Kurkistan

Here's hoping the pile of bodies Szeth is standing on isn't Bridge Four...

You are mistaken. The body doesn't normally grow back eyes or hands or fingers, and Feruchemical gold does use a template. I've mentioned that on this very thread. Why were you so sure that it didn't?

You'll know if you're in a coppercloud, in that case.

No worries, that's still the plan.

No, Spook burned Tin while sleeping--I surmise that this was due to his body's real need for it if it was to function "normally".

Actually, it gives some hope. Time bubbles have weirdness. That means they can do a lot more than we've seen them do, and act in non-intuitive ways. Also, no planet, no spiritual-gravitational link to that planet. That seems to free us up a bit, and lets us know that the frame of reference of time bubbles is specific to interactions with some object that you use as your anchor, rather than simply the perceptions of the bubbler. Hopefully Feruchemy or managed perceptions--emphasizing Spiritual links to nearby stars vs. the ship--in the absence of overriding gravitational bonds can then be used to anchor bubbles to different frames of reference.

Ah, sorry for the confusion. I suppose this is another "Wizard of the Cosmere" moment where I thought it was common knowledge (though I think it's mentioned in the book as well...). If a Bubbler leaves their bubble, it vanishes: Source

Thanks for the backup, Shardlet, but that's actually not strictly true. The bubbles aren't dropped, they're popped by the Sliders being pulled out of them. I don't anticipate an overabundance of weirdness from interaction. The Cadmium bubbles will have been doing their thing for awhile, and the ship will transit in its entirety from being affected by the bubble to not. Maybe some slight jostling, but the course can be corrected easily enough. @hapyman I assume you're referring to Brandon's "Watch for what happens when something leaves a bendalloy bubble," as "a unique or rare effect that could be achieved with a metal," followed by laughter and a comment that "That won't make any sense for 10 books"? I'm not too concerned about that, since that doesn't demand that it be related to FTL, simply suggest it. What I'm more concerned about is Brandon's tweet about FTL: Maybe "lost energy from Thermodynamic issues" is a hint about time bubbles robbing objects of kinetic energy? Maybe not? How would it apply here if so? I can't claim I've synthesized all possible hints about FTL for this theory, but I think it still works, and maybe there's just two different methods possible. --- If you really want me to answer transiting the edges of bubbles, I will now proceed to sidestep the question and instead take a step back in time for what exactly "something leav[ing] a bendalloy bubble" means. What if, instead of talking about the object, Brandon is talking about what happens to the bubble itself when something leaves it? I acknowledge that this is not the obvious interpretation, and might not fall under "rare or unique", but roll with me for a moment. If we take a look at the (brilliant, marvelous, and all around inspired ) distension theory of how objects enter and leave time bubbles, we might be able to squeeze a bit more efficiency out of my method. What if, rather than just distending the part of the bubble you're touching and calling it a day, distending the surface of the bubble in some direction contracted its other parts? Like pulling a ball out of shape. This is a fairly intuitive extension of the theory, and makes more sense than some arbitrary amount of stretchiness for each section of the bubble. So a long stick firmly anchored inside the bubble would be able to force the bubble into a teardrop, essentially. Now how might we abuse this to kingdom come? Well, first, you make your spaceship spindle-shaped: it'll stay in the bubble longer after it hits the edge because only a relatively small proportion will be trying to get out. But that's easy: let's really mess with time and space. Take your normal, spindle-shaped spaceship and extend the forward-facing portion out few a few kilometers, or a few hundred kilometers. The vast majority of the ship is still deep inside the bubble, but a small but firmly anchored part is trying to escape. So the surface of the bubble is drastically distorted, creating a narrow(ish) teardrop shape and ultimately resulting in the ship getting farther through space for each bubble it uses. We can mess with the bubble this much because so much of its area is doing absolutely nothing for us. Half the bubble is behind us and the vast majority to the right, left, top and bottom are of no use. So we could get quite a lot out of such a method.

I didn't know I was the ultimate authority, but #3 seems reasonable.

Can't say I've read it. Oh well: the nice thing about Asimov is that there's always more short stories to find.

So it actually drains the ability of the object to absorb light. Easy enough, and fits with what we've seen.

Argh! The structure is there! Nooooooo!!! I loathe knowing the structure of books before I read them (yes, I'm weird), so I bid this thread adieu.

Stay your tongue sir! "I take it you never read Issac Asimov" indeed! I can't recall that specific story, though, if you'd be kind enough to drop the title/synopsis.

