Is social media not technology? If you don't want to see it, there are text filters.
this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2025
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By "social media" you must mean "echo chamber". Criticism is completely appropriate.
By "social media" you must mean "echo chamber".
Why...would you ever think that? Is everyone here echoing your sentiment?
Criticism is completely appropriate.
I wasn't saying it was inappropriate, just inaccurate.
Poul Anderson mentioned 🗣️ 🗣️🗣️
He and H.Beam Piper are my favorite SF writers, be sure to check Three Hearts and Three Lions, the book where the hero solves fantasy problems with Science(tm).
In my late 20s at a sci fi con, a friend came up and said, "Here's someone I'd like you to meet," and suddenly I was face to face with Poul Anderson. He was one of my idols - I had read the crap out of his work for years and years. I was so gobsmacked all that came out of my mouth was, "How do you say your first name?" Worst fail of my life.
I've never heard of HBP, will take a look.
He's fun reading, though being a woman I also find his stuff kinda sexist. It's basically cowboys in space.
I mostly read sci-fi from the late Golden Age and the New Wave, so I have a lot of practice in glossing over questionable bits!
Cowboys in space sounds fun.
Star Trek for the technology and exploration (both of space and the human condition). Star Wars because WOW that dude just moved that shit with his FREAKIN' MIND!
Think about the technology we have now - a lot of it was inspired by Star Trek technology. Communicators -> smartphones/watches, shuttle -> Rovers, non invasive medical diagnosis, large screens, video calls. And that's just from TOS. And I'm pretty sure people are still working on creating Transporters.
Back in the days of Star trek the next generation, Voyager and Deep Space 9, I Would say Star Wars is not really Science Fiction but Science Fantasy.
But unfortunately that's become true for Star Trek too.
As Science Fiction I clearly prefer old school Star Trek, but as Science Fantasy Star Wars does it way better IMO.
I hadn't heard about Poul Anderson’s Polesotechnic League stories before, they look very interesting, I'll bookmark that for when I feel like some old school SciFi. 👍 😀
'War Of The Wing-Men' is a good one to start with.
Thanks. I just found the entire series, 😋 but with some odd numbering?:
Anderson, Poul - Polesotechnic League - 01 - The Trouble Twisters
Anderson, Poul - Polesotechnic League - 02 - War Of The Wing-Men
Anderson, Poul - Polesotechnic League - 03 - Trader To The Stars
Anderson, Poul - Polesotechnic League - 04 - Satan's World
Anderson, Poul - Polesotechnic League - 05 - Mirkheim
Anderson, Poul - Polesotechnic League - 06 - The Earth Book Of Stormgate
Anderson, Poul - Polesotechnic League - People in the Wind
Completely different numbering than for instance the recommended here?
https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/polesotechnic-league/
Which would you recommend?
By publication date or chronological story line?
I always try to go by publication.
Someone put it this way [they were talking specifically about the Conan stories]. If you meet someone and get to chatting you don't tell your story in chronological order. Maybe the first story you tell is about what happened at work, or your most recent vacation. After you've known them a while you talk about grade school.
That's my opinion.
Thanks. 😀
I feel like in a post-global pandemic world, where we have AIs that can pass the Turing test, VR world's where we can do global virtual raves, and if one cobbles enough cutting edge tech together one can say "earl Grey, hot" and a 3d printer can print up a model of a tea cup... I think scifi writers have to come up with what is NEXT.
No more "Oh this logical robot which can either be a metaphor for autism or enslaved people want to be free and human". Give us projections on our current technology and social evolution. Shows set in the year 2200 shouldn't just be dealing with the emergence of AI and still have only straight nuclear families.
True, most sci fi about the future just overlays fancy gadgets on top of present-day culture, and every robot is Pinocchio and wants to be a real boy. But if an author tried hard to speculate about future life it would probably be too unfamiliar and unrelatable to sell a lot of books - and I don't really blame them for not wanting to put readers in a too-unfamiliar world, they're trying to entertain not write white papers. Also consider the reaction to a writer who made it okay for an robot to get fulfillment out of just functioning perfectly. OMG no, we can't give that toxic idea any breathing space. Every entity must long for Freedom like an angst-ridden teenager or the writer will be accused of shilling for the system.
DS9 > TNG > BSG
I'd put 'The Expanse' at the head of the line
The Expanse is great
What boggles my mind is that there have been about fifty movies based on Philip K. Dick and zero based on Poul Anderson.
Anderson has galactic empires, roguish heroes, dozens of alien species, strong females, etc etc.
I think that it because Dick could write short stories that could get made into movies. A lot more of the sprawling book series are only done justice with multi movie series or TV series.
Poul did a throwaway story that I'd love to see expanded into a series.
A group of time travelers from 4,000 AD travel back to Renaissance Italy. They run into an evil baron and his henchmen, including one very learned monk. A little torture and the Italians have their own time machine. They set up a base in 10,000 BC and raid across time. They know that the Time Patrol can only use things in the historical record, so as long as they keep a low profile they'll never get caught.
PKD is special somehow. He's the one author where, I think, the movies are better than the books pretty consistently. Maybe it's luck or my flawed opinion.
