Greek.

I took Latin in high school, already knowing that I was a science person and that Latin was considered "the language of science". (And medicine, which also turned out to be handy for me later.) I also started studying Greek in college—and, sigh, I'm still studying it.

Once you're starting to get familiar with the languages, practice coining terms as you need them. While it's considered a failure of style in scientific naming to mix Latin and Greek in the same term, I've found it better to be guided by euphony than a slavish obedience to the rules.

Because sometimes a word or term just sounds right. "Temporospatial claudication", for example, was coined by running a Latin physics term head-on into a medical one. "Claudication" was (and still is in some countries) a term for a constriction in a blood vessel. Its origin in the Latin claudo- and clausum roots is responsible for the Emperor Claudius's name, which would once have implied somebody who limps secondary to such a circulatory problem. I simply bent the term's most basic meaning off into a different direction.

...So you see how that goes. Bang the roots together and see what successfully sticks.

The second approach is a little easier. But only a little.

(b) Base your coined terminology on the conventions and rhythms of real technobabble: by which I mean actual, technical scientific language.

The best way to pick this up in sufficient depth is by reading technical papers in your field of interest—lots of them—so you can see how the pros communicate to/with one another. Every field has its own jargon lying around just begging to be stolen... assuming you observe very carefully how it's correctly used. Otherwise you risk outing yourself as nothing but an interested but insufficiently-committed bystander. You must also be super careful not to screw with the interior grammar of such techspeak... as inevitably it'll have one.

For example: when I was tooling up for writing The Wounded Sky, I spent easily three months reading papers in/on hyperdimensional physics. (Not that I wouldn't have done this anyway. It's a fascinating subject, and before I went into nursing I'd been a physics major, so I had a fair amount of the necessary background to understand what I was reading.) Even in the 80s there were a lot of such papers around, and in those distant pre-Internet days I was helped a whole lot by living just across the road from the impressive science library at Cal State Northridge.

During that period I could be found in the periodicals racks once or twice every week, digging through the monthly journals on the hunt for material that would be germane to the plot I was boiling. I found ten times more goodies than I ever could reasonably have used. The toughest part was winnowing it all down to what I actually needed to scatter here and there for atmosphere's sake, or to plant in specific spots to grease the plot's wheels. (My favorite remains the [legit!] paper with the delightful title, "Taub-NUT Space as a Counterexample to Almost Anything.")

Anyway, I must have got something about that whole business right, since one Princeton physics professor whose work I'd cited at the end of the novel asked me if he could use it in teaching his classes. :)

But there's a third element involved; more an attitude that you apply to what you've produced while employing the first one or two approaches.

You have to treat your coined terms as if they're absolutely real... something that any person educated in the science you're working with would know. The voice and tone in which you write using them has to reflect this absolute confidence and commitment to their reality. Because if you don't—at least while you're writing—absolutely believe in them enough to speak confidently about them, no one else will believe in them either.

But then that's a solid general principle anyway. If you don't do something you've created the courtesy of taking it seriously enough to believe in it (or its reality inside the larger reality you're creating), it won't long survive contact with exterior realities like the inside of your reader's mind.

HTH!

ETA: here's that citation page from the end of Wounded Sky. I believe it remains the only Star Trek novel with a cites list at the end. :)

[this-hazbin-quoted]

Vox: Velvet, we haven't spent a day apart since we started working together. How will I manage without you?

Velvet: Very poorly.

[captain-starskull]

Computer mice don’t have tails anymore. We shouldn’t call them mice we should call them hamsters.

[quarks-pussy]

Idec anymore, I'll say it. I like technobabble. Adore it actually! It sets the atmosphere well and I like when they try to have it make internal sense and I can see the worldbuilding. Maybe I'm just a professional tech nerd but I truly, genuinely enjoy technobabble and in fact I think most franchises could use a little more of it. Fight me

[firwyn]

I made a techno plush but he’s about 4 times smaller than I thought he was going to be

Also his head is heavier so when he slipped from my hand this is how he landed

Edit : he's not done yet, need to make his cape and crown !

edit #2 for the techno fans reblogging and loving on the little guy, this one is "Pocket Techie" and i will make bigger ones until i manage to find the perfect size so stay tuned (if you want)

[idol--hands]

Captain Data: “I am experiencing overwhelming stress.”

