Decipher SciFi

Avengers Infinity War: space mapping, Dyson spheres, and the purple coin purse


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Thanos

Josh Brolan was so good! And the character itself too! Coin purse chin. The story of how a light flick to the coin purse could have saved the world.

Economic modeling

Thanos breaks out the Excel spreadsheets. Productively employing the bottom trillionty billion around the galaxy. Ultimate utilitarianism.

The upper atmosphere

Atmospheric pressure. Hypoxia.

Space mapping and orienteering

Visualizing three-dimensional routes as two-dimensional on Earth-maps. Visualizing four-dimensional routes as three three physical dimensions plus time.

Star forges

Forging in the heart of a neutron star vs heart-of-a-neutron-star-adjacent. Breaking assumptions. Neutron stars. Facts and figures and analogies. Converting teaspoons of neutron star matter into 5-Dollar Footlongs. Thor jelly vs Thor Jam and their relative whelmingness.

Dyson Spheres

Disovering that Dyson’s original conception (1960) of the Dyson “sphere” actually better fits the modern description of a Dyson “swarm.” Different Dyson sphere variants. Statites.

Vision based on movement

But it isn’t! It’s contrast-based! Toad vision feature detection. Jurassic Park confusion.

Iron Man

Nanotech. Programming nanobots to eat brains - or gloves!

  1. Megastructures 1.1: Dyson Spheres by Isaac Arthur: YouTube
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