New Contest!

[Dabblez]

Back in November RUR announced its plans to construct a dam in Adonis, drain the Abyss, and transform the so reclaimed land into a giant, a fully mechanized kappa berry plantation.

A key part of this project converting the toxic meta-water found in the Abyss into regular, "H2O" water, a processes known as water -demetanation. Said water can then be used to irrigate the kappa berry plantation with any excess being dumped on the Wailing Waste, thus bringing much needed water to the region.

Unfortunately little is known about meta-water and there are no known methods for water-demetanation. Which is why RUR has decided to sponsor a contest.

The contest is open to anyone on Rubi-Ka, including but not limited to RUR employees and irrespective of faction - science knows no frontiers. The winner will receive 25 million credits (Rubi-Kan) and of course kudos from the scientific community.

To enter the contest, reply below answering to at least 3 of the following questions:


1. What is meta-water really?

2. How can one in theory separate the water from meta-water?

3. What is required, in practice, to achieve viable, cost-effective industrial scale water-demetanation.

4. What, if any, waste products are produced from the process and how to dispose of them.

5. What if any are the risks associated with this process.

Post your answers below. If you want to, you may add links to any supporting media (diagrams, flash-animations, etc... ).

Any questions, feel free to contact me (Dabblez) in game or via Private Messaging.

Closing Date is Friday 22nd of June (GMT).


An example contest entry (not in contest).

2. How can one in theory separate the water from meta-water?

It is a little known fact that the precise vibration from Yuttos songs can cause meta-water molecules to destabilise and eventually separate.

3. What is required, in practice, to achieve viable, cost-effective industrial scale water-demetanation.

For this to work at an industrial scale, one would have to capture and lock up pretty much the entire Yuttos population of Rubi-Ka and the Shadowlands and confine them in cages overlooking the Abyss. AN orchestra will also need to be engaged to encourage the Yuttos to sing.

4. What, if any, waste products are produced from the process and how to dispose of them.

Curiously, there are no waste products from the demetanation process as such, however there is the matter of keeping the Yuttos cages clean…


/ooc

They key criteria for this contest is ‘entertainment value’. It helps if your contest entry sort of makes sense, but in the end this is not about real science nor is it a test of AO lore. So just have fun and best of luck!

[playboyfixer]

1) what is meta-water really?

meta-water is basically just plain ordinary water, but heavily saturated with pure unrefined notum, due to the abundance of notum from the source and shadowlands, as everything originates from the source, thus partly exists out of pure notum.

2) How can one in theory separate the water from meta-water?

first off you'd have to pump out smaller quantities of the water, and somehow process it through different notum extractors, ensuring it is 100% notum-free. You could then try to evaporate the water and catch it as steam, and "scoop out" the notum dust that might remain.

3) What is required, in practice, to achieve viable, cost-effective industrial scale water-demetanation.

large tanks, modified holding notum extractors that "suck out" the notum as it passes by, and deposit the notum dust or whatever is gotten from it in tanks that can be moved quick when full.

4) What, if any, waste products are produced from the process and how to dispose of them.

that remains to be seen really, but i suppose one of the waste products could be the wildlife within the water, and they can either be processed in food if edible, or relocated to another lake.

5) What if any are the risks associated with this process.

risks might involve encountering some huge beast that was dormant in that abyss, and is very aggressive. could also be that the machinery explodes killing lots of workers, or that the adonian inhabitants mass up against us to stop the change in their habitat.

[Virta]

1. What is meta-water really?

According to my surveys in the area and laboratory experiments, the meta-water is pure H2O on molecular level, but it does manifest itself differently when applying entry-level metaphysical methods. It can be seen as having dual properties, water and liquid anger.

2. How can one in theory separate the water from meta-water?

Removing water from a substance is easy to do by boiling it.

3. What is required, in practice, to achieve viable, cost-effective industrial scale water-demetanation.

A small/large scale fusion reaction can provide enough heat to raise the temperature of the Abyss above 100 degrees Celsius.

4. What, if any, waste products are produced from the process and how to dispose of them.

There is leftover manifestation of anger, about the size of the Abyss pool, but that can probably be controlled by a couple of dedicated engineers.

5. What if any are the risks associated with this process.

The process has no risks whatsoever. From engineering perspective.

[Qwayke]

1. What is Meta-Water really?
MetaWater is not really a liquid as it may appear at first glance, but actually it is closer to a vapor. Metawater is a form of water vapor that has been super-charged with Novictum paticles, but in a manner that binds the two on a molecular level. The result is a vapor so viscous that it is possible to swim in it, as seen in Adonis.

