Last edited by 97cweb at 2025-07-22 16:13:21.489619
Thallion grabs the output wires and I turn the generator again. He grimaces, but urges me to continue. I apprehensively increase speed, dumping more current into him. HIs face cycles between several images of pain, and finally lets go.
“Let’s try now.” He states, holding the pen, no longer shaking at all. He sticks his arm out to the side, as if he was trying to pop his shoulder, and he just holds it there.
He strains from the motion, inhales raspily, and then starts writing. Calm, yet fast. After a few minutes, he turns it around, and even though it is cursive, It looks like it was printed from a computer.
Satisfied, he continues writing, probably about this.
“You know, I’ll probably stop by often to get that done. It does not get to my capacitor, voltage is still too low, but it does something to my arm that fixes the damage I have.”
Looking at the wires he dropped, he placed the negative on the node in his palm, and used the positive as “ground” on his hand. Makes some sense, with them having metal for nerves, carrying electrons, just weird, and backwards to what I am used to.
But the generator still couldn’t solve the capacitor problem.
I turn to Silvra, “Do you have anything like a capacitor, that is not from a living thing?”
She thinks for a moment, staring off into the distance. Eventually her eyes refocus and she states that she does not.
“Well, we are just going to make our own then.”
They look at me uncomfortably.
“What?”
Lena steps forth and says, “It’s just that…that’s what separates the animals from everything else. Life from never alive.”
“Aye, ‘tis a bi’ of a reverential thin’ for us. An’ for ya ta mention makin’ one so…easily. Jus’ feels wrong”
I sit down on the floor, trying to think of a way to describe what I am making.
“It won’t match what you can do, barely any voltage and it would probably break down and short out, possibly popping in the process. Nothing from an animal will be used. That chicken capacitor was disgusting. This, this will not even move when full.”
“I know, but, I don’t feel it.” Silvra states.
“What do you mean?”
“You may give us all the facts, but…this is still big, imitating life, even if you use only non alive things, it just feels…off”
I sit silently, thinking of ways to bridge this culture gap. I don’t want to push too hard, but we need this part. I think of various ways to introduce this, from the concept of seeing it as a tool that mimics life, like a prosthetic limb or a wind up clock, to renaming it. Finally, I settle on describing the translator.
“To me, the translator is an example of something imitating life. How does it know my language, how does it transfer meaning, thought and even tone to me? To me, it is a synthetic brain, the thinking box. Yet, where I am from, we are nearing the same issues with something I have not talked about: Computers. Something similar to this translator, but designed to do many different things rather than just one thing. Some of them have the ability to generate text-speak, if you will. And even there, we have the issue of people treating them as alive. These systems, though they appear to know stuff, do not have any experiences, no historical generation, no synthesis capabilities, and no audience recognition. That is when I was pulled here. I would not be surprised if it is even worse now, so I understand your apprehension. Maybe if we get the parts, and hold them reverently, we can make this?”
They nod slowly, sensing my shift in tone. Some stealing glances at the translator in Thallion’s hand.
Silvra speaks up, “But that’s the translator. It has no brain, no heart, no capacitor, it uses us to feed it. It is already odd that your phone can run it, but now you are saying you can just… do that? Mimic life?”
“Let me show you first, then we can decide whether to continue on.” I state, hoping that I will be able to show that my capacitor is dead, and will never be alive.
“Eldrin, I need two very long, very thin iron sheets. Thallion, I need paper, the same dimension as the iron. Silvra, I’ll need you to solder some things, and Lena, I’ll need a small jar, taller than the width of the iron sheets, but big enough to hold both of them.”
They all head off, and return shortly afterwards with the materials.
I lay it all before us on the table.
“Is it safe to say none of this is alive?”
After a few seconds, all nod.
“Silvra, can you solder a wire to each iron sheet in their middles, near their edge pointing out?”
Silvra quickly makes short work of that.
I then take one of the thin iron sheets, stretch it flat and place the paper on top of it, careful to ensure that the paper extends over the edge of the iron for its entire length. I then carefully place the other iron sheet on top of the paper.
“Is this still not alive?”
They nod, a little quicker this time.
I start at one end, and coil it up into a spiraling cylinder, and while holding it, stuff it into the jar with the wires sticking up.
“How about now?”
They agree, still not sure where I am going with this.
“Ok, I am finished. See? Not alive. It cannot generate its own charge, and cannot do anything without intervention. It is inert. Not even dead, but never has been alive.”
“But how is that going to do anything?” Silvra interjects. “You just stacked paper on iron and say it can mimic life?!”
“Not mimic life, just store power. This is no different than what happens when you shuffle your feet on the floor and touch a doorknob, just more controlled.”
I have Silvra solder it in parallel to the whisker valve. I then reinsert the output wires into the salt water glass, and begin to turn the crank.
Silvra, seeing bubbles, starts to sketch the output, a little more nervous this time.
After a few minutes of slow rotation, she stops. “It looks no better than before! Maybe a little less bumpy, but…still!”
“Now watch closely” I turn the crank faster, bubbles appearing much more often, and now more stable. Silvra starts drawing the graph, and it looks like what I would expect, a slow ramp to a pulsing small sine wave at a higher level.
I am easily turning the crank, and not even breaking a sweat doing this.
“It’s working!” Silvra exclaims, excited.
I smile, and stop turning. “This capacitor stores a little bit of voltage, but the main thing it does is store charge, so that it can be let out when there is less voltage. Think of it as a buffer tank, or the pond for a water wheel. Keeps the flow steady.
“Tha’ makes sense. Bu’ rather than callin’ i’ a capacita, how ‘bou’ buffer?”
Thinking for a moment, and all the various ways that a capacitor can be used, especially for sinking high frequency noise, but for now, something simple is ok. It will be a long time before I get to needing bypass capacitors.
“That is a good name for simplification. Is everyone ok with this?”
Lena and Silvra agree immediately, and Thallion and Eldrin soon after writing some more notes.
“Well, let’s see if this gets my phone charged!”
I have Silvra solder the USB lead to the output wires again, and plug my phone in.
Turning the generator, it still takes quite a bit of effort to get the generator up to speed. Probably needs more rotor windings, but that is a problem for another day.
Slowly I get the generator up to a higher speed, my arms are starting to get tired, but at least I am not sweating this time. Then I hear the ‘zzt zzt’ of power recognition.
I grin and shout, ‘It’s working! And easier than before!’
I keep at it for a few more minutes, and then let go, letting the generator grind to a halt on its own. Disconnecting my phone, I then turn to the others and ask, “At any point of that, was it alive?”
After a few minutes, Eldrin speaks, reading his notes. “While inspired by da livin’, none of i’ tis alive, only using iner’ material, and no life farce ta run.”
The others nod in agreement.
I sigh, relieved that this would not land me in hot water, or the inquisition of this world.
“Can we all take turns spinning the generator? At the rate it is charging, it will probably take a couple of hours to even get it half charged. There are many improvements we can make, but let’s get my knowledge back.”
Over the course of the next few hours, everyone turns the generator, with Eldrin and I supplying most of the power. Eventually, we get it to 47 percent. At this rate, it would take probably another 8 hours to fully charge, just due to the battery slowing down near the end.
“That should be good for now.”
I turn on my phone for the first time in weeks, seeing the cool glow of the screen as it boots.
“Ba dum!” It shouts, as it boots past the loading screen and to the desktop.
The others turn in shock, flinching from the sudden organ blast playing through the building.
Silvra jumps back, eyes wide. “It can sing as well?! Since when could it produce music?!”