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Hmm,
Well, considering the name of this topic is “Killing Demons” (a name I’ve never liked) I am a little scared to tell you that I used “The Scientific Method”
[-o< o:) No, actually they aren't as fancy as it sounds. it's all rather cobbled together by demons, I got some friends to help me steal some metal garden furniture and then we raided this place called Home Despot or something. Not really sure why one would want a Despot in one's home, but that's not really my problem. Anyway, in actuality, the cushions, which we tied down with wires was this pink 'insulation" stuff, which was scratchy so we covered it in denim that we stole. We then got pillow cases to supplement the rather tacky upholstery job, and filled those with asbestos. I myself have a very nice divan that I use. Unfortunately I don't have a chair big enough for Tom.
Well, yes and no.
There is some history that’s not explained in the book, and that I’m not completely privy to all of it
However, it is my understanding that Asmeth and his crew have had many a run in with the Oorstemothians for their smuggling and a Warrant of High Justice had been issued for him and his crew. Under such circumstances, once they were able to positively identify and document he and his ship, they were authorized to execute the Warrant.
Which they summarily tried to do.
I should note that one of the more recent incidents involving Asmeth and his crew was in smuggling a group of tomb raiding rogues out of Oorstemoth with a valuable artifact that, at first, the authorities thought was given to Exador, but was in fact, given to Lenamare. There was quite a bit of legal wrangling on that as Exador had to extricate himself from the false evidence that Lenamare had planted on the rogues.
Now, the rogues are still alive, because they have to testify against Lenamare, but they require no testimony on the part of Asmeth’s crew (or didn’t until now) because the rogues had all positively fingered Asmeth and combined with Asmeth’s long history of illegal activities, a court issued the Warrant of High Justice.
Glad to.
There’s actually a fairly interesting backstory and forestory about that. I’m just not sure whether there will at some point be a prequel novel or simply some short stories. The rogues are currently in prison, but I’m thinking not for much longer. It’s not clear if they’ll show up in Book II or Book III.
Good news,
After months of ‘entertaining’ Jeff Bezos in my cave, I have ‘convinced’ him to extend Kindle Unlimited to the UK.
This puts the K and the U back in the UK!
Demons of Astlan: Into the Abyss now available for free download from the UK for members of Kindle Unlimited!
Woo Hoo!
Actually, science does work that way.
Evidence is given to you, you have to examine it and see how the pieces fit together, formulate a theory and then test it, collect more evidence and revise it. Repeat forever.
That is what the Scientific Method is. That’s why people talk about “Scientific Theories” and not “Scientific Facts” Scientific knowledge is not handed to us on a silver platter, it must be ferreted out and tested for veracity, repeat-ability and one must see what can then extrapolate to make predictions on, and test those predictions. It’s often wrong, and subject to revision…science is a process of continual revision of what we know. At any point in time what lay people call “scientific fact” is simply the best theory/estimate that the scientific method has produced at a particular point in time.
In this case, what the author guy is talking about is that like in a trial, the readers are presented with various pieces of evidence, including testimony, the jury (reader) has to determine what to trust, whose testimony is credible and whose is not. All characters and participants have a point of view, a story to tell, “their side” it is your job as reader/jury to evaluate the testimony and evidence you are given and come up with a theory as to what has really happened.
Same with all those CSI TV shows: Forensic Science as we know it: the police don’t usually “know what happened” they have evidence and maybe some stories from various people, but they have to put it together, the police and prosecution then put together a theory and they test it and tweak it and then present it to the jury for them to determine “the facts of the case”
it’s the job the jury to determine the facts of the case and render a decision as to culpability of the defendant.
The books, this site have pieces of evidence and T-A-G, Lenamare, Wylan and myself are giving you testimony.
You have to put all the pieces together to solve a puzzle.
But again, let me reassure you, I’ve been at this for millenia, I know what I am talking about. You can just trust everything I say as 100% true. Ignore that very disreputable T-A-G
T-A-G is just trying to unnerve you. he’s the real demon….
Scientific Method and science, don’t confuse the two?
You do know that doesn’t make any sense to me? Science is defined by the Scientific Method. Period. If a field of study doesn’t use the scientific method, it’s not science, by definition. In fact, those “sciences” that get hand wavy with the scientific method are called the ‘soft science” in particular because they are soft on the use of the scientific method. Hard Sciences are hard because they apply the Scientific method rigorously. Physics, Chemistry, Biology and most of their sub disciplines. Most psychology and social sciences as well as archaeology are considered soft, typically because there are too many unknowns to rigorously apply the scientific method, so they get as close as they can.
There is no such thing as science fact. There is empirical evidence, which is by definition measurable and repeatedly measurable under the same conditions, but that is not a fact.
One of the [i][b]very few[/b][/i] things that T-A-G told me that made any sense (from him) was the following:
[quote]When I was in grad school for lo those many years, we had a saying:
You go to college and you study really hard.
Once you are done studying and you feel you know everything, they give you a Bachelor’s degree.
You then study some more, do some more digging,
When you realize that “Maybe I don’t know everything.” They give you a Master’s degree.
You then work your butt off pursuing what you realized you didn’t understand when you got your Master’s degree.
When you finally realize that you know absolutely nothing…then they give you a Ph.D.
[/quote]Also, I know a lot about my anatomy, other demons have different anatomies. I have made a concerted effort to study the anatomies of willing female demons, but unfortunately, that is not very many. Like Freud I have a very limited sample set.