2. How can one in theory separate the water from meta-water?
After studying the wildlife of Adonis, and the methods that they have devised to survive in such a strange enviroment, it has been made appearent some of the shark-like creatures hold the answer. After disecting a few, i experimented on the glands in the gills. i have since been able to conclude that the sharks naturally are able to seperate the the novictum out of the water with a chemical the produce in their glands. Resulting in a bit of Novictum powder, and pure H2O. They, in their lifetime, produce more than twice their weight in this chemical, while only using about 90% of what they create for actual demetanation.

3. What is required, in practice, to achieve viable, cost-effective industrial scale water-demetanation.
While the chemical that the sharks produce can be reproduced in a lab, the most cost effective way, and possibly revenue-producing method, is to collect a large number of these sharks and transport them to rubi-ka for harvesting. the excess chemical they produce is easily harvested. Altho harvesting this chemical kills them, they are not in short supply, and the extra meat cant be sold as cheap seafood to pay for the costs of running the plant.

4. What, if any, waste products are produced from the process and how to dispose of them.
The demetanation using this method is very clean, producing only small amounts of Novictum. This novictum has been harnessed before and will most likely find its use among the many hunters and adventurers of the Shadowlands.

5. What, if any, are the risks associated with this process.
While the capture of these sharks live may be risky, the rest of the process is entirely safe as the chemical is safe to handle. But, in comparison to the mining of notum, this is like making toast... only dangerous if you try something stupid.

[Agentrose]

1. What is meta-water really? Meta water has energy from dead Metaphysical pets when a meta pet is killed the remaining energy gathers in the meta-water.
no one should get in meta-water the emotional content of it touching you can effect your emotions.

2. How can one in theory separate the water from meta-water? A talented and strong metapysacist may be able to harness the raw emotion contained in the water.


3. What is required, in practice, to achieve viable, cost-effective industrial scale water-demetanation. a way to harness the emtions without killing the person involved..perhaps an AI or cyborg would work.


4. What, if any, waste products are produced from the process and how to dispose of them. no waste products to speak of unless they lose control of the emotions.


5. What if any are the risks associated with this process
The metaphysicist could lose control of the emotional energy and it could cause a meltdown and kill them and or others around them.

[Dabblez]

Thanks for all your fascinating entires so far. Keep them coming!

[MCalavera]

1. What is meta-water really?

disgusting, really!

2. How can one in theory separate the water from meta-water?

Easy, let it run through sand and after that again trough finer sand again and again and again. meta particals stick to sand and water runs through.


3. What is required, in practice, to achieve viable, cost-effective industrial scale water-demetanation.

Lots of sand. Gladly there is enough of that in the nothern parts of Rubi-ka.

4. What, if any, waste products are produced from the process and how to dispose of them.

isnt that what sewers are for?

5. What if any are the risks associated with this process.

Risks comes with anything, live with it. I mean..even a full grown atrox enforcer still have to be careful when smashing a Shadowleet, there is always the risk that the shadowleet jumps up and swallows the atrox head.

[Shonta]

1. What is meta-water really?

Out Nano Technicians after expermentation and some debate, have come to the conclusion that meta-water is common H2O that has, through being located so close to the source, altered at the molecular level creating a substance that is more then the sum of its physical properties. After several experments resulted in permanent separation of the spirit essence of the Nano-Technicians to their physical bodies we brought in several Meta-Physicist's to assist. Through their combined expertise we were able to determine quite a bit more about the properties of theis meta-water. (I fell asleep in the middle of the presentation so I cant really tell you what other properties they discoverd, im sure they will let me know of anything important)

2. How can one in theory separate the water from meta-water?

Our Meta-Physicist's and Nano-Technician's managed to work togethor combining the Nano-Technician's abilites to extract and manipulate the raw nano particle's from the meta-water with the unique abilites of the Meta-Physicist's to control the meta-physical properties of meta-water - The Meta-Physicist's would convert the essence that the Nano-Technician's couldn't manipulate into nano particle's that the Nano-Technician's could then exract from the meta-water, causing it to revert to pure water.

After going through all this effort we discovered it was also posible to get someone with the Notem Repulser perks to work with a Meta-Physicist to expel the substance and posed less risk to the ones doing so.

3. What is required, in practice, to achieve viable, cost-effective industrial scale water-demetanation.

Find a way to enhance or copy the abilites of the Meta-Physicist to convert the source into nano particle's that could then be extracted by machine and filters.

