Spirit Energy-Powered Robots

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Bernhardt Jun 30, 2010

Let's try another fun and wholly hypothetical discussion...

...

The whole concept of giant robots or machines powered by spiritual energy (as in, say, Xenosaga) is very improbable.

Either they'd have to be made by monks or priests who're also versed in robotics, or scientists would have to be superstitious enough to consult clergy in order to create a spiritual energy-powered robot.

Considering that monks set themselves apart from society to separate themselves from the material concerns of the world, and that scientists are very logic-minded people, not to be convinced of anything spiritual, I should think you'd see why spiritual energy-powered robots and machines would be improbable.

Discuss!

Idolores Jun 30, 2010

Improbable? Absolutely, but the idea is at once fascinating and badass, if Evangelion, GaoGaiGar, Gurren Lagann, and G Gundam have anything to say about it.

Grassie Jun 30, 2010 (edited Jun 30, 2010)

You know Pythagoras? The hypotenuse guy? I think he was both a scientist and a divine being. Newton also was quite religious, if not divine, I think. But all other scientists are atheists and left-brained. And, judging from my experience, every artist and priest is right-brained and uncapable of doing math. If you don't believe my claim about Pythagoras, then listen to this story told by my mate Iamblichus:

Iamblichus wrote:

One day, during a trip from Sybaris to Crotona, by the sea-shore, he [Pythagoras] happened to meet some fishermen engaged in drawing up from the deep their heavily-laden fish-nets. He told them he knew the exact number of the fish they had caught. The surprised fishermen declared that if he was right they would do anything he said. He then ordered them, after counting the fish accurately, to return them alive to the sea, and what is more wonderful, while he stood on the shore, not one of them died, though they had remained out of their natural element quite a little while. Pythagoras then paid the fisher-men the price of their fish, and departed for Crotona. The fishermen divulged the occurrence, and on discovering his name from some children, spread it abroad publicly. Everybody wanted to see the stranger, which was easy enough to do. They were deeply impressed on beholding his countenance, which indeed betrayed his real nature.

(Isn't it weird that most people have never heard about this miracle but have heard of a^2 + b^2 = c^2? Sick!)

And yes, I agree, the event is highly improbable! In fact, I think that the all the fantasy worlds that exist are distributed somehow like this:

1.) 28 % with high-tech ordinary robots.
2.) 21 % with no robots but lots of spiritual energy!
3.) 49 % with high-tech robots and spiritual energy used for other stuff.
4.) 2 % with spiritual energy robots. (And maybe other stuff.)

Thus, according to my insights, there should be like a probability of 0.02 for getting the spiritual energy robots universe! That's what I call a low probability. Now on to other stuff, like, for example, what is the probability that, in a given fantasy world, there will eventually be developed spiritual energy robots at some time? And, more specifically, what is the probability that spiritual energy robots will appear in the fantasy world of Dragon Quest 5?

Bernhardt Jul 1, 2010

Grassie wrote:

Iamblichus wrote:
One day, during a trip from Sybaris to Crotona, by the sea-shore, he [Pythagoras] happened to meet some fishermen engaged in drawing up from the deep their heavily-laden fish-nets. He told them he knew the exact number of the fish they had caught. The surprised fishermen declared that if he was right they would do anything he said. He then ordered them, after counting the fish accurately, to return them alive to the sea, and what is more wonderful, while he stood on the shore, not one of them died, though they had remained out of their natural element quite a little while. Pythagoras then paid the fisher-men the price of their fish, and departed for Crotona. The fishermen divulged the occurrence, and on discovering his name from some children, spread it abroad publicly. Everybody wanted to see the stranger, which was easy enough to do. They were deeply impressed on beholding his countenance, which indeed betrayed his real nature.
(Isn't it weird that most people have never heard about this miracle but have heard of a^2 + b^2 = c^2? Sick!)

Never heard that story before...interesting!

Grassie wrote:

And yes, I agree, the event is highly improbable! In fact, I think that the all the fantasy worlds that exist are distributed somehow like this:
1.) 28 % with high-tech ordinary robots.
2.) 21 % with no robots but lots of spiritual energy!
3.) 49 % with high-tech robots and spiritual energy used for other stuff.
4.) 2 % with spiritual energy robots. (And maybe other stuff.)

Wow whee. How'd you figure all that out?!

...

Other than that, for spiritual energy-powered robots to exist, they'd have to be created by none other than God himself...as a matter of fact, weren't the E.S.es from Xenosaga that way?

What confounds me, is how they suddenly got the E.S.es in Xenosaga Episode II, and how they never explained how they got them; it was just kind of like, "Okay, new episode! We should do something new this episode...what should we do?" "Give them new robots!" "Okay, cool!...but, we'd have to explain how and why they got them, right?" "No, it's cool. No one'll notice; not on a conscious level, anyway!" "Oh, okay!"

Ashley Winchester Jul 2, 2010

Bernhardt wrote:

What confounds me, is how they suddenly got the E.S.es in Xenosaga Episode II, and how they never explained how they got them; it was just kind of like, "Okay, new episode! We should do something new this episode...what should we do?" "Give them new robots!" "Okay, cool!...but, we'd have to explain how and why they got them, right?" "No, it's cool. No one'll notice; not on a conscious level, anyway!" "Oh, okay!"

Hardly anything was right with Xenosaga II so I didn't give this much thought.

Really, they must have spent like 90% of the development time on the "new" character models - which were fine the way they were!

And the Good Samaritan quests, yesh....

Bernhardt Jul 2, 2010 (edited Jul 2, 2010)

Ashley Winchester wrote:

Bernhardt wrote:
What confounds me, is how they suddenly got the E.S.es in Xenosaga Episode II, and how they never explained how they got them; it was just kind of like, "Okay, new episode! We should do something new this episode...what should we do?" "Give them new robots!" "Okay, cool!...but, we'd have to explain how and why they got them, right?" "No, it's cool. No one'll notice; not on a conscious level, anyway!" "Oh, okay!"
Hardly anything was right with Xenosaga II so I didn't give this much thought.

Heh...no kidding...I thought they spent a good amount of time making Episode I, but it seems they rushed II and III out the door at the last second...

Really, they must have spent like 90% of the development time on the "new" character models - which were fine the way they were!

I rather liked the more realistic-looking character models, and especially appreciated some of the voice actor changes, especially for chaos; his voice actor in II and III was just a much better voice AND actor!

And the Good Samaritan quests, yesh....

The first one I was given, I couldn't figure out, so I ended up skipping all of them; it was that one where you were supposed to correctly line up the book shelves at Jin Uzuki's house / book store.

It also helped that I was using GameShark, so I didn't need the rewards. I eventually looked at a walkthrough for the game; apparently, the rewards weren't even worth the trouble it took to get them, even if you were playing without GameShark...

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