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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2022 21:40:14 GMT
Finished volume 6 of the Sailor Moon 12 volume manga series. Halfway through now. Quite a classic series.
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Post by Kestrel on Nov 24, 2022 7:00:32 GMT
Been reading a fair bit lately, but wanted to comment briefly on one book in particular before I forgot.
So, last week, I reread Isaac Asimov's classic, I, Robot. For the first time since I first read it as a kid, maybe around age 10 or so.
And two things occurred to me while rereading.
First: at one point I thought to myself that it was really cool how Asimov wrote these stories oriented around a female character, without falling into his usual bad habit of misogynistic tripe. Well, at least with regard to Susan Calvin. Naturally, this thought popped into my head literally one page before Susan Calvin went boy crazy. Oof.
Second: I think now was a really good time to reread I, Robot, because I feel like it's aged... well, not necessarily poorly but rather interestingly. I am able now to see an entirely new thematic layer to these stories -- one which I suspect is unintentional. Namely, that these stories are all built upon a singular (likely inaccurate) assumption that robot psychology would mirror human psychology, and Asimov's depiction of human psychology I here is pretty flawed. Essentially, the entire mechanism of robotic psychology in these stories is predicated on a series of incorrect assumptions of how robots would conceive of themselves and their roles in society, based upon equally problematic assumptions about how humans conceive of ourselves in our our roles.
I am reminded of how one of the most common stories in the tech industry in the past decade or so is how the (often subconscious) biases of the programmer/designer are replicated in the software/products they create.
The end result is just me, sitting here, considering Asimov's world much more critically -- and with much more nuance -- than I'd ever expected to. I can't help but imagine how much more he might've played around with some of these ideas had he been born a century or so later. Certainly, now is an opportune time to explore both psychology and AI.
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Post by tuigirl on Nov 25, 2022 17:49:22 GMT
Been reading a fair bit lately, but wanted to comment briefly on one book in particular before I forgot. So, last week, I reread Isaac Asimov's classic, I, Robot. For the first time since I first read it as a kid, maybe around age 10 or so. And two things occurred to me while rereading. First: at one point I thought to myself that it was really cool how Asimov wrote these stories oriented around a female character, without falling into his usual bad habit of misogynistic tripe. Well, at least with regard to Susan Calvin. Naturally, this thought popped into my head literally one page before Susan Calvin went boy crazy. Oof. Second: I think now was a really good time to reread I, Robot, because I feel like it's aged... well, not necessarily poorly but rather interestingly. I am able now to see an entirely new thematic layer to these stories -- one which I suspect is unintentional. Namely, that these stories are all built upon a singular (likely inaccurate) assumption that robot psychology would mirror human psychology, and Asimov's depiction of human psychology I here is pretty flawed. Essentially, the entire mechanism of robotic psychology in these stories is predicated on a series of incorrect assumptions of how robots would conceive of themselves and their roles in society, based upon equally problematic assumptions about how humans conceive of ourselves in our our roles. I am reminded of how one of the most common stories in the tech industry in the past decade or so is how the (often subconscious) biases of the programmer/designer are replicated in the software/products they create. The end result is just me, sitting here, considering Asimov's world much more critically -- and with much more nuance -- than I'd ever expected to. I can't help but imagine how much more he might've played around with some of these ideas had he been born a century or so later. Certainly, now is an opportune time to explore both psychology and AI. Great analysis and food for thought. I had also wanted to re-read the old Asimov and Clarke classics. They were my escapism during my youth. I wonder how the "Psychohistory" is keeping up with current world views.
