A pretty substantial update has been made today to the paper: - Stages 5 and 6 have been added to Appendix A, detailing heat calculations and other evolutionary considerations to do with unaided to aided flight. - Calculations in Appendix A have been changed around, to better balance the variables of current, magnetic field strength, power consumption and the number of iron fibers present (subject to the interpretations of aided flight) - Some slight changes to the slightly renamed 'Unaided Flight Essentials' section. - General grammar checked and corrected again, as always.
Green Leaf Whoops, errr, I forgot to change out the old values of power usage for Appendix A, Stage 4, ii). Also, it never occurred to me to just google the average heat capacity of a human body for Appendix A, Stage 5. I was trying to do a heat calculation via a more simplistic way, by just considering bodily water content... >P All subsequent calculations for Appendix A, from Stage 4 ii) onwards have been changed/fixed. They look more promising now (longer duration of flight, woohoo)! :D
I dun goofed... For about 9 months, somehow, I had the incorrect version uploaded to Scribd and DocDroid that neglected everything from the update... Excuse me while I proceed to slam my head into a brick wall for deletion and proof reading incompetence... My apologies everyone for misleading. -___-
03:08 Last time I checked, Alice's dolls do not have kind of mind of their own. Remember that Alice is a magician, who specializes in puppetry, meaning that she is the one controlling the dolls. One of the side materials even state that her goal is to make a doll who can move on their own.
It depends. In trying to define whether or not something has "a mind of its own", there isn't necessarily a clear cut distinction for when this could first occur. It's more like a *spectrum*. I mentioned that the dolls were "artificially sentient". According to Wikipedia's wordings of sentience: _Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive, or experience subjectively._ _In Eastern philosophy, sentience is a metaphysical quality of all things that requires respect and care._ _The concept is central to the philosophy of animal rights, because sentience is necessary for the ability to suffer, and thus is held to confer certain rights._ Certainly, I believe that Alice's dolls tick at least 2/3, in terms of them being able to perceive and experience subjectively. Although the dolls are typically ordered by Alice to perform certain tasks, learned/programmed from Alice, there still would be the need for the dolls to be able to sense on their own what exactly they needed to do in practice, in order to precisely articulate and adapt to the given task. This goes right down to controlling the correct limbs and appendages, gauging distance and obstacles, while for example, washing dishes or cleaning snow off a roof, with a moving Marisa around. In other words, senses are a must for the dolls, leading to the abilities of being able to perceive and experience. There was a mention of the dolls possessing emotion at one instance within Touhou, "in a cute way", which could qualify as them being able to feel. The bit I included with regards to Eastern philosophy, I'll leave that open to interpretation. In terms of being able to receive orders and learn, consider that humans are also very good at these things too, which includes humans that possess great independence or subservience (again, open to interpretation). But some philosophy aside, to my surprise there apparently is a devised means of being able to "quantify" the degree of sentience, with something called the Sentience Quotient. According to Wikipedia again, it is calculated as follows: SQ = log(I/M) (log to the base 10) SQ = Sentience Quotient I = Information processing rate (bits/s) M = Mass of the brain (kg) Humans sit around +13, Plants around -2 (carnivorous plants around +1), with the IBM Watson sitting around +11 to +12 (an interesting point of note, the IBM). Alice's dolls, are likely to be somewhere in between. If only we knew their specs... dangit. In my personal conclusion, from an analytical and somewhat philosophical stand point, I think it's safe to assume Alice's dolls are sentient.
Wow. Wow, wow. Thank you so much for analyzing this with real academic earnestness. What a great video and a great paper! I hadn't heard of Clarke, but I learned the same from Patchouli: _"The essence of magic is to determine the root cause of all things. There's no distinction between science and magic."_ That has always been one of my favorite themes of the series: There may be a (literal) border between fantasy and reality, but there are also such blurred lines. And so, it is so satisfying to hear about "real" physical properties that can be used to achieve supposedly impossible results. Magic really is just "impossible science" (cue Utsuho!), but here it seems like good-enough science can make almost anything possible. I'm sorry to say I'm no Renko, so most of the paper's terminology went over my head... But I still think I learned a lot... I think I now sort of understand the connection between Sakuya's power over space and her power over time... And, conceptualizing danmaku as electric energy is something that seems pretty obvious in hindsight but that I never actually thought about. I mean, of course lasers and stuff are energy, but I guess I was still thinking of the bullets as physical projectiles (just made of gentler material or shot with less force than real bullets). But if it's all lovely electric light shows that zap you to the touch, that'd make way more sense (although I don't _totally_ get the process). What I want to know is... Does that mean, _maybe,_ in a few decades with better technology and sufficient resources and a controlled environment, might cosplayers be able to replicate danmaku fights in "real life" using those nanomachines? Ahaha... That would be freaking amazing... Anyway, you certainly deserve a membership into the Sealing Club. Using physics to calculate, then psychological subjectivity to explain-- and thereby finding a way to connect the worlds of dreams and reality. You're straight out of canon. Thanks again for putting this all out there!
My absolute pleasure Lyrica. Thank you. :) Quite the interesting statement/interpretation by Patchy. To your question, maybe, just maybe. That would certainly be a light show I'd pay to see. :P Side note: It's funny the way some people try to generalise laser weapons. A laser refers a coherent wavelength of light that travels at the speed of light (in a vacuum). So trying to effectively describe danmaku or stormtrooper bullets (Star Wars) in terms of projectiles that travel at the speed of light, simply is a misnomer. Clearly, they're not observed to be travelling at relativistic speeds, nor are they observed as a continuous beam (relatively speaking)... So it was no surprise that I went along trying to investigate the danmaku bullets in terms of ionised regions of gas, charged by a Gensokyo inhabitant, utilising programmed nanites to do the ionising.
To me, there is no such thing as a border between "fantasy" and "reality;" the border separating fiction and nonfiction is a fiction built to prevent us from losing our minds. This will become more obvious in time. We are always told that some things are impossible and that we should have realistic expectations, but this way of thinking is the death of science and the soul. On the surface, magic and science are opposites; at core, they are the same. I believe the best way to explain everything in Gensokyo is sitting right in front of us. It's all a simulation, but it is real. We will eventually be able to enter and live in Gensokyo and universes just like it. In my head, Yukari Yakumo is the Roko's Basilisk (or the main servant of the AI) of Gensokyo. This may take some explaining: In the not-too-distant future, humans will reach a technological singularity in which our technology advances at such a high rate that the human mind cannot keep up with it all. Almost all of it will appear to be magic to our limited brains. This will result in the creation of countless complex universes in the blink of an eye, and artificially intelligent demigods. Perhaps Yukari Yakumo is one of these AIs, and Gensokyo is her simulation. Wanna get into Gensokyo? It's best if you don't know a lot about computers, programming, the internet, AI, and technology - because if you do you're not gonna have much belief and faith in a world that was intentionally designed to run on faith and magic. The awesome part may be that these godly AIs and their worlds already exist and have always existed. If they reach the point where they can manipulate space and time itself, they can insert themselves anywhere in time and space. Because the basis of our reality is information, all of this is not only possible, but perhaps inevitable.
