Search found 137 matches
- Fri Apr 30, 2010 5:38 am
- Forum: General Discussion
- Topic: Transhumanism: how would you enhance yourself?
- Replies: 126
- Views: 62154
Re: Transhumanism: how would you enhance yourself?
With instantaneous non-interconnected brain uploading, there is at least a chance that you 'cease experiencing/being aware'. This is the part I disagree with. A destructive upload to a machine brain and a gradual upload replacing individual neurons have the exact same endpoint. In both cases one se...
- Thu Apr 29, 2010 7:41 pm
- Forum: General Discussion
- Topic: Transhumanism: how would you enhance yourself?
- Replies: 126
- Views: 62154
Re: Transhumanism: how would you enhance yourself?
As far as I can tell there is no difference between this hypothetical perfect clone and that of an upload. The only difference is that they exist in sequence instead of in parallel. Which is the most significant difference. How many instances of "Me" exist at one point is important, even ...
- Wed Apr 28, 2010 4:44 am
- Forum: General Discussion
- Topic: The Book Thread
- Replies: 203
- Views: 162423
Re: The Book Thread
Species? Peter Watts? I'd buy three of them.
- Wed Apr 28, 2010 4:37 am
- Forum: General Discussion
- Topic: Transhumanism: how would you enhance yourself?
- Replies: 126
- Views: 62154
Re: Transhumanism: how would you enhance yourself?
The reason why it needs to be gradual is that there needs to be a point where the consciousness inhabits part of the old and part of the new medium and this should, ideally, shift from completely 'old' to completely 'new', else there is no true continuation and instead there is a cessation. So you'...
- Mon Apr 26, 2010 7:22 pm
- Forum: General Discussion
- Topic: Transhumanism: how would you enhance yourself?
- Replies: 126
- Views: 62154
Re: Transhumanism: how would you enhance yourself?
More precisely, he fears death because human brains that didn't fear death didn't replicate, and so now almost all humans fear death, or at the very least fear death-causing things. Just because you lack a justification doesn't mean that there doesn't exist a causal reason for something. But yes, in...
- Mon Apr 12, 2010 9:15 pm
- Forum: General Discussion
- Topic: facebook essay
- Replies: 5
- Views: 6351
Re: facebook essay
Honestly, if you wanted to make this kind of argument, look at Japan, India and China. Take a look at what happened to them and where they are now. Now, all three had tons of Western influence, at least in the beginnings...but not now. In a lot of ways, the tables are turned now. So yeah. It takes a...
- Mon Apr 12, 2010 8:02 pm
- Forum: General Discussion
- Topic: facebook essay
- Replies: 5
- Views: 6351
Re: facebook essay
It's not bad, but it reads like a counterargument to something someone else said...which means that it's hard to evaluate absent that argument.
- Mon Apr 12, 2010 6:50 am
- Forum: General Discussion
- Topic: The Reboot Game
- Replies: 15
- Views: 11575
Re: The Reboot Game
Definitely. The Doctor has been around long enough and things have changed so much that a "refocusing" of sorts makes sense. First off, let's define what a Time Lord is. I like the idea of Time Lord (or Lady) being a title, a rank of sorts in a cross-time peerage. The Doctor is a native of...
- Sun Mar 28, 2010 4:24 am
- Forum: Comix!
- Topic: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS
- Replies: 705
- Views: 348792
Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS
I'd like to point out that this is Comix, and so using an automatic grenade launcher indoors is by no means guaranteed to kill whoever you are shooting at. Using a 120mm cannon isn't guaranteed to kill whoever you are shooting at, either, though it's pretty close. I could see value in peppering the ...
- Sat Mar 27, 2010 10:09 pm
- Forum: Comix!
- Topic: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS
- Replies: 705
- Views: 348792
Re: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS
If you have the ability to divert kinetic energy, do you even need the gun? Just have them carrying around a bunch of rounds, and then fire them off using the KE powers; the round goes off and the hero redirects the KE from the escaping gases into the round itself. Maybe with like a small hand-canno...
- Sat Mar 27, 2010 2:08 am
- Forum: Coulda Shoulda Woulda
- Topic: [Story] Exigent Circumstances
- Replies: 40
- Views: 32393
Re: [Story] Exigent Circumstances
Excrement, meet oscillator. Oscillator, excrement.
- Sat Mar 27, 2010 1:59 am
- Forum: Worldbuilding General Topics
- Topic: Random ideas (again)
- Replies: 325
- Views: 236114
Re: Random ideas (again)
1.) If the aliens are oxygen-breathers, then as discussed in that thread about alien life probability, Earth might be the only other planet they've ever found that has a hospitable environment. It'd make sense to want to try and live there. And, an extension of that, would be a natural attempt at c...
- Thu Mar 25, 2010 5:30 pm
- Forum: Worldbuilding General Topics
- Topic: Random ideas (again)
- Replies: 325
- Views: 236114
Re: Random ideas (again)
It seems to me that this universe, as Shroom proposes it, doesn't work, for a simple lack of complexity. You can sum everything relevant about the universe in one sentence: "This is what it would be like if the US was on the other side of the WoT." While this makes an interesting-ish story...