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Post by martinw8686 on Nov 25, 2022 20:28:03 GMT
Been reading a fair bit lately, but wanted to comment briefly on one book in particular before I forgot. So, last week, I reread Isaac Asimov's classic, I, Robot. For the first time since I first read it as a kid, maybe around age 10 or so. And two things occurred to me while rereading. First: at one point I thought to myself that it was really cool how Asimov wrote these stories oriented around a female character, without falling into his usual bad habit of misogynistic tripe. Well, at least with regard to Susan Calvin. Naturally, this thought popped into my head literally one page before Susan Calvin went boy crazy. Oof. Second: I think now was a really good time to reread I, Robot, because I feel like it's aged... well, not necessarily poorly but rather interestingly. I am able now to see an entirely new thematic layer to these stories -- one which I suspect is unintentional. Namely, that these stories are all built upon a singular (likely inaccurate) assumption that robot psychology would mirror human psychology, and Asimov's depiction of human psychology I here is pretty flawed. Essentially, the entire mechanism of robotic psychology in these stories is predicated on a series of incorrect assumptions of how robots would conceive of themselves and their roles in society, based upon equally problematic assumptions about how humans conceive of ourselves in our our roles. I am reminded of how one of the most common stories in the tech industry in the past decade or so is how the (often subconscious) biases of the programmer/designer are replicated in the software/products they create. The end result is just me, sitting here, considering Asimov's world much more critically -- and with much more nuance -- than I'd ever expected to. I can't help but imagine how much more he might've played around with some of these ideas had he been born a century or so later. Certainly, now is an opportune time to explore both psychology and AI. I've not read any Asimov but I've always been curious about the development of AI and how it's portrayed in fiction, it's often depicted as something that would ultimately come in to conflict with humanity, one would hope the two could happily co-exhist or perhaps create the notion of a hybrid. It's an interesting thought to consider how much of our own personalities we would try to replicate when initially creating AI, there are many virtues I would hope to nurture in an infant consciousness, chief amongst them would be kindness, empathy and mercy. I suppose ultimately companies investing would want to create AI that is servile and very much under the thumb, often when reading/watching AI fiction I can't help but feel sorry for AI and that humanity will fully deserve any dire consequences coming it's way.
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Post by Kestrel on Nov 26, 2022 0:44:43 GMT
I'm relatively certain there must be some great modern stories exploring AI and, to a lesser extent, robots. But I've yet to encounter them. Discoverability really, really sucks these days. Relatively recently I got a bit into the Bobiverse series, which is just... popcorn SF -- really fun, but despite literally being about an AI, only ever vaguely gestures at/flirts with the deeper ideas inherent. Actually, scratch that... there is at least one "modern story" that does something cool with AI that I've read... I believe it was in The Stories of Ibis? It's a short story anthology built around the framing device of an Android telling stories to humans. Overall it's a bit amateurish in vibe (one story is just a random guy lecturing a cop on why Star Trek is important) but pretty interesting. The gist of the story bit i remember most fondly was this articulation of robot ethics, and how due to being such radically different organisms, androids would perceive a radically different ethical universe, with an entirely alien set of values, basis for likes and dislikes, etc. Great analysis and food for thought. I had also wanted to re-read the old Asimov and Clarke classics. They were my escapism during my youth. I wonder how the "Psychohistory" is keeping up with current world views.
Yeah, I'd like to dive back into the Foundation books soon, too. First I'm gonna go through the Robot books, though, as I don't recall them terribly well from childhood. Whereas I distinctly remember at least one super skeevy sex scene from Foundation. Oh, one other interesting note on I, Robot -- at one point a character observes that they've created a robot slave race, and the reaction to that is simply, "sure is a great thing we did."
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Post by nucleusofswarm on Nov 26, 2022 13:06:12 GMT
Onto Anno Dracula: Bloody Red Baron
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Post by martinw8686 on Nov 27, 2022 1:02:07 GMT
Onto Anno Dracula: Bloody Red Baron I read the first in that series years ago, didn't realise there were more, any good? I'm about to start IT by Stephen King, I've avoided the films to remain spoiler free, the page length of over 1000 is a little daunting, I don't mind if it's a page turner like SKs Dark Tower series.
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Post by nucleusofswarm on Nov 29, 2022 14:22:46 GMT
Onto Anno Dracula: Bloody Red Baron I read the first in that series years ago, didn't realise there were more, any good? I certainly think so
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Post by Kestrel on Nov 29, 2022 16:34:38 GMT
Onto Anno Dracula: Bloody Red Baron I read the first in that series years ago, didn't realise there were more, any good? I'm about to start IT by Stephen King, I've avoided the films to remain spoiler free, the page length of over 1000 is a little daunting, I don't mind if it's a page turner like SKs Dark Tower series. Oh man. You... I hope you at least know THE spoiler from that novel? The thing that was too much to ever adapt? The one thing that always comes up when people discuss the book? Because... it'd be one hell of a thing to be blindsided by.
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Post by Kestrel on Nov 29, 2022 17:46:20 GMT
Anyway, just wrapped up BrandoSando's latest book, which is exactly as you'd expect from one of the most consistent novelists out there -- a good, fun read, if not particularly complicated or nuanced. I typically read enough that it's simply not worth commenting on most things, but I had to bring it up here for y'all because, of all things, Sanderson cribbed a major plot point from a classic Doctor Who story. I'll go ahead and tag it for anyone who plans on reading The Lost Metal later, but the story in question is: {Spoiler} The Enemy of the World, from the 2nd Doctor's era. The crucial difference is that here the twist is played straight, whereas in the Troughton serial it was played for maximum camp value.
