unforum

[spugmeistress]

[RI_Barnica]

[yanka]

I merged the Cube discussion from this thread here because it was getting entirely off-topic to that thread.

Anyway: re: fluctuating mass. Isn't a small-scale generator of micro black holes theoretically possible? I could swear I read something along those freaky lines a few months ago in SciAm So, the Cube could, theoretically, be that, or be a micro white hole receptacle, couldn't it?

And don't all sorts of particles already pop in and out of existence all over the place? Could the Cube be a manifestation of some sort of other-worldly weird quantum technology? Or it could be something stupid - like it's made of photons... ok, it couldn't, but I couldn't resist throwing it out there

All of that said, I also think that the cleanest explanation is that it's a hypercube-type-thing, but I'm just not sure that we can accept it as a definitive answer yet - so, I think, we should at least keep some other possibilites in mind

[songofthephoenix]

Perhaps the cube defys gravity? which would make it extremely difficult to determine the mass.. as it has no known weight. That is the simpliest explanation. Another is that it could be made out of quantum pieces and because they are fluctuating through out time the mass is not a constant but a variable?

blah.
Or.... I just had a wild idea..
perhaps perplexcity is in a virtual world.. like the metaverse or a vr version of the internet? then the cubes mass would definitely be indeterminable. It would also explain everything between Earth and Perplexcity.. even with why Scarlett can communicate us via the net but not physically. It fits perfectly actually =)

[DogsHead]

[tanner]

[Rolerbe]

[Rolerbe]

[songofthephoenix]

[songofthephoenix]

Another idea I just had is that perhaps the cube's mass/weight is proportional to it's surrounding environment?

=)

[yanka|tage]

[songofthephoenix]

ok ok =)
let me try it this way =D

[Mr. Munchy]

Yet another way to get around the "indeterminate mass" would be to say that the cube affects gravitational forces around it, making it impossible to measure the mass or weight. I guess that's similar to it being unaffected by gravity, but in any case "indeterminate mass" is not the be-all end-all clue.

Vacuum fluctuations could also account for the indeterminate mass -- they could also explain the potential power of the cube -- if you can control vacuum fluctuations you can do pretty much anything (stealing that from the Naked God by Peter Hamilton).

I thought that the fact that it should not be exposed to water, acetone or liquid mercury is more telling of the cube's true nature. Can you imagine how hard it would be to get all of the moisture out of the air surrounding the cube? Or maybe it only applies to liquid water (even then, think of condensation).

[Crane]

"the Cube, whose value is incalculable"
Doesn't this indicate that the cube is sentient? At least to some degree?
Could it be an AI stored in a cube-computer-thing, storing the wisdom of a previous society? This might also explain why it's valuable both scientifically and religiously...

[terminalskeptik]