Polite Dissent

14 Responses to “ Technobabble of the Month ”

1. Ratbat
   November 16th, 2005 at 11:16 pm
   

   Yes, ‘retroactive’ conception might have been a better way to put it.

2. Nala
   November 17th, 2005 at 7:01 am
   

   I’m of the mind now that it is better to just let the technobabble “flow over you and through you” when being exposed to it. Now that I’m in my mid 30s, any analysis of it makes my head hurty.

   However, if some writer were to make up some great technobabble about time/cervical dilation and birthing or somesuch then I’d have to tip my hat to such a thing.

3. Carl
   November 17th, 2005 at 9:38 am
   

   I think “spontaneous conception” was supposed to sound like “immaculate conception”.

4. Bill
   November 17th, 2005 at 11:24 am
   

   I haven’t read the story, but I suspect the assistance done without in this case was sperm. So presumably these are the hypertime babies that would have been conceived if Wally had remembered to bring Linda flowers on his way back from a JLA meeting nine months ago. Assuming that’s supposed to be Wally and Linda; I haven’t read Flash recently and with Porter you never can tell.

   Bill

5. Scott
   November 17th, 2005 at 3:40 pm
   

   Nah, it’s spontaneous conception, like spontaneous combustion. Normally, one lights a match or applies friction in order to light a fire; in spontaneous combustion, something just bursts into flame for no reason. Likewise, normally one has to engage in intercourse or use artificial means to conceive; in this instance, eggs just got fertilized with no discernible cause. I suppose they can do paternity tests to determine who the dads really are.

   Of course, this should be a plotline for Superman rather than the Flash. After all, if his super-sperm are ever released into the wild, there’s a very good chance of them scattering and some ending up finding human female eggs, as Larry Niven pointed out so many years ago. Which is why it’s such a good thing his rural conservative foster parents taught young Clark about the dangers of self-abuse.

6. stavner
   November 17th, 2005 at 3:52 pm
   

   Boy, that Doctor sure gets busy, doesn’t he?

7. Mark "Puff" Anderson
   November 17th, 2005 at 4:31 pm
   

   I thought it worked well in the context of the issue.

   Technobabble is just one of those things that we have to deal with.

   Consider this, if they broke it down and explained it in layman’s
   terms, how many pages would you have to read through?

   Give me good technobabble over 3 pages of explanation of something
   that just happened.

   puff

8. Chip
   November 17th, 2005 at 5:10 pm
   

   It made sense to me, actually. Linda was pregnant, then lost the children. When Wally and Zoom went back in tome to that moment, Wally was able to protect Linda from the sonic boom that caused her to lose the kids. When he went back to his present (approximately when Linda was due to deliver, I presume, Linda was spontaneously pregnant again, history having been changed. It’s more of a metaphorical comment than an accurate description, but it works.

9. Chip
   November 17th, 2005 at 5:11 pm
   

   Er, back in *time*, that is. And add a parenthesis after “presume” and before the comma. Oops.

10. Scott
    November 17th, 2005 at 6:01 pm
    Official Comment

    I think the scene made sense in the context of the comic. Linda regained the twins that she had lost. I can accept that, I even like that, I just thought the explanation was painful to read. Just call it the Speed Force and be done with it. Lose the technobabble.

11. Aine
    November 19th, 2005 at 6:09 am
    

    Hold on a sec - “if his super-sperm are ever released into the wild, there’s a very good chance of them scattering and some ending up finding human female eggs, as Larry Niven pointed out so many years ago”??? What the f-??? How could I miss this?!

12. Mark "Puff" Anderson
    November 19th, 2005 at 12:43 pm
    

    Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex

    or vice versa…

    was the name of the article.

    You can probably find it online somewhere.

    puff

13. Carl
    November 19th, 2005 at 4:26 pm
    

    Aine, Scott is referring to Larry Niven’s funniest essay, “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex”. Niven himself has put it online here.

14. Christopher J. Arndt
    November 23rd, 2005 at 10:01 am
    

    Comment 8 makes perfect sense to me. That’s the movie “Frequency”. Comment 10 doesn’t quite.

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