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[GavJ]

It just occurred to me that dwarves have superluminal (faster than light speed) telecommunications ability.

Simply set up a reservoir and a pump at location 1, with a levered floodgate.  A pipe of water or magma then extends to location 2.  Perhaps down the street.  Perhaps on another planet.

Pull the lever in a Morse code pattern, and liquid will arrive instantaneously on the other end in coded spurts.


It is very late here and I am very tired, but I assume this must have very important implications of some sort for our dwarves, and thought it my duty to share.

[Yag Alone]

It just occurred to me that dwarves have superluminal (faster than light speed) telecommunications ability.

Simply set up a reservoir and a pump at location 1, with a levered floodgate.  A pipe of water or magma then extends to location 2.  Perhaps down the street.  Perhaps on another planet.

Pull the lever in a Morse code pattern, and liquid will arrive instantaneously on the other end in coded spurts.


It is very late here and I am very tired, but I assume this must have very important implications of some sort for our dwarves, and thought it my duty to share.

Unfortunately, there is always a small delay before the opening of a lever-controlled door/hatch/floodgate, and an ever greater delay for the bridges...
So Einstein seems to be still pertinent in dwarfworld.

Von Mayer, on the other hand...

[GavJ]

?? No, those are both constant delays. So no, it's not literally INSTANT, but that's not the point.  The point is that:

At a distance of 10 tiles, it would take 200 ticks or whatever it adds up to to send a pulse.
At a distance of 100,000,000,000,000,000 tiles, it would take 200 ticks still to send a pulse.

With a long enough pipe (not that long at all, really), therefore, it will surpass the speed of light.  Not literally, but effectively instantaneous for such an application, and without any accumulation of delay over longer distances.

[slothen]

It just occurred to me that dwarves have superluminal (faster than light speed) telecommunications ability.

So does everything in every game ever.

[GavJ]

It just occurred to me that dwarves have superluminal (faster than light speed) telecommunications ability.

So does everything in every game ever.

A) uh, what?
B) In DF theyre not supposed to.  As evidenced by the fact that the mountainhome sends a liaison to manually walk around with the caravan to every outpost.  That must be their current highest realized level of communications technology.  Thus this is a breakthrough!

[Destructicus]

Mechanisms have value, liaisons do not.  That's why it's cheaper to send a dwarf rather than spend a couple mechanisms creating an ansible between the mountainhome and every outpost.  See, even the dwarves don't value dwarves!

[NonconsensualSurgery]

Personally I'm more intrigued by their ability to send signals from the surface to the depths of hell with no intervening relays or cables.

Wormholes, man. Wormholes everywhere.

[Saiko Kila]

Light has different properties in the dwarfworld. Maybe it has different speed? After all, you can make a cave-in through say ten floors, and even if you rebuild these floors they all will remain lit. So light stays here forever. I wonder if it gets redshifted. Unfortunately, even stable fortresses do not last long enough to check it out.

Also dwarves can transfer not only information but also energy - the bridges and floodgates have no power sources.

[ThatAussieGuy]

I always just assumed they threaded a thin rope between the lever and device, myself.  Tucked in a corner of the corridors between the two points.

[rtg593]

I always just assumed they threaded a thin rope between the lever and device, myself.  Tucked in a corner of the corridors between the two points.

Ya, I assumed there was an implied gearwork embedded in the floor when you built em. I also assumed that it's a placeholder since Toady seems too inclined to realism to allow quantum entanglement. :p

Bridges and gates could be counterweighted, so there wouldn't need to be massive axles and gears like when you power something. Maybe one day we'll engrave or construct control lines between the two

[khearn]

The problem is that you can't make a tunnel 100,000,000,000,000,000 tiles long. The longest you can make a tunnel is 768 tiles. That's 16 embark squares, each of which is 48 tiles wide. Nothing in DF can communicate farther than that without sending a dwarf. It's just a basic law of physics in the DF universe. Just like C being constant is in ours.

[runlvlzero]

Your making the big assumption that the Liaison and Caravan actually had to make the journey to your fort. Why can't they just teleport in off the map edge every so often, then teleport right back.

It seems that way because its almost as if as soon as the Liaison leaves, you instantly get your next migrant wave according to his reports...

[i2amroy]

The problem is that you can't make a tunnel 100,000,000,000,000,000 tiles long. The longest you can make a tunnel is 768 tiles. That's 16 embark squares, each of which is 48 tiles wide. Nothing in DF can communicate farther than that without sending a dwarf. It's just a basic law of physics in the DF universe. Just like C being constant is in ours.

It's because in its natural state physics doesn't apply to the DF world. It's simply the presence of the player that causes the hand of the physics god to reach out and touch the DF universe. That's why (at least before the city rewrite, idk if it's still in effect) cities can be built floating over water and are fine until an adventurer shows up. Outside of your fortress things like time and gravity don't exist, so dwarves can travel instantly to anywhere in the universe. Mechanisms are actually slower then dwarves outside of your fortress, since time doesn't exist out there.

[Vanaheimer]

Which brings to mind a very old debate, do things exist because we observe or do we observe them because they exist.

In DF, it would appear to be firmly on the first side.

[Calech]

Which brings to mind a very old debate, do things exist because we observe or do we observe them because they exist.

In DF, it would appear to be firmly on the first side.

Schrödinger's cat was atomsmashed to prevent him tantruming; therefore the cat is neither alive nor dead, but permanently 'missing'.