A Question for my Understanding, once more

[Meg]

I dare ask you once more for a term I don't understand. In the Ars Arcanum of Alloy of Law is written:

 

The actual outlet of the power is not chosen by the practitioner, but instead is hardwritten into their Spiritweb.

What means "hardwritten"? And does "softwritten" exist, too, and what would this mean?

I tried to find a solution myself but neither Google nor the German translation of the Ars Arcanum (I was "lucky" that it showed up in the preview of the German book).

And another request: The "actual outlet" -- I understood this as for the practitioner could not choose whether they were Mistborn, Allomancers (and here: which kind of Allomancy/metal they can use) or Scadrian "drabs".

I apologize for bothering with such questions.

[Oudeis he/him]

"Actual outlet" simply means that the metal determines what power it is. Not quite exactly the same thing as being a Mistborn or an allomancer... it just means that, specifically, if you burn tin, your senses will be enhanced. Burning Tin will never allow you to Pull on metal. The "actual outlet" means the specific effect of the magic. In Tin's case, that's senses.

 

As for "hardwritten," it's a computer term. It means something that cannot be changed (though, in truth, what it more specifically means is, it cannot be changed easily). If something is hardwritten onto your computer, that means your computer likely came that way, and you can't just click on a file and change it. Likewise, when you are born, your spiritweb is "hardwritten" to be a Misting, a Mistborn, or neither. You cannot easily change that. The only known way involves lerasium, possibly the single rarest substance on the planet. I don't know that anyone really uses the word "softwritten" but do you know how your computer has software? In theory, all you need to do to change your "software" is to overwite the memory with a new program. "Hardware" is stuff like your physical hard-drive itself; again, in theory you can change it with effort, but it isn't easy.

 

Hope that helps.

[Kurkistan he/him]

No problem. Not only is "hardwritten" English-the-weird, but it's also pretty jargon-y.

 

*Sees Darnam's ninjaing* 

 

To clarify a bit on what Darnam said, "hardwritten" is supposed to mean that it cannot be changed, realistically. Your harddrive is not really "hardwritten" in this sense—it's just hardware—but many of its functions are hardwritten. When you want it to read or write some block of data, the processes it uses to do so are burned into a chip, not written in code.

Edited December 30, 2013 by Kurkistan

[Meg]

Thanks to both of you, your answers are very helpful for me.

I'm glad I have been on the right track about the term "hardwritten", but I needed some confirmation.

And, what happens when one ingests Lerasium? Does it add the information "user is (now) Mistborn" to their spiritweb?

 

"Actual outlet" simply means that the metal determines what power it is. Not quite exactly the same thing as being a Mistborn or an allomancer... it just means that, specifically, if you burn tin, your senses will be enhanced. Burning Tin will never allow you to Pull on metal. The "actual outlet" means the specific effect of the magic. In Tin's case, that's senses.

Ah, I see, it's a step later than I thought.

PS: upvote for both of you for your help

[Oudeis he/him]

And, what happens when one ingests Lerasium? Does it add the information "user is (now) Mistborn" to their spiritweb?

Functionally... yes. Which is why I tried to water down the "it cannot be changed" aspect, since we actually see someone change that in-book. It's very much like something hard-written into a computer. It makes it impossible to change... but only in theory. In practice, there's always a way. But for all intents and purposes, it's inaccurate but simple to say that it means, "cannot be changed."

[Satsuoni he/him]

Lerasium is like installing a new card in your pc, hemalurgy us like soldering a modchip on the motherboard Roughly speaking.

I think "hardwired" is a more common term, but I may be wrong on that.

[Kurkistan he/him]

@Meg

 

No problem.

 

@Sats

 

No, you're right that "hardwired" is more common.

[Meg]

And again I beg for your help. This time it's about the word "Truthless". I always understood it as "without truth" (which seems to fit with this definition (devoid of truth)). But I'm a bit confused because in the German book it's translated as "Der Unwahre". I didn't come up with an exact translation of this noun back into English. "Unwahr" (the adjective) means false, untruthful, untrue.

But "untrue" doesn't mean truthless (devoid of truth), or am I wrong here?

Can anyone help me? Is Szeth <devoid of truth> or is he <untrue/untruthful/false>?

[Shardlet he/him]

It seems like a clunky translation to me.  I expect that when SA3 comes out we'll be able to make a better judgement.  Right now, I agree with your interpretation of 'Truthless'.

[Oudeis he/him]

And again I beg for your help. This time it's about the word "Truthless". I always understood it as "without truth" (which seems to fit with this definition (devoid of truth)). But I'm a bit confused because in the German book it's translated as "Der Unwahre". I didn't come up with an exact translation of this noun back into English. "Unwahr" (the adjective) means false, untruthful, untrue.

But "untrue" doesn't mean truthless (devoid of truth), or am I wrong here?

Can anyone help me? Is Szeth <devoid of truth> or is he <untrue/untruthful/false>?

 

The basic point, in book, is that it's a concept in Shin culture that other cultures don't fully understand. So the confusion you feel now is deliberate. Eventually, the concept will be explained in-text in some future book, but I suspect it will end up having a tangential relationship to the definitions of either the english word Truthless or the german word "unwahr". Right now, I don't believe we've got a great understanding of what Szeth did or why it has anything to do with the Truth, its lack, or falsehood.

[hoser he/him]

And again I beg for your help. This time it's about the word "Truthless". I always understood it as "without truth" (which seems to fit with this definition (devoid of truth)). But I'm a bit confused because in the German book it's translated as "Der Unwahre". I didn't come up with an exact translation of this noun back into English. "Unwahr" (the adjective) means false, untruthful, untrue.

But "untrue" doesn't mean truthless (devoid of truth), or am I wrong here?

Can anyone help me? Is Szeth <devoid of truth> or is he <untrue/untruthful/false>?

For me, this phrase has in-world cultural nuances that no dictionary will capture.  The key is this "There was no place for him in the Valley of Truth."  I think the Valley of Truth is Shinovar, and Truthless has some of both the meanings you cite, but also overtones of apostate, blasphemer and traitor.  As you might say "Abtrünnige", if anybody actually used words like that. 

[Meg]

Thanks to you all and especially Hoser!

I see that there might not be a straight translation and my post is not that clear (as for I wanted to ask how the native readers interpret this word), but you really helped me.