(Originally posted to Let's Play Sacntuary)
#81, originally posted Jun 8 2016, 08:45 AM
Route E—Session 18, part 3: DlroW
Taking a break from hours of searching for information, Yumishtar ponders on the passage of time in realspace, cyberspace, and dreams. Then she summarizes the information found so far, about Code and the spread of terrorism, HE, Anunnaki, and finally LEM and DlorW. She finds the fanclub's web site and, after looking around a bit, registers an account. After trying to figure out the meaning of "LEM", she notices a certain old acquaintance has taken on a significant handle, and introduces herself under her pseudonym.
Notes:
Spoiler: click to toggle
Ship to the Moon
I'm not sure I'd consider a real dream to be a "story". I subscribe to the hypothesis that dreams are the brain's way of turning waking experiences into a more permanent form, rather than serving any narrative purpose. Plus, it is known that the flow of REM dreams is highly chaotic, with little correlation to the times and places of the experiences, the opposite of how stories typically are.
Right, so I guess the whole story of I/O might be a butterfly dream.
The hit counter (101010101) on Lunar Excursion Module can be interpreted as binary notation, although after a moment's reflection, there's no way it really is, as that would mean there've only been 341 visitors. It's probably decimal, meaning over 100 million people have visited.
First of all, Alpha Centauri is not a single star. It's actually a triple star system, consisting of two members of roughly the same size as our Sun—Alpha Centauri A and B—and a faint red dwarf—Alpha Centauri C, also called Proxima Centauri for being the closest star to the Sun.
Last year (2015), evidence was found for a possible planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B, designated Alpha Centauri Bc, though it is not certain yet if the planet really exists. A planet was previously announced in 2012 (Alpha Centauri Bb), but later shown to be probably spurious. αCenBc seems to be less controversial, though.
She's thinking LEM previously visited her around the full moon and that it might be a full moon again. For the record, the scene in which LEM visits ("Must remain unsolved") is on June 24, 2032, with a moon's age of 14.5, while the phase picture shows a full moon. Depending on the exact definition of moon's age, that may be slightly inaccurate: the previous new moon is on June 8 at 10:32 JST, so 14.5 days after that is June 22 at 22:32 JST. The actual day of June 24 would span moon's ages of approx. 15.56 to 16.56.
In this scene, the date is July 21, with a moon's age of 13.5, and still a full moon. This time it fits, if it's around noon: new moon is on July 7 23:41 JST; 13.5 days later is July 21 11:41 JST.
There's no explanation given for what a tripcode is, so I'll explain. Some imageboards and 2ch-type forums, rather than having registered accounts, allow people to post anonymously, along with a password which is then hashed and the hash value displayed publicly, allowing posters to still be recognized. Such a system is only necessary if users can post without real accounts. This suggests the forum has a mixed model with both anonymous posting and accounts, the latter being at least necessary to access the "VIP" section. Does this mean LEM is not a registered user?
This issue of account names needing to be unique came up before. But also, that there might be a loophole. Here's a thought: what if the names actually are different, but the differences aren't visible for some technical reason? Possibilities include nonprinting characters and homographs (both of which are a known problem in Unicode and have security implications). Those are just what come first to my mind, but it could actually be something simpler.
Another idea is that the real person behind LEM has disabled the AIO system for her account to prevent memory synchronization with the LEM Shadow, in order to protect her own personality against distortion. However, this doesn't explain how HE saw both LEMs at the same time.
Interesting that DID should be brought up. DID is a central plot point of the last VN in the Infinity series, Remember11, several of whose characters may or may not have cases of the disorder. "There's never been a Shadow with those sorts of symptoms ever before." But there's a first time for everything, right? I don't know about Nulls, but surely it would be possible for Unas, which are essentially realspace people that can in theory have DID. Whether Nulls can is dependent on how the AI works.
I honestly don't know what this "something worse than anything I can imagine" might be. I only have very vague ideas. So, I have a suitable sense of foreboding now.
Odd. Ishtar should know Mutsuki, albeit not by her real name, since she herself was in the group for at least part of the time that Mutsuki was. At least, that's what Mutsuki's diary suggests, as it mentions an "Akarin". However, I don't think I would say she joined "just before its collapse". In any case, I guess Yumi doesn't have those memories, and the Ishtar within her won't help her out with this investigation?
I'm not sure I'd consider a real dream to be a "story". I subscribe to the hypothesis that dreams are the brain's way of turning waking experiences into a more permanent form, rather than serving any narrative purpose. Plus, it is known that the flow of REM dreams is highly chaotic, with little correlation to the times and places of the experiences, the opposite of how stories typically are.
Right, so I guess the whole story of I/O might be a butterfly dream.
The hit counter (101010101) on Lunar Excursion Module can be interpreted as binary notation, although after a moment's reflection, there's no way it really is, as that would mean there've only been 341 visitors. It's probably decimal, meaning over 100 million people have visited.
First of all, Alpha Centauri is not a single star. It's actually a triple star system, consisting of two members of roughly the same size as our Sun—Alpha Centauri A and B—and a faint red dwarf—Alpha Centauri C, also called Proxima Centauri for being the closest star to the Sun.
Last year (2015), evidence was found for a possible planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B, designated Alpha Centauri Bc, though it is not certain yet if the planet really exists. A planet was previously announced in 2012 (Alpha Centauri Bb), but later shown to be probably spurious. αCenBc seems to be less controversial, though.
She's thinking LEM previously visited her around the full moon and that it might be a full moon again. For the record, the scene in which LEM visits ("Must remain unsolved") is on June 24, 2032, with a moon's age of 14.5, while the phase picture shows a full moon. Depending on the exact definition of moon's age, that may be slightly inaccurate: the previous new moon is on June 8 at 10:32 JST, so 14.5 days after that is June 22 at 22:32 JST. The actual day of June 24 would span moon's ages of approx. 15.56 to 16.56.
