Fun with Shape Shifting

[RobbieThe1st]

Well, here. I have just developed a completely crackpot theory how 'Cubi can shape-shift:
I figure that it has everything to do with energy-manipulation. First, for 'Cubi, I figure that a 'Cubi's soul is a pool of pure energy, invisible, which contains all memories, personality data, and a bit of processing power, somehow. So, for a few seconds, said soul can exist alone without any sort of body.
Next, I figure that, for any sort of shape-shifting, any molecules that need to be changed for the transformation need to be converted to pure energy and then into the proper type of molecule and state of the finished form.
So, in essence, no 'Cubi can create a form larger than the total amount of energy he/she has at his/her command - total stored energy in the current form + soul energy. This means that, as Ink stated, a Tri-wing can shape-shift into an entire town, while someone without much in the way of energy, like Dan, couldn't shape-shift into anything more than a tad bigger than his current form. Of course, the wings *do* count toward the total, and so if the final form has no wings, it can be larger.  I figure that the head-wings appear when the total stored spare energy is larger than the amount needed for the head-wings themselves.
Next thing you need for shape-shifting, is that you need to know exactly, cell-by-cell what the form you want to take is, which is why it is rarely done. Hiding wings is much easier, as that information is built in, and most likely very easy to do, compared to a new form.
Obviously, there would be a couple of safeguards, such that your brain wouldn't let you shape-shift if you didn't have a clear form in mind, or if there was a problem in the form you were attempting to shift to, like it not being able to breathe for one reason or another.

Small size wise, I suppose it would be possible to become something as small as say... a mouse, but you would have to worry about getting eaten, and all that, which is why you don't see people doing it.

The wing-tentacles use a completely different mechanism, however being mostly pure energy, although control is automated by your subconscious, which is why its easy to control.


Obviously, this theory needs a bit of work, but thats why I posted it.


-RobbieThe1st

[Tezkat]

Immortality
- Nough' said. Any reasonable intelligent cubi would realise that with the application of 20-30 years time, they could become richer then most beings and still have the entirety of their life before them. That and the ability to arrange for some truly Machiavellian plots to further our own wants and ends. Though to be truthful, I just want to be rich!

Ah, but how rich is rich? Surely Furrae's economy has adpated to the presence of all those Creatures--essentially an entrenched aristocracy going back millenia. There must be a huge gap between rich and poor. Goods and services to satisfy Being needs (food, clothing, shelter) would be normally priced, but Cubi don't really need those anyway. The prices of luxury items, on the other hand, would presumably be corrected for a primary clientele whose investments have been accumulating interest for centuries.


As an aside, I wonder what passes for money in Furrae. Under the hood, I mean. We've seen that the world is divided into a lot of relatively small kingdoms that don't necessarily get along--and thus wouldn't benefit from recognizing each others' legal tender. Furthermore, we know that the kinds of raw materials that have been historically used to tranport value in our world (precious metals and stones, fuels, spices, etc.) are easily conjured. So trade would consist mainly of highly processed goods, but those would be so varied that I don't see anything emerging as a de facto standard unit of exchange. To make a global economy function, you'd pretty much need a world bank with a currency arbitrarily backed by the Creature Council--the only organization with the necessary clout.

I also figured that you can live a life of crime by morphing the tentacle into a lockpick which you can adjust to the lock on-the-fly, which my character 'Snell' does.

Heh. That's actually how my Warp-Aci got his name (Ky = "key" ).

You missed 'thought-reading'.  Another of Snell's little tricks was to impersonate a checkout person at the supermarket and steal the PIN numbers from people's minds as they entered them into the machine at point of sale (*).  The supermarket's copy of the till receipt should provide most of the other info you need to construct a copy of the card.

Hmm... I question whether thought reading would be that useful for grabbing PINs. For people like me who use cash maybe once a month, if that, and pay for everything else with credit/debit, entering PINs requires little conscious intervention--the secret data is stored in muscle memory.

Incidentally, it's not unknown around here for unscrupulous store employees to install interceptors that record the data stream between the POS terminal and the verification company. I actually had my credit card "stolen" that way a couple of months ago. And I was out of the country when the bank froze my card due to the suspicious transactions--not a very convenient time to have your primary card stop working.

'Course, stealing people's grocery money seems very small potatoes compared to the huge scams one could potentially pull off as a telepathic shapeshifter.

[Tapewolf]

Hmm... I question whether thought reading would be that useful for grabbing PINs. For people like me who use cash maybe once a month, if that, and pay for everything else with credit/debit, entering PINs requires little conscious intervention--the secret data is stored in muscle memory.

I still have to consciously remember the number, even though I use cash very, very rarely.  But unless they make a conscious effort not to look at the keypad, you could pick up the keys they press from their vision, since you seem to be able to see pictures as well as hear the inner voice.

