NevilleK

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• Commented on The gathering crisis
  Obviously, there are global challenges - general energy problems, supply chain disruption, the COVID pandemic which lingers, the increasingly obvious consequences of climate change, political instability in several regions. Ideally, each one of those would lead to a re-thinking of...
• Commented on Covid on Mars
  I'm not sure there will be a "mayor of Armstrong City" - at least not a single, omnipotent human. If we accept that the most optimistic take on getting a Mars colony established involves solving all the medical, engineering, economic,...
• Commented on So you say you want a revolution
  And of course Scotland's accession to the EU would bring substantial fishing grounds.......
• Commented on So you say you want a revolution
  One thing I think people haven't yet fully realized is that leaving the single market and customs union guarantees the increased fettering to goods entering and leaving GB. The lorry parks will be necessary, even if there is a deal....
• Commented on The obligatory general election discussion post
  For what it's worth, I think the policies Labour announced are probably a step in the right direction. But it doesn't matter, because nobody reads a manifesto, and the vast majority of people don't follow "the news" with any degree...
• Commented on The Inevitable Brexit Thread (1)
  The problem is exactly that "nobody knows". The British political system is designed to deliver power to a single party, and negotiation happens within those parties, usually behind closed doors. Most of the time, that process has worked (in the...
• Commented on Typo Hunt: The Labyrinth Index
  Sorry, can't find the page but I recall thinking you'd mixed up MI5 and MI6....
• Commented on Why I barely read SF these days
  I am willing to overlook inconsistencies. I don't want to let "actually, I think you'll find" stop my enjoyment of a story. For me, a big part of SF is the "what if" aspect - what if you could travel...
• Commented on Unforeseen Consequences and that 1929 vibe
  It's the Stross effect... https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21732155-cheap-electricity-and-frozen-winters-cool-massive-computer-servers-why-siberia-great-place Dmitry Tolmachev, an Irkutsk furniture magnate, developed a prototype modular home warmed by the servers’ excess heat. The homes cost $8,500 and up, and generate about $850 per month in mining profit....
• Commented on The World of Tomorrow
  I think a big feature of 2050 will be that the economic centre of the world will have shifted to Asia. A combination of renewable energy, new industrial models and demographic factors will mean large populations, with stable-ish political systems...
• Commented on 2117 revisited
  Apropos language extinction - I think it depends heavily on the political context. I grew up in Friesland, in the Netherlands, where the local language (Frisian) had long been ignored by the national government. In the 1950s, this changed, and...
• Commented on Popcorn Time
  Add to this picture the possibility/likelihood of a financial crash in the next 2 years and one could imagine all sorts of crazy outcomes. I'm hearing commentators say that the Fed is planning to raise interest rates so they have...
• Commented on Facts of Life and Death
  It's interesting. On the one hand - the things Charlie describes are undoubtedly real. Yes, there will be exceptions, and there will be sectors that do well out of devaluation - but the broad, nation-wide trend is clear. On the...
• Commented on Updating a classic
  Demand big improvements without changing anything. I was parachuted into a software project that was in trouble - the requirements were unclear, there was no credible plan, the team had cycled through 3 or 4 "methodologies", the only undisputed facts...
• Commented on The unavoidable discussion
  I think a big part of the debate in the UK is shaped by the relative historic uniformity of England (where most of the press is focused). England has been a unified political unit since the 10th century. Germany, the...
• Commented on The present in deep history
  I'm going to assume that in the 30th century, the practice of writing about, and teaching, history will not be so different to today. Whatever the concerns are for 30th century society will reflect the historical trends they choose to...
• Commented on Even More Obligatory Author Shilling
  No link.......
• Commented on Leading question
  The "sources of power" have always been hard to grasp. The ideal of a democracy, where power rests with the people, has never been completely true. However, the combined trends of privatisation of government tasks, the "picketty" trend of ever-more...