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Dracula's Biggest Mistake

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Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#61

Post by Izkata »

mrgoldenbrown wrote: post #22
dylan604 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

along the same line of applying modern day to older shows, I recently re-watched Stargate Atlantis. I found it amusing that with all of the futuristic tech, McKay still carried around a bulky laptop. Even the original Star Trek minimized the computer to a hand held device. The prop team kind of failed in SG:Atlantis on this one to me. How much easier would their off world adventures been with a tablet or other smalle…

STar Trek's handheld computers never made sense to me, unless they have some crazy good AI that does all the work for you based on vague inputs. How do you input anything like code quickly on such a tiny screen?

In DS9, once Jake Sisko gets into writing he's often seen using his PADD with a stylus. It is possible to enter text without the stylus using the controls at the bottom (Bashir enters "GO AWAY" for Dax in one episode when she interrupts him flirting with someone else), but it's apparently cumbersome enough that it's not normally used like that.

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#62

Post by Izkata »

dylan604 wrote: post #31
mrgoldenbrown wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

STar Trek's handheld computers never made sense to me, unless they have some crazy good AI that does all the work for you based on vague inputs. How do you input anything like code quickly on such a tiny screen?

how much code do you enter into a mobile device? these aren't the devices to do that with. they just run apps that serve the purpose at hand dictated by the script. when ever you want to send a text, you don't enter the code for that. neither did anyone on an away team that needed to take air samples, or scan someone's health. seems like you had an idea not fully thought out

> neither did anyone on an away team that needed to take air samples, or scan someone's health.

You're thinking of tricorders[0], GP is talking about PADDs[1]. Tricorders are mostly read-only sensors that need to be pre-configured (with some ability to switch between configurations during use), while PADDs are basically modern tablets with some physical inputs around the screen.

[0] https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Tricorder

[1] https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Personal_Access_Display...

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#63

Post by thaumasiotes »

cardiffspaceman wrote: post #51
kevinmhickey wrote: post #5

On a related note, when I re-watch shows from the 1990's or even early 2000's it's amazing how many problems would be solved with a simple cell phone call or text message. Buffy the Vampire Slayer would be a much shorter show if the gang could just text instead of wondering where the others were or if they knew some key fact.

What about shows set in USA with heroes who are vulnerable to gunfire? There’s a good half hour in Buffy the Vampire Slayer where a vampire lays in wait for Buffy, with a rifle loaded and ready. The show didn’t end on that episode. At least one of Buffy’s friends knew what could be done with computers, and researched floor plans and “ancient lore” online. Can writers plot a story in any given milieu? Yes. Sometimes t…

> What about shows set in USA with heroes who are vulnerable to gunfire?

Buffy is more vulnerable to gunfire than the vampires are, but she's not vulnerable in the way that a human would be. She is a supernatural force just like the vampires are.

This is only called out in a few episodes; it seems that the writers would mostly prefer that you forget. But compare e.g. her meeting with Glory in season 5, where the two of them get into a fistfight, and after trading a few punches Glory realizes that a human would have been dead by now.

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#64

Post by sigzero »

runeofdoom wrote: post #8

The author thinks that Helsing & company killed Dracula... and that is certainly the narrator's desperate belief. But as Fred Saberhagen pointed out in his more modern telling of the tale, Van Helsing himself maintains Dracula must be staked, decapitated and have his mouth stuffed with garlic to perish. And yet, despite this and despite knowing that Dracula can turn himself to mist, the heroes are content with victor…

Dust and mist are two very different things though.

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#65

Post by smogcutter »

Izkata wrote: post #57
at_a_remove wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can get from A to B faster than a photon in a vacuum could, I'm counting it as FTL. They've been really inconsistent about it. For a while, communicating through subspace was not quite as long as travel, but it was still a non-zero amount of time. Now, communication seems to be via ansible, and the less said about the wildly varying rates of travel, the better.

