(no subject)

[steelandtemper]

Satisfy my curiosity.

[Hello to you too, Cortana.]

How many of you are from Earth in the late 20th or early 21st century?

[It's just such a random time to be from!]

Comments

[credit_not_blame]

I am! So are Ace and Elle, unless Elle is keeping some really weird stuff from me.

[It's not out of the realm of possibility! The lives of Garou and Bastet are weird.]

oh damn paid expired

[steelandtemper]

Based on network traffic [you can take the girl out of the computer, etc.] I'm expecting a cluster at that point and I don't see any reason for it.

[Poor Cortana, can't see the fourth wall.]

[zerg_rush]

I've never even been to Earth. And it just rolled over to the 26th century where I'm from.

[cachedout]

This is a crime. Listen, we figure out how to go Earth one of these days and I'm taking you and the scruffy magic guy out for noodles.

[slowmotionbuscrash]

Why?

[steelandtemper]

There seems to be a statistical cluster there and I'm trying to confirm my impression.

[She hates not being a computer anymore, this is the worst.]

[millenyal_pink]

I mean, even if every sentient being from every universe had an equal chance to be pulled here, it's still not impossible to have randomly picked a disproportionate amount from one time period. Any combination of time periods is improbable with a sample pool that large. The process could still have been completely random if only people only showed up from June 1896. I'm not sure if there's really a reason to be found.

[It's an interesting question to ask, but Elle enjoys being contrary. Your time's not special either, Cortana.]

[steelandtemper]

[She's not saying it is. However:]

Assuming that extraordinary individuals occur at a consistent rate throughout history, one would expect higher representation from times with higher human populations. The 7 or 8 billion from the early 21st century aren't a significant pool compared to the few hundred billion from my period, or the trillions from Loken's.

[diedforyoursins]

[Kaworu looks like he's genuinely considering his own answer.]

I am, usually.

[steelandtemper]

"Usually?"

[cortana vs nge, oh boy]

[ahelpingpaw]

[Filbo gives a year that's pretty much the equivalent of 2021 in his world. It's Earth, but also probably not known as that, who knows]

I dunno if it helps, though...I mean, looks like where I came from is different in many ways, so maybe that was just gibberish, ahaha...

[Hmmmmm...]

If you're trying to determine how, um, advanced our homes are maybe some general information about the technological state of the world will be okay?

[Eager to help, Filbo is, really]

[steelandtemper]

No, I'm trying to figure out why we appear to not have the distribution of time periods you'd expect from an unweighted selection.

[She's really only concerned with this world and her home world, because the others aren't her problem/responsibility.]

[unsealthecatbox]

June, 1998.

[Odd question, but it's easy to answer, so she does]

Is it just curiosity or is there another reason to ask this?

[steelandtemper]

There's no reason to prefer...let's call it the year 2000. [Since saying "the late 20th/early 21st century" over and over again is tedious.] Having a disproportionate number of people from around then suggests the selection is based on more than just a capacity to help with the problem.

[prettycoolguy]

Not me.

[ Comedy. He's doing comedy. ]

[steelandtemper]

Smartass.

[Smartass (affectionate).]

[pasthole]

Absolutely the fuck not.

[ Karkat's arms are folded grumpily. ]

But most of the humans I met before here were. I think? It's a massive ache in the cranial stalk to deal with the human calendar.

Related question: your humans number years after the martyrdom of some dead guy, or is that just my humans?

[steelandtemper]

Yes. That particular religion had a strong imperialist presence back when humanity was working things out, and it stuck.

[katzenprinz]

Ah, no. I can't say I've ever heard of "earth" being used to refer to anything besides...well, dirt.

[But looking through the rest of these replies, he's definitely feeling like the odd man out, so thanks for the anxiety.]

[steelandtemper]

[You're German, how can you not have heard of Earth.]

You're human, though?

[In case Caleb felt like becoming even more insecure while a glowing spirit lady squints judgmentally at him from his mirror.]

[cachedout]

Well, I'm from Earth.

We kind of had a civilization collapse that makes centuries murky... probably not too awful long after the Mars landing? [ Cayde makes a cheerful wibbly wobbly motion with one of his hands. ]

I am not, shall we say, a nerd.

[steelandtemper]

Oops.

You seem to have sorted it out, though.

[On account of you being a robot and all.]

[furtitude]

It depends on what planet's calendar but if it's the Earth calendar based on that dead guy, my dad and I are from 2881.

[steelandtemper]

Heh.

[Cortana finds everyone's unfamiliarity with Christianity pretty funny.]

I would expect more people from after space colonization because of the exponential effect on population, but it doesn't seem to be working out that way.

[takenalive]

'From', not originally. As I hope is obvious. [This is a joke, more or less.] I spent several years largely on Earth, though, and it was the year 2001 before I arrived on the Rig. I don't recall what year it was there.

[steelandtemper]

[Alloran's not a Covenant alien so she's willing to make allowances and not try to talk the Chief into killing him.]

Close enough. That gives me a universe and a point in time, which is the data I need.

[partydude]

Oh, I am! I am!

Do we get a prize if we are?

[steelandtemper]

[Uh.]

You get the warm satisfaction of helping the progress of science.

[talk_radio]

It's where I was last, anyways.

[steelandtemper]

Like I told Alloran, time and place is what I was looking for, so that's good enough.

[ferengineer]

24th century, and nowhere near Earth at the moment. Though I did end up in the 20th century at one point. 1947, some place called New Mexico.

[steelandtemper]

Pre-unification. That would have been in the United States of America at the time.

[tr1xx]

Not early 21st century, but still the 21st century. Last I knew, it was 2073. Earth, too, if an Earth that's kinda falling apart.

[steelandtemper]

That puts you outside the cluster. There are a bunch of people spread across three decades or so and I can't come up with a good explanation for it.

[liesdontfindyou]

2550, for me? And not Earth, either, I've never stepped foot there, only ever spent a short stint in atmosphere. I was actually in an escape pod last I knew of home.

[steelandtemper]

You're from a close analogue to my universe, right? [She knows she's right, but hey, it's a conversational filler.] War's not over for you yet.

[okayimin]

Isn't Earth that planet where there's only humans?

[steelandtemper]

[Oh hey Sis]

To a first approximation, yes.

[hasapoint]

Nope. Though I do recall there being a push to call the planet “earth” it settled pretty well as Velgarth. Damned if I know the date, either. Been a long time since there was any broadly accepted “year zero”. You’d think the end of the old world would count, but almost everyone’s forgotten that.

[scansorial]

It was 2018 for me? At least last I recall back home. Why? Does it seem like that's the case for most of us or something?

[the_hit_list]

From the way most of us look and talk, I think most of us are from within 20 years of that. Unless you’ve heard any groovy cats?

[moonlightfrost]

Early 21st was the date when I left, yes.

[ He's way older than that but who's counting. ]

[remaininghalf]

Last thing I knew, it was 1988. I did fall in a coma, though...

[wisdomreceiver]

Uhhhh my apartment is kind of...Separate? From time and space? Long story. But yeah I myself am from the early 21st century.