Well, Starship Troopers did use really, really awesome effects to bring a Heinleein novel to the screen, even if it did diverge massively from the book.
I would love to see Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" - a great read, and as much about politics as science fiction.
She may be the finest women on the planet, and she has a gun with four barrels... what more do you want?? I'm sure she could pretend to be a 'hacker' too if that would help get slashdotters wetting their pants.
Looks like she's going to betray/trick someone... she's pointing that cool gun at one person then she moves it to point at someone else with that cool-as-a-cucumber expression that all movie characters must have when they first screw someone over.
...or do some parts of that trailer look really fake:
- the power plant exploding (I thought this was done for real?) - the bad robots attacking Zion - Zion itself
The great SFX in the original movie were all the bits where they took footage of real objects/people and applied novel techniques to manipulate that footage. I always felt like the bits that weren't real, just computer generated - the sentinels, for example, or the times when Keanu's face had to show emotion - looked really fake and Final Fantasy-ish.
The parts with Agent Smiths and Neo, on the other hand, look like they will be amazing.
Pure democracy, in which every decision is made by every individual en masse would perhaps fit your description. The congress and senate, however, serve to reduce the process to a more manageable size through representation. Bush's tax cuts or the GOP's policies aren't the result of some amorphous, mob-driven process, they're the result of active, conscious thinking that leads to a particular decision.
I'm afraid most 'democracies' are effectively oligarchic in nature and fundamentally weakened in terms of democratic priciples by the process of representation - the US more than most thanks to your huge population, low voter turnout and (not meaning to sounds offensive, but the amount of money changing hands is quite ridiculous) somewhat corrupt electoral system.
Furthermore, the unchecked, unelected strength of your executive is immense compared to most democracies - for instance, there is no requirement that Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell, Wolfowitz and co be elected representatives, whereas in most countries 'ministers' or 'secretaries' must also be members of parliament.
The patent hijinks in the US in recent years seems to highlight the strong nexus between government and business in America. Intellectual Property has been willingly converted from a protective 'shield' designed to foster innovation into a 'sword' to strike down competitors. The most obvious example is the various startup companies who have no actual products, just a patent, and who proceed to work their way up the food chain suing others for patent infringement or demanding royalties.
As a non-American, it seems logical to me that you should expect your government to make a conscious decision before a legal doctrine should undergo such a transformation. Instead, you have a situation where business has made the decision and then gradually weaselled it into law through undue influence of your executive (patent office) and parliamentary government.
Reforming your patent laws might help this particular problem, but if you want a long term solution to this kind of crap then some more fundamental separation of private and public interests is in order. Campaign finance, political donations, and restrictions on the activities of lobby groups might be a good start...
Do you really believe them? Given the many examples of companies screwing consumers to within an inch of their lives, I think we should be very, very wary of such 'enhancements.' You only have to look at the whole industry of capturing and selling marketing information to see that this will be abused.
And once the government gets involved... forget about it.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, Starship Troopers did use really, really awesome effects to bring a Heinleein novel to the screen, even if it did diverge massively from the book.
I would love to see Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" - a great read, and as much about politics as science fiction.
She may be the finest women on the planet, and she has a gun with four barrels... what more do you want?? I'm sure she could pretend to be a 'hacker' too if that would help get slashdotters wetting their pants.
Looks like she's going to betray/trick someone... she's pointing that cool gun at one person then she moves it to point at someone else with that cool-as-a-cucumber expression that all movie characters must have when they first screw someone over.
...or do some parts of that trailer look really fake:
- the power plant exploding (I thought this was done for real?)
- the bad robots attacking Zion
- Zion itself
The great SFX in the original movie were all the bits where they took footage of real objects/people and applied novel techniques to manipulate that footage. I always felt like the bits that weren't real, just computer generated - the sentinels, for example, or the times when Keanu's face had to show emotion - looked really fake and Final Fantasy-ish.
The parts with Agent Smiths and Neo, on the other hand, look like they will be amazing.
I must disagree.
Pure democracy, in which every decision is made by every individual en masse would perhaps fit your description. The congress and senate, however, serve to reduce the process to a more manageable size through representation. Bush's tax cuts or the GOP's policies aren't the result of some amorphous, mob-driven process, they're the result of active, conscious thinking that leads to a particular decision.
I'm afraid most 'democracies' are effectively oligarchic in nature and fundamentally weakened in terms of democratic priciples by the process of representation - the US more than most thanks to your huge population, low voter turnout and (not meaning to sounds offensive, but the amount of money changing hands is quite ridiculous) somewhat corrupt electoral system.
Furthermore, the unchecked, unelected strength of your executive is immense compared to most democracies - for instance, there is no requirement that Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell, Wolfowitz and co be elected representatives, whereas in most countries 'ministers' or 'secretaries' must also be members of parliament.
You guys need to stop being cynical and start fixing this problem.
Jefferson and co. weren't perfect themselves, but I think they would be quite upset if they could see the current arrangement in action.
Ah, the attitude that has endeared you so to the feeble, poverty stricken, technologically inferior masses of the world...
Somehow things went ok during the industrial revolution without the ridiculous patent laws you have today.
The patent hijinks in the US in recent years seems to highlight the strong nexus between government and business in America. Intellectual Property has been willingly converted from a protective 'shield' designed to foster innovation into a 'sword' to strike down competitors. The most obvious example is the various startup companies who have no actual products, just a patent, and who proceed to work their way up the food chain suing others for patent infringement or demanding royalties.
As a non-American, it seems logical to me that you should expect your government to make a conscious decision before a legal doctrine should undergo such a transformation. Instead, you have a situation where business has made the decision and then gradually weaselled it into law through undue influence of your executive (patent office) and parliamentary government.
Reforming your patent laws might help this particular problem, but if you want a long term solution to this kind of crap then some more fundamental separation of private and public interests is in order. Campaign finance, political donations, and restrictions on the activities of lobby groups might be a good start...
Do you really believe them? Given the many examples of companies screwing consumers to within an inch of their lives, I think we should be very, very wary of such 'enhancements.' You only have to look at the whole industry of capturing and selling marketing information to see that this will be abused.
And once the government gets involved... forget about it.