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techno156 @kbin.social
Posts 3
Comments 97
Tf happened to lemmy.world?
  • Yes. They got hacked. An admin account got compromised, and the hackers exploited a bug in Lemmy-UI (the web site) that let them do things like redirect users to another site that let them run Javscript. It seems to have let them collect some user tokens from accounts, and access an admin account that way.

  • Hot take: 18 years of user contributions to reddit will serve as a base model for an AI that generates content and conversations. the reddit experience continues as a simulation, to harvest clicks, sa
  • Have you never been to /r/SubSim2Interactive?

    Although you have to wonder how much advertisers would actually pony up if most of the Reddit users weren't actual users at all. They want people to do the clicking, and if the users are all bots, they're likely not going to bother wasting their money at that point.

  • What's your Sci-Fi unpopular opinion?
  • The paternoster gang were pretty fun as a concept, and it's a shame that they weren't used more.

    Although I also wouldn't qualify them quite as companions, any more than the Lethbridges-Stewart would be.

  • What's your Sci-Fi unpopular opinion?
  • It's pretty interesting as a Star Trek show, since I think that it is also one of the few that actually pushed its boundaries. It might not have been well-received, but it also tried to do something new, like Deep Space 9, and the original Star Trek, and stuck to that something new, despite having to find its footing under a myriad of production issues.

    Although I would say that it wasn't a direct adaptation in and of itself. It seemed to be following the lead of the 2009 films in that sense, seemingly leaning on some of their groundwork to try and "modernise" Trek. They didn't quite succeed, but the attempt is at least commendable.

    Personally, though, I'm more of a TOS fan, just because the world building seemed much more expansive on the older show, but TNG is also quite good.

  • What's your Sci-Fi unpopular opinion?
  • At the same time, they can also be interesting in their own right, especially if you want to see how different things might merge and interact with each other.

    Would Captain Kirk be very confused by Doctor Who, or Optimus Prime showing up on his ship, yes. Would it be interesting, but also cause the writers no end of headaches? Also yes.

    I think Reason 2 might actually be a fairly good story in and of itself. You have someone who was an extraordinary being in their originating universe, suddenly finding out that they're just another superhuman in another. That would be an excellent point of character development, and a way for them to be suddenly placed into a completely new perspective.

  • What's your Sci-Fi unpopular opinion?
  • And when the majority of someone's body is replaced by artificial limbs/organs/etc. At what point are they still human.

    The Cyborg of Theseus?

    Both it (and the original) also raise the subtle question of, if cybernetics are owned by a business, at which point are they considered a person in their own right, or just another piece of company property?

  • What's your Sci-Fi unpopular opinion?
  • It depends a lot on who you ask.

    Although I'm rather of the opinion that the "magic" died sometime before Voyager. It was already on the way out when the network executives tried to recapture The Next Generation with it, and also launch a new television network with it at the same time.

    It just ended up trying to be both its own show, and a copy of another, not succeeding particularly well at both.

  • What's your Sci-Fi unpopular opinion?
  • A lot of sci-fi (at least where TV/Films are concerned) keeps getting too bogged down in what it thinks that it should be, and doesn't actually try to explore new possibilities or expand much, which generally means that the quality of sequels progressively gets worse, and the show ends up being a sort of even mush vaguely resembling the original.

    The main example I could think of is probably Star Trek. It's too fixated on everything as it is, so even things that are supposed to be radical changes just re-establish the status quo with a new coat of paint. A radical show with radical viewpoints would never take off, as newer iterations would try to emulate the success of the show, and keep to the old.

    It's part of why later Star Trek shows seem to be a bit more conservative, by comparison. Sure, values have changed since the original show, but the level of radical progressiveness has also gradually wound down too. Compared to the original show, which tried to push things from all angles, something like Star Trek: Discovery would seem almost conservative. Most of its more progressive elements are fairly standard for the time period it is set in, rather than pushing the envelope like the original did.

    Similarly, all the shows end up trying to emulate the same formula, and even the same rough starship design. The Enterprise was originally specially designed and built to seem future-y, but many other of their starships since them seem to just be iterative designs on the original. Even one of them set 900 in the years in the future seems to have almost identical technologies, polities, and culture as one set in the 24th century. The visuals are different, but everything seems to be effectively the same under the coat of paint.

