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TulliusCicero posted:
Jeez, somebody writes a story where a cop can go gently caress themselves forever and goons still aren't satisfied. Edit: what a terrible snipe. Have a pic of my cats being adorable. 
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Feb 11, 2021 16:18
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mango sentinel posted:Don't look into why he spent the end of his life in Sri Lanka. Reading anything about the personal life of Asimov or Clarke is the definition of 
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Feb 11, 2021 16:20
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Kchama posted:Bunch of fashy poo poo I see Uncompromising Honor came out in 2018. Were they always like this or is this yet another Trump-induced self-reflection failure?
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Feb 11, 2021 16:21
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Agents are GO! posted:Jeez, somebody writes a story where a cop can go gently caress themselves forever and goons still aren't satisfied. 
Xand_Man fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Feb 11, 2021 |
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Feb 11, 2021 16:22
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Eric Cantonese posted:I just looked this up on Wikipedia out of morbid curiosity and now I'm just mad. What the hell is the supposed point of this story? Like... some halfass causality mental exercise or something like that? Pretty much. It was just his attempt to write a self consistent time loop. A lot of science fiction from that period, or at least some of the better science fiction from that time period, was the writer saying to the reader, "I made a clever puzzle for you and will solve it with a twist that will, in hindsight, make everything make sense."
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Feb 11, 2021 16:23
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Xand_Man posted:I see Uncompromising Honor came out in 2018. Were they always like this or is this yet another Trump-induced self-reflection failure? He's always been a shithead libertarian but he just got worse and worse over time. Reminder that these books started in 92 and the book before Uncompromising Honor (which Uncompromising Honor was a part-2 instead of an actual sequel) was in 2012 and that wasn't even when the worst parts started up. In comparison, the first book was the first two Horatio Hornblower books in space with all of Britian's lovely aspects being given to Not-France. The second book was about how Not-Mormons because the best buddies of Britain and defeated the Not-Muslims.
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Feb 11, 2021 16:30
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Kchama posted:He's always been a shithead libertarian but he just got worse and worse over time. Reminder that these books started in 92 and the book before Uncompromising Honor (which Uncompromising Honor was a part-2 instead of an actual sequel) was in 2012 and that wasn't even when the worst parts started up. wikipedia posted:Weber is a United Methodist lay preacher, and tries to explore in his writing how religions (both real-life and fictional) can be forces for good on the one hand, and misused to defend evil causes on the other.[11][12] This guys sounds like a lot of fun at parties.
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Feb 11, 2021 16:32
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Epicurius posted:Pretty much. It was just his attempt to write a self consistent time loop. A lot of science fiction from that period, or at least some of the better science fiction from that time period, was the writer saying to the reader, "I made a clever puzzle for you and will solve it with a twist that will, in hindsight, make everything make sense." Funny how it always included Heinlein's favorite fetishes. Eric Cantonese posted:This guys sounds like a lot of fun at parties. Somehow the religions that always are misused for evil are religions that he doesn't like, like Islam and Catholicism (Catholicism being evil is the basis of his other awful book series Safehold) and somehow the religions he likes are the forces of good.
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Feb 11, 2021 16:38
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Eric Cantonese posted:I wonder how many MLM participants are Republicans. From a ways back but the answer is "all of them", at least for the ones that really stick with it and dry hump it for 5-10 years as they go broke. Once you find yourself attending the Amway rallies and have ostracized all your friends and family, it's pretty much nothing but GOP and evangelical worship all around. Jaxyon posted:This is the country where an entire generation of people saw Wall Street and decided Gordon Gecko was an aspirational figure. And that Alec Baldwin is the hero of Glengarry Glen Ross punishedkissinger posted:in your opinion, what would be a "well-made satire"? Bob Roberts Nenonen posted:Romney was about to get merchandized. Does he know how close he came? Antifa Turkeesian posted:Was there anything more to the stories of alarm buttons being removed from offices in the days before the attack? That's a good question. I'd forgotten about that.
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Feb 11, 2021 16:38
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Kchama posted:Funny how it always included Heinlein's favorite fetishes. I don't think "All You Zombies" has spanking in it. This is someone's cue to post a quote from the story proving me wrong.
