'War of the Worlds is really a simplistic "bad guys vs. good guys" story.'
No, it isn't.
When was the last time you read this book?
In large part it's a parable about arrogance and imperialism. Victorian England was very full of itself, and thought nothing of conquering and exploiting backward parts of the globe for gain and glory.
Wells wanted to show Victorians what it might be like to be conquered by a "superior" civilization.
Again:
Good vs. Evil?
Consider WOTW's human characters. Among the most vivid are a clergyman who, on seeing the ease with which the martian war machines plaster England's best, turns into an apocalyptic nutcase.
Then there's the Artilleryman. A Social Darwinist with big ideas. He tells the narrator about the underground cities he's planning on building, and the guerilla campaign he'll fight against the martians. Then he proudly shows off the tunnel he's dug in the time since the invasion. The narrator notes that it looks like something a determined man might complete in a day. They both continue digging; the narrator notes that the Artilleryman stops digging the moment he does. The guy is all talk and brave ideas, not action.
This book is a LOT more subtle than you suggest. It's trying to give us a dose of cosmic perspective. We're not only not the hieght of technological competence, we're often not the heroes we pretend to be either.
* * *
Regarding simplistic Good vs. Evil plots, I quite agree. I'm sick of that particular idiot plot myself.
Hey, how about an invasion story where the invaders are really, really dangerous not because of their weapons (although those are good, too) but because of their ideas? What if they're more tolerant, imaginative, dynamic, and funny than we are? What if their culture makes ours look sour and limited?
What if they look at us as we look on the Taliban?
SCO went under for the third time and last time in 2021, when the Fifth Kentucky Volunteer Meme Warfare company infiltrated their HQ and smashed the glass jar containing Lyndon Larouche's brain. It was just a matter of time after that.
Bitter irony: This was just a few days after Linus was killed defending the Godwin Institute's archive vault from a bunch of uplifted coyotes armed with demag bombs. (They all had Windows-based ID chips, but MSFT denies any connection.)
. . . that a full-featured Holodeck would be the *last* thing that Man ever invents?
As someone else in the thread has noted, the Holodeck was a really problematical thing to add to the series.
The fact that it figured in so many episodes is evidence of either a), that the producers don't find the idea of exploring new worlds all that interesting, or b) that they're unimaginative hacks who can't make space exploration interesting.
The ultimate irony: The VERY FIRST Star Trek story, "The Cage" AKA "The Managerie," was about a decadent civilization whose people spent their time living out their fantasies via telepathic thought records.
I can picture someone saying this about The Lord of the Rings:
"Magic rings? Little guys with hairy feet? Twisted little trolls with multiple personality disorder. Please! Nyahhhh, gimme a babe with guns and big tits, yeah, that's adventure, HAWWW!"
If it's good, Sky Captain might be a moderately succussful popcorn movie. If not, it will be out of theaters in a week. But not because it's for geeks.
. . . are the same guys who set the standards for testing strategic anti-missile systems.
"OK, I suppose it's reasonable for enemy missiles to have florescent 'HIT ME' signs with blinking red bull's-eyes and a GPS system transmitting their coordinates."
(Seriously, the race is still pretty cool. I'm rooting for the CMU team, who used to test their vehicles in Shenley Park.)
Have you ever SEEN a clear night sky, outside of some light-polluted city or suburb?
The awe and beauty of the night sky gets washed out by crappy advertising and you tell us "you'll get used to it."
"The walls of the Grand Canyon were so dull and stone-colored. Now these billboards for s%$tburgers and cheap hotels make it so colorful and exciting!"
"This unspoiled meadow was so boring. It's SO much livlier now that it's littered with colorful flyers from local chiropractors and 10 minute oil change places!"
Encyclopedias for home schooled kids whose parents are afraid of the Net.
They'll save a lot of pages by replacing many of the articles with references like "Good children do not ask about such things" and "Your parents will tell you on your wedding day" and "It's only a theory."
We've replaced all of your tin foil with aluminum foil, which is totally permeable to our MK-ULTRA mind control beams!
While this channel is open:
Attention!
Attention all implantees!
You will now believe that smearing cottage cheese into your hair will prevent the CIA from putting voices in your heads! Report to the nearest dumpster and root around for cartons of expired cottage cheese.
Implantees with last names beginning with a letter from A to Z should STOP taking their medication.
Implantees with last names beginning with secret alphabet letters should continue not taking their medication.
That is all.
Stefan "Mental illness is a serious thing and nothing to make fun of except by insenstive jerks" Jones
Bad News:
Everything metal in kitchen becomes mildly radioactive from neutron bombardment.
