morbi:

oldmanyellsatcloud:

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hitfix:

The only bad thing about this preview of the new J.J. Abrams show Revolution is that you have to wait until fall to watch the show. Holy crap!

Find out more about Revolution and see more clips

So, apparently the premise of this show is that all electronics, everywhere, stop working.

This would be interesting, by itself. (Vernor Vinge did something similar 20 years ago in the Zones of Thought series.) Sure, you’d have to handwave furiously to justify why it didn’t instantly kill all chordate animals, which have neuron densities similar to contemporary VLSI electronics, so it wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense, but it’s an interesting enough premise by itself.

But then they jump over the line of plausibility like a clown riding a dirtbike.

@1:10

We used electricity for everything. Even to grow food and pump water. But after the Blackout, nothing worked. Not even car engines, or jet turbines, hell, even batteries.

Nope. Nope nope nope. What possible process would inhibit one electrochemical process, but not another?

We see all sorts of rusted iron in this video. Spoilers: that’s an electrical process, just like a battery. Hydroxide ions in water attack iron atoms, producing iron oxide. It has to be electrically continuous: which is why you can bolt a sacrificial electrode to a ship hull under the waterline and protect a lot more of the hull than what’s just under it.

If the Blackout has caused zinc/manganese oxide alkaline batteries to stop working, but iron still rusts, then you can just build an electrochemical cell out of iron.

Jet engines (which are mechanically simpler than car engines) stopped working? They run on combustion, which is just fast oxidation. Another thing that depends on oxidation is respiration: oxidizing ATP in the cells of essentially all life on Earth. Anything that stops jet engines should also stop campfires, instantly kill bacteria and all plants.

Oh, also:

How the fuck does that crossbow work? It should just fire its bolt right into his face.

Oh. Weird that you’d put the limbs right next to your face: reverse crossbows do exist, but they put the bow a lot farther forward.

EDIT: Apparently it’s a real crossbow that actually exists, and also looks really dumb.

Oh good, someone else was annoyed enough with this to go into EVEN MORE DEPTH.

I’m predicting this is going to be another show that just has the science-fiction and fantasy elements on the side without really tying them to what the show actually deals with on an episode-to-episode way that greatly affects the characters, or just uses them as dangled ‘mystery carrots’ to keep the ‘suspense’ up with no real intention for resolution. One of those ‘we’re hiding our relationship-focused sitcom’s weak plot by coating everything with science/fantasy’ deals.

I gotta figure out a good name for that syndrome someday.

Ahahaha holy hell, I didn’t even notice that crossbow.

My thoughts were as follows.

And this is coming from someone that liked the Mass Effect 3 ending. But getting past the whole SCIENCE problems, it could be a fun show. If an irksome one.