The problem with writing a fantasy story where they have computers that are powered by magic is that computers are already magic.
Seriously. Moreso than any other subject I know, computers are the ultimate bell-curve, where people who don’t know much about how they work and people who know a lot about how they work both agree: they’re magic.
Like, do you know how we make computers? We etch intricate patterns in crystals. Using light. The shape of the drawings determines how they work.
Seriously, that’s how they’re made. We grow super-pure crystals, cut them into wafers, cover them with acid, then shine a light on them through a mask to activate or deactivate the acid, etching away some of the silicon surface. It’s called photolithography.
Only we’ve since decided light is “too big” and we’ve moved up to using x-rays, which are smaller. This lets us fit smaller drawings on our crystals!
The best part is that because some processes use light to harden the photoresist layer and some processes use light to break it down, it means some computers are made of light (because the parts of the crystal that got light on them remained behind) and some parts are made of shadow (because the parts that got light were washed away.)
Do you have a Light CPU or a Shadow CPU? You’ll probably never know. This is industrial secret stuff.
And because we’re making them with light, we can make them tiny and we can make lots at once. Like, I found a reference once that said that MOSFETs (a type of electrical switch) is the single thing Humanity has made the most of over our entire time on this planet.
How many have we made, exactly? It’s estimated that between 1960 and 2018, we made about 13 SEXTILLION of them.
That’s 13,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
If every human alive (all 8 billion of us) lived to 70 and devoted our whole lives to making them, never sleeping, just making MOSFETs, we’d have to make 736 a second to make 13 sextillion MOSFETs.
Computers are magic. And we’re very good at being wizards.
just realized that there were definitely celebrities who got infected in the last of us which is hilarious to think about. imagine getting attacked by a zombie and your last thought before you die is “is that fucking justin timberlake?”
This is Nicole. She is an amazing Canadian wood-splitting machine.
I have a huge pet peeve about people swinging axes and sledgehammers without using the kinetic chain. You have to use your entire body to get real power in your swing. And in so many movies you see actors just trying to chop things with only their arms. But Nicole has perfect form. And cute pajamas.
I’m not sure if she is technically a lumberjill. I think she just refers to herself as a wood splitter. Either way, she is badass.
I am astonished to see that people are enjoying this post for other reasons than perfect axe-swinging form using the kinetic chain.
I was definitely NOT waiting for someone to ask so I could nerd out about a super cool thing the human body is capable of.
The kinetic chain is what allows highly powerful athletic motion. It is a concept where every part of your body is linked like a chain and you can transfer energy from one chainlink to the next. That energy accumulates as it travels along your body and once it reaches the end of the chain, you can deliver explosive results.
Like gloriously splitting a giant log with one beautiful swing.
So, our lovely wood splitting hero is not just using her ample, perfectly toned arm muscles to deliver the axe blow. She is planting her feet, bending her knees, compressing her torso, twisting her shoulders, swinging her arms, flexing her wrists, and gripping the handle with her fingers.
All of that energy is transferred up the chain from her toes to her fingies. Combine that with holding the axe at the end of the handle for maximum leverage and you can make logs cleave in two like a hot knife through butter.
A major league pitcher is another great example. Randy Johnson was a very tall and lanky fellow at 6'10". He did not even have huge, powerful, super attractive muscles. Nor did he have cute pajamas. I’m not thirsty YOU are thirsty so shut up about it. But he did have a very loooong body and thus, a long kinetic chain. And by using his entire body to generate energy, he was able to pitch 100mph fastballs capable of disintegrating birds.
