Zephro
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Commented on Book day!
Apologies for going slightly off-topic, but hopefully 400+ comments is enough to ask a question not directly related to the newest novel. I'm wondering about K syndrome, and how it fits with the presence of several powerful baseline-human magic users...
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Commented on The present in deep history
One issue, of course, is that if you zoom right out it becomes really hard to draw clean lines between things. The emancipation of women does indeed feel like a phase change, but it also feels like the Industrial Revolution...
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Commented on Oh dear
As someone who was in the DDR Museum a few months ago, it seemed rather obviously and off-puttingly triumphalist (I think it's run as a tourist trap by a private company, rather than as an academic exercise). I'd apply a...
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Commented on Marking time, more thoughts
Socialism and communism, at least as historically practised, both preach the dignity of work. All their propaganda emphasises it. A mere revolution in your economic organisation isn't enough to unseat hundreds or thousands of years of cultural assumptions! It'll need...
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Commented on Marking time, more thoughts
As per Russell, I think the idea of the nobility of work (and therefore the shame of unemployment) goes back a lot further than the 18th century. And, of course, it's only the non-aristocrats for whom work is a noble...
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Commented on Who ordered *that*?
I think there's a lot of truth in that analysis. But, interestingly, this isn't the first time that some heavyweight thinkers have pondered these sorts of topics. "In Praise of Idleness" by Bertrand Russell and "Economic Possibilities for our Grand-children"...
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Commented on Crib Sheet: Halting State
Great book, and I'm liking this series of posts very much. One thing, though - the focus on Second Life in discussions of virtual reality, MMOs and the like has always seemed strange to me. Ultima Online and Meridian 59...