    Not having that baggage is probably why up-and-coming shows, like The Orville, tend to be able to get away with more, since there isn't a previous Orville that it keeps trying to recapture, just yet, which should mean that it gets more leeway.

    From a non Star Trek standpoint, it's also rather happened to Star Wars. The newer films are just trying to recapture the older films, rather than expand into their own thing, to the detriment of the films as a whole. The latest trilogy seems like a rehash of the old ones, down to having what is basically another death star, Rebellions, Vader-ish Masked Sith Lord, and Friendpatines.

    I don't really have much of a solution, besides wanting the shows to just branch out more. I think Star Trek in the 32nd century should have gone with a brand new slate, where everything was different (from both an ideological, political, and technological standpoint), and the 23rd century ship that ended up there would be woefully outdated, not just on paper, but with the technology it was fitted with.

    Star Wars has a bunch of interesting things that it could run with, such as the aftermath of the major wars, where the Rebellion is now having to deal with multiple smaller wars from various factions under the splintering empire, or have to secure its place in the resulting power vacuum.


    One show that hasn't succumbed to this as much is Doctor Who, but that had a major revamp in its 2005 revival which drastically changed the nature of the show itself. Still, it doesn't seem to be particularly immune to it either. Behind-the-scenes, they're suddenly going back to the old composer and old showrunners, and the main character doesn't seem to evolve too much beyond "conflicted, but brilliant and eccentric hero". It also seems to be slowly settling into its own ruts, as well, with the most recent run rather resetting a redeemed villain's character development suddenly.

    As a slight tangent, I also feel like that considering the messaging of the show itself, there could be quite a bit of interesting mileage that could be achieved by having a companion who is a species that is normally an enemy. Maybe something like a Dalek.

  • Went and invited people on 2 subreddits to kbin/lemmy/beehaw.. I got flamed BIG time..
  • It's also a bit bothersome if you're there. The people who stay are probably aware of the alternatives, but also don't feel like moving, so people going over and trying to get them to join Kbin/Lemmy are the equivalent of people asking you to join the Church on the street. Having the alternate community on the sidebar, or if the sub shuts down is fine, but probably not a good idea to shove things into people's faces.

    You're already aware that the Church exists, and the advertising is not going to make them want to join it any time soon. If anything quite the opposite, or it'll make them want to cause trouble just out of spite.

  • Star Trek undersells the capabilities of its starships

    I saw this rant/complaint over on Reddit, and it got me thinking a bit.

    We know that at least on paper, Federation starships are insanely fast and agile. Data has stated that the Galaxy-class Enterprise was able to achieve Warp 9 from , and some ships, like the Nebula class, don't seem to use impulse engines at all, favouring the warp engine for sublight speed usage at all.

    Despite that, we also know that impulse engines aren't simple thrusters, and are able to move the ship in a way not directly in line with the output thrust (Relics), and from the same episode, we also know that smaller ships, like the Jenolan, will still run rings around ships like the Enterprise, even though it is nearly a full century out of date.

    However, from what the show itself portrays, the ships tend to be fairly slow and sluggish when in combat, sedately drifting along the battlefield, while weapons fire goes every which way. The most recent and active thing we've seen a big starship do is maybe the fighter run in Picard.

    In my opinion, by trying to keep to the slow and seemingly logical expectations for starships to be slow, hulking metal structures that slowly fly around shooting each other, Star Trek ends up underselling what Federation starships are able to do. They would be more realistically portrayed flitting about the battlefield like dragonflies, instead of being like "real boats" today, that have more of a sense of mass.

    It seems wildly unintuitive, but it would also help show Federation propulsion technology being more advanced than what they are now. Starships can instantly stop and reverse course, or move in ways that would be impossible with modern technology, and the show not showing ships capable of doing just that might be to its detriment.

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    /kbin meta @kbin.social techno156 @kbin.social

    What is user "reputation"?

    If you go onto your user profile page, and scroll all the way to the right, there is a section called "reputation".

    What is it, and how does it work?

    Is it like the "karma" system that Reddit uses?

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    /kbin meta @kbin.social techno156 @kbin.social

    Seeing Subscribed Magazines

    Is there a way to see what magazines/communities we're subscribed to? I know there's /sub, but that just shows the posts, rather than the communities themselves.

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