Yeah, I'm sorry, that was a bit stronger than I needed to be.

Yeah, I'm sorry, that was a bit stronger than I needed to be.

That's fine. I recognize the larger issues swirling around right now between media fans and an older generation of science fiction writers. It does feel a bit like people are talking past each other anymore and there's no common ground for discussion.

When Harlan Ellison is the worst racist in America we'll be living in a freakin' paradise.

When Harlan Ellison is the worst racist in America we'll be living in a freakin' paradise

Trudat. He at least isn't insisting on seeing the President's birth certificate.

Excellent xkcd today:

[link]

Anyone else read and enjoyed Stephen Fry's 'Making History'? On one level it's a light read, but I ended up talking quite deep ethics with The Girl afterwards. The quantum physics angle, although not using real science much (I don't think), is also both fun to consider and potentially mind-screwy. Good book.

OMG I love that XKCD. So true. If it weren't, Hilzoy from ObWi would be running the country by now.

Seska, I read it about 3 years ago, but just did a brush-up on wikipedia. Were you debating the stop Hitler from being born issue?

DebetEsse: Not exactly. I was interested in whether The Girl would choose to live in a world where homosexuality was outlawed* or one where the Holocaust had happened. Given that the former would affect us directly, but probably mean there was/would have been a lot less suffering in the world. Then we got talking about why she preferred studying meta-ethics rather than straightforward ethics (she was a philosophy major), on account of how these concepts are pretty much impossible to explore.

I was more taken with the the more personal storyline, though - the idea of 'the one' being stuck in another quantum universe from you. I don't believe in the modern romanticised concept of 'the one', but that storyline summed up the potential total loneliness of believing in destiny, for me. I thought that was fascinating.

*And then we got talking about how it is in some societies, and how lucky we are to live when and where we do.

Ah, so not a direct thing in the book. Sort of a "needs of the many" sort of situation, really. Well, that and an "us" group vs. a "them" group (insofar as the effects are not immediately on you