Post AlLFAaDynpZhQXc48W by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
(DIR) More posts by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
(DIR) Post #AkotVzMi6qkPQnmTSq by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-10T09:36:54Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Just finished watching a Korean sci-fi movie called Space Sweepers (2021). What a frustrating experience.There was plenty to like in the composite parts, and I really wanted to like it. The story and characters could make for a great TV show. But as a movie, it needs about 15-20m trimmed out of the first 2/3. Which was so bloated and meandering that by the time it got to the fast-paced climactic action sequences of the last 1/3, I'd already drifted off.#movie #SciFi #Korea #SpaceSweepers
(DIR) Post #Akow85lKyNysBUb38i by ghostdancer@mastodon.sdf.org
2024-08-10T10:06:00Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey Agree. I liked but it was always a bit apart from being a great movie and stayed in the not-bad group of movies.
(DIR) Post #AkozLL2Tmod5BscfNw by saxicola@toot.community
2024-08-10T10:42:09Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey Just watched the first 13 minutes. All quite silly so far. Exactly what I need on a Rainy Saturday.Cheers.
(DIR) Post #AkqI611K1eGp2zRqqW by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-11T01:47:01Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
(1/?)What I really like about Space Sweepers is that it's about a bunch of working stiffs, and the compromises that being way down on the wealth and class ladder forces on them. Also one of the things I liked about The Expanse.It's like, imagine if those rasta airline techs in that one scene in The Fifth Element had their own movie. I'd so watch that!#SciFi #class #SpaceSweepers #TheExpanse #TheFifthElement@ghostdancer @saxicola
(DIR) Post #AkqIB2yGCVCqXqPoOG by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-11T01:47:48Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
(1/?)What I really like about Space Sweepers is that it's about a bunch of working stiffs, and the compromises forced on them by being way down on the wealth and class ladder. Also one of the things I liked about The Expanse.It's like, imagine if those rasta airline techs in that one scene in The Fifth Element had their own movie. I'd so watch that!#SciFi #class #SpaceSweepers #TheExpanse #TheFifthElement@ghostdancer @saxicola
(DIR) Post #AkqJIbL2vBY17CEtYu by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-11T02:00:29Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
(2/?)The first Star Wars movie has this too. With a farmhand and a smalltime smuggler, called on to help a cloistered ronin save a politician turned rebel leader.So much sci-fi is about people in privileged positions, eg shows like Star Trek and Bab5 focusing on the bridge crew. Even pirate rebel shows, in the Blake's 7 mould, generally feature middle class characters. Either from privileged backgrounds, or with tertiary education in specialist skills (warrior monk, hacker, doctor etc).
(DIR) Post #AkqJpk4nSGavltRR2W by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-11T02:06:33Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
(3/3)Fantasy is worse for this, with most main characters being royalty, aristocrats, or knights errant (GoT was kind of an exception to this... until it wasn't). Even if their heitage and resulting inheritance is only revealed at the end of the story, eg The Dragonbone Chair. Lord Valentine's Castle started out promising, but pulled the same bait and switch.Where are the fantasy stories about the innkeeper, or the blacksmith, or the servants of the castle, or the wandering players?
(DIR) Post #AkqM90GFhjHrNV701g by Alon@mastodon.social
2024-08-11T02:32:19Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola Yes, but I think the Expanse and other Used Future media still overfixate on business owners and not on workers. Spaceships are portrayed as a big deal, to the point that owning one is like owning your own plane or boat; if you own one, you may be the employer of workers but are not meaningfully a worker yourself. Down with this conflation of the petite bourgeoisie with the working class.
(DIR) Post #AkqMxS3ed9oS4FH6fI by nyrath@spacey.space
2024-08-11T02:41:38Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey A mild exception is Star Trek: Lower Decks. The crew there are of slightly lesser privilege than the rest.
(DIR) Post #AkqN6SR0bE31qGUdXM by SFRuminations@wandering.shop
2024-08-11T02:42:49Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey While post-apocalyptic SF, if you cut those references this novel fits completely (main characters: an orphan, wandering drafted soldiers, players, etc.) .. check out Edgar Pangborn's Davy (1964). My review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com/2023/07/29/book-review-davy-edgar-pangborn-1964/
(DIR) Post #AkqNNEd1BTbVwg6ue0 by nyrath@spacey.space
2024-08-11T02:46:18Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey Another mild exception is The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The main characters are lowly hobbits. Well to do hobbits, but they are not elvish princes or something like that.
(DIR) Post #AkqNQSLCeoBrLLJVdw by isaackuo@spacey.space
2024-08-11T02:46:48Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey This discussion reminds of a random take on James Bond that I like. (This random take is ... uhh ... mine.)In _Tomorrow Never Dies_ a character asks what the hell 007 is doing, to which M replies, "His job".Based on that one line, I imagined this whole idea that James Bond is NOT an upper class elitist ... he's a working stiff, whose job involves _pretending_ to be upper class.This made his character instantly more relatable and interesting to me.
(DIR) Post #AkqOfYV48kGuk8gse8 by Hcobb@spacey.space
2024-08-11T03:00:41Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey Also avoid the She who must not be named trope of requiring bloodline for mystic powers. It would be amusing to have a wizard who is good at the job because he isn't high born and hence had to actually study.
(DIR) Post #AkqPsNnZL6U9Gu1f2e by michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
2024-08-11T03:14:02Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey @nyrath There is a subgenre there."The Cemeteries of Amalo", written because Catherine Addison told the story of the emperor but everyone wanted more about Thara Celehar the friendly neighborhood necromatic investigator."Lattes and Legends", because Travis Baldree wanted high fantasy and low stakes.And so on.
