Damien S.

Damien S.

  • Commented on Not a Manifesto
    I see $140/oz at Monteray Spice, which is under $5000/kg. I paid $40/oz for powdered saffron several years ago, that's $1410/kg. What's a microchip, $100 for 2 grams? That's $50,000/kg, up there with gold....
  • Commented on Not a Manifesto
    "Thing is, those spices were luxury goods and medicines, not commodities like computer chips " I'm guessing computer chips are far more valuable per kg than spices ever were....
  • Commented on Not a Manifesto
    Or for an optimistic perfect storm: 10 billion people with a minimum IQ of 140 and life expectancy of 120 [this is barely transhuman, simply duplicating real human traits] living in a global federated democracy that hasn't seen war in...
  • Commented on Not a Manifesto
    Galadriel also makes a pseudo-Silmaril out of water; she works with water. Tolkien wrote a whole essay on the palantiri; they're definitely seeing-stones. http://www.tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Palant%C3%ADri#Usage for a summary....
  • Commented on Not a Manifesto
    That's a pretty huge difference. Another one, albeit maybe less relevant to a story, is lack of infrastructure. Palantirs just work as universal scrying devices, as well as communicating to each other. You can go look anywhere -- possibly even...
  • Commented on Not a Manifesto
    I have to say I don't follow the logic of the manifesto. If technology is turning 'magical', then why not write 'fantasy' that revolves around the 'magical' tech[1], rather than around tech-like magic? Get the best of both worlds that...
  • Commented on Not a Manifesto
    IIRC Tolkien said (not in LotR itself) that lembas was made with specially blessed wheat grown in clearings in Lorien; Galadriel herself was probably involved. So yeah, non-scalable resources. Basically, high intensity travel food, like cram, beef jerky, or "Iron...
  • Commented on Not a Manifesto
    "a world perfused by mechanised, systematized magic" Heh, reminds me of the Nanoha franchise, which started looking like another magical girl show and then introduced magical Starfleet halfway through....
  • Commented on Not a Manifesto
    "The march of science has restricted our views of the future, as has the actual arrival of the future" Well, and few people want to tell stories about the views that are still (or even more) plausible. Superintelligent immortals, planetary...
  • Commented on The morning after
    In particular, doubts about Scotland's future on the pound or euro, rather than having its floating own currency like a real country. Meanwhile, http://rt.com/uk/189112-gagging-act-uk-undemocratic/ just passed. Independence even at economic cost looks more attractive now....
  • Commented on The morning after
    I didn't say bits improved debate, or even provided better government, I implied they give less corrupt government. Government that's closer to what the people want, for good or ill. It is of course possible to undermine having lots of...
  • Commented on The morning after
    What's your source for that about younger voters? No one paid for an exit poll, AFAIK, and early signs were that youth were more pro-No: http://www.theweek.co.uk/uk-news/scots-independence/60436/scottish-independence-odds-bookmakers-shorten-odds-on-no "Research by a group of academics at Edinburgh University into the voting intentions of...
  • Commented on The morning after
    Well, rank corruption isn't the only way to have democratic failure. Consider that a Brit realistically gets to choose among 3 or fewer candidates, possibly every 5 years. In a common case of having only 2 competitive parties in a...
  • Commented on The morning after
    Comments on the previous thread expressed surprise and doubt that 10% were still undecided. But over on RPG.net, with a couple dozen Scottish posters, several expressed wavering even as they went to the ballots, even posters who'd been vocal in...
  • Commented on The referendum question
    What do they do instead? Bullets, not ballots?...
  • Commented on The referendum question
    From around 2000, oil prices tripled or maybe quintupled, offsetting what can only be called collapsing production. But that can only go so far, especially as the current trend line looks like 0 barrels by 2021... If you go from...
  • Commented on The referendum question
    "aren't they pally with the Euro money people who like austerity" Attacking credentials is a poor substitute for attacking an argument, if the argument is comprehensible. And it's pretty simple here: what's iScotland going to use for money and central...
  • Commented on The referendum question
    Charlie: TypePad is too buggy to let me log in via LiveJournal. "not passing e-mail address" error even when I do so. Noel: my impression is that the difficulty with universal health care in the US is not one of...
  • Commented on The referendum question
    OTOH, US state powers have allowed the incubation of gay marriage, legalized marijuana, and Romneycare. Three states had legal abortion before Roe vs. Wade, and California is still advancing in abortion and birth control access. Elsewhere, Mexico City has gay...
  • Commented on The referendum question
    Mind you, Jane Jacobs would probably approve of 1000+ city states all with their own currency......
  • Commented on The referendum question
    1) Making countries smaller with respect to corporations doesn't seem a step forward in balancing their power. 2) As I think Noel mentions, bigger countries have insurance advantages in the face of economic (other than currency) shocks or natural disasters....
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