Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

[Demarquis]

Someone could always raid human commerce...

[boldilocks]

Would Loroi warning and traffic signs and lights be in Blue rather than Red? I assume emergency lighting would still be in red, since it helps preserve night vision.

[Arioch]

Would Loroi warning and traffic signs and lights be in Blue rather than Red? I assume emergency lighting would still be in red, since it helps preserve night vision.

The warning color for Loroi is yellow.

[Bamax]

Nice.... Loroi do not copy the human tradition of associating their own blood with alarm.

Pwrhaps because blue is overall a pleasant color. The sky, the ocean, both blue and pleasant to look upon.

Yellow? Fire. Explosions. Beams of death.

Yeah... I get it... I think.

[Cthulhu]

Nice.... Loroi do not copy the human tradition of associating their own blood with alarm.

Maybe they actually like the sight of blood? The depiction of a pile of skulls seems to be an acceptable interior decoration, even though Alex doesn't appreciate its artistic value.


I hope that you are not too busy with something and can answer a question:
Is the Emissary on board of the Prophet's Reason inside its computer systems? Or maybe one of the containers on the underside is a dedicated Historian computer that the personality construct runs on?

[Arioch]

Nice.... Loroi do not copy the human tradition of associating their own blood with alarm.

Pwrhaps because blue is overall a pleasant color. The sky, the ocean, both blue and pleasant to look upon.

Yellow? Fire. Explosions. Beams of death.

Yeah... I get it... I think.

I do wonder about warning colors and the reasons behind them.

While red is the color of most Earth vertebrate blood, it's also the color of many fruits. And while there are some poisonous Earth animals that are red, most are yellow instead. As are most of our warning signs. I wonder whether there is something particularly eye-catching about these particular wavelengths of light.

For example, looking at these color swatches, I'd swear that the yellow tile is brighter than the red one. But they're exactly the same brightness.

color_swatches.png (3.42 KiB) Viewed 37778 times

I also wonder why the frequency range of nearly all Earth creatures' vision is around the same narrow band, rather than spread more widely across the spectrum. Sunlight intensity peaks at much longer wavelengths than the "visible" range.

Spectral-power-density-of-solar-radiation-5.png (75.9 KiB) Viewed 37781 times

Is the Emissary on board of the Prophet's Reason inside its computer systems? Or maybe one of the containers on the underside is a dedicated Historian computer that the personality construct runs on?

The containers are manufactured by the Loroi to Historian specifications. Sort of like an embassy, they're legally considered Historian property, but are provided by the host nation. The Historians are very judicious about what devices they place in Loroi hands (which they may try to reverse-engineer), and most Loroi are wary of having Historian devices around (many don't even like to have the embassy jars around, mindful of the security exposure they represent).

As to the details of how and where Historian constructs operate, this is not a subject of common knowledge.

[Bamax]

Well... animals are super optimized... whereas humans are more general purpose (we can do all an animal can do, just not excel to the same degree) but with sentience.

There are plenty of yellow fruits and veggies as well.

Also some animals, particularly birds can see part of the UV spectrum and also probably have some sort of magnetic field detection that assusts them with migration.

[Arioch]

I know that vision wavelength range is variable in animals, with some examples going higher or lower than what we call the "visible" spectrum, but not very far.

[Bamax]

Are the animal beasts of Loroi worlds owners of blue blood too?

Or do they have red blood.... or any of the ROYGBIV colors (of the rainbow)?

[Demarquis]

Probably because there are only a limited number of chemicals which can be used to act as the basis of photoreception. The animal with the sense of vision that can distinguish the most independent primary colors is a type of shrimp, IIRC.

[Tamri]

In fact, the "visible" range of light is based on the transparency of water and compounds based on it - i.e. the width of the visible range is determined by the transparency of the lens. There is practically no point in doing anything with photosensitive receptors without working with the lens.

"Hazard color" is determined primarily by the contrast in a particular environment. Yellow and red, always bright - just convenient, because in dense vegetation they are clearly visible and they stand out very much, at the same time, the characteristic patterns and contrasting patterns of the skins of all poisonous animals (and mimicking them) do not allow them to be confused with something others, thereby allowing the hazard to be uniquely identified.

In forests where the main background is green and brown, these will be shades of yellow and red. In the plains and savannas, where the main color is just the same shades of yellow and brown, green and blue are much more common.

In fish, for example, bright colors are only found in species living in sunny shallow waters; in species living deeper, where the illumination is worse, other methods of identification, such as luminescence, sound, and smell-taste, are more developed.

The same colors in fruits developed for the same reasons - visibility. Since fruits are used for plant reproduction, it is important that animals immediately notice ripe and ready-to-spread seeds - and hence fruits and berries containing them.

