You Can Blame Akumokagetsu For This · 4:29am May 23rd, 2014
As, in one of his recent blogs he was kind enough to point me out as a person of interest. Of course, upon further review, I found that while I've a good track record for leaving witty (or at least half-witted) comments, my page is rather sadly empty. Rather like having a buddy tell everyone what a great guy you are and how everyone should come over to meet you, then remembering that your fridge is empty, you're out of tea and beer, and your house is in no shape for guests. So to remedy that situation, I've decided to step up my activity in the community, and give this "blogging" stuff a go. If I were you I'd run now, while there's still time.
Still here? Right then. So, after hearing enough about the blasted thing via geek cultural osmosis, I've decided to watch Dr. Who. Very enjoyable so far, I can see why it gets the praise it does. But that's not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about how I'm watching it: streamed via Netflix to my PS4. Pretty mundane, right? Right, and that's the amazing thing. Here I sit in St. Louis, MO, over 2000 miles away from Netflix headquarters, almost instantaneously sending a show, made in the UK, an even further distance from me, to my Japanese, even further away now, entertainment device and this is completely and utterly mundane. Netflix, PS4, plasma T.V., all perfectly ordinary, all completely unthinkable 25 years ago. And then I post a blog on a website, where thousands of people, from all over the world of various ethnicity, religion, political views, gender, and orientation are brought together out of a love of cartoon ponies. Mind boggling.
I suppose the point I'm trying to make, is that when you step back and look at all the things we take for granted, for all its follies, rough edges, and areas that need improvement Humanity is kind of amazing.
I have a strange, dual perspective on this.
Sometimes, I look at the vast advances in technology in my lifetime -- the stellar leaps in telecommunications, the advances in scientific discoveries, the multiplying effects of Moore's Law on computers -- and I'm in absolute awe of all that's happened. When I was a kid, we thought there might be planets orbiting other stars, but we didn't have any evidence. Now, we know of hundreds for certain, and we've got data on several thousand other candidates, and we've only really started the search! I remember an acquaintance showing me the jaw-dropping capabilities of his new Commodore 128, named for the impressive 128 kilobytes of memory that it had. These days, a number that small wouldn't even be considered suitable for a children's toy. And like you, I've chatted with people all over the globe, more or less in real time.
...and then I think about all of the science fiction I've grown up reading, and I get disappointed again.
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Personally, I blame Asimov and Herbert for being too awesome for something as simple as mere reality to ever measure up. That said, a dang jet-pack and flying car would be nice.
Although, there is some Sci-Fi I'd prefer to avoid. I'm looking at you, 40K
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Asimov is one of many names I'll gladly blame, but the feuding houses and patchy hit-and-miss technology of Dune don't exactly make for a cozy future. Roddenberry is a name that comes to mind a lot when I'm reading the news. "The human race can be so much more than this! We can live together as a single, peaceful planet!" We can just be violent and narrow-minded about aliens instead... and drop them with double-fist chops and home-made diamond-shooting cannons.
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I suppose Dune should be put in the "Bad Future" pile, as cool as it was. I do agree with you about aliens: nothing like some freaky space monster to make your fellow man so much more agreeable than before.
Roddenberry was brilliant.
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Just ask Adrian Veidt.
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That was a great comic. The movie on the other hand...yeah.
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Well, apparently they don't belong in the bathtub. Beyond that, though, who knows?
That stuff may as well be witchcraft, you ask me...
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