"Revolution" TV show

x2791258

I don't think this show is gonna succeed tbh. It's another "Terra Nova" (which, in my opinion, was pretty nice. But well, another one who got canceled).

The pretty acting (actors) are gonna ruin it for me.

Fredrik

I've seen the first episode now. People in the USA can download it legally from nbc.com. It was essentially just a longer version of the previews we've seen, so if you've seen those but not the pilot, you know almost everything that I do.

The episode confirmed that guns work. Not just those civil war rifles we saw in the previews, but modern pistols as well. So I guess it's just electricity that doesn't work. Not sure how human bodies can still work. They didn't address that.

The story is exactly what it appeared to be in the previews. The storytelling technique is not impressive. They have already used two huge coincidences to get everything going quickly. They need to find a guy in Chicago, so they go there (in what looks like at most a couple of days), and ask a guy if he knows the person they're looking for. Obviously he is that guy. (OK, they seemed to already know that they were in the right place, more or less, but still). One of the characters meets a woman who lives in the middle of nowhere. Obviously, she's one of the few who knows something about the big conspiracy.

Oh, and apparently, in the future, all men in good shape wear really tight shirts.

Greg Bernhardt

Anyone watch the second episode last night?

Fredrik

Has the second episode been released? I don't see it at http://www.nbc.com/revolution/video/ or The Pirate Bay. The premiere is September 17, so I wouldn't expect the second to be available in any form until September 24.

Redbelly98

Weird, I was just at the barber today and saw an ad for this show in a magazine -- first I'd heard of it. Then I come home and find this thread.

All I can say is, there better not be any thunderstorms, ever, in this show.

Evo

They already lost me.

Fredrik

The theory I came up with was that some new technology, based on physics that's unknown to us, has changed the properties of metals, so that they no longer conduct electric currents. Someone at another site came up with another idea: Power-draining nanites. If he's right, then thunderstorms may still be possible.

Evo

So, why do some people have electricity?

Borg

My guess: Several seasons from now the show will focus on scientists at CERN where the cause will be determined to be the accidental discovery of the OMG particle.

I haven't seen most of the shows mentioned here. My favorite was Eureka. Yes, no basis in reality but I liked the science run amok aspect.

Ryan_m_b

Tap-dancing past the fact that "nanites" are the modern day folk-law equivalent of spells, demons and djinn it seems a stretch that would be so restricted to draining power from human technology only and still be so successful.

As for changing the properties of metals that sounds like something that would instantly kill most life. Hard to get your metalloproteins to work when their cofactor's properties have significantly changed.

My bet is that the answer to this show (if it could be called one) is going to be:

pantaz

I was disappointed the moment they showed the airliner going down in a flat-spin. Basic aerodynamics failed, too?

The teacher, in his mini-rant to his students stated that even batteries don't work. So it's not just electrical devices, but specific chemical reactions?

What about diesel engines?

Evo

Why does everyone walk? Bicycles, peddle cars, steam engines, etc.. don't work anymore? Even little hand cars on railroad tracks would work for getting around. What happened to the horse and carriage?

How are they getting water to their homes in the suburbs?

senserd

Hi, I'm new here. Just watched the premiere and was looking online for some discussion of the physics. After watching the show, I tried to come up with a plausible explanation. I had an idea and wanted others to poke holes in it to see if it was any good.

My hypothesis is that all the electrons and protons have become their antimatter counterparts, positrons and antiprotons. This means that current would still flow, which would allow for chemical reactions, but the charges would be reversed.

Now that I think about it some more, there are some electricity based things that should continue to work even if that were the case.

Thoughts? Any feedback is welcome.

Fredrik

They don't "have electricity". They have devices that can temporarily reverse the effect of the technology that's causing the blackout.

This sort of thing doesn't bother me much.

He didn't say anything about chemistry. He just said that batteries don't work. Maybe it's just the metal parts that no longer conduct the current.

Totally. But compared to the alternatives...

This is something I don't even understand. My knowledge of chemistry is unfortunately negligible. But I'll take your word for it.

I bet that whatever the explanation is, by the time we learn it, we will already have seen at least one episode that contradicts it.

Fredrik

Welcome to the forum.

If every particle in the entire universe was replaced by its antiparticle, I think things would be pretty much the same. I could be wrong, but at least I don't immediately see a problem. If only some particles are replaced this way, e.g. every particle on Earth, but not the rest of the universe, then there would be problems. For example, every meteor would cause a huge explosion. I think they would blow up as the enter the atmosphere, and the radiation from these explosions would wipe out all life on Earth, except maybe deep under ground.

Ryan_m_b

Lol true.
Metalloproteins are proteins that have a metal ion cofactor, a cofactor is a chemical compound bound to a protein necessary for it to work (that is not itself a protein). So if the properties of metals changed significantly I guess metalloproteins would alter their behaviour and as the most famous metalloprotein is an oxygen transporter....not looking good for life
Yup. I'm sure it won't be internally consistent.
Welcome to the forums! With the exception of an odd difference in decay I think it's still unknown how different antimatter is to matter exactly. Conventionally it's thought to be pretty much identical in the way it behaves. But even if there were a substantial difference enough to radically effect the way machines work I'm willing to bet that most other chemistry (and therefore biochem) will be affected in some way too.

Janus

Or for that fact, the old fashioned steam engine? Or as mentioned in the last post, the diesel engine (which ignites combustion through compression and not a spark.)