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Feb 11, 2021 16:44
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Epicurius posted:Pretty much. It was just his attempt to write a self consistent time loop. A lot of science fiction from that period, or at least some of the better science fiction from that time period, was the writer saying to the reader, "I made a clever puzzle for you and will solve it with a twist that will, in hindsight, make everything make sense." Yeah, it's an enjoyable story with both a fun little temporal puzzle (a refinement of the time loop he created in "By His Bootstraps") and a neat existential dilemma. The protagonists knows exactly where they came from. There is no mystery to their origin. But that leads them to wonder where the rest of humanity (the titular "All You Zombies") comes from. half cocaine posted:I thought William Gibson was pretty accurate in his predictions about corporate hegemony. Gibson, really all the cyberpunk authors, made some amazingly accurate predictions about our current dystopian world. But I think one of the most interesting things about Gibson in particular is that so many of his correct predictions are just incidental background details to stories about AI becoming self aware and casting themselves as Voodoo deities.
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Feb 11, 2021 16:48
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PeterWeller posted:Gibson, really all the cyberpunk authors, made some amazingly accurate predictions about our current dystopian world. But I think one of the most interesting things about Gibson in particular is that so many of his correct predictions are just incidental background details to stories about AI becoming self aware and casting themselves as Voodoo deities. Is there anything I could read on that at all? Definitely agree and have read Gibson but I’d be curious if somebody has written more about it. I feel like a ton of comics that were near future also have stuff that feels eerily dead on uggy fucked around with this message at 16:54 on Feb 11, 2021 |
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Feb 11, 2021 16:51
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Kchama posted:Funny how it always included Heinlein's favorite fetishes. I mean, not all of them. Lifeline is about a scientist who invents a machine that will tell you when somebody will die and disrupts the life insurance industry. Solution Unsatisfactory predicts nuclear weapons and their dangers. Successful Operation is about Hitler needing emergency surgery and being deposed in a coup while he's unconscious. I mean, I'm not a Heinlein fan...if you're talking big three, I prefer Clarke and Asimov, but he wrote enough that not everything was of one piece.
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Feb 11, 2021 16:53
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Epicurius posted:I mean, not all of them. Lifeline is about a scientist who invents a machine that will tell you when somebody will die and disrupts the life insurance industry. Solution Unsatisfactory predicts nuclear weapons and their dangers. Successful Operation is about Hitler needing emergency surgery and being deposed in a coup while he's unconscious. Yeah I was just making a glib joke, sorry.
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Feb 11, 2021 16:54
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I haven't read a bunch of Heinlein but I did like Double Star.
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Feb 11, 2021 16:57
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This isn't related to the moral character of long-dead science fiction authors but I hope it's allowed here. https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1359894237765132291 Larry Summers in shambles.
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Feb 11, 2021 17:00
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The Baileys' son got in over his head trying to game GME stock trends and they all need a bailout now.
Eric Cantonese fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Feb 11, 2021 |
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Feb 11, 2021 17:03
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zoux posted:This isn't related to the moral character of long-dead science fiction authors but I hope it's allowed here. House Dems, Senate Leadership, and Biden - all owning Larry Summers forever.
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Feb 11, 2021 17:05
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If you want a picture of the future, imagine a west wing staffer ignoring Larry Summers - forever.
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Feb 11, 2021 17:07
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Well if we're talking about sexist twentieth century sci-fi, all hail king Jerry Pournelle. Hey the apocalypse isn't all bad:
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Feb 11, 2021 17:10
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posted:
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mango sentinel posted:It even got made into a theatrical film But if he wants to get with me, better make it last.
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Feb 11, 2021 17:12
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Morrow posted:If you want a picture of the future, imagine a west wing staffer ignoring Larry Summers - forever. I was listening to AM radio this morning on the channel that carries Howie Carr and they had an economics show going that was shockingly pretty reasonable and they mocked his idea of "overheating" the economy for my whole drive. "When has the economy ever been 'overheated'?"
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Feb 11, 2021 17:17
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Groovelord Neato posted:I was listening to AM radio this morning on the channel that carries Howie Carr and they had an economics show going that was shockingly pretty reasonable and they mocked his idea of "overheating" the economy for my whole drive. "When has the economy ever been 'overheated'?" Whenever 90% of the population didn't feel like slaves, had earning potential and wasn't one medical bill away from bankruptcy.
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Feb 11, 2021 17:25
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Groovelord Neato posted:I was listening to AM radio this morning on the channel that carries Howie Carr and they had an economics show going that was shockingly pretty reasonable and they mocked his idea of "overheating" the economy for my whole drive. "When has the economy ever been 'overheated'?" That's code for "profits decreased because we were too close to full employment and labor started getting uppity so we had to raise interest rates to shut that whole thing down."
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Feb 11, 2021 17:28
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We've all lived our whole lives in supply-side economy hell so it does seem strange to hear people talk about like, smart fiscal policy.
