Ashley

Recent Actions

• Commented on A purely theoretical dilemma
  My answer is yes, but only because I imagine that any Group Mind would be running on my biological substrate, and I would still be me (no different to the current delusion that I am me), and that the human...
• Commented on Burnout, creativity, and the tyranny of production schedules
  Take time out and change your routines, exercise a little more, drink a little less, eat a balanced diet. It takes time but it will help in the long run....
• Commented on Confessions of a (half-assed) news avoider
  When I was young I started a degree in Photography and Film Studies where there was a module on reportage; newspapers were the main source of serious news. What I learnt from that three months was how biased all the...
• Commented on Data, books, and bias
  Having read all the way through this comments on this post I have a number of observations and comments to make in brief. Having just come back from Provence where I have been diligently destroying my brain cells by consuming...
• Commented on In defence of Traditional (Eurocentric Quasi-Medieval) Fantasy: #1 I'll read what I like
  I would observe that there's snobbery everywhere one goes in life. Never eating a Big Mac, being an example of one kind of snobbery to do with food. Or I drive, insert car make of choice, which is better than...
• Commented on A brief, bitter quiz
  As always an interesting post about a complex situation that defies simple answers. We in the West have ignored the lessons of history, and worse, made enemies through caricaturing a diverse group of cultures. One can only hope that some...
• Commented on Down tools
  I'm not surprised that people aren't getting the references. We tend to forget that what we know is often unique to us, and by that I mean I assume everyone picks up shout outs to Babylon5. Kosh, Vir etc. No...
• Commented on We need a pony. And the moon on a stick. By next Thursday.
  "...whoever is POTUS, around 10% of the US population are convinced that they're a baby-eating lizard-alien in a fleshsuit who is plotting to bring about the downfall of civilization, rather than a middle-aged male politician in a business suit." There's...
• Commented on Lighting up again
  I finished reading Palimpsest, and think it is pretty perfect just as it is. OTOH I will read a novelisation of it too. I also gave you a shout out here: http://tinyurl.com/n6v2y9q...
• Commented on "Write me something fresh and new, but make it just like the last one"
  Have you been around my flat reading my secret diary of a dissatisfied cognitive behavioural therapist? I could say more, but this is the internet so I'd rather not....
• Commented on The latest Hugo awards storm
  I do hope that when you say, "That's called democracy. The people who tend to call it "mob rule" are the ones who have been outvoted." That you are attempting a witty riposte, or an attempt at humour, because it...
• Commented on The latest Hugo awards storm
  IMO speaking as someone who has been, and will always receive a certain amount of abuse by those who consider themselves reasonable people, what disturbs me most about this, and other recent outraged responses, is that we are seeing mob...
• Commented on Picocon
  Looking forward to seeing you do your stuff tomorrow at your GoH speech....
• Commented on The Singularity Is Further Than It Appears
  I really enjoyed reading this post and think you have a lot of interesting points that will give me pause to think further about....
• Commented on How To Survive A Death March
  I struggle to manage five to seven hours a day of productive time. It's one of the reasons I can no longer maintain a full time job, but that's rheumatoid arthritis for you. Back when I was young and foolish...
• Commented on The cult of justice
  At the OP and Point four. I would posit that death is not the worst punishment you can inflict upon a person, but denying them the right to civil liberty for the rest of their life is, because being locked...
• Commented on Trotskyite singularitarians for Monarchism! A political speculation.
  Reading your blog i like reading TV Tropes, it sucks my time up. Thank you though. IMO the problems are driven by our biology and limitations of our psychological tendency to delude ourselves, but a always YMMV....
• Commented on A deceptively simple question
  I think the biggest effect at a geopolitical level will be the disruption of the markets when the economies collapse from the job losses that some have predicted. The automation of driving leading to equivalent of quantitative easing with regard...
• Commented on Time tourism
  As a woman I find it hard to see the attraction of going back into the past and live my life there. Lack of hygiene products and healthcare being the least of my worries when facing a world that is...