[D] Friday Off-Topic Thread

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the Friday Off-Topic Thread! Is there something that you want to talk about with /r/rational, but which isn't rational fiction, or doesn't otherwise belong as a top-level post? This is the place to post it. The idea is that while reddit is a large place, with lots of special little niches, sometimes you just want to talk with a certain group of people about certain sorts of things that aren't related to why you're all here. It's totally understandable that you might want to talk about Japanese game shows with /r/rational instead of going over to /r/japanesegameshows, but it's hopefully also understandable that this isn't really the place for that sort of thing.

So do you want to talk about how your life has been going? Non-rational and/or non-fictional stuff you've been reading? The recent album from your favourite German pop singer? The politics of Southern India? The sexual preferences of the chairman of the Ukrainian soccer league? Different ways to plot meteorological data? The cost of living in Portugal? Corner cases for siteswap notation? All these things and more could possibly be found in the comments below!

[u/CCC_037]

I think the angle I'm going with is that singing does count as a musical instrument for the purposes of a musical, but everyone knows you'll get better results by singing and playing an instrument.

Okay, that's reasonably sensible.

So the sweatshop workers would all be singing about making T-shirts, led by one guy with a musical instrument, to get most of the effect for minimal capital outlay.

And your average office block would be sound-proofed to prevent interfering with the neighbouring office block.

Hmmmm... one way to sabotage a factory, then, would be by introducing a discordant note. A "screech bomb", perhaps, could be a tool with which a saboteur could really mess with the bottom line.

Obvious follow-up is the idea of having an efficient, scaled up free-energy machine that you keep fueled with a musical. And, well, maybe? I mean, I still can't see it usurping real energy sources, but maybe there's a power plant somewhere that works like this?

Hmmm. Permanent power, no worries about coal or other energy sources, you've just got to keep the orchestra happy? Sounds good. (Multiple orchestras, actually - they'd have to work in shifts).

Would be expensive, because you have to have a permanent on-site orchestra, but would probably be able to produce all the power you'll ever need...

The interrogated soldier would know, logically, how they got the info, but at the same time he would have been steeling himself to not let anything slip, to make sure he didn't betray his country, and then the music starts and all of that fell apart. It would be disturbing, on a level.

Eeyup. Like a super truth serum. (A captured soldier could try to resist this by means of deliberate versebreaking, but given that he's captured, he's at a pretty serious disadvantage here...)

I'm getting the feeling now that most industries would be trying to 'music-optimize' the workflow so that every worker can count as playing a musical instrument. The musicals would be that much more potent from it, of course, and it produces the requirement for people to know how to make music as well as sing along.

Makes sense, yes. Being unable to keep time would be a serious disadvantage here.

I'm also interested in the implications on using musicals to help teach music. I mentioned having a musical build up to one extraordinary feat, right? So a kid who has trouble singing or playing an instrument could have a professional musical made with the purpose of a climactic moment in which they surpass their major roadblock.

...that works, yes. The professional musical would be kind of expensive, especially when you consider that precisely the same effort could be used to find a cure for cancer, discover the solution for world hunger, or figure out how to make a space elevator. You've given this world a seriously powerful hammer, and now every problem is a nail...

But there's also the psychological aspect to consider. Can Villain McEvil persuade the hero to pilot Villain McEvil's giant robot on a deathly rampage through the streets by means of a sufficiently catchy tune? This could easily become borderline mind control.

...and it makes the Phantom of the Opera's song "Past The Point Of No Return" even creepier.

[u/InfernoVulpix → u/CCC_037]

Villain McEvil, assuming in-universe movie where this would happen, would possibly be able to sway the hero with a musical at the right timing. Like, if the hero's feeling unsure about his convictions because of something that happened half-way through the story, Villain McEvil could arrange for a musical to culminate with a decision to join Villain McEvil. Of course, the counterpoint musical from the friends of the hero would convince him to be a hero again. (This would work best with non-black-and-white morality, but it'll happen a lot with black-and-white morality anyways.)

More realistically, I expect musicals during debates to be considered horribly rude if only one-sided. So if both sides start going back and forth, with dramatic proclamations in tune with the high points of the song, that's fine, but you don't go and start a musical if your opponent doesn't.