In this scene, the date is July 21, with a moon's age of 13.5, and still a full moon. This time it fits, if it's around noon: new moon is on July 7 23:41 JST; 13.5 days later is July 21 11:41 JST.
There's no explanation given for what a tripcode is, so I'll explain. Some imageboards and 2ch-type forums, rather than having registered accounts, allow people to post anonymously, along with a password which is then hashed and the hash value displayed publicly, allowing posters to still be recognized. Such a system is only necessary if users can post without real accounts. This suggests the forum has a mixed model with both anonymous posting and accounts, the latter being at least necessary to access the "VIP" section. Does this mean LEM is not a registered user?
This issue of account names needing to be unique came up before. But also, that there might be a loophole. Here's a thought: what if the names actually are different, but the differences aren't visible for some technical reason? Possibilities include nonprinting characters and homographs (both of which are a known problem in Unicode and have security implications). Those are just what come first to my mind, but it could actually be something simpler.
Another idea is that the real person behind LEM has disabled the AIO system for her account to prevent memory synchronization with the LEM Shadow, in order to protect her own personality against distortion. However, this doesn't explain how HE saw both LEMs at the same time.
Interesting that DID should be brought up. DID is a central plot point of the last VN in the Infinity series, Remember11, several of whose characters may or may not have cases of the disorder. "There's never been a Shadow with those sorts of symptoms ever before." But there's a first time for everything, right? I don't know about Nulls, but surely it would be possible for Unas, which are essentially realspace people that can in theory have DID. Whether Nulls can is dependent on how the AI works.
I honestly don't know what this "something worse than anything I can imagine" might be. I only have very vague ideas. So, I have a suitable sense of foreboding now.
Odd. Ishtar should know Mutsuki, albeit not by her real name, since she herself was in the group for at least part of the time that Mutsuki was. At least, that's what Mutsuki's diary suggests, as it mentions an "Akarin". However, I don't think I would say she joined "just before its collapse". In any case, I guess Yumi doesn't have those memories, and the Ishtar within her won't help her out with this investigation?
#82, originally posted Jun 9 2016, 10:00 AM
Route E—Session 18, part 4: Enemy Mine
Miyata has been removed from the case after drinking and smoking himself half to death over the loss of his family, whom he currently grieves. Recalling a talk in which Yayoi asks her to save HE, Yumishtar does maintenance on her gun. HE battles with Code, and reveals how he survives so well; at one point, he is forced to do something extreme to himself. Yumishtar finds her contact where Code is fighting with HE. HE hacks a Codebreaker to find information about the location of his true targets. Yumishtar drags her contact away from the scene and talks to him in a safer place. Miyata takes a call from a subordinate who has strange news about HE; filled with renewed determination, he decides to help HE despite his suspension.
Notes:
Spoiler: click to toggle
Heckler & Koch P7
(Just to remind, that's the pistol that was given to Yumi when Criminal went to the eXarch building that night.)
The end of this scene suggests she fires the gun. Inside the hideout. Is this a good idea? It's usually a bit dangerous to fire live ammo somewhere indoors that isn't equipped to allow it safely (like, say, a firing range), right? But more importantly, it makes an extremely loud noise; if there are any people who are awake nearby, they would surely notice. Just where is this place? It seems like it must be a stereotypical abandoned warehouse. But this is probably in or around Tokyo, isn't it? Where in that area is sufficiently devoid of human habitation? Or did someone manage to soundproof the place?
collateral damage
HE is bending the bullet trajectories. Interesting. It reminds me of the scene where Kosuke goes berserk at Mika's death and starts firing at Enlil. Despite being at such close range that some shots should be able to hit, not one of them does; instead she seems to dodge almost effortlessly. There's also the mention in route B's 1.0 ending, about guns that prevent network interference. Putting this all together, and it seems as though Enlil was somehow forcing Kosuke's aim to go awry, though I don't know how exactly that's supposed to work in realspace.
a bluebird in the cage
(Referring to Andras?? Or...)
Inquisition
There's another of those drones. They probably aren't around for no reason. Who is using them, and what is their purpose?
An electromagnetic barrier? This is cyberspace, right? What exactly does that mean, then? Some in-game mechanic, I would think.
HE destroys the Codebreaker after extracting the information he needs. What does this mean? He refers to the Codebreaker as a program, but is it an Una? After all, he previously implied the ones he's fighting are not NPCs. If so, what does he do to the person in realspace? It is suggested that this codebreaker could cause problems in the future. So, it appears he actually kills the guy, or does something very bad to his mind.
(Just to remind, that's the pistol that was given to Yumi when Criminal went to the eXarch building that night.)
The end of this scene suggests she fires the gun. Inside the hideout. Is this a good idea? It's usually a bit dangerous to fire live ammo somewhere indoors that isn't equipped to allow it safely (like, say, a firing range), right? But more importantly, it makes an extremely loud noise; if there are any people who are awake nearby, they would surely notice. Just where is this place? It seems like it must be a stereotypical abandoned warehouse. But this is probably in or around Tokyo, isn't it? Where in that area is sufficiently devoid of human habitation? Or did someone manage to soundproof the place?
collateral damage
HE is bending the bullet trajectories. Interesting. It reminds me of the scene where Kosuke goes berserk at Mika's death and starts firing at Enlil. Despite being at such close range that some shots should be able to hit, not one of them does; instead she seems to dodge almost effortlessly. There's also the mention in route B's 1.0 ending, about guns that prevent network interference. Putting this all together, and it seems as though Enlil was somehow forcing Kosuke's aim to go awry, though I don't know how exactly that's supposed to work in realspace.
a bluebird in the cage
(Referring to Andras?? Or...)
Inquisition
There's another of those drones. They probably aren't around for no reason. Who is using them, and what is their purpose?
An electromagnetic barrier? This is cyberspace, right? What exactly does that mean, then? Some in-game mechanic, I would think.
