I truly applaud your sentiments, Good Citizen testadicazzo, and must agree with everything you say, as they certainly mirrored my own experience during Vietnam in the US military, which certainly wouldn't have ended as soon as it did without the draft. The worst thing Nixon did (Nixon's revenge) was to end the draft --- when it should have evolved to universal conscription.
I recall during the period when they were handing out assignments, the Ohio University grad sitting next to me, who scored Category Four, was incensed as he was to be a cook (actually a step up for a sociology grad incapable of doing anything useful or functional and couldn't handle simple algebra).
If only George Bush had actually finished USAF basic training (enlisted, he only managed four weeks????) before being gifted with a direct officer's commission. If only that chronic imbecile and knave, John Boehner of Ohio, hadn't been kicked out of Navy boot camp for his bedwetting problem.....
What's the point of SF if it isn't current? ALL the items mentioned are forward thinking (and Banks' Player of Games will be a forever classic as it is so forward-oriented, unlike too much SF which exhibits one or two items or categories as futuristic, while all the remainder haven't changed at all).
But the characters add a necessary extra dimension. Niven has always been a boring writer. Heinlein's characters, although too often speaking for himself and his changing, perhaps evolving, perhaps self-rationalizing, beliefs and opinions.
The characters in Stirling's Drakon add spice to a classic of SF opera (in the truest sense), while the characterizations are most necessary and important in all of Banks' books. Cultures do, in fact, change, and those characters, when well-written, exhibit those changes. And Douglas Adams' characters are simply the best in comedic SF with an unusually dry wit! (Recommend BBC's original (circa '80s) broadcast series of A Hitchhicker's Guide.... -- hands-down the best.)
Wrong, wrong and wrong again! You've been missing out, true SF is about the complete future, not simpleton tech books. Have you not ever read Iain Banks, SM Stirling, MM Buckner, Douglas Adams? Geez Louise, dood!!!!
Your thinking is the direct result of McSoftware (Microsoft) not bundling manuals with their software so those cheap bastards could a billion or two. (Once upon a time, EVERYONE bundled the manuals with the OSes, etc.)
Now guys like you believe tech manuals ARE sci-fi.
Naaahhh....they'll be offshoring those jobs to Communist China and Communist Vietnam in no time anyway. After all, Corporate America can't compete unless they do on the backs of the Commies....what's this about capitalism? I missed something?????
The only assumption should be (should one ever wish to exist in a true economic democracy) that neither the State, nor the Corporate Fascist State, can ever monopolize land and capital.
Think of how that would solve soooooo many of the world's problems, and America's obsession with Empire.....
Geez, TIA has been in operation for some time now: all those gazillion government contractors supplying realtime data (from First Data to the clowns who operate the toll booth cameras to the Pay-for-view Viacom, etc., etc., etc.) with SAIC being the number one intel contractor, Mantech, etc., and who does the background checks for the federal government? Pearson Govt. Svcs. owned by Veritas Capital, the folks who used to own DynCorp, with the remainder done by XE (formerly Blackwater), and USIS (Carlyle Group).
You explained the REALITY layer perfectly, Good Citizen Shados, and it usually works that way regardless of the tech speciality, etc. Early on in my IT experience, a company bought my company and immediately laid me off, just after I had patiently and tactfully explained to them that since all the programming had been mine, I was essentially the product of their company.
No matter. And I have repeatedly observed this same scene with others over the years.
When you happen to come in contact with this democratic society you speak of, be sure to clue me in on it, huh?
While occasionally the stock market has its upticks, such as the 24 hours after President Obama's speech on 9/09/09 presenting the backdoor bailout for the insurance industry (predictably, the insurance stocks went sky-high the next day), a social security program still makes sense, along with a single-payer universal health insurance program.
I assume those infinite series of deficits refers to all that deficit spending which has created all those phony billionaires, while socializing their debt to the rest of us.
Those who have been made to fight for their country take it all the more seriously.
