F
To prevent deer from being hit by cars Finland has tried using reflective paint. (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/avoid-deer-strikes-finland-painting-deer-antlers-reflective-paint-180949792/)
File this under "solutions to modern problems that summon the old gods."
With Stephenson I always feel like he's trying to get me to join a church or donate to his Kickstarter for some dubious self improvement method about 1/2 through all of his books... which is why I've not finished reading any of them.
He can write a good hook, though. He gets me invested, then starts getting on my nerves more and more until I just put the book down.
Doing that does make it feel like the story is over. That's important. Can't just... trail off. But endings are hard.
Among the sci-fi and cyber punk... who does endings well do you think?
2/2
I've been reading all of Williams Gibson's novels back to back and the thing that surprises me the most is that this guy... for all of the moodiness and cyberpunkery loves a happy ending. A happy ending for everyone. In the strict rules of drama this should make the novels comedies. But I don't think that quite fits.
Normally something big and unprocessed happens at the end, but bad guys generally get theirs, and the good guys, and the weird guys are alright, not perfect but OK.
1/
Newest ant animation. antmation.
I'm slowly getting the hang of this.
It's also why they don't like democracy. And democracy is flawed too.
But, if we can start from "everyone can edit" and "everyone should have a say" we at least have a slim chance of hearing all voices. We at least have a chance at arriving at a self-aware stance that recognizes its own shortcomings and tries to be better.
God will not come down from heaven and write a perfect encyclopedia for us. Short of that, (if you care to think such a thing is possible) this is the best we will get.
The "marketplace of ideas" is an imperfect concept that inherently magnifies oppressions. Who has the time to edit articles? What sources are reliable? Bias must exist in any attempt to describe the world. And yet, the idea that we should attempt the task together is inherently radical.
And, the idea that "everyone who can be bothered" should just hash out the definition of everything turns out to be too woke for most fascists. Even with all the built in advantages conservatives can't compete.
In fact, there is a lot of systemic bias in the Wikipedia. This is a reflection of systemic bias in society.
For example if you look at biographies notable men outnumber women, it's white and western dominated. The "Race and IQ" topic is still a big mess. But, you can tell from the boatload of citations and the 1GB talk page that it's a contested topic. I expect if the Wiki can endure the talk pages will be a huge resource for historians.
If we still have historians in the future.
Everything wrong with the Wikipedia is something that is just generally wrong with working with humans.
My experience with the Wikipedia included being harassed white nationalists because I edited their creepy "Race and IQ" article. A very ugly experience. I did not feel supported or protected by "the wikipedia community" --
Despite this, I STILL think it's one of the best resources on the internet. That Mr. Musk wants to destroy it only makes me more confident this is correct.
If anyone needs an understated PR guy and an excellent mathematics and computer science teacher both with the skills of sailing crew members please let me know and please take us out of this country on your large boat. I can teach you and your kids to program and to do math, my husband can keep media people tame. We both know about sailboats. (it’s a long shot but worth asking.)
