03-17-2018, 12:22 PM
Hm. Haven't seen the movie yet, although I plan to, either in the near future or when it's out on video.
Anyway, thinking about this in OA terms...
If the Shimmer were a transapient level angelnet (incorporating transap level nanobots and such), could it perhaps perform the effects you describe - re-engineering lifeforms into hybrids of different lifeforms, either via DNA swapping, or (perhaps more likely) just raw bodymodding, while simultaneously acting as a life support system to keep the modified lifeforms alive via direct artificial intervention. When life forms leave the Shimmer, the life support stops and they essentially fall apart.
As far as signals of any kind being blocked from entering/exiting the Shimmer - an angelnet could use a variety of methods to do this, depending on the communications medium. It could jam electronic signals, sabotage/destroy drones, and mess with telegraph wires of whatever sort. It could also mess with human thought and memory, either via infecting them with nanotech devices that enter the brain or using perception hacking technology to alter or erase short term memory, alter sensory information, etc.
Humans from our time/place would probably lack the tech (and certainly the background knowledge) to detect the devices doing all this, or at least from what I've seen of the previews of the film, the team entering the Shimmer probably wouldn't have the equipment to detect it.
Not saying this is how the Shimmer in the film does its thing. But it's interesting to think about how such a thing might work in OA.
Thoughts?
Todd
Anyway, thinking about this in OA terms...
If the Shimmer were a transapient level angelnet (incorporating transap level nanobots and such), could it perhaps perform the effects you describe - re-engineering lifeforms into hybrids of different lifeforms, either via DNA swapping, or (perhaps more likely) just raw bodymodding, while simultaneously acting as a life support system to keep the modified lifeforms alive via direct artificial intervention. When life forms leave the Shimmer, the life support stops and they essentially fall apart.
As far as signals of any kind being blocked from entering/exiting the Shimmer - an angelnet could use a variety of methods to do this, depending on the communications medium. It could jam electronic signals, sabotage/destroy drones, and mess with telegraph wires of whatever sort. It could also mess with human thought and memory, either via infecting them with nanotech devices that enter the brain or using perception hacking technology to alter or erase short term memory, alter sensory information, etc.
Humans from our time/place would probably lack the tech (and certainly the background knowledge) to detect the devices doing all this, or at least from what I've seen of the previews of the film, the team entering the Shimmer probably wouldn't have the equipment to detect it.
Not saying this is how the Shimmer in the film does its thing. But it's interesting to think about how such a thing might work in OA.
Thoughts?
Todd