(DIR) Post #AkqQ3EjxMGTqMaVmLY by ErrolNZ@mastodon.nz
2024-08-11T03:16:11Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey Some of @JulietEMcKenna works, especially https://www.julietemckenna.com/books/the-tales-of-einarinn/
(DIR) Post #AkqQzt87LeFqQRmPoG by UnlikelyLass@dice.camp
2024-08-11T03:26:34Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey @nyrath The Misenchanted Sword has a random conscripted guy gets his bog standard military issued sword enchanted by a grumpy wizard he interrupts, making him unkillable, but due to mischance he only gets to draw the sword like 100 times before he just dies. He becomes a military asset, has adventures, and is able to retire as an innkeeper...
(DIR) Post #Akqmt4KxTp0q9FwJZw by fnordius@muenchen.social
2024-08-11T07:31:42Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey Terry Pratchett. See the premise of Guards! Guards!
(DIR) Post #Akqxy69PGNZOiW8YNc by tj53@mastodon.me.uk
2024-08-11T09:36:05Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey Alvin the Maker? Yenifer from the Witcher, blue eyed samurai, countless isekai anime.. even Nimona
(DIR) Post #AkrXiKTvoGEEseW96e by ghostdancer@mastodon.sdf.org
2024-08-11T16:16:37Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey Most people wants escapism, love to feel things out of normal life, so princesses, nobles, heroes, magicians are what's easier to sell . And the famous trope of the journey of the hero, the unsuspecting chosen one it's old as humanity.
(DIR) Post #Akrzr0aPwm8cUzThya by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-11T21:32:02Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Hcobb > It would be amusing to have a wizard who is good at the job because he isn't high born and hence had to actually studyRincewind from The Colour of Magic?
(DIR) Post #Aks0E7MSvLRQAgyIgC by esnyder@mastodon.social
2024-08-11T21:36:13Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey Babel by R.F. Kuang is good on this front, and fantastic overall.
(DIR) Post #Aks5hl6cjX43bbVzZQ by bigblen@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-11T22:37:29Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey a similar situation features in this anime, if you can find it... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetes
(DIR) Post #AkyKdJ1VrjVVc0Dcoq by michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
2024-08-11T03:44:08Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@Alon @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola If you should want science fiction & fantasy stories incorporating that variety of social & political critique, there is the AK Press "Black Dawn" collection: https://www.akpress.org/featured-products/black-dawn.html?featured_topics=183 .
(DIR) Post #AkyLknB2FmrX73o3lI by isaackuo@spacey.space
2024-08-11T03:02:58Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Alon @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola Things can be different in SF war stories, where the conscript protagonist is often drawn from the lower rungs of society. Someone like Bill the Galactic Hero.
(DIR) Post #AkyLknwXPArNUO1zns by Alon@mastodon.social
2024-08-11T03:04:24Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@isaackuo @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola Yeah, good point. Bobbie Draper is a great example. (But Mal Reynolds is not; you can't buy a spaceship on the salary of a retired sergeant on the losing side.)
(DIR) Post #AkyLkoSRUYNf5KxTX6 by isaackuo@spacey.space
2024-08-11T03:28:02Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Alon @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola This suggests the question ... can you have space adventures without an expensive space ship? I think you can. I mean, let's assume space war has resulted in a lot of cheap surplus space suits out there.If you've got space suits, all you really need to get from point A to (close enough) point B is a relatively inexpensive rocket, that you and your crew ride on _externally_.
(DIR) Post #AkyLkosJwL54Nb48rw by ghostdancer@mastodon.sdf.org
2024-08-11T16:12:02Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@isaackuo Think of it's like owning a truck (big special one) maybe you can get a credit and pay it bit a bit, that's why so many of them become smugglers , probably to get the money to pay for it. Han Solo won it on a card game. @Alon @strypey @saxicola
(DIR) Post #AkyLkpMS8JBRt3ACps by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-14T23:05:39Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
(1/2)@ghostdancer> Think of it like owning a truck... or a big house bus.> maybe you can get a credit and pay it bit a bit... or you can buy a wreck, or a bunch of parts, and build a working ship yourself. After all, if you're going to maintain it yourself, you'd need those skills, and workers can't always afford to pay someone else to fix our vehicles.@isaackuo @Alon @saxicola
(DIR) Post #AkyLkq0VjNE5tHuCH2 by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-14T23:05:39Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
(2/2)In scenarios where the crew of Serenity or the Space Sweepers can have a ship at all, the tech would have to be as ubiquitous and cheap as cars and computers are now. Not like computers were in the 1950s, which is where space travel is now. FWIW without a huge breakthrough in renewable energy tech, space travel accessible to anyone other than states and billionaires is a non-starter. I enjoy space opera, but at this point I read it as futurist fantasy, not science fiction.
(DIR) Post #AkyOKs7JZ29CldOjOi by Alon@mastodon.social
2024-08-14T23:34:35Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey @ghostdancer @isaackuo @saxicola So, regarding owning a bus: a point made in comments once regarding Sense8 is that people in Nairobi who own and drive a matatu are loaded by local standards - the income is paying for an entire extended family, not at all like the depiction of a matatu driver in poverty in the show.And spaceships are far too complex (and never depicted otherwise) to be repaired by a single worker. It's like owning and maintaining your own plane today.
(DIR) Post #Al4gxaTm2SmxTwH0BU by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-18T00:31:32Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
(1/?)@Alon> spaceships are far too complex (and never depicted otherwise) to be repaired by a single workerDepends on the show and the ship in question. The Enterprise, or a Star Destroyer, for sure.But in Space Sweepers the crew have to maintain their ship themselves or go broke. In The Expanse, the Rocinante crew and lots of Belters in smaller ships do their own repairs. In Firefly, Serenity is maintained pretty much single-handedly by Kaylee. @ghostdancer @isaackuo @saxicola
(DIR) Post #Al4gxhbpWuONax62DI by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-18T00:31:32Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
(2/?)Han and Chewie maintain the Millenium Falcon together. In the opening scenes of Empire we see them struggling to put it back together in time to flee the Imperial assault on Hoth. I'm not sure we ever see Luke working on his X-wing, but given his background repairing farm equipment - including droids - I'm sure he could.