HE destroys the Codebreaker after extracting the information he needs. What does this mean? He refers to the Codebreaker as a program, but is it an Una? After all, he previously implied the ones he's fighting are not NPCs. If so, what does he do to the person in realspace? It is suggested that this codebreaker could cause problems in the future. So, it appears he actually kills the guy, or does something very bad to his mind.
#83, originally posted Jun 10 2016, 11:36 AM
Route E—Session 18, part 5: Reality Leak
Yumishtar pumps Andras for information about LEM, finally getting him to agree to share any information found in the future. Ea approaches her after observing the interaction from a distance, and Magdalene has nothing good to say. Meanwhile, HE has withdrawn, leaving Hinata to ponder things in realspace; among other things, he realizes something shocking about the wound HE inflicted on himself.
Notes:
Spoiler: click to toggle
crystal angerona
Now, why would LEM entrust something important to someone like Andras? Personally, I wouldn't trust anything at all to him. But I suppose there's a reason behind making these people do things ...or maybe it's more a case of giving really vague hints and letting them make up the meaning?
In any case... "the sun and the moon becoming one". Eclipse? Anything to do with Hinata and Mutsuki? Or someone else?
Okay, so we narrowed down the possibilities a little. Not the same person acting differently. Not split personalities. Also, it's not Enlil or Ea. Well, this is all assuming we can believe Andras.
existence
Hmm. You know, I hadn't made the connection before, but it suddenly dawned on me... Hinata's cyborg body is ⅔ machine. Gilgamesh was ⅔ god according to the Epic of Gilgamesh. I don't know why it took me so long to see this.
Well, this is getting weird! HE was wounded in cyberspace. Now, supposedly Hinata is in realspace, but there's the wound! I remember Ea's prediction that the virtual world would invade the real world, or words to that effect. This might be a manifestation of that, although how it makes sense, I don't know. I think that it would have to indicate that none of this is real, or at least that parts of it constitute an augmented reality.
Now, why would LEM entrust something important to someone like Andras? Personally, I wouldn't trust anything at all to him. But I suppose there's a reason behind making these people do things ...or maybe it's more a case of giving really vague hints and letting them make up the meaning?
In any case... "the sun and the moon becoming one". Eclipse? Anything to do with Hinata and Mutsuki? Or someone else?
Okay, so we narrowed down the possibilities a little. Not the same person acting differently. Not split personalities. Also, it's not Enlil or Ea. Well, this is all assuming we can believe Andras.
existence
Hmm. You know, I hadn't made the connection before, but it suddenly dawned on me... Hinata's cyborg body is ⅔ machine. Gilgamesh was ⅔ god according to the Epic of Gilgamesh. I don't know why it took me so long to see this.
Well, this is getting weird! HE was wounded in cyberspace. Now, supposedly Hinata is in realspace, but there's the wound! I remember Ea's prediction that the virtual world would invade the real world, or words to that effect. This might be a manifestation of that, although how it makes sense, I don't know. I think that it would have to indicate that none of this is real, or at least that parts of it constitute an augmented reality.
#84, originally posted Jun 11 2016, 06:08 AM
Route A—Session 18, part 6: Listing to Port
I get the last bad ending from the first four routes. It's all about being observant (or rather, unobservant, in this case). That disk is looking pretty solid.
In case you don't get the title of this:
Spoiler: click to toggle
It's a play on the Shinozuka twins' handles and the fact that choosing the one twin both times causes the other to fail to play a vital role (an imbalance, if you will), leading to this ending.
There's nothing I want to add this time. So, no notes.
Route E—Session 18 (full)
#85, originally posted Jun 15 2016, 09:34 AM
Route E—Session 19, part 1: Confluence
Yumi finds herself going to Ishtar's old place. There, she is able to have a conversation with someone dear to her.
Notes:
Spoiler: click to toggle
diana downloaded
Yumi finds herself in an unexpected place. How did she get here? We're not on route C anymore, but the cluster screen (seen at the end of part 5 of the previous session) shows no date once again, a sign that there's something weird going on with time.
A cat? (Nitpick: the sound effect sounds like a kitten.) An odd detail to point out all of a sudden.
So, do these crystals just magically display the data they store? How else can she tell it's empty? And it even conveniently decodes the format, so Shadows appear as the people they represent. To get an idea of why I find this strange, just imagine if looking at a DVD or Blu-ray allowed you to see a preview of the movie it contained. In reality, that's impossible. The 1s and 0s making up the data are pressed as a pattern of pits (or burned, in the case of recordable versions). And the pits don't even directly represent those 1s and 0s; instead, there's a code used to transform them into a pattern that conforms to certain constraints allowing the reading hardware to keep in sync with the signalling rate. And underneath that, the video and audio are encoded in quite complicated ways. In short, sophisticated hardware and software are needed to convert everything into a form that humans can perceive as pictures and sound. An Exabyte Crystal should be no different in that fundamental way.
Something strange going on with the moon? Perhaps. But previously, we had dates for those other scenes, the ones for which I discussed the accuracy of the moon's age figures, and in both of those cases, it was indeed close to full moon. If those dates were correct, then it's not the behavior of the moon that's strange, but rather Yumi herself. It would seem she happened to check on the moon only when it was full.
This is not that strange a phenomenon, really. I myself feel as if I have uncanny timing when it comes to checking on the completion of certain things; i.e. many times I've had something going that takes many minutes (like a video rendering, download, etc.), then gone to check on it after a long time, and find it has just a handful of seconds left. In both cases, there are at least a couple of possible factors at work. One may be that the brain is remarkably good at timing things unconsciously (it even works sometimes for waking up at particular times). So, even though it seems as I'm choosing to check because I randomly remembered it, in reality, my brain may somehow be prompting it at an unconscious level. Another possible factor is a cognitive bias of some kind; it may in fact be a result of chance.
To my understanding, particles/waves (or, as sometimes called, "wavicles") aren't really one or the other. The two natures are two properties of the same thing. Certain manipulations can make one of them more prominent. The double-slit experiment makes the wave nature of photons obvious, for instance. But that doesn't change what photons are fundamentally. I'll admit, though, that I don't understand quantum physics very well at all.
