Tomorrow, I'll show you the proper use of the PPT cannons although nobody thought to call them that when times were still innocent. As it turns out, many years later, although many, many different weapons were invented, there were none so deadly and so multi-purpose as the PPT cannons that MINIMCOM invented on the spot.
Entry 4-220: August 3, 2016
MINIMCOM: Roadgrader
Yesterday, I introduced you to MINIMCOM's construction of what would later be called his PPT Cannons. But when he first built them, he did not have war in mind. He had construction. Rome had the layout of her campus in her mind, along with schematics as designed by her husband, Rei. She needed MINIMCOM to do what would have taken an army of bulldozers, front-loaders and dump trucks. Here is what MINIMCOM had to say about it:
“What are those?” Rome asked.
“Those are multiple bi-directional PPT throwers,” the livetar replied.
“What are they for?”
“I will use them to clear and level the ground. I will also transport a paving material to give the roadways a strong foundation. For today only, I am not a starship. Today I am a roadgrader!” The livetar bent his mouth slit upwards into a small smile. “Hop aboard and we will begin.”
Rome laughed and followed the two-meter tall livetar around to the rear of the starship.
“Come, Aason,” Rome said within her head, using her PPT connection to her son. “We are going to start building.”
“Coming, Mommy” Aason replied and he ran over to them. Together, they climbed aboard the starship and headed directly toward the cockpit.
The actual construction process was a marvel to Rome. It was unlike anything she had ever encountered. On his first pass, MINIMCOM used his PPT cannons to surgically slice down whatever trees were standing where the outer roadways were to go. North and south, east and west, a grid-like pattern appeared. Trunks lay everywhere. MINIMCOM then made a second pass and used his regular transporter to send the fallen trees, branches and trunks elsewhere. Following that, the starship soared upward, turned and swooped down, vaporizing the dirt and grass along each cleared swatch of ground. As he was doing this, he was simultaneously transporting a silicon mixture creating a ceramic surface that would be impervious to the elements. In his wake, MINIMCOM left behind a perfectly paved set of roads to nowhere.
After the outer roadway portion was done, MINIMCOM used a different technique. He floated over to a section of trees in the center then rotated the cylindrical PPT throwers so that they pointed straight down. Moving slowly and purposefully, he extracted tree after tree, roots and all, until all that remained was a barren, rectangular section of ground.
“Now we excavate,” MINIMCOM offered.
The reality is, I actually did have a design for the campus. How Bruce rendered it into 3D is sort of a miracle. More on that tomorrow.
Entry 4-221: August 4, 2016
Building the campus, part 1
Early on, as I was world-building Deucado for The Ark Lords, I knew that I had to have a general knowledge of what was to be the site of Rome’s library. Further, I knew that eventually this site would grow to become the campus of the University of Deucado. So I had to do a little planning so that I could write intelligently about locations and movement around that site.
I am a horrible artist and I couldn’t draw a tree to save my life. So I used the only tool I could think of the lay out the campus and that was Microsoft’s Excel. What? You ask. That doesn’t seem like much of a tool to me. And guess what? You’d be right. Here is my original Excel drawing. If you go to the web site and click on the image, it will take you to a slightly larger and slightly more legible version.
Here was my thinking: Rome needed to build her library. While it wasn’t in the middle of nowhere, it was fairly remote and would eventually need a commissary, a dormitory and an auditorium. But for now, at the beginning of The Ark Lords, Rome merely need to acknowledge the eventual requirements so that MINIMCOM could excavate the pads. I also had Rome (actually it was Rei’s design) provide a private landing pad for MINIMCOM and maybe some other aircraft down the road.
Tomorrow, I will show you how my brother Bruce turned this dopey little Excel spreadsheet into a photo-realistic campus.
Entry 4-222: August 5, 2016
Building the campus, part 2
Yesterday, I showed you my original Excel spreadsheet laying out the campus of the University of Deucado. My drawing was flat and was designed just to give me enough information to construct a coherent description in the beginning of The Ark Lords. I turned the spreadsheet over to my brother Bruce and as far as I could tell, he used magic to convert my spreadsheet into a 3D drawing. If you go to the web site and click on the image, it will take you to a slightly larger version:
You can see that Bruce not only rendered my spreadsheet into 3D but also started providing some details which he would later use to build the photorealistic model used in the book trailer.
Bruce also added the entry way arch as well as indicating the various species of cane trees lining the inner streets. Some of them were regular cane-trees but others were the bushier kind found where there was more water.
You can also see that Bruce raised up Rome’s library and made it roughly two stories tall. During the ensuing weeks, after much discussion, we realized the library was not block-shaped but rather T-shaped and so the preliminary drawing above evolved.
Tomorrow, I’ll show you the 3D drawing, as built in Bruce’s model, shown from above. Hopefully you will still be able to see the relationship between my original spreadsheet and the virtual world that Bruce constructed.
Entry 4-223: August 6, 2016
Building the campus, part 3
Yesterday, I showed you how my brother Bruce took my original Excel spreadsheet and converted it into a 3D layout for what would eventually become the University of Deucado. Much of the action in The Ark Lords revolves around this particular piece of real estate.
