the Doctor (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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genessia2017-12-25 11:08 pm
guitar_hero) wrote in genessia2017-12-25 11:08 pm
Entry tags:
[video][action]
[the feed clicks on, showing him on a sofa in a nicely decorated house, wearing a green paper crown and wearing an ironic Christmas jumper. He smiles and sits back with a mug of steaming hot cocoa]
So as you may have noticed it’s the 25th and not, in fact, the 15th when this lecture was supposed to have taken place. For anyone that noticed, congratulations, papers are still due by January. But why, you mad handsome professor, you may ask, are you making us learn now. Don’t you know it’s Christmas?
Just think of it as a gift from me to you.
Now with that out of the way…
[the door opens and he looks up. Grins. He stands, moving out of camera range and then comes back with a younger man in a yellow paper crown and a “festive” jumper of his own and sets him beside himself as the younger man offers a cheerful (if slightly confused) wave at the camera]
I told you I would tell you about the interrelationship between the Christmas Carol and Quantum Physics so… [his younger self interjects with an intrigued “ooh” as the older pats him on the shoulder] Take it away. [leans back and grins at him over the mug of cocoa]
[The younger Doctor pauses as he’s abruptly deputized, eyes widening as he peeks over his own mug.]
Sorry?
[He glances between his older incarnation and the camera, pointing to himself dubiously.
Me?
[He collects himself quickly and brightens, flashing a smile at for the viewers, setting his mug down.]
Well... fair odds you lot know me already, but if not, hello, I’m the Doctor, same as this fellow, but still cool.
[He pauses a tick to adjust his bow tie, peeking out above the collar of his jumper, smiling just a smidge more proudly with that remark, than claps his hands, rubbing them together.]
[never cool, the older Doctor mouths just out of the younger’s sight, making a face]
So, the quantum mechanics of a Christmas Carole, lovely, pull that from a hat, did you?
[He casts a brief, teasing smile off toward his older self before he continues.]
Either way, fine, well, clearly we’re talking about superposition of states, not sure if you’ve covered that or not… [A quick glance at his older self again.] ...but that’s all right, it’s really quite simple, it’s about waves and particles, well, wave-particles, but let’s talk about the wave-y bit, first.
Wavey-bit. [he takes a sip] Clever.
Yes, thanks, well, funny thing about waves, they’re perfectly happy all piling up in the same spot, and while we’re pretending life’s really quite simple, they don’t much interact, two waves meet, they roll right through one another
Like optical illusions. [he folds his fingers together] They exist but don’t necessarily interact.
[The younger Doctor snaps his fingers and points toward his older self.]
Yes, precisely, like optical illusions, or comments threads.
Ha! That’s a good one.
They can pile up, but then each wave passes through the other side unaltered, but they’re nonlocal, waves are, at least when they’re alone, to make a localized wave, a wave packet, you add lot lots of waves, an infinity of waves, in fact, now you’ve got a wave that’s got a home address, not unlike a particle.
[The younger Doctor clasps his hands together, casually fidgeting away as he talks.]
Now, in terms of quantum mechanics, each of those waves is a state of the particle, a state it might occupy, an energy--a momentum--you might measure, a place you might find it...
Like the land where all the left socks go. [glances toward his younger self] You know I finally found that argyle pair we stuffed the cybermat into that one time only the cybermat was still in there. Had to chuck it right out.
[The younger Doctor raises his eyebrows at the interruption, then visible brightens--then grimaces.]
Euhh, which one was that, it wasn’t the newer sort with the…?
[He pulls his upper lip back making the goofiest sort of toothy face as a demonstration.]
With the what? With the gopher? Oh you mean the socks. I don’t remember. Well they weren’t newer for me.
[Oh that look of bewilderment.]
Whot? No, the cybermat, you know, like Bitey.
I don’t know. I didn’t bother to give it a full dental examination before I chucked it . [he thinks] It was a bit of a time. Anyway you were saying? And hopefully getting to the point?
[The younger Doctor gives his older self a peevish look, but continues, just a bit huffy after getting derailed.]
Yes I was saying, quantum states, big mess of ‘em, so, you try and measure a particle, you observe it, what d’you see?
We covered the observer bit already. [casts him a look that tells him that someone would know if someone had bothered to listen to previous lectures]
Oh, good, glad you’re caught up. [He gets a smug and-try-to-stay-that-way smile right back.] So then you lot already know you see one state from one observation, you see a particle that’s well-defined, fine, brilliant.
