selfawarepatterns

@selfawarepatterns@mastodon.social

Programmer; aspiring fiction writer; interested in science, philosophy, history, science fiction, fantasy, skepticism

Old posts (pre 8/15/23): https://universeodon.com/@selfawarepatterns

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selfawarepatterns.com, to scifi

The TV show, 3 Body Problem, is an adaptation of Liu Cixin’s novel, The Three Body Problem.

I read Cixin’s book several years ago, back when it was up for the Hugo Award, which it eventually won. The book explores a lot of ideas, such as the difficulty in making predictions with inherently chaotic systems, communications with extraterrestrials, the Fermi paradox, whether humanity can or should survive, among others. I enjoyed the novel, and always meant to read the rest of the trilogy, but never got around to it.

The TV show creators include David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, the guys who brought us Game of Thrones. At this point my memory of the book is a bit hazy, but the show makes a number of changes from what I recall. It moves most of the story out of China to the UK, although it does keep Ye Wenjie as Chinese and her actions deeply rooted in the persecution she faces in Maoist China.

But the show does break up the main Chinese protagonist from the contemporary part of the novel into four separate characters, all friends and scientists living in the UK. Having separate characters allows a lot of interior monologue in the book to be externalized for the screen. And I’m sure the thinking is that anglicizing them makes the show more approachable for western audiences. The show does keep one of the central characters Chinese, and the detective character of Asian descent.

Based on the final episodes, it also facilitates continuity with the second book, which I assume will be continued in the second season (if hopefully there is one). Those final episodes move beyond where I recall the book getting to, and set up some important developments based on what I’ve heard about the other books.

I was happy to see that some iconic scenes were kept, like the one in the Panama Canal, and the final one where the hard nosed detective shows the scientists why things aren’t nearly as bleak as they seem at that point.

Similar to the book, the story is focused on scientific concepts. Although it’s not the hardest sci-fi around. For example, while Alpha and Proxima Centauri can be thought of as a three star system, they don’t have anything like the dynamics portrayed. And the book relies on the idea of quantum entanglement enabling faster than light communication, a sci-fi trope grounded in a common misconception about how entanglement works. Those are the ones that jump out to me. I’m sure there are others.

Still, the exploration of ideas is fun. And the story does mostly stay away from outright magical technologies like hyperspace. Instead it includes technologies like a variant of nuclear pulse propulsion.

I haven’t mentioned much about the actual premise. The reason is it’s hard to get into it without also getting into spoilers. But I don’t think it’s spoiling too much to admit it involves an alien threat.

Overall, I enjoyed it as much as I recall enjoying the book. Worth checking out.

Have you watched it? If so, what did you think? Watching anything else interesting?

https://selfawarepatterns.com/2024/03/23/3-body-problem/

selfawarepatterns,

@milubo @selfawarepatterns.com@selfawarepatterns.com

I agree about the characters in the book. It's frequently true that sci-fi authors aren't always great at character development. And when I read it years ago, I also wondered if anything was lost in the translation. But I do think the show improves on it somewhat.

I never watched The Leftovers. When it came out, the premise sounded a little too close to Left Behind, which didn't interest me. Although I've since heard good things about it.

ninokadic, to Cognition
@ninokadic@mastodon.social avatar

What's your position regarding consciousness? Broad physicalism (we'll have a scientific explanation one day) or broad anti-physicalism (science can't give a complete account)? Or something else?

Please repost after voting, I'm genuinely curious! 🤔

@philosophy @philosophyofmind

selfawarepatterns,

@ninokadic @philosophy @philosophyofmind

Broad physicalism.

More specifically, functionalism.

The hard problem, I think, arises from ambiguous definitions and questionable assumptions. Clarifications change it from an impossible obstacle to an array of difficult but scientifically tractable ones.

At least, that's my view today.

selfawarepatterns, to physics

Physicists Design a Way to Detect Quantum Behavior in Large Objects, Like Us : ScienceAlert

https://www.sciencealert.com/physicists-design-a-way-to-detect-quantum-behavior-in-large-objects-like-us
#quantum #QuantumMechanics #physics #science

selfawarepatterns,

@GhostOnTheHalfShell As in trying to deceive? If so, there are plenty of other physicists with incentives to call them out.

selfawarepatterns,

@GhostOnTheHalfShell From what I understand, it would clear out the quantum objective collapse theories, which would rule out that GR randomness proposal that recently came out. Not sure about narrowing the other options. But once they can study macroscopic quantum effects, who knows?

pfefferle, to fediverse
@pfefferle@mastodon.social avatar

We just released version 1.3.0 of the plugin for

https://wordpress.org/plugins/activitypub/

The WordPress.com release is in preparation!