Hmm. Enigma... Imagine. That's almost an anagram, but you had to add a letter, didn't you? Well, the "I" is pretty meaningful here. I guess that's the point. Something like, "A consciousness is required to turn the enigma into something concrete"?? (Once again, though, I'll remind you of the misconception of what "observer" really means, assuming they're referencing measurement in the context of quantum physics.)
Yumi has had her whole body submerged in the water, and now she rises out of it again. This resembles baptism. Is that a coincidence?
Nitpick: a tributary is a river that joins into another river. But Yumi is talking about a diversion, I think. (Also, the opposite of a tributary is a channel in a delta that distributes the flow into the ocean, called a distributary.) Translation issue, perhaps.
A computer hanging because of too much data... can and does happen. But it's usually not due to low specs, but rather a bug in the software that is more likely to be triggered when presented with a lot of data or under other similar circumstances. A hardware-related issue is possible too, though. For instance, complex processing might require a lot of memory, and that may cause memory exhaustion, and thus the program crashing. It's also possible for a computer to overheat, due to being run at max processing power with insufficient cooling. It might also wear out after a long period of intense use, though that usually takes a long time.
And that cat again. There must be some significance to it. Is it connected to Ishtar? Or is it someone else?
Yumi finds herself in an unexpected place. How did she get here? We're not on route C anymore, but the cluster screen (seen at the end of part 5 of the previous session) shows no date once again, a sign that there's something weird going on with time.
A cat? (Nitpick: the sound effect sounds like a kitten.) An odd detail to point out all of a sudden.
So, do these crystals just magically display the data they store? How else can she tell it's empty? And it even conveniently decodes the format, so Shadows appear as the people they represent. To get an idea of why I find this strange, just imagine if looking at a DVD or Blu-ray allowed you to see a preview of the movie it contained. In reality, that's impossible. The 1s and 0s making up the data are pressed as a pattern of pits (or burned, in the case of recordable versions). And the pits don't even directly represent those 1s and 0s; instead, there's a code used to transform them into a pattern that conforms to certain constraints allowing the reading hardware to keep in sync with the signalling rate. And underneath that, the video and audio are encoded in quite complicated ways. In short, sophisticated hardware and software are needed to convert everything into a form that humans can perceive as pictures and sound. An Exabyte Crystal should be no different in that fundamental way.
Something strange going on with the moon? Perhaps. But previously, we had dates for those other scenes, the ones for which I discussed the accuracy of the moon's age figures, and in both of those cases, it was indeed close to full moon. If those dates were correct, then it's not the behavior of the moon that's strange, but rather Yumi herself. It would seem she happened to check on the moon only when it was full.
This is not that strange a phenomenon, really. I myself feel as if I have uncanny timing when it comes to checking on the completion of certain things; i.e. many times I've had something going that takes many minutes (like a video rendering, download, etc.), then gone to check on it after a long time, and find it has just a handful of seconds left. In both cases, there are at least a couple of possible factors at work. One may be that the brain is remarkably good at timing things unconsciously (it even works sometimes for waking up at particular times). So, even though it seems as I'm choosing to check because I randomly remembered it, in reality, my brain may somehow be prompting it at an unconscious level. Another possible factor is a cognitive bias of some kind; it may in fact be a result of chance.
To my understanding, particles/waves (or, as sometimes called, "wavicles") aren't really one or the other. The two natures are two properties of the same thing. Certain manipulations can make one of them more prominent. The double-slit experiment makes the wave nature of photons obvious, for instance. But that doesn't change what photons are fundamentally. I'll admit, though, that I don't understand quantum physics very well at all.
Hmm. Enigma... Imagine. That's almost an anagram, but you had to add a letter, didn't you? Well, the "I" is pretty meaningful here. I guess that's the point. Something like, "A consciousness is required to turn the enigma into something concrete"?? (Once again, though, I'll remind you of the misconception of what "observer" really means, assuming they're referencing measurement in the context of quantum physics.)
Yumi has had her whole body submerged in the water, and now she rises out of it again. This resembles baptism. Is that a coincidence?
Nitpick: a tributary is a river that joins into another river. But Yumi is talking about a diversion, I think. (Also, the opposite of a tributary is a channel in a delta that distributes the flow into the ocean, called a distributary.) Translation issue, perhaps.
A computer hanging because of too much data... can and does happen. But it's usually not due to low specs, but rather a bug in the software that is more likely to be triggered when presented with a lot of data or under other similar circumstances. A hardware-related issue is possible too, though. For instance, complex processing might require a lot of memory, and that may cause memory exhaustion, and thus the program crashing. It's also possible for a computer to overheat, due to being run at max processing power with insufficient cooling. It might also wear out after a long period of intense use, though that usually takes a long time.
And that cat again. There must be some significance to it. Is it connected to Ishtar? Or is it someone else?
#86, originally posted Jun 16 2016, 10:53 AM
Route E—Session 19, part 2: Transfiguration
Yumi now has integrated memories of both her past-to-future self and her future-to-past self, and it feels natural. She considers her goal to save HE. She also notices heightened mental abilities, due to an unnatural phenomenon of the moon. And there's something up with the lunar eclipse. Meanwhile, HE searches in vain for Enlil and Sin; they take a break to chat. HE talks about the hacker ethic, and about how those two are probably hiding themselves from the Net. Then HE shows Hinata something strange going on with the moon, and hypothesizes a strange transformation between realspace and cyberspace, relating his vague memories of what he was doing during the eclipse and how it may have led to the current bizarre occurrence.
Notes:
Spoiler: click to toggle
The Hundredth Monkey
So... there are two Yumis (and also two Hinatas)? I'm not sure how that works.
And she doesn't remember the identities of Sin and HE? Why is that?
