Show threadWoozle Hypertwin1d ago

@JennyFluff I used to make this metaphor but haven't thought of it in awhile: they're like that orange energy-being in the Star Trek: TOS episode "Day of the Dove" that feeds off anger, and thrives by engineering conflict (in this case, between the Enterprise crew and the crew of a Klingon ship) while also making sure neither side can win (...and, for that matter, planting a false memory which gives one Enterprise crew member personal cause for revenge against the Klingons... internet #disinfo, anyone?).

#TASAT

Show threadWoozle Hypertwin4d ago

@artemis I believe Arthur C. Clarke wrote a short story about this back in the 50s -- "Supremacy" or something like that. (I looked it up recently, can find it again if you're curious.)

#TASAT

Show threadWoozle HypertwinNov 29

@kalviter @davidgerard

In other words, we're now witnessing the weird economic physics at the edge of a rapidly accreting financial singularity?

...or, actually, literally just Pohl's "The Midas Plague", except the end-consumers are being given stuff for free and encouraged to waste it in hopes that they'll become dependent on it. (...which is kind of capitalism in a nutshell...) (#TASAT)

The whole thing sounds rather like buying on margin, enshrined as a business model. (Paging Black-Scholes...)

Midas World - Wikipedia

Show threadWoozle HypertwinNov 25
@rnd There was something similar in Joe Haldeman's Worlds series -- it was (iirc) almost more about imparting an intense interest in the subject, so the student would be inspired to learn and practice it, than about imparting specific knowledge. #TASAT
ToddZ ⓋOct 10

I had no idea how many movies have been made about meteor & asteroid strike calamities until I got a little carried away with this TASAT post inspired by a Kurzgesagt video 😅

https://forum.tasat.org/t/planet-killer-run-run-run-away/527

#sciencefiction #scifi #space #astronomy #TASAT

Planet killer -- run run run away

You’ve probably seen Deep Impact and Armageddon, and maybe Don’t Look Up and Greenland. Did you catch A Fire in the Sky or Falling Fire? You might remember Meteor. But have you seen Meteor? Or Meteor? I somehow missed Doomsday Meteor, Meteor Apocalypse, Meteor Storm, Meteor Moon, Meteor: First Impact, Meteor: Final Impact, Asteroid, Asteroid, Asteroid vs Earth, Asteroid: Final Impact, and Asteroid-a-Geddon. Perhaps you’ve read Lucifer’s Hammer, or The Hammer of God, or Hammer’s Slammers (oka...

TASAT Forum
Show threadToddZ ⓋSep 20

@forteller You might find some relevant works cited under topics like "Mis/Disinformation starts to overwhelm civilization" and others tagged with #AI in the #TASAT forum:

https://forum.tasat.org/tag/ai

Topics tagged ai

Topics tagged ai

TASAT Forum
Show threadToddZ ⓋJul 19, 2025

@SFFMagazineCovers I fell for the title and went looking for this story [EDIT: after I blew right past the OP's link!] I found it available online. [EDIT: duh!] I wrote a little review that might save someone a bit of time:

https://forum.tasat.org/t/day-of-the-moron/468?u=toddz

#SciFi #ScienceFiction #NuclearPower #1950s #TASAT

Day of the Moron

I couldn’t resist this title. (image from a post by SciFi/Fantasy Magazine Covers) Day of the Moron by H. Beam Piper can be read online at Project Gutenberg. I don’t actually recommend doing so, but YMMV. Written in 1951 about the nuclear-powered future of 1968, Day of the Moron has Scott Melroy, of the Melroy Engineering Corporation, placed in charge of installing a “cybernetic control system” to safeguard the operation of a potentially cantankerous nuclear plant that powers all of Great...

TASAT Forum
Show threadToddZ ⓋApr 8, 2025

@cstross Noted this over at #TASAT & linked references to similar efforts like Geolitica and COMPAS. The UK isn't the first or only...

https://forum.tasat.org/t/uk-developing-pre-crime-detection-algorithm/445

UK developing pre-crime detection algorithm

Undeterred by the social engineering challenges depicted in The Minority Report and Psycho-Pass, the UK’s Ministry of Justice is exploring “alternative and innovative data science techniques to risk assessment of homicide”. The Guardian article does not mention these science-fiction precursors – nor the similar pre-crime programs already in existence. (It even appears in the timeline of sci-fi predictions.) (h/t: Charlie Stross)

TASAT Forum
ToddZ ⓋApr 6, 2025

Today's three good things:

1.) Successfully hack-fixed my drooping pneumatic office chair with a $5 hunk of PVC.

2.) The first episode of The Studio (Apple TV+) is pretty great. I hadn't read the cast list so it was full of surprises.

3.) Several interesting posts at #TASAT that added books to my reading list.

#3goodthings

ToddZ ⓋMar 7, 2025

#TASAT outreach: in a post still seeking answers, a member asks:

> Cory Doctorow recently wrote, “science fiction is not a topic, it is an approach”. This was in his review of the recent Neal Stephenson novel, Polostan, which contains no fantastic elements at all, but which is written in the style of a science fiction novel.

> ...I am sure that there are many classic works of fiction which are technically not science fiction, space opera, or fantasy, but which are structurally and narratively similar to science fiction.

> ...for an intellectual reader who is looking to broaden their literary diet beyond science fiction, what books would you recommend?

---

See the full post and share any suggestions at TASAT (There's A Story About That!) :

https://forum.tasat.org/t/non-sf-fiction-for-sf-fans/382

#scifi #sciencefiction #speculativefiction #fiction #bookstodon

Non-SF Fiction for SF Fans?

Cory Doctorow recently wrote, “science fiction is not a topic, it is an approach”. This was in his review of the recent Neal Stephenson novel, Polostan, which contains no fantastic elements at all, but which is written in the style of a science fiction novel. However, this is not a new phenomena - I am sure that there are many classic works of fiction which are technically not science fiction, space opera, or fantasy, but which are structurally and narratively similar to science fiction. An ex...

TASAT Forum