(DIR) Post #Al4iFDUWLVrhLvaoHA by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-18T00:46:02Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
(3/?)Coming back to your original point...> Down with this conflation of the petite bourgeoisie with the working class The term "petite bourgeoisie" is a critique of the 'self-employed' taken in by the propaganda of capitalists telling them they're part of the same class. As the gig economy has shown us, most people who are 'self-employed' are actually ultra-casually employees. Not privileged business owners in the sense meant by "bourgeoisie".
(DIR) Post #Al5NxaYu1kVNldv3Sa by ghostdancer@mastodon.sdf.org
2024-08-18T08:33:07Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey One of the great successes of capitalism is to convince a lot of people from the worker class that they are middle class. That way they think they are closer to upper class than to workers so they defend privileges instead of rights.
(DIR) Post #Al5VRYku0WMEX0losy by Alon@mastodon.social
2024-08-18T09:57:15Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@strypey @ghostdancer @isaackuo @saxicola @nyrath The planes that the X-Wing is based on, WW2-era jets, were absolutely not maintained by the pilots. They were maintained by dedicated ground crews, who were enlisted while the pilots were officers. The USAF today averages around 40 direct airmen per one-seat fighter, not counting overheads. Pilots form a military elite this way.Freight ship captains are pretty elite as well - the crew are not, but the captains are senior and earn well.
(DIR) Post #Al5ff09cRySSoTNbN2 by Alon@mastodon.social
2024-08-18T10:01:39Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey @ghostdancer @isaackuo @saxicola @nyrath Serenity is maintained singlehandedly by one mechanic, but nothing about the ship screams "maintainable by one person" to me, is the point. Space travel is portrayed as not for everyone - not everyone has a spaceship (or else Simon and Inara would have their own). The Serenity is not portrayed as low-maintenance, manufactured like a modern car for the mass market. The Roci is somewhat more realistic in that it's portrayed as low-maintenance.
(DIR) Post #Al5ff11VDdYlVaadMG by ghostdancer@mastodon.sdf.org
2024-08-18T10:08:20Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Alon Roci is military high tech , legitimate salvage, while Serenity is "cheap" cargo truck like Millennium Falcon, both of them with lots of botched jobs and patches, and it shows in all the continuous problems and malfunctions. @strypey @isaackuo @saxicola @nyrath
(DIR) Post #Al5ff1YpDkDNAwBFIW by Alon@mastodon.social
2024-08-18T10:31:40Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ghostdancer @strypey @isaackuo @saxicola @nyrath Yeah, so the Roci I'm fine with. We get a clear explanation for why the heroes have such a special ship, and there are plots involving berthing fees and specialized maintenance (by Samara's crew). But then the mining ships don't work this way, and the same is true of the Serenity, which, in 2020s language, comes off as more "Ever Given" and less "cargo truck."
(DIR) Post #Al5ff1tjxyweDnxwtk by Alon@mastodon.social
2024-08-18T10:04:59Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey @ghostdancer @isaackuo @saxicola @nyrath And finally, the term "petite bourgeoisie" dates over 100 years back and originally refers to the small shopkeepers in Paris who opposed the Paris Commune and took down the barricades erected by the proto-socialists. The modern pretense that workers like cab drivers are independent business owners is neither here nor there, since we never see Han or Mal or the Belter mining ship owners have to deal with debt or Uber app-style control.
(DIR) Post #Al5ff2HUXfwZPT4uv2 by isaackuo@spacey.space
2024-08-18T11:35:41Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@Alon @ghostdancer @strypey @saxicola @nyrath The Serenity is like a small tramp steamer, not a humongous container ship. Of course, the usual tramp steamer trope is that crew could be relatively poor, but not the owner.But we could have less expensive spacecraft - the equivalent of a raft, not a ship. The adventurers need space suits, but the "space raft" could be little more than a large fresnel lens concentrating sunlight onto a manually pumped steam thruster.1/2
(DIR) Post #Al5ff3nmt5N67vCDtg by isaackuo@spacey.space
2024-08-18T11:43:14Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Alon @ghostdancer @strypey @saxicola @nyrath A manually operated solar steam thruster could be spartan in terms of hardware - but a lot of effort to operate.The thruster is a water tank with a manual pump to squirt water into the heat chamber, and of course a nozzle.You place the heat chamber at the fresnel focus to heat it up. Then you can move/aim the thruster where you want to pump some squirts of thrust. Then you heat it up again. And so on.2/2
(DIR) Post #Al5hHpoWvcPxzXb2Ui by wonka@chaos.social
2024-08-18T12:09:54Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey House Bus? Like Lone Star?@ghostdancer @isaackuo @Alon @saxicola
(DIR) Post #Al6UhKX6kSiuG5EZhg by fnordius@muenchen.social
2024-08-18T21:23:32Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey classic pulp fantasy also had Conan, though extraordinary he was not of royal bloodlines. Also Farfr and the Grey Mouser stories, or the Thieves World anthology.BUT… yes. Most fantasy stems from classical tales, and yes, Beowulf was a prince. Odysseus was a king. People wanted tales of demigods and heroes, not of everyday life, even back then.
(DIR) Post #Al8315za6xyaYJ6o1w by mcv@friendica.opensocial.space
2024-08-19T05:48:23Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@nyrath @strypeyBilbo and Frodo are hobbit aristocracy. Tooks are an important family. The rest of the fellowship consists of the rightful heir to the throne of Gondor, the son of the current steward of Gondor, an elven prince, and the son of a dwarf hero. Sam is the only working class hero.