Good News:
Rats, mice, cockroaches hate the sound of a sonofusor in operation, emptying cities of vermin.
Bad News:
Sound also drives dogs into a frenzy of mindless leg-humping. Except Boston Terriers, whose tightly sutured little skulls explode.
Good News:
Leads to development of ultra-efficient (but low thrust) rocket motor that uses water as a reaction mass.
Bad News:
All water outside of Mars orbit turn out to be owned by Capella OmniVolatile GMBH, who charge a heavy fee, payable in increasingly rare Boston Terriers.
I worked for Oracle for three years, before they sold the division I work for.
Larry owns my new company too, but whatever . ..
Ellison's parking space was right outside of the 500 building entrance. I saw him wandering around the parking lot, cell phone clamped to his ear, a few times. The space wasn't specially marked, just one of a bunch of reserved spaces.
Once, during a staff meeting, the boss mentioned that the division managers were trying to come up with text for a sign for Larry's spot, because people who didn't know better would park there.
The favorite suggestion:
EXIT INTERVIEW PARKING
Please . . . less rant, more review!
on
Singularity Sky
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
This review had barely a thing to say about the book.
Other than avoiding the Sci-Fi Comfort Food syndrome, how was it? Was it well based? Were the characters interesting and believable? Was the technology well worked out, or just wish-fulfillment stuff?
While I agree with much of the reviewers ranting, I was really disappointed in this piece as a review.
I was going to make a wise-ass remark at the expense of Rand, but a serious reference to her in this context is funnier than anything I could have come up with.
My parents told me a while back that I was a rabid "Astro Boy"* fan when I was a wee tot. (A translated version of the cartoon played in the 'States in the late 60s.)
I barely remembered the show . . . but was curious enough after the 50th Anniversary noise last year to pick up the first volume of the collected comics. (I think Dark Horse is publishing them.)
The B&W art was very stylish and lively, but the stories were kind of juvenile.
One thing stood out**: In the beginning of the Origin Story, we're shown a brief history of robotics. The big breakthrough that made robots acceptable in everyday life:
Lifelike rubber skin!
Stefan
* Yeah, yeah, his real name is "Mighty Atom."
** Well, one other thing stood out. Astro Boy had a machine gun in his butt. Man, that's freaky.
There's increasing evidence that medical drugs used by humans and livestock are finding their way into the environment.
Sewage systems are pumping excess birth control hormones and other goodies into rivers and coastal waters.
Just yesterday, I read about vultures dying off because they're eating cattle carcasses containing pain-killers. Like ibuprofen, the stuff is mildly toxic. Doesn't hurt the cattle, but the scavengers are being killed wholesale.
So you've basically accepted that we're not in control of our own destiny, huh?
If the mighty and sanctified Invisible Hand of the Market dictates that a potentially deadly technology gets developed . . . that's it, huh?
If there's money to be made in something, we may as well just let it happen, right?
Or maybe you think the development of nanotech is part of the path to some trancendental, inevitable technosocial Singularity that cannot, must not be denied.
This kind of absolutist, ideological take on things leads to bad, shortsided policies.
By the end of the year, 90% of Disney's revenue will come from licensing its characters to junk food restaurants, manufacturers of lunch boxes and backpacks, and makers of disposable training pants.
It will use its last bit of influence to convince Congress to make image piracy punishable by death or five years janatorial duties in the Disney[world|land] Outlet Malls.
. . . at least until start pulling cat girls or other furry-bait out of them petri dishes.
On the other hand, we might end up having to pony up for lifelong psychotherapy for these guys, what with their being descended from cancer cells. Talk about a major self esteem hit.
Am I the only person who fantasizes about busting into the offices and homes where spammers do their work and violently trashing their equipment with giant magnets, squirt bottles of honey laced with iron filings, fire axes, and bolt cutters?
And on the way out, pounding "I AM AN E-MAIL SPAMMER" signs on their front lawn?
Slashdot Mirror
'War of the Worlds is really a simplistic "bad guys vs. good guys" story.'
No, it isn't.
When was the last time you read this book?
In large part it's a parable about arrogance and imperialism. Victorian England was very full of itself, and thought nothing of conquering and exploiting backward parts of the globe for gain and glory.
Wells wanted to show Victorians what it might be like to be conquered by a "superior" civilization.
Again:
Good vs. Evil?
Consider WOTW's human characters. Among the most vivid are a clergyman who, on seeing the ease with which the martian war machines plaster England's best, turns into an apocalyptic nutcase.
