Cognitive Realm and megastructures

[Ixthos]

So, for no particular reason, *cough*

Spoiler

 

*cough*

I'm wondering what the Cognitive Realm would look like inside, for example, an O'Neill Cylinder. If the surface you walk on eventually loops overhead, or definitively ends several kilometers away from you, how does the Cognitive Realm look? If you are in orbit over a planet, how does it relate to the planet's Cognitive Realm subastral, and how would you get in or out, or would it be completely isolated? For that matter, how would it look in an ancient space station - to ensure it has a well established Cognitive Realm presence - of any configuration, including those that are still small and don't make use of rotation to produce their gravity?

There are several possible space age megastructures with interesting potential configurations and relations to various planets, other space stations, and themselves - especially themselves, with their potential to wrap around and have one part of the floor be another area's "sky". What impact would that have on the Cognitive Realm, and would a massive ship - seen as a world - be a mobile patch of space in the Cognitive Realm, an island that can move from one area to another?

Edited March 2, 2022 by Ixthos
Corrected spelling

[EmulatonStromenkiin]

Might end up being like the oathgates in the cognitive vs the physical

[+Oltux72]

I suppose they'd look like Lasting Integrity.

[AquaRegia]

As a big science and science fiction nerd, I love speculation about things like this.  Cosmere Ringworld?  Yes, please!

Unfortunately, I think Brandon's treatment of the Cognitive Realm has, so far, been just too fantastical to allow much reliable hypothesizing here.  If you can enter the CR of one world, walk for a while, then exit the CR and be on a different world, I'm sure travel to and from space habitats will be similarly possible... but that's about as far as I'm willing to go.  I decline to make any guesses regarding what that might look like.  Given what we've seen of Shadesmar, the Sea of Mist, the Dor, Perpendicularities, etc., my guess is that it will look any way Brandon wants, and the explanation will simply be "magic".

Honestly, I wish there was more of a rational underpinning for how the Cognitive Realm works.  But as he's often said, he writes fantasy for a reason.

[EmulatonStromenkiin]

there does seem to be an inverse relation between height in the physical realm vs the cognitive realm, so maybe deep in the "sea" of the cognitive realm, closest to the planet which it is most commonly associated with?

[Elsecaller_17.5]

1 hour ago, EmulatonStromenkiin said:

there does seem to be an inverse relation between height in the physical realm vs the cognitive realm, so maybe deep in the "sea" of the cognitive realm, closest to the planet which it is most commonly associated with?

That doesn't seem to hold true outside of Roshar's cognitive realm. We get a good look Scadrial's in SH and whie the difference is there, it's far less extreme.

[Ixthos]

@EmulatonStromenkiin as in the chamber manifests as a spren? That may work, but the platform itself also remains. Also, those were specifically made as spren, so I'm not sure that would work, as items map to items, and the general distinction between what is land and what is water (and possibly sky) remain.

@Oltux72 the thing is though that Lasting Integrity has a distinct mapping between all its surfaces and the rest of Roshar's Cognitive Realm, and is also a construct entirely in the Cognitive Realm, rather than being a mapping of a location in the Physical Realm to the Cognitive. With a space station it will always be in motion relative to any planet it may be orbiting, and it will itself also for those which use rotation to provide gravity rotating as well, so which area would be the "bottom"?

@AquaRegia High five!  On Brandon's consistency in the Cognitive Realm, I think Brandon does still intend to provide explanations for some phenomena, as I'm hoping he'll explain why Scadrial is accessible from Shadsmar if you travel south-east when both planets in theory are in constant motion relative to one another, and the star for Scadrial moves across the Rosharan sky, not remaining fixed in one place.

One possible further suggestion as to why I think this will be covered is because we know - or at least I think it was confirmed - that Taldain corresponds to the Expanse of the Broken Sky, and it is a world with two different, constant, skies - Dayside and Darkside. I think Brandon has given some thought as to how these elements play out and I think they are consistent.

@Elsecaller_17.5 that likely is a representation of the local laws. I wouldn't be surprised if it somehow is explained due to the nature of the planet - as we know for example that Scadrian Cognitive Realm plants have mist while Rosharan plants have crystals, each corresponding to their own local feature. I also think its important to remember that we only saw Scadrial's Cognitive Realm through Kelsier's perspective, and he was dead. There may be more details shown from other points of view of Scadrial with characters who aren't dead - I think it unlikely they'll see if differently but they might.

[EmulatonStromenkiin]

1 hour ago, Ixthos said:

as in the chamber manifests as a spren? That may work, but the platform itself also remains. Also, those were specifically made as spren, so I'm not sure that would work, as items map to items, and the general distinction between what is land and what is water (and possibly sky) remain.

I meant in relation to the ground, I think it'll manifest in a similar way to normal structures, though this brings up a thought, large spren manifesting as space stations in the physical realm, allowing of further development of tech.

[Ixthos]

9 hours ago, EmulatonStromenkiin said:

I meant in relation to the ground, I think it'll manifest in a similar way to normal structures, though this brings up a thought, large spren manifesting as space stations in the physical realm, allowing of further development of tech.

That would be really cool  it also could help with when they move in space.