Lasers Versus a Psychic Force Bubble

[gibberingmouther]

I don't understand how lasers can cut glass since it's permeable to light. Is it because all glass has some imperfections in it? I'm assuming it does *not* work that way but if someone could explain, that would be really helpful.

I mean, glass is used to focus lasers so it's odd that lasers could be used to cut glass.

 

[Bystander]

https://www.google.com/search?q="tr...fAhUr8IMKHTEaCaMQsAR6BAgEEAE&biw=1134&bih=640

 

[DaveE]

Glass is not transparent to all wavelengths of light, and even when it is transparent it still absorbs a little bit of what passes thru.
You can cut it with high powered lasers that make infrared light (CO2 with λ=10.6um is common). This light wavelength is about 20x longer than what you can see with your eyes. You can also cut it with ultra-fast lasers that make short pulses of light with incredibly high peak power.
The type of glass used in high powered lasers isn't the same stuff you make windows out of. It is typically very pure SiO2 (fused silica or quartz) and will have special manufacturing processes (polishing, coating etc.) to allow it to work with high power light.
In addition, the light created in the laser isn't typically focused into a small point until it hits the glass to be cut. So the high laser power is spread out in the laser but concentrated into a very small space where the cut is made.

 

[gibberingmouther]

I now call this psychic force bubble "armor of ki".

It's not really a force bubble - though I considered that possibility - in the sense of a telekinetic vector field of forces arrayed into a bubble shape. Because of e = mc^2 that would require an obscene amount of energy to get that force bubble to the level of armor made of matter.

Your ki starts out as massless particles that travel at c and are maybe somewhere about the size of electrons. Being made of "spirit matter" they just go right through regular matter ordinarily.

You can use your energy to change the state of regular ki into actual matter. The ki particles gain mass and probably get a little bit bigger. Instead of being used to produce telekinetic vector fields from energy packets you transmit from your soul to your ki - what your ki is usually used for - your now mass-bearing ki particles become telekinetically bonded to each other. The new ki particles all have negative charges on them so this works. Since the bonds are "telekinetic" or "psychic" you can determine how they behave. You can make it so your armor stretches around the joints as much as you want, for example, or becomes as rigid as metal in order to block an attack.

Anyway … when you form this armor you will typically make it transparent. Ki usually by default leaks energy as light but you turn off that when you make your armor so you can *see*. The problem this leaves me with is that your armor, being perfectly transparent, leaves you vulnerable to visible wavelength lasers.

Would you have to make your armor opaque in order to block lasers? That idea bothers me for aesthetic reasons. These fighters, being psychic, have some ability to operate without being able to see, but I don't like the idea of them all having to go around like shadows once the tech users figure out they are vulnerable to lasers. Are there any other options? How does regular opaque matter even absorb photons? I know it's a combination of reflecting the photons and absorption then emission, but I don't really understand.

Copyright 12/18/2018 George Young. My picture is my avatar.

 

[gibberingmouther]

Okay, I think I understand this better. I guess fighters could just wear armor to block lasers. That seems reasonable.

Turning your "armor of ki" into a mirror so you look like the Silver Surfer would be another thing, but I'm not sure if it should work that way, or alternatively turning your armor into something very opaque to "trap" the laser would be an option, but I assume that would require more energy.

 

[stefan r]

Okay, I think I understand this better. I guess fighters could just wear armor to block lasers. That seems reasonable.

Turning your "armor of ki" into a mirror so you look like the Silver Surfer would be another thing, but I'm not sure if it should work that way, or alternatively turning your armor into something very opaque to "trap" the laser would be an option, but I assume that would require more energy.

If you are using psychic force bubbles then your fiction is soft science fiction. Here is a Mohs scale for sicfi. It still sounds like you are trying to rationalize. Probably in the 2.0 range.

... I assume that would require more energy...

Your minimum energy defense is to not be there when the impact occurs. You could make that extreme aikido with foresight, the wearer knows where the shot is going to fire and sidesteps. Alternatively particles travel on a path as if nothing was there. You have just a slit for eyes/periscope.

It actually takes no energy to make armor work. The problem is getting rid of energy. Armor also has to deal with momentum and pressure. Suppose you are wearing an impenetrable vest and you get hit with a canon shell. You could lose your arms and head. All your internal organs are crushed as the vest is accelerated. So you die anyway.