Then there's the Artilleryman. A Social Darwinist with big ideas. He tells the narrator about the underground cities he's planning on building, and the guerilla campaign he'll fight against the martians. Then he proudly shows off the tunnel he's dug in the time since the invasion. The narrator notes that it looks like something a determined man might complete in a day. They both continue digging; the narrator notes that the Artilleryman stops digging the moment he does. The guy is all talk and brave ideas, not action.
This book is a LOT more subtle than you suggest. It's trying to give us a dose of cosmic perspective. We're not only not the hieght of technological competence, we're often not the heroes we pretend to be either.
* * *
Regarding simplistic Good vs. Evil plots, I quite agree. I'm sick of that particular idiot plot myself.
Hey, how about an invasion story where the invaders are really, really dangerous not because of their weapons (although those are good, too) but because of their ideas? What if they're more tolerant, imaginative, dynamic, and funny than we are? What if their culture makes ours look sour and limited?
What if they look at us as we look on the Taliban?
That would make for a fun enemy.
Stefan
SCO went under for the third time and last time in 2021, when the Fifth Kentucky Volunteer Meme Warfare company infiltrated their HQ and smashed the glass jar containing Lyndon Larouche's brain. It was just a matter of time after that.
Bitter irony: This was just a few days after Linus was killed defending the Godwin Institute's archive vault from a bunch of uplifted coyotes armed with demag bombs. (They all had Windows-based ID chips, but MSFT denies any connection.)
Stefan
. . . that a full-featured Holodeck would be the *last* thing that Man ever invents?
As someone else in the thread has noted, the Holodeck was a really problematical thing to add to the series.
The fact that it figured in so many episodes is evidence of either a), that the producers don't find the idea of exploring new worlds all that interesting, or b) that they're unimaginative hacks who can't make space exploration interesting.
The ultimate irony: The VERY FIRST Star Trek story, "The Cage" AKA "The Managerie," was about a decadent civilization whose people spent their time living out their fantasies via telepathic thought records.
Stefan
I can picture someone saying this about The Lord of the Rings:
"Magic rings? Little guys with hairy feet? Twisted little trolls with multiple personality disorder. Please! Nyahhhh, gimme a babe with guns and big tits, yeah, that's adventure, HAWWW!"
If it's good, Sky Captain might be a moderately succussful popcorn movie. If not, it will be out of theaters in a week. But not because it's for geeks.
Stefan
Developer.
Pundit.
Hellraiser for the EFF.
SF author.
One of the administrators of BoingBoing.net.
Here is his home page:
http://www.craphound.com.
. . . are the same guys who set the standards for testing strategic anti-missile systems.
"OK, I suppose it's reasonable for enemy missiles to have florescent 'HIT ME' signs with blinking red bull's-eyes and a GPS system transmitting their coordinates."
(Seriously, the race is still pretty cool. I'm rooting for the CMU team, who used to test their vehicles in Shenley Park.)
Stefan
"black and boring?"
Have you ever SEEN a clear night sky, outside of some light-polluted city or suburb?
The awe and beauty of the night sky gets washed out by crappy advertising and you tell us "you'll get used to it."
"The walls of the Grand Canyon were so dull and stone-colored. Now these billboards for s%$tburgers and cheap hotels make it so colorful and exciting!"
"This unspoiled meadow was so boring. It's SO much livlier now that it's littered with colorful flyers from local chiropractors and 10 minute oil change places!"
Screw That. F$#k that noise.
Stefan
Encyclopedias for home schooled kids whose parents are afraid of the Net.
They'll save a lot of pages by replacing many of the articles with references like "Good children do not ask about such things" and "Your parents will tell you on your wedding day" and "It's only a theory."
I like it! A Shopping Sense!
Of course, you'd be rewarded by being near items the retailer wants to push.
Dedicated consumers might be punished severely if they try to enter a bookstore, or even worse, a library.
It is better to end than to mend.
Stefan
We've replaced all of your tin foil with aluminum foil, which is totally permeable to our MK-ULTRA mind control beams!
While this channel is open:
Attention!
Attention all implantees!
You will now believe that smearing cottage cheese into your hair will prevent the CIA from putting voices in your heads! Report to the nearest dumpster and root around for cartons of expired cottage cheese.
Implantees with last names beginning with a letter from A to Z should STOP taking their medication.
Implantees with last names beginning with secret alphabet letters should continue not taking their medication.
That is all.
Stefan "Mental illness is a serious thing and nothing to make fun of except by insenstive jerks" Jones
Good News:
Piping hot coffee or soup in seconds.
Bad News:
Everything metal in kitchen becomes mildly radioactive from neutron bombardment.
Good News:
Rats, mice, cockroaches hate the sound of a sonofusor in operation, emptying cities of vermin.