(DIR) Post #Al838wnMBqZ4LQ8Q5Y by nyrath@spacey.space
2024-08-19T15:24:25Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@mcv @strypey Agreed, that's why I said they were "well to do".
(DIR) Post #Al83BHOuY8AOpaoRcG by fnordius@muenchen.social
2024-08-18T20:54:31Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@isaackuo @Alon @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicolaThe ways to have space adventures (RPG or episodic TV) without owning a ship can be done. Perhaps travel in deep space is only done on bigger ships, like in the Culture series. Or the PC's / core cast hire off on different ships each session / episode, with recurring guest captains.But please, remember that space is VAST. Travelling in only a suit is a really, really bad idea. Think of trying to swim without a boat from Japan to Chile, times ten.
(DIR) Post #Al83BIBTdZ0zGDXEJc by isaackuo@spacey.space
2024-08-18T22:29:20Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@fnordius @Alon @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola The time needed to get from place to place in space depends on the specifics of the setting.For example, travelling between Phobos and Deimos takes about 10 hours, and the delta-v required is within what my suggested solar steam "raft" could do.
(DIR) Post #Al83BIcQ1OZ8bm8kJE by Alon@mastodon.social
2024-08-18T23:54:25Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@isaackuo @fnordius @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola It would be interesting to write a story about people who get to travel to all these planets that their peers could never visit, except they're ship crew and they don't have much control over where they go. It plays to a rags/riches cycle theme (as opposed to upward advacement) well, I think.Or, for something much nearer-future, economically correct SF should have asteroid miners get paid very well. Same rags/riches cycle between up and down.
(DIR) Post #Al83BJLRK0ZurPChU0 by isaackuo@spacey.space
2024-08-19T00:16:16Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Alon @fnordius @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola If it's economically correct, then asteroid miners should not be paid at all. The travel times and associated life support costs make it a non-starter.It'd be like paying people to physically plug telephone patch cables in a manned communications satellite. No one would pay for the service!For Postcards from Cutty, I accepted that there were few legitimate paying jobs out there in space. Income is generally negative.
(DIR) Post #Al83BK5WYfRRAKlVJY by Alon@mastodon.social
2024-08-18T23:57:35Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@isaackuo @fnordius @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola What I touched on (very briefly) in RealRobotics and in the Planetfall LARP is the latter. The wages for the asteroid miners are really high -entry-level astronauts earn 2-3x the average wage, senior ones 6-10x. The job is on a cycle of four months up, two down. Up, there's the wonders of space, but everything is cramped. Down, it's mundane, but you get to spend a huge salary. So which is the rags and which is the riches? @nyrath
(DIR) Post #Al83BK8MO7i5J85ljc by Alon@mastodon.social
2024-08-19T01:11:18Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@isaackuo @fnordius @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola Yeah, so in that setting, asteroid mining itself is automated, but then from time to time manned maintenance of the mining drones is required; the ship is specifically said to be doing drone maintenance rather than mining, which is a plot point since the corporation that owns the drones is not the same one that owns the ships. @nyrath
(DIR) Post #Al83BKhoGK4B54g4zQ by isaackuo@spacey.space
2024-08-19T01:22:02Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@Alon @fnordius @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola @nyrath Asteroid mining robot maintenance would be done by robots also. If asteroid mining is worth doing at all, there's some reasonable method of bringing the product back to Earth orbit. That same method can be used to bring mining hardware back to Earth orbit for refurbishment, while simpler regular maintenance is done in situ by semi-autonomous robots.(Humans on Earth can tele-operate robots in orbit for complex refurbishment.)
(DIR) Post #Al83qA7AXnEA6f0ZPM by nyrath@spacey.space
2024-08-19T15:32:13Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Alon @isaackuo @fnordius @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola Yes, reality is unlike the scifi troup of working-class stiffs in space. For example, see "Misfit" by Robert Heinlein. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misfit_(short_story)
(DIR) Post #Al85IC66rh6gJpRXjU by isaackuo@spacey.space
2024-08-19T15:48:30Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@nyrath @Alon @fnordius @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola Hmm ... "Misfit" does point out a possibility that youngun's my age forget about ... the possibility of massive Keynesian make-work programs. These are jobs that robots "can't" do, because we have a society that pathologically can't handle the idea of people not working for a living.The point of the job isn't to get tasks accomplished. The point is to force people to work even if it's extremely costly to do so.1/2
(DIR) Post #Al87wkbOCHyepAXZse by isaackuo@spacey.space
2024-08-19T15:52:58Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@nyrath @Alon @fnordius @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola So like ... the Depression era made it seem to make perfect sense to have massively expensive government programs hiring one set of workers to dig ditches and another set of workers fill them in. Make-work.Today, we have entire industries that might as well be make-work, we just hide it better. (Insurance industry, advertising industry, financial sector.) I'm not clever enough to figure out how to get rid of all that waste.2/2
(DIR) Post #Al880Ilbd6rzeZ0qLg by Alon@mastodon.social
2024-08-19T16:08:03Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@isaackuo @nyrath @fnordius @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola Those industries are extremely productive. They're not at all makework. They are believed to be so by people who are uncomfortable with today's low tooth-to-tail ratios and romanticize the higher ratios of the past, but then a working HR is essential and it's just not visible until it isn't working.
(DIR) Post #Al95chHAqeURy0M49o by 60sRefugee@spacey.space
2024-08-20T03:26:54Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@nyrath @Alon @isaackuo @fnordius @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola These days computation is so cheap and ubiquitous probably every major function of a spaceship could be run off apps stored on the crews' handhelds. It now requires some highly contrived situation to resort to the slide rules and log tables.