[The younger Doctor leans forward, smiling just a bit deviously, and raises his eyebrows.]
Which is where you’re dead wrong, of course it’s not a particle, it’s a wave-y-particle-y-thing, and it’s not in one state, and that is where we come- [He points toward his older self.] -to Scrooge.
[at first he thought his younger self was going to explain the ghosts, but this particular track he’s not entirely sure about so he’ll let him go on, sipping his cocoa thoughtfully and watching him with raised eyebrows]
[The younger one pauses just long enough for his older self to interject if he’s going to, obviously enjoying it just a little when he doesn’t.]
We see Scrooge, old, grouchy, miserly, abusive, we feel like we know him inside out right away, awful fellow, a bad person. [He waves a finger didactically.]
[mutters] Tends to keep old girlfriends in cryosleep.
...yes, let’s stick to the familiar version shall we, point is, we’ve got a read on him right off. Now, any other story takes the easy way out, tells you why don’t you get to know’im better, sure he’s a lovely fellow underneath, but no, old Charlie, he doesn’t let us off that easy, we get in deep with our Scrooge, every little bit of how nasty he’s grown to be, he’s not just a trite diamond in the rough, the bad’s as soaked-in as you could ask.
[He casts a curiously playful smile toward his older self, then looks back toward the camera.]
…’cept it’s not, because no matter how hard you look, you can only see him in one state. Just like the particle, your observation’s real, it’s not skin-deep or a misperception…… but it’s also not the whole story. He’s also that good man at the end, both, at the same time, Shrödinger’s Miser. All it takes is a perturbation, call it a change in the local potential field, orrr a few Christmas ghosts, if you prefer, and he’s knocked into a new state.
No. Not knocked. He’s just not slapped in the face with a sentimental fish and is suddenly good. The point is that he comes to a nexus, a crossroads, a potential for change. But merely a potential. He could have decided to continue down the road of being self serving but instead he makes the conscious choice to alter his own state of being --without any kind of proposed award or youu did it sticker or participation trophy. He did it because he wanted to be good, wanted to be kind, to be what he once was, and consciously gave himself almost a state of grace.
Yeah, well, a bit nonlinear, people, if you hadn’t noticed, all sort of self-fields, but yeah, fair enough, the knock opens up the possibilities, but of course it’s his decision whether to avail himself of that opportunity. The actual point is--it might be worth bearing in mind, the next time you see someone you’re sure is really awful. Maybe they really did something you can’t stand; and maybe they can be someone worth getting to know, at the same time.
No, no that’s not the point at all. [he whaps his younger self lightly on the shoulder] I mean you can’t look at someone like Davros and say, well maybe he’s worth getting to know and is really only a monster because he had a bad childhood. [which as far as he could gather was part of it, but that was neither here nor there] The point is that we all exist in this state of liminality with the potential to change one way or the other all hovering on a nexus with a thousand other factors playing into it-- and! That no one, really, is completely beyond saving. [not even very trigger happy old friends who may have tried to kill them half a dozen times over their lives]
[The younger Doctor glances at that whapped shoulder, sighs, and rolls his eyes, his voice half-hushed into sort of a stage whisper.]
Yes, I know, I was trying to make it approachable, most people’s lives aren’t always saving someone, it’s the bloke who eats your lunch at the office, or whoever dinged your motor and didn’t even leave a note.
No, it’s dangerous. You have to temporize it a little. Otherwise people might go around thinking, well he’s a nasty bloke but if I just give him a chance, maybe he’ll get visited by three cold wankers and have a change of heart.
[The younger Doctor smiles a bit whimsically at that, picking up his mug and sitting back.]
That what you think they’re thinking? Yeah, no, listen to the Eyebrows, there, definitely don’t rely on ghosts to handle social interaction for you, they’ll make a right mess of it nearly every time.
I’m thinking that some might be thinking. But listen the story is inward, not outward. It’s not about Bob Cratchit or Tiny Tim [gives his younger self’s hair a ruffle, earning a petulant “oi!”] But about how they are perceived by Scrooge, how this perception affects them and him in turn. So if you can stand back and observe yourself, you may change yourself just by the observation. For instance, maybe I shouldn’t be so shouty and try the flash cards for once. And soon you’ll no longer need the cards because it’s in here. [and he taps the space between his hearts]
[The younger Doctor gives his older self a bit of a combative look as he fixes his hair… but it’s followed quickly by a more puzzled, curious one, and then a faint smile.]