The supermarket scam was the one I used in the story, but ATMs are probably better.  In the UK there have been some incredibly elaborate scams to get the PIN, from people covertly watching over your shoulder to a remote camera disguised as a pack of leaflets.  With telepathy, you can remove all that effort 

'Course, stealing people's grocery money seems very small potatoes compared to the huge scams one could potentially pull off as a telepathic shapeshifter.

It's about stealing their card details 

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

There's far better ways of dealing with it, honestly.

Steal the card, put in a charge for $5 or something. Chances are, most folks won't notice.

If you can get away with it, you can hit it for that every other month from here until expiry time, and won't even get clipped for it. Multiply that by the number of cards you could steal by, say, taking a day off and standing on a corner near the ATM with a book and a pen, apparently filling in sudoku strips, and you could well manage an extremely nice lifestyle.

Without many folks noticing, even.

[Tapewolf]

There's far better ways of dealing with it, honestly.

The bulk of what you've described (taking small chunks from many cards) is exactly what he'd have done with the card details once he had them, but yes, hanging around near an ATM reading people's thoughts is a much less clunky approach.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

... especially the corner I have in mind, which is near Moorgate station, and has 5 ATMs in a row...

[Chaos]

*Snip*

Now we're getting into fun.

This is obviously a society where the Gold standard just cannot hold true. While pretty, there is no rarity when demand can be supplied with a thought, while there are exceptions, let's pass on them for the moment. This means that Silk cloth is more valuable then Gold, wood more high class then stainless steel. The economy would then gear towards those things that need manufacturing rather then creation. Factories taking place of mines, more need for farmers, so forth and so on.

Now as to how rich is rich, there is one universal constant. When you get the principle of compound interest in your corner, you take off. I could see a cubi owning a mall and 12 business offices and living off of the rent income, investing the rest...

[Tapewolf]

This is obviously a society where the Gold standard just cannot hold true. While pretty, there is
no rarity when demand can be supplied with a thought,

It's a bit more asymmetric than that.   Creatures can create it (although we don't know how much it exerts them to do this - they might have to eat something to recover their strength) but Beings can't.  They would have to either mine it themselves, or purchase it from Creatures, which makes the dynamics rather interesting.

Thinking about it, what you'd probably end up with is the Creatures providing Beings with raw materials, and Beings supplying Creatures with finished goods.

[Kayriel]

This is obviously a society where the Gold standard just cannot hold true. While pretty, there is
no rarity when demand can be supplied with a thought,

Thinking about it, what you'd probably end up with is the Creatures providing Beings with raw materials, and Beings supplying Creatures with finished goods.

That could be a reason why the Creature Council is feeling threatened by Jy's dead-magic creations, and his progress. If he gets to an energy->matter stage in his work, they'll lose their main economic foothold, and since nothing of his relies on magic, they have nothing to supply, and the Beings become autonomous.

[Tapewolf]

That could be a reason why the Creature Council is feeling threatened by Jy's dead-magic creations, and his progress. If he gets to an energy->matter stage in his work, they'll lose their main economic foothold, and since nothing of his relies on magic, they have nothing to supply, and the Beings become autonomous.

Remember e=mc squared.  Total mass conversion provides a stupendous amount of energy, and that means the converse is true.  Unless he has an energy source of stellar proportions, he's not going to be able to do any significant energy->matter conversion on a purely technological basis.

IMHO they're more scared of the weapons technology.

[Pagan]

Eh, I think that the Creature Council is just scared of change in general. Creatures live for centuries, a good bit live for millennia. Anything that old tends be set into their ways very strongly. Things like what Jyrras is making don't gradually affect the world, they change the world quickly. And that sudden change is what the Creatures fear, just my opinion.

[Kayriel]

That could be a reason why the Creature Council is feeling threatened by Jy's dead-magic creations, and his progress. If he gets to an energy->matter stage in his work, they'll lose their main economic foothold, and since nothing of his relies on magic, they have nothing to supply, and the Beings become autonomous.

Remember e=mc squared.  Total mass conversion provides a stupendous amount of energy, and that means the converse is true.  Unless he has an energy source of stellar proportions, he's not going to be able to do any significant energy->matter conversion on a purely technological basis.

IMHO they're more scared of the weapons technology.

Which I'm well aware of. However, he has been shown to combine his non-magical technology with magical energy sources in the past. (See: Deebs) - On top of which, the lack of apparent innate magic in the material or working of his machines means that adding magic into the working would have an almost definite success rate, without any other magic to interfere. I'm also wondering if magic-users can exert any control over materials without base magicks...

[Tezkat]

Now as to how rich is rich, there is one universal constant. When you get the principle of compound interest in your corner, you take off. I could see a cubi owning a mall and 12 business offices and living off of the rent income, investing the rest...

