techno156

@techno156@kbin.social
techno156,

This is Kirk and Riker slander.

Kirk doesn't deserve that kind of reputation, whereas Riker does.

techno156,

Slight shame that the contractors didn't start from the end. It could have been funnier if they had taken off the "er" instead.

techno156,

Or shut them down, given the recent debacle with Amazon shutting down someone's account, disabling their devices in the process.

techno156,

Even TOS had a blatant anti-racism episode where the conclusion was very much explicitly "if we don't get along, we'll be left extinct on an empty, dead husk of a planet".

techno156,

A lot of sci-fi (at least where TV/Films are concerned) keeps getting too bogged down in what it thinks that it should be, and doesn't actually try to explore new possibilities or expand much, which generally means that the quality of sequels progressively gets worse, and the show ends up being a sort of even mush vaguely resembling the original.

The main example I could think of is probably Star Trek. It's too fixated on everything as it is, so even things that are supposed to be radical changes just re-establish the status quo with a new coat of paint. A radical show with radical viewpoints would never take off, as newer iterations would try to emulate the success of the show, and keep to the old.

It's part of why later Star Trek shows seem to be a bit more conservative, by comparison. Sure, values have changed since the original show, but the level of radical progressiveness has also gradually wound down too. Compared to the original show, which tried to push things from all angles, something like Star Trek: Discovery would seem almost conservative. Most of its more progressive elements are fairly standard for the time period it is set in, rather than pushing the envelope like the original did.

Similarly, all the shows end up trying to emulate the same formula, and even the same rough starship design. The Enterprise was originally specially designed and built to seem future-y, but many other of their starships since them seem to just be iterative designs on the original. Even one of them set 900 in the years in the future seems to have almost identical technologies, polities, and culture as one set in the 24th century. The visuals are different, but everything seems to be effectively the same under the coat of paint.

Not having that baggage is probably why up-and-coming shows, like The Orville, tend to be able to get away with more, since there isn't a previous Orville that it keeps trying to recapture, just yet, which should mean that it gets more leeway.

From a non Star Trek standpoint, it's also rather happened to Star Wars. The newer films are just trying to recapture the older films, rather than expand into their own thing, to the detriment of the films as a whole. The latest trilogy seems like a rehash of the old ones, down to having what is basically another death star, Rebellions, Vader-ish Masked Sith Lord, and Friendpatines.

I don't really have much of a solution, besides wanting the shows to just branch out more. I think Star Trek in the 32nd century should have gone with a brand new slate, where everything was different (from both an ideological, political, and technological standpoint), and the 23rd century ship that ended up there would be woefully outdated, not just on paper, but with the technology it was fitted with.

Star Wars has a bunch of interesting things that it could run with, such as the aftermath of the major wars, where the Rebellion is now having to deal with multiple smaller wars from various factions under the splintering empire, or have to secure its place in the resulting power vacuum.

One show that hasn't succumbed to this as much is Doctor Who, but that had a major revamp in its 2005 revival which drastically changed the nature of the show itself. Still, it doesn't seem to be particularly immune to it either. Behind-the-scenes, they're suddenly going back to the old composer and old showrunners, and the main character doesn't seem to evolve too much beyond "conflicted, but brilliant and eccentric hero". It also seems to be slowly settling into its own ruts, as well, with the most recent run rather resetting a redeemed villain's character development suddenly.

As a slight tangent, I also feel like that considering the messaging of the show itself, there could be quite a bit of interesting mileage that could be achieved by having a companion who is a species that is normally an enemy. Maybe something like a Dalek.

techno156,

Isn't it not sci-fi? It's usually more classed as sci-fantasy, if memory serves.

techno156,

The regulations did exist, but the CEO/company just ignored/sidestepped them (and was quoted as complaining about them being onerous).

techno156,

In fairness, that's probably more due to the novelty of the disaster, more so than whoever was actually on board.

A refugee boat sinking is a tragedy, but it's also not novel in the eyes of the media (and might be difficult to report on, depending on local laws). It happens with enough regularity that it's considered another tragedy, in much the same way that America doesn't report all their mass shootings (they tend to have one for almost every day of the year), or how the local paper usually doesn't report every robbery and homicide.

The submarine incident is a bit more like a plane crash by comparison, which is rare and novel enough that it's worth reporting on, irrespective of whoever is on board. Particularly with the other facts being dug up, which only added fuel to the fire.

What do you think of subreddits protesting with rule changes (e.g., only allowing John Oliver)?

A ton of moderators have been making changes to their subreddits' rules (e.g., only allowing certain posts, going NSFW, loosening rules a ton) to protest without getting kicked out. Do you think this strategy of turning a subreddit into shitposts is effective or not?...

techno156,

It was fun for a while, but like any joke on Reddit, it's also been run into the ground to the point of obnoxiousness, and you kind of see users becoming tired of it in responses to protest updates.

Which I don't really blame them for. From a user standpoint, it does seem a little like a moderator/admin spat that they're just caught in the crossfire of. They're used to their cozy little community, and don't have much of a desire to leave it, or see it shut down. In fairness, there aren't very many good alternatives, either. Kbin and Lemmy are nice and all, but they both much younger, and much more limited compared to Reddit, in addition to having problems like some instances (like Lemmy.ml, or Kbin.Social) crashing under the load of new users, whilst also being less intuitive to begin with, if you're coming from Reddit.