Once Bruce had converted it into a 3D layout, he used it to guide his more sophisticated tools as the building and construction pads started taking shape. I rotated it around a little bit but you should still be able to see my original spreadsheet underlying the streets, pads and building. If you click on the image, you will see a slightly expanded version of the original:
Look at all the trees and detail he added. He built himself a model of the two different species and then started replicating them to give the tree-lined streets and forest behind the campus.
Tomorrow, I’ll pull the camera back and show you the full vista, rendered from a single frame of the book trailer.
Entry 4-224: August 7, 2016
Building the campus, part 4
Yesterday, I showed you how my brother Bruce took my original Excel spreadsheet and converted it into a 3D layout which is rather amazing. But more importantly, once he had the campus of the University of Deucado inside his 3D modeling program, he was able to use it create the entire book trailer for The Ark Lords.
Here is just one frame from the trailer. If you go to the web site and click on the image, it will take you to the full-blown YouTube book trailer for The Ark Lords.
The book trailer for The Ark Lords is pretty incredible. Bruce created all the animation and scored it himself using Apple’s Garage Band application. I don’t know what happened to the one person’s comment but it was something to the effect that this wasn’t just a book trailer, it was more like a mini-movie. Nice to hear but the reality is book trailers serve no purpose. They are a lot of work and simply don’t entice people to buy the book.
Bruce and I actually started a book trailer for Rome’s Evolution but once we realized it had no value, we stopped. If you want to see the preliminary trailer (and it is pretty cool), you can go to michaelbrachman.com and find the link and still view it.
So all this is wonderful but now it is time to build the campu
s. At least within the confines of the novel.
Entry 4-225: August 8, 2016
Excavation Action 1
Yesterday, I finished up explaining how my brother Bruce and I came up with a complete, photo-realistic world and campus for the University of Deucado. Armed with the vivid images drawn there, now see if you can envisage the action as described by Rome and MINIMCOM:
Aason tried to peek over the windshield. “I can’t see, Mommy,” he said.
The starship activated his ventral cameras. “Look on the viewscreen,” Rome said to her son.
The sounds coming from the PPT throwers increased in intensity. The whole ship began vibrating. Beneath them, huge chunks of dirt exploded and instantly disappeared. Like a titanic router, MINIMCOM moved north and south, following a precise pattern. It took more than a few minutes but eventually the vibrations died down then stopped.
“That will be the foundation for your library,” MINIMCOM said, floating up slightly higher in the air.
Beneath them, they could see a beautifully sharp, rectangular pit, 70 meters wide, 150 meters long and 20 meters deep.
“It is huge,” Rome remarked.
“It is what the plan called for,” MINIMCOM replied. “Let us continue.”
The starship drifted forward, to the north then repeated the procedure, albeit it on slightly smaller scale.
“I still think Rei’s plan is overly ambitious,” Rome said from the pilot’s seat, watching in wonder as the process continued. “I just wanted to build a place to archive historical data.”
“If anyone comes to visit, they will need a place to sleep,” MINIMCOM said as he blasted a yet another enormous chunk of ground to the north. “That will be the dormitory.”
MINIMCOM drifted east over to a third spot and blasted yet another foundation.
“And they will need a place to eat so that will be the commissary. Next will be the lecture hall and auditorium.”
“A lecture hall?” Rome asked. “Who is going to lecture?”
“Anyone who is interested,” MINIMCOM said. “Your library will be right in the center of the complex but it is for research. If there are any large groups, the library by itself is not really designed to accommodate more than a small number of people at one time.”
“I suppose you are right,” Rome said reluctantly. She tried hard to imagine a lecture hall filled with people hearing about her work. It didn’t seem like something that would happen any time soon.
Like an artist using a broad brush on a gigantic canvas, MINIMCOM carved and blasted the surface, adding side roads until he completed the colossal design. He even built himself a substantial landing strip with more than enough space to hold his bulk and several other ships.
Tomorrow, I will give you the second half of the action.
Entry 4-226: August 9, 2016
Excavation Action 2
Yesterday, we saw MINIMCOM begin preliminary construction of what would eventually become the University of Deucado. Rome had her initial reservations but by the time MINIMCOM was done, she was overwhelmed, not only by the grandeur of the project, but by the promise.
Here is the second part of that scene:
“Let us take stock,” MINIMCOM said. He soared high into the sky and overlaid Rei’s blueprint on top of the physical layout of roads and foundations provided by the ventral cameras. They aligned perfectly. In addition, Rome could see that Rei had left plenty of room for growth.
“What do you think?” MINIMCOM asked.
“I think it is magnificent,” Rome replied, clapping her hands together. “Can we go look?”
“I have one more action to complete,” MINIMCOM said as he drifted lower.
“What?” Rome asked impatiently.
“Watch,” MINIMCOM replied. At this point, he was hovering about 500 feet above the campus.
