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General Discussion / It's the Ultrasuper Fantasmagasmic PBS Thread !! ^_^

« on: July 19, 2007, 02:45:12 pm »

Kanadyets: Oh, I know. I've been familiarizing myself with Canadian politics lately in preparation for an eventual move to Canada. I'm just still working with the American mindset at the moment.

I know, it was more of a general commentary on the uselessness of the whole left-right matter, and I think it goes well beyond the Canadian context.  Plus it was a bit of venting on my part.  Those in my party tend to consider me a left-wing yahoo on account of my social politics, while the my friends on the left think my interests in keeping government out of people's pocketbook firmly identifies me as some sort of ultra-right corporate criminal.  The point is that it's the issues more than the identity that matter.

Oh, and as a hint on moving to the Great, White North...best to get the process started as early as possible if you are serious about doing it.  It's a common misconception that it's easy to emmigrate here.  My sister-in-law was given the run around, and she should have been fast tracked on account of her being married to my sister.  To be honest, they got the impresson she was given a hard time specifically because she's American.  You'll find a lot of latent anti-Amercianism up here.

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General Discussion / On Theism

« on: June 18, 2007, 05:38:17 pm »

Well, Kyronea, since you seem to be a rampaging atheist, I would offer you a quotation from Fyodor Doestoevsky that you may want to take into consideration.

"Without God, all things are possible."

Now, he didn't intend that to be taken as a good thing, but in any case it's something to consider.  You seem to be a logical individual, and therefore you should well know that it's pretty much impossible to disprove anything, just as it's virtually impossible to prove anything 100%.  Science is a matter of greatest probability.  That being said, while it may be irrational for someone to adhere to a particular belief, value, or school of thought, they're not out of line in doing so.  That being said, when you're engaging people with opposing points of view, it doesn't do any good to simply dismiss them or their position as stupid.

Now I know I'm guilty of the same, or at least thinking it when I speak to people of opposing viewpoints, but the important thing isn't to throw down the gauntlet and thrust it in their face.  Might I suggest, if tolerance isn't an option for you, that you might pursue a slightly more socratic approoach?  Asking people about their ideas helps you to truly get a better idea of what thier actual position is, plus it well allow them to consider many more angles regarding their initial assertion.  Not to mention that if you're trying to convince somebody of a particular fact by telling them that they're stupid, they're just going to regard you as a jerk and ignore you.

Just a thought.

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Lavos, the Planet, and other Entities / On the subject of Nu...

« on: June 12, 2007, 10:08:14 am »

Okay, I'd like to start by offering my apologies in advance if anything if this nature has been discussed previously.  I'm new here (Nu..heh heh) and so far I haven't found the answers to the questions I have in any of the threads regarding Nu, nor in the encyclopedia section, so I thought I would strike up a topic and hopefully generate some analysis.

Since having first played the game, I've been fascinated with the Nu.  They stand apart from other creatures that the party encounters as they will more frequently engage in dialogue and are usually encountered in places of importance to the party, rather than the more mundane battles in which Chrono et al face off with less awe-inspiring foes.  Not to mention that since in his most potent from Spekkio appears as a Nu, they are clearly creatures of some importance and power.

The matter that I'm curious about is really the simple nature of the Nu.  The encyclopedia offers two possible explanations of their origin, but neither seems to satisfy.  On the one hand, the Zeal Creation theory posited by ZeaLitY, doesn't seem to account for the existence of Nu in the Hunting Grounds of 65,000,000 B.C.  On the other hand, the Quiet Species theory doesn't fully explain the complete nature of Belthasar's Nu in 2300 A.D.  While it does suggest that Nu can rather strangely be programmed as one might program a machine, Belthasar's Nu also has a switch to turn the creature off, which would suggest that Nu (or at least Belthasar's Nu) are not organic creatures at all.  Nor does it have any explanation for why the Silver Rock Nu is more eloquent that those found in the Hunting Grounds.

Personally I believe that while neither theory goes far enough in explaining the nature and origins of the Nu, a middle ground between the two may shed more light on the subject.  Notice that the Nu in the Hunting Grounds of 65,000,000 B.C. speak in a primitive fashion, much like their contemporary human counterparts.  This would seem to suggest that they are in an evolutionary stage similar to the humans, and are therefore an organic creature.  The exception in this time period being, of course, the Nu who provides the party with the Silver Rock.  As for Belthasar's Nu, I would suggest that it is an automaton, created by Belthasar in the image of a Nu, for whatever reason.  He seems to have an affinity for the creatures, as his secret room in Enhasa has six of them inside it.  Based on his abilities to construct such wonders as the Blackbird and the Epoch, a robotic Nu would not tax his abilities.

Therefore I would state that while the Nu are in fact a quiet species, there are examples of Nu from the Kingdom of Zeal having been gated to other points in time.  As for the nature of the Silver Rock-bearing Nu in 65,000,000 B.C., it is unclear it he is a construct of Belthasar as well, but as its contact with the party is limited, the matter is of little consequence.  All that one can surmise is that that particular Nu is different from its counterparts in the Hunting Grounds.  As for Belthasar's assitant Nu in 2300 A.D., it probably wasn't gated into that era, but at least the man with the knowledge to construct it was.

So there it is.  That's my theory on the nature of Nu.  Again, I apologize if anyone has already pursued this thread in the past, but I couldn't find anything like it.

Questions?  Comments?  Concerns?  Criticisms?