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[Per usual, Faolan is intent on not typing on these devices. By now, it is a matter of principle. Besides, he has something somewhat topical he wishes to ask of the network. A bit of research, if you will.]

I have touched on this before, but I acknowledge perhaps the only way to know is to ask it of you all directly--

How many here are from a place where the things we encounter here are familiar to them? Technology like the Enclosure, for instance? Or ships like this that can fly through the stars? Hell, even those damned machines they tell me we are meant to use for exercise?

And how many, like myself, are not?

[A frustrated sigh. He does not like to acknowledge his limitations]

It is bad enough that we are thrust into this life as it is. To be at such a disadvantage...

How exactly is this supposed to prepare me to better myself to return to the life I knew?

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An interesting question.

I am from a time where starships are routine, but it was still an adjustment in many ways.

May I ask how? If you were at least familiar with the concept?

Many here are not from a time when much of this technology is ubiquitous. And I come from a military background, and so was ill-prepared to be dropped onto what amounts to a cargo ship full of civilians.

I'm not familiar with a lot of the technology here, though I believe at least some of it is common in the human world. I know they have spaceships, though I not like this.

So, as someone who's used to stepping between worlds with different levels of technology, I think that it can work to remind you to be flexible and that there's always new things to learn. Besides, not taking something for granted can allow you a new perspective.

Perhaps learning the specifics of some of what's here won't help when you return home, but learning in general has value.

['The human world'...]

I am human myself, and would argue that the great majority of the technology found here is nothing like anything I have encountered previously. Although, I am coming to understand this may have something to do with the time I am from, rather than the place.

Regardless, it is frustrating, and weighted against those of us unfamiliar with even the basics. It is easy for you to say 'learning has value', but I have never known water to run inside a building before, never mind this thing they call 'electricity'. Have you?

Yes, it's amazing how quickly things can change! One day you have to set up a spell to talk to someone and the next they've invented telephones. It's very ingenious.

I have, and though I admit that while I try, I still don't entirely know how electricity works. But I do know how you can turn a ribbon and a scrap of song into an outfit that's acceptable enough for a mostly informal party. I don't want you to think I don't know anything. But isn't it value to think about how water runs inside a building and why and what that would mean for your people? [...He does just believe that learning something can be its own reward, and being unfamiliar with basics means there's more to learn!]

Such technology is uncommon in the time period I was, and currently am, from. I know of some similarities only because of my father's vast collection of all types of knowledge and innovations, but I have lived most of my life without them.

If it would behoove you to learn of them while here, then do so. If it would be even more beneficial to learn skills associated with your world and it's lack of accommodations, then learn that as well. There are ways to simulate whatever you may need.

You speak of the Enclosure? When you say that what I need may be 'simulated', that is?

And forgive me, but I must ask -- how could such things be in your father's collection if the technology was not in common use? Had they been, in times before?

Yes, that is the most obvious and convenient way to recreate objects and surroundings from elsewhere while upon this vessel. Other methods could be devised as well if preferred.

Some of it, yes. For other such things... he was a polymath. His knowledge was accumulated over centuries. He created on his own. He gathered ancient and forbidden texts, he sought out like-minded individuals...when he still enjoyed the existence of other people. He had a treasure-trove of numerous things, living and non-living, of our world and of other dimensions.

It is an odd situation, isn't it? I'm from a place with spaceships and advanced computers, but I grew up in a place with only a few spaceships and much less advanced technology in other ways. It is a shock, to realize what's out there.

It certainly is.

Where I am from, many would consider the concept of man traveling among the stars some serious blasphemy. Bridei, the king I serve, believes the Sun to be a God and the Moon to be a Goddess. The Flamekeeper and the Shining One.

Not that I believe that myself, being a dirty Gael, but you see. Given that, this has all been a lot to wrap my head around.

What do you believe, then? As a Gael, dirty or otherwise?

It's— actually quite difficult to quantify. I'd say the Barge outpaces ninety percent of home, but we've got technology there that doesn't quite line up with here, either.

Like what sorts of things, if I might ask?

And did you find it a struggle to adjust here, given that? Or not as much?

Well—

[gustave audibly hesitates — not out of any sort of reluctance, but it's clear he's not immediately certain how to explain.]

So— I lost my left arm several years back. What would be the— options, I guess, in your world, for someone like me? For... replacements.

Nothing aboard the Barge was familiar and no breach has been either.

The gym, yes. The enclosure, definitely no.

I think the idea is probably that dealing with other people is the same bullshit no matter what.

This place is freaking weird. The gym, I get. They had stuff like that at home. Communicator thingies too.

The robots? The flyin? Nope. It's all weird and I don't get a lick of this place.

Oh, the Barge is a lot like home in a lot of ways! Starships, holodecks, transporters, surprisingly frequent encounters with strange phenomena that disrupt the entire crew for a period of time, everyone hooking up with each other...

There's a lot more magic here, though!

The skills you need to learn, I assume, are not generalized to a specific time or place in your history. My companion and I, for example, are very unfamiliar with bipedal, two eyed creatures such as yourself. But they are being asked to prepare themselves for a life that is nothing like this.

Oh, it’s all weird to me! Sure, we’ve got ships at home, but nothing like this. Lotta tape and nails on ours.

Maybe it’s through wading the unknown that we’re expected to grow, but it kind of seems like it’s putting a lot of us at a disadvantage!

(backdated to a reasonable response time)

Very few things were familiar to this young monk when he arrived... but the library is a great source of learning to catch up.

So are movies.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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