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Feb 11, 2021 17:30
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Herstory Begins Now posted:The book, for anyone unaware, starts with an over the top action sequence of jetpack and armor suited space marines cruising through an alien city tactically nuking libraries and civilian structures while disparaging the enemies as skinnies. It's written in a way that makes it clear that heinlein thinks it's loving cool as hell to nuke some peaceful aliens. It's a bizarre book that has literally nothing at all to do with the movie besides sharing the name. That, and as someone said up thread, getting crypto fascists to tell on themselves when they say the movie ruined the book Wicked Them Beats posted:I knew a guy who hated the Starship Troopers movie because he loved the book and thought the movie did a disservice to something that had had a huge impact on who he was as a person. Why yes, he was a self-centered rear end in a top hat, how did you guess?? Same here. The above quote made me think of one friend who absolutely has fascist tendencies Kchama posted:Somehow the religions that always are misused for evil are religions that he doesn't like, like Islam and Catholicism (Catholicism being evil is the basis of his other awful book series Safehold) and somehow the religions he likes are the forces of good. Safehold was such a disappointment for me, it's such an interesting premise but it just keeps going forever and becomes tedious wish fulfillment for a Mary Sue/Gary Stu insert. Humanity is fleeing a too-powerful enemy that can detect technology and is trying to destroy them. A fleet escapes to another planet to rebuild using only low-tech stuff to avoid detection, but a leadership coup results in brainwashing the population to believe the leaders are literal angels and technology not provided by the angels is taboo. They make a literal religion out of it, supported by the wonders made by advanced technology denied to the victims and the written testimony of people who literally woke up from cryosleep believing this stuff. One leader resisted the coup and made a separate city, but got hit by orbital bombardment and tarred as a Satan figure in the subsequent religion, but at least managed to kill the "angels". The book then is how this age-of-sail society is coaxed out of the religion and into developing technology again to (presumably) prepare for the inevitable invasion. The book's main protagonist is a woman who has downloaded herself into an advanced synthetic body to sleep for a thousand years as a backup plan in case the counter-coup failed, as a means to try and rescue the population. She is effectively immortal, with lightning-fast reflexes and super strength, doesn't need to sleep or eat, and has access to an invisible supersonic ship and a mountain base with a super-intelligent AI. Oh, and she can shapeshift- which she immediately does to become a man, and includes an episode where she wrestled naked with some men while swimming and got an erection and had to deactivate that stuff.
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Feb 11, 2021 17:35
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is it time to talk about thomas kratman yet (I also made a thread about politics in scifi and it died, postless)
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Feb 11, 2021 17:38
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DarkHorse posted:
Hot
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Feb 11, 2021 17:38
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PeterWeller posted:Gibson, really all the cyberpunk authors, made some amazingly accurate predictions about our current dystopian world. But I think one of the most interesting things about Gibson in particular is that so many of his correct predictions are just incidental background details to stories about AI becoming self aware and casting themselves as Voodoo deities. While to some extent that's true, a whole lot of the "predictive" element of classic cyberpunk fiction is equal parts "stuff that was already in place in the 1980s which most readers didn't really know/think about yet", "stuff that was so obviously on the horizon that you didn't need to read sci-fi to be aware of it", and "you need to plug a landline into your cybernetic implant and risk death by rogue computer program" level misfirings. There's some brilliant anticipation of current issues in there, but not that much more than there is in other sci-fi genres with a heavy social focus (which is most of them.)
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Feb 11, 2021 17:40
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you folks can harp on the Fascism in the Starship Troopers movie, but don't leave out the third movie where the bugs invent religion and convert earth to it.
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Feb 11, 2021 17:49
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DarkHorse posted:The book's main protagonist is a woman who has downloaded herself into an advanced synthetic body to sleep for a thousand years as a backup plan in case the counter-coup failed, as a means to try and rescue the population. She is effectively immortal, with lightning-fast reflexes and super strength, doesn't need to sleep or eat, and has access to an invisible supersonic ship and a mountain base with a super-intelligent AI. You forgot her infinite legion of invisible silent spy drones that she uses to learn the plans of all of the villains so they can be perfectly countered forever. My favorite part is that the reasoning given to why she immediately becomes a man and stays that way forever is because apparently women don't get to be 6 feet tall on Safehold ever, so she'd stand out. Despite the fact that she can just shapeshift to be a foot shorter if she really wanted, and oh yeah, she actually spends all of her time pretending to be a space angel.