(DIR) Post #AlB2TFaEWo5PvXzeu8 by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-21T02:00:01Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
(3/4) If those Paris shopkeepers were actually bourgeoisie - as they clearly believed they were - there would have been no need to coin a new phrase like "petite bourgeoisie" to describe their anti-revolutionary interventions.
(DIR) Post #AlB2W65sGbyLMe9Peq by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-21T02:00:00Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
(1/?)I feel like you're working backwards from a conclusion you're firmly committed to, which rather takes the fun out of talking about spaceships ; )So let's dispense with that and focus on the revolutionary theory debate you really want to have.@ghostdancer @isaackuo @saxicola @nyrath
(DIR) Post #AlB2W7BEEBqijXfCds by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-21T02:00:01Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
(2/?)@Alon> term "petite bourgeoisie" dates over 100 years back and originally refers to the small shopkeepers in Paris who opposed the Paris Commune and took down the barricades erected by the proto-socialistsYes. They'd been convinced that because they 'owned a business' their interests were aligned with the aristocrats who still owned most workplaces. Even though they were more like Uber drivers. Who are exploited transport workers, despite owning the car they drive at work.
(DIR) Post #AlB2YU9tlV88ZzAiTg by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-21T02:00:01Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
(4/4)This is worth keeping in mind because the propertarianism (1) pushed today by corporate shills and their Useful Idiots is exactly the same wedge strategy. Aiming to convince people that SMEs are micro-corporations, therefore people running SME share their political enemies; organised workers, consumer rights and antitrust campaigners, eco-activists, social liberals, etc. And vice-versa, to convince the latter that people running SME are among their political enemies.(1) "Libertarianism"
(DIR) Post #AlB2cggV8VhGaOQQOO by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-21T02:01:29Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
(4/4)This is worth keeping in mind because the propertarianism (1) pushed today by corporate shills and their Useful Idiots is exactly the same wedge strategy. Aiming to convince people that SMEs are micro-corporations, therefore people running SME share their political enemies; organised workers, consumer rights and antitrust campaigners, eco-activists, social liberals, etc. And vice-versa, to convince the latter that people running SME are among their political enemies.(1) "Libertarianism"
(DIR) Post #AlB2i4PMMORTbwyS2q by Alon@mastodon.social
2024-08-21T02:03:37Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey Small business tyrants are not actually oppressed. These were not Uber drivers; these were small-time employers, with their own employees. The reason for the term "petite bourgeoisie" is that in classical Marxism, the bourgeoisie lives off of investments but doesn't directly work, whereas shopkeepers are owner-manager-operators, whose capital is bound in a physical business that requires their labor to succeed and that is vulnerable to rioting.
(DIR) Post #AlB3FOaoKpBPlkDlj6 by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-21T02:09:37Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@isaackuo> The Serenity is like a small tramp steamer, not a humongous container shipCorrect. It appears to be about the size of big military planes like a Hercules or Starlifter. Maybe even a bit smaller.> Of course, the usual tramp steamer trope is that crew could be relatively poor, but not the ownerRight. But in Firefly, it's made pretty clear that the owners, Mal and Zoe (and maybe Wash by marriage) are just as broke as everyone else.@Alon @ghostdancer @saxicola @nyrath
(DIR) Post #AlB56OXTMj2Au7UmPo by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-21T02:30:21Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
(1/?)I appreciate the creativity of your idea, but...@isaackuo> A manually operated solar steam thruster... would be an unconscionable waste of water. As would a similar thruster shooting air into space. Both are rare and precious, especially in space.Have you thought about how long it would take to get around using this kind of engine? Not really practical for inter-solar travel.@Alon @ghostdancer @saxicola @nyrath
(DIR) Post #AlB56P8L9eWakSkDse by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-21T02:30:22Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
(2/?)In space, size doesn't much matter because there's no atmospheric drag on the hull. Streamlined ships look cool, but unless they're intended for dual-used in atmospheres (like Serenity or Star Trek shuttles), a Borg cube is way more practical.Mass matters, because it requires more energy to accelerate, but still not as much as in atmpospheric craft. Besides, air isn't dense, and adding a pressurised environment doesn't add much mass, relative to the benefits.
(DIR) Post #AlB56UDqEctcWyMBeK by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-21T02:30:22Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
(3/?)Coming back to the maintenance burden, yes, a pressurised environment adds to that. You'd need to maintain airlocks, oxygenation and filtration systems, and ensure the hulls remain airtight. You'd want more than one for redundancy, and remember size doesn't matter and moving more mass is the lesser evil compared to suddenly losing cabin pressure in space.
(DIR) Post #AlB56X9hKUMdczRQ6i by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-21T02:30:22Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
(4/?)But this is equivalent to making sure a boat remains watertight. In a future where space travel was routine, air system tech would have to be as standardised as GNU/Linux distros, and maintainable by a small onboard team, or even one person with appropriate skills. Maybe with occasional refits and upgrades at the local space garage.
(DIR) Post #AlB5ecCx3DTT8yDM2K by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-21T02:36:36Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@wonka> House Bus? Like Lone Star?Don't know the reference. By house bus I mean an old city or intercity bus that's been replaced, and bought cheap by an alternative lifestyler who converted it into a mobile home. I bought an under-maintained one years ago while living on unemployment benefit, with a loan from a credit union.@ghostdancer @isaackuo @Alon @saxicola
(DIR) Post #AlB7Yyal7Ad4jlmyum by isaackuo@spacey.space
2024-08-21T02:57:45Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@strypey @Alon @ghostdancer @saxicola @nyrath Yes, I have done lots of calculations on delta-v and travel time requirements, within the performance available to such a cheap solar steam engine (limited to only 180s; a sophisticated one you could get 600s).I gave a specific example of 10 hours to get between Phobos and Deimos. That's not unusual, and space stations could be much closer.Water is plentiful in most of the solar system, and cheap to harvest with a solar lens still.
(DIR) Post #AlBCNDpJ98IOHZoCHo by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-21T03:51:52Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Alon > The wages for the asteroid miners are really high -entry-level astronauts earn 2-3x the average wage, senior ones 6-10x. The job is on a cycle of four months up, two down. Up, there's the wonders of space, but everything is cramped. Down, it's mundane, but you get to spend a huge salaryThis reminds me vaguely of the 1981 movie Outland, starring Sean Connery.@isaackuo @fnordius @ghostdancer @saxicola @nyrath
(DIR) Post #AlBCjXIXQsQp2j7ZM8 by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-21T03:55:55Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Alon > It would be interesting to write a story about people who get to travel to all these planets that their peers could never visit, except they're ship crew and they don't have much control over where they goI'd watch this. Someone mentioned Lower Decks, which does this. But I found the first episode so cringe-worthy I couldn't face the second. It's like the people in charge of ST couldn't take non-bridge crew seriously as core characters.@isaackuo @fnordius @ghostdancer @saxicola
(DIR) Post #AlBEWcE401zGTCzk2K by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-21T04:15:58Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
But why does visual sci fi storytelling have to be based on inter-planetary travel at all? This seems to have become the default after the success of pioneering shows like original Star Trek, Lost in Space and Buck Rogers, and films like 2001, and it's hardly ever varied.I'd watch a sci fi show about working people stuck on planets or in-space facilities, annoyed by recurring characters from more privileged backgrounds who get to travel.@Alon @isaackuo @fnordius @ghostdancer @saxicola
(DIR) Post #AlBF5aSuXM3F94cDAm by Alon@mastodon.social
2024-08-21T04:22:15Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey @isaackuo @fnordius @ghostdancer @saxicola The Sol Majestic kinda does that, if you're into YA.
(DIR) Post #AlBFFOkIxrEBh5QghE by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-21T04:24:05Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@fnordius> Most fantasy stems from classical tales, and yes, Beowulf was a prince. Odysseus was a king. People wanted tales of demigods and heroes, not of everyday life, even back then.This is not unique to classical Europe either. The Bhagavad Gita is a conversation between a prince and a god. Laozi wrote Tao Te Ching and rode away on a purple buffalo after abandoning his post as a high court official. Even serious history is often written by, for, and thus about, people with privilege ; )
(DIR) Post #AlBbb9wMtCFt8cqzGi by wonka@chaos.social
2024-08-21T08:34:12Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey The vehicle I was referring to is actually named Eagle 5: https://spaceballs.fandom.com/wiki/Eagle_5Lone Starr (https://spaceballs.fandom.com/wiki/Lone_Starr) is its Captain.@ghostdancer @isaackuo @Alon @saxicola
(DIR) Post #AlBsa37oRS36vpGNbU by isaackuo@spacey.space
2024-08-21T11:44:44Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey @Alon @fnordius @ghostdancer @saxicola I don't think there has been a shortage of sci-fi TV shows and movies without interplanetary or interstellar travel. Plenty are just set on Earth, or set on some other planet or station with only off-screen space travel (Blade Runner, Outland, Starman, E.T. ...)The basic idea of B5 and DS9 was to save production costs by setting them mainly on a fixed space station.
(DIR) Post #AlEu2jGm1egzB3ZdlA by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-22T22:45:21Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
I was thinking this too. You left out Gandalf, who in some interpretations is basically an angel. Not exactly salt of the earth ; ) But...@mcv> Sam is the only working class hero.What about Merry and Pip?@nyrath
(DIR) Post #AlEwNJI80U1mb59IO0 by mcv@friendica.opensocial.space
2024-08-19T06:08:50Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@fnordius @ghostdancer @Alon @saxicola @isaackuo @strypeyThis whole discussion reminds me of Space Quest, where you play a lowly janitor on board a large space ship. I think eventually you do acquire your own ship, but that takes a while.(Why am I only seeing this discussion now, and not when it started?)
(DIR) Post #AlEwNKIWGVw1iaL7dQ by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-22T23:11:26Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@mcv> Why am I only seeing this discussion now, and not when it started?Is that a technical question or a rhetorical question meaning 'I wish I'd got in on this earlier'?FYI it started with this post;https://mastodon.nzoss.nz/@strypey/11294086713816590But my app can no longer assemble the whole thread. Maybe someone involved is using an auto-delete that gives their posts a *very* short half-life? Can we have at least a month folks, in case of ongoing conversations?@ghostdancer @Alon @fnordius @saxicola @isaackuo
(DIR) Post #AlLEbYcglUm8KCT86K by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-26T00:03:59Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@michaelgemar>>That’s one of the delights of Alien. The crew are just working stiffsGood example, thanks. Contrast this with Aliens, where aside from Burke, who's a corporate consultant, and Ripley who effectively is too, the main characters (other than Bishop) are all officers.The same shift in the class status of core characters can be between Terminator and its first sequel. Dark Fate tries to go back to a working class protagonist, but it's too little too late.
(DIR) Post #AlLEbd2iKfyC24fyDo by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-26T00:03:59Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
A tangent; thinking about sequels to Alien and Terminator reminds that about 2017-ish, I noticed big budget movies were getting a bit... uncanny. It was particularly noticeable in sequels to classic films.At the time, it occurred to me the structures of movies were starting to resemble those of video games. Now I'm wondering, were corporations using LLMs to generate scripts for both, before ChatGPT let the rest of us in on what they can do?#MOLE #AI #LLM #Hollywood #screenwriting #VideoGames
(DIR) Post #AlLFAYR1SMorsPhSBk by isaackuo@spacey.space
2024-08-19T16:26:14Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Alon @nyrath @fnordius @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola I spent half my career working in the insurance industry. It's the most easily anti-productive industry ever. You can compare side-by-side between Medicare - which only covers people the private insurance industry always considered unprofitable - with those covered by insurance.We pay more for less health care via insurance, even with the demographic tailwind. It's negative productivity.
