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Psarevo
(Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:13 pm) Reply
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Re: Da Bouncer's Gravity Room |
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This is FUCKING excellent. |
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Theldorrin Joined: 04 Jan 2007 Posts: 19724 (Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:30 pm) Reply

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Well, it's easy to see 'flaws' in any book when you only make negative assumptions about things.
But I guess you were very upset with Atlas Shrugged when it didn't list the chemical composition of Rearden Steel. And probably with the lack of agricultural practices in 1984 being explicitly detailed. Obviously everyone has much bigger concerns because they have no food to eat! Plus they're probably swimming in feces.. |
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Theldorrin Joined: 04 Jan 2007 Posts: 19724 (Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:36 pm) Reply

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Incidentally, the stories you're criticizing were written before nuclear fission was used as a power source and before the detonation of a nuclear bomb. |
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MADali Basically, someone like me is the friend who is watching from afar and shaking one's head. Joined: 21 Jan 2007 Posts: 6740 (Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:57 pm) Reply

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I need to read the books again to better get involved |
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Theldorrin Joined: 04 Jan 2007 Posts: 19724 (Mon Jul 14, 2008 2:03 pm) Reply

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You'll see mention of a pocket calculator mentioned a few decades before any existed. Of course he doesn't provide a schematic, so Peter was probably upset with it as well. |
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Big Fagot Alpha ape Joined: 09 Jan 2007 Posts: 10545 (Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:36 pm) Reply

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For those (all, apparently) who pass out whenever nerd shit like atoms and molecules are mentioned, the upshot is that the quantity of implausibility is on par with Picard teleporting between planets and then dying because a cougar ambushed him while he was trying to make fire. The idea isn't that a measured and rigorous analysis yields a statistically significant amount of disbelief. It's more like you pick up the book and go "what the fuck, why is medieval Europe happening in a future where technology from the 1960s and the year 400 billion exist together". Now, that thing I said would actually kick ass in a different type of story, but nothing in Foundation indicates that any of it is meant to be absurd.
As for the stuff about Rearden Steel and pocket calculators, those are just lies.
That's pretty remarkable if Asimov actually did predict fission power. He is a great writer and is certainly capable of something like that. It's just too bad he put it 100 centuries in the future instead of one or two. |
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Theldorrin Joined: 04 Jan 2007 Posts: 19724 (Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:47 pm) Reply

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You haven't watched much TNG if you think that Picard's never been in a situation where he had to use some very primitive technology.
I don't think you understand history or technology at even a basic level. |
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Big Fagot Alpha ape Joined: 09 Jan 2007 Posts: 10545 (Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:51 pm) Reply

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So where does the coal come from? Is there an explanation that I forgot? |
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Theldorrin Joined: 04 Jan 2007 Posts: 19724 (Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:54 pm) Reply

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Peter probably wears plastic clothing because he doesn't think that cotton fabric belongs in the same epoch as computers. |
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Theldorrin Joined: 04 Jan 2007 Posts: 19724 (Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:55 pm) Reply

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It could be abiotic, manufactured, or from ancient life. |
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Big Fagot Alpha ape Joined: 09 Jan 2007 Posts: 10545 (Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:57 pm) Reply

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That seemed really easy for you. Do you have any guesses why the author didn't think he could spare a paragraph on any of those explanations to answer that glaring question? |
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Theldorrin Joined: 04 Jan 2007 Posts: 19724 (Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:58 pm) Reply

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Because it's not a glaring question? |
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Big Fagot Alpha ape Joined: 09 Jan 2007 Posts: 10545 (Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:00 pm) Reply

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Do you guys see what I've been dealing with? |
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Big Fagot Alpha ape Joined: 09 Jan 2007 Posts: 10545 (Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:01 pm) Reply

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Anyway, I actually would like to talk about this with you, Mohammed. |
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Theldorrin Joined: 04 Jan 2007 Posts: 19724 (Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:04 pm) Reply

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Peter, in what way does it matter where the coal comes from? If he wrote a version with each of those three possibilities, would they be different in some manner?
Now if it was later in the series when alien life becomes more central to the story it could have been a clever hint, but it's still pretty unnecessary. |
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Big Fagot Alpha ape Joined: 09 Jan 2007 Posts: 10545 (Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:05 pm) Reply

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A writer should at least touch on questions that occur naturally to non-mongoloid readers. |
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Theldorrin Joined: 04 Jan 2007 Posts: 19724 (Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:06 pm) Reply

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He does touch on questions, just not all of them because it's not that kind of book. |
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Psarevo
(Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:08 pm) Reply
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Re: Da Bouncer's Gravity Room |
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Poor Peter! |
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MADali Basically, someone like me is the friend who is watching from afar and shaking one's head. Joined: 21 Jan 2007 Posts: 6740 (Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:09 pm) Reply

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I havent read it in a while, Peter, but I dont think you have to be so fixated on the technology. Thats not the point of the book. Its not oooh look its in the future I bet they have flying cars. |
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MADali Basically, someone like me is the friend who is watching from afar and shaking one's head. Joined: 21 Jan 2007 Posts: 6740 (Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:10 pm) Reply

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Basically, I dont remember much of the technology in the book, but I do remember psychohistory!
You should discuss that instead. |
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