Um... Sure, I guess the moon being "stuck" as full is convenient, if it has a positive influence on our heroes. But, it's most definitely not something that could happen in the real world. I don't think I even need to explain that one. But it does explain the lack of date in these scenes. Come to think of it, would this also apply to routes C and D? I rarely checked, but it seems that throughout most of those routes, the moon was constantly full, with moon's age of exactly 15. (Funny how they forgot, even though the glossary entry on moon's age takes the trouble of pointing out that 15 isn't necessarily exactly a full moon. It wouldn't be, even without the variation in the length of the lunar cycle, since that cycle is a bit less than 30 days. Then again, that might just be another aspect of the unreality of the situation.)
Nitpick: "nights of the new moon" doesn't make too much sense, since the moon has to be positioned toward the sun to be a new moon; thus, it's only in the sky during the day. I might not have said anything, but before that was the phrase "best days on the nights of the full moon", suggesting a separation between the time being discussed and the time when the moon would be in the sky.
So, ICs are supposedly affected by the phases of the moon. That's fine, I guess. But that still doesn't explain how a computer program like LEM is affected.
Hmm, that's an interesting connection between moon's age and hexadecimal. But the fact that the number 15 is significant to both, mathematically it is nothing more than a coincidence. For one thing, moon's age doesn't just go to 15 and then become 0 again. It goes as high as approximately 29.80 (which isn't even an integer). Also, moon's age ranges through all real numbers between 0 and 29.80; on the other hand, when talking about hexadecimal, usually we're talking about integers (to be fair, they can be any real number, but that rarely comes up in practice, even in regards to floating-point representation of real numbers, which is almost always written in decimal form). The important difference is one between the continuous and the discrete. The continuous values range from 0 to whatever their maximum is, and when reaching the maximum, instantly go back to 0. When counting from 0 to 15, the maximum value can be held for just as long as any other; in a sense, it's more like the maximum value is 16, even though it is never reached (and in programming, when a discrete range is specified, the end point is often given as one greater than the highest value, for certain reasons).
augmented reality
(For someone with a biocomputer, reality could always be augmented, and in a much more convincing way than what we could achieve through mere sensory input. This might relate to the current weird state of affairs.)
"...no cases of someone's individual personalities communicating amongst each other." Heheh. Well,
Well, there we have it. Yumi already noticed, and now HE is pointing it out to Hinata. This certainly can't be realspace (right?). It could easily be cyberspace, which, as a simulation, is not bound by natural laws.
Protecting someone? There's that picture of Mutsuki from before (only in grayscale this time), embracing someone in her arms. Well, having seen far enough ahead in this session, I think I understand what's happening here. But that would be spoiling.
Oh boy... A parallel world, huh? I... don't even know what to say to that. There just isn't enough information to make sense of it at this point. So for now, let's just enjoy the mind f***.
"...the boundary between realspace and cyberspace is becoming vaguer." This makes the most sense considering the scene title. Augmented reality, taken to an extreme, could have that effect, as far as everyone participating in it is concerned. Um... but I'm not sure that can account for the injury, unless they're saying that's just a very convincing illusion, and Hinata's body is in no real danger from it. Or else, there's some mechanism that caused the injury in realspace as a response to it occurring in cyberspace.
So... there are two Yumis (and also two Hinatas)? I'm not sure how that works.
And she doesn't remember the identities of Sin and HE? Why is that?
Um... Sure, I guess the moon being "stuck" as full is convenient, if it has a positive influence on our heroes. But, it's most definitely not something that could happen in the real world. I don't think I even need to explain that one. But it does explain the lack of date in these scenes. Come to think of it, would this also apply to routes C and D? I rarely checked, but it seems that throughout most of those routes, the moon was constantly full, with moon's age of exactly 15. (Funny how they forgot, even though the glossary entry on moon's age takes the trouble of pointing out that 15 isn't necessarily exactly a full moon. It wouldn't be, even without the variation in the length of the lunar cycle, since that cycle is a bit less than 30 days. Then again, that might just be another aspect of the unreality of the situation.)
Nitpick: "nights of the new moon" doesn't make too much sense, since the moon has to be positioned toward the sun to be a new moon; thus, it's only in the sky during the day. I might not have said anything, but before that was the phrase "best days on the nights of the full moon", suggesting a separation between the time being discussed and the time when the moon would be in the sky.
So, ICs are supposedly affected by the phases of the moon. That's fine, I guess. But that still doesn't explain how a computer program like LEM is affected.
Hmm, that's an interesting connection between moon's age and hexadecimal. But the fact that the number 15 is significant to both, mathematically it is nothing more than a coincidence. For one thing, moon's age doesn't just go to 15 and then become 0 again. It goes as high as approximately 29.80 (which isn't even an integer). Also, moon's age ranges through all real numbers between 0 and 29.80; on the other hand, when talking about hexadecimal, usually we're talking about integers (to be fair, they can be any real number, but that rarely comes up in practice, even in regards to floating-point representation of real numbers, which is almost always written in decimal form). The important difference is one between the continuous and the discrete. The continuous values range from 0 to whatever their maximum is, and when reaching the maximum, instantly go back to 0. When counting from 0 to 15, the maximum value can be held for just as long as any other; in a sense, it's more like the maximum value is 16, even though it is never reached (and in programming, when a discrete range is specified, the end point is often given as one greater than the highest value, for certain reasons).
augmented reality
(For someone with a biocomputer, reality could always be augmented, and in a much more convincing way than what we could achieve through mere sensory input. This might relate to the current weird state of affairs.)
"...no cases of someone's individual personalities communicating amongst each other." Heheh. Well,
Spoiler: other visual novel
Remember11
sort of has exactly that going on. Though, it's not technically an example, as the personalities involved are genuinely separate people. Still amusing for Nakazawa to write this, after writing part of that story.Well, there we have it. Yumi already noticed, and now HE is pointing it out to Hinata. This certainly can't be realspace (right?). It could easily be cyberspace, which, as a simulation, is not bound by natural laws.