MINIMCOM activated his external acoustic sensors. Rome heard the distinctive whining noise of the PPT generators gearing up in the back. There was a loud pop and one of the greener, bushier cane-trees that Rome had seen near the harbor appeared on the corner of the main intersection. That was followed by another pop and another tree, then another. Soon, MINIMCOM had lined the entire main thoroughfare with the second species of trees using the reverse of the technique employed earlier. When he was done, the effect was not unlike the Avenue des Champs-Élysées from old Earth.
“Take us down! Take us down!” Rome said excitedly. “I want to see it up close!”
“Of course,” MINIMCOM replied, diving downward, settling onto his new private landing strip. Rome exited the craft, carrying Aason and headed across the roadway directly to the site which was to hold her new library. When they got to the edge of the main excavation, she set Aason down but held onto his hand very tightly, so they could peer downward into the pit. Rome stared at it for a long time. At last, she spoke over her shoulder. “This is perfect but it will take me a long time to grow an OMCOM,” she said to MINIMCOM’s livetar. “I think we have done enough for one day. We’ll start tomorrow.”
“I have a better idea,” rang out a deeper, more metallic voice.
Rome whirled in place to see a two-meter tall livetar, this one completely white, standing next to MINIMCOM.
“OMCOM!” Rome exclaimed...
OMCOM? What is he doing there? It may seem like a really nice gesture but knowing what is coming down the pike, I don't think OMCOM always had the purest of motives. We shall see.
Entry 4-227: August 10, 2016
How do we hear?
We hear through our ears, right? It's not quite that simple. The brain has to be involved somehow. The flappy piece of skin on the outside (some people can wiggle them) is called the pinna or auricle. Many animals can use their pinnae to localize sound by moving them. Ours are somewhat useful in helping us to localize sound as well but maybe not as good as a dog.
As sound travels through the ear canal, it hits the eardrum which is a membrane and attached to the other side of that membrane are the tiniest bones in the body called the ossicles. You may have heard of the hammer, stirrup and anvil or more properly the malleus, incus and stapes. Together, these bones transmit sound to the oval window which is in contact with the fluid filling the cochlea or our primary hearing organ.
From there it gets weird because hearing is a temporal phenomenon but we need a way to get all the frequencies of sound up to the brain simultaneously so the cochlea is a spatial organ designed to break down sounds into its individual components. Each inner hair is best at picking up a certain frequency. The basilar membrane lining the cochlea transmits the highest frequency sounds closest to the oval window and low frequency sounds travel the highest. That's why we lose our ability to hear high frequency sounds soonest because the base of the cochlea takes the most pounding.
Anyway, the cochlea and the inner hair cells take the sounds we hear and segregate them into best frequencies. It's almost like we have a bunch of tiny microphones, each specializing in a certain frequency and each fiber of the eighth cranial nerve carries those impulses to the cochlear nucleus. In essence, we convert analog sounds into a whole bunch of digital signals. This is why it will be so difficult to build a true prosthetic cochlear implant. Most designs have anywhere from 4 to 40 electrodes designed to stimulate the 8th nerve. To truly emulate what the cochlea does, you need more like 20,000. That'll never happen.
The cochlear nucleus shapes the sounds and aggregates them and then passes those sounds along to the inferior colliculus. This is where sound location begins to form. From the inferior colliculus, the signals go on to the medial geniculate body and from there to the higher portions of the brain called the auditory cortex.
What am I getting at here? We don't just hear. Hearing is the end result of an incredibly complex sequence of structures and processing and allows our brains to take a temporal and spectrally diverse set of sounds and render them intelligible. I only bring this up because co
mputers don't hear like we do. Siri doesn't answer questions using pinna, ossicles, cochlea and brain matter. Instead, she creates outlines of sounds and uses brute force to match those outlines to pre-recorded templates converting sounds directly into words.
Tomorrow, you will see that the visual system is actually a lot simpler, even though as Americans, it is our primary input sense.
Entry 4-228: August 11, 2016
How do we see?
Yesterday, I gave you a simplistic view of how we hear. It really isn't that simple but who has time to take a graduate course in auditory physiology? Today I would like to focus in on how we see which is actually easier to understand. Hearing is like an analog to digital back to analog converter. Vision is more like the collection plate of a camera.
The primary sensory organ at the back of the eye is called the retina. Our eyeball and lens are designed to focus and concentrate light but the image projected on the back of the retina is more or less a faithful spatial representation of the world. At the center of the retina is the fovea which has the largest concentration of cones, the receptors that detect color. Around the periphery are the rods which can't detect color but are much more sensitive to light which helps us see at night. We have about 125 million photo-receptors total. Even the highest resolution TV on the market today, an 8K UHD TV, only has 33 million elements. Nobody has invented a TV which has the same acuity as our retinas.
Interestingly (and not on me!) if you could tease apart the optic nerve and somehow re-sort it into the proper coordinates, the neural impulses would still faithfully represent the spatial image on the eye. Yesterday I explained that the temporal elements of the sounds we hear are already destroyed by the time they hit the auditory nerve. They have to be reconstructed as you get higher in the brain. Not so with visual images.