Main new feature: Threaded Comments 😍

Here is a nice example: https://notiz.blog/2023/12/04/sidebar/#comments

Thanks to everyone who was involved!

https://github.com/Automattic/wordpress-activitypub/releases/tag/1.3.0

selfawarepatterns,

@pfefferle @mike

I'll totally understand if this isn't your department, but any idea on when the feature might be available on wordpress.com for blogs not on the Business Plan?

selfawarepatterns,

@pfefferle @mike

Thanks, but I was asking about Threaded Comments, which those resources predate.

I actually turned on the overall Fediverse feature (which I assume is your plugin under the covers) back on Oct 11. Love the functionality! But the limited comment functionality remains a pain point.

selfawarepatterns,

@pfefferle @mike

Thanks for the explanation! That makes total sense. Really appreciate your efforts, and being willing to answer questions about it.

selfawarepatterns, to fediverse

Tip.: if you want to follow a blog in Mastodon but aren't sure what its fediverse address is, try just pasting its web address into search. Also seems to work for individual blog posts. (Note: only if the blog actually has enabled fediverse access.)

#fediverse #FediBlogs #ActivityPub #wordpress #mastodon

danyork, to random
@danyork@mastodon.social avatar

I’m sitting in the waiting room of a doctor’s office (for a routine checkup) and I wonder if they know that in 15 minutes there will be the national emergency broadcast test that should light up every cell phone.

Should be interesting to see!

selfawarepatterns,

@danyork It was pretty loud for me, much louder than the ones I've historically gotten for floods and hurricanes.

selfawarepatterns, to sciencefiction

Some thoughts after a reread of the original Foundation trilogy.

https://selfawarepatterns.com/2023/10/01/the-original-foundation-trilogy/
#ScienceFiction #SciFi #Foundation #IsaacAsimov #SpaceOpera

danyork, to random
@danyork@mastodon.social avatar

Taking my second sick day in a row after being slammed by a nasty virus (thankfully not COVID, but still bad).

I’ve had colds and such from time to time, but I couldn’t remember the last time I ever took a sick day… and a check of our HR system says that it was… October 2018!

Somewhat amazing that it’s been 5 years, but of course for 2+ of that we were locked down, masked, and avoiding contact with people!

selfawarepatterns,

@danyork Hope you feel better soon.

overcastfm, to random
@overcastfm@mastodon.social avatar

Featured in the App Store!

https://apps.apple.com/us/story/id1551846862

selfawarepatterns,

@overcastfm

Been using it for years. Love it. Switched from Apple's podcast app because, at least at the time, Overcast was far superior, with a lot more features.

ZachWeinersmith, to random
@ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social avatar

Is there a specific term for modern podcasts that are more or less like talkradio used to be? Meaning ones that are mostly a guy talking and interviewing people?

selfawarepatterns,

@ZachWeinersmith

Seems like "talkradio" itself works pretty well. If used in the context of a podcast, I think we'd all know what you meant.

Sheril, to Dogs
@Sheril@mastodon.social avatar

My sweet pup's having surgery right now.

I wish we could have more time with our #dogs. We really don't deserve them.

selfawarepatterns,

@Sheril

Hope everything goes well.

Your pup reminds me of my own old companion, Jordi, who I miss terribly.

selfawarepatterns, to sciencefiction

Babylon 5 and other TV notes

Some thoughts on the new B5 movie, as well as Everything Everywhere All at Once, the latest season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and Foundation.

https://selfawarepatterns.com/2023/08/20/babylon-5-and-other-tv-notes/
#ScienceFiction #Scifi

danyork, to random
@danyork@mastodon.social avatar

Having recently finished re-watching the entire 6 seasons of the amazing “The Expanse”, a random thought occurred to me…

… why weren’t there any seat belts in Star Trek?

I mean… in The Expanse you see them all the time belting themselves in (often with very serious multi-point harnesses), putting on helmets, and generally being prepared for turbulent travel.

But I don’t ever remember that in Star Trek.

(Nor in Star Wars, now that I think about it, at least in the Millennium Falcon.)

selfawarepatterns,

@danyork

The Expanse does a much better job at the mechanics of spaceflight than any other TV show (or almost all movies). It's rare to see the deceleration phase of spaceflight in media fiction.

In Star Trek's case, I think budget and an unwillingness to devote screen time to those details is the reason. Much easier to just double talk about artificial gravity and inertial dampeners. And of course Star Wars, being really just fantasy, just doesn't care.

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