25 Matching Annotations
  1. Jul 2024
    1. ( ~ 11:00 )

      Armies need to have an efficient supply system in order to survive. Not only for food and stuff, but also medical kits, materials to fix machinery when it breaks down, ammunition, etc.

      These are also fantastic ways to add strategic elements to warfare. Taking over enemy supply lines or points can hurt them tremendously while giving yourself a great edge.

    2. ( ~8:50 )

      Defense in depth over static defense usually. They both have value, but it depends on usecase.

    3. ( ~ 7:30 )

      In any world where technology on the level of atomic weaponry exists (nuclear bombs), there must either be a reason for why they are not used (such as in Dune), or they should just be used.

      A reason could be through universally recognized and obeyed law, or that counters against such weaponry exist, making them useless.

    4. ( ~3:55 )

      In futuristic scenarios, armies marching together closely (i.e. massing) is dumb because this makes them an easy target for area damage focused weaponry such as artillery, tanks, etc.

      Better to have more spread out formations.


      That is, if no technology or magic exists to counter such vehicles, such as mobile shield generators, then it does make sense to walk in a tight formation as centralized command is easier.

    5. ( ~2:50)

      The larger the size of an army, the more autonomy lower-ranking officials need. A centralized command becomes much more difficult when the area over which to fight is enormous.

    6. Futuristic Armies are in need of efficiency, needing clerks, communication networks, etc. To keep themselves supplied and directed.

      ( ~2:10)

  2. May 2021
  3. Mar 2021
    1. James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935) explored both the hubris of the male scientist described in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (1818) as well as the repressive sexuality of Western culture. Robert Wise’s The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) advocated for a liberal belief in the collective submission to a technocratic elite.

      I initially found this article by searching for "alien movie hubris" and the search results did not disappoint. This essay does a great job weaving several themes about creativity, automation, intelligence, biology, culture, ambition, power, delusions of grandeur, human spirituality and sexuality, and a few more I'm probably forgetting. It's definitely worthwhile reading.

  4. Feb 2020
    1. Desk Set (1957) is a delightful Tracy-Hepburn comedy about automation and information technology. 

      Love this one. Never thought of it as future forward before, but certainly is!

  5. Jan 2020
    1. In the far future, the [human group] fights a pitched battle against the mighty [alien name] Empire, but deep in the mysterious [region of space], among the ruins of the past, a darker threat looms."

      If I could write a short story or even a novel using only annotations (and info on the web pages themselves, like setting, plot developments, clues)! Might be fun! What cool uses can you think of?

  6. May 2019
  7. Jan 2019
    1. arrier bag rather than weapon of domination,

      I need some clarification here. What does Le Guin mean when taking about writing sci-fi in relation to a carrier of words and weapons?

    1. “Well, they believe that when they have listed all His names — and they reckon that there are about nine billion of them — God’s purpose will be achieved. The human race will have finished what it was created to do, and there won’t be any point in carrying on. Indeed, the very idea is something like blasphemy.”

      Sci-Fi Stack Exchange has a good thread on what this story signified https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/102956/what-does-the-end-of-nine-billion-names-of-god-signify

  8. Dec 2018
    1. , Octavia Butler

      I discovered Octavia Butler when I was living in New Zealand doing my dissertation research (first stop at research locations was always the public library) and found Kindred on the shelf. I then read the Xenogenesis trilogy, which I just discovered was published as Lillith's Brood.. As a foreign visitor in a mysterious land, both the time travel and the alien visitation appealed to me.

  9. May 2018
    1. Set on a space station in the 23rd century, the show revolves around galactic politics, epic alien battles, and secret agendas from a variety of factions

      Maybe I will watch more of it this time around.

  10. Dec 2017
    1. Once upon a time a magazine editor asked Twitter what to do with a 5-year-old who was despondent over a Mars rover that could never come home. John Rogers responded: “Hang on a minute.” A couple of hours later, he sent this.

      This is amazing!

  11. Jul 2017
  12. Apr 2017
    1. Chiang’s story is driven by the obsolescence of the virtual world that is the host platform for the digients, who can continue to exist as social beings only if their software engine is ported to its successor. Unfortunately, their parent corporation has gone bankrupt and so porting the software is not commercially viable. The digients, who are themselves clamoring for individual liberties—you can think of them as woke Tamagotchi—have become what the industry would term abandonware. It is thus left to their small circle of caretakers and enthusiasts to create an incentive for the port—for example, by licensing the digients to a company specializing in artificial sex partners. In all cases, however, the real value of the digients turns out to be their accumulated experiential history as sentient lifeforms.

      Sounds so thought-provoking!

    2. This is something the digients of Chiang’s story would understand very well, for their existence is continually imperiled by the limited capacity of the virtual worlds they inhabit to render their digital selfhood across changing platforms.

      Fascinating thing to think about!

  13. Mar 2017
    1. Empire Strikes Back is the rare sequel that manages to outshine its predecessor.

      Wasn't expecting this!

    2. As film genres go, science fiction is often the one that’s hardest for folks to get into. Literal-minded moviegoers often have a hard time with worlds where anything—and everything—is possible and, well, some people just don’t like space.

      I guess this is true. You either love it or you hate it.

  14. Feb 2017
    1. n 1978, the indisputably most popular science fiction movie of all time — Star Wars — was nominated for Best Picture at the 50th Academy Awards, but it lost to Annie Hall.

      Booo!

  15. Dec 2015
    1. As part of EFF’s 25th Anniversary celebrations, we are releasing “Pwning Tomorrow: Stories from the Electronic Frontier,” an anthology of speculative fiction from more than 20 authors, including Bruce Sterling, Lauren Beukes, Cory Doctorow, and Charlie Jane Anders. To get the ebook, you can make an optional contribution to support EFF’s work, or you can download it at no cost. We're releasing the ebook under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International license, which permits sharing among users. 
  16. Jun 2015