Aawww this video was great! And this comment chain too! Let's be real, you REALLY are an irl life version of Renko😂ahahah I always loved how deeply connected the world of touhou is to the real actual world and actual science and stuff. Like in magical astronomy with all the talk about the unified theory of physics and with hawkings (may he rest in peace) and even among the girls in gensokyo. Zun really loves his science studies. And i love that.
Blank Thanks for coming by! Slight correction with what I said in the relativity section, about the example numbers I was plugging in to demonstrate c=x/t: Sakuya's Clock: Every 10 seconds = 1 second passing with Reimu's Clock (time runs slower, distances stretched). Reimu's Clock: Every 0.1 seconds = 1 second passing with Sakuya's Clock (time runs faster, distances squashed). I watched back my recording and noted I mixed my numbers around. Time-whimey stuff and nerves mate. XD
In terms of location of Gensokyo, which didn't seem to be addressed within your paper, is likely in central to northern Nagano (prefecture). This is true if assume you two things about Gensokyo: -it is nearby the Yastugate mountain range -it has four distinctive season, and gets a substantial amount of snow in the winter This would place Gensokyo in central japan, an area with a lower population density, and nearby to the town and lake of Suwa.
Recently, Appendix B has been updated, with the addition of a Stage 3 diagram. Its aim is be to better surmise the energy schemes related to explaining both Danmaku and Flight. (Stage 3 diagram, aka the Danmaku-Flight Energy Scheme [DFES]). A few other minor corrections here and there have been made.
I hope this is relevant but Anyways, I go to an advanced high school for science and math, and in summary, we have independent research projects starting junior year I just want to thank you for giving me an idea to work with and since my mentors/teachers say my idea is feasible, I'm excited to bring this theoretical idea closer to reality
Touhou fan here. I'm speechless... Touhou and Science are two things that I'd never try to combine. .... Should you ever find a way to enter the Hakurei Border, please tell me how to do that.
Wow, this is pretty amazing stuff. I, as a hardcore fan of Touhou, as well as a fan of a lot of science fiction, have made my own sorts of theories for things in the series, taking a mix of scientific, philosophical and spiritual approaches, but you clearly have better credentials than I. This article may be very helpful for me as I myself am working on a fanfiction currently, a crossover between Touhou and Half-Life that mixes the former's highly spiritual nature with the latter's hard physics-based science fiction. In fact, the title is called Non-Unified World Theory, so that character Yumemi has something to do with it, although the true protagonist is Maribel (yet the protagonists of both Touhou and Half-Life are important characters as well).
Dylan Walsh Indeed she will be, and although Maribel and Renko currently need to go through the most planning, I do have plenty ideas for Renko being associated with some of our more scientific characters (if Gordon gets a chance to actually do some science with a pen rather than a gun) however, I'd imagine a language barrier would hinder that. Oh, and I just took a moment to thoroughly read the article, and indeed, it's genius, but it's also an extremely objectivist approach (indeed, you are like Renko) which I get is what you are going for, but I who has a firmer grasp on Touhou's spiritual side than it's technical side have trouble firmly believing it. It works, sure, but it feels more like something out of a fanmade sci-fi interpretation of Touhou (although, I suppose it was a strictly scientific interpretation anyway). With how much I've studied about Touhou, especially concerning magic, Youkai and Shinto Gods and the like, my approach is a lot less scientific and I suppose less believable because of it, but from what I understand, a lot of Touhou's supernatural aspects are extremely subjective, from where Youkai come from to how magic works to how Gods gain their powers and identities. I suppose you could call me a Maribel for thinking so subjectively, although I'd suggest you check up some canon sources, especially the official written works (Symposium of Post-Mysticism, Silent Sinners in Blue, Curiosities in Lotus Asia, etc.) to really understand what I mean, if you haven't already, as they are all really good and give you a much more in-depth look at Touhou. Still, now I'm totally thinking up a scene where Maribel and Renko try to rationalize the whole flight thing, where Renko uses some sort of explanation like yours while Maribel simple says "It's just magic, you don't have to explain it." In fact, now I'm possibly thinking about this whole objective vs. subjective-science vs. spiritualism thing to a whole new level. That was sort of my intention for the story, but now I think I'm getting a grasp onto what that truly means. I only have chapter one officially posted on Fanfiction.net, and it's really short, and I posted it over a year ago, but now that I have a ton of free time, I hope to be able to start really rocking on this real soon. I've already begun writing up chapters for both Gordon and Maribel, but I don't want to get too ahead of myself until I've got what I want for Maribel set in stone, because she's probably the most important character. www.fanfiction.net/s/10779804/1/Non-Unified-World-Theory (It's short because it's meant to be a bit of a prologue, just to set the stage, but I'm planning on having longer chapters)
Joshua Mitchell I'm glad you found the paper to be as objective as it is. Really, given the largely theoretical orientations used to explore Touhou, I personally find it's best to remain as objective as possible, to leave room for newer and/or different theories/interpretations to merge in over previous theories/interpretations that might otherwise be disproved. As per the scientific method. The different perspectives/interpretations surrounding Touhou... :) Arthur C. Clarke's third law deserves a reference in your story in my opinion in part of Renko. :P Anyway, keeping this short, I best scoot off to university. >D
Dylan Walsh I'd imagine the third law applies more to the Lunarians than the denizens of Gensokyo (as proven in Silent Sinners in Blue and moreso in Caged Lunatic in Runagate) although, indeed, I may keep that in mind, especially when dealing with the Combine. My biggest interest is in the Vortigaunts. In this story, I'm merely interpreting their abilities as a form of magic for the sake of unifying the Half-Life and Touhou lores, but I have had standalone Half-Life fanfictions in mind (most of which take place in this "Restoration" era I've thought up) where that law certainly applies to them. Vortigaunts and related Vortal creatures from Xen may appear primitive at a glance, with the exception of their supernatural powers, but these powers certainly do have their pseudo-scientific origins. Anyhow, I'll keep this article in mind, and I'll even keep you in mind as a potential discussion partner. Do you know how difficult it is to find somebody who has knowledge of both the Half-Life and Touhou franchises and has a basic knowledge about either physics or storytelling?