As an alternative, I'm a bit more partial to the /r/politicalhumor method of just giving everyone moderator permissions instead. That way, nothing really changes if the users don't want it to, and it's effectively unmoderated without having to deal with potentially unsavoury content, or making as big of a mess of the sub.

From a Reddit perspective, changing things to John Oliver would get his attention, but at the end of the day, that's still more content for the site itself. Reddit Inc isn't going to care too much about what the content is, as long as they can spin it as "more content", and still put advertising revenue on it.

techno156, (edited )

Given how that's been going, and how that subreddit apparently got caught in the crossfire, it kind of makes you wonder what's going on behind the scenes at Reddit. With a different person revoking it and apologising, it kind of seems like the admins aren't really communicating to each other, and that some are putting out fires that the others are lighting.

EDIT: No Apology, just an explanation.

techno156,

I don't think so. The idea might be nice, but Peertube has neither the audience, nor the monetisation of platforms like YouTube. Moving to peertube just isn't a good business decision for that.

Video hosting is also expensive, especially since they would also have to deal with DMCA claims and all of that. YouTube wasn't really profitable, or even breaking even until rather recently, nearly a full decade after they started. It's not really economical to do video hosting quite like that.

Peertube might be good for casual use, but I also can't see any content creators using it. (Not unlike 2005 YouTube in that sense), and the lack of content creators also means a lack of audience (and through them, content) that might attract more users over. People are more likely to move over to something like Patreon or Twitch instead.

techno156,

At the same time, it might not fit them. Lemmy is a link aggregator, which seems like extra functionality that they don't really need, not when existing forum software will do what they need, while also being more stable/mature.

techno156,

Lemmy is pretty immature, and probably doesn't suit their needs compared to a forum.

They don't really need a link aggregator, so using Lemmy there wouldn't really make much sense.

The only thing that they might use Lemmy for is the community, but otherwise, it's not a great fit for what they need.

techno156,

I don't see why they wouldn't be.

It wasn't all that long ago that we had waterproof phones, with similar ratings as current phones, whilst also having a replaceable battery.

The Samsung Galaxy S5 had an IP67 rating, for example, despite having a headphone jack, and a replaceable battery/removable back. (it also featured wireless charging, which was surprisingly forward for the time).

techno156,

Although I'm curious about how they might address the "clickbait" issue of people having a massively upvoted/boosted post, and then changing the post to say something else entirely.

That seems like it might be a problem if people are allowed to edit titles.

techno156,

And a Russian and Japanese crew member at the height of the Cold War. Not just as background, but as one of the main crew.

techno156,

Kind of like how TOS was almost flagrantly progressive at the time, with women not only being equals on the bridge, but being allowed to wear what they wanted, like miniskirts, without having to dress like the men, but today, it's seen as an artefact of the times, and as a sign of the comparatively regressive attitudes of the day, rather than the feminist icon it was when the show aired.

techno156,
  • /r/steam is getting steamy. Some users are blowing their safeties, but the sub seems to be on board with posting things relating to steam, and steam engines.
techno156,

For those curious about what a defibrillator does do: It stops hearts.

Which might seem insanely counterintuitive, but it's great for when the heart gets stuck in a rhythm that prevents it from being able to pump properly, since stopping it lets it restart itself in a more normal rhythm.

Before we invented the defibrillator, doctors basically had to punch the patient in the chest to hopefully hit the heart at the right point to stop it. It does also mean that if you really know what you're doing, and got lucky with the timing/amount of force, you could technically pull off one of Kill Bill's death punches, although it would be a little less dramatic than them walking five steps before their heart explodes.

But unlike video games, unless you fry the heart itself, a defibrillator won't instantly kill someone. It will stop their heart, sure, but their heart will restart itself, unless something is wrong (stopped for too long, physical damage, irreversible chemical imbalance, etc)

techno156,

It could be the smaller subs for precisely that reason. /r/videos is high-profile, and is likely to kick a fit, so smaller subs would be a better testing ground, to see what the reception is, before steamrolling the others.

techno156,

But it will get them talking, which is the main point of it. Regular people will wonder why the sub is full of John Oliver, letting them find out about the API changed and everything.

techno156,

Just look at Lore. He wiped out a colony, and could do far worse damage if he was both more competent and stable. It eventually escalated to the point where Data had to shut him down, due to the danger he posed to the rest of the Federation.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • JUstTest
  • slotface
  • ngwrru68w68
  • everett
  • mdbf
  • modclub
  • rosin
  • khanakhh
  • DreamBathrooms
  • thenastyranch
  • magazineikmin
  • Youngstown
  • GTA5RPClips
  • InstantRegret
  • provamag3
  • kavyap
  • ethstaker
  • osvaldo12
  • normalnudes
  • tacticalgear
  • cisconetworking
  • cubers
  • Durango
  • Leos
  • anitta
  • tester
  • megavids
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •