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Where did all the starships go?

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Re: Where did all the starships go?

#271

Post by Fargren »

devmor wrote: post #168
WalterBright wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't support Musk if he was a fascist nazi. My personal views are libertarian.

I don’t think he is a fascist nazi either. But I do think he is happy to support them as long as they make him feel special, and that’s bad enough. The man is deeply unwell and desperate for approval and accolades. From anyone.

I think if you materially support the nazis, you are a nazi, regardless of what might be your internal justification. This is a distinction without a difference.

Re: Where did all the starships go?

#272

Post by nephihaha »

chasil wrote: post #244
nephihaha wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some brilliant SF writers from the eastern bloc. They had to write to get around censorship and the official line. Stanislaw Lem is great.

Why was George Clooney persuaded to make such a bad adaptation of Solaris?

You've no argument from me there. Lem was unhappy with aspects of Tarkovsky's version saying he had not written about people's sex problems in space. Nonetheless it is often a very beautiful film.

Re: Where did all the starships go?

#273

Post by nephihaha »

WalterBright wrote: post #138
nephihaha wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of ethical issues surrounding Neuralink and how it would be used. It might be good for certain medical stuff but I can see how it can be abused.

> There are a lot of ethical issues surrounding Neuralink and how it would be used Like what? (There are always ethical issues with new medical technology.) > It might be good for certain medical stuff Yes, like giving sight to the blind! What a monster Musk is! P.S. two of my largest medical fears are becoming paralyzed or going blind. Neuralink has promise in making these treatable. I'm all for it!

Neuralink has various potentials. One of them is that it becomes obligatory or even mandatory... If you don't get it, you'll be accused of being a luddite. It will probably start as a medical tool and progress to there.

The problem is that you are giving away access to your mind, one of the last private spaces. That means your thoughts can be stolen (think AI scraping but worse), or advertising put in your dreams. Perhaps even used to reprogram your mind etc.

Re: Where did all the starships go?

#274

Post by nephihaha »

WalterBright wrote: post #136
nephihaha wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) There may well be other biospheres in the solar system. There is some indirect and inconclusive evidence of microbial life on Mars, and even in the Venusian atmosphere. This dates back to results from the Viking and Venera, as well as more recent research. Earth life could be destructive to native life in these places, and vice versa (since they would likely be extremophiles) resulting in invasive species. 2) Musk…

> There is some indirect and inconclusive evidence of microbial life on Mars, and even in the Venusian atmosphere. This dates back to results from the Viking and Venera, as well as more recent research. Yes, I've been hearing that forever. Every probe shrinks the envelope on the possibility. > Earth life could be destructive to native life in these places, Better us than slime mold. > and vice versa (since they would…

There are possibilities of invasive species either way. Think of how Australia etc have struggled with various plants and animals that have taken over. We may find that some Earth life likes Mars too much and becomes an uncontrollable pest there (after some mutation), or that some microbe etc from Mars finds the Earth environment more hospitable and starts being invasive here. (Already predicted by HG Wells' "Red Weed".) That would not be unlikely as if Mars used to be more habitable then there could be life hibernating or waiting for a break, and Earth might offer it all the things it needs to reproduce quickly...

Re: Where did all the starships go?

#275

Post by direwolf20 »

WalterBright wrote: post #242
direwolf20 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It changes the price and speed of satellite internet. Apart from that...?

There were cars before the Model T, but only for the rich. Ford made cars affordable for everyman. That changed everything. There were books before Gutenberg, but only for the rich. His printing press made them cheap enough to print newspapers. That changed everything. Before Bessemer, making steel was extremely expensive and rarely one. With the Bessemer Process, vast quantities of steel could be cheaply made. That…

And now travel to Mars is affordable for everyone! Oh, wait, no it's not.

Re: Where did all the starships go?

#278

Post by themafia »

jackcosgrove wrote: post #225

It's far more practical to adapt life to space and other planets, than it is to adapt space and other planets to human life. The problem with writing a story about artificial life exploring the universe is that it's unrelatable without humans in it. I think humans are stuck on earth permanently because there are no other environments in the solar system we can live in as easily as earth. Traditional sci-fi explained…

> practical to adapt life to space

This is not practical in terms of microgravity environments. You just have to read the space shuttle manual to learn how to correct a broken toilet before you understand how poorly equipped we are to handle this challenge. If you can't fix it you're back to the Apollo style bags. The toilet has a 21 day lifetime anyways. Reading the manual further shows why. Turns out lots of holes between the inside and outside are so terrible you'd rather hold onto your waste than build a convenience. Even so turds at suborbital velocities are a terrifying thought on every level.

Any loose item in the ship is an _immediate_ choking hazard. There's no gravity. Surface tension does strange things. Even to your throat. You have to trust that every person on board is going to reliably capture and contain all debris at all times. God help you if you have to fire the engines for a short period because suddenly there's "gravity" again. You can rotate a space station but you can't go anywhere really.

Medically you can't do any imaging other than weak ultrasound. No X-Rays even. Surgery is effectively impossible without gravity anyways. Not that you'll ever get that close to the effort. It's absurd how brightly we paint this dim picture in our culture and our military style propaganda.

Until we have artificial gravity I personally think we have no business in space as a civilian effort and we're not going to get particularly far from Earth because of it.

Re: Where did all the starships go?

#279

Post by jacquesm »

WalterBright wrote: post #162
antonvs wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What a monster Musk is! Glad we’re on the same page. When I was using Zortech C++ in the ‘80s, I never imagined I’d be talking to the author nearly half a century later about his support for a fascist Nazi near-trillionaire. Wtf is wrong with you.

I wouldn't support Musk if he was a fascist nazi. My personal views are libertarian.

> I wouldn't support Musk if he was a fascist nazi.

That's not how that works.

Musk is, by many definitions well across the line distinguishing the 'fascist nazi's' from the rest of us.

Normalization of deviance slowly shifts the window to the point where his behavior is excused. Some people think it is acceptable because of all of the (potential) good a person could do or has already done. That's roughly the equivalent of 'Hitler was a vegetarian, and liked animals, how bad could he be?'. But The country that spawned the movement (so I think they get to make the call) thinks he is. And Musk's support for the German AfD (which is a thin layer of veneer over a despicable group) speaks volumes, yes, let's 'Make Germany Great Again' ffs. Even the Neo Nazi's think he is a Nazi. Elon has made Twitter (sorry, 'X') into a safe haven for the alt-right and various hate groups.

If it quacks like a Nazi and moves like a Nazi it probably is a Nazi. Whether you support him or not changes nothing about Elon but it does say something about you that you continue to support him despite everything he has already undeniably done and I'm disappointed, to put it mildly.

"never meet your heroes".

Re: Where did all the starships go?

#280

Post by JuniperMesos »

PaulHoule wrote: post #9

Anime went from science-fiction dominated in the 1980s ( Gundam ) to fantasy-dominated ( Friern ) today. The strange thing about fantasy was it lived under the shadow of Tolkien and Lewis which I think suppressed it for half a century.

This is way too reductive; there was plenty of fantasy anime in the 80s, and they're still making Gundam today, among other sci-fi shows.
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