Chinese Tense and the three body problem

[origami_itto]

Her point about US Propaganda is well made.

Bruh I grew up in the USA in a military household in the 80s.
Top Gun, Iron Eagle, Platoon, Rambo, Commando. Even the comedies, "Spies Like Us". We're so inundated with it we can't even see it. The cop shows, whatever.

Like I can imagine them giving, I dunno, Iraq and Afghanistan the whole Vietnam treatment at some point, but we're still too close to the people who did it for anybody to be able to start pointing fingers.

[Steve James]

I started watching the Chinese version, but it started to drag. Imo, the politics are less important than the science fiction plot. People and politics have always been the same. The only interesting stories are those where both sides have a point. Otherwise, it's just WWE good-guy versus heel.

Imo, a good story is one that makes the reader want more, another chapter.

Edit: Ok, I'll be watching the next episode.

[everything]

Read a few pages and started the Netflix show.

Great so far.

[everything]

Falling behind on Shogun and Tokyo Vice as a side effect

[Giles]

I read the three books some years ago and was really impressed by the story and by the stringency of the ideas about survival in the world/universe. I didn't aleays want to go along with the ideas and conclusions, which are pretty bleak and I can understand why some might indeed, perhaps, describe them as 'fascist'. Although I think that would be unfair. You can certainly debate a lot of it, but the author really builds a coherent vision - based to a significant extent on (more recent) Chinese history.
I've watched the whole Netflix series and I really like it. Sure, some things are compressed or left out and it's a lot more 'global' or Western in its setting, all of which one may take issue with, but I think it's true to the essence of the first book. Plus it has more human emotion (without any tackiness) and more humour (without losing any of the seriousness). So I would definitely recommend it.

[GrahamB]

SPOILERS

There's a few things about the Netflix show that are left unexplained.

Firstly, why send a human into space to meet the aliens? They don't ever give a reason. You'd have thought that if humanity are dedicating all its resources into doing something... they'd at least give a reason why...

[Steve James]

Sure, they give a reason, though I don't know if I buy it. But, they can't know; and so they're taking a gamble. ... Not that it matters, unless we find out more.

[GrahamB]

I don't remember them giving a reason.

Also, why exactly did they need to slice that ship up? It's not like they couldn't have just bombed it with missiles?

Also, like most men I watched 3 Body for the plot:

The plot:

[origami_itto]

It occurred to me watching it last night that its really a FOUR body problem.

The suns are fine on their own just doing thier thing. The planet getting tossed between them is the one with the problem, and that's definitely the fourth body.

SPEAKING of a three body problem, how to get that one as mine is definitely consuming a bit of plotting power.

[Giles]

Also, why exactly did they need to slice that ship up? It's not like they couldn't have just bombed it with missiles?

Because they wanted to get hold of the crucial computer or hard drive with the records of the contacts/exchanges with the San-Ti. They wanted to kill all crew members on board who might be able to destroy said computer or hard drive before these crew members were able to act. To surprise and kill all such crew members immediately, a missile attack would have to be so massive it would probably destroy the computer or hard drive beyond any repair and reading. Special forces would give too much warning before they got to the right (unknown) area and would also suffer losses. The nanofibres would kill by suprise and comprehensively and if the computer or hard drive got sliced up too, the cuts would be so clean that the hardware could be put back together later and still function, enabling the data to be read.
But I can imagine that this reasoning was cut a bit short in the TV series, although I think I heard it. I also remembered this argument from my reading of the book a few years back, so maybe I’m conflating the two a bit. In the series the hard drive survived unscathed; I can’t remember whether in the book they had to repair it first.

Regarding the "plot" for men: "Film-star beautiful - but in a boring kind of way..."

[GrahamB]

Long, but really worth a listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGZW1xnkzkI

[origami_itto]

How do you have this kind of time???? I don't get people dropping all these 2-3 hour videos, like... bruh... WHAT is gonna be worth that kind of time investment? 2 minutes in if they haven't gotten to a point then it's really just not information dense enough for me, so painful to just listen to people chatter to hear themselves talk, jeez.

NOTHING PERSONAL I just hate people, I think. I'd rather be alone with my own thoughts than have to get on the training wheels latched to a boulder of other people's information processing.

[GrahamB]

I can never understand the mentality of people who say “how do you have time to listen to something that’s 2 hours long???”

Like, the stop button was invented years ago….

You don’t have to listen to it all in one go…

I listen to long podcasts in small parts while making dinner or doing the washing up….

[origami_itto]

That's just too much commitment for me, personally. It's really more about the information density. Most people take SO LONG to make a point, I just get tired of listening to them. I'm like "yeah, I got that's where you were headed about a minute and a half ago, can we move it along, please? I got shit to do."

I guess the background listening thing... I dunno I tried that, but again I prefer my own thoughts unless it's something rigorous and well written and edited, like an audiobook. 2 hours, 2 minutes, if I stop paying attention because they're not giving me anything worth listening to it's wasted time all the same.

And I recognize that's my own shortcoming. I just feel like if I have that time I'm going to spend it being present in something, not listening to someone else, UNLESS they're someone I really care about listening to, and for that they at least need a hook pretty quick or I'm bailing.

[origami_itto]

ANd I post this, having JUST posted a 10 minute explainer video about single whip for the world to flay.