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Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

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Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#71

Post by legohead »

Interesting they mention and get quotes from the author of the Three Body Problem series. I just finished reading that series, and the whole time I had the feeling that it was written more to convince people of something than to actually entertain the reader.

The ideas in the books were pretty amazing, unique, and imaginative; but the story and writing itself was quite sub-par.

edit: I listened (audio books) to the English versions. I thought the translation was excellent. I don't want to spoil anything, but the author has a very dark vision of mankind and kept having his characters ostracized to the extreme which got old pretty quick. I didn't feel like the books were missing anything descriptive from lack of translation.

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#72

Post by elorant »

r00fus wrote: post #46
elorant wrote: post #44

And destroyed the Greek economy. Which speaks volumes about his competence as an economist.

That's a bit rich. He advocated retreating from the Euro when Greece essentially had obligations that it could never repay (obligations created by a corrupt previous government that arguably were unconscionable).

Well actually he never did, and that's the problem. If he had, we'd at least know his plan. But all he did was taking a gamble that went on and on for months dragging the economy to the bottom in the meantime. There was no planning for exiting the Euro, nothing at all. Just random thoughts here and there and a lot of bs talk. For example, the committee that was exploring the consequences of leaving the Euro and how the state would react to that was less than five guys that he brought. There was a lot of amateurism going on and eventually we paid the price for all that.

And by the way, those obligations you speak about were not created by corrupted governments. They were created for sustaining an unviable model that gives pensions to people at their mid fifties and maintains a soviet-era type of economy where the state controls pretty much everything.

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#73

Post by skrebbel »

legohead wrote: post #71

Interesting they mention and get quotes from the author of the Three Body Problem series. I just finished reading that series, and the whole time I had the feeling that it was written more to convince people of something than to actually entertain the reader. The ideas in the books were pretty amazing, unique, and imaginative; but the story and writing itself was quite sub-par. edit: I listened (audio books) to the E…

Notpick: It's not the author, but the English translator.

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#74

Post by jacobolus »

legohead wrote: post #71

Interesting they mention and get quotes from the author of the Three Body Problem series. I just finished reading that series, and the whole time I had the feeling that it was written more to convince people of something than to actually entertain the reader. The ideas in the books were pretty amazing, unique, and imaginative; but the story and writing itself was quite sub-par. edit: I listened (audio books) to the E…

Did you read it in Chinese? Maybe something got lost in translation...?

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#75

Post by Alupis »

elorant wrote: post #60
RodericDay wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone clueless speaking confidently is always a joy to read.

Well I happen to live in Greece so I witnessed first hand the results of his reign. You probably have no idea how it is to live in a country that has capital controls so let me enlighten you. The first months, until the system was somewhat stabilized, in order to pay for servers and such we had to ask for favors from Greeks who lived abroad. Imagine having half a dozen servers to pay and not knowing if you will manag…

Yanis Varoufakis became involved in the Greek Government in 2015... well after Greece's financial problems had set in.

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#76

Post by jjoonathan »

elorant wrote: post #60
RodericDay wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone clueless speaking confidently is always a joy to read.

Well I happen to live in Greece so I witnessed first hand the results of his reign. You probably have no idea how it is to live in a country that has capital controls so let me enlighten you. The first months, until the system was somewhat stabilized, in order to pay for servers and such we had to ask for favors from Greeks who lived abroad. Imagine having half a dozen servers to pay and not knowing if you will manag…

I thought he advised the opposite approach to the one the Greek government wound up choosing?

In any case, there is no free lunch, and the lunch had already been eaten when he was brought on board. In the absence of a miracle I would expect every alternative to be painful. From your experience we can conclude that he did not work a miracle. That's hardly an indictment.

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#77

Post by Tyrek »

elorant wrote: post #60
RodericDay wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone clueless speaking confidently is always a joy to read.

Well I happen to live in Greece so I witnessed first hand the results of his reign. You probably have no idea how it is to live in a country that has capital controls so let me enlighten you. The first months, until the system was somewhat stabilized, in order to pay for servers and such we had to ask for favors from Greeks who lived abroad. Imagine having half a dozen servers to pay and not knowing if you will manag…

anecdata != data. You haven't presented any alternative views on what a presumably more competent economist could have executed on. Just because life was bad doesn't mean that it could have been better.

Re: Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them

#78

Post by rayalez »

jermaustin1 wrote: post #43

I do something similar. I pay writers to write me sci-fi and fantasy stories based on my prompts! It allows me to read what I want to read!

Do you submit prompts to /r/WritingPrompts? If they're good, you could get hundreds of stories for free(some of them great).
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