(DIR) Post #AlLFAZLk3UBoiKEkb2 by isaackuo@spacey.space
2024-08-19T16:32:56Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Alon @nyrath @fnordius @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola I've spent most of the other half of my career in the advertising industry. It's nothing but getting paid for a zero sum game to claw market/attention share from the competition.Human attention is a finite resource, and advertising saps away from that ... and for what? What has been produced?That said, I can't envision a world without some sort of advertising. Not the way I can easily envision health care without insurance.
(DIR) Post #AlLFAaDynpZhQXc48W by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-26T00:10:18Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@isaackuo> I spent half my career working in the insurance industry. It's the most easily anti-productive industry ever> I've spent most of the other half of my career in the advertising industry. It's nothing but getting paid for a zero sum game to claw market/attention share from the competitionDavid Graeber wrote about how most of the paid workforce are now in "bullshit jobs", an inordinate number of them in various kinds of guard labour.@Alon @nyrath @fnordius @ghostdancer @saxicola
(DIR) Post #AlLFdBLOO1zQexiWLQ by mcv@friendica.opensocial.space
2024-08-19T17:55:59Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@isaackuo @ghostdancer @Alon @nyrath @fnordius @saxicola @strypeyI would strongly prefer passive or mostly-passive advertising. If I need something, I want easy access to information where I can get it and which version is best. Pushing random products in my face is rarely helpful, but when I'm looking for something, please be findable and informative.
(DIR) Post #AlLFdC3hjHR2sORuPg by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-26T00:15:27Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
(1/2)@mcv> I would strongly prefer passive or mostly-passive advertising. If I need something, I want easy access to information where I can get it and which version is bestYou might like to check out this newfangled thing called "websites" ; )But seriously, advertising has been redundant since the web went mainstream. Which is why the marketing industry have leaned into influence campaigns, reputation laundering ("PR"), and so on.@ghostdancer @Alon @nyrath @fnordius @saxicola @isaackuo
(DIR) Post #AlLFdGKrpPXa8mVfii by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-26T00:15:27Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
(2/2)When it comes to marketing, and most of the influence industries euphemistically called "communications", I agree with Bill Hicks : P
(DIR) Post #AlLGD2KtM7SP99a0h6 by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-26T00:21:57Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@isaackuo> the Depression era made it seem to make perfect sense to have massively expensive government programs hiring one set of workers to dig ditches and another set of workers fill them in. Make-workI question that telling of the history. It's too convenient to the wealthy liberals of the Gilded Age, and their neoliberal successors, and I suspect it off being an argument from edge cases. If not a Just So story, like the myth of barter.@nyrath @Alon @fnordius @ghostdancer @saxicola
(DIR) Post #AlLGVWNgO6cfXfhQ9I by isaackuo@spacey.space
2024-08-26T00:25:17Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey @mcv @ghostdancer @Alon @nyrath @fnordius @saxicola Advertising may or may not be redundant, but there are contexts where it's just plain popular.In particular, people seem to earnestly like advertising in free-to-play mobile games. It's a very inefficient revenue stream, as well as an inefficient way to get sales, but it continues as long as mobile game players are willing to "waste" tons of eyeball time rather than pay-to-play.
(DIR) Post #AlLGo5ftuA6EDU4iqO by isaackuo@spacey.space
2024-08-26T00:28:40Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey @nyrath @Alon @fnordius @ghostdancer @saxicola Good thing I'm not talking about the actual history, but rather the cultural perception. It's this cultural perception - accurate or not - which made Big Government Space Make-work a thing that entered science fiction stories.
(DIR) Post #AlLH5S7lgvjOlVOAfQ by Alon@mastodon.social
2024-08-19T17:58:10Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@isaackuo @nyrath @fnordius @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola I don't live in the United States; we manage to have universal health care in Germany with a smaller private insurance industry and also the economy doesn't look especially different from the American one. Same thing in countries that actually don't have much private insurance, like Sweden. The same office jobs are just done elsewhere; no makework is required - if anything, both Germany and Sweden are way too austerian.
(DIR) Post #AlLH5SxWaV8DM1bVL6 by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-26T00:31:49Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Alon> The same office jobs are just done elsewhere; no makework is requiredI suspect you're pushing back against the neoliberal pro-security arguments against "MakeWork", which only patholigise admin work when its funded by government, rather than businesses or philanthropists. Whereas I think the rest of us are making different, Graeber-esque critique, that much of late capitalism consists of using up people's time with "bullshit jobs".@isaackuo @nyrath @fnordius @ghostdancer @saxicola
(DIR) Post #AlLHH1SSf5JRXJaJxw by Alon@mastodon.social
2024-08-26T00:33:54Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey @isaackuo @nyrath @fnordius @ghostdancer @saxicola No, I'm pushing back against Graeber specifically. He is painfully wrong about the economy (and Debt was full of errors too); the sort of office jobs he thinks are bullshit are essential to the functioning of a large business, and large businesses are in turn essential to the functioning of a modern economy (without them, you get Italy, which technically is degrowth, but isn't what most degrowthers say they want).
(DIR) Post #AlLPh5K7iB8sggchm4 by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-26T02:08:14Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
I can't see the post you're replying to but...@60sRefugee> These days computation is so cheap and ubiquitous probably every major function of a spaceship could be run off apps stored on the crews' handheldsLike the banks of reel-to-reel tape in 60s sci-fi, computing is one area where 90s Star Trek was still behind the 8 ball. I giggle whenever I see one character give another a handful of tablets to read more than 1 report ; )@nyrath @Alon @isaackuo @fnordius @ghostdancer @saxicola
(DIR) Post #AlLPmym4yRNg75VgWW by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-26T02:09:19Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
(2/2)Babylon 5 got much closer during the same era, with the data crystals that work like USB sticks.