... I know it's a combination of reflecting the photons and absorption then emission, but I don't really understand...

Photo electric effect.
reflection
Metamaterial cloaking.
The people reading your science fiction are not going to understand it either. The characters in the story do not need to understand everything that goes on into making their clothing. Some people might like reading technical journals but those readers may not want to be distracted by a plot and they will not pick it up if it is not published in the right journals. Just include some key words like "metamaterial" and "negative index". You can focus attention on the armors inability to protect anything/anyone standing behind the wearer. They need to slip out of protection in order to attack.

 

[gibberingmouther]

Okay, visible light lasers used for cutting are rare apparently. For typical advanced societies, the fighters would only have to worry about big mounted lasers which probably won't be in the visible wavelengths anyway. They could learn to "tune" their psychic armor to absorb these wavelengths without affecting their vision.

For weaker visible wavelength laser rifles they could just wear regular armor and use their ability to teleport short distances to avoid being targeted successfully. A fighter *could* if absolutely necessary tune their psychic armor so it absorbs or reflects visible wavelengths and still be able to fight well enough while "blind" due to one of the psychic abilities ki grants, but they would probably prefer regular armor at that point.

There are a few more things I have to work out, but I have the gist now. The problem of lasers as far as my game world is concerned is *solved*.

The fact that these fighters are visible means that their physical enhancement doesn't affect how their body interacts with radiation. But their psychic armor can provide protection against the desired types of radiation.

Not a whole lot of information here, but still copyright 12/21/2018 George Young. My avatar is a picture of me.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

What specific sci-fi is this topic related to?

 

[gibberingmouther]

What specific sci-fi is this topic related to?

It's for the anime/manga Dragon Ball where the power of "chi" or "ki" from eastern mysticism becomes a super power for those able to use it.

There's also magic and regular technology. In my game world based on Dragon Ball - I have enough information that you could use any tabletop system you want, but the rules I'm including in my game manual are going to be for GURPS - there is also "super science" which is based on magic crystals that the deities (who rule over different sectors of space where they use quantum probability manipulation to guide evolution and whatnot over the eons) peppered all over their areas of space, like a scavenger hunt for mortal scientists and engineers.

The mythology and the way magic and ki work were all my own ideas. An example of a magic crystal is the hyperspace crystal which, when exposed to high power lasers, will allow you to enter the hyperspace dimension. In the hyperspace dimension, the power of the laser you use determines the conversion factor for how much distance in the hyperspace dimension you entered counts for on the regular physical dimension. So, a high powered laser shined on the crystal could allow you to travel 100 light years for only 100 miles of actual space traversed. The size of the crystal might determine the size of the magic force field created that makes everything inside travel to the hyperspace dimension when a laser is used. I haven't worked out all the details for how to activate the different crystals - it's just the cost and the technology level that are relevant.

There are also space crystals (for compressing matter like you can compress a digital file), time travel crystals, psychic crystals, and gravity crystals. Those are the main ones. The gods might also do things like providing a nice huge cloud of antimatter near their favorite alien race's solar system, so they'll be able to create a fusion drive for their space ships. The idea of a world made out of "psychic energy", like a dream, is imo a good basis for a fictitious world.

My ideas about the magic crystals and whatnot in this game world are copyright 12/22/2018 George Young. My picture is my avatar.

 

[Klystron]

Probably nothing but before you publish, take care with the expression "ki" if pronounced or read similar to the English "key" (kee). Sounds close to a slang expression for human excrement common in southeast Asia and "dockside" in Pacific ports.

Uh, if the force-field is psychic are the attack lasers mind-controlled by the operator?

 

[gibberingmouther]

Probably nothing but before you publish, take care with the expression "ki" if pronounced or read similar to the English "key" (kee). Sounds close to a slang expression for human excrement common in southeast Asia and "dockside" in Pacific ports.

Uh, if the force-field is psychic are the attack lasers mind-controlled by the operator?

Laser weapons would typically be used by technologically advanced races who don't have the brain-affecting mutation that allows them to use ki. Healer types of ki users who can't use ki blasts also might choose a laser gun as a side arm.