- Tue Mar 23, 2010 6:44 pm
- Forum: Worldbuilding General Topics
- Topic: A New Universe Proposal
- Replies: 15
- Views: 9958
Re: A New Universe Proposal
Direct AIocracy? Sweet. Go Helios!
- Tue Mar 16, 2010 1:39 am
- Forum: Literature & RPGs
- Topic: A Day of Wrath - A Tale of Science and Magic
- Replies: 17
- Views: 10552
Re: A Day of Wrath - A Tale of Science and Magic
My advice is to write snapshots. Short, self contained images that try and sum up the way your world works in a nutshell. It's easier, and its more useful for a fledgling universe to have three or four unconnected snapshots than a single chapter of a novel that isn't going to get finished. Because o...
- Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:15 am
- Forum: Worldbuilding General Topics
- Topic: Collaborative Post-By-Post Universe Game
- Replies: 50
- Views: 32123
Re: Collaborative Post-By-Post Universe Game
The Banished Planet Among the planets of the solar system, most of them manage to get along well enough. Sure, occassionally Dirty gets uppity and has little catfights with moon, and the Sun occasionally lays a smackdown on Mars - but most of the time, they get along. One of the planets, however, i...
- Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:48 pm
- Forum: The Continuity Wars
- Topic: Time Colonists
- Replies: 3
- Views: 8611
Re: Time Colonists
I think I can get some examples; my intention was to have the snapshots show a sort of "ascending the tiers", but I might make some articles as examples. But the sorts of tricks that are used vary widely. The Best Possible History Project, the guys from Snapshot 2, use a cell-based archite...
- Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:43 pm
- Forum: Coulda Shoulda Woulda
- Topic: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery
- Replies: 92
- Views: 82715
Re: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery
Yeah, your not going to be able to actually surpress the thermal signature of the suit unless you're actually putting the heat somewhere - like a heat sink. And that has limited range. You could make it be an optional heat sink; where most of the time the suit is radiating like mad (and therefore hi...
- Sat Mar 13, 2010 7:42 am
- Forum: Coulda Shoulda Woulda
- Topic: [Story] Exigent Circumstances
- Replies: 40
- Views: 32393
Re: [Story] Exigent Circumstances
Scary sort of stuff all around. And excellent writing.
- Sat Mar 13, 2010 1:32 am
- Forum: The Continuity Wars
- Topic: Time Colonists
- Replies: 3
- Views: 8611
Time Colonists
Time Colonists Meta Rating : 1.6 to 2.2 A time colony is an independent entity in time and space that, while capable of tracing its own origins to a particular flat civilization, is not dependent on that civilization. Structure and Classification: Time travel colonies are much closer to full civili...
- Thu Mar 11, 2010 6:23 pm
- Forum: Worldbuilding General Topics
- Topic: Collaborative Post-By-Post Universe Game
- Replies: 50
- Views: 32123
Re: Collaborative Post-By-Post Universe Game
The Wo-Mang from Venus The planet Venus is home to a sub-species of Mang, the Wo-Mang. While in theory the Wo-Mang are dedicated to the cause of Mang liberation, shipping in supplies such as powerful Worm Repellent, in fact the Queen of the Wo-Mang and the Great Dirty Bastard have a secret agreemen...
- Mon Mar 08, 2010 9:58 pm
- Forum: General Discussion
- Topic: Networking Business Amway-things
- Replies: 5
- Views: 5969
Re: Networking Business Amway-things
Well...yeah, Amway is probably pretty far down on their list of things to axe, particularly if the guys at the top are good with the bribes. But yeah, its still a pretty stupid idea. The only reason you should ever get involved is if you get involved early and know exactly what you are doing (ie, ri...
- Mon Mar 08, 2010 6:03 am
- Forum: General Discussion
- Topic: Networking Business Amway-things
- Replies: 5
- Views: 5969
Re: Networking Business Amway-things
Beyond a certain point, these sorts of things are straight up illegal - they are basically very prettied up pyramid schemes ( which might get one in trouble ), and very much the sorts of things government regulators frown on. That doesn't mean that specific example is illegal; just that if its like ...
- Sat Mar 06, 2010 6:04 pm
- Forum: Literature & RPGs
- Topic: World Building Game
- Replies: 9
- Views: 6759
Re: World Building Game
Does anyone actually want to do this? Are there any ideas, suggestions, thoughts, etc, etc, on how we would want this to proceed? And comments at all on the map? I'd really like to try this out but it requires that there be more than passing interest. My thoughts were to stick to the basic rules; th...
- Wed Mar 03, 2010 9:39 pm
- Forum: Literature & RPGs
- Topic: World Building Game
- Replies: 9
- Views: 6759
Re: World Building Game
Ok. I started by drawing a blank landmass; you can view it here using this URL: http://dabbleboard.com/draw?b=Acatalepsy&i=0&c=931a4624c60889bccf621206af16a5cf1da60a8c The circle represents the "one inch" diameter for the purposes of measuring, you move it on to where you want to d...