Task 6: The Informant
Disclaimer (to ease my very scientific soul): may contain simplifications.Entropy. It isn't just randomness. Entropy rips apart everything. It is Entropy
that spoils your sandwich. It is Entropy that withers your flower. It is Entropy
that stops the heartbeat of your beloved pet. It was Entropy that made the dinosaurs go extinct.
And it will be Entropy that renders the cosmos forever quiet. One day Entropy will unmake you as well.
Is Entropy evil? No. It is just a natural force. Easy - and inaccurate - explanations
like to say that Entropy is just disorder and randomness. One favored allegory is the
"child's room". A child's room can have many states - most of them called "messy" or
"untidy" by decent moms. Let's face it: the number of these states are pretty much infinite.
There are far more less "clean" or "tidy" states - from a human perspective.
Those who are not well informed on the topic might jokingly say that as a kid
we should excuse ourselves by saying "mom, it wasn't me, it is just Entropy, it is natural!".
But alas, that is not so simple. Entropy doesn't give a flying... errr... Maxwell's Demon
what we think "orderly". From Entropy's perspective one state of that room is as good as another.
What Entropy loves if there are more and more possible states. More and more possibilities.
Entropy pushes all systems to have more potential states. Entropy is evergrowing.
If you let an ice cube melt: Entropy grows as the water turns into liquid.
note1If you let this water evaporate: Entropy grows as the molecules will have greater freedom.
Of course you can have measures "to contain" Entropy. By applying external energy
you can turn the vapour back into water or ice. (It is important to note that the full
entropy of the system (the water + the machine which cools it) still grows...
So, you cannot really trick Entropy. Yet.)
So, how can we connect all these nice science to Elements? Let's see some cards one by one.
(Quanta needs are in brackets. All cards are upgraded - unless mentioned otherwise.)
First of all: why does the cards cost quanta? If you want to manipulate Entropy or manipulate by
Entropy you will have to invest external energy.
I'd like to show you that Entropy is not magic.
This list shows the quanta need of the cards of Entropy: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,-,8,9,10,11,-,-.
You can see that there are no 7, 12 or 13 quanta costs. Those are pretty magical numbers, right?
Well, Entropy doesn't need them.
Discord (3) That's an easy one. This undeservedly hated weapon just does what I mentioned
above: Entropy doesn't care about different states. One state is as good as another.
Well, from the human user's perception... we created the concept of 'good', hence we
may like the outcome... or not. And entropy will do its best: creating the possibility
of new states... having more different states are lovelier /varietas delectat/... Don't
tell me that making 8 air quanta into 8 different types of quanta aren't beautiful!
Butterfly Effect (4) Another misinterpreted idea in popular culture. No, a slight movement
of a butterfly in New Zealand wouldn't necessarily create a storm in Iceland. Chaos theory states
that by minimally changing initial conditions in a system the later state of this system
can be radically different. It is not surprising that the term was coined by a meteorologist,
Edward Lorenz.
In 1961, Lorenz was running a numerical computer model to redo a weather prediction from
the middle of the previous run as a shortcut. He entered the initial condition 0.506 from the
printout instead of entering the full precision 0.506127 value. The result was a completely different
weather scenario.note2
Chances of a butterfly creating a tornado is miniscule. So the flapping wing metaphor is only
referring to the possibility that even an effect so tiny can ADD to the making of something
powerful and grandiose. For example you can spend an extra 4 quanta on a Photon and have
something more destructive than a wrecking machine.
Chaos Seed/Power (1) Without further explanation please look at
this picture.
It is called the Lorenz attractor, and has a central place in Chaos Theory.
Now we know the origin of this spell's picture. However, one must choose the correct
parameters to have chaotic results. That is the main difference between Chaos Seed and Power.
If we choose small values for ρ, our system is stable (Chaos Power). When ρ is larger
then 24.74 the fixed points become repulsors and the trajectory is repelled by them
in a very complex way (Chaos Seed).
note3The card is very cheap since we must only adjust a
few parameters, nature does the rest by itself.
Pandemonium (5) This spell is just multiple Chaos Seeds, and its inner working is pretty
much explained above. What is really exciting is the redirection which is applied by the
upgraded version. Your own creatures won't get hit because of that extra 2 quantas invested.
Consider this effect like a temporary dissipation shield created for your own critters which
is able to absorb the chaos caused by your spell on your side.
Dissipation Shield/Field (3) I guess you already know that because of the 2nd law of
thermodynamics it is impossible to make a perpetual motion machine of the second kind.
In other words: sorry, girls and boys but no free dinner. Nature never approved such things.
You have to work to get something. And you cannot get more 'goods' than the work applied.
In fact, you will always get less 'goods'. Science have a word for that "lost" energy:
it has been dissipated. And I think you know what made it that way: Entropy. I give you a simple example: classic light bulbs.
Oh, how shiny are they! But sorry, only 2-3% of the used energy is converted into usable light...
The rest are mainly /dissipated/ as heat. So imagine Dissipation Shield as a perfect tool
of Entropy: you put a lot of effort/energy to overcome it, but it just dissipates the 100% of it.