4. What, if any, waste products are produced from the process and how to dispose of them.

Notum Dust and raw Notum Energy. The Notum dust could actually be used to speed up and enhance teraforming efforts of Rubi-ka. The Notum Energy on the other hand is quite 'explosive' and could, if we can find a way to control it and store it safely, prove quite useful as a power source.
(Its also quite destructive and could maybe be used as a w_ *never mind*)

5. What if any are the risks associated with this process.

The raw notum energy was to much for some Nano-Techs to contain (only the nano mage ones stood a chance) and resulted in the deaths of several of the scientists and destruction of several of our labs.
Also the high concentration of Nano energy created havoc with some ways of reconnecting ones soul to their body after death.

[Eeod]

1. What is meta-water really?
First thing that comes to mind is that meta water is ancient water. Water from a river that once flowed in an old earth domain named "Colombia". But it probably isn’t. Who would transport thousands of tons of old water to Rubi-Ka?
Therefore I have come to the conclusion that meta-water is water "beyond" water. Think of harmless antimatter. Think of water in a fifth dimension. Think of cute and cuddly leets.

2. How can one in theory separate the water from meta-water?
Simple. Build a plant that removes one dimension, or reverse the matterness of meta-water.

3. What is required, in practice, to achieve viable, cost-effective industrial scale water-demetanation.
A big plant and guards to keep away nosy spectators. Magnets. Rope. Pure Hassium. Mirrors. Styrofoam cups. Old an greasy newspapers. A reciprocating engine.

4. What, if any, waste products are produced from the process and how to dispose of them.
That depends. If you try to reverse the matterness; no waste!
If you go for the dimension removal option, you get stuck with an extra dimension. maybe we could sell it to shallow people?

5. What if any are the risks associated with this process.
Risks? No risks! this is absolutely top safe. I've never heard of any incidents involving matter reversing or dimension removal!

[Demenzia]

There was no way I could test it directly in Adonis, but here are tha results I got through various simulations. 'Course, dat's provided tha input parameters were correct, but since meta-water is still in tha process of bein' researched, we can only hope, aye?

1. What is meta-water really?

Meta-water is a quantum incoherence dat ain't supposed ta exist, but exists all tha same, probably due to tha high notum pressure bein' felt in the Shadowlands. We also suspect, from several observations, dat tha regular amount of people reaching tha Source and shifting everyone's core on dat world and beyond adds to tha potential of causing more chained-incoherences, fueling tha process. Spikes of instability have been indeed observed during such events. Kinda like eatin' too many Bronto Burgers in one sitting.

2. How can one in theory separate the water from meta-water?

Tha fastest way would ba ta disrupt tha conflicting resonances between tha various incoherent components making up meta-water. Dat way, they could me made more stable, or at least less incoherent, and handled durin' tha couple of nanoseconds before crap hits tha fan again. Chain-reactions within a larger quantity of meta-water actually ups dat time to a couple of seconds, so it's best ta work on really really large quantities all at once.

3. What is required, in practice, to achieve viable, cost-effective industrial scale water-demetanation?

Accordin' ta simulations, one needs ta think in quantum instabilities in order ta control 'em. Since no human brain can do dat yet--
Aren't you instable enough to actually do that?
--shuddup. *coughs* Since no human brain can technically do dat, tha process would involve tha use of heavy programs wielded by AIs coded in trinary language--dat is ta say, functioning according to tha principles of 'yes', 'no' and 'mebbe'. They'd be able ta take care of tha random occurrences likely to take place about every 0.15 seconds during tha demetanation process.

4. What, if any, waste products are produced from the process and how to dispose of them?

Waste products resulting from demetanation will be a new quantum instability expressed in thirteen and a half dimensions all at once. Failure ta control it real quick would entail tha destruction of a part of Adonis due to tha sudden rupture in tha natural instability induced by non-natural means. Or tha death of tha involved workers. Or mebbe also a burp in tha Source, due to propagating ripple-effect, which would in turn revert-shift all tha cores having reached it previously (tha result wouldn't be pretty). It's hard ta tell, since it's so instable; tha potential casualty possibilities need to be rolled on a dice with thirteen and a half sides.

Tha most efficient way of disposing of dat crap afterward would be ta first keep it within a wide-scale containment anti-Faraday shield (a series of propagating devices placed all along tha demetanizeable area would help crafting it), then put in place a draining pipeline leading to tha nearest area of tha Brink, coupled with an accelerating device operating along trinary programming as well. Tha Brink usually annihilates whatever plunges too deep within it regardless of what it is, so I doubt it'd be really bothered by one more incongruity thrown full-force into it.

Alternatively, tha pipeline could also be redirected ta Scheol, but tha risk here is ta dump tha waste on people arriving behind. I doubt ya wanna kill yer own technicians, nor fill Scheol with tha meta-water. Well, allright, nobody cares 'bout Scheol 'nyway.

