The Random Crap Thread 2: It Hits the Fan.

Dave

Dave

Staff member
One of the managers in my area detected an issue with one of my reports this morning, so he sent an email to me telling me it was wrong...and he added his boss (VP), MY boss (Senior Director), and the COO of the University.

My response (to all) was: "Have you opened today’s report? The email you are responding to is yesterday’s."
 
strawman

strawman

Once you justify a sixth sense you can justify anything.

Let's assume that empathy can read other people's memories. Perhaps what's really happening is they are reading the previous quantum states of their target's atoms, which combined tell them where and when those atoms were in specific places. Say everyone has this ability to a degree, but empathy have the intuition to interpret what they are sensing into a cohesive story.

For most of history they assume it's mind reading, not really understanding how it works.

But then someone comes along and finds they can just barely sense the same type of information from inorganic materials. Perhaps metallic quantum information is harder to sense or requires greater sensitivity, and most people can really only sense the quantum prior states of the atoms on the top line of the periodic table, hydrogen through neon, which conveniently encompasses the majority of organic items.

So the person that can read more complex atoms would be psychometric.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

One thing that always depresses me about reading "high fantasy" novels:

These poor fuckers have been stuck with Medieval technology and society for tens of thousands of years. Basically condemned to not having a chance to live a better life for you and your offspring, ever.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Well, not necessarily. There are fairly "high fantasy" novels that either show some progress, which might end up leading into Renaissance/Industrial Age fairly soon-ish, or that have something cyclical going on where it's been worse and better, or where there used to be a "grand age" civilization before, with "lost" technology they hope to learn again someday.
You're usually/mostly right, I do agree, it's definitely a trope (though the tech depicted is usually more very late Middle Ages/Renaissance rather than true Medieval times).
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

sixpackshaker said:
One thing that always depresses me about reading "high fantasy" novels:

These poor fuckers have been stuck with Medieval technology and society for tens of thousands of years. Basically condemned to not having a chance to live a better life for you and your offspring, ever.
Click to expand...
My pet theory (since I've written a couple fantasy novels in just such a setting) is that prolific magic use basically short circuits the need for an industrial revolution or age of reason. Why would anyone even look for a technological way to create a horseless carriage when someone already knows how to do it with magic?

Science has its roots in spiritualism, philosophy, and the occult. Alchemy led to chemistry. Alchemy didn't work, but it did lead to increased learning about how the world actually worked.

But imagine if it had worked. Why would anyone have stopped to go a different direction? Why would anyone ever grow bacteria and accidentally discover penicillin when wounds can be healed with a word? Why would anyone even try to grow bacteria in the first place or even know that they exist? There'd be no push for the age of enlightenment era discoveries to take place.

And the industrial revolution was all about shifting human labor to machine labor. If you can already do the equivalent of that, the revolution never happens. Who's going to create an internal combustion engine when you can get around magically by flying or teleporting?

Of course, that doesn't mean that society has to be stuck in a medieval era...but with the lack of a strong middle class (which was a direct result of industrialism), and with another strong elite class to act as great powers (mages), then there's a good argument that societal progress would stagnate at that level.

And yeah, that sucks for peasants.
 
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Yoshimickster

Yoshimickster

Makes a lot of sense, in shows like "Star vs. the Forces of Evil", their society has existed JUST as long as Earth's, but they are still in a midieval time period, as WELL as still having a prevalent ruling caste in its monarchy.
 
Null

Null

Tinwhistler said:
My pet theory (since I've written a couple fantasy novels in just such a setting) is that prolific magic use basically short circuits the need for an industrial revolution or age of reason. Why would anyone even look for a technological way to create a horseless carriage when someone already knows how to do it with magic?

Science has its roots in spiritualism, philosophy, and the occult. Alchemy led to chemistry. Alchemy didn't work, but it did lead to increased learning about how the world actually worked.

But imagine if it had worked. Why would anyone have stopped to go a different direction? Why would anyone ever grow bacteria and accidentally discover penicillin when wounds can be healed with a word? Why would anyone even try to grow bacteria in the first place or even know that they exist? There'd be no push for the age of enlightenment era discoveries to take place.

And the industrial revolution was all about shifting human labor to machine labor. If you can already do the equivalent of that, the revolution never happens. Who's going to create an internal combustion engine when you can get around magically by flying or teleporting?

