asksciencefiction

!asksciencefiction

@lemmy.world
Create post
[Ace Attorney] Why are spirit mediums treated as fake, when they are a very real thing?

[Ace Attorney] Why are spirit mediums treated as fake, when they are a very real thing?

In our world, the police going to a spirit medium for the DL-6 case, and being ridiculed might be logical, since spirit channelling isn't a real thing, but in the world of Ace Attorney, it is.

Not only is it a known and established practice, with detectable physical effects, but the monarchy of at least one country is specifically sought out for their spirit-channelling powers by other governments, so that they can commune with the dead, and receive advice that way.

However, it also seems to be disbelieved, and ridiculed as a pseudoscience, despite that.

[Doctor Who] How do the Doctor's enemies keep track of which Doctor is which?

[Doctor Who] How do the Doctor's enemies keep track of which Doctor is which?

Doctor Who zips all the way up and down through time, popping in at any time and place. If you don't have a time machine to follow them around with, it should be impossible to keep track of which incarnation was where. And yet, the Doctor's enemies somehow manage to do just that, with the Daleks being accurate enough to determine he was on his last regeneration on Trenzalore.

[Harry Potter] How long does a wand last?

[Harry Potter] How long does a wand last?

One of the options for students enrolling into Hogwarts, if they come from a wizarding family, is that they have the option of using a hand-me-down wand. But short of wands being damaged beyond repair, we don't see many people replacing them, even though it happens enough that hand-me-downs are a valid option for new students.

So how long does one last? Does a wizard normally use one wand in their lifetime, or is it the kind of thing where an old, worn-out wand is fine for schoolwork, but you'd need something newer/better for adult life?

[Doctor Who] How much of a TARDIS is essential to its function?

[Doctor Who] How much of a TARDIS is essential to its function?

While we hear of the TARDIS having engines that are implicitly essential to it working, we've also see a TARDIS work without the rest of the machine.

"The Doctor's Wife" and "Inferno" show that a TARDIS is capable of operating as just the console, which would seem to imply that they're just a power source to allow the console to do its thing and move the whole ship around, or to allow for the pilot to do silly things like tow an entire planet one second out of phase.

[Harry Potter] Why don't mages use subconscious magic when they get their wands?

[Harry Potter] Why don't mages use subconscious magic when they get their wands?

One of the ways that you can find out whether a child has magic or not, is to see whether they are able to use it subconsciously, such as by defenestrating them, and seeing if they stop themselves from being killed. But once they get their wands, that use of subconscious magic seems to stop entirely.

Logically, you would expect students to fire off similar magic when their lives were at risk, or their emotions ran particularly high. Is it a function of having the wand that stops it, or is it just a matter of that only happening for really young mages, and that they learn to control themselves as they enter childhood?

[Stargate SG-1] Why doesn't the SGC upgrade the dialling computers?

[Stargate SG-1] Why doesn't the SGC upgrade the dialling computers?

When we're introduced to the Stargate, it's in the early-mid 90s, so them needing a big, bulky computer system would make sense, but as the show progresses, we see Tau'ri computer technology develop, either conventionally in the form of laptops like what the Atlantis team use, or computer crystals like what they fitted onto their starships.

Through it all, however, the SGC continues to use the same computer with comparatively dated hardware. Why keep it, instead of upgrading it to something more modern? Especially since one of the main issues that the SGC kept facing was that their dialling computer was not sophisticated enough to respond to some of the status codes put out by the stargate, causing all kinds of unpredictable behaviour.

[Spy Kids] What countries did each parent belong to before they got together? Did one parent defect to the other side?

[Spy Kids] What countries did each parent belong to before they got together? Did one parent defect to the other side?

While the movie has latin american themes, it doesn't ever specify a country. From the first movie, the parents met after they were both sent to kill the other one. Eventually both parents are working at the OSS. Did one parent defect? Was this inter-agency drama?

If one parent did defect, which parent changed sides? This part of the movie was set late in the cold war, which opens up a lot of different ways this could go (unless it was stated explicitly somewhere).

[Spy Kids] Why does the OSS use children as spies?

[Spy Kids] Why does the OSS use children as spies?

The optics of the US using children of spies can't possibly be good, in addition to the risk of misuse, and all of that.

[GTA] Why does anyone even live in the cities?

[GTA] Why does anyone even live in the cities?

In the GTA series, the various cities that the games are set in are usually rampant with crime. If it isn't the player characters going on a rampage, then it is either the police, or the other citizens that will be easily driven into a homicidal rage for such minor things as being bumped into while walking down the road/minor collisions.

Why would anyone bother to live there? It seems wildly unsafe, even before the various other criminal enterprises get involved.

[DC] Why doesn't Superman learn to use magic?

[DC] Why doesn't Superman learn to use magic?

One of Superman's known weaknesses, besides that of kryptonite, is that he's as vulnerable to magic as the average human (besides what he can avoid with his super-reflexes).

So why doesn't he learn to use magic? His Super-intelligence and speed would make it much easier for him to learn magic compared to the average person, and he's already well aware that magic exists.

Knowing magic would help him cover a major weakness of his, so it seems illogical that he doesn't pick it up, or look into it.