silly-swordsman

Recent Actions

• Commented on The myth of heroism
  Doris Lessing, the 2007 winner of the Literature Nobel, wrote science fiction, and said, in response to those who criticised her for it: "What they didn't realise was that in science fiction is some of the best social fiction of...
• Commented on The latest Hugo awards storm
  The naive answer is that if you want to become member of a fandom, you just need to join in and participate. You don't need to go to cons - there are plenty of fan groups online (said he who...
• Commented on Why Make A Movie Within A Computer Game?
  I've been waiting for some years now for game studios to release film-maker kits. Given that they have props, characters, mechanics, lighting, rain and dust physics, locations and so on, and presumably they have tools to produce animations for cut...
• Commented on Genre award awareness
  Last spring, I started a Twitter account for writing micro-sized S/F and fantasy stories. I usually post one or two stories per weekday, although I don’t have a fixed schedule. During 2013, I wrote and posted over 500 single-tweet stories....
• Commented on Making history personal
  Oh, looking forward to that. Melbourn Bury used to be a very expensive B&B at the turn of the century. I stayed there for my first two weeks at work in England. Breakfast in the main hall was interesting, when...
• Commented on Making history personal
  There is a range of categories in this, I reckon. Places you visit as a tourist for the purpose of visiting that place are, in a sense, not functional buildings, but "tourist attractions". Visited to visit building: (Newgrange (3200 BCE),...
• Commented on Another deceptively simple question
  (Answers dependent on world+society not undergoing any dramatic changes in the next decade.) Like many others, I think that cheap fiction paperbacks will disappear from the market. As electronic readers (phone, tablet, computer, dedicated device) become increasingly common, accepted, and...
• Commented on What have we learned?
  We have learned that it's not that to people with only a hammer, every problem looks like a nail; it's that no matter how many tools you have available, the hammer is still the most satisfying to use. (The Jeremy...
• Commented on Monarchy versus the Panopticon
  I expect the public school system will change a fair bit in the next decade. They're seeing far fewer applicants (which is why many single-sex ones have moved to co-ed in the last few years), and they're having a far...
• Commented on Grand Guignol Tropes
  He stared at his 'Grand Guignol' script. It was abysmal. Frustrated, he began chewing the pages, choughed, choked, and was suffocated by it. (Sorry, this was written as a tweet, but since you inspired it...)...
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  I imagine that us resident EU citizens would be allowed to stay during a transitory period, during which we'd have to apply for work permits (using the same "Are you economically viable" test as non-EU migrants currently face) or British...
• Commented on The ticking clock, stopped
  Yes, I'd take the drug, and not change my short-term (which post-drug would be a decade or so, I reckon) plans much. I enjoy my job well enough, and have a family to support. But in a decade, I won't...
• Commented on The ticking clock
  I imagine there'll be a big divide in replies depending (ha!) on whether the person replying has dependents or not. One of mine's already out of my hands, but the other would still be a legal minor when I died....
• Commented on 2512
  Regarding 2512, I'd expect to see a significantly smaller human population, with all-cultivated food (e.g. lab-grown meat, synthesised dairy etc). Hunting/fishing wild animals will be a niche hobby, and actually killing for real, and eating the meat, will be seen...
• Commented on 2512
  On the subject of Scotland's independence, I think it's worth re-iterating that it's stupid and/or malicious when unionists claim SNP can't provide detailed answers on this issue or that. It's not a referendum on perpetual SNP rule. Should the independece...