...well. I suppose it’s in keeping with the holiday and the theme of the lecture that it might just be a bit of both at once. We’ve all got something to learn- [he raises his mug at that, as though it were a toast--which it really sort of is, at least to him] -and we’d all do well to remember the best we can be is there to be found, in each of us.
[he smirks a bit and adds in the exact pitch and timbre of his younger self’s voice except perhaps slightly more Scottish] And God bless us, every one.
[The younger Doctor laughs lightly and grins at that, reaching over with his mug to clink it against his older self’s.] Ohh… cheers to that.
Cheers. [he grins wider] Right, so, that was your holiday special--
Slash debate!
[the older Doctor nods, conceding the point] --for the year. Have fun, get drunk, see you in the New Year and if you have any questions for me or me, feel free to ask.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
[he says, but really the older Doctor is not going to let him go anywhere. At least for a little while yet]
(ooc: expect answers from both Doctors)
So as you may have noticed it’s the 25th and not, in fact, the 15th when this lecture was supposed to have taken place. For anyone that noticed, congratulations, papers are still due by January. But why, you mad handsome professor, you may ask, are you making us learn now. Don’t you know it’s Christmas?
Just think of it as a gift from me to you.
Now with that out of the way…
[the door opens and he looks up. Grins. He stands, moving out of camera range and then comes back with a younger man in a yellow paper crown and a “festive” jumper of his own and sets him beside himself as the younger man offers a cheerful (if slightly confused) wave at the camera]
I told you I would tell you about the interrelationship between the Christmas Carol and Quantum Physics so… [his younger self interjects with an intrigued “ooh” as the older pats him on the shoulder] Take it away. [leans back and grins at him over the mug of cocoa]
[The younger Doctor pauses as he’s abruptly deputized, eyes widening as he peeks over his own mug.]
Sorry?
[He glances between his older incarnation and the camera, pointing to himself dubiously.
Me?
[He collects himself quickly and brightens, flashing a smile at for the viewers, setting his mug down.]
Well... fair odds you lot know me already, but if not, hello, I’m the Doctor, same as this fellow, but still cool.
[He pauses a tick to adjust his bow tie, peeking out above the collar of his jumper, smiling just a smidge more proudly with that remark, than claps his hands, rubbing them together.]
[never cool, the older Doctor mouths just out of the younger’s sight, making a face]
So, the quantum mechanics of a Christmas Carole, lovely, pull that from a hat, did you?
[He casts a brief, teasing smile off toward his older self before he continues.]
Either way, fine, well, clearly we’re talking about superposition of states, not sure if you’ve covered that or not… [A quick glance at his older self again.] ...but that’s all right, it’s really quite simple, it’s about waves and particles, well, wave-particles, but let’s talk about the wave-y bit, first.
Wavey-bit. [he takes a sip] Clever.
Yes, thanks, well, funny thing about waves, they’re perfectly happy all piling up in the same spot, and while we’re pretending life’s really quite simple, they don’t much interact, two waves meet, they roll right through one another
Like optical illusions. [he folds his fingers together] They exist but don’t necessarily interact.
[The younger Doctor snaps his fingers and points toward his older self.]
Yes, precisely, like optical illusions, or comments threads.
Ha! That’s a good one.
They can pile up, but then each wave passes through the other side unaltered, but they’re nonlocal, waves are, at least when they’re alone, to make a localized wave, a wave packet, you add lot lots of waves, an infinity of waves, in fact, now you’ve got a wave that’s got a home address, not unlike a particle.
[The younger Doctor clasps his hands together, casually fidgeting away as he talks.]
Now, in terms of quantum mechanics, each of those waves is a state of the particle, a state it might occupy, an energy--a momentum--you might measure, a place you might find it...
Like the land where all the left socks go. [glances toward his younger self] You know I finally found that argyle pair we stuffed the cybermat into that one time only the cybermat was still in there. Had to chuck it right out.
[The younger Doctor raises his eyebrows at the interruption, then visible brightens--then grimaces.]
Euhh, which one was that, it wasn’t the newer sort with the…?
[He pulls his upper lip back making the goofiest sort of toothy face as a demonstration.]
With the what? With the gopher? Oh you mean the socks. I don’t remember. Well they weren’t newer for me.
[Oh that look of bewilderment.]
Whot? No, the cybermat, you know, like Bitey.
I don’t know. I didn’t bother to give it a full dental examination before I chucked it . [he thinks] It was a bit of a time. Anyway you were saying? And hopefully getting to the point?