Yup, Intel has enjoyed their share of tax freebies: everytime they offshore a job, they get a tax break (thanks to legislation passed during the Carter Administration). Yup, they make use of those offshore "profit laundering" finance centers. Intel can't point the finger, but can be given the finger.....
I would like to add to your excellent and highly accurate post, Good Citizen dangitman, as opposed to bothering with some of the idiotic and moronic criticizing posts which follow it: If Wall Street could ever come up with anything remotely as successful as Social Security (an insurance program for the majority), we would all be mightily impressed.
Instead, they keep coming up with an infinite amount of securitized financial scams (or as they call them, "instruments") to continue The Great Financialization.
Thanks for your excellent followup post, Cornwallis, as this poster nweaver, either attended an exclusive prep school, then either Harvard or Princeton, and belongs to that special plutocrat class of legacy twits, or else is a complete an utter douchebag!
Geez, I mean after every possible fraud has been perpetrated (at least worldwide and on the North American and South American peoples), and all fraud as practised by those in the richest bracket has been legalized, how could anyone not possibly trust the private sector?
Geez, twits such as nweaver don't even realize the American banking system collapsed back in 2007, with those individual banks being shut down after they can longer continue their individual charades (and due to the continuing depression in America). This clown actually doesn't realize that shift by the Obama Administration from "healthcare reform" to "health insurance" is nothing more than a backdoor bailout of the insurance industry - for the same very reasons why they bailed out the banksters - and is likely clueless about everything else in life - and firmly believes the bandits of the "private sector" are superior to everyone else!
After much scholarly thought given to the matter, I believe Kansas to be the result of the dreaded Zombie Virus. This was predicted as a probable result of Global Warming, ice flows containing the one million-year-old Z. Virus eventually would de-ice, leading to such contaminated areas we are now witnessing such as the Kansas Sector.
Geez, normally this is so frigging obvious (and I've been stating this for the looongest time), it isn't worthy of comment, but the remark:
"Honestly, in a few ways we might be considered to be going backwards...."
suggest that I respond "a few ways" --- naaah, how about a multitude of ways: where's my bullet train???? Where's my adjustable shoe??? Where's that lady's adjustable high heels??? (Although who can ponder why anyone would wear high heels???) Where's my factory-built house??? Where's my real news???
"Congress decided they wanted to tax high salaried people. Therefore companies found ways around those laws."
is completely incorrect. Beginning in the Carter Administration, and carrying on through the Reagan Administration, tax laws were substantially restructured to favor the offshoring of American jobs (giving tax breaks to corporations which laid off American workers and offshored their jobs), the destruction of American companies (buy designing laws giving primary tax advantages to leveraged buyouts by private equity firms - which further increased unemployment) and deregulating industries and monetary controls. But we appreciate your repeating of urban legends, nonetheless.
Yup, once BusinessWeek gets the memo, it's far toooo late, as even the most moronic have finally figured out the obvious.....except!!!!!....BusinessWeek has long been touting the joys of offshoring...and their corporation buds have long been offshoring research to foreign countries.....so what's the f**king point to another useless, insufferably stupid and pointless article from.....BusinessWeek?????
I stand corrected. The bankster cartel, which pretty much has merged with the oil cartel (or is GS really an oil company now, as well as JPM a precious metals company -- gold and silver paper??) controls everything. (Although the three major players always appear to be Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, don't they?)
But to really get technical, it is the Financial-Intelligence Complex which really controls the big show. This crystallized for me after reading Richard Parker's scholarly biography on the brilliant economist, John Kenneth Galbraith. The chapter on his time with JFK's administration clearly demonstrates how the founders and creators of America's modern intelligence establishment (circa WWII) manipulated and outmanuevered (or attempted to manipulate and outmanuever) President Kennedy. Highly recommended reading.
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I recall during the period when they were handing out assignments, the Ohio University grad sitting next to me, who scored Category Four, was incensed as he was to be a cook (actually a step up for a sociology grad incapable of doing anything useful or functional and couldn't handle simple algebra).