Several episodes mention subspace relay stations, and between how communication seems to jump between real-time and waiting hours or more for a reply (I don't recall any minutes-long delays), I have a suspicion the unwritten rule is subspace communication has some sort of speed decay. Like it actually slows down the further it has to go, instead of going at the same speed but weaker, and subspace relay stations inter…

I think the unwritten rule is that subspace communication takes precisely as long as the plot requires it to. (Especially in the more modern series)

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#66

Post by aspenmayer »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #63
cardiffspaceman wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about shows set in USA with heroes who are vulnerable to gunfire? There’s a good half hour in Buffy the Vampire Slayer where a vampire lays in wait for Buffy, with a rifle loaded and ready. The show didn’t end on that episode. At least one of Buffy’s friends knew what could be done with computers, and researched floor plans and “ancient lore” online. Can writers plot a story in any given milieu? Yes. Sometimes t…

> What about shows set in USA with heroes who are vulnerable to gunfire? Buffy is more vulnerable to gunfire than the vampires are, but she's not vulnerable in the way that a human would be. She is a supernatural force just like the vampires are. This is only called out in a few episodes; it seems that the writers would mostly prefer that you forget. But compare e.g. her meeting with Glory in season 5, where the two…

Definitions from Oxford Languages

plot armor

noun

used to refer to the phenomenon in fiction whereby the main character is allowed to survive dangerous situations because they are needed for the plot to continue.

"I do think that he can't die since the inevitable plot armor is far too thick"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_armor

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlotArmor

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#67

Post by sdwr »

jackjeff wrote: post #58
gwern wrote: post #37

OP is echoing, with a Catholic-centric viewpoint, a point that's been made in much greater depth by others: I suggest https://gwern.net/doc/economics/2014-robbins.pdf and then more briefly, https://www.thefitzwilliam.com/p/turning-back-the-economic-c... https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2022/02/br... I read _Dracula_ afterwards, and I think this perspective is 100% correct, and perhaps the single larg…

It’s really Dracula vs Modernity. There’s nothing in the blog post that justifies the usage of the “Catholic” epithet. London is the seat of Anglican faith after all and using type writers and records are secular endeavors.

That's really splitting hairs. Crucifixes, holy water, and communion wafers are symbols from formal, organized Christianity, of which Catholicism is the most prominent example.

It's also a sneaky, underhanded way to make a point. The shell game of argument tactics.

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#68

Post by coryrc »

aquova wrote: post #56
at_a_remove wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've counted at least three civilization-shattering technologies in Star Trek which were simply thrown in, without consideration for the long-term, for reasons of budget and convenience, but largely to maintain the Sailing Ship, Days of Yore set of metaphors. Transporters: Originally designed to save on tedious shuttle launches and landings and, most importantly, footage, these would utterly rewrite medicine, aging,…

I think there's a fourth, which in my opinion is even more world shattering than the others -- the replicator. It often was shown as a novelty device to make food or warm beverages, but the ability to convert energy into any needed material would instantly transform the world into a post-scarcity, post-economic future. What would you even use as currency when everyone has personal money making machines? I've seen som…

Gold-pressed latinum, obviously, as it can't be replicated.

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#69

Post by thsksbd »

jackjeff wrote: post #58
gwern wrote: post #37

OP is echoing, with a Catholic-centric viewpoint, a point that's been made in much greater depth by others: I suggest https://gwern.net/doc/economics/2014-robbins.pdf and then more briefly, https://www.thefitzwilliam.com/p/turning-back-the-economic-c... https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2022/02/br... I read _Dracula_ afterwards, and I think this perspective is 100% correct, and perhaps the single larg…

It’s really Dracula vs Modernity. There’s nothing in the blog post that justifies the usage of the “Catholic” epithet. London is the seat of Anglican faith after all and using type writers and records are secular endeavors.

But the sacramentals used against him are Catholic (and in Romania Orthodox).

I didn't read all of it, but the first two pages of [1] demonstrate how the book is "Catholic" as opposed to Anglican, with the protagonist feeling awkward, as an Anglican, at the icons and crucifixes used as (in the book effective) protection.

Keep in mind, for the purposes of the book Catholicism and Orthodoxy can be considered the same as we both believe in icons, consecrated sacraments, apostolic succession, transubstination, etc

https://eprints.qut.edu.au/5244/1/5244_1.pdf

Re: Dracula's Biggest Mistake

#70

Post by PhasmaFelis »

jackjeff wrote: post #58
gwern wrote: post #37

OP is echoing, with a Catholic-centric viewpoint, a point that's been made in much greater depth by others: I suggest https://gwern.net/doc/economics/2014-robbins.pdf and then more briefly, https://www.thefitzwilliam.com/p/turning-back-the-economic-c... https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2022/02/br... I read _Dracula_ afterwards, and I think this perspective is 100% correct, and perhaps the single larg…

It’s really Dracula vs Modernity. There’s nothing in the blog post that justifies the usage of the “Catholic” epithet. London is the seat of Anglican faith after all and using type writers and records are secular endeavors.

Dracula vs. Christian Modernity, maybe, but you can't really argue that religious items weren't crucial and powerful weapons in the the story.
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