4.2 KiB
Unsong Chapter 59: Clothe Yourself In Golden Arms
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Author: u/Fredlage *
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URL: http://unsongbook.com/chapter-59-clothe-yourself-in-golden-arms/
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Score: 62
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Created: 2017-02-13T02:18:19
Post:
Comments:
u/Xenograteful [+36] (2 hours later)
u/Frommerman [+3] (4 hours later)
Can confirm. This is art.
I especially like the small touches you have to pay attention to to notice.
u/ulyssessword [+24] (3 hours later)
Sohu didn't strike me as the monologueing type, and she had no reason to tell them she got the True Vital Name, but she did anyways. Maybe she got caught up in the placebomancy?
u/Bowbreaker [+5] Solitary Locust (a day later)
Come on. She's only 8 years old.
u/over_who [+18] Aleph you are going to die (17 minutes later)
I can no longer tell if Dylan Alvarez knows where he stops and his facade begins. Can it be placebomancy if you don't know you're trying to trick the universe?
u/None [+7] (2 hours later)
[deleted]
u/Evan_Th [+8] Sunshine Regiment (2 hours later)
In real life, you can still get some placebo effect even if the patient knows he's taking a placebo. I'd guess it's the same way here.
u/over_who [+9] Aleph you are going to die (2 hours later)
So what makes probability manipulation (placebomancy) fail in the Unsongverse? The most direct answer provided by the story is more or less "when the universe stops believing you can manipulate probability".
Does the universe believe less in you when you doubt your own methods? Maybe. But the story does say that placebomancy cannot do the impossible. Unfortunately, I think this only complicates the question. Because it is unclear to me if anything is impossible with sufficient probability manipulation (help I'm probably missing something obvious here), so it comes down to people, i.e. everyone watching and the placebomancer(s), believing that the intended results will come from the ritual performed.
What is scary is now that BOOJUM has seen placebomancy literally summon Sohu, they are more likely to believe in stronger placebomancy. We know that placebomancy works under properly controlled laboratory conditions. I am worried that if you taught people enough physics and closed them away in a monastery or something similar, they would be able to time travel.
Picture this: someone builds a monastery on mount Sinai or somewhere equally symbolic, allows only the strongest placebomancers inside, and keeps them carefully sequestered until they die. One day someone walks down from the monastery, and claims that they received a message from the future. Do you believe them? In our world, obviously not, but in the Unsongverse? I honestly do not know.
u/callmebrotherg [+8] now posting as /u/callmesalticidae (3 hours later)
And if it weren't possible (because your strong placebomancers just couldn't suspend their disbelief enough), could it be made possible through that very same monastery strategy, convincing people that it has been done once already and therefore it should be possible to perform a second (actually first) time?
u/Bowbreaker [+3] Solitary Locust (a day later)
If you genuinely believe that you can trick the universe as long as you genuinely believe that you can trick the universe, don't you ultimately still genuinely believe that you can trick the universe?
u/Fredlage [+11] (21 minutes later)
Talk about taking things in stride... I wonder how many people have become insanely powerful via placebomancy on account of being crazy...
u/Frommerman [+8] (18 minutes later)
Now THIS is the UNSONG we all know and love.
YEEYEEYEEYEEYEEYEEYEEYEE
u/awesomeideas [+3] Dai stiho, cousin. (17 hours later)
The one, the only, the yee.
u/Escapement [+7] Ankh-Morpork City Watch (37 minutes later)
This is my favourite chapter so far. I spent the entire chapter laughing.