[The younger Doctor gives his older self a peevish look, but continues, just a bit huffy after getting derailed.]
Yes I was saying, quantum states, big mess of ‘em, so, you try and measure a particle, you observe it, what d’you see?
We covered the observer bit already. [casts him a look that tells him that someone would know if someone had bothered to listen to previous lectures]
Oh, good, glad you’re caught up. [He gets a smug and-try-to-stay-that-way smile right back.] So then you lot already know you see one state from one observation, you see a particle that’s well-defined, fine, brilliant.
[The younger Doctor leans forward, smiling just a bit deviously, and raises his eyebrows.]
Which is where you’re dead wrong, of course it’s not a particle, it’s a wave-y-particle-y-thing, and it’s not in one state, and that is where we come- [He points toward his older self.] -to Scrooge.
[at first he thought his younger self was going to explain the ghosts, but this particular track he’s not entirely sure about so he’ll let him go on, sipping his cocoa thoughtfully and watching him with raised eyebrows]
[The younger one pauses just long enough for his older self to interject if he’s going to, obviously enjoying it just a little when he doesn’t.]
We see Scrooge, old, grouchy, miserly, abusive, we feel like we know him inside out right away, awful fellow, a bad person. [He waves a finger didactically.]
[mutters] Tends to keep old girlfriends in cryosleep.
...yes, let’s stick to the familiar version shall we, point is, we’ve got a read on him right off. Now, any other story takes the easy way out, tells you why don’t you get to know’im better, sure he’s a lovely fellow underneath, but no, old Charlie, he doesn’t let us off that easy, we get in deep with our Scrooge, every little bit of how nasty he’s grown to be, he’s not just a trite diamond in the rough, the bad’s as soaked-in as you could ask.
[He casts a curiously playful smile toward his older self, then looks back toward the camera.]
…’cept it’s not, because no matter how hard you look, you can only see him in one state. Just like the particle, your observation’s real, it’s not skin-deep or a misperception…… but it’s also not the whole story. He’s also that good man at the end, both, at the same time, Shrödinger’s Miser. All it takes is a perturbation, call it a change in the local potential field, orrr a few Christmas ghosts, if you prefer, and he’s knocked into a new state.
No. Not knocked. He’s just not slapped in the face with a sentimental fish and is suddenly good. The point is that he comes to a nexus, a crossroads, a potential for change. But merely a potential. He could have decided to continue down the road of being self serving but instead he makes the conscious choice to alter his own state of being --without any kind of proposed award or youu did it sticker or participation trophy. He did it because he wanted to be good, wanted to be kind, to be what he once was, and consciously gave himself almost a state of grace.
Yeah, well, a bit nonlinear, people, if you hadn’t noticed, all sort of self-fields, but yeah, fair enough, the knock opens up the possibilities, but of course it’s his decision whether to avail himself of that opportunity. The actual point is--it might be worth bearing in mind, the next time you see someone you’re sure is really awful. Maybe they really did something you can’t stand; and maybe they can be someone worth getting to know, at the same time.
No, no that’s not the point at all. [he whaps his younger self lightly on the shoulder] I mean you can’t look at someone like Davros and say, well maybe he’s worth getting to know and is really only a monster because he had a bad childhood. [which as far as he could gather was part of it, but that was neither here nor there] The point is that we all exist in this state of liminality with the potential to change one way or the other all hovering on a nexus with a thousand other factors playing into it-- and! That no one, really, is completely beyond saving. [not even very trigger happy old friends who may have tried to kill them half a dozen times over their lives]
[The younger Doctor glances at that whapped shoulder, sighs, and rolls his eyes, his voice half-hushed into sort of a stage whisper.]
Yes, I know, I was trying to make it approachable, most people’s lives aren’t always saving someone, it’s the bloke who eats your lunch at the office, or whoever dinged your motor and didn’t even leave a note.
No, it’s dangerous. You have to temporize it a little. Otherwise people might go around thinking, well he’s a nasty bloke but if I just give him a chance, maybe he’ll get visited by three cold wankers and have a change of heart.
[The younger Doctor smiles a bit whimsically at that, picking up his mug and sitting back.]
That what you think they’re thinking? Yeah, no, listen to the Eyebrows, there, definitely don’t rely on ghosts to handle social interaction for you, they’ll make a right mess of it nearly every time.
