The Cloning Crystal: Nuke, Vapos, and Everything
Hey everyone!
This is the answer to the second question from the esteemed @rin-henricov, and today we have amazing stories about how someone found a nuke on Atmos, how they started using it to hammer nails on Condor with the safety off, and how they then spent a long time explaining to Stork that they were actually just fixing the floor, and not trying to launch his ship from a cannon to the moon and beyond without stopping. >:D
You’re probably laughing there now, but it’s actually a pretty accurate description of what essentially happens in the episode “Infinnity.” Well, we’re going to figure out how this pyramid can even be a nuke, find out why it’s the most complex artifact on all of Atmos, and also how it might be responsible for the mystical connection between the Vaposians and their terra. Without further ado, let’s stick a thumb up and head to the pol… I mean, of course, to Condor.
Activation by Solar/Lunar Light
Okay, let’s go from simple to complex. Jumping ahead, there’s no sacred or hidden meaning in this; it’s just the activation conditions and a means of control. Let’s assume that if you can reverse the copying of an arbitrary object using the Lunar Crystal, it’s logical to assume that you could copy any arbitrarily selected object with the Solar Crystal, and not just yourself. It might not sound very inspiring, but considering what we’re dealing with, it’s the best we can assume. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
General Principle of Operation
Alright, let’s move on to something more complex. And this time, we’ll need a volunteer. Let’s invite Finn and ask him to demonstrate how this artifact works. Take a look:
We see that first, Finn is hit by some kind of ray, and then a duplicate of him appears from the light. Without wasting any time, let’s say that the closest real-life analogy to this is a scanner:
In a nutshell, just as this device takes a detailed picture of a sheet and then prints a copy of it, in our case the crystal photographs the position and type of every atom in Finn’s body, and then assembles his duplicate from that scan. That’s essentially what Piper told us when she was studying one of them.
So far, everything is quite simple: imagining a scanning crystal that can create a detailed map of the location of all atoms, and then assemble a duplicate from other atoms, is hardly a challenge. If we had 3D scanners, we could replicate various objects on a 3D printer in the same way.
But perhaps someone already wants to ask me a very awkward question: how do these duplicates turn out to be alive after assembly? And I’ll answer right away: I’m not a biologist, I’m not a bioengineer, I don’t know. Maybe there’s some way to do it, but those questions are not for me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
We’ll come back to the printers, but now we’re going to move on to what makes this crystal different from the familiar objects.
Connection of Duplicates and Reverse Action
So, this time we need another volunteer. Let’s invite Snipe and ask him to, um… shake hands with one of the duplicates of our dear Finn:
Hmm… this doesn’t happen in real life, and I don’t even recall seeing anything like this in other media. What is it? :D
For this to happen, the duplicates must somehow be connected to each other in order to all feel Snipe’s handshake together. And in fact, this clearly explains why the reverse action of the crystal does not affect the original: if we assume that the crystal affects the duplicates through this connection, and that the original does not have such a connection with the duplicates, then this crystal will not act on the original either - it simply has nothing to act on it through.
And unexpectedly, accepting this assumption allows us to find an explanation for something that at first glance is not at all related to this crystal.
The Connection of Vaposians with their Terra
Yes, that’s right. Now we’re going to figure out what’s happening to the Vaposians in the episode “Calling All Domos.”
As we remember, in this episode, the Vaposians ran out of the Serpergris, which gave them life energy, or something like that, which is why they needed a new one. And this suggests that this very crystal could have been responsible for this connection. No, that doesn’t mean they’re all duplicates, of course, it’s all a bit more complicated here. >:D More on that at the end, but for now, let’s note that if we assume that duplicates and Vaposians are connected in the same way, and that this connection gradually, let’s say, consumes energy, then suddenly there is an obvious meaning in all of this. Vaposians could have once “enriched themselves” at the expense of this crystal, and now they are forced to live the way they live because of it.
Fundamental Problems
So, I talked about activation, the principle of operation, and unexpectedly suggested a connection between this crystal and Vapos. And now it’s time to tell you why this seemingly harmless pyramid is actually such a powerful nuke that all our beloved humanity with its arsenals simply stands and nervously smokes in the background. As you’ve probably already guessed, we’re going to talk about where this crystal gets the matter to create duplicates from, and where it puts it afterwards. In short, there will now be a little nuclear physics and just a tiny drop of quantum mechanics.
(Pseudo)scientific Justification
Well, for several days I sat and thought about which side to approach this beast from, and who would have thought that as a result of all this, I would just… limit myself to a brief summary of how this should theoretically work. :D
And we’ll start with the fact that most likely everyone has at least heard that the sun shines because hydrogen atoms collide and turn into helium inside it, releasing energy. Now I suggest we take a look at a more detailed description of what’s happening there:
You don’t need to stare at this picture, the main thing for us is to see that in the course of all this, particles arise from somewhere that were not originally contained in hydrogen atoms. Where do they come from? The answer: from energy.
As Uncle Einstein bequeathed to us: E = mc², or in plain language: the word “mass” and the word “energy” mean the same thing to us. Now let’s calculate how much energy we need to create Finn’s duplicate. Let’s assume that Finn weighs 50 kilograms. In this case, for the synthesis of matter alone, we need how much, how much?.. 4.5 × 10¹⁸ (4500… and 15 more zeros) joules? Wow! Just comparable to the arsenal of all our beloved humanity! For “only” 1 Finn duplicate. And how many of them were there in the hangar, who can count?.. >:D
Well, and so that Stork is calm about his Condor, we’ll have to use my hypothesis and assume that the Binding consist of special particles, bindons, in reactions with which gamma rays are not released, but all excess energy is safely dissipated in the surrounding space. And how THIS is possible, I won’t describe in detail, because here science and magic have smoothly merged into one concept up to the point of complete indistinguishability, and it is unlikely that anyone but me will be interested in it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Well, it seems I haven’t forgotten anything. As usual, I don’t claim to be the ultimate truth, I’m just carefully reviewing the show and looking for answers, connecting the most insignificant details.
That’s all for today. Bye!