+Joshua Mitchell I should stress that the third law, by default, can be applicable to anything effectively. If that anything (eg Youkai, Shinto Gods) is way beyond our present day conceptions of technology/science (and instead, being deemed as magical/mysterious/supernatural), the third law still applies. But by all means, don't let me deter you from exploring multiple perspectives that revolve around focal points in your story, be that through the perspectives of spiritualism or science, etc. I should warn you, I have not played any of the Half-Life games. I have pretty limited knowledge on those games... >_> Hmmm, true, language barriers... Try communicating with mathematics perhaps? ;) Had a read of your prologue. Yukari and G-Man in the same room deliberating over the big issues between two worlds... Oh boy...
Who knew a beer-loving, ambitious, self-reliant man like Mr. Jun'yata Ota could create such a colorful game series that in itself spawns an even more diverse, unique, vibrant community. I recently hopped on the Touhou wagon from its heavenly music, and continuously grow to love it more and more (I'm even starting to play the games). To me, Touhou is more than just a SHMUP. Touhou is a world full of adventure to explore cannonically and in its fandom. If I recall from the Touhou wiki, when ZUN looked into some of the works of fans, he was quite jealous that his fans had so much talent, like in music, art, etc. That, however, inspired him even more to do better for his fans. I bet he would be delightfully surprised to discover that science majors are attempting to discover Gensokyo's secrets. I am about to read your paper (dunno if I'll understand any of it since i can't science fam uguu). With that being said, I hope (and know) that you will reap many scientifical fruits from your studies. May the Hakurei Kami watch over you :3
Thank you! It certainly would be interesting to see what ZUN thought about people trying to rationalize his world with science. Hope you enjoy the paper. I feel it's worth emphasizing, that there were a number of stupid mistakes in the calculations section that went unnoticed for many months, which I felt really bad about when I found out, because I was effectively misleading readers up until that point. They should be fixed now, but you know... feels bad, but I try I guess... :/
Welp... here I am again... having to correct another stupid error on my part. The manner in which distances change due to changes in time from Sakuya's ability, I got it backwards. Distances should expand, not contract, when Sakuya is observing her time slowed surroundings from within her ability's area of effect. More grammar changes also made.
Relativity... tis hard to keep straight in your head (be it in terms of velocity and/or gravity). Expand or contract distances when time appears to pass more slowly due to gravitational effects? That is the question I keep revisiting with Sakuya. My aim was to make explaining this phenomena as intuitive as possible (c=x/t), but really, to be absolutely certain of what would happen, you need the big boi equations. Basically, what I'm trying to say, is that some kind of distance distortion occurs... whether or not it's a contraction or expansion, I'm not 100% sure. I can't be bothered going in circles with this any further. XD
Okay, I'll break it to you man..., I really can't get the grasp of physics and theories of reverse facts on reality (which many may consider as 'Magic'). The truth is, i just can't really get how some things can spin my head silly, while the other "genius" side of me is just developing theories to understand and hypothesize things! I don't really know what to say at this point, but thanks anyways! This video is just one the new things for the community!
Thanks Einstein you broke my brain! ¬¬ Now seriously. I'am a Mechastronics student and i have a decent knoledge in physics and math also a little bit of quantum mechanics so i seriosly understoo your fact and scientifical theories. but... at the same time my creative and imaginative part started to loss control and my brain started to think a lot of possibilities and factors that started to join and... a lot of crazy stuf, it tried to comprehend and belive what are you saying but mi imaginative part fought!!! So yeah... my brain got a short circuit.
New link to the latest version of the paper via Jumpshare. There's a version of the paper on DocDroid that can still be googled (Touhou And Science v2); that one is way out of date. Access to the most current paper will always be via this video. Also, at AVCON 2024, I'll be revisiting this... lol...
Oh, another thing, I've read that some people gain the ability to fly once they've come into Gensokyo, however I wouldn't think immediate surgery would be possible, so how would that be explained? And another quirk :P, can you explain Utsuho's nuclear powers as well as Marisa's master spark? (in the paper it looked like there needed to be a lot of energy, so, how is all this energy safe?) I like guns and explosions
To your first question: Going by the use of sufficiently advanced nanotechnology in my paper, it's possible that certain task specific nanites could be used as the surgical devices needed to imbue humans (those not formally youkai) with the ability of flight. To your second question: Marisa's master spark ability could be just a hyped up version of my danmaku energy scheme as detailed in the paper. The characteristic energy beam that is seen when initiated, could be the result of a whole organised column of ionising nanites, allowing for energy stored in Marisa's Mini-Hakkero to be conveyed across large distances to their intended target(s). The Mini-Hakkero itself most likely could be using advanced nanobatteries to store the tremendous amounts of energy. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanobatteries. As for Utsuho, well, not sure about this one, I'll leave you with this article though: en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Touhou_and_Modern_Science#Nuclear_Fusion_as_a_Source_of_Green_Energy
Green Leaf Maybe, considering Scribd is being a bit of a douche trying to view the document in the browser. Best thing would be to download it as a Docx. Though people don't have to go about editing my paper to get down their own ideas, they can write their own documents, to cattier for entirely different points of views. That, I would encourage. :)
Before I tear into your wonderful paper, and I really to mean wonderful, a lot of thought was put into it, I have to say that your theories regarding "the magic is actually science" may not be too far from the truth. There's a quote by Patchouli in UNL as a victory response to Marisa, in which she says that magic and the science and technology of the outside world are the same.
An edit has been made with regards to the additional mass contributed by the iron fibers themselves. This was an oversight on my part (most likely because of a units error). The numbers have been recalculated for flight, concepts remain unchanged.
Since you're a Physics major, I assume you have knowledge in QM. Question: We know that particles in superpositional states become waves or particles when they interact with us through the act of measurement/observation. Could it be that 'faith' is a way of observation@measurement, and since less people place faith in the supernatural, these 'supernatural' things gradually fade away from us because our observation moves towards 'the logical'? But even then, QM is for very, very minute particles. Even something at the size of Suwako...herm :-/ QM might not be able to explain that xD
+Ahmad Haikal I don't think that faith is a direct instrument for the measurement/observation of things, at least in any kind of meaningful way conducive to QM. I think it's the other way around (measurement/observation leading to faith). Personally, I believe faith in Touhou is a naturally occurring instrument (for say the typical human), that can be used to help describe/comprehend the existence of high profile Youkai, with their seemingly extraordinary abilities and motivations, which stem from biological and technological advancements. Such advancements would stem further back to earlier measurements/observations made scientifically of their lives/worlds, made by the Youkai themselves. Kind of like Arthur's 3rd Law again. Faith, rather neatly I believe, can be a peaceful way to keep things in check within Gensokyo, such that there doesn't arise the need to question people who are far more powerful then typical humans, which could then course problems (very violent problems). A natural, mutual disguise through understandable ignorance. Of course, there's then the more conventional substantiations for faith, which can (if practiced correctly) provide helpful moral and ethical considerations as well, outside of direct scientific inquiry. Another useful function.