If only George Bush had actually finished USAF basic training (enlisted, he only managed four weeks????) before being gifted with a direct officer's commission. If only that chronic imbecile and knave, John Boehner of Ohio, hadn't been kicked out of Navy boot camp for his bedwetting problem.....
What's the point of SF if it isn't current? ALL the items mentioned are forward thinking (and Banks' Player of Games will be a forever classic as it is so forward-oriented, unlike too much SF which exhibits one or two items or categories as futuristic, while all the remainder haven't changed at all).
But the characters add a necessary extra dimension. Niven has always been a boring writer. Heinlein's characters, although too often speaking for himself and his changing, perhaps evolving, perhaps self-rationalizing, beliefs and opinions.
The characters in Stirling's Drakon add spice to a classic of SF opera (in the truest sense), while the characterizations are most necessary and important in all of Banks' books. Cultures do, in fact, change, and those characters, when well-written, exhibit those changes. And Douglas Adams' characters are simply the best in comedic SF with an unusually dry wit! (Recommend BBC's original (circa '80s) broadcast series of A Hitchhicker's Guide.... -- hands-down the best.)
Your thinking is the direct result of McSoftware (Microsoft) not bundling manuals with their software so those cheap bastards could a billion or two. (Once upon a time, EVERYONE bundled the manuals with the OSes, etc.)
Now guys like you believe tech manuals ARE sci-fi.
Also, the following should be included as well:
Drakon, by S.M. Stirling
Watermind, by M.M. Buckner
Improbable, by Adam Fawer (not listed as sci-fi, but definitely in the modern genre)
and, of course, A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
Naaahhh....they'll be offshoring those jobs to Communist China and Communist Vietnam in no time anyway. After all, Corporate America can't compete unless they do on the backs of the Commies....what's this about capitalism? I missed something?????
EXACTLY!!!
The only assumption should be (should one ever wish to exist in a true economic democracy) that neither the State, nor the Corporate Fascist State, can ever monopolize land and capital.
Think of how that would solve soooooo many of the world's problems, and America's obsession with Empire.....
Doods, they've already got this....it's called lighting bolts and stuff....
From the effing article:
"It's unclear how the FBI got the records."
Geez, TIA has been in operation for some time now: all those gazillion government contractors supplying realtime data (from First Data to the clowns who operate the toll booth cameras to the Pay-for-view Viacom, etc., etc., etc.) with SAIC being the number one intel contractor, Mantech, etc., and who does the background checks for the federal government? Pearson Govt. Svcs. owned by Veritas Capital, the folks who used to own DynCorp, with the remainder done by XE (formerly Blackwater), and USIS (Carlyle Group).
You explained the REALITY layer perfectly, Good Citizen Shados, and it usually works that way regardless of the tech speciality, etc. Early on in my IT experience, a company bought my company and immediately laid me off, just after I had patiently and tactfully explained to them that since all the programming had been mine, I was essentially the product of their company.
No matter. And I have repeatedly observed this same scene with others over the years.
"Jesus freaking Christ, can't companies do employee evaluations at all?"
Geez, here in America we're in a neverending depression, and that's the question uppermost in your mind (assuming it's about Corporate America?????).
My geek card? Damn it! My former blow up doll ran off with it.....
When you happen to come in contact with this democratic society you speak of, be sure to clue me in on it, huh?
While occasionally the stock market has its upticks, such as the 24 hours after President Obama's speech on 9/09/09 presenting the backdoor bailout for the insurance industry (predictably, the insurance stocks went sky-high the next day), a social security program still makes sense, along with a single-payer universal health insurance program.
I assume those infinite series of deficits refers to all that deficit spending which has created all those phony billionaires, while socializing their debt to the rest of us.
Those who have been made to fight for their country take it all the more seriously.
I prefer a nice genius with great tits! (As in natural, size really doesn't matter.)
