Oh...oh my. I haven't been to Slashdot in ages, but I always remembered it as a bastion of erudite progressive discussions that railed against such things.
Slashdot was progressive until about 2005. In the decade since, its userbase has aged, while younger people left for more modern sites. The remaining people are stuck in the 90s mindset, increasingly conservative in all areas.
Slashdot used to push tech into crazy new ideas. Now, it's old people complaining about twitter and fearing AR/VR/Wearables/Children/Progress/Liberals/Science.
Same. I'm more radical and more Socialist the older I get. Not necessarily Marxist, but that's a rabbit hole. The older I get the less patience I have with bigotry, ignorance, and the US government.... but I repeat myself. :P
I've pretty much taken a hard left since 2000. It's amusing to watch shows like Borgen and imagine a political landscape where there is more than a binary choice between halfway-decent and fuck you.
Yeah pretty much the Culture or a Peter F. Hamilton novel. Oops I suffered body loss, guess I'll download my mind into another clone. I'd like those, but I'll settle for Ghost in the Shell. C'mon, Kurzweil.
This more directly answers my question, though I feel reading the wiki article still doesn't quite answer my underlying lack of knowledge of this "Culture". I will now go back to reading my book about the adventures of Captain Honor Harrington of the Royal Manticorian Navy.
I read the first book in the series. It was utter garbage. The structure of the entire book is:
A. Explain what the characters have done on the ship since the last meeting. B. Have a meeting to decide for the characters to decide what they want to do next. C. The characters leave the meeting to do that thing.
Kick off the action with human perpetrated genocide on an alien species that is framed as heroic. End the book with a space battle that kills thousands and could have been avoided, and if the heroes hadn't started the battle, the overall outcome would have been better.
The entire book was about dumb people being really dumb, and doing dumb shit, with the least dumb character winning in the end. How anyone could have read that and thought "I need more of this in my life" is astounding to me. I literally can't understand how it is satisfying fiction to anyone. I understand that it IS, but I don't have a mind that can comprehend how.
To my shame, I read pretty much all the Honor Harrington stuff (cuz I was bored and had 10 hours a day of doing nothing at my job). It's pretty much all some old guy's wet dream about capitalism and imperialism winning over the evil communists, bringing women's rights to space-mormons, and three-way sex with a cripple. Not great, but definitely entertaining.
Yeah. I think it's the writing style of showing both sides of a long term political and military engagement, knowing what both parties know and don't know, and watching it unfold. Also, I like it when Honor kicks ass and takes names. Also when Nimitz becomes a flying furry buzzsaw of death.
The entire book was about dumb people being really dumb, and doing dumb shit, with the least dumb character winning in the end. How anyone could have read that and thought "I need more of this in my life" is astounding to me. I literally can't understand how it is satisfying fiction to anyone. I understand that it IS, but I don't have a mind that can comprehend how.
You don't watch any primetime TV, do you? That's basically what primetime is. It's candy. Some people just like other types of candy than you. Some people don't like Azumanga Daioh. This is my candy and it's delicious. I read it when I'm tired of reading news or op-eds.
Comments
Slashdot used to push tech into crazy new ideas. Now, it's old people complaining about twitter and fearing AR/VR/Wearables/Children/Progress/Liberals/Science.
Growing up in The Great White North, I always thought he was some crazy dude from Vermont with weird un-American ideas.
It's remarkable, really, how time and perspective can change a person.
A. Explain what the characters have done on the ship since the last meeting.
B. Have a meeting to decide for the characters to decide what they want to do next.
C. The characters leave the meeting to do that thing.
Kick off the action with human perpetrated genocide on an alien species that is framed as heroic. End the book with a space battle that kills thousands and could have been avoided, and if the heroes hadn't started the battle, the overall outcome would have been better.
The entire book was about dumb people being really dumb, and doing dumb shit, with the least dumb character winning in the end. How anyone could have read that and thought "I need more of this in my life" is astounding to me. I literally can't understand how it is satisfying fiction to anyone. I understand that it IS, but I don't have a mind that can comprehend how.