sam512's New Writeups

We had to destroy the future in order to save it (fiction)

2009-11-19T13:18:55Z

It's April 2017, two hours after Mitch Calrus left, not that he was ever really there, and John Zhang is sitting on a park bench in a deserted Moscow backstreet, building an Alcubierre drive.

It would be difficult to tell just by looking at him. Most of the drive's components are software; intangible machines built from structured patterns of information interlocking and whirring inside the confines of his brain. A sufficiently detailed model of reality is indistinguishable from reality. The only physical manifestation of the drive is a cubical gold box, two centimetres on a side, which is suspended in the air in front of him, gently rotating on one vertex. There's nobody around. It's freezing cold, as it has been all day, and the Sun's going down and the street lamps are turning on. The world is concrete grey, deep blue and brilliant orange. Oul's approaching trail of destruction is plainly visible in the darkening sky. He's due to arrive in…

Primer (essay)

2009-11-10T20:58:21Z

"If you have it, you've gotta use it..."

Primer (2004) is an exceedingly complex movie considering its brevity. Please find below a summary of the plot of the movie. Before reading this, it is recommended that you first read the companion node Time travel in Primer which explains the model of time travel used in the movie. Before all that, of course, you should have watched the movie at least once without knowing anything in advance.

(I strongly recommend watching this movie with the English-language subtitles on. Much of the dialogue is difficult to pick out, or inaudible. You miss a lot without them!)

Primer plot summary

Aaron, Abe, Philip and Robert work by day at some major firm and sell home-made electronic products in their spare time. But while they've had some interesting patents, they haven't made major money from the side projects. (In fact it's implied…

The Last Copy Of You (fiction)

2009-10-29T23:24:50Z

There is nothing soft to land on in the basement tunnel; the grey-haired woman cries out, having smashed her elbow, skull and tailbone on the cement floor after falling through from above. Mitch is luckier on his landing and his body armour cushions his joints.

A clatter of gunfire resounds and fades in the enormous space above them.

"How do we get out of here?" demands Mitch, who hasn't yet come to terms with the fact that "Mitch" is no longer his shell's name. The woman grits her teeth and hisses with pain as he pulls her upright and then to her feet. "How many people are attacking this building? How far away do we have to get? Is there a safe house? A state line we can cross?"

"I think I've fractured something. I think I'm bleeding."

"What's your name?"

"How can you not know my name?"

"…

Crisis On Earth (fiction)

2009-08-21T11:46:31Z

John Zhang returns to consciousness.

"I think I have been asleep for a long time," he murmurs.

"You have been asleep for a very long time," says Mitchell Calrus, who is the only other person in the room. Zhang is comfortable under the covers of his bed, propped up by mountains of pillows, but the air on his face is cold. The room is painted cabbage green, except for small white ceramic tiles covering the lower walls, a white window frame (with frosted glass), and some old, dull, vomit-brown plastic chairs, in one of which Calrus is sitting. There's a drip running into Zhang's left arm. The fluid is colourless.

"Zykov is dead," says Calrus.

Memories churn in Zhang's head. They feel like they're further away than they should be. "I think... I think I already knew that."

"He killed himself. It was just a few hours after you were captured. You might have felt his influence go out of your head while you were sleeping.…

Postmortal (fiction)

2009-07-28T21:53:50Z

That came from the generator level. They're inside the Hall.

The hospital looks incredible from the outside - white and glassy and curvy, like it was built ten years from now. Hell, there's no reason why it shouldn't have been. According to innumerable works of science fiction from previous years, decades and centuries, the year in which Mitch Calrus' appointment is due to take place is the incalculably distant future. Although the Cold War ended a few decades ago. And the Singularity still hasn't happened. And cyberpunk is bunk.

On the way in, Mitch keeps an eye out for anything that might break the illusion of a perfect Utopian white city. Reception is immaculate, as is the waiting room. Gorgeous, soft, firm seating. The magazines on the nearby table are all in French, but they're hardly thumbed and the cover…

Time travel in Primer (essay)

2009-06-26T21:36:52Z

Primer is an exceedingly complex and sophisticated movie. The high-quality film that director Shane Carruth used was by far the greatest investment in the $7000 budget, so almost every scene was shot precisely once and additional scenes providing character background and exposition, which, while not strictly necessary, would have gone a long way towards making the film more comprehensible, were never filmed, for the sake of expense. I do intend to create a writeup which explains the full sequence of events in the movie, but here, first, is some prerequisite knowledge: how time travel works.

The channel

The time travel boxes used in the movie work like this. When the box is switched on, a "channel" begins in spacetime. That is point A. Call it 12:00pm. Over the next few seconds or minutes (depending on the box size) an electromagnetic field builds up gradually in a parabolic form until it plateaus.

Later, the box is turned off. This causes the…