A couple questions for the Forsaken

[MatBloodyCauthon]

After smoking some tobac out on my porch today a question popped into my head. I wonder if Semirhage could ever detect DNA inside a persons cells? Or if Nyneave could learn this trick?

 

So then I started to think of some of the possibilities that could open for the futer practiced Aes'Sedai. Maybe even find a way to lengthen the life of the everyday man who has never touched the One Power. Who knows your talking about DNA the genetic make-up of the human being.

 

Another question that I would of asked Moridin is: Had he discovered atoms and the way they act? To basically developed an interpretation for Quantam Theory. This could explain how Traveling was first discovered. Once again who knows the possibilities they could uncover. They could potentially create an environment strong enough to withstand atomic fusion. They would have the power of a tiny sun how rediculous would that be.

 

Just another fun thing to think about I guess lol

[rand4747]

well lives in the AoL were significantly longer for everyone, because there were no illnesses etc and with everyone in good health theres nothing that can kill them except for age (as an aside most of what kills people is not the age, the age just makes them easily die of something else,)

[SylvanFox]

You sure that was tabac you were smoking?

 

I think that kind of makes sense about the DNA. If they could somehow stop telomeres from getting shorter all the time without causing people to get all tumor-y, then they could probably do it.

 

I was assuming people in the AoL did know about atoms at the least, possibly quantum mechanics and stuff. There's one point when Moridin is talking to the other Chosen (it's the meeting where he has a rat, and it's a Demandred PoV) and he says some stuff that makes it sound like he probably studied Chaos Theory at one time. That's not the same as quantum theory, but it is used to understand certain relationships in quantum mechanics. I'm guessing this is a sign that people in the AoL understood quantum mechanics.

 

I wonder if people have moved to other planets during the ages, and then kind of got stuck there after DO-related stuff went down. There could be people on Mars who just haven't got a clue about what's going on.

[FarShainMael]

At the moment Randland science / technology is about 18th/19th century level, going by LoC18. We hear about the School Rand established in Cairhien, and the inventions the scholars have come up with: improvements on such things as making paper, printing, crossbows. New items appear to be gas lighting, hot air balloons, and a steam engine. There's no indication of the level of their understanding of the underlying physics and chemistry. In the real world we knew about atoms then, and the periodic table; and we were moving away from the notion of phlogiston and towards the concepts of oxidation and of energy. These ideas were the beginnings of describing chemical processes in terms of atoms and molecules. The term 'molecule' was first coined in the late 18th century. But it would be some time before the much more complex concept of quantum mechanics proper arose in the early 20th century, and longer still to the discovery of DNA in the 1950s.

 

So on the whole, I think it's a bit early for such things!

 

There would be another problem, though - the size of the items a channeller might wish to handle! DNA of course is molecular in size; and atoms can be 'seen' using such fancy equipment as tunnelling microscopes which Herid Fel hadn't got around to inventing.. . Channellers have to be able to see their weaves, and presumably what they are using the weaves on. Not sure if this could work through a microscope.. The subnuclear levels of quantum mechanics would presumably be out of reach, for similar reasons.

 

About gateways.. These would not be about manipulating atoms, but about handling the basic fabric of spacetime. And they are nowhere near thinking about that sort of thing!

 

(Not to mention the violence is does to the laws of conservation of energy and momentum.. I must have a think about that!)

 

Sylvan Fox reminds me that it must have been altogether different in the AoL. Aginor at least almost certainly knew about DNA..

[yoniy0]

Thanks FSM, I was waiting for someone to bring that up. For some reason, it seems that AoLers had roughly the same divisions of profession as we do today, in that talented Healers weren't on the cutting edge of DNA research. I doubt Nynaeve would have much facility with Aginor's brand of science, but it's not outside the scope of possibility that--once technology catches up--someone who is would be found.