combinatorialimplosion

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Commented on The myth of heroism
Whether either or both of those sanctions regimes were ultimately fair or justified or sensible to maintain, at this point, the peoples of those countries seem to differentiate inter-governmental squabbles from genuine ill will between the populaces. I concur...
Commented on The myth of heroism
I heartily agree that the worst thing the US could do would be to try to topple the Iranian government. Fortunately, this is highly unlikely to be a worry in the near-to-mid future, IMO. My take is that both the...
Commented on The myth of heroism
I would argue that, in the case of Iran, from 1953 to 1979 probably was one of greater anti-US/UK sentiment in the populace (as opposed to the government) than in 21st century Iran and your post provides good justification why...
Commented on A nation of slaves
It seems to me that the design of a guaranteed income system would need to take into account both political acceptability and the impact of such a system on those receiving income. For one thing, I think it is desirable...
Commented on Can We Merge Minds and Machines?
Isn't there a very well-funded drive against any sort of augmentation & life-extension going on in the USA? Backed (what a surprise/not) by just about every form of god-botherer & the ultra-right. I don't think so, at least not...
Commented on Can We Merge Minds and Machines?
Overheard, Jean Harlow to Albert Einstein I like the retort Anatole France is supposed to have delivered better- France to Isadora Duncan: "Yes, but imagine a child with my beauty and your brains"...
Commented on Why AIs Won't Ascend in the Blink of an Eye - Some Math
My intuition is that the most likely trajectory for intelligence would be for the Flynn Effect of mean IQ increasing 3 points per decade to replicate what Moore's Law did and go on for way longer than anyone would have...
Commented on Political failure modes and the beige dictatorship
I'd like to posit an alternative (or perhaps complementary) hypothesis that what you have described can be accounted for, at least in part, by far quicker convergence on the revealed, as opposed to stated, preferences of the electorate by the...

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Gerald Fnord commented on The myth of heroism
I couldn't maintain interest in "Supergods" very long, as Morrison seemed to be surrendering to the same sort of self-involvement and credulousness that makes some Alan Moore material uninteresting to me...but near the end of his run of "Animal Man" there's a moment when an explicit author avatar ('grant Morrison') says something on the order of 'We have complex problems we can't solve so we dress up hyper-muscled men in costumes and have them punch each other to figure them out.' (Material not available to us, so read once, two years ago, so my apologies for any inaccuracy in that.)...
Gerald Fnord commented on The myth of heroism
'Marital breakdown': don't completely lose heart, those of us inclined to be saddened by this possible fictional event. Plenty of things that break down have been repaired---marriages are notoriously difficult on that score, but as a mad old marriage counselor once wrote (in Edward FitzGerald's translation) 'That is not dead which can eternal lie.', and even though these characters don't have eternity as such, having (as Jerry said to Frank) the Heat Death to look forward to, theirs are universes of possibility...magic seems to be able to do more and more as the series moves on, probably a combination of...
Jay commented on The myth of heroism
It's to be expected, really. Bob and Mo have to be getting a bit low on SAN points by now....
scott-sanford commented on The myth of heroism
...and none of their exorcisms ended with a heartfelt 'Now piss off.' I have no trouble imagining Bob doing that after a long day at work....
metachromatic commented on The myth of heroism
Your heresy against the Lightning Gods is not appreciated, unbeliever. They will smite you. Methinks you've missed the economic drivers in superhero fiction, Charlie. More likely that superhero fiction reappeared in the 1920s and 1930s because that was when economic inequality skyrocketed, taking Euro/American societies back to levels of inequality not seen since the Gilded Age or earlier. As everyone knows, economic inequality has (if anything) worsened today. The essential paradigm of superhero tales involves paternalist authoritarianism: in a society where only the elites are empowered, only a member of the elites can save you. Bruce Wayne must therefore be...

Responses to Comments from combinatorialimplosion

Common Misconceptions About Publishing—a series of essays about the industry I work in.
How I Got Here In The End —my non-writing autobiography, or what I did before becoming a full-time writer.
Unwirer—an experiment in weblog mediated collaborative fiction.
Shaping the Future—a talk I gave on the social implications of Moore's Law.
Japan: first impressions — or, what I did on my holidays
Inside the MIT Media Lab—what it’s like to spend a day wandering around the Media Lab.
The High Frontier, Redux — space colonization: feasible or futile?
“Nothing like this will be built again”—inside a nuclear reactor complex.
Old blog—2003-2006 (RIP)

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