Geoff Hart

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• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  David L [912] responded to my suggestion that pairing human oversight with AI to handle the red tape might work: "Those human jobs will be boring for those with a brain who actually think about the proposed solutions and so...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  Heteromeles [856] noted: "As with Amazon and book sales, taking over bureaucracies from humans looks to be a place where AI can excel, especially if an AI can provide faster, better service for cheaper, as Amazon did on book sales."...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  Heteromeles [675] noted: "Global Jubilee. To solve the problem of wealth concentration, the nation-states declare a Biblical-style Jubilee" Picking nits, and NOT attacking Heteromeles, but this is a big one: it's not Biblical, it's Jewish. Specifically, it's in the Torah....
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  Robert Prior [586] updated my context: "Actually, that was part of a thread about how calculus was required but stats wasn't, and I was wondering if making stats the required course made more sense if you were only going to...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  I have fond memories of a plant ecology field course I took one summer. The prof, trying to encourage us to dialogue rather than just sitting and taking notes, told us that he insisted on us asking questions. "There are...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  Grant noted "At uni I did 5 days a week, including one all day practical with half a day Wednesday and most other days 5 or so hours of lectures. I compared notes with someone I knew doing English Literature...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  Moz: "But then I have to ask: what's the point of humanities? If you're not trying to solve problems or improve things, why even bother? "I know why you suck" doesn't seem very motivating. To me the value of humanities...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  fwiw, Charlie, it's hard to blame SFF authors (or any other authors) for having their words misinterpreted. There's always some sociopath who can find a way to deliberately misinterpret what you've written. For example, it's not like most of Christ's...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  Speaking of longtermism et al., a timely discussion between the wonderful Stephen Fry and John Cleese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ9W_Pq3v0Q Skip ahead to ca. 2.5 minutes for starting the discussion of ethics and ca. 4 minutes for objectivism and longtermism....
• Commented on A fistful of tropes
  Charlie corrected my error [763]: You're right. I'd remembered "clouds" in the habitable zone of the Venusian atmosphere, but forgot that they weren't water. Guess I was thinking of deep time back when Venus still had water. JohnS wondered [813]:...
• Commented on A fistful of tropes
  Charlie noted [718]: "The upper atmosphere is pretty dry but you might be able to schedule descents to lower altitude to run a vapour trap overnight, then use daytime power to split the water and ascend back to operational altitude."...
• Commented on A fistful of tropes
  Correction: Change "assumes" to "suggests"....
• Commented on A fistful of tropes
  Charlie [510] noted: "Russia today is the logical outcome of (a) the USSR failing, (b) western attempts to impose neoliberalism also failing (and causing immense misery along the way)" Minor correction: That wording (incorrectly) assumes that neoliberalism is intended to...
• Commented on A fistful of tropes
  How about a workable "post-scarcity" economy? Something wholly original or something in dialogue with some of what Cory Doctorow's been doing. If you're in the mood for hommage, as you were with "Saturn's Children", maybe set the story in something...
• Commented on A fistful of tropes
  Heteromeles [124] noted: "So no, true shapeshifting was not required by the original stories." My point was that if you're using classic/traditional werewolves, shape-shifting is the sine qua non. You then have options: choose shape-shifting for skinwalkers (thereby doing lazy...
• Commented on A fistful of tropes
  Charlie [85] wrote: "That's not an inversion! (By the end of The Labyrinth Index I think it's pretty clear that all the humans in the expedition Mhari led are either dead or no longer human" Apologies for the lack of...
• Commented on A fistful of tropes
  Another reason to avoid the cowboys and werewolves: if shapechangers are real, then by implication you'd have to do a fair bit of thinking of how to account for aboriginal beliefs such as the Navajo concept of skinwalkers without slipping...
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  Robert Prior [1600] noted about the nominally Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times!": "Oddly enough, none of my Chinese friends have ever heard that. It appears to be falsely attributed." I can confirm that (based on discussions with...
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  Pigeon [1558] noted: "Hoping this isn't educational advice to female ancestors on ovisuction" Heh. Yes, I'm old enough to know what that means. Pigeon: "I'd be highly inclined to regard books not as a source of knowledge which stands on...
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  SFReader [1524] noted: "I'm hoping agriculture becomes urbanized sooner rather than later." And brought under cover (e.g., greenhouses, vertical farms). My biggest concern is how climate change is hitting places formerly not hit. For example, Scientific American recently published an...
• Commented on Summer webcomics
  Not a Web comic, but I hope I'll be forgiven for presenting it here rather than in an older blog entry where nobody will see it. (It relates to Charlie's discussion of travel times in "Season of Skulls".) With that...
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  SFReader [1462] wondered: "Agree - I was of the impression that the most commonly used [source of phosphate] is bird poop" It's a major source, yes, but the agricultural demand long ago outstripped the rate of new supply. Most guano...
• Commented on Summer webcomics
  Forgot to mention Tom Gauld (https://www.tomgauld.com/), who publishes in many places, including republication of stuff that appeared elsewhere on Twitter (https://twitter.com/tomgauld). He combines scientific stuff with literary stuff in amusing and sometimes really insightful ways....
• Commented on Summer webcomics
  Definitely second (third/fourth) the recommendation of Questionable Comment. Jeph Jaques is doing some really interesting stuff with AI and how AI beings (mostly but not exclusively in human form) interact with humans. Most notably, his AI characters are as interesting...
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  Speaking of rubber subway wheels: Back when I rode the Toronto subway, the shrieking of metal wheels on metal tracks made me grit my teeth and seriously think of walking everywhere. (Taxis were not in the budget.) In contrast, the...
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  Indeed, shit-tonne (unit abbreviation: st) It's basically a long shit ton....
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  Pigeon (1275) noted: "Levels of nitrogen oxides were falling in more or less a straight line for a couple of decades or more... To ignore a potential problem while it exists and then start making a fuss after it doesn't...
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  JohnS noted: "on Windoze systems holding the left ALT while typing 0176 on the numeric keypad gives you a degree (°) symbol ... I think CMD+0176 does the same on an Apple computer" Not on my Mac, but here are...
• Commented on Announcement: 2nd edition Laundry Files RPG is coming
  whitroth noted: "I have NO intention of ever flying Air Canada again. Let's ignore the delays on both planes..." In fairness, CBC News had a story recently that blamed the delays on the federal government. Apparently they laid off many...
• Commented on Announcement: 2nd edition Laundry Files RPG is coming
  Can't say... haven't driven in BC. But yeah, bigger cliffs in BC for sure!...