Of course, that doesn't mean that society has to be stuck in a medieval era...but with the lack of a strong middle class (which was a direct result of industrialism), and with another strong elite class to act as great powers (mages), then there's a good argument that societal progress would stagnate at that level.

And yeah, that sucks for peasants.
Click to expand...
And without industry's capacity to consume resources, colonization and foreign conquest becomes less cost effective, so there are fewer pressures leading to major wars, thus taking away another pressure for social development - many of DaVinci's great machines were commissioned as designs for the defense of Florence; metallurgy was crucial to the development of better cannon, etc.

Actually, this is part of my headcanon explaining why the Asari in Mass Effect aren't centuries ahead of humans in terms of technology - and in many way have a far less developed society. So, the Asari have a natural lifespan of close to 1,000 years, they cannot reproduce accidentally or against their will, and they are all natural biotics. That means they are prone to think long term (since they'll be around to see it through) and population growth is extremely stable, and they have less need for beasts of burden or machine labor because of their biotics. Scientific advancement is slow as a result, more along the lines of "natural philosopy" of Aristotle that gets continually refined. Society stabilizes at the city-state level, with many of the young traveling extensively from place to place during the maiden phase to gain cultural exposure and seek out new things. As a result, trade networks develop, as well as commerce. There is no need to expand into empires, and no need for standing armies, with local peacekeepers and justicars sufficient to keep the peace, and bands of well-trained commandos sufficient for raids to either capture a resource or disrupt an opponent's operations. With much less impetus to drive them forward, and a more nurturing mindset pushing towards stable, sustainable societies, technological advances that took humans decades take the Asari centuries. Their Bronze Age might have lasted 8 or 9 thousand years instead of around 2500 or so for most human cultures. Sure, they might have been colonizing other worlds during the peak of the Roman Empire, but the same advances that took them 40,000 years took humanity less than 5,000 years.
 
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HCGLNS

HCGLNS

Now Magnum, you may kill for gain or simply shoot to maim, but you do not need a reason. The proverbial Golden Goose is now on the loose, and sadly never out of season.
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

Reposting the album of last years trip with a @Squidleybits ping to critique the work (or anyone else for that matter). I was just using the stock iPhone 5s camera. This year it's the 6s, but I also have the Camera+ and ProShot apps. Anyone recommend one over the other, or neither?
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Null said:
And without industry's capacity to consume resources, colonization and foreign conquest becomes less cost effective, so there are fewer pressures leading to major wars, thus taking away another pressure for social development - many of DaVinci's great machines were commissioned as designs for the defense of Florence; metallurgy was crucial to the development of better cannon, etc.

Actually, this is part of my headcanon explaining why the Asari in Mass Effect aren't centuries ahead of humans in terms of technology - and in many way have a far less developed society. So, the Asari have a natural lifespan of close to 1,000 years, they cannot reproduce accidentally or against their will, and they are all natural biotics. That means they are prone to think long term (since they'll be around to see it through) and population growth is extremely stable, and they have less need for beasts of burden or machine labor because of their biotics. Scientific advancement is slow as a result, more along the lines of "natural philosopy" of Aristotle that gets continually refined. Society stabilizes at the city-state level, with many of the young traveling extensively from place to place during the maiden phase to gain cultural exposure and seek out new things. As a result, trade networks develop, as well as commerce. There is no need to expand into empires, and no need for standing armies, with local peacekeepers and justicars sufficient to keep the peace, and bands of well-trained commandos sufficient for raids to either capture a resource or disrupt an opponent's operations. With much less impetus to drive them forward, and a more nurturing mindset pushing towards stable, sustainable societies, technological advances that took humans decades take the Asari centuries. Their Bronze Age might have lasted 8 or 9 thousand years instead of around 2500 or so for most human cultures. Sure, they might have been colonizing other worlds during the peak of the Roman Empire, but the same advances that took them 40,000 years took humanity less than 5,000 years.
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And Salarians, being a relatively young race, and short lived, advance even faster.
 
Squidleybits

Squidleybits

Your phone takes some pretty fantastic pictures! I'm impressed. I am always a hot mess with my phone. I'm not familiar with either of those apps, but I do have ProCam on my phone. I think that any app that would let you control ISO, Shutter speed and Aperture would work. But...only when you need that level of control. What all are you planning to photograph this time?
 
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