[-] gerikson@awful.systems 2 points 3 hours ago

Everyone is entitled to their own readership of Banks. I'm not saying mine is the one and only. But the Culture is supposed to be a background character, even if Banks spends a lot of time in the later novels "explaining" it. But if the reader only focusses on the lore, they'll miss the quite good characters and psychology that Banks was good at too.

My personal favorite is Use of Weapons, where the focus is on the people doing the Culture's dirty work. In one scene, Zakalwe

spoilerspends an inordinate time trying to protect a useless aristocracy from being wiped out by a revolution, only to find out his side was meant to lose for some inscrutable Mind-directed reason. This kind of shit happens all the time to him, and as he's basically a deeply traumatized individual he's able to keep doing it.

In Look to Windward

spoilerContact goes too far along the path of optimizing "help backwards civilization" and manages to create a genocidal civil war. The survivors decide to try to destroy a Mind (and the Orbital it's managing), and you know, you kind of get why.

[-] gerikson@awful.systems 12 points 1 day ago

Also the Galactic Empire as an anti-scientific hellhole with secret police surveillance.

Witness good old Hari Seldon unveiling his plans on Trantor:

It was not a large office, but it was quite spy-proof and quite undetectably so. Spy-beams trained upon it received neither a suspicious silence nor an even more suspicious static. They received, rather, a conversation constructed at random out of a vast stock of innocuous phrases in various tones and voices.

[Seldon] put his fingers on a certain spot on his desk and a small section of the wall behind him slid aside. Only his own fingers could have done so, since only his particular print-pattern could have activated the scanner beneath.

[…]

“You will find several microfilms inside,” said Seldon. “Take the one marked with the letter T.”

Gaal did so and waited while Seldon fixed it within the projector and handed the young man a pair of eyepieces. Gaal adjusted them, and watched the film unroll before his eyes.

[-] gerikson@awful.systems 17 points 1 day ago

Some dweeb:

I would recommend “Consider Phlebas” by Iain Banks, which is part of the Culture series of novels. Very formative for me, and I read that while I was writing Theme Park. And I still think it’s the best depiction of a post-A.G.I. future, an optimistic post-A.G.I. future, where we’re traveling the stars and humanity reached its full flourishing.

The protagonist of Consider Phlebas is working for the Culture's enemies, a theocratic empire that has slaves literally bred for loyalty, and the conflict they're engaged in ultimately kills billions of sentient beings. Most of the thoughts about the Culture are his, and he basically decries them as the ultimate wokesters. No wonder HN nerds prefer The Player of Games in which a smart nerd like themselves get recruited as an agent to bring down an empire a bit like our own by being really really good at games.

[-] gerikson@awful.systems 11 points 5 days ago

LW was pushing this book hard - multiple posts by Habryka, custom color scheme on the front page. Granted, it's perfectly in line with the site's "mission" but several people commented on it.

In the meantime, I hope Nate finds happiness as an author b/c he doesn't seem to find it by trying to use DOOM as a pretext to get laid:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/dqSwccGTWyBgxrR58/turntrout-s-shortform-feed?commentId=9tK6DiFxk7bGqNMdT

[-] gerikson@awful.systems 42 points 8 months ago

I think we can all agree now that US Rationalists are basically all ex-Christians who are looking for the same thing but with the serial numbers filed off.

[-] gerikson@awful.systems 23 points 10 months ago

This is hilarious. For ages every time Urbit has appeared in tech aggregators the original connection with Yarvin has been raised, and the proponents have snippily replied he's not longer involved. No idea what passive-aggressive bullshit they'll invent next time now that he's back in charge, baby!

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This season's showrunners are so lazy, just re-using the same old plots and antagonists.

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[-] gerikson@awful.systems 27 points 1 year ago

The entire "the world is running out of people" meme is just an attempt to find a non-religious rationale to limit reproductive choice.

[-] gerikson@awful.systems 25 points 1 year ago

According to Wonkette, they're now in danger of deportation because they don't know any Russian, and don't seem interested in learning it

https://www.wonkette.com/p/canadian-idiots-who-fled-to-russia

[-] gerikson@awful.systems 24 points 1 year ago

I just read an account of the Nazi occupation of Norway in WW2 and it was a bit like that. The local Nazis (the OG Quisling!) were widely hated, there was passive resistance at every turn, and very few Norwegians were interested in some sort of "racial bond" with Germany.

[-] gerikson@awful.systems 33 points 1 year ago

The comments are the best part.

And by best, I mean worst.

Thank you for trying!

We also made sure to enjoy our trip and tried some Turkish coffee and petted some of the stray cats." (Awwww),

Well, cats like fish too so this is relevant.

One thing I reflected on after learning about your experiences is the challenge of getting in touch with other, non-EA established organizations

Who knew that acting in a weird, insular manner would hinder the very thing that was attempting to be accomplished?

[-] gerikson@awful.systems 47 points 2 years ago

TIL Burning Man has a fucking airport. USA, man.

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gerikson

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