What would a omni scientist not bound by time and space research about?

[S@tanicoaldo]

So picture a scientist who works on every field there is, he was building a time machine and after an accident he finds himself outside the normal flow of time space.

Being able to go anywehre and at any time.

What would he do with limtless time, resources and subjects?

Time travel works like this in this universe:

There is a main timeline, any alteration creates an alternative universe, these alternative universes exist only with time travel and are very unstable not lasting long and crumbling after a random amount of time.

But he can use these temporary alternative timelines to experiment on any field from social sciences to quantum physics and cosmology.

What would he do?

[Mastikator]

Go aaaaaaaaaaaaaall the way back to the start of the universe and figure out how that happened. I mean aaaaaaaaaaall the way back, if it goes further back then keep going, keep going until it doesn't go back any more.

[The Glyphstone]

If he has limitless time, I assume the answer is 'literally everything'.

[Jay R]

Why science in general, and physics in particular, are all wrong, given the evidence that there is one person not bound by time and space.

[Lord Raziere]

Anything they want I assume. the beginning of the universe, the end of it, how to kill Hitler without creating a cliched timeline where his death somehow makes things worse, how to make sure the Twilight books never becomes popular, why the heck anyone made the voynich manuscript, gathering all the lost information from the library of Alexandria, why the duck-billed platypus, things like that.

[S@tanicoaldo]

Oh yeah I forgot to say that he's a mad scientist with few ideals of what is a good ethical behavior.

He's amoral and also an inventor.

[gkathellar]

Prokaryotic cell division in zero gravity conditions.
Caramelization measured in units of Planck time.
The chemical composition of material expelled by a white dwarf supernova event.
What's the deal with lightning, anyways?
The cosmic censorship hypothesis.

Which is to say that scientific research tends to be intrinsically limited in scope and focused on very specific unsolved problems. If your character can pretty much do anything, you should base it off of his personality and ambitions, because he can do anything.

[Jay R]

The question assumes that all people have the same curiosities and emotions. The following was added:


Oh yeah I forgot to say that he's a mad scientist with few ideals of what is a good ethical behavior.

He's amoral and also an inventor.

But even that has no clue about his interests and goals.

He might gain an interest in human life, like Dr. Manhattan's. "I think perhaps I'll create some."

Perhaps he'll study conquest, so he can have, as the initial post suggsts, "limitless subjects".

Or he might just get so bogged down in how snowflakes occur that he spends infinite time and resources cataloging them all.

You've given us no information to guess with.

[S@tanicoaldo]

I'm just looking for interesting scenarios to use in my game. :smallbiggrin:

[Anymage]

Relatively early on, biology/medicine and robotics. Specifically human augmentation, and specifically specifically how to get around aging. All the hypothetical time in the world is nice, but less effective if your body is still wearing out or you still have to contend with biological shortcomings of the brain.

Medium term, cosmic level issues. Partially because that's where you see the energies to get some really interesting physics happening. Partially because personal immortality can still be stymied by something like a supernova or vacuum decay.

After that, he'll tend to switch between being obsessively focused on whatever pointlessly minute issue strikes his fancy (because he already has all the time in the world, a deep understanding of physics, and step one likely made him deeply inhuman), and trying to meddle with large scale social structures (because this being an RPG character you're going to want to make a point about how free will and the human spirit are not easily broken down and quantized, and because this sort of meddling will give him much more reason to engage the PCs than something like trying to synthesize ever heavier elements would.)

[Cluedrew]

If he has limitless time, I assume the answer is 'literally everything'.That is what I am going for too. There might be a rush of research on longevity at the beginning so he can make use is new resources, but that is probably the only specialization (outside of personal interests) that you will see. Thirst for knowledge seems to be the only thing driving this individual so it will be knowledge and setting up the ground work for more knowledge.

Time and space travel might be a personal interest, unless it was just a means for something else, so that might be one. Other than that he might just head straight for the biggest and most unanswerable questions. "Does any being exist outside normal physics, possibly preceding the known universe's origins or transcending its boundary's, in such a way that it could still by some means create observable effects?" Besides Myself.

[Jay R]

Since he now knows that it's possible to transcend the limits of time and space, I expect him to try to understand how that works - to figure out the new limits (and possibly how to transcend them in turn), and how to prevent others from transcending the physical limitations of the universe.

[Shamash]

I imagine a mad scientist would be involved in all sorts of time travel shenanigans.

-What would happen if someone tiped the nazis of about Russian winter.
-Whould the native americans fare well against the colonizers if they had AK-47s?
-What would happen if we introduce modern medicine in medieval europe?
-What would happen if we add dinosours to 21st Asutralia?
-Are there aliens out there?
-If not what would happen if I created a advanced mutant species and used it againts the planet? Would the nations unite agints the common foe or would anyone ally with the more advanced invaders?
-How would the present look like if the persians didn't suffer the plague when they fougth the Byzantine Empire?
-Africa but with lazers.
-What would happen if Napoleon never lost the war?
-What would happen if Napoleon never lost the war and had access to nukes?
-What would happen if Napoleon never lost the war and had a pet pterodactyl?
-Get all the greatest minds of our world and sit down with them to debate religion, philosophy and science.
-Get all the greatest minds of our world and force them to figth in a gladiator arena.
-Have therapy with Dr. Freud.
-Make Dr. Freud have sex with his own mom.
-Have sex with [Insert Famous crush here].
-Find out how the dinosaurs died.
-Be at the moon at the moment of landing.
-Build a house on mars.
-What would happen if the USSR won the cold war?
-Particiape on a bacchanal in acient Rome.
-Talk to Leonardo da vinci.
-Talk to [Insert famous person here].
-Figth Genghis Khan.
-Warn Troy about the horse.
-Watch the Sun being born.