Protecting someone? There's that picture of Mutsuki from before (only in grayscale this time), embracing someone in her arms. Well, having seen far enough ahead in this session, I think I understand what's happening here. But that would be spoiling.
Oh boy... A parallel world, huh? I... don't even know what to say to that. There just isn't enough information to make sense of it at this point. So for now, let's just enjoy the mind f***.
"...the boundary between realspace and cyberspace is becoming vaguer." This makes the most sense considering the scene title. Augmented reality, taken to an extreme, could have that effect, as far as everyone participating in it is concerned. Um... but I'm not sure that can account for the injury, unless they're saying that's just a very convincing illusion, and Hinata's body is in no real danger from it. Or else, there's some mechanism that caused the injury in realspace as a response to it occurring in cyberspace.
#87, originally posted Jun 17 2016, 10:41 AM
Route E—Session 19, part 3: Paranoia
HE wakes to an alarm he doesn't remember setting, then goes a little crazy while feeling something foreign. Meanwhile, Yumi finds out about the lunar eclipses and makes final preparations for the time when everything converges.
Notes:
Spoiler: click to toggle
airscape
Hey, we have a date again. Are we out of that state in which the moon is always full? I get why—from a storytelling perspective—the scenes are skipping this way: it fits the theme of the moon always being full. But is there some in-universe explanation to it? Well, I guess that's part of the mystery.
"There's no way -I- of all people would allow myself to get so defenseless..." Well, except for the large amount of time you're not aware of what's happening? Even if someone else didn't set the alarm, how do you know you yourself didn't do it during the gap in your memory, when another "you" was presumably in control? Who knows what said personality would or would not do?
So, a third personality?
Um... the mirror?? Really? What the hell does that mean? ... Probably just imagining it. After all, it's just a mirror, and affirming it leads to an immediate bad ending.
"Possessed by something from another dimension? How ridiculous." Yeah, it's not like anything like this has ever happened in anything Nakazawa has written before. ;)
So, let me get this straight: This mysterious eye is intervening in events somehow? Wait a minute. Come to think of it, that choice seems like it was made by the same entity, judging by the narration. Does this apply to every choice in the whole story? This would also be similar to some other Nakazawa works.
Also, I don't know if this question is answered eventually, but I've seen far enough (as part of this session) that I have a guess at the answer. Who is this entity? Well, it might be more than one, but... Could it be
The Trinity
A video from the future, you say? I'd love to hear the explanation for how that was sent back. Though, does it really make a difference? They're all total lunar eclipses. Is it really possible to tell them apart just from video? Even if one is physically present, observing an eclipse, I can't immediately think of a method to know for sure what the date is just from looking at the moon. Of course, precise observation of the stars and planets might allow someone who can calculate the appearance of the sky at any point in history to work out what the date might be, and knowing there is currently a lunar eclipse greatly constrains the possibilities. But from just a cursory glance or a video? I doubt it.
So, both Yumishtar and HEnata have α and ω versions? I'm not clear on whether those correspond to Ishtar/Yumi and Hinata/HE, or if the distinctions are orthogonal. It'd certainly be simpler if the former is the case. Conflation leading to overlapping perspectives? Haven't seen that in Nakazawa before either. ;)
Even in this "dateful" world, the moon is stuck as a full moon. No word on what the media, the general public, etc., has to say about it.
I'd like to point out that red, green, and blue are only primary colors to normal human vision. There is nothing fundamental about those particular wavelengths. In fact, not all humans have the same wavelengths as their primaries. There are in fact different opsins coded for by different genes. Plus, some women, with different L opsin genes on their two X chromosomes, have a trait known as tetrachromacy, where their eyes detect four primary colors. Such lucky individuals can distinguish far more colors than the rest of us. And that's just humans. A lot of animals aren't any better than this, although many can see wavelengths beyond what we can. But there are some notable exceptions. Probably the most exquisite is the stomatopod, or mantis shrimp, with about a dozen different color pigments. (Each individual eye also has the equivalent of trinocular vision, so they have really good depth perception, too.)
And there's three again. I can see this will be an important theme.
Why did she have to find a mention of the Saros cycle in a video, of all things? Don't they have the equivalent of Wikipedia in 2032? It should be easy to find the knowledge without resorting to a video.
They refer to the third eclipse as the "final" one. Though, as I pointed out in my very first post, these total eclipses are part of a tetrad, so there will be a fourth one a few months later. Will that fact be important in this story? Or is it sufficient to have any three consecutive total eclipses? Well, okay, they all have to be visible from Japan as well.
Some interpretation of the tarot card: The time reads 4:01. The time of the eclipse that seems to be the turning point for everything. Since this is the Wheel of Fortune, I guess that means everything will change at that time. The girl is not looking at the clock. To avoid observing it, I guess, to preserve a quantum superposition, or something like that?
Hey, we have a date again. Are we out of that state in which the moon is always full? I get why—from a storytelling perspective—the scenes are skipping this way: it fits the theme of the moon always being full. But is there some in-universe explanation to it? Well, I guess that's part of the mystery.
"There's no way -I- of all people would allow myself to get so defenseless..." Well, except for the large amount of time you're not aware of what's happening? Even if someone else didn't set the alarm, how do you know you yourself didn't do it during the gap in your memory, when another "you" was presumably in control? Who knows what said personality would or would not do?
So, a third personality?
Um... the mirror?? Really? What the hell does that mean? ... Probably just imagining it. After all, it's just a mirror, and affirming it leads to an immediate bad ending.
"Possessed by something from another dimension? How ridiculous." Yeah, it's not like anything like this has ever happened in anything Nakazawa has written before. ;)
So, let me get this straight: This mysterious eye is intervening in events somehow? Wait a minute. Come to think of it, that choice seems like it was made by the same entity, judging by the narration. Does this apply to every choice in the whole story? This would also be similar to some other Nakazawa works.