(DIR) Post #AlM0susu2ut45fOcRk by ideaferace@mastodon.uno
2024-08-26T09:04:20Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey Not possible. 2017 is the year of the paper titled "Attention is all you need", a seminal work that presented the Transformer architecture.Thanks to the Transformer, GPT, GPT2, GPT3, ... and several other large language models originated in the following years,Seven years ago, and for a relatively long period thereafter, generative AI was far from being productive in writing scripts.
(DIR) Post #AlMD8jeYlpl1L9zqxU by nyrath@spacey.space
2024-08-26T11:22:23Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey @60sRefugee @Alon @isaackuo @fnordius @ghostdancer @saxicola Yes, why have 10 tablets to read 10 reports? When you can have 1 tablet with 10 ... windows
(DIR) Post #AlMcfyx1Pd4dCCa9Oi by AMS@infosec.exchange
2024-08-26T16:08:14Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey @60sRefugee @nyrath @Alon @isaackuo @fnordius @ghostdancer @saxicola Now that I have a half dozen tablets/laptops I can totally see just replicating another if they're free rather than switching windows/tabs. But no need to hand them off.
(DIR) Post #AlQL4kLJqCDCaQRgVE by militant_dilettante@mastodon.social
2024-08-20T10:29:51Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@isaackuo @Alon @strypey @ghostdancer @saxicola One of the ways I can think of it is when the characters play roles of ants in a car (Randy Feltface reference), and use large scale space vehicles belonging to aliens, superintelligent AIs, powerful megacorporations, powerful alien megacorporations run by superintelligent AIs, to sneakily hitch rides across the interstellar space. But this requires the spaceships in question to be extremely large, and powerful.
(DIR) Post #AlQL4lCqdB1vGRUQwC by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-28T11:10:05Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@militant_dilettante> when the characters play roles of ants in a carHitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a classic example.@isaackuo @Alon @ghostdancer @saxicola
(DIR) Post #AlRVbaPB0Hku1MVXDE by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-29T00:42:35Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@isaackuo> I gave a specific example of 10 hours to get between Phobos and DeimosThe problem is not in your arithmetic. I can give you a walking speed of 20 minutes to get to town. Does that mean I can walk to Mars?> Water is plentiful in most of the solar system, and cheap to harvest with a solar lens stillIt's plentiful in the ocean too, and in Antarctica. But you can still die of thirst. Where are you going to fuel up between solar systems?@Alon @ghostdancer @saxicola @nyrath
(DIR) Post #AlRWCtnFsgMOrqYvMu by isaackuo@spacey.space
2024-08-29T00:49:16Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@strypey @Alon @ghostdancer @saxicola @nyrath I don't really know what your exact complaint is, but I have studied the sort of navigation required to get around with low performance solar steam rocketry.I think you have the impression that distances in space are simply too vast to realistically get around with such a simple rocket "raft". But in many places it's possible. I'm not talking interstellar trips between solar systems. I'm talking trips from moon to moon within a planetary system.
(DIR) Post #AlRZPToM5qobublePw by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-29T01:25:20Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@isaackuo> I'm not talking interstellar trips ... I'm talking trips from moon to moon within a planetary systemFair enough, that's potentially viable. You've certainly done more detailed thinking about the logistics than I have : ) If I was in space, I don't think I'd see the risk and discomfort of not carrying life support gear as being worth the weight saving. But YMMV and I agree it opens up some fascinating new story possibilities.(1/?)@Alon @ghostdancer @saxicola @nyrath
(DIR) Post #AlRZPUgErVuubiygPA by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-08-29T01:25:20Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
But I'm still left with a few questions about the implementation.Eg I remain sceptical of using up potential drinking water as fuel. Surely there are other plentiful substances that could be used?You've got a point in that water you don't carry is no more use to you in-flight than water you burn. But if there were orbiting caches for space travellers to top up their drinking water, I'd be pretty grumpy if some intrasolar boat people were using them to top up their fuel supplies ; )(2/?)
(DIR) Post #AlRaRXUrSfJZsNCAU4 by isaackuo@spacey.space
2024-08-29T01:36:53Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey @Alon @ghostdancer @saxicola @nyrath To clarify my suggestion of space adventurers using "solar steam rafts" is not the equivalent of adventuring out in the wilderness. There still need to be a space station or a serious manned spacecraft at the destination.That's fine in this context, because we typically want the space adventurers to have other people to interact with anyway.
(DIR) Post #Am9fJaar72kttDGRxQ by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-09-19T07:58:41Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ideaferace> Not possible. 2017 is the year of the paper titled "Attention is all you need", a seminal work that presented the Transformer architectureYou seem to be implying that if the knowledge contained in this paper wasn't published (that you know of) before 2017, this is proof that it didn't exist before this publication date. Logic suggests the opposite.The paper couldn't have been written, let alone published, until the knowledge existed. Therefore it *must* have preceded the paper.
(DIR) Post #Am9t2qosvfk2eLjtFQ by ideaferace@mastodon.uno
2024-09-19T10:32:34Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@strypey Indeed, knowledge was around, ready to be distilled into an efficient architecture. But that knowledge was at the academic level. It took a few years of trial&error and several billions to have a usable technology. In 2017 it was hard to extract meaningful snippets from a document given a query, let alone elaborating some "original" and fluent paragraph.
(DIR) Post #Amksa3SSdrhi1qIrjs by strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz
2024-10-07T06:51:41Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ideaferace> knowledge was around, ready to be distilled into an efficient architecture. But that knowledge was at the academic levelYou don't seem to understand the political-economic model of technology under state capitalism. The military and spooks always get access first. Then years later, once it no longer confers military advantage, corporations, as trade secrets with NDAs for everyone involved. Only then academics, and decades later, the public. Look at GPS, for example.