posted
I have never finished Xenocide... nor read Children of the mind ::gasp!::
But be that as it may, I have occasion to be curious and desire a Hatrackian distillation of philotes. Much the same way someone once hit me with a quick three sentence definition of memes, Im wondering what philotes are, what they connect, how and why...
Anybody wanna throw an old Jatraquero a bone? Posts: 2532 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
philotes are like the typical description of a "soul," but with some physically "knowable" properties. Someone else will have to explain how the conenct things. But however it's done, it allows for instantaneous communication at any distance.
The Star Trek theory of warp travel is based on having parts lying around that looked like nacelles and having to figure out why they would stick way off the ship like that when other civilizations figured out a way to do it without that.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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(not story spoilers, but how things work spoilers, which is a big deal in my opinion because I think the ideas are half of why the books are worth reading)
It has been awhile since I read the books and I've internalized the definitions. So it is probably full of my own interpretation a bit.
Philotes are like tiny wires. They exist in another place, or dimention. But they cross over into our world, and connect to everything, rocks, plants, people. Distances in our world mean nothing to philotes since they exist in another place.
If you are "connected" to another person, you have awarenesses of that person the other senses don't grant you. Ok, that is probably a bit of my own definition, but I think you get the idea. It is also probably part of the Homecoming series Silver Thread definition too.
In Ender's game, they figured out how to split an atom or something so that one philote stayed connected to both halfs. By vibrating one half, the other half vibrated as well. Because distance didn't matter to philotes, they could send one half to the other side of the galaxy and you can shake one half and communicate with the other half instantaneously, faster than light (FTL).
In the last books, they figure out how to actually *go* to the other place, where philotes are, and return back to our place, at any location they wanted. FTL travel.
Don't get me started on Star Trek. I just deleted 4 paragraphs of ranting...
Posts: 1209 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
Back in the 1980's physicists were finally able to do an experiment that Einstein thought up to disprove Heisenberg. Everyone has probably heard it in some mythologized form or other.
Set up an interaction such that two particles are go off in opposite directions and do not interact with anything else. Wait until they are far apart, then measure the momentum of one and the position of the other. Because of conservation of momentum, you can determine the momentum of the particle not measured, so when you measure it's position you know both it's momentum and position: Heisenberg explodes, quantum mechanics disappear in a puff of uncertainty, and God does not play dice.
Unfortunately, reality is mighty wierd and the particles somehow knew what the other was doing even when farther apart than the speed of light could transmit information. We don't understand it but every particle knows what every other particle it has ever interacted with is doing.
I always figured Card's philotes to be artistic license with that property of quantum physics.
Posts: 675 | Registered: Aug 2001
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