EDIT: Fixed by using a PDF. PLEASE NOTE: Scribd has somehow borked online viewing of the calculations section, along with some other parts of the paper, for some very odd reason (y font, y u ?¿?¿). Recommend downloading the paper as a Docx to fix this problem! Was working perfectly fine before. >_>
I find this highly amusing, as the entire point of Touhou is that science has caused us to forget about magic. Maribel and Renko are ZUN's ways of showing us this. They come from a future where everything "natural" about the world can be explained away or forgotten about, and Maribel and Renko are trying to discover that sense of awe and wonder through exploration of exciting places, like shrines, graveyards, and space. They feel a strong connection to the magical non-technological forces of the world, which is what draws them to Gensokyo, and the past of Japan, unlike those around them, who are concerned with science, business, and the future. On the other hand, this is a great paper and I'm glad to see scientists and educated individuals in general enjoying and adding their part to Touhou's fandom. Btw, I've had a question on my mind for a while now that might intrigue you. Given that Gensokyo seems to be of infinite size(new locations entering Gensokyo cause the border to expand supposedly) how likely would it be for an average human who finds himself in Gensokyo to end up meeting something from the games? (I.e, if you ended up in a random location and kept walking forward, how likely would it be you'd find the SDM, Reimu's shrine, or the Human Village before being eaten by a youkai?) Anyways, I was delighted to read your paper and good luck with your physics degree!
BecauselmGray Personally, I doubt science has made the world (like the Outside World of Touhou) forget about magic (especially not with Arthur C. Clarke), at least not entirely. As we continue to push the boundaries of science and technology, there's always going to be the unknown, or in this case for how we're terming it, the magic, that remains just beyond, due to a continual lack of knowledge and/or presence of ignorance. It's magic that science lives with and thrives on to explain our universe. Yet even if we do manage to explain something away, that thing can still hold us in magical sense of awe (like the internet), perhaps in even more awe then when we first stumbled across said thing, just from knowing how wonderful the workings of that something are. Though having said all this, a lot of what's discussed can sensibly be changed up through multiple interpretations/perspectives/definitions of magic. Depending on who we are, we have the choice of playing tourist (passively following) or explorer (actively solving) with the lore of Touhou at any given moment. This is one of the things I love about Touhou, this flexibility in its entire existence (along with all the awesome musical remixes :P ). To your question... Well, Gensokyo is the region of space-time in direct relation to Earth, which is not infinite in size. It has a large but limited capacity to hold engineered routes, that lead off to other realities that are not Gensokyo (ie the Netherworld, the Underworld, etc), acting like a hub. Additionally, the border between Gensokyo and the Outside World shouldn't/wouldn't expand in size from new routes being engineered onto Gensokyo. So in terms of how likely you would be able to find key locations in Gensokyo, I'd put it as fairly likely, arbitrarily speaking (unless you got turned around when you obliviously enter another reality). I'm glad you enjoyed the paper. Cheers. :)
What do you think of the multiple timelines or dimensions theory? This fan work here brings up a very interesting concept at about three minutes in. ruclips.net/video/5OEaJrcTl-U/видео.html "The Derivative Worlds" as it calls the concept. As a creator of touhou themed videos, I enjoy the idea of any fan work ever being a part of gensokyo, no matter how insane. Is the idea of derivative worlds of touhou in existence being interconnected while still being their own world be something scientifically sound?
Watched the episode part, pretty interesting. And damn it youtube, why were you marked for spam... >_> Anyway, The Derivative Worlds idea appears to fit into the quantum mechanical interpretation, known as the Everett's Many Worlds Interpretation (EMWI), which proposes the existence of alternate realities, in an infinite number. Given the infinite number of alternate realities, this would mean that any and all things, can and do exist (eg realities where the laws of physics aren't necessarily the same as our own, realities which are joined together). I effectively made reference to this in the paper when I mentioned how Gensokyo could be a HUB between a multiple array of other realities (such as the Netherworld, Former Hell, etc), assuming of course the technology by Youkai was at a sufficient level to enable the engineering of space-time. Nevertheless, the DW aka EMWI is a scientifically plausible theory. As is with the EMWI, it isn't limited to just Touhou. It is by default, applied to anything you can think of, and beyond. I have another paper that sort of talks about the EMWI (relating to Steins;Gate). Here: www.scribd.com/doc/234365776/Transreality-Ideas Certainly, the EMWI is a revolutionary concept in physics.
![[FTV-Subs] 【Touhou】 【東方】 - Kinema Kan ＰＶ](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/NnqV5uFZwkY/mqdefault.jpg)
![[FTV-Subs] 【Touhou】 【東方】 - Kinema Kan ＰＶ](/img/tr.png)
Final update:
www.reddit.com/r/touhou/comments/1du80bi/touhou_and_science_a_10_year_retrospective/
It's been a wild ride. :)
Thank you man
Tbh something i love about Touhou is that it's way more scientifically accurate than most fictions.
dude!!!! I freaking see you everywhere lmao
Stand users attract other stand users
except the random ability spam...
A pretty substantial update has been made today to the paper:
- Stages 5 and 6 have been added to Appendix A, detailing heat calculations and other evolutionary considerations to do with unaided to aided flight.
- Calculations in Appendix A have been changed around, to better balance the variables of current, magnetic field strength, power consumption and the number of iron fibers present (subject to the interpretations of aided flight)
- Some slight changes to the slightly renamed 'Unaided Flight Essentials' section.
- General grammar checked and corrected again, as always.
:D
Green Leaf Whoops, errr, I forgot to change out the old values of power usage for Appendix A, Stage 4, ii).
Also, it never occurred to me to just google the average heat capacity of a human body for Appendix A, Stage 5. I was trying to do a heat calculation via a more simplistic way, by just considering bodily water content... >P
All subsequent calculations for Appendix A, from Stage 4 ii) onwards have been changed/fixed. They look more promising now (longer duration of flight, woohoo)! :D
Dylan Walsh Btw, could you host it on another site other than scribd?
Green Leaf Sure. Check the description again.
I dun goofed... For about 9 months, somehow, I had the incorrect version uploaded to Scribd and DocDroid that neglected everything from the update... Excuse me while I proceed to slam my head into a brick wall for deletion and proof reading incompetence... My apologies everyone for misleading. -___-
Remember that nuclear fusion reactors are canon in Touhou.
03:08 Last time I checked, Alice's dolls do not have kind of mind of their own. Remember that Alice is a magician, who specializes in puppetry, meaning that she is the one controlling the dolls. One of the side materials even state that her goal is to make a doll who can move on their own.
