Search found 137 matches

by Acatalepsy
Fri Apr 30, 2010 5:38 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Transhumanism: how would you enhance yourself?
Replies: 126
Views: 62155

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...
by Acatalepsy
Thu Apr 29, 2010 7:41 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Transhumanism: how would you enhance yourself?
Replies: 126
Views: 62155

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 ...
by Acatalepsy
Wed Apr 28, 2010 4:44 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: The Book Thread
Replies: 203
Views: 162442

Re: The Book Thread

Species? Peter Watts? I'd buy three of them.
by Acatalepsy
Wed Apr 28, 2010 4:37 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Transhumanism: how would you enhance yourself?
Replies: 126
Views: 62155

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'...
by Acatalepsy
Mon Apr 26, 2010 7:22 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Transhumanism: how would you enhance yourself?
Replies: 126
Views: 62155

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...
by Acatalepsy
Mon Apr 12, 2010 9:15 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: facebook essay
Replies: 5
Views: 6353

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...
by Acatalepsy
Mon Apr 12, 2010 8:02 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: facebook essay
Replies: 5
Views: 6353

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.
by Acatalepsy
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...
by Acatalepsy
Sun Mar 28, 2010 4:24 am
Forum: Comix!
Topic: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS
Replies: 705
Views: 348831

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 ...
by Acatalepsy
Sat Mar 27, 2010 10:09 pm
Forum: Comix!
Topic: [General]The Return of CHARACTER CONCEPTS
Replies: 705
Views: 348831

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...
by Acatalepsy
Sat Mar 27, 2010 2:08 am
Forum: Coulda Shoulda Woulda
Topic: [Story] Exigent Circumstances
Replies: 40
Views: 32410

Re: [Story] Exigent Circumstances

Excrement, meet oscillator. Oscillator, excrement.
by Acatalepsy
Sat Mar 27, 2010 1:59 am
Forum: Worldbuilding General Topics
Topic: Random ideas (again)
Replies: 325
Views: 236141

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...
by Acatalepsy
Thu Mar 25, 2010 5:30 pm
Forum: Worldbuilding General Topics
Topic: Random ideas (again)
Replies: 325
Views: 236141

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...
by Acatalepsy
Tue Mar 23, 2010 6:44 pm
Forum: Worldbuilding General Topics
Topic: A New Universe Proposal
Replies: 15
Views: 9960

Re: A New Universe Proposal

Direct AIocracy? Sweet. Go Helios!
by Acatalepsy
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...
by Acatalepsy
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...
by Acatalepsy
Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:48 pm
Forum: The Continuity Wars
Topic: Time Colonists
Replies: 3
Views: 8619

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...
by Acatalepsy
Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:43 pm
Forum: Coulda Shoulda Woulda
Topic: Gizmos, Gadgets & Gunnery
Replies: 92
Views: 82733

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...
by Acatalepsy
Sat Mar 13, 2010 7:42 am
Forum: Coulda Shoulda Woulda
Topic: [Story] Exigent Circumstances
Replies: 40
Views: 32410

Re: [Story] Exigent Circumstances

Scary sort of stuff all around. And excellent writing.
by Acatalepsy
Sat Mar 13, 2010 1:32 am
Forum: The Continuity Wars
Topic: Time Colonists
Replies: 3
Views: 8619

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...
by Acatalepsy
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...
by Acatalepsy
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...
by Acatalepsy
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 ...
by Acatalepsy
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...
by Acatalepsy
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...