Idol ⭐️ Hands: note, I believe Data is modeling himself after Captain Sisko’s style of leadership here — as earlier, Sisko, laughed at Commander Data’s suggestion to consult Starfleet’s admirals before heading into a potentially fabric-of-reality-altering situation. As text is smaller below (a two-page spread), I’ve transcribed the dialog.

Acting Captain Data: Ensign Sato, broadcast Starfleet evacuation codes to all affected planets with my over-ride authorization.

Ensign Sato (the Andorian): Yes, sir.

Acting Captain Data: Additionally, broadcast the sub space frequencies of all nearby Starfleet vessels so they can be coordinated with directly.

Ensign Sato: Help is on the way!

Acting Captain Data: Lieutenant Descheeni, reassign all personnel from sciences and research to communications and telemetry. Transfer display protocols rather than physically relocating staff.

Lt. Descheeni: Clever, Captain.

Acting Captain Data: Simply necessary, Lieutenant. They will assist in efforts by Ensign Sato to coordinate evacuating in local language and custom as well as aid Ensign T’lr’s upcoming calculations.

Ensign T’lr (the Vulcan): Speaking of which, sir. I have a trajectory that might allow us to alter the course of the creature slightly by affecting their warp field stability, like a gentle nudge.

It will not change where they are going, but it should affect less inhabited systems.

Acting Captain Data: That is acceptable. Execute. And, Mr. Paris?

Lt. Paris: Don’t gotta tell me what to do, Captain. I’m the first human to ever achieve trans warp flight. I can handle the turbulence. The problem is going to be keeping up.

I can feel the engines, Commander. They’re not up to this.

Acting Captain Data: Mr. Scott, to address this, please activate the the Theseus’ classified propulsion system.

Chief Engineer Scott: I dinnae know what you’re talking ab—

Acting Captain Data: I looked over your design as soon as I was assigned, sir. It is incumbent on a first officer to know everything about his ship.

And while such a classified marker would no doubt deter most, my best friend is a decorated warp drive engineer. And so I was able to infer the use of the redacted capsules near each of the Theseus’ warp nacelles.

I was also able to infer that they were classified because they were, in fact, not yet working.

Chief Engineer Scott: Aye. Torres tried to get it working for months, but the containment frequencies never held.

Lt. Paris: Wait, B’elanna Torres? Like, my wife, B’elanna Torres? This was her little ‘side project’?

Chief Engineer Scott (on speaker): Aye, laddie. She said if you behaved, she’d let ye design the Bridge canopy.

Acting Captain Data: I have just relayed to you containment frequencies that I believe will solve the problem.

Chief Engineer Scott: It...it works. My God...

Acting Captain Data: No, Mr. Scott. Simply an android. Now, if you would be so kind, please take the vessel to transwarp.

Chief Engineer Scott: Way ahead of ye, Captain. But one little correction...like I always said, transwarp’s nothing but a dead end.

We call this little beauty...proto-warp!

Acting Captain Data: “I am experiencing pride.”

[magmythedevil]

Technoblade and Liam vickers similarities

I made this post bc technoblade was a hugeeee hyperfixation of Mine, so comparing him to my actual favorite creator at the moment brings me a lot of joy so this is extremely self indulgent lmfao

Deep Voice (?) Liam's is less deep so im not sure

Both are very inactive, and Just post content when they feel like it

Both have a niche community of very dedicated fans that have been around since the start of they careers

But both got more popular after they joined a group ring of other popular creators

Similiar speech manerisms and patterns

White nerd boys in glasses /endering

Big sense of humor that not everyone understands

Both don't use the popular social medias like the other content creators use all that much, they prefer Discord

Very reserved about personal informations. Making them the most mysterious content creators out of the other ones

Dont really care about clout.