5. What if any are the risks associated with this process.

If yer programming ain't right, tha anti-Fararday shield might actually reverse tha process and remete... remate... reme-whatever-ize tha meta-water, along with tha involved personnel. So dat would end up in metanized technicians, which is counter-productive, 'cuz due to tha incoherences, chances of successfully reclaiming get down ta 45.7 %. I hope ya guys like ta live in danger. Or ya can use an army of bots equipped with additional QPT brain-processors, so dat they can attempt at thwarting tha effects and just be destroyed instead of fueling tha quantic incoherence.

'Course, if yer programming IS right, there ain't any need ta worry.

[Epicurus]

1. What is meta-water really?

After long and careful observation, I found an odd correlation between the ever growing amount of Rubi-Ka inhabitants reaching enlightenment and the adverse effects of the "Meta-water" on its surroundings. This could only lead to one logical conclusion:
through a (quite amazing) process of interspectral fusion, the water is actually absorbing the vast surplus of 'epeen' that is created when a person reaches those final stages of evolution (On a side note, the effect seems much larger when the enlightened person is of the 'keeper' profession).

2. How can one in theory separate the water from meta-water?

The only truly effective countermeasure to this 'epeen' is what many of Rubi_Ka's inhabitants call 'n00b1shn3z'. To the question of how one would transfer the essence of n00b1shn3z to these 'enlightened' souls there are, of course, many answers.
But because of the high level of degradation the Adonis pools and their inhabitants have now reached, drastic measures must be taken. I have attempted, so far unsuccessfully, to capture and transfer the "Essence of the n00b" into a nano-crystal (thought I can not divulge all the details, it involves harvesting the bodily fluids of an individual >level 120 who does not have a single token). I was able to upload the program, however have been able to cast it successfully only once: on a fixer in Old Athen who was at the time wildly inviting people into his organization; however because I have not been able to fully reproduce the result, I expect the 'n00bishn3z' might have already been present in this subject beforehand.

3. What is required, in practice, to achieve viable, cost-effective industrial scale water-demetanation?

My immediate attention went to the halting of this evolution, but to actually reverse it?
I would suggest some sort of a program, where one would introduce bonafide 'N00bz' to the Adonis pools in the hopes they would absorb the surplus 'epeen'. This is pure speculation though, and I would need a considerable increase in funding to test this theorem.
Because of their inability to reproduce (breeding of the 'epeen-extractors' could be disastrous) and their natural tendency towards 'n00bishn3z' (their low intelligence predisposes them), I would suggest using mainly atroxes to filter out the 'epeen'.

4. What, if any, waste products are produced from the process and how to dispose of them?

Once again this is speculative, but there would of course be a large amount of saturated 'n00bz' that would have to be 'neutralized'. To do this in as humane a way as possible, I suggest warping them to the TL3 battlestation (where they would have only a minute chance of coming into contact with anyone else, as it is completely deserted most of the time)

5. What if any are the risks associated with this process?

There is the risk that one of these 'epeen-induced N00bz' would escape. In the wild they could produce such a huge amount of 'spam' and drama as to destabilize entire forums and organizations.

[Telperion]

1. What is meta-water really?

Meta-water is the result of water mixed with Novictum originated from the Novictum Vortex at the bottom of Adonis Abyss.
When the Source became separated into two separate vortexes during the Cataclysm (a Notum Vortex in Pandemonium and a Novictum Vortex remaining at the original location in Adonis), Novictum began to slowly mix and dissolve within the water that filled the Abyss, until water became saturated with it. It then just flowed upwards through the air, ending up in the Novictum Vortex we see today.

2. How can one in theory separate the water from meta-water?

Metawater distillation should be able to separate water and Novictum, provided the Novictum can be forced into a solid or liquid state. This is without a doubt the hardest step in the process: getting Novictum to avoid going gaseous, which would make the process fail.
The Xan actually succeeded in separating Novictum from other materials. After all, they extracted Notum from the Source itself, and used the resulting Novictum in their Incarnators.

3. What is required, in practice, to achieve viable, cost-effective industrial scale water-demetanation.

The best machinery would be similar to the network of Xan extractors and refiners scattered through Scheol. By the way, the Xan probably tried to demetanate the water shortly after the Cataclysm, before the fall of Adonis. Some of the buildings, mainly the ones near the two active Incarnators and near the inactive one, probably house functional demetanation equipment. Due to considerable R&D costs, the most cost-effective way to achieve industrial-scale demetanation would be to salvage and reverse-engineer these ancient Xan machines.
In this regard, some financial effort into xanarcheology would be a safe investment. First Light Foundation has a team of experienced prospectors, engineers and xanarcheologists, as well as a competent security squad, at the disposal of companies willing to make a donation of a few billion credits (prices negociable).