Why must I always be Number Two? Amen, seconded.....
Yup, Intel has enjoyed their share of tax freebies: everytime they offshore a job, they get a tax break (thanks to legislation passed during the Carter Administration). Yup, they make use of those offshore "profit laundering" finance centers. Intel can't point the finger, but can be given the finger.....
I would like to add to your excellent and highly accurate post, Good Citizen dangitman, as opposed to bothering with some of the idiotic and moronic criticizing posts which follow it: If Wall Street could ever come up with anything remotely as successful as Social Security (an insurance program for the majority), we would all be mightily impressed.
Instead, they keep coming up with an infinite amount of securitized financial scams (or as they call them, "instruments") to continue The Great Financialization.
Thanks for your excellent followup post, Cornwallis, as this poster nweaver, either attended an exclusive prep school, then either Harvard or Princeton, and belongs to that special plutocrat class of legacy twits, or else is a complete an utter douchebag!
Geez, I mean after every possible fraud has been perpetrated (at least worldwide and on the North American and South American peoples), and all fraud as practised by those in the richest bracket has been legalized, how could anyone not possibly trust the private sector?
Geez, twits such as nweaver don't even realize the American banking system collapsed back in 2007, with those individual banks being shut down after they can longer continue their individual charades (and due to the continuing depression in America). This clown actually doesn't realize that shift by the Obama Administration from "healthcare reform" to "health insurance" is nothing more than a backdoor bailout of the insurance industry - for the same very reasons why they bailed out the banksters - and is likely clueless about everything else in life - and firmly believes the bandits of the "private sector" are superior to everyone else!
Now this was one cool corridor -- only it took you on a loooong trip.
After much scholarly thought given to the matter, I believe Kansas to be the result of the dreaded Zombie Virus. This was predicted as a probable result of Global Warming, ice flows containing the one million-year-old Z. Virus eventually would de-ice, leading to such contaminated areas we are now witnessing such as the Kansas Sector.
Geez, normally this is so frigging obvious (and I've been stating this for the looongest time), it isn't worthy of comment, but the remark:
"Honestly, in a few ways we might be considered to be going backwards...."
suggest that I respond "a few ways" --- naaah, how about a multitude of ways: where's my bullet train???? Where's my adjustable shoe??? Where's that lady's adjustable high heels??? (Although who can ponder why anyone would wear high heels???) Where's my factory-built house??? Where's my real news???
Pente, the manly cortical game.
"Congress decided they wanted to tax high salaried people. Therefore companies found ways around those laws."
is completely incorrect. Beginning in the Carter Administration, and carrying on through the Reagan Administration, tax laws were substantially restructured to favor the offshoring of American jobs (giving tax breaks to corporations which laid off American workers and offshored their jobs), the destruction of American companies (buy designing laws giving primary tax advantages to leveraged buyouts by private equity firms - which further increased unemployment) and deregulating industries and monetary controls. But we appreciate your repeating of urban legends, nonetheless.
Yup, once BusinessWeek gets the memo, it's far toooo late, as even the most moronic have finally figured out the obvious.....except!!!!!....BusinessWeek has long been touting the joys of offshoring...and their corporation buds have long been offshoring research to foreign countries.....so what's the f**king point to another useless, insufferably stupid and pointless article from.....BusinessWeek?????
I stand corrected. The bankster cartel, which pretty much has merged with the oil cartel (or is GS really an oil company now, as well as JPM a precious metals company -- gold and silver paper??) controls everything. (Although the three major players always appear to be Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, don't they?)
But to really get technical, it is the Financial-Intelligence Complex which really controls the big show. This crystallized for me after reading Richard Parker's scholarly biography on the brilliant economist, John Kenneth Galbraith. The chapter on his time with JFK's administration clearly demonstrates how the founders and creators of America's modern intelligence establishment (circa WWII) manipulated and outmanuevered (or attempted to manipulate and outmanuever) President Kennedy. Highly recommended reading.