Improved Mutation (3) How can someone associate mutation with Entropy?
Mutation can happen because of a number reasons: a chemical agent (e.g. aromatic compounds), biological agents
(e.g. viruses) ionizing radiations (e.g. X-rays), ultraviolet radiations, radioactive decay.
In biology, a mutation is the permanent alteration of the nucleotide sequence of the genome of an organism,
virus, or extrachromosomal DNA or other genetic elements.
note4 Mutation can have no effect (imagine
trying to mutate an Abomination), it can be harmful
or it can be beneficial.
Since Entropy pretty much affects everything it isn't hard to propose it as a secondary cause
of mutations. The change is always chemical (the DNA-molecule is affected somehow). But let's imagine
a scenario when a creature's genetic elements aren't affected by the aforementioned harmful influences.
In that case thermal motion still exists. This random motion of the particles/molecules can cause damage to the DNA.
And guess what is connected to thermal motions? Yep. Entropy. It is pretty ironic that Entropy
can cause such a mutation which helps life eventually. Furthermore: this is the main cause of the
success of the multicellular life on earth. Without mutations life would stand less chance against
Entropy. (It also explains the Fallen Elf's/Druid's life quanta cost for its skill.)
Shard of Serendipity (3) Another beautiful example of Entropy's power. I cannot emphasize
it enough: Entropy always "wants" to create more possibilities. And by sacrificing minimal energy
(quanta) you'll be rewarded by having those extra possibilities. Sometimes good, sometimes bad
possibilities - from a human perspective. But you all know that - from Entropy's perspective
every new option is warmly welcomed. You'll learn loving and utilizing those new options -
every 192 of them.
Improved Antimatter (6) A quite well-known fact of physics that every particle has its counterpart,
a so-called antiparticle. Let's electron be our example! It has a small mass, and a small - negative -
charge. There is a similar particle like it, it is called positron. It has the same small mass, and
an equally small - positive - charge. When a particle and an antiparticle meets a huge amount of
energy is produced in the form of photons, neutrinos (sometimes other particles/antiparticles
are generated as well). We call this event annihilation. Not just simple particles like electrons
can have a "mirror image" - quarks, protons, neutrons and even atoms or molecules of the anti kind
can exist. They are produced naturally by radioactivity or specific stars (pulsars for example), but
because of the annihilation they aren't really stable in an environment full of normal matter.
It is not surprising that this card has a big quanta cost (we can even call it 'huge' for the
unupped counterpart). The costliest material to make is antimatter. If we would be able to
create 1 gram of anti-hydrogen (our current technologies limits us to minute amounts)
it would cost approximately $62,5 trillion.
note5A possible explanation for the inner workings of the card would be that Elements somehow can
use the energy produced by the annihilation to rebuild themselves. So the Element is healed
by the incident when the antimattered creature touches them. The same applies to a vampiric
antimattered creature, but the energy created will also hurt the creature's owner because of
the vampirism. In both cases the effect equals the attack value of the creature. You may say
that the antimattered creature should annihilate at the very moment it is hit by the spell, because
it already contacts normal matter (air, ground etc.) but there are ways to stabilize antimatter, e.g.
by magnetic methods - maybe the spell itself is capable doing that.
A very peculiar thing I always wanted to note is the design of the card. Just look at that familiar
shape. What a beautiful metaphor. No matter how hard you pound that "metaphor" you won't damage it,
on the contrary: you are just giving it more and more... joy.
Amethyst Dragon (11) Why Amethyst, why not some other mineral? The answer is obvious: the hue of
amethyst is the closest to the dominant color of this mark. If you take a look at
Entropy
values you'll see that quartz (amethyst is a variation of quartz) is far from having a big
number, even chrysoberyl (this mineral and emerald are both variants of beryl, so they are
like siblings) has a greater Entropy... So the choice of amethyst is only cosmetic -
however we can all agree that it was a beautiful choice.
Why magenta? But there is still science in that magenta color! Why did Zanzarino choose that color which
is named after the town of Magenta to honor the Battle of Magenta? Light can have different
colors. If you mix different lights you can have more colors outside of the basic ones (red,
green, blue). It is called additive color mixing. By mixing blue with red you get magenta.
Now, take a look at a
rainbow.
Where the heck is magenta? Well, magenta is an extraspectral color. Means it cannot be found
in the visible spectrum. You can produce yourself a
magenta color. by using two prisms and
superimposing the red end of the spectrum on to the blue end.
What you also may know about colors that each color has a counterpart, a complementary color.
I'm pretty sure you tried to invert a picture (or create a "negative image") in Photoshop.
Using that option the program creates each pixel's complementary color giving you the "LSD-version"
of the original image. With the words of science: mixing complementary colors additively
will produce white.
So guess what is the complementary color of magenta! Focus on this
image for a minute
than fix your eyes on a white surface.
What did you see? If everything is ok with your sight you must had seen
color.
Still don't know where this leads? Excited? Or bored? Well what element possesses that color?
You bet: it's life! And what has Life to do with Entropy? I tell you my friend: life is a
continuous battle against Entropy. In the end a losing battle, yes. But a fight totally worth
it I can assure you.