I’m thinking that some might be thinking. But listen the story is inward, not outward. It’s not about Bob Cratchit or Tiny Tim [gives his younger self’s hair a ruffle, earning a petulant “oi!”] But about how they are perceived by Scrooge, how this perception affects them and him in turn. So if you can stand back and observe yourself, you may change yourself just by the observation. For instance, maybe I shouldn’t be so shouty and try the flash cards for once. And soon you’ll no longer need the cards because it’s in here. [and he taps the space between his hearts]
[The younger Doctor gives his older self a bit of a combative look as he fixes his hair… but it’s followed quickly by a more puzzled, curious one, and then a faint smile.]
...well. I suppose it’s in keeping with the holiday and the theme of the lecture that it might just be a bit of both at once. We’ve all got something to learn- [he raises his mug at that, as though it were a toast--which it really sort of is, at least to him] -and we’d all do well to remember the best we can be is there to be found, in each of us.
[he smirks a bit and adds in the exact pitch and timbre of his younger self’s voice except perhaps slightly more Scottish] And God bless us, every one.
[The younger Doctor laughs lightly and grins at that, reaching over with his mug to clink it against his older self’s.] Ohh… cheers to that.
Cheers. [he grins wider] Right, so, that was your holiday special--
Slash debate!
[the older Doctor nods, conceding the point] --for the year. Have fun, get drunk, see you in the New Year and if you have any questions for me or me, feel free to ask.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
[he says, but really the older Doctor is not going to let him go anywhere. At least for a little while yet]
(ooc: expect answers from both Doctors)
[Video]
One question: you're very certain about the location of this optimal state? It's an interior thing?
[Video]
[Video]
Re: [Video]
Ahh, haha, not nearly.
[He switches modes to answering Remilia almost immediately.]
Three, actually, and no, we don't, much, bit complicated, Time Lord thing, how I look like this after 'bout twelve-hundred years.
[He gestures to himself with his mug... ...then glances at his older self, smiling somewhere between sheepishly and mischievously.]
...no idea what happened to him, but, well, spoilers, from my point of view.
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[Video]
[Video]
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He's got a great head for a top hat.
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...ha! Well, yeah, ooh, we've got one somewhere, haven't we?
[He points over at his older self.]
We wore it to Amy's wedding, I think, probably still in the TARDIS, somewhere.
[...there's also that fuzzy one he had in Victorian England but he'd rather not think about that.]
Re: [Video]
Mm, ahh, yes, well, depends what you mean by "interior."
[He smiles to himself.]
A particle's wavefunction, izzat interior to the particle? Yeah, sure. 'course, as you know, the state's also decided by interaction, every interaction perturbs the state, so you could say the state's a matter of observation, too, if y'like, obviously external. Really, it's a bit both, at least, if that's how you want to ask.
Re: [Video]
[Video]
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[She's just saying, he wore it the day she almost killed him. Well, the first time in Berlin after she regenerated.]
But you both certainly can pull it off.
Re: [Video]
[He grins and waves at the camera, at that. Don't worry about Scary Cross Old Doctor, kids, Silly Friendly Young Doctor is here.]
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Spoilers.
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...which should probably be no surprise. The Doctor never much likes having the short end of the stick, especially when it comes to oneupmanship with himself.]
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Over River's video feed, it probably just looks like the Doctor's usual lack of patience with being teased by someone
besides River or Amy. To his older self, though, it's not hard to tell a nerve has been hit, even as he makes a deliberate point of playing it cool. Especially because of that.]Yeah, well, I'm sure I'll look forward to it.
[The lack of a zippy comeback might just be telling, as well. Or an effort at reviving that good Christmas cheer from the end of their broadcast. Maybe.]
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I'll get some tea. [despite that there's still some on the table, it's really just an exit for a short while]
Late in, feel free to ignore, locked to the Doctors
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Oi, it was fine, she was just being Scottish.
[He's 100% sure she could follow if she wanted to more than she wants to be antagonistic and critical for fun.]
Don't blame me for that, you're the one who's copying it.
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...blimey, that what I was going for?
[He looks back to Amy on the phone, raising his eyebrows more than a little smugly. Amy's youthful and fun and ginger, so he's really not in the least perturbed by the accusation of wanting to be like her. ...but if the only thing he managed to get was a Scottish accent and a sharp tongue...
He glances between his older self and Amy again, barely suppressing a grin.]
I mean, I've had a dodgy regeneration or two before, frankly never had the knack for getting quite what I'd hoped for, but this might set a record.