Also, I don't know if this question is answered eventually, but I've seen far enough (as part of this session) that I have a guess at the answer. Who is this entity? Well, it might be more than one, but... Could it be
Spoiler if you haven't seen the parts covered near the end of this session, involving a certain emblem
Marduk? Perhaps Ashur is also involved as well? It did say, "{She}'s discovered", implying the one saying that was not her ("her" being Marduk, probably), but that the one that said, "I'm right h-" was her. Though it's interesting that they would be working together, given the state of affairs in that later scene. But that's time travel for you.
The Trinity
A video from the future, you say? I'd love to hear the explanation for how that was sent back. Though, does it really make a difference? They're all total lunar eclipses. Is it really possible to tell them apart just from video? Even if one is physically present, observing an eclipse, I can't immediately think of a method to know for sure what the date is just from looking at the moon. Of course, precise observation of the stars and planets might allow someone who can calculate the appearance of the sky at any point in history to work out what the date might be, and knowing there is currently a lunar eclipse greatly constrains the possibilities. But from just a cursory glance or a video? I doubt it.
So, both Yumishtar and HEnata have α and ω versions? I'm not clear on whether those correspond to Ishtar/Yumi and Hinata/HE, or if the distinctions are orthogonal. It'd certainly be simpler if the former is the case. Conflation leading to overlapping perspectives? Haven't seen that in Nakazawa before either. ;)
Spoiler: other visual novel
Cf. Ever17 with its degenerate triangle analogy.
Even in this "dateful" world, the moon is stuck as a full moon. No word on what the media, the general public, etc., has to say about it.
I'd like to point out that red, green, and blue are only primary colors to normal human vision. There is nothing fundamental about those particular wavelengths. In fact, not all humans have the same wavelengths as their primaries. There are in fact different opsins coded for by different genes. Plus, some women, with different L opsin genes on their two X chromosomes, have a trait known as tetrachromacy, where their eyes detect four primary colors. Such lucky individuals can distinguish far more colors than the rest of us. And that's just humans. A lot of animals aren't any better than this, although many can see wavelengths beyond what we can. But there are some notable exceptions. Probably the most exquisite is the stomatopod, or mantis shrimp, with about a dozen different color pigments. (Each individual eye also has the equivalent of trinocular vision, so they have really good depth perception, too.)
And there's three again. I can see this will be an important theme.
Why did she have to find a mention of the Saros cycle in a video, of all things? Don't they have the equivalent of Wikipedia in 2032? It should be easy to find the knowledge without resorting to a video.
They refer to the third eclipse as the "final" one. Though, as I pointed out in my very first post, these total eclipses are part of a tetrad, so there will be a fourth one a few months later. Will that fact be important in this story? Or is it sufficient to have any three consecutive total eclipses? Well, okay, they all have to be visible from Japan as well.
Some interpretation of the tarot card: The time reads 4:01. The time of the eclipse that seems to be the turning point for everything. Since this is the Wheel of Fortune, I guess that means everything will change at that time. The girl is not looking at the clock. To avoid observing it, I guess, to preserve a quantum superposition, or something like that?
#88, originally posted Jun 18 2016, 12:34 PM
Route E—Session 19, part 4: Information Exchange
Yumishtar and HEnata meet up and exchange information. They then head out to the Tokyo government building in Shinjuku—or is it the Ziggurat in Babylon? The boundary between realspace and cyberspace is disappearing as the eclipse approaches. The two (four?) split up, one knocking out security, the other fighting Code, while Enlil and Ea both look on.
Notes:
Spoiler: click to toggle
memento mori
So, uh... there was supposed to be confusion about the future appearing to be the past? For the most part, I don't remember feeling that confusion. When I started route C, at first I just plain didn't know what was going on. After a very short time, I still didn't know what was going on, but it sure seemed like it was in the future, because the alternate Ishtar remembered the events from the route B 0.1 ending. And then, it wasn't very long until she grasped that she was moving back in time, not to mention all the other blatant hints. The obvious conclusion was that it was proceeding back toward the time at which routes A and B ended. HE in route D never did get the backward time thing, but that wasn't really a problem for our understanding, given the similar structure and overlap of events. If they were going for the kind of thing they had in
Also, just how is this conflation supposed to cause realspace and cyberspace to overlap? I thought that the idea in
3:44? That might be a problem. Guess what? At this time, the eclipse should already be well underway! (Scroll down to the section "Eclipse Contacts..." and read the "UT1" times. Add 9 hours to get JST.) According to that, the moon will have been in totality for just over 5 minutes.
But HE quotes a time of 4:11. Hmm. What was Nakazawa's source for this? I have several sources giving the same time, including a NASA site, and it's several minutes before this one. *Sigh* Okay, then. I'll give up on reconciling this with real-world astronomical data.
So, uh... there was supposed to be confusion about the future appearing to be the past? For the most part, I don't remember feeling that confusion. When I started route C, at first I just plain didn't know what was going on. After a very short time, I still didn't know what was going on, but it sure seemed like it was in the future, because the alternate Ishtar remembered the events from the route B 0.1 ending. And then, it wasn't very long until she grasped that she was moving back in time, not to mention all the other blatant hints. The obvious conclusion was that it was proceeding back toward the time at which routes A and B ended. HE in route D never did get the backward time thing, but that wasn't really a problem for our understanding, given the similar structure and overlap of events. If they were going for the kind of thing they had in
Spoiler: click to toggle
Ever17
, where it looked like similar events during the same time period, I think they spectacularly failed to fool us this time.Also, just how is this conflation supposed to cause realspace and cyberspace to overlap? I thought that the idea in
Spoiler: other visual novel
Ever17, with its analogy of a degenerate triangle causing a fourth point to become coplanar
made some sense, even if there was no actual physics in there. A mathematically sensible idea with no physics is better than pseudo-physics with nonsensical ideas, in my book. Here, it seems to be completely hand-waved. Two eclipses, both in April, appear to be the same eclipse, because people didn't bother to check the year for some reason, and that magically makes two worlds (one of which is a simulation within the other, for crying out loud, no matter how beings—even genuinely intelligent ones—within it may perceive it!) merge together at the midpoint? I'm not satisfied with that. To be fair, though, we haven't heard the whole explanation, and we probably won't for quite a while, so who knows what they will come up with? Other than those of you who have finished this VN, that is.3:44? That might be a problem. Guess what? At this time, the eclipse should already be well underway! (Scroll down to the section "Eclipse Contacts..." and read the "UT1" times. Add 9 hours to get JST.) According to that, the moon will have been in totality for just over 5 minutes.
