Comments on: Not the Droids You Were Looking For

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 12 Mar 2015 02:07:59 +0000

Frank Herbert fans would point out that this concern was to be found earlier, in his 1965 novel Dune:

‘Jihad, Butlerian: (see also Great Revolt) — the crusade against computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots begun in 201 B.G. and concluded in 108 B.G. Its chief commandment remains in the O.C. Bible as “Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.”‘

By: Buckethead

Buckethead — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 22:59:46 +0000

A good story would have excellent communications, and everything goes wrong anyway.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 21:04:34 +0000

I have the same reaction, Handle, but I really enjoy a good explanation for why an inconsistency really makes sense.

Good communication kills sitcoms. It also kills many adventure stories, since they can just call in the cavalry.

By: Handle

Handle — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 18:34:28 +0000

There are two ways to get nerdy with things like this. My way is to complain that things don’t seem realistic, or that the authors haven’t taken the underlying premises or technologies in their world ‘seriously’. Jeckell’s is to be a lawyer for the author and try to retcon some nonsense into a plausibly coherent grand narrative.

Quasi-related, I invented a fun past-time game which I call “Smartphone Seinfeld”. Go through every Seinfeld episode and try to imagine it if the characters had smartphones. My claim is that at least 90% of the humor and drama immediately disappears and is resolved.

A lot of what is funny in life are people trying to overcome their little challenges and limitations, but smartphones and apps are trying to overcome all those obstacles.

My thesis, therefore, is that life is about to get a whole lot less funny, all things considered.