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Feb 11, 2021 17:51
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A lot of the militarist sci-fi ends up almost fascist by format. Once the protagonist defeats whatever enemies they have in the military, they inevitably shift to a b plot where the civilians are betraying the military just to inject tension. Especially when the protagonist always completely stomps their enemies (definitely a problem in David Weber books). It doesn't help that the 'Vietnam Scifi' authors of a right persuasion are really into dolchstoss themes about the whole thing. Aruan posted:is it time to talk about thomas kratman yet The literal Nazi defender has logged on to the book series
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Feb 11, 2021 17:52
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Aruan posted:is it time to talk about thomas kratman yet Link it and bump it obviously many of us are into this!
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Feb 11, 2021 17:56
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Everybody should read Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, since its the antithesis to all the take Starship Troopers literary believers. War sucks, it dehumanizes and alienates the participants.
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Feb 11, 2021 17:57
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Groovelord Neato posted:I was listening to AM radio this morning on the channel that carries Howie Carr and they had an economics show going that was shockingly pretty reasonable and they mocked his idea of "overheating" the economy for my whole drive. "When has the economy ever been 'overheated'?" BiggerBoat posted:Whenever 90% of the population didn't feel like slaves, had earning potential and wasn't one medical bill away from bankruptcy. Here's what I don't understand. Why is it the divine mandate that 90% of the global population needs to constantly live in fear of economic destitution. Even people with the corner office and the 6 figure salary can tank their careers and fall into severe poverty very quickly. About the only people who can feel reasonably safe are the ones with ultra specialized skills in something like robotics or software and even they are subject to non-compete clauses and labour collusion agreements between major silicon valley employers so wages remain depressed. No matter what people do, the system rigs the game against you so any effort you make to get the upper hand will only give you limited success and not enough to make you feel relaxed. Like I know many people right now are making 25k or less working precarious gig work under awful job conditions. Obviously we need to be helping these people first and foremost. But if you can climb that ladder and make it to the suburbs with a 70k+ job you're still hosed. You still have to sit there and deal with job related stress and if you have dependents the stress is even worse. The only difference is that you're comfortably stressed and you could potentially find another job unless you're working in a legacy company where your experience doesn't mean anything outside of that company or industry (thus finding a new job starts you over from scratch). That's the secret I learned about "Entry level" jobs. They're entry level for people who worked in a supply chain dept for a nuts and bolts factory and 10 years later got fired and now they have to start over in supply chain at a Hammer and Nails factory. Basically even if you have a big income there's no incentive to get a house with mortgage because its so expensive that a job loss would put you underwater on that house. So you're stuck paying out into rent or living with your family and spending your discretionary income on electronics, booze and other "Wasteful" things while also keeping a balanced retirement portfolio so you can survive after your employers decide you're too old and sick to work anymore. It's inevitable that one day we will get basic income but even that won't be a solution. Basic income would probably recreate a lifestyle similar to what someone who needs foodstamps today can get. It's not gonna be 50k/yr for all citizens. Unless you really really like a lifestyle of 25k per year if it means never having to work again, most people will still want jobs even with basic since all it'll do is keep you alive but you'll be miserable. How hard is it for our government to once again target full employment as a federal reserve policy goal? If we did that we'd have publicly funded trade schools and safety nets that would allow us to try out careers and pursue things we're good at rather than trading our time for money in exchange for the privilege of continued existence.
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Feb 11, 2021 18:01
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I read a lot of John Varley as a teenager, is he considered crazy?
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Feb 11, 2021 18:02
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Kchama posted:You forgot her infinite legion of invisible silent spy drones that she uses to learn the plans of all of the villains so they can be perfectly countered forever. Not a space angel, basically the local equivalent of a Jedi/Magic Ronin.
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Feb 11, 2021 18:02
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Telsa Cola posted:Not a space angel, basically the local equivalent of a Jedi/Magic Ronin. Oh right. I got mixed up because the word for it is literally seijin (alien).
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Feb 11, 2021 18:04
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Eric Cantonese posted:I just looked this up on Wikipedia out of morbid curiosity and now I'm just mad. What the hell is the supposed point of this story? Like... some halfass causality mental exercise or something like that? Imagine a young girl, an old man and a time cop on the edge of a cliff...
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Feb 11, 2021 18:06
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PeterWeller posted:Gibson, really all the cyberpunk authors, made some amazingly accurate predictions about our current dystopian world. But I think one of the most interesting things about Gibson in particular is that so many of his correct predictions are just incidental background details to stories about AI becoming self aware and casting themselves as Voodoo deities. He just extrapolated the 80s to get his setting, and it turns out that's what happened in real life as well. One of Adam Curtis' documentaries goes into some detail about how Neuromancer reflects a nightmare vision of the neoliberal world being created by institutions and politicians at the very same moment he was writing.
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Feb 11, 2021 18:09
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