[Cealocanth]

So, upon first discovering this power, he would probably do a whole bunch of meaningless shenanigans involving killing hitler, affecting history, or blowing up planets.

Once he has settled down after that, he will probably try to push beyond the limits of his current power. If he's bound to all of space and time, then other timelines and other realities are off limits to him, so he may be researching the beginning or end of the universe to figure out how to go further than he can already go.

Once he's bored of that, I imagine he might decide that this universe is boring and to make his own. Simulating a universe, growing lifeforms of his own design inside of them, and generally being a god. A world where the laws of physics are determined entirely by the mad scientist would be an odd one indeed.

[ka_bna]

- How do you reverse entropy?
- What is beyond the border of space?
- What is beyond the beginning or ending of time?
- What is love/happiness/despair/...?
- How can he create clones of himself so he can research more of unlimited research?
- If he would know everything, could he predict everything in the future?
- Is there such a thing of free will?
- Can you travel faster than light?
- What's inside a black hole?
- Do white holes exist?
- Are there other people with his capabilities?
- How can he prevent other people gaining his capabilities? (may or may not result in destroying mankind except for himself)
- How can he prevent other people who already have his capabilities from using them (on him)?

Also, obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/505/

[IFenrys]

Assuming I had to pick one thing, and can't just say "All of it forever"? Evolutionary theory.

After all, given infinite time and resources, one could follow evolutionary paths to just about every conclusion they could ever offer (and likely a few they couldn't). That's a lot of really out-there biology to study (and perhaps adapt for utility down the line).

[gkathellar]

That's a lot of really out-there biology to study (and perhaps adapt for utility down the line).

Cicadas wings are covered in microscopic spikes that literally cut up microorganisms.

Nature is cool.

[Epimethee]

I think i would play a bit with his morality, a bit like in the surprisingly excellent The Good Place. The show as also good ideas about short term alternate reality.

Think of your player like the Architect of the place. It could go a bit like this: first the technologicals shenanigan and the discoveries of untold scientific wonders, as proposed by very clever people above, that increase his knowledge and power but are somehow boring. Somewhere, the guy start playing with humans or any kind of race. Maybe he feel Lonely, maybe he will fell lonely during the play.
In any case he start playing with history. And history resist. Try to play it intimately: sometimes he need a little fact to go his way and this little fact implies a single decision by a single personn.
So your player, as omnipotent god, has to engage with the everyday live of normal people.
Say one personn stop the launching of a nuclear missile. So your player want to change his mind. He try to make him colder by playing with his childhood. But that does’nt Change the result. So he understand that some friend is important to shape his morality and try to supress it. But the guy never reach the same post and leave the army. And so on, as he never exactly grasp what the human think. That’s not a really great example but my point is to stress the set of actions and consequences that your player should start more or less unwillingly to understand. Make him engage with the people, make him talk with them, fell how his playground has a deeper meaning for the people he play with.

It may be a good way to challenge your player about the morality of his character and to use his own experiment in unexpected ways.

[PastorofMuppets]

I assume he’d eventually research everything within these branches of time. Inevitably some time splinters will contain beings with intellect and ability like his who will come after him in attempts to usurp the prime time line with their own. Dodging attempts on his life by these others as well as alternate versions of himself from possible futures should keep things interesting.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Go aaaaaaaaaaaaaall the way back to the start of the universe and figure out how that happened. I mean aaaaaaaaaaall the way back, if it goes further back then keep going, keep going until it doesn't go back any more.

Small problem; time itself was created in the big bang too, at least in theory. You need to be able to step outside of time altogether for that one.

[Jay R]

Small problem; time itself was created in the big bang too, at least in theory. You need to be able to step outside of time altogether for that one.

The thread title specifically refers to "a omni scientist not bound by time and space".

[Carolus]

Traveller's "Grandfather" Yaskoydray would be a good example of this. Yaskoydray is an ancient allien smart enough to not only become immortal, he created entire races just to be able to run more experiments. He is basically responsible for the creation any intelligent life in the known universe. The guy created his own pocket universe when he wanted some peace and quiet.
Yaskoydray comes as close to godhood as science can get you.

[Geddy2112]

Well, Rick Sanchez is somewhat bound by time, but not by space and he researches ways to become a pickle.

[Andor13]

What would he do?

Eventually? Go mad.

He's a functional solipsist, a God whose work won't stay put, a fintie mind with infinite learning potential.

He might go sane again at some point, but not in any sort of human way.

[Rynjin]

Eventually? Go mad.

He's a functional solipsist, a God whose work won't stay put, a fintie mind with infinite learning potential.

He might go sane again at some point, but not in any sort of human way.

Relevant:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gwo6O8wYJBQ

[Andor13]

Relevant:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gwo6O8wYJBQ

I admit was thinking of him when I posted. It's a similar enough story, but without the experimentation and ultimate powerlessness to really twist the knife.

[Personification]

Invent a new type of screwdriver? It's like batman's toolbelt, but a screwdriver, and sonic!
http://i1179.photobucket.com/albums/x393/likwidsolutions/Shows/Doctor%20Who/Doctor%20Who%20S6/Remember.jpg