Actually no, I don't protest this, specifically because the cadmium bubble is anchored to the ship. That's kind of one of the backbones of the theory. Even if the ship wasn't in a speed bubble, being enveloped within an anchored cadmium bubble would make it seem like they were going ~20 times faster than normal, from their perspective. I see what you're getting at here, and it does throw a bit of a monkey wrench into things, at least so far as efficiency goes. But there's no requirement that the ship be going FTL all the time: it could hop every 30 seconds or something and would still be gaining a lot of ground. Not as much as I'd like it to--and perhaps this is what restrains us from using 30 overlapping bendalloy bubbles--but still enough to be significant. A legitimate concern. I think Cadmium is a tad more abundant than gold, though, and there's always space mining or the like, given that this will occur in a SciFi setting. Yeah, I acknowledge that that's the biggest "eh, you're really just going to assume that?" by far. I can't think of any other options, though.

*Cracks knuckles* No worries, any theory needs earnest opposition. I don't think an increase in compression factors will be necessary, but it's manageable even if it does occur. Just stack on some extra Pulsers: Cadmium burns slowly. Heck, why did I even bother trying to even the passage of time out? Who needs to experience the journey in "real" time? Just stick on three times as many Pulsers as you need and pass the journey in a flash. As for overlap, I addressed what I think happens then in my response to Isomere. I think you're missing some words here. This might be any of several possible objections: could you please clarify? Well, fuel and engines--as well as life-supporting supplies, to a certain extent--are all rather unnecessary, so I imagine we could just pack the ship to the gills with Bendalloy and Nicrosil. There's really no limit on the ships' mass: the Bendalloy bubbles need to be indecently large for my FTL to work, so a ship being a klick long wouldn't be a problem. We can remove at least some of the logistical issue by keeping the Pulsers active at all times, so there's that. As for coordination: eh. They could manage it, I think. Actually, if a Nicro can Burst more than one person at the same time, one Nicro could give a great big hug to half a dozen Sliders, all burning Bendalloy for relatively small bubbles, and then Nicroburst them all simultaneously by just triggering his powers. EDIT: Wait, they'll be pulled out of the bubble... Brain blast! Have them be encompassed by some number of ship-anchored speed bubbles so that they have time to act/react when making mega-bubbles. That'll cost more bendalloy, though... We might have to go with Technomagic to get the timing right and/or make this practical, but I still think you could do it with people if you had sufficient dedication. I don't think you've misunderstood anything in particular. Let me know if my answers are unsatisfactory.

Besides the fact that I highly doubt your basic theory, there is no such thing as true vacuum. Find the emptiest piece of space you can manage, but if you actually manage to apply infinite acceleration to any object that object will quite quickly run into an atom of something and things will go kaboom.

@Windy Sorry, that was a bit misleading. By "skip," I mean "not buy immediately and begin read within 12 seconds of purchase". I'm not a big fan of anthologies, and probably would have waited a month or two and gotten this one from the library. But now I know the story is really good... As for Silence == White Fox, that's just my reader-sense tingling. Conservation of detail and all.

Brandon has said Hoid isn't there, but Peter isn't so sure...

Man, and here I was planning to skip this story. ( ?) Windy, could you refresh my memory? It's Cosmere, but a world with only a Splinter, if I recall correctly. Is that all we know? As for the White Fox having a Splinter, Silence is probably the White Fox, and I would hazard that her "breaking the rules" are just tall tales; especially since I don't think we have enough time in the story to both establish the rules and their impacts and a character who can break them--double especially if that character is our primary viewpoint.

This may be the most severe necro I've seen. Have a picture

And then this happens.

Miles shot by Wax in AoL, referenced in the OP.

Unclear: He's "nearly a savant in every area, if not a full savant." The grammar leaves it open on whether "if not a full savant" means that he's a full savant in some areas or not a full savant in any of them. As for the knife: that's another piece of evidence, and a strong one given that it's done in such a casual manner that Miles had probably done it before with regular knives, but not 100% definite, since Aluminum is just weird.

Savant-level Allomantic pewter, storing touch in Feruchemical tin, Miles-level "I don't feel pain any more", a slow but steady trickle of Health... He could manage it without needing to immediately expel the spear. It might also have been too big to be pushed out "unaided" by Feruchemical gold alone.

Here's the relevant question, asked by a handsome and intelligent devil, if I may say so: Source: @Pechvarry No problem, I offset you. Someone else can add another upvote to restore the natural order, if they would be so kind. I find that it helps to pinch down to an absurd level of zoom and then be very very gingerly when trying to upvote on a phone.