Maybe, maybe not... In such a system, real estate is one of the few things that's likely to retain value--there's a fixed amount of land and won't be any more no matter how many centuries you live. I'd imagine that much of it would be concentrated in the hands of a small number of very powerful people (kings, Creature families, etc.). The compound interest thing would apply to all Creatures, many of whom could afford to wait decades or even centuries to see a return on their investments, so the barrier to entry into the market could be set quite high, even for younger Creatures.

It's a bit more asymmetric than that.   Creatures can create it (although we don't know how much it exerts them to do this - they might have to eat something to recover their strength) but Beings can't.  They would have to either mine it themselves, or purchase it from Creatures, which makes the dynamics rather interesting.

Thinking about it, what you'd probably end up with is the Creatures providing Beings with raw materials, and Beings supplying Creatures with finished goods.

I'd imagine that most of the raw materials would still be mined/grown/collected. I don't think it would be in most Creatures' best interests to waste energy becoming resource suppliers unless otherwise inaccessible resources would greatly benefit their domain. (For instance, Tezkat's father in the RP timelines created a spring in the middle of the desert, and a city grew around that.) In that light, it's even possible that Beings would still value things like gold. But that still couldn't form a stable global currency standard if any Creature could crash the market with a little conjuring marathon.

Eh, I think that the Creature Council is just scared of change in general. Creatures live for centuries, a good bit live for millennia. Anything that old tends be set into their ways very strongly. Things like what Jyrras is making don't gradually affect the world, they change the world quickly. And that sudden change is what the Creatures fear, just my opinion.

I don't think it's change per se that the Creatures fear. Since they mostly own the means of production, and processed goods are more valuable in this world, investing in technology would simply improve their own lots. The industrial revolution wouldn't have happened without Creatures like Akaen, for instance. What would have them worried is losing control of the process now that technology has reached a critical rate of growth. The conflict parallels our own information age revolutions, when dynastic capitalist powers encountered world-changing innovations coming from young entrepreneurs' basements.

[WhiteFox]

Here in Canadia, our supermarkets print recipts with numbers that look like this:

"Debit: XXXXXXXXXXXX8002"

And if you ask for cash, they make you sign the cashiers copy of the slip.

As for not needing to eat as a cubi... you do kind of have to feed off other sentient beings. That might get you, like, hunted by law enforcement. Kind of a downside.

Know how I'd make money as a Cubi? I'd have a dozen children and start a family business. Three generations later, the family is well taken care of and I'm the head of a coporation (Assuming the business goes well, of course).

Eh, I think that the Creature Council is just scared of change in general. Creatures live for centuries, a good bit live for millennia. Anything that old tends be set into their ways very strongly. Things like what Jyrras is making don't gradually affect the world, they change the world quickly. And that sudden change is what the Creatures fear, just my opinion.

I don't think it's change per se that the Creatures fear. Since they mostly own the means of production, and processed goods are more valuable in this world, investing in technology would simply improve their own lots. The industrial revolution wouldn't have happened without Creatures like Akaen, for instance. What would have them worried is losing control of the process now that technology has reached a critical rate of growth. The conflict parallels our own information age revolutions, when dynastic capitalist powers encountered world-changing innovations coming from young entrepreneurs' basements.

The Age of chivalry was ended with the advent of gunpowder. Whatever armor a knight could wear, a bullet would go right through.

For however long they've been around, creature have been on top thanks to natural selection. #343 Suddenly, a being with a gun turns into a much bigger problem. Now they're armed as well as if they had spells. And any creature can pick up a gun. Bows are probably annoying enough, but assault rifles? Your lifespan doesn't mean much when you suddenly have to treat every being in the world as a threat, instead of just the ones with magic, or high combat skills. (And don't tell me guns won't kill a creature. DP fell to a freaking sword.) Beings are, probably, far more prolific than Creatures too, which means that if natural selection favors the ones with guns, the creatures are probably sunk in a generation or two.

(BTW: I think this the "work" Mab is talking about at the bottom of panel one of #837, and why she got Albanion to put the wrist-wards on him.)

[Tapewolf]

As for not needing to eat as a cubi... you do kind of have to feed off other sentient beings. That might get you, like, hunted by law enforcement. Kind of a downside.

"Kind of have to", not "have to".  It depends whether you can avoid the temptation, but 'Cubi don't need to eat souls in order to survive.  AFAIK, passive emotion feeding will see you through a couple of millennia, and besides, there are other ways of increasing your power and lifespan - it's just that soul-slaying is quicker and easier, notwithstanding the price on your head.
The dream thing is another way of gaining energy, by the way, at least according to the calendar.

I don't know what it's like with Demons and Angels since they don't have the emotional energy fallback.

[Kayriel]

Probably a strict diet of souls and flesh, I'd say, likely with Angels able to draw in more energy from souls than flesh, and demons being the opposite. I mean, Kria's last name is Soulstealer, but how much more eating beings have we seen her at than soul-stealing? Maybe both at once?

[pyrohamster]

For no reason i would turn into Head On. Apply directly to the forehead.