Really love this show. It's not perfect and some of the plot decisions I could criticise, but it's one of the best #scifi TV shows I've seen. Great characterisation and brilliantly conceived #AltHistory
@1dalm You are right - this is the original question! The interesting thing about "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" is the question of whether its religious foundation is essential. On one hand, capitalism has started in Europe but on the other hand, it has taken root everywhere with or without a foundation of Protestantism. Is it a general social mechanism that could have arisen without a specific religious context?
Current working theory is that in the Star Trek timeline, Trumpy's insurrection was successful and he held power in 2020, which is why sanctuary zones for the homeless were so common they generated the Bell Riots by 2024.
And obviously his foreign policy fuckery accelerated the push for Irish Reunification.
@SrRochardBunson This piece argues that Bonk is the basic building block of the universe. However, Frank Zappa argued that the basic building block is Stupidity. This I have accepted based on Zappa's cosmic authority and my own experience, but now I am experiencing cognitive dissonance. Is it possible that Bonk equals/not equals Stupidity? Of course, in Lacanian terms, "Stupidity" is a social judgment, a product of the Big Other, while Bonk may be an expression of the Real.
OK, here is my first Bonk attempt. It is on Soundcloud. It is downloadable if someone wants to add to it or possess it. I had fun. I did the beat in Hydrogen, a drum machine program, and then used Dexed for the synth. The bass is my Ibanez TM-30. I worked pretty fast. I cobbled words together from the whole conversation. I tried to give everyone credit.
Green Mars by #KimStanleyRobinson (1993) - 2nd book of a trilogy on how #Mars colonization would actually go down. Think underground scientist communes, multinational mining corpos, abused space migrant labour. It's dense but KSR is one of the best living scifi authors.
Everfair by Nisi Shawl (2016) - #steampunk#AltHistory of armed resistance against King Leopold II in the late 1800s. Love the premise, but not loving the detached prose. 1/🧵
@cordillera if you like The House of Aunts, the entire Spirits Abroad is highly recommended! Zen is a foaf and I met her before I read her works, kinda mad at myself for that. 😅
I'd like to read his Mars and California trilogies. But now that I've read two of his, I feel like he great on concepts, ideas, and details, but perhaps not so great on plot. Do you have any other books of his that you like or would recommend? 2/2
@seanbala@bookstadon I absolutely loved the Mars ones. The CA series was more spotty - it felt like great ideas, but, esp. the eco one, almost like a present day city council tale. Not spec ficy enough for me?
Watching Season 3 of "For All Mankind" finally. The new important character that popped up is Dev Ayes. He's an eccentric light years ahead Silicon Valley billionaire who intends to get to Mars years before NASA, the Soviets (yes the USSR still exists in this show's universe), or anyone else. It is clearly the Musk archetype the media created before the present era. I'm curious if it plays out as a cautionary tale arc or a savior arc through the end. I get douche chills just watching this because of the Musk connotation in the same way I do with Tony Stark in Marvel movies. #ForAllMankind#SciFi#ElonMusk#space#AltHistory