Evan

Evan

  • Commented on A message from our sponsors: New Book coming!
    I remember the satanic panic quite well, and find myself looking forward to reading your thoughts about it in the afterword almost as much as I am to the novel....
  • Commented on A fistful of tropes
    Callahan's Bar/Draco Tavern style stories? I've always liked the "aliens/time-travelers/faerie/etc find common ground over beers" vibe....
  • Commented on Fossil fuels are dead (and here's why)
    Ok, so, a solar cell in space gets about 4x the solar irradiance as one on the ground. Being in the sun 24 hours a day is another 4x. But microwave transmission losses make it about 4x worse, so one...
  • Commented on Lying to the ghost in the machine
    I never before thought it was plausible that Captain Kirk managed to talk so many computers into self-destructing, but huh, this post is making me reconsider....
  • Commented on Dead plots
    Sometimes you can solve two problems by putting them together. Stories about conspiracies no longer work. Stories about the development of brilliantly logical artificial intelligences by thoughtful, competent scientists like Noonian Soong or Susan Calvin no longer work. Stories about...
  • Commented on Update to Public Appearances in a time of pandemic
    I feel 100% certain that conventions will be coming back. When we have an effective vaccine, it's gonna be all hugging and handshaking and cuddle piles and mosh pits ALL THE TIME. I suspect in 2021 travel is going to...
  • Commented on Sucker bet (a thought experiment)
    I have to admit I'm thinking outside my usual D&D alignment, but there are in fact some very serious problems that are much harder to solve if violence is off the table as a tactic... especially when people who don't...
  • Commented on Sucker bet (a thought experiment)
    Sure, I know, I was just using polonium as a flippant rhetorical short-hand. Feel free to choose a more practical method or methods, so long as it's effective enough to leave the victims' heirs with a bone-deep fear of following...
  • Commented on Sucker bet (a thought experiment)
    (Your end goal should be to live to a ripe old age and die in bed, surrounded by your friends and family.) I'm unable to stop myself from thinking outside of this box. Why is that my goal? I'm not...
  • Commented on Paging Agent 007
    We seem to be losing track of the identities of X, Y and Z. Perhaps they should be assigned code names instead of initials......
  • Commented on Fantasy shibboleths
    I haven't had time to read the whole thread yet, and I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but my one major peeve with fantasy literature is the dark lord who doesn't have any desire or motivation except to be...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    Pretty late to this party, but Star Trek teleporters annoy the hell out of me. Humans as a species have access to a technology that can manipulate matter on a molecular level. I headcanon this by supposing the transporter is...
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    Has anyone written a story like this? "The Big Front Yard", Clifford Simak. A trader gets anti-gravity technology in exchange for the idea of paint....
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    The thing that makes humans different from every other species is our need to believe there's a thing that makes us different from every other species....
  • Commented on Science-fictional shibboleths
    For me it's almost never the tech/science that breaks things for me, it's unbelievable human reactions to the tech/science. In particular, scientists who are informed of alien science and don't ask questions, or engineers who are shown advanced technology and...
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