Read Online Spinspace: The Space of Spins (The Metaspace Chronicles Book 2) by Matthew Kennedy - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Matthew Kennedy
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one-religion configurations are trivial examples of a configuration including religion as a coordinate. They are just as trivial as saying everyone is wearing red socks or everyone has black hair.”
“So what's the point? What does it add?”
“I said these were trivial examples,” said Xander. “We could just as easily imagine non-trivial examples. If, for example, we changed the picture and imagined something more realistic, which differing geographical regions have different percentages of Catholic, Buddhist, etc. followers, then the additional coordinate begins to become more useful. If, for example, you see a boundary in which differing religions are popular on opposite sides of a border, then it is more likely that religious wars will occur between those countries.”
“You mean, like between Texas and its neighbors.”
“Yes. The more you understand the configurations possible in metaspace , the more you can predict and control the behavior of matter and energy in space. For example, using only the part I call pathspace , you can make swizzles or go invisible.”
“And the more aspects of space I understand, the more I will have in my bag of tricks as a wizard.”
“Yes. But since there are so many possibilities, I find it is usually more effective if the student trains on only one aspect at a time. You have been training your ability in pathspace . Now it is time to begin adding spinspace to your toolbox.”
“Are there lethal applications?”
“Yes,” said Xander. “But let's not be in too much of a hurry to get to them, shall we? It's good to be able to defend yourself, but I would prefer that killing not be the first thing that comes to mind.”
“All right. I can see that. What's the first thing I need to do?”
“The first thing you need to do is to work on adding the coordinate of spin to your configuration space. Right now this spinometer has x,y, and z coordinates for you. But it isn't spinning yet. You have to engage that part of your metaspace and learn how to manipulate it.”
“So teach me. How do I go about doing that?”
Instead of answering, Xander took a square wooden board out of his box. Its surface was marked with the familiar alternating checkers of black and white square. In the center of each square was a tiny dimple. Then he pulled a handful of tiny tops out of the box. He set the bottom points of them into some of the dimples and spun them with his fingers to set them rotating.
Lester expected them to run down and fall as all tops did, but they didn't. In fact, some of them seemed to spin a little faster. He decided that Xander was stoking their spinspace .
“Imagine that all space is filled with tops,” said Xander. “Not just the dimples on this board, but all the points in between, and all of the points above and below them.”
Lester tried, but that was an awful lot of spinning to imagine.
“Now for the hard part,” said Xander, as if what he had just described was too easy. “Now shrink all of those tops down to nothing more than points. In other words, imagine you are dealing with a space that has an x,y,x, and spin associated with every point in it.”
“That's pretty hard,” said Lester.
“I know it is,” said Xander. “At first. But the more you practice it, the easier it will get, as imagining pathspace was.”
“This space I am imagining,” said Lester, “sounds like the idea of pathspace with spin replacing the coordinate of path direction .”
“Exactly,” said Xander. “I have not asked you to imagine space plus path plus spin yet. We have just swapped out path direction and replaced it with spin direction. It is a little more complicated.”
“Why so,” said Lester, still imagining a space filled to the brim with spinning points.
“Well, you might suppose that it's of the same order of complexity, with the arrow of spin,” he gestured at the tops, “represented here
“So what's the point? What does it add?”
“I said these were trivial examples,” said Xander. “We could just as easily imagine non-trivial examples. If, for example, we changed the picture and imagined something more realistic, which differing geographical regions have different percentages of Catholic, Buddhist, etc. followers, then the additional coordinate begins to become more useful. If, for example, you see a boundary in which differing religions are popular on opposite sides of a border, then it is more likely that religious wars will occur between those countries.”
“You mean, like between Texas and its neighbors.”
“Yes. The more you understand the configurations possible in metaspace , the more you can predict and control the behavior of matter and energy in space. For example, using only the part I call pathspace , you can make swizzles or go invisible.”
“And the more aspects of space I understand, the more I will have in my bag of tricks as a wizard.”
“Yes. But since there are so many possibilities, I find it is usually more effective if the student trains on only one aspect at a time. You have been training your ability in pathspace . Now it is time to begin adding spinspace to your toolbox.”
“Are there lethal applications?”
“Yes,” said Xander. “But let's not be in too much of a hurry to get to them, shall we? It's good to be able to defend yourself, but I would prefer that killing not be the first thing that comes to mind.”
“All right. I can see that. What's the first thing I need to do?”
“The first thing you need to do is to work on adding the coordinate of spin to your configuration space. Right now this spinometer has x,y, and z coordinates for you. But it isn't spinning yet. You have to engage that part of your metaspace and learn how to manipulate it.”
“So teach me. How do I go about doing that?”
Instead of answering, Xander took a square wooden board out of his box. Its surface was marked with the familiar alternating checkers of black and white square. In the center of each square was a tiny dimple. Then he pulled a handful of tiny tops out of the box. He set the bottom points of them into some of the dimples and spun them with his fingers to set them rotating.
Lester expected them to run down and fall as all tops did, but they didn't. In fact, some of them seemed to spin a little faster. He decided that Xander was stoking their spinspace .
“Imagine that all space is filled with tops,” said Xander. “Not just the dimples on this board, but all the points in between, and all of the points above and below them.”
Lester tried, but that was an awful lot of spinning to imagine.
“Now for the hard part,” said Xander, as if what he had just described was too easy. “Now shrink all of those tops down to nothing more than points. In other words, imagine you are dealing with a space that has an x,y,x, and spin associated with every point in it.”
“That's pretty hard,” said Lester.
“I know it is,” said Xander. “At first. But the more you practice it, the easier it will get, as imagining pathspace was.”
“This space I am imagining,” said Lester, “sounds like the idea of pathspace with spin replacing the coordinate of path direction .”
“Exactly,” said Xander. “I have not asked you to imagine space plus path plus spin yet. We have just swapped out path direction and replaced it with spin direction. It is a little more complicated.”
“Why so,” said Lester, still imagining a space filled to the brim with spinning points.
“Well, you might suppose that it's of the same order of complexity, with the arrow of spin,” he gestured at the tops, “represented here
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