From: rose@acf9.nyu.edu (David Rose)
Newsgroups: alt.games.torg
Subject: Disconnection and the Tech Axiom (LONG)
Summary: What it is that I think I have understood.
Keywords: axiom,disconnection
Date: 7 Apr 92 23:07:37 GMT
Organization: New York University


  Sorry to rehash this old saw, but I am beginning to become clear on
how to play (as a GM) disconnection, which is (I believe) why this
silly discussion keeps coming up in the first place.

  These examples follow 2 basic rules:

    (a) I can no longer realize an effect of the object which is
        contrary to my surrounding axioms.

    (b) The object itself does not transform.


  Example 1:  I am flying an airplane in LL and disconnect.  Because
    this is so, I can only relate to the airplane as a native.  This
    means that as far as I am concerned, I can do nothing to stop the
    motion of the plane and it spirals out of control.  The engine
    sputters to a stop, and I might as well enjoy the ride.

       Now if Joe Schmoe is sitting next to me, he can wrest the plane
    from my control and as long as he is not disconnected, he can
    attempt to pilot the plane.  At first he will be piloting a glider,
    but he can restart the engine (making a skill roll with a poss.
    of disconnecting).  So long as Joe Schmoe is flying, it doesn't
    matter whether or not I am disconnected, I will keep enjoying
    the ride, having no conception that whatever it is that Joe is
    doing has any effect on our motion.

  Example 2:  I am sailing a Chinese junket on a lake.  I disconnect
    and immediately am unable to affect the motion of the junket.  It
    still follows the wind, but without navigation there is nothing to
    stop it from spinning in the wind and not going where I want it to.
    My only alternatives are to sit and wait for the junk to come close
    to shore or else to swim.

  Example 3:  I am parachuting into the LL.  I disconnect.  The parachute
    still works, as it is a passive contradiction and is conforming to
    the axioms for floating/gliding objects.  My only problem (assuming
    I land safely) will be trying to get out of the harness without
    relying upon the "high-tech" implied with the fasteners.  Probably
    I would cut myself out.

  Example 4:  I am going to shoot that Edeinos over there.  (We are still
    in the LL.)  I disconnect.  So I shoot, but bullets do not explode
    their propellant in the LL, so nothing happens (except that a dud is
    stuck in the chamber.  The gun would still fire for someone connected,
    but not for me and not for an Ord Edeinos either.  (The PR Edeinos
    could use it, if he had seen someone fire a gun before and understood
    how to shoot to make it work, but I bet someone would have to teach
    him first, or that he would need to experiment before getting it
    right.  The Edeinos would expend his possibility to get the gun
    to fire.)

  Example 5:  I throw a grenade at a Bor Aka in the living land.
    I disconnect.  Well, I disconnect by expecting the hand grenade
    to explode, not when I threw it, so it falls and behaves as a
    hand grenade should behave in LL.  That is, the explosive used
    in the hand grenade doesn't explode.  [And that is a nasty one
    for me to try and reconnect with, since presumably the disconnection
    occurred when I thought it would explode.  I think I'll just go
    back to Core Earth.]

  Example 6:  I am wearing Kevlar armor in LL when I disconnect.
    Now I am right stuck.  Presumably Kevlar relies upon a principle
    of chemistry which doesn't work in the LL, just as explosives do.
    Therefore the Kevlar reverts to how it would behave, as a stiff hide or
    cloth armor.  Likely I am going to get a few rips and tears in my armor
    caused by hrockt spears before I can reconnect.

  Example 7: I am wielding a tungsten-steel knife in the LL when I
    disconnect.  Tungsten-steel is no longer a stable and ultra-hard
    alloy.  I suspect that trying to use my knife might cause its
    getting broken if the resulting alloy was too brittle.  Other than
    that, I have no problem in using this knife as a knife.


  Does this settle the problems and questions?  (If it does, I recommend
that it be put into the FTP site under "misc" and called "disco-tech".

--
David Rose
Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
251 Mercer Street, New York, NY 10012
rose@math12.cims.nyu.edu
Newsgroups: alt.games.torg