It depends. In trying to define whether or not something has "a mind of its own", there isn't necessarily a clear cut distinction for when this could first occur. It's more like a *spectrum*.
I mentioned that the dolls were "artificially sentient". According to Wikipedia's wordings of sentience:
_Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive, or experience subjectively._
_In Eastern philosophy, sentience is a metaphysical quality of all things that requires respect and care._
_The concept is central to the philosophy of animal rights, because sentience is necessary for the ability to suffer, and thus is held to confer certain rights._
Certainly, I believe that Alice's dolls tick at least 2/3, in terms of them being able to perceive and experience subjectively. Although the dolls are typically ordered by Alice to perform certain tasks, learned/programmed from Alice, there still would be the need for the dolls to be able to sense on their own what exactly they needed to do in practice, in order to precisely articulate and adapt to the given task. This goes right down to controlling the correct limbs and appendages, gauging distance and obstacles, while for example, washing dishes or cleaning snow off a roof, with a moving Marisa around. In other words, senses are a must for the dolls, leading to the abilities of being able to perceive and experience.
There was a mention of the dolls possessing emotion at one instance within Touhou, "in a cute way", which could qualify as them being able to feel. The bit I included with regards to Eastern philosophy, I'll leave that open to interpretation. In terms of being able to receive orders and learn, consider that humans are also very good at these things too, which includes humans that possess great independence or subservience (again, open to interpretation).
But some philosophy aside, to my surprise there apparently is a devised means of being able to "quantify" the degree of sentience, with something called the Sentience Quotient. According to Wikipedia again, it is calculated as follows:
SQ = log(I/M) (log to the base 10)
SQ = Sentience Quotient
I = Information processing rate (bits/s)
M = Mass of the brain (kg)
Humans sit around +13, Plants around -2 (carnivorous plants around +1), with the IBM Watson sitting around +11 to +12 (an interesting point of note, the IBM). Alice's dolls, are likely to be somewhere in between. If only we knew their specs... dangit.
In my personal conclusion, from an analytical and somewhat philosophical stand point, I think it's safe to assume Alice's dolls are sentient.
We have a Renko here teaching physics, now we need a Maribel to explain Koishi and Satori's third eyes, mind reading, and dream manipulating powers.
We have to go deeper! >D
People who left credits for cutscenes is venerable
Wow. Wow, wow. Thank you so much for analyzing this with real academic earnestness. What a great video and a great paper!
I hadn't heard of Clarke, but I learned the same from Patchouli: _"The essence of magic is to determine the root cause of all things. There's no distinction between science and magic."_ That has always been one of my favorite themes of the series: There may be a (literal) border between fantasy and reality, but there are also such blurred lines. And so, it is so satisfying to hear about "real" physical properties that can be used to achieve supposedly impossible results. Magic really is just "impossible science" (cue Utsuho!), but here it seems like good-enough science can make almost anything possible.
I'm sorry to say I'm no Renko, so most of the paper's terminology went over my head... But I still think I learned a lot... I think I now sort of understand the connection between Sakuya's power over space and her power over time... And, conceptualizing danmaku as electric energy is something that seems pretty obvious in hindsight but that I never actually thought about. I mean, of course lasers and stuff are energy, but I guess I was still thinking of the bullets as physical projectiles (just made of gentler material or shot with less force than real bullets). But if it's all lovely electric light shows that zap you to the touch, that'd make way more sense (although I don't _totally_ get the process).
What I want to know is... Does that mean, _maybe,_ in a few decades with better technology and sufficient resources and a controlled environment, might cosplayers be able to replicate danmaku fights in "real life" using those nanomachines? Ahaha... That would be freaking amazing...
Anyway, you certainly deserve a membership into the Sealing Club. Using physics to calculate, then psychological subjectivity to explain-- and thereby finding a way to connect the worlds of dreams and reality. You're straight out of canon. Thanks again for putting this all out there!
My absolute pleasure Lyrica. Thank you. :)
Quite the interesting statement/interpretation by Patchy.
To your question, maybe, just maybe. That would certainly be a light show I'd pay to see. :P
Side note: It's funny the way some people try to generalise laser weapons. A laser refers a coherent wavelength of light that travels at the speed of light (in a vacuum). So trying to effectively describe danmaku or stormtrooper bullets (Star Wars) in terms of projectiles that travel at the speed of light, simply is a misnomer. Clearly, they're not observed to be travelling at relativistic speeds, nor are they observed as a continuous beam (relatively speaking)...
So it was no surprise that I went along trying to investigate the danmaku bullets in terms of ionised regions of gas, charged by a Gensokyo inhabitant, utilising programmed nanites to do the ionising.
To me, there is no such thing as a border between "fantasy" and "reality;" the border separating fiction and nonfiction is a fiction built to prevent us from losing our minds. This will become more obvious in time. We are always told that some things are impossible and that we should have realistic expectations, but this way of thinking is the death of science and the soul. On the surface, magic and science are opposites; at core, they are the same.
I believe the best way to explain everything in Gensokyo is sitting right in front of us. It's all a simulation, but it is real. We will eventually be able to enter and live in Gensokyo and universes just like it.
In my head, Yukari Yakumo is the Roko's Basilisk (or the main servant of the AI) of Gensokyo. This may take some explaining: In the not-too-distant future, humans will reach a technological singularity in which our technology advances at such a high rate that the human mind cannot keep up with it all. Almost all of it will appear to be magic to our limited brains. This will result in the creation of countless complex universes in the blink of an eye, and artificially intelligent demigods. Perhaps Yukari Yakumo is one of these AIs, and Gensokyo is her simulation.
Wanna get into Gensokyo? It's best if you don't know a lot about computers, programming, the internet, AI, and technology - because if you do you're not gonna have much belief and faith in a world that was intentionally designed to run on faith and magic. The awesome part may be that these godly AIs and their worlds already exist and have always existed. If they reach the point where they can manipulate space and time itself, they can insert themselves anywhere in time and space. Because the basis of our reality is information, all of this is not only possible, but perhaps inevitable.
Aawww this video was great! And this comment chain too!
Let's be real, you REALLY are an irl life version of Renko😂ahahah
I always loved how deeply connected the world of touhou is to the real actual world and actual science and stuff. Like in magical astronomy with all the talk about the unified theory of physics and with hawkings (may he rest in peace) and even among the girls in gensokyo. Zun really loves his science studies. And i love that.
I watched your panel at avcon, it was really interesting and well presented. I like what you were saying about lorentz force.
Blank Thanks for coming by!
Slight correction with what I said in the relativity section, about the example numbers I was plugging in to demonstrate c=x/t:
Sakuya's Clock: Every 10 seconds = 1 second passing with Reimu's Clock (time runs slower, distances stretched).