But HE quotes a time of 4:11. Hmm. What was Nakazawa's source for this? I have several sources giving the same time, including a NASA site, and it's several minutes before this one. *Sigh* Okay, then. I'll give up on reconciling this with real-world astronomical data.
#89, originally posted Jun 19 2016, 11:43 AM
Route E—Session 19, part 5: break;
HE and Enlil face off in front of the government building again. But this time, Yumishtar speaks to her. The two adversaries still exchange some violence before Yumishtar intervenes. Yayoi and LEM come to support her, and a reluctant truce ensues.
Notes:
Spoiler: click to toggle
a farewell to arms
So, now we're not even sure if we're humans or Nulls? Greaaat.
And yes, they'd probably pass a Turing test, given that—as I pointed out once before—a program has already passed one, supposedly. I'm not sure how, to be honest. The people judging may not have been very perceptive, or the program may have gotten lucky. In any case, the test itself is questionable. It doesn't really address the question of true intelligence. It's about whether a program is clever enough to fool a human, which is not that hard to do. We have magicians and con artists, after all.
Nice Blade Runner reference, there.
Enlil is quite obedient to Anu here, and also in that scene in route D's 1.0 ending. Why exactly that is, I'm not sure, but she is. So, why did she kill Anu without hesitation when attacking Hinata on that rooftop??
Both HE and Enlil are required to save Mutsuki? Why those two in particular? I guess because of their relationships to her?
Um, why does holomictic circulation matter? The liquid in Mutsuki's pod is really, really shallow. One can see in that CG that not even all of her body is submerged. I think the real question is how she has not drowned. Must be something other than water, that can deliver oxygen to the lungs despite being a liquid. No idea whether that's really feasible over a period of years.
Finally. HEnata seems slow on the uptake with the whole "Enlil is a woman" thing.
So, now we're not even sure if we're humans or Nulls? Greaaat.
And yes, they'd probably pass a Turing test, given that—as I pointed out once before—a program has already passed one, supposedly. I'm not sure how, to be honest. The people judging may not have been very perceptive, or the program may have gotten lucky. In any case, the test itself is questionable. It doesn't really address the question of true intelligence. It's about whether a program is clever enough to fool a human, which is not that hard to do. We have magicians and con artists, after all.
Nice Blade Runner reference, there.
Enlil is quite obedient to Anu here, and also in that scene in route D's 1.0 ending. Why exactly that is, I'm not sure, but she is. So, why did she kill Anu without hesitation when attacking Hinata on that rooftop??
Both HE and Enlil are required to save Mutsuki? Why those two in particular? I guess because of their relationships to her?
Um, why does holomictic circulation matter? The liquid in Mutsuki's pod is really, really shallow. One can see in that CG that not even all of her body is submerged. I think the real question is how she has not drowned. Must be something other than water, that can deliver oxygen to the lungs despite being a liquid. No idea whether that's really feasible over a period of years.
Finally. HEnata seems slow on the uptake with the whole "Enlil is a woman" thing.
#90, originally posted Jun 20 2016, 09:13 AM
Route E—Session 19, part 6: Face-Heel Turn
The group is on its way to where Mutsuki resides, but are stopped by someone unexpected. Some manage to get past, however, with the rest blocking pursuit. Down they proceed, split into pairs.
Notes:
Spoiler: click to toggle
split souls
(This is the title of this scene, starting from where they approach the security door. However, it is never displayed; you have to check the menu to see it, which I did by loading up the VN and checking. Who messed up on this?)
You know, for a while, I've wondered, why did a non-government entity like Anunnaki, and now—of all things—a terrorist organization like Code, have something housed in the headquarters of the government? I don't get it.
"All of us were killed by you lot." What? That's not entirely true. First of all, Kosuke was killed by some random Code member, not any of the four in front of him. HE, Yumi, and LEM did show up at the end of route B, and HE did look like he was suffocating Ishtar and Sami. But what about Yayoi? She wasn't even there.
Wow, this looks creepy. Especially Ea's face. Once again, this style, with the rings in the irises, accentuates the effect.
An isolated time, huh? Anything to do with that third world touched upon before?
Funny that it's only when both are speaking at once that it becomes clear just how different Ishtar's and Yumi's voices are. They're roughly an octave apart.
Supercoiled Helix
Definitely calling back to the veeery start of the VN. If you've forgotten, go back and look at the first episode.
(This is the title of this scene, starting from where they approach the security door. However, it is never displayed; you have to check the menu to see it, which I did by loading up the VN and checking. Who messed up on this?)
You know, for a while, I've wondered, why did a non-government entity like Anunnaki, and now—of all things—a terrorist organization like Code, have something housed in the headquarters of the government? I don't get it.
"All of us were killed by you lot." What? That's not entirely true. First of all, Kosuke was killed by some random Code member, not any of the four in front of him. HE, Yumi, and LEM did show up at the end of route B, and HE did look like he was suffocating Ishtar and Sami. But what about Yayoi? She wasn't even there.
Wow, this looks creepy. Especially Ea's face. Once again, this style, with the rings in the irises, accentuates the effect.
An isolated time, huh? Anything to do with that third world touched upon before?
Funny that it's only when both are speaking at once that it becomes clear just how different Ishtar's and Yumi's voices are. They're roughly an octave apart.
Supercoiled Helix
Definitely calling back to the veeery start of the VN. If you've forgotten, go back and look at the first episode.
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