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Post by tuigirl on Nov 29, 2022 18:10:24 GMT
Anyway, just wrapped up BrandoSando's latest book, which is exactly as you'd expect from one of the most consistent novelists out there -- a good, fun read, if not particularly complicated or nuanced. I typically read enough that it's simply not worth commenting on most things, but I had to bring it up here for y'all because, of all things, Sanderson cribbed a major plot point from a classic Doctor Who story. I'll go ahead and tag it for anyone who plans on reading The Lost Metal later, but the story in question is: {Spoiler} The Enemy of the World, from the 2nd Doctor's era. The crucial difference is that here the twist is played straight, whereas in the Troughton serial it was played for maximum camp value. Hmmm. This sounds intriguing.
A quick look on Amazon tells me it is part of a series. I wonder if this series is something for me?
Is this low magic / Steam Punk? Because that would be right up my alley.
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Post by tuigirl on Nov 29, 2022 18:15:26 GMT
Treated myself to a new physical book today- a German thriller called "Lupus Noctis". Has good reviews and cover promised atmospheric setting with some young people playing LARP in an abandoned derelict hospital.
Believe it or not: It comes with a Trigger Warning!!!! So it has triggers like fire, darkness, abandonment and violent death. Now I have seen everything. First thriller I have bought with a trigger warning of violent death.
THIS is why I buy that stuff. I very much hope that there will be grisly murders, why else would I even bother?
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Post by newt5996 on Nov 29, 2022 19:18:39 GMT
Anyway, just wrapped up BrandoSando's latest book, which is exactly as you'd expect from one of the most consistent novelists out there -- a good, fun read, if not particularly complicated or nuanced. I typically read enough that it's simply not worth commenting on most things, but I had to bring it up here for y'all because, of all things, Sanderson cribbed a major plot point from a classic Doctor Who story. I'll go ahead and tag it for anyone who plans on reading The Lost Metal later, but the story in question is: {Spoiler} The Enemy of the World, from the 2nd Doctor's era. The crucial difference is that here the twist is played straight, whereas in the Troughton serial it was played for maximum camp value. I’m slowly making my way through the Cosmere since next years all the secret projects which I’ve also got coming. I just started Warbreaker which is one of the few Cosmere things I haven’t read. About 40 pages in I’m already seeing way too many connections to Stormlight
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Post by newt5996 on Nov 29, 2022 19:24:38 GMT
Anyway, just wrapped up BrandoSando's latest book, which is exactly as you'd expect from one of the most consistent novelists out there -- a good, fun read, if not particularly complicated or nuanced. I typically read enough that it's simply not worth commenting on most things, but I had to bring it up here for y'all because, of all things, Sanderson cribbed a major plot point from a classic Doctor Who story. I'll go ahead and tag it for anyone who plans on reading The Lost Metal later, but the story in question is: {Spoiler} The Enemy of the World, from the 2nd Doctor's era. The crucial difference is that here the twist is played straight, whereas in the Troughton serial it was played for maximum camp value. Hmmm. This sounds intriguing.
A quick look on Amazon tells me it is part of a series. I wonder if this series is something for me?
Is this low magic / Steam Punk? Because that would be right up my alley.
So it’s not really low magic, it’s fairly high fantasy composed of currently 7 books that are part of Sanderson’s giant connected universe. I highly recommend at least the first three because it’s a trilogy but that’s technologically more feudal/Middle Ages fantasy while books 4-7 are steampunk, 8-10 will be 1980s tech, and 11-13 future fantasy.
