Objects in pop culture that are bigger on the inside

[Penfeather]

And re-reading the Sandman Slim novels, I remembered the houses of powerful Sub Rosa magicians, which look like derelict shacks in LA slums from the outside, but from within are just as likely to resemble the Palace in Versailles in opulence and scale and look out on the New Mexico desert. Also The Room of Thirteen Doors, which is within any shadow, if you have the key.

[terentii]

@Skammer

I remember from playing D&D thirty(!) years ago that a portable hole was awfully convenient. Put the hole down on any surface, fill it with your stuff, then pick it up and be on your way.

Huh-huh! I’ve got a hole in me pocket!

[terentii]

@AncientHumanoid

In the Voyager holodeck, the Renaissance era plane/glider actually flew. I think. Maybe not…

I always assumed it was just suspended in the middle of the chamber (anti-gravs) while the holographic scenery and ambient air rushed around it.

Think “simulator” and “wind tunnel.”

You wouldn’t even need anti-gravs; just manipulate the artificial gravity in the area of the glider.

[terentii]

@Chronos

I think the Enterprise’s holodecks just used the forcefield equivalent of a treadmill. You might walk for miles, but you never actually get anywhere.

I think this was made clear in both “The Big Goodbye” and “Elementary, Dear Data.”

In “Encounter at Farpoint,” data also pointed out to Riker that the Enterprise-D had the very latest, state-of-the-art version of the holodeck, which is why it was so realistic.

[terentii]

@terentii

In “Encounter at Farpoint,” **data **also pointed out to Riker that the Enterprise-D had the very latest, state-of-the-art version of the holodeck, which is why it was so realistic.

That’s “Data” with a capital “D,” of course!

[Cayuga]

@ElvisL1ves

Phineas T. Whoopee’s 3d Blackboard was much larger than the case he carried it in on “Tennessee Tuxedo and his Tales”.

I’m not going to look it up, but wasn’t it Phineas J. Whoopee?

@AncientHumanoid

When I was a teenager, my parents said I had a hollow leg. Because of how much food a typical teenaged boy can down at suppertime, you see…
Yeah, it’s a stretch (ha), but I wonder when that phrase was first used.

My great-aunt (b. 1902) was called “Hollow-Leg Ada” in her youth because of her ability to hold her liquor. I don’t know that it was new then (1920s?), but I guess it might have been.

[GIGObuster]

@Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor

Bullwinkle’s Magic Hat.

That one never works!

@MrKnowItAll

Oh! And from Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the planet Magrathea.

A fun variation of these multidimensional things in games: in the old text video game of The Hitchhiker’s Guide there was a Thing That Your Aunt Gave You That You Don’t Know What It Is. (Yes, that was the name, and even when figured out it never changed)

During the game there was a limit on how much you can carry and it was a very realistic limit, One can eventually discover that the thing your aunt gave you was a dimensional pocket that gained no weight regardless of what you put inside, it was not needed to be used to finish the game but it was very useful to complete it at a faster pace.

[robert_columbia]

@ElvisL1ves

The Enterprise’s holodeck. It was just a room on a ship, but nobody in an adventure there ever seemed to bump into a wall.

In one episode they actually do find the wall, and actually throw something at it just to demonstrate that yes, the holodeck isn’t actually infinite.

@Chronos

I think the Enterprise’s holodecks just used the forcefield equivalent of a treadmill. You might walk for miles, but you never actually get anywhere…

This makes some sense given the properties of the holodeck that we are told, but then there are still two problems:

1. How the holodeck handles feelings of inertia that would clue a person in that they are not moving the way they think they are or would at least make them feel funny. Maybe they also are able to twiddle the artificial gravitational field to mask most of the effects. Or maybe everyone in Starfleet has a brain implant that the holodeck can link in to and use to alter the person’s natural sense of balance and motion. These sort of feelings are why the 1980’s vision of Virtual Reality with the huge goggles and motion detection suit didn’t pan out that well - we still can’t get it to work well enough to let people play for more than 20 minutes or so without throwing up.

2. How they handle it when there are multiple people in the same holodeck simulation and they go off in opposite directions. This sort of problem happened in many old video games that allowed two players to play on the same screen. If one player tried to get too far away from the other to the point where the screen would have to stretch, they would either be blocked from moving any further or the other player’s character would be dragged along by the screen scrolling. Maybe the holodeck has a “split screen” mode where each player can occupy an isolated segment of the holodeck with its own walls, and the segments re-merge when the participants get closer to each other in the virtual world. If they then start moving apart again, the holodeck detects this and encases each of them in their own treadmill box that scrolls separately.

[Damfino]

There was a science fiction short story the title of which I can’t remember dealing with two aliens who entered an "all you can eat " restaurant .They were shovelling the stuff down and it was never ending until it transpired that their stomachs were connected via hyperspace with the home planet which was suffering a famine .

It may have been Robert Sheckley . Any help?

[Trancephalic]

Pokeballs. Which can comfortably store Pokemon that exceed whales in size. It’s implied they recreate entire ecosystems.

Also, Kirby, King Dedede, Yoshi and Pac-man’s stomachs.

[Little_Nemo]

The Business Office in the comic book series Fables.

[TreacherousCretin]

Fibber McGee’s closet.

(nitpick away, I don’t care)