Have been on YouTube since 2013/2014

Both got almost cancelled by twitter stan accounts of the big popular thing theyre being part of spreading out of context stuff ( techonables case was worse )

Both had a anime phase as teenegers

Dont show they face that much

Both got more recognized by a personal project of them that went viral (potato war and Cliffside)

Maybe i Will ad more

Technoblade was a Minecraft content creator that was loved by a lot of people. He was known for his Very smart Gameplays strategies. he died june 2022 at the very young age of 23 as a victim of cancer, rest in peace </3

[fitzs-space]

I like to write the NetherRunt Tango as being raised with a group of other runts and the bunch, right, and most the group were piglins.

And because the group picked him up as a baby, they were most likely the ones to give him a name. What I’m saying is Piglins have a specific type of naming convention, and i don’t know fully what it is, but I find it funny to compare TechnoBlade and TangoTek both being piglin chosen names.

Maybe it’s similar to having a collective sirname depending on the sounder, then just something like a talent or a name given later in life. I haven’t put to much thought behind it other then “hehe funny similarities”

[theredcuyo]

Made some draws 'bout last night's stream (i'm in class, haven't finished the Vod)

[whirligig-girl]

Guz explains the Turbo-Encabulator.

[ichayalovesyou]

You know what I don’t normally get into Trek technobabble stuff but I gotta say this. I would absolutely use a transporter and I don’t really get people who are like, scared of it?

Like, does it really kill you if it’s like for a few seconds and you come back in one piece afterward? Are people who were resuscitated after being killed/declared dead considered a new person or a clone of themselves after they died but came back? Is it death if your heart and lungs stops for 5 seconds in a way that leaves you perfectly intact moments later? It’s shorter and less dire than having a stroke!

Like YEAH transporter accidents happen! But you know what also happens that kills people more than transporters do? Shuttlecraft/small spacecraft accidents!

Car crashes and accidents happen all the time today, they kill and injure thousands of people almost every day.

The usual consequences with the transporter are usually weird and repairable as opposed to a car/shuttle crash being deadly and/or damaging!

If there’s a foreign element that wasn’t accounted for in a transporter like, a goat, maybe I’d come out of the transporter as a weird goat Tuvix situation that like in that episode, but you know what it’s established to be reversible.

If there’s an unsecured goat in my car wreaking havoc I’m gonna fucking crash and maybe die. In no circumstance is a car crash going to result in more than one of me, like, none. If I had to trade potentially getting cloned on accident in exchange for like, there being none of me, I’m picking the former!

Transporter accidents are for the most part inconvenient headaches that lead to shenanigans. Whereas a crash doesn’t have a lot of shenanigans unless you count a concussion as hijinks

Transporters are legitimately safer than most vehicles I don’t care what anybody says 😂

[getvalentined]

My sister's laptop recently died and it was cheaper, easier and quicker to just get her a whole new one than to try to fix the Mysterious Total Power Failure that broke it, so that's what we did.

But...it was just an electrical failure, really. I may be able to utilize the RAM in her new machine, research shows they're compatible, and the SSD is still perfectly functional. No data loss at all. The one issue is that the dead laptop's SSD is NVMe, which is a bit inconvenient to repurpose for a new laptop—I could plug it into Dorian (my desktop) with no issue, which is how we got some of her more important files back to her right away, but it's not my drive and I can't very well have her forced to jump over to Dorian every time she needs something off the drive.

So, I ordered her a little aluminum NVMe enclosure, which I got all set up and tested today. It works great, but it felt weird just having the entire brain of her laptop in this featureless container.

See, Kid's old laptop had a name, just like my tower does. A name that necessitated I bust out the label maker and do proper honor to the fallen.

It's what he would have wanted.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

[thisisnalkan]

SCP sciences be like

Some people may wonder why Third Law has so many lesbians in it. Well you see in the noosphere there is this place known as the sexosphere. The sexosphere is the sum total of all human sexuality, with sexemes that make up sexeme matrixes(sexualities). If you measure the sexosphere in Third Law you'd see a much higher amount of lesbons(the fundamental particle of lesbianism) in it. This is also how the GOC turns people gay. /j

[departmentq]

This is probably playing in the airpods of a certain dipshit from Chicago...