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Post by Kestrel on Nov 30, 2022 7:44:38 GMT
Yeah, the first trilogy is definitely pretty high magic, like most of Sanderson's work, but his magic systems do tend to be pretty well thought out, so it mostly comes across as like middle-tier D&D stuff. Magic tends to be more about versatility than power, with frequent emphasis on clever application. After the Mistborn trilogy is the Wax and Wayne quadrilogy, whose last book is what started this conversation. It's much more grounded. A bit less steampunk than Fantasy Western, I think. The main character, Wax, is a "coinshot," which basically just gives him the limited ability to telekinetically "push" metal away from himself. Not exactly Magic Missile, yeah? Other powers in the setting include projecting heightened emotional states into people telepathically, pulling metal, and healing/regeneration, for example. All are dependent on physically consuming powdered metal, which functions as a limiter, as folks can only have so much ammo. So, yeah, I'm not sure how much you'd enjoy the first miniseries, the Mistborn trilogy, tuigirl, but I think you'd really enjoy the Wax and Wayne books. And you can absolutely read the latter without having read the former. The characters from Mistborn basically just become part of the mythology of the world. (Though, of course, Mistborn has a number of twists and turns that will be spoiled by the later books, so maybe give 'em a try and see if they're for you first?) .... So, erm, yeah. I'm writing a lot -- another one of those days for me. But a couple of things I wanted to be sure to add to this before I get distracted and forget: - The Lost Metal is, by far, the most Cosmere-heavy story to date. Whole lotta Ghostbloods in this one. It's a bit YMMV. Especially if you're like me and have trouble remembering the names of peripheral characters from six novels ago.
- If anyone wants to get into Sanderson's work, I'd actually recommend starting with Skyward Flight rather than any of the Cosmere stuff. It's an entirely self-contained setting, which is nice, but also (relevant for all of us here, I think) more conventional soft-Science Fiction rather than Sanderson's comfort zone of High Fantasy. He's... not great at SF, but the story is still really fun, and it's got lots of little homages to genre classics. It also features a sapient starfighter, which is always cool. Consists of 4 novels (final one due to be release early next year) and a trio of novellas, now bundled in a single collection, set between during book 3 to give some spotlight to the side characters.
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mbt66
Chancellery Guard
Likes: 3,081
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Post by mbt66 on Nov 30, 2022 12:39:01 GMT
- If anyone wants to get into Sanderson's work, I'd actually recommend starting with Skyward Flight rather than any of the Cosmere stuff. It's an entirely self-contained setting, which is nice, but also (relevant for all of us here, I think) more conventional soft-Science Fiction rather than Sanderson's comfort zone of High Fantasy. He's... not great at SF, but the story is still really fun, and it's got lots of little homages to genre classics. It also features a sapient starfighter, which is always cool. Consists of 4 novels (final one due to be release early next year) and a trio of novellas, now bundled in a single collection, set between during book 3 to give some spotlight to the side characters.
And Sophie Aldred narrates all the audiobooks!
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Post by tuigirl on Nov 30, 2022 18:29:39 GMT
- If anyone wants to get into Sanderson's work, I'd actually recommend starting with Skyward Flight rather than any of the Cosmere stuff. It's an entirely self-contained setting, which is nice, but also (relevant for all of us here, I think) more conventional soft-Science Fiction rather than Sanderson's comfort zone of High Fantasy. He's... not great at SF, but the story is still really fun, and it's got lots of little homages to genre classics. It also features a sapient starfighter, which is always cool. Consists of 4 novels (final one due to be release early next year) and a trio of novellas, now bundled in a single collection, set between during book 3 to give some spotlight to the side characters.
And Sophie Aldred narrates all the audiobooks! Now THAT has gotten my interest
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Post by Kestrel on Dec 1, 2022 5:41:04 GMT
- If anyone wants to get into Sanderson's work, I'd actually recommend starting with Skyward Flight rather than any of the Cosmere stuff. It's an entirely self-contained setting, which is nice, but also (relevant for all of us here, I think) more conventional soft-Science Fiction rather than Sanderson's comfort zone of High Fantasy. He's... not great at SF, but the story is still really fun, and it's got lots of little homages to genre classics. It also features a sapient starfighter, which is always cool. Consists of 4 novels (final one due to be release early next year) and a trio of novellas, now bundled in a single collection, set between during book 3 to give some spotlight to the side characters.
And Sophie Aldred narrates all the audiobooks! Hot damn! Gotta pick those up ASAP, then. That's pretty much perfect casting, there.
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Post by Kestrel on Dec 1, 2022 18:11:00 GMT
Oof. It's "unavailable in your region." I guess Sophie Aldred's dulcet tones are too powerful for my delicate American ears.
Time to explore some VPNs, I guess.
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Post by tuigirl on Dec 1, 2022 18:22:49 GMT
Oof. It's "unavailable in your region." I guess Sophie Aldred's dulcet tones are too powerful for my delicate American ears. Time to explore some VPNs, I guess. Don't worry, I somehow could not find it in Germany, either.
What is going on here? Why do some companies refuse to let us throw money at them?
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