[Arioch]

Are the animal beasts of Loroi worlds owners of blue blood too?

Or do they have red blood.... or any of the ROYGBIV colors (of the rainbow)?

The imported Soia-Liron species have blue blood. The local native species have whatever they have... there are many planets with native life.

The Delrias & Morat have red blood, and the Umiak circulatory fluid is black. That's the extent to which I've thought about this question.

In fact, the "visible" range of light is based on the transparency of water and compounds based on it - i.e. the width of the visible range is determined by the transparency of the lens. There is practically no point in doing anything with photosensitive receptors without working with the lens.

"Hazard color" is determined primarily by the contrast in a particular environment. Yellow and red, always bright - just convenient, because in dense vegetation they are clearly visible and they stand out very much, at the same time, the characteristic patterns and contrasting patterns of the skins of all poisonous animals (and mimicking them) do not allow them to be confused with something others, thereby allowing the hazard to be uniquely identified.

Makes sense.

[gaerzi]

For example, looking at these color swatches, I'd swear that the yellow tile is brighter than the red one. But they're exactly the same brightness.

That's due to the way our eyes work.

SpoilerShow

Our peak sensitivity is a slightly yellowish green. It stimulates both our red cones and our green cones about as much. (On the first graph, the black curve is for the rods, which are most sensitive to blueish-green light.) Pure red, pure blue, and purple are dark colors because we're not really sensitive to them as much as we are to yellow, green, and cyan. That's because the greens do not stimulate just our green cones but also our red cones and our rods. While he deep blues and deep reds don't get to combo as strongly.

I also wonder why the frequency range of nearly all Earth creatures' vision is around the same narrow band, rather than spread more widely across the spectrum. Sunlight intensity peaks at much longer wavelengths than the "visible" range.

Birds and insects often have ultraviolet vision. Notably, flowers look a lot more interesting through the eyes of a pollinator:


Human eyes normally cannot see ultraviolet due to the crystalline lens and cornea being opaque to these wavelengths.

The best eyes for color vision might be those of the mantis shrimp, with 12 or more different types of photoreceptors giving it the ability no just to see a very broad range of colors but also to perceive light polarization.

[Keklas Rekobah]

Before anyone asks, a quick check of the character sheets in the Insider reveals that Arioch's "space elves" do not have infravision.

[Demarquis]

Thank you for sharing those pictures. I teach a class that includes a module on vision, I am going to incorporate those graphs into the lecture now!

[SVlad]

I also wonder why the frequency range of nearly all Earth creatures' vision is around the same narrow band, rather than spread more widely across the spectrum. Sunlight intensity peaks at much longer wavelengths than the "visible" range.

As I once tried to tell on Discord, this is due to the water transparency window. The window includes the visible spectrum and the edges of infrared and ultraviolet. Since life on earth is based on water, body tissues, including the eye, contain water. Therefore, they simply will not be able to perceive electromagnetic waves outside this window that do not pass through the water.

water transparency windowShow

[Arioch]

I've been told that before, I just forgot.

[Gudo]

... you had better show sincere respect for your passengers or you may find yourself scrubbing out a CHT tank somewhere near Adak, Alaska.

It's a shore installation so you know it's not going to be VCHT, might not be so bad. You hear they're thinking about reopening NAS Adak? Pacific Pivot / near-peer and all that.

I see the Loroi are much more strict with this than IRL.  Theoretically, even a Chaplain (LtCmdr) with a SWA could take command, but only if ALL the line officers are incapacitated.  Personally, I would rather see a CPO BM or QM take charge.

If Chaps finds himself in the Skipper's chair, you're probably already in a Code of Conduct situation. No way you're going to lose all your line officers and still "have the means to resist." You'd probably want someone with a direct line to the Almighty in charge at that point, for all the good it would do.

[Keklas Rekobah]

Coin check!



Seriously, while it is theoretically possible, I would much rather see an MCPO in that chair than a Chaplain.  You are right though, any situation in which all of the line officers are incapacitated, it is likely that the ship can no longer carry out its mission, so I often wondered why they pushed us so hard to get those SWA emblems.  Had I been forced by the situation to take command (as an ET1), it is likely that my first orders would be to man the lifeboats and prepare to abandon ship.

[Snoofman]

I got a question about loroi telepathy and how it relates/affects other alien races. Provided the aliens have no mask, do loroi automatically know/feel/sense what aliens are thinking? Or do loroi have to actively ‘reach out’ in order to read an aliens thoughts? And can aliens develop mental exercises to conceal their thoughts or secrets? Or is that basically impossible?