Questions for Jim 2012 style 2

[cass]

Can an entity with intellectus deliberately refrain from obtaining an answer on a subject of interest (eg, in order to be able to truthfully say it does not know as part of misleading someone) or does just thinking about the subject cause the information to appear ?

Perhaps an answer like, "I hadn't considered it" would be a good hedge?  That's truthful without giving away information.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Perhaps an answer like, "I hadn't considered it" would be a good hedge?  That's truthful without giving away information.

There was an argument a couple of weeks back in which someone mentioned thinking of intellectus as meaning that if the topic ever crossed one's mind, one couldn't not have the answers; that interpretation had never occurred to me, but I can't think of anything in the text to rule it out, hence the question.

[Quantus]

There was an argument a couple of weeks back in which someone mentioned thinking of intellectus as meaning that if the topic ever crossed one's mind, one couldn't not have the answers; that interpretation had never occurred to me, but I can't think of anything in the text to rule it out, hence the question.

Thats an interesting Idea.   There are some limitations to Intellects that we've seen, like how harry could not identify the traitor while he was standing on the island, or when he could not get a specific lock on Binder, because Demonreach was having difficulty distinguishing such things.  But that seems like a more specific limitation to Demonreach's completely alien perspective, something that wouldnt necessarily apply to Angels or the Mothers, for example.

There is the WOJ about Shagnasty's intellectus that says he knew the What intuitively, without knowing the greater context of the Why.  But again, that is a specific a limited intellectus.

For the Question, you may need to specify which beings (or class of) you are referring to...

[KevinSig]

Last, for discussion, there was a WoJ in response to a post by kmosiman (linked here: http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,11471.msg494046.html#msg494046)

Quote
Demonreach may not be friendly to humans but he is not violent to others. All the animals on the Island are welcome and make their homes there. While he may have a dark nature, nothing on the Island is corrupt or foul.

Two of these three sentences are precisely, absolutely correct.  One of them is lethally half-right.

We've had relatively little new info on Demonreach since that was posted, but I'd like to formulate a question that would help nail down the little logic problem he gave us.

I might be wrong, but I've guessed that the leathally half right part might be about under the island.  That dark Ley line likely comes from something both dark & foul, but under the island is different than on the island, hence being half right.

[cass]

We've had relatively little new info on Demonreach since that was posted, but I'd like to formulate a question that would help nail down the little logic problem he gave us.


I might be wrong, but I've guessed that the leathally half right part might be about under the island.  That dark Ley line likely comes from something both dark & foul, but under the island is different than on the island, hence being half right.

Hmm.  I never considered the potential of a preposition being the problematical word.  I thought that those statements broke down nicely into two parts each: "not friendly to humans" and "not violent to others", "All animals on the island are welcome" and "[all animals on the island] make their homes there" and then  "nothing on the island is corrupt" and "nothing on the island is foul"-- and that the problem was then in determining which one of the six statements was wrong. 

I agree that the 'corrupt and foul' statement is the one most likely to contain the lethally wrong portion, though for all we know, someone will die because a chipmunk decided to commute into the NN to make its burrow.

[cass]

Huh.  Some of the discussion on the thread pertaining to the sample chapters from Cold Days just pinged my brain: what the heck counts as a day in the NN?  They clearly have ways of keeping track of time in the mortal world-- the transfer of the table is sufficient proof of that--but time is fluid in the NN, so what sets its passage?

The NN overlays/is tangent to the mortal world in some pretty convoluted, non-constant ways: a meter's difference in either world could connect to a point many, many kilometers distance away. In this context, what sets the position of the sun and stars (and, I suppose, Moon) in the sky of the NN? 

If the stars are somehow inconstant, is navigation in an absolute sense even possible, or is it landmark-to-landmark?


....Bleh. Not exactly plot-important, but an interesting point.

[TheCuriousFan]

Will we see Justin outside of flashbacks in this series?

[kytheros]

Will we see Justin outside of flashbacks in this series?

That ... seems unlikely, as he's dead, or supposed to be dead - enough so that the Warden's and White Council came down on Harry for a First Law Violation for it.

[Quantus]

That ... seems unlikely, as he's dead, or supposed to be dead - enough so that the Warden's and White Council came down on Harry for a First Law Violation for it.

He can be dead and still show up in the current time.  Several others have, such as harry, harry's dad, (arguably) harry's mom, the Corpsetaker and various ghosts, Murphy's dad, Carmichael, ...

And thats not even thinking about this rumored Mirror Mirror alternate timeline thing.

[TheCuriousFan]

That ... seems unlikely, as he's dead, or supposed to be dead - enough so that the Warden's and White Council came down on Harry for a First Law Violation for it.

I know that, I just want to shoot down the hopes everyone who thinks Justin will appear outside of flashbacks.

[KevinSig]

Will we see Justin outside of flashbacks in this series?

Kinda relates to my earlier question...

Given Bob's confirmation of the existence of alternate dimensions, is there any chance we might run into the alternate versions of confirmed killed people?

Justin, Margaret LeFay, or Kemmler, perhaps?

Since, we might never meet Justin, but we could still meet alternative Justin.

[AcornArmy]

Since, we might never meet Justin, but we could still meet alternative Justin.

Of course, he wouldn't really be Justin. Even in the Star Trek "Mirror, Mirror" episodes, the moral compasses of the crew were extremely skewed, relative to those of the original crew. The Justin in an alternate universe could be their version of the Dalai Lama or something.

[xakko]

I've done some searching to no avail, but I imagine that some of these have been asked before...

1. Is there significance to the fact that both Sanya and Ebeneezer seem to detect evil by scenet?  In DM, Michael tells Sanya that what he's perceiving as a rancid smell is Nicodemus, and in BR, McCoy says that the bad blampire mojo that is driving off the street people "stinks".

2. Does the name of the boat in DM - the Etranger - also have significance?  Being deficient in both French and Camus, I totally missed that this is the original title of The Stranger, so when I wiki'd it, that came up, along with the sentence "most English translations of the French title L’Étranger are rendered as The Outsider".  Did the Churchmice buy the boat, or did they rent it, or what?  Does it matter?

[THE_ANGRY_GAMER]

I've done some searching to no avail, but I imagine that some of these have been asked before...

1. Is there significance to the fact that both Sanya and Ebeneezer seem to detect evil by scenet?  In DM, Michael tells Sanya that what he's perceiving as a rancid smell is Nicodemus, and in BR, McCoy says that the bad blampire mojo that is driving off the street people "stinks".

2. Does the name of the boat in DM - the Etranger - also have significance?  Being deficient in both French and Camus, I totally missed that this is the original title of The Stranger, so when I wiki'd it, that came up, along with the sentence "most English translations of the French title L’Étranger are rendered as The Outsider".  Did the Churchmice buy the boat, or did they rent it, or what?  Does it matter?

Etranger technically means foreigner/abroad, although that's a good catch.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I know that, I just want to shoot down the hopes everyone who thinks Justin will appear outside of flashbacks.

I don;t know, I think we might see him through time-travelling Harry.