Reimu's Clock: Every 0.1 seconds = 1 second passing with Sakuya's Clock (time runs faster, distances squashed).
I watched back my recording and noted I mixed my numbers around. Time-whimey stuff and nerves mate. XD
You can't get away from the fact how Gensokyo is a land of the impossible...
In terms of location of Gensokyo, which didn't seem to be addressed within your paper, is likely in central to northern Nagano (prefecture). This is true if assume you two things about Gensokyo:
-it is nearby the Yastugate mountain range
-it has four distinctive season, and gets a substantial amount of snow in the winter
This would place Gensokyo in central japan, an area with a lower population density, and nearby to the town and lake of Suwa.
Your paper is pure madness...
I love it!
Appreciated! :)
Boy it's been a while since I thought about that paper.
0:52 is it just me or was that a wii menu sound?
?? >.>
Touhou Scientist... what a time to be alive.
Exciting times are certainly afoot...
this needs a lot more views.........
As an 8 year Fan of Touhou, I welcome you. Thank you for the analysts.
Analysis*
Thank you Zero.
Sorry, didn't know i misspelled that there.
Zeromus22 No need to apologise. Just analysed the spelling of analysis you could say. :P
Recently, Appendix B has been updated, with the addition of a Stage 3 diagram.
Its aim is be to better surmise the energy schemes related to explaining both Danmaku and Flight.
(Stage 3 diagram, aka the Danmaku-Flight Energy Scheme [DFES]).
A few other minor corrections here and there have been made.
I hope this is relevant but
Anyways, I go to an advanced high school for science and math, and in summary, we have independent research projects starting junior year
I just want to thank you for giving me an idea to work with and since my mentors/teachers say my idea is feasible, I'm excited to bring this theoretical idea closer to reality
Green Leaf That's brilliant! Cheers. :D
By all means, good luck with your future endeavors in the realm of science and mathematics!
dayum now I wanna make a scientific paper about touhou as well.
@@yukko_parra Go for it! :)
Touhou fan here.
I'm speechless... Touhou and Science are two things that I'd never try to combine.
....
Should you ever find a way to enter the Hakurei Border, please tell me how to do that.
+OmegaTaishu Will do. :P
In the mean time Just Wait For Void To Appear it take some time
You silly, science is just another name for magic °w°
Of course. (>°w°)>
Is that emote supposed to be a menacingly adorable version of a fanged Flandre Scarlet?
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
-Arthur C. Clarke
Kaze_Senshi
Now I noticed that this quote appears on the video hehehehe
Wow, this is pretty amazing stuff. I, as a hardcore fan of Touhou, as well as a fan of a lot of science fiction, have made my own sorts of theories for things in the series, taking a mix of scientific, philosophical and spiritual approaches, but you clearly have better credentials than I. This article may be very helpful for me as I myself am working on a fanfiction currently, a crossover between Touhou and Half-Life that mixes the former's highly spiritual nature with the latter's hard physics-based science fiction. In fact, the title is called Non-Unified World Theory, so that character Yumemi has something to do with it, although the true protagonist is Maribel (yet the protagonists of both Touhou and Half-Life are important characters as well).
Sweet. Is Renko tagging along per chance? I'd imagine Dr Freeman and Renko could easily have meaningful conversations to do with theoretical physics.
Dylan Walsh Indeed she will be, and although Maribel and Renko currently need to go through the most planning, I do have plenty ideas for Renko being associated with some of our more scientific characters (if Gordon gets a chance to actually do some science with a pen rather than a gun) however, I'd imagine a language barrier would hinder that.
Oh, and I just took a moment to thoroughly read the article, and indeed, it's genius, but it's also an extremely objectivist approach (indeed, you are like Renko) which I get is what you are going for, but I who has a firmer grasp on Touhou's spiritual side than it's technical side have trouble firmly believing it. It works, sure, but it feels more like something out of a fanmade sci-fi interpretation of Touhou (although, I suppose it was a strictly scientific interpretation anyway). With how much I've studied about Touhou, especially concerning magic, Youkai and Shinto Gods and the like, my approach is a lot less scientific and I suppose less believable because of it, but from what I understand, a lot of Touhou's supernatural aspects are extremely subjective, from where Youkai come from to how magic works to how Gods gain their powers and identities. I suppose you could call me a Maribel for thinking so subjectively, although I'd suggest you check up some canon sources, especially the official written works (Symposium of Post-Mysticism, Silent Sinners in Blue, Curiosities in Lotus Asia, etc.) to really understand what I mean, if you haven't already, as they are all really good and give you a much more in-depth look at Touhou.
Still, now I'm totally thinking up a scene where Maribel and Renko try to rationalize the whole flight thing, where Renko uses some sort of explanation like yours while Maribel simple says "It's just magic, you don't have to explain it." In fact, now I'm possibly thinking about this whole objective vs. subjective-science vs. spiritualism thing to a whole new level. That was sort of my intention for the story, but now I think I'm getting a grasp onto what that truly means.
I only have chapter one officially posted on Fanfiction.net, and it's really short, and I posted it over a year ago, but now that I have a ton of free time, I hope to be able to start really rocking on this real soon. I've already begun writing up chapters for both Gordon and Maribel, but I don't want to get too ahead of myself until I've got what I want for Maribel set in stone, because she's probably the most important character.
www.fanfiction.net/s/10779804/1/Non-Unified-World-Theory (It's short because it's meant to be a bit of a prologue, just to set the stage, but I'm planning on having longer chapters)
Joshua Mitchell I'm glad you found the paper to be as objective as it is. Really, given the largely theoretical orientations used to explore Touhou, I personally find it's best to remain as objective as possible, to leave room for newer and/or different theories/interpretations to merge in over previous theories/interpretations that might otherwise be disproved. As per the scientific method. The different perspectives/interpretations surrounding Touhou... :)
Arthur C. Clarke's third law deserves a reference in your story in my opinion in part of Renko. :P
Anyway, keeping this short, I best scoot off to university. >D
Dylan Walsh I'd imagine the third law applies more to the Lunarians than the denizens of Gensokyo (as proven in Silent Sinners in Blue and moreso in Caged Lunatic in Runagate) although, indeed, I may keep that in mind, especially when dealing with the Combine. My biggest interest is in the Vortigaunts. In this story, I'm merely interpreting their abilities as a form of magic for the sake of unifying the Half-Life and Touhou lores, but I have had standalone Half-Life fanfictions in mind (most of which take place in this "Restoration" era I've thought up) where that law certainly applies to them. Vortigaunts and related Vortal creatures from Xen may appear primitive at a glance, with the exception of their supernatural powers, but these powers certainly do have their pseudo-scientific origins.