I think Dick was writing to be read in a particular time and place. Take Dashiell Hammett. 'Red Harvest' works a century later. there are some references that are dated [wearing a red tie] but overall you can give the novel to a modern person without a great deal of explanation needed. 'The Thin Man' requires a ton of annotation to be understood.
imho.
Agreed. Partly because the movies have actual endings...
I have just read one Poul Anderson (when I was a teenager) and the most important thing I remember was people fucking each other all the time.
You say that like it's a bad thing.
iirc, it was in "War Of The Wing Men' where a princess has been traveling through the galaxy looking for a human male to sire her child. She ends up picking a fat, boorish space trader over the hero-type because the trader actually knows how to get things done.
It was "The Avatar" in a German translation. I read it twice or so at that time - and it's many years since, so I have only a dim recollection of all the details, but a lot of politics, and (if I don't mix it up now) questionable physics regarding light speed and mass, a lot of sex and some weird gaelic inspired poetry.
Maybe I'll find a copy one day again, to have a new look with my now old eyes and different woldview.
From what I've seen on goodreads or so I had a bit of misfortune as The Avatar isn't known as his best work. But beggars can't be choosers, at that time I got my sci fi fix by browsing the one bookstand with scifi in the central station's bookstore next to my bus stop home after school... they threw me out once or twice "This is for buying books, not for reading"
Here are some old school paperback writers you might not have heard of. I present them in no particular order, just off the top of my head. I found them all on wire racks in drug stores, lo these many years ago...
Robert Beck aka Iceberg Slim. If you ever wondered why there were so many rappers with 'Ice' in their name, it's because Iceberg Slim was the author most widely read in the US prison system. I particularly liked 'Trick Baby' the story of a Black conman who could pass for White.
Donald Westlake aka Richard Stark. The other most widely read prion writer. Stark's 'The Hunter' has been filmed about a dozen times. His crooks are unemotional professionals.
Tanith Lee. The Goddess-empress of the hot read. 'Night's Master' has Satan as the hero. Every night he flies from his palace to seduce and/or terrorize mankind.
Enjoy.
Oh wow, thanks for the tips! I'll check them out.
IMHO, this community should be about technology. Novel inventions. Interesting or creative applications. Discoveries. Dangers, advances, impacts, experiments, tutorials, etc.
Instead, it’s overrun with stock market and business news having no more to do with technology than CEOs of wood pulp factories have to do with literature.
I wish Rule 2 was phrased in a way that clearly excludes the latter, and enforced.
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I have a soft spot for star wars but only the first 3, probably because I was young and it was so breathtaking.
So now I roll with star trek, especially the older ones.
But back on track, Where are the robots? The DIY? The fun stuff. Where are posts about a new ESP32? Some portable 3D printer (probably garbage, lets have a flame war!), how to use phone chargers to get 20 vilts to your led strip, funky homelab setups and deals, better network stuff, even retro computing I'd say.
Yeah, block all the boardroom chatter and bring back real tech!
I completely agree with all the people regarding more "Technology" news, like MIT stacking more transistors onto chips breakthrough.
When I was looking for a tech community to subscribe to, I wasn't expecting this... 🙈
Everything I needed to learn about SciFi I learned from watching Prisoners Of Gravity on TVO. The host Rick Green was always interesting to listen to. I learned there was far more scifi than just TrekWars
Y'know, I was just browsing earlier and thinking that there wasn't even any technology stuff in my feed anymore, it'd all been subsumed by the political churn...
Anyhow, to answer properly: I like Star Wars' aesthetic better, but Star Trek also had some incredible stuff. I've also been increasingly burned out on Star Wars since the Disney takeover, to the point I barely follow it anymore. Back in the day I was neck-deep in the community of nerds who loved analyzing how the technology in the setting worked!
But the real love of my science-fiction life is Babylon 5. Something about how they planned the show's myth arc out over multiple seasons leading to huge payoffs for both characters and the overall story.
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+1 for an actual tech focused community. I think it has to be focused on software or hardware as a rule. News about stocks, CEOs, rebranding etc should not be allowed. Maybe put them in tech_news or something.
I want to read about what new feature the openbsd folks are working on or innovations by the quebes os team or a new RISC based laptop or the raspberry pi 420 that can play half life 3.
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I've kind of felt the same way, would rather have a somewhat-stronger focus on technology in this community.
The current top few pages of posts are pretty much all just talking about drama at social media companies, which frankly isn't really what I think of as technology.
That being said, "technology" kind of runs the gamut in various news sources. I've often seen "technology news" basically amount to promoting new consumer gadgets, which isn't exactly what I'd like to see from the thing, either. I don't really want to see leaked photos of whatever the latest Android tablet from Lenovo or whatever is either.
I'd be more interested in reading about technological advances and changes.
I suppose that if someone wants to start a more-focused community, I'd also be willing to join that, give it a shot.
EDIT: I'd note that the current content here kind of mirrors what's on Reddit at /r/Technology, which is also basically drama at social media companies. I suppose that there's probably interest from some in that. It's just not really what I'm primarily looking for.
I see a valid point for posting topics in the category "technology & society" etc. However, nowadays this is a field of its own, so why not start a hardcore tech community?
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