Bad News:
Sound also drives dogs into a frenzy of mindless leg-humping. Except Boston Terriers, whose tightly sutured little skulls explode.
Good News:
Leads to development of ultra-efficient (but low thrust) rocket motor that uses water as a reaction mass.
Bad News:
All water outside of Mars orbit turn out to be owned by Capella OmniVolatile GMBH, who charge a heavy fee, payable in increasingly rare Boston Terriers.
Stefan Jones
I worked for Oracle for three years, before they sold the division I work for.
.
Larry owns my new company too, but whatever . .
Ellison's parking space was right outside of the 500 building entrance. I saw him wandering around the parking lot, cell phone clamped to his ear, a few times. The space wasn't specially marked, just one of a bunch of reserved spaces.
Once, during a staff meeting, the boss mentioned that the division managers were trying to come up with text for a sign for Larry's spot, because people who didn't know better would park there.
The favorite suggestion:
EXIT INTERVIEW PARKING
Other than avoiding the Sci-Fi Comfort Food syndrome, how was it? Was it well based? Were the characters interesting and believable? Was the technology well worked out, or just wish-fulfillment stuff?
While I agree with much of the reviewers ranting, I was really disappointed in this piece as a review.
Stefan "More about the Singularity here!" Jones
I was going to make a wise-ass remark at the expense of Rand, but a serious reference to her in this context is funnier than anything I could have come up with.
I thought you were going to write something about driving the stallions out of the herd and mounting the mares.
I think that lifelike rubber skin is an attempt to push robots up the slope of the *right* side of the valley, toward human realism.
This is going to be really tough.
I would push the other way, toward "unfamiliar but intriguing." Make them clean and symmetrical, out of shiny materials.
Stefan
My parents told me a while back that I was a rabid "Astro Boy"* fan when I was a wee tot. (A translated version of the cartoon played in the 'States in the late 60s.)
I barely remembered the show . . . but was curious enough after the 50th Anniversary noise last year to pick up the first volume of the collected comics. (I think Dark Horse is publishing them.)
The B&W art was very stylish and lively, but the stories were kind of juvenile.
One thing stood out**: In the beginning of the Origin Story, we're shown a brief history of robotics. The big breakthrough that made robots acceptable in everyday life:
Lifelike rubber skin!
Stefan
* Yeah, yeah, his real name is "Mighty Atom."
** Well, one other thing stood out. Astro Boy had a machine gun in his butt. Man, that's freaky.
They weren't production ready. Quite a bit of development work was Still To Be Done.
Parallel:
There's increasing evidence that medical drugs used by humans and livestock are finding their way into the environment.
Sewage systems are pumping excess birth control hormones and other goodies into rivers and coastal waters.
Just yesterday, I read about vultures dying off because they're eating cattle carcasses containing pain-killers. Like ibuprofen, the stuff is mildly toxic. Doesn't hurt the cattle, but the scavengers are being killed wholesale.
Stefan
So you've basically accepted that we're not in control of our own destiny, huh?
If the mighty and sanctified Invisible Hand of the Market dictates that a potentially deadly technology gets developed . . . that's it, huh?
If there's money to be made in something, we may as well just let it happen, right?
Or maybe you think the development of nanotech is part of the path to some trancendental, inevitable technosocial Singularity that cannot, must not be denied.
This kind of absolutist, ideological take on things leads to bad, shortsided policies.
Jaron Lanier deals with a similar sort of ideology in his One Half a Manifesto.
Stefan
What if they showed Raised by Wolves guy remembering his first date?
* * *
There's an SUV commercial featuring a suburban dad Raised By Wolves. He's shown chasing deer, fetching sticks, and cavorting with timber wolves.
My question: Which came first, the car commercial or Quiznos's?
Stefan
I wouldn't consider Pixar's stuff to date "watered down."
In fact, I think they've done a great job of making films that entertain adults as well as kids.
It would be interesting to see them take on other projects, though.
By the end of the year, 90% of Disney's revenue will come from licensing its characters to junk food restaurants, manufacturers of lunch boxes and backpacks, and makers of disposable training pants.
It will use its last bit of influence to convince Congress to make image piracy punishable by death or five years janatorial duties in the Disney[world|land] Outlet Malls.
Stefan
. . . at least until start pulling cat girls or other furry-bait out of them petri dishes.
On the other hand, we might end up having to pony up for lifelong psychotherapy for these guys, what with their being descended from cancer cells. Talk about a major self esteem hit.
Stefan
And on the way out, pounding "I AM AN E-MAIL SPAMMER" signs on their front lawn?
C'mon, admit it. That would feel really good.
Stefan