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NeilNjae
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- NeilNjae
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(Quote) My day job is an AI researcher. This is an old problem, and one we're already dealing with. Airbus planes will over-ride the pilot's control inputs if it's dangerous. This has prevented some accidents. It's also caused others, when the plane…
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(Quote) Perhaps we should read a le Carré / Smiley book soon, as a comparison on how to portray espionage? And perhaps a Flemming / Bond book as a contrast?
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(Quote) It turns out, this isn't such a great insight, as Banks tells us, near the beginning of the book, that Gurgeh will be played by Contact. An early chapter, before the game of Stricken, before Gurgeh is contacted by Concact, while Gurgeh is e…
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(Quote) Really? That's an extreme isloationist / libertarian view, it seems. Do you not want people giving you advice, even if they're experts and you're not? Do you not want governments to implement public-health campaigns, or provide public goods …
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(Quote) Especially as, as we saw with Grugeh, that it's easy for the Minds to manipulate people into behaving as the Minds would like.
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(Quote) By "people" I meant "we, the readers," and not how the in-universe characters react to her. Sorry that wasn't clear. Not that it negates your answer in any way!
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(Quote) I don't know if you've read other Culture books, but... this comes up. There are some people, and some Minds, that disagree with the Culture and what it does, and decide to leave the Culture. The Culture, being the Culture, let them go with …
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(Quote) It's interesting that biblical scholars think so. I don't think it's that relevant for anyone else. (Quote) To a great extent, they are. In fact, they really are the loving God of Christianity. I've not thought of it that way before. Going …
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I'll continue to sing the praises of the wonderful Mindjammer RPG. It's very Culture-like, apart from the lack of Minds. There's plenty of scope for adventure there (including my Mindjammer/Thunderbirds mash-up, _Interstellar Rescue). There are a c…
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Should NATO have intervened in Kosovo, or Yugoslavia, or Syria, or Iraq? None of those was an existential threat to NATO countries, but the humanitarian imperative was clear. Should the UK and US governments press China to implement more human right…
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It's obviously not a problem for the Culture because the Culture is being successful. I think it rests on what the Culture is for. It's not about expansion, efficiency, or other such capitalist-inspired value judgements. If that were the case, the M…
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(Quote) That's the one I was thinking of. I think the times when the Mind tells Gurgeh to switch languages from Marain to Azad and back to Marain is the most obvious way it's manipulating him. And you can imagine the conversations between the SC Mi…
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Yes, it's a communist utopia. No-one wants for anything, and people are free to concentrate on the important things, like playing games, writing poetry, and hobby-building GCVs. On the other hand, the Minds are so far above humans (and most drones)…
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I've not actually read the book this month (I lent my copy to someone, and the reservation at the library hasn't come through yet...), but. One thing that struck me from my last read. Who is the "player" referred to in the title? What gam…
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(Quote) That just shows I should pay more attention to my betters! (Quote) I think the world has verisimilitude because it hews close to a series of tropes and touchstones about the world. They all make sense in isolation, but when we try to put th…
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(Quote) Thinking about it more, I've come to the conclusion that Jemisin simply doesn't care about the world being objectively coherent. I think she wants a world that has enough verisimilitude to allow the characters to act in meaningful ways, and …
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How about something very _un_literary for May? The Eurovision Song Contest is over 12–16 May. The book Space Opera is basically "Eurovision in Space." It's a joyous book, fluff with a heart (you can read my review). If we read the book in…
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(Quote) A good article, thanks! Yes, it's full of spoilers for the whole trilogy. I've made a note to remind us of it when we get to the final recap. And @Apocryphal , thanks for the concern about the nature of the discussions we're having. It's ap…
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Multiple replies ahead! (Quote) Syenite's been "ordered" to have a child. The child is the goal, not the sex. Alabaster offered to refuse his part in the conception, and Syenite declined because she's the one who would take the blame, and…
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I'm happy to try some more literary books. One of the things I like about this group is the variety of books we read, and I'd like to see that continue.
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(Quote) The counter to this is "repesentation matters," and it can be important for fiction to feature a range of characters that reflects the population that reads it. It can be important that trans people, or gay people, or disabled peop…
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(Quote) People don't necessarily conceive at the first attempt. And anyway, the journey from Fulcrum to Allia was about two weeks, so they've been together about four weeks or so.
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(Quote) Is that what's going on in the relationship? I thought what's happening is that the Fulcrum leadership have told Syenite to have a child by Alabaster, and she decided to go along with that (for her own future prospects). Alabaster is continu…
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(Quote) Then it seems like I'm revealing my own lack of breadth in my reading, and projecting that onto others. It wouldn't be the first time I've made that mistake! (Quote) I think this will be an interesting point to come back to, at the end of t…
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(Quote) There were medieval universities (Karueein, Bologna, Oxford, Cambridge). But we know this world has telegraphs and asphalt roads, even if we've not seen power sources other than muscle (but Syenite makes a reference to a "master geneer,…
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(Quote) Let me expand on this, because I'm sure it comes across as hostile when I really don't mean it to be. When reading the literary notes on Brave New World, I was really surprised by how much of a different perspective the notes' author had on…
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(Quote) We know they had some way of paying for accommodation on their way to and from Allia, so perhaps they're using those funds. And given they've got telegraphs, I'm sure they've got some way of transferring funds from place to place. (Quote) G…
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(Quote) I get the impression of a world similar to Western 18th or 19th century. Some large cities, advanced and complex societies, but a lot of basic living arrangements in the country; and that country is most of what we've seen. I don't think we'…
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I'm enjoying the speculation about how the three stories are connected, but I'm not going to say anything to confirm or deny any ideas. As for @RichardAbbott 's comments on bullying, I agree with most of them. Most bullying is just people being mea…
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(Quote) Available from..? Don't be coy!