4. What, if any, waste products are produced from the process and how to dispose of them.

The only byproduct of water demetanation is Novictum, and we now know the value of it. Given that this Novictum comes directly from the "Anti-Source", there is a high probability of obtaining high-ql material. How to dispose of it? Easy, just sell it!

5. What, if any, are the risks associated with this process.

The risks associated with water demetanation are multiple and potentially important.
- Failure: if the Novictum fails to be forced into a liquid or solid state, which would generate additional costs.
- High-energy process: separating high-ql Novictum from water requires a lot of energy and top-notch equipment, which is why the old Xan machinery can't be just reactivated. Equipment misconception and/or construction defects could explode, destroy said equipment and kill people, potentially even disrupting their link to the Source and to the Gardens and causing permanent death. Adonis and Pandemonium are here to remember us what happens when such an operation goes wrong. Let's never forget.
- Ecological risk: waterborne fauna and flora in Adonis Abyss has become accustomed to metawater over thousands of years. Water demetanation would mean certain death for a whole ecosystem. Consequences for airborne species and humans are hard to calculate, but they would without a doubt be disastrous.

[tokrika]

Stuff

jeez, robo! you almost made me wet myself!

[Dabblez]

Two days left!

[Badpacket]

1.

Metawater is an interesting example of the effects of Notum on time and space. The areas filled by metawater were once filled with plain water, but at a certain point in time, most likely some cataclysm, the water was removed yet left a sort of a trace, a shadow if you will. Unlike normal water, you can not dip a container and try to remove some metawater and transport it elsewhere, the mirror of metawater will remain at the same place. However if you try to swim in it, you'll reliase that it's all around you, denser than air but lighter than water, greatly decreasing the amount of oxygen avaiable for breathing. One could say that metawater is water which has gone out of phase - ghost water would be a perfect way to describe it. Ghost in that it can affect other objects, but can not be affected itself. On-site analysis proves that metawater does not have the structure of water - a water particle consists of electrons and hadrions - 10 protons and 8 neutrons. Hadrions are heavy particles with mass and strong attractive or repulsive forces. Normal neutrons consist of 2 down quarks and 1 up quark. Metawater neutrons are in fact mesons, consisting of a pair of a quark and anti-quark, same for protons which instead of a up up down configuration have an up and strange, or anti-strange configuration, making them K-mesons or Kaons. As strange quarks are the lightest, this would explain the low mass but not the way mesons can act in the same matter as barions. They disappear instantly but reappear at the same time, instead of dispersing. Any particles that have gained momentum reappear witht the momentum nulled and in their "default" position.

2.

It is most unlikely that metawater can be ever converted to water. However if my theory is correct then the momentum and position reset (which does, by the way, happen at subluminal speeds) consume an amount of notum or novictium. The mere sustaining of the strange field called metawater may consume energy as well, and any disturbances such as depth charges or explosives cause a massive consumption in energy. In theory, if Adonis was cut off from all notum and novictium and bombarded with sufficient force, the area would eventually choke on notum or novictium, whichever of these two provide the power, and as such metawater would phase back.

3.
Mining out all novictium, notum, sealing the portals and detonating a nuclear bomb in the adonis abyss should all reverse the process

4.
No waste products directly, though Adonis might be unusable after the metawater and notum is drained.

5.
Rubi-Ka is not in desperate need of water. It is much more practical to convert rocks into water or buid deep wells. However the steps proposed here would aid in colonizing the shadowland jungle and would definitely serve as a forward base in the eventual goal of mining the source.

[Dabblez]

Many congratulations to Jaymonay, the official winner of RUR's water demetanation contest. Though there were many interesting and inventive solutions provided, the simple elegance of Jaymonay's approach, coupled with the fact that nobody like sharks, made his proposal the clear winner.

Well done Jay!

Dabblez

[Virta]

Congratulations. I just have to hope he is right about it or there will be horrible consequences.

I will talk to Bazzit if he has anything suitably large to boil the Abyss water.. just to have a contingency plan.

[Qwayke]

Thank you! Its an honor! I would like to thank.... nah i will spare you guys the Emmy Awardsa speech.

And Virta, according to my research even if i am wrong the only thing that can go wrong is a few people in reclaim, and some bbq shark.

[playboyfixer]

i like the sharks -.- i got a set in my city