The non-quoted content on this site are excerpts from books in the Council Library. If those books are correct, then the information is correct. Things like the Aetos have wings and live in the mountains is generally factualy, although I suppose there might be one or two to be found in a city on the plains.
Writing on the Calendar and Astrology, that’s generally accepted fact that someone has written, there isn’t much disagreement on this.
But when it comes to speculating on the number demon princes, archdemons, the concordenax, or how the various planes interact? Those documents are by sages that have been studying and thinking about it. But there isn’t a huge body of empirical evidence to back this stuff up.
So anyway, stuff in the Library is stuff Maelen/Tom found in the Council Library etc Maybe they aren’t the best books, or there are newer or better ones out there somewhere else.
Stuff that I say, is stuff that I say, it’s what I know to be true based upon my experiences, and while I have never EVER been wrong about ANYTHING, I am only demon, and it is theoretically possible that I may at some point in the far distant future say something that is “technically” inaccurate.
???
How exactly do you define science, if not through the use of the scientific method?
The scientific method is a method for studying observable phenomenon, measuring, quantifying, developing theories, testing theories with predictions and comparing results of future measurements to predicted measurements and then revising the theory.
That is science…that’s the definition. What do you call science?
And why I am bring it up is because we were talking about mutable reality, and whether “facts” are subject to revision or correction.
Here is a “Scientific Fact” that I can torture you with:
In the 1980’s, students taking classes in Astrophysics would have learned the “fact” that the observable universe was about 18 billion years old, 17-18B years.
Now today, you would expect that the current generation of such students would be taught the observable universe is 17 to 18 billion years old, plus 30 years.
However, they are instead given the “scientific fact” that the universe is really around 13 to 14 billion years old!!!
How is the universe getting younger, while the rest of us are getting older?
Well–obviously, it wasn’t the universe’s age that changed, it was human’s measurement techniques and their theories and estimates of the expansion of the universe.
So…my point is…I don’t believe in “Scientific Facts” there are no facts in science. There is simply empirically measurable evidence.
When the overwhelming preponderance of the evidence (as in certain courts of law) points to a particular conclusion, then people generally accept that conclusion of as a “fact.”
See “Global Warming” as a text book case for what I am talking about.
However, if the evidence changes, then the “facts” can change. Like the age of the universe.
Now that makes determining “facts” rather difficult, and this is what I think you don’t like.
But I will say, that while determining “facts” is difficult, determining “non-facts” is pretty easy. It’s much easier to rule out possibilities than to settle on a single truth.
Earth scientists may not be exactly sure on the age of the Earth. But they do know for a “fact” that it is NOT 5,000+ years old. There is a more than overwhelming preponderance of evidence and extremely well tested theory to categorically disprove the idea that the Earth is 5,000 years old.
How old it really is, can be a matter of some debate, but we have narrowed it down and excluded a lot of ages. 1) It’s not older than the Universe, 2) It’s not older than the Sun–probably–not if current accretion models of planetary development hold and 3) It’s definitely a lot more than a billion years.
Most likely 4.5 billion give or take.
[i][u][b]So anyway…you shouldn’t freak out about things on this website not being “hard facts” When you get to the core of reality (at the Quantum level) there are very few immutable facts. Reality is how we measure it, how we perceive it. Perceptions can change…
[/b][/u][/i]PS
You know that bit about the universe being 13 to 14 billion years old?
Nah, that’s a bad measurement. It’s really 17.8695468 or so billion years old.
After all, I do know (roughly) how old I am.
:d/
Hmm,
I don’t know, virgins are getting seriously devalued in the outer realms.
There’s this one deity, flooding the market 72 virgins at a time to worshipers that blow things up for him.
I really like pizza rolls because they’re easy to store.
Because I give you highly reliable, completely factual, unbiased, verifiable (if you want to come to the Abyss or Astlan and check it out, you are welcome to stay in my cave), trustworthy information?
So where should it be placed?
Would you squish the picture down and have it not over the picture.
For example, some books have a solid cover with an inset for the illustration, takes up about 2/3 of the cover, maybe half?
Hmmm
I would doubt it since the humans and Los Alvar are more often allies…however, there are some weird treaties between the light and dark so who knows how that would play out.
Getting to the magic worlds is probably the bigger problem for the demon, it’s the creating the body on that plane that’s hard to do. That’s why you spawn half demon babies to go around collecting mana to help you come into the world.
Getting back short of dying is also very hard. In a really low mana world you either need to use Astral Travel (and so need another plane), Die (lose the expensive body) and return to the Abyss, or have someone with a lot of mana create a gateway from outside for bodily travel.
Telepathy is a form of animagic every where you go…the mentalists do it in Astlan (and Mind Reavers) so what you find in other worlds is pretty similar to that…it doesn’t generally have a high energy requirement so it’s great when levels are lower.
“Mutants” with a gift for ESP/Seeing/Scrying/Telepathy/Empathy etc are pretty common. These are people with a real gift for animagic….
I think all of them have been on this site in other pictures…except maybe Tom (falling Into The Abyss)…but I think there is a small picture of him in the Who’s Who database. However, not all are accredited in their pictures…not sure Maelen is…
Gastrope’ is the one dressed like he’s from Turelane (which he is), Jenn is the girl (same outfit from the cover of the book these guys don’t have great wardrobe selection)
Maelen is the one with the staff and the jedi robes. I’m the one with four arms and four legs, and the other demon is Boggy. Rupert is the short one hunched over peering into the Abyss. He’s also dressed the same as in the book cover.