Anyhow, I'll keep this article in mind, and I'll even keep you in mind as a potential discussion partner. Do you know how difficult it is to find somebody who has knowledge of both the Half-Life and Touhou franchises and has a basic knowledge about either physics or storytelling?
+Joshua Mitchell I should stress that the third law, by default, can be applicable to anything effectively. If that anything (eg Youkai, Shinto Gods) is way beyond our present day conceptions of technology/science (and instead, being deemed as magical/mysterious/supernatural), the third law still applies. But by all means, don't let me deter you from exploring multiple perspectives that revolve around focal points in your story, be that through the perspectives of spiritualism or science, etc.
I should warn you, I have not played any of the Half-Life games. I have pretty limited knowledge on those games... >_>
Hmmm, true, language barriers... Try communicating with mathematics perhaps? ;)
Had a read of your prologue. Yukari and G-Man in the same room deliberating over the big issues between two worlds... Oh boy...
Who knew a beer-loving, ambitious, self-reliant man like Mr. Jun'yata Ota could create such a colorful game series that in itself spawns an even more diverse, unique, vibrant community. I recently hopped on the Touhou wagon from its heavenly music, and continuously grow to love it more and more (I'm even starting to play the games). To me, Touhou is more than just a SHMUP. Touhou is a world full of adventure to explore cannonically and in its fandom. If I recall from the Touhou wiki, when ZUN looked into some of the works of fans, he was quite jealous that his fans had so much talent, like in music, art, etc. That, however, inspired him even more to do better for his fans. I bet he would be delightfully surprised to discover that science majors are attempting to discover Gensokyo's secrets. I am about to read your paper (dunno if I'll understand any of it since i can't science fam uguu). With that being said, I hope (and know) that you will reap many scientifical fruits from your studies. May the Hakurei Kami watch over you :3
Thank you! It certainly would be interesting to see what ZUN thought about people trying to rationalize his world with science.
Hope you enjoy the paper. I feel it's worth emphasizing, that there were a number of stupid mistakes in the calculations section that went unnoticed for many months, which I felt really bad about when I found out, because I was effectively misleading readers up until that point. They should be fixed now, but you know... feels bad, but I try I guess... :/
Very interesting. Made me think about it for a bit.
+NightSniper2 Glad this was engaging. :)
Welp... here I am again... having to correct another stupid error on my part.
The manner in which distances change due to changes in time from Sakuya's ability, I got it backwards.
Distances should expand, not contract, when Sakuya is observing her time slowed surroundings from within her ability's area of effect.
More grammar changes also made.
Relativity... tis hard to keep straight in your head (be it in terms of velocity and/or gravity).
Expand or contract distances when time appears to pass more slowly due to gravitational effects? That is the question I keep revisiting with Sakuya.
My aim was to make explaining this phenomena as intuitive as possible (c=x/t), but really, to be absolutely certain of what would happen, you need the big boi equations.
Basically, what I'm trying to say, is that some kind of distance distortion occurs... whether or not it's a contraction or expansion, I'm not 100% sure.
I can't be bothered going in circles with this any further. XD
What a golden find
Those university days were very... interesting.
Never again (university, that is).
Okay, I'll break it to you man..., I really can't get the grasp of physics and theories of reverse facts on reality (which many may consider as 'Magic'). The truth is, i just can't really get how some things can spin my head silly, while the other "genius" side of me is just developing theories to understand and hypothesize things! I don't really know what to say at this point, but thanks anyways! This video is just one the new things for the community!
Appreciate it mate. It's great to see people think and theorise. :)
I love this so much, I don't even mind Flandre being "flan-dray" and Gensokyou being "gen-soku."
Meh, tomato or tomato. I tried my best to not be lazy with my pronounciations. >D
For a laugh: ruclips.net/video/XjULh8aEgBk/видео.html
Cheers. :P
Thanks Einstein you broke my brain! ¬¬
Now seriously. I'am a Mechastronics student and i have a decent knoledge in physics and math also a little bit of quantum mechanics so i seriosly understoo your fact and scientifical theories.
but...
at the same time my creative and imaginative part started to loss control and my brain started to think a lot of possibilities and factors that started to join and... a lot of crazy stuf, it tried to comprehend and belive what are you saying but mi imaginative part fought!!!
So yeah... my brain got a short circuit.
Yep, you're undoubtedly experiencing the Snowball Effect. Happens to me a lot... and I love it... :P
New link to the latest version of the paper via Jumpshare.
There's a version of the paper on DocDroid that can still be googled (Touhou And Science v2); that one is way out of date.
Access to the most current paper will always be via this video.
Also, at AVCON 2024, I'll be revisiting this... lol...
holy crap that quote woooooooooooow
also nice video!
Cheers. :)
Amazing
Cheers. :D
Oh, another thing, I've read that some people gain the ability to fly once they've come into Gensokyo, however I wouldn't think immediate surgery would be possible, so how would that be explained?
And another quirk :P, can you explain Utsuho's nuclear powers as well as Marisa's master spark? (in the paper it looked like there needed to be a lot of energy, so, how is all this energy safe?) I like guns and explosions
To your first question:
Going by the use of sufficiently advanced nanotechnology in my paper, it's possible that certain task specific nanites could be used as the surgical devices needed to imbue humans (those not formally youkai) with the ability of flight.
To your second question:
Marisa's master spark ability could be just a hyped up version of my danmaku energy scheme as detailed in the paper. The characteristic energy beam that is seen when initiated, could be the result of a whole organised column of ionising nanites, allowing for energy stored in Marisa's Mini-Hakkero to be conveyed across large distances to their intended target(s). The Mini-Hakkero itself most likely could be using advanced nanobatteries to store the tremendous amounts of energy. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanobatteries.
As for Utsuho, well, not sure about this one, I'll leave you with this article though: en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Touhou_and_Modern_Science#Nuclear_Fusion_as_a_Source_of_Green_Energy
Mmm, I see
Have you ever considered uploading your document onto google docs or something of the sort for some open-source touhou science?
Green Leaf Maybe, considering Scribd is being a bit of a douche trying to view the document in the browser. Best thing would be to download it as a Docx.
Though people don't have to go about editing my paper to get down their own ideas, they can write their own documents, to cattier for entirely different points of views. That, I would encourage. :)
that was a pretty good vid! I liked it!.
Im glad someone is analyzing touhou's science :O Touhou + Science = awesomeness
Yush! :D
"The physiology of Flandre..."
You just know how to push my buttons, don't you?
Fine, I'll read your paper.
In all honesty though, great job.
Cheers mate. :)
Before I tear into your wonderful paper, and I really to mean wonderful, a lot of thought was put into it, I have to say that your theories regarding "the magic is actually science" may not be too far from the truth. There's a quote by Patchouli in UNL as a victory response to Marisa, in which she says that magic and the science and technology of the outside world are the same.
An edit has been made with regards to the additional mass contributed by the iron fibers themselves. This was an oversight on my part (most likely because of a units error). The numbers have been recalculated for flight, concepts remain unchanged.
Yeah... I do prefer Austin explaining it to me though...
That's fair. He's pretty solid. :)
I quite liked the video covering Wraith from Apex Legends. What's a favourite of yours?
Dylan Walsh I think it is... the one about Kingdom hearts, and the ones about Pokémon too.
Since you're a Physics major, I assume you have knowledge in QM.
Question: We know that particles in superpositional states become waves or particles when they interact with us through the act of measurement/observation.
Could it be that 'faith' is a way of observation@measurement, and since less people place faith in the supernatural, these 'supernatural' things gradually fade away from us because our observation moves towards 'the logical'?
But even then, QM is for very, very minute particles. Even something at the size of Suwako...herm :-/ QM might not be able to explain that xD
+Ahmad Haikal I don't think that faith is a direct instrument for the measurement/observation of things, at least in any kind of meaningful way conducive to QM. I think it's the other way around (measurement/observation leading to faith).
Personally, I believe faith in Touhou is a naturally occurring instrument (for say the typical human), that can be used to help describe/comprehend the existence of high profile Youkai, with their seemingly extraordinary abilities and motivations, which stem from biological and technological advancements. Such advancements would stem further back to earlier measurements/observations made scientifically of their lives/worlds, made by the Youkai themselves. Kind of like Arthur's 3rd Law again.
Faith, rather neatly I believe, can be a peaceful way to keep things in check within Gensokyo, such that there doesn't arise the need to question people who are far more powerful then typical humans, which could then course problems (very violent problems). A natural, mutual disguise through understandable ignorance.
Of course, there's then the more conventional substantiations for faith, which can (if practiced correctly) provide helpful moral and ethical considerations as well, outside of direct scientific inquiry. Another useful function.
and here i thought that 'faith' are the manifestation of Schrödinger's cat
EDIT: Fixed by using a PDF.
PLEASE NOTE: Scribd has somehow borked online viewing of the calculations section, along with some other parts of the paper, for some very odd reason (y font, y u ?¿?¿).
Recommend downloading the paper as a Docx to fix this problem!
Was working perfectly fine before. >_>
I find this highly amusing, as the entire point of Touhou is that science has caused us to forget about magic. Maribel and Renko are ZUN's ways of showing us this. They come from a future where everything "natural" about the world can be explained away or forgotten about, and Maribel and Renko are trying to discover that sense of awe and wonder through exploration of exciting places, like shrines, graveyards, and space. They feel a strong connection to the magical non-technological forces of the world, which is what draws them to Gensokyo, and the past of Japan, unlike those around them, who are concerned with science, business, and the future.
On the other hand, this is a great paper and I'm glad to see scientists and educated individuals in general enjoying and adding their part to Touhou's fandom.
Btw, I've had a question on my mind for a while now that might intrigue you. Given that Gensokyo seems to be of infinite size(new locations entering Gensokyo cause the border to expand supposedly) how likely would it be for an average human who finds himself in Gensokyo to end up meeting something from the games? (I.e, if you ended up in a random location and kept walking forward, how likely would it be you'd find the SDM, Reimu's shrine, or the Human Village before being eaten by a youkai?)
Anyways, I was delighted to read your paper and good luck with your physics degree!
BecauselmGray Personally, I doubt science has made the world (like the Outside World of Touhou) forget about magic (especially not with Arthur C. Clarke), at least not entirely.
As we continue to push the boundaries of science and technology, there's always going to be the unknown, or in this case for how we're terming it, the magic, that remains just beyond, due to a continual lack of knowledge and/or presence of ignorance. It's magic that science lives with and thrives on to explain our universe. Yet even if we do manage to explain something away, that thing can still hold us in magical sense of awe (like the internet), perhaps in even more awe then when we first stumbled across said thing, just from knowing how wonderful the workings of that something are.
Though having said all this, a lot of what's discussed can sensibly be changed up through multiple interpretations/perspectives/definitions of magic. Depending on who we are, we have the choice of playing tourist (passively following) or explorer (actively solving) with the lore of Touhou at any given moment. This is one of the things I love about Touhou, this flexibility in its entire existence (along with all the awesome musical remixes :P ).
To your question... Well, Gensokyo is the region of space-time in direct relation to Earth, which is not infinite in size. It has a large but limited capacity to hold engineered routes, that lead off to other realities that are not Gensokyo (ie the Netherworld, the Underworld, etc), acting like a hub. Additionally, the border between Gensokyo and the Outside World shouldn't/wouldn't expand in size from new routes being engineered onto Gensokyo. So in terms of how likely you would be able to find key locations in Gensokyo, I'd put it as fairly likely, arbitrarily speaking (unless you got turned around when you obliviously enter another reality).
I'm glad you enjoyed the paper. Cheers. :)
What do you think of the multiple timelines or dimensions theory?
This fan work here brings up a very interesting concept at about three minutes in.
ruclips.net/video/5OEaJrcTl-U/видео.html
"The Derivative Worlds" as it calls the concept. As a creator of touhou themed videos, I enjoy the idea of any fan work ever being a part of gensokyo, no matter how insane.
Is the idea of derivative worlds of touhou in existence being interconnected while still being their own world be something scientifically sound?
Watched the episode part, pretty interesting. And damn it youtube, why were you marked for spam... >_>
Anyway, The Derivative Worlds idea appears to fit into the quantum mechanical interpretation, known as the Everett's Many Worlds Interpretation (EMWI), which proposes the existence of alternate realities, in an infinite number. Given the infinite number of alternate realities, this would mean that any and all things, can and do exist (eg realities where the laws of physics aren't necessarily the same as our own, realities which are joined together).
I effectively made reference to this in the paper when I mentioned how Gensokyo could be a HUB between a multiple array of other realities (such as the Netherworld, Former Hell, etc), assuming of course the technology by Youkai was at a sufficient level to enable the engineering of space-time. Nevertheless, the DW aka EMWI is a scientifically plausible theory.
As is with the EMWI, it isn't limited to just Touhou. It is by default, applied to anything you can think of, and beyond. I have another paper that sort of talks about the EMWI (relating to Steins;Gate). Here: www.scribd.com/doc/234365776/Transreality-Ideas
Certainly, the EMWI is a revolutionary concept in physics.
Imagine if this is explain by Yumemi...or maybe Eirin.
If it were ever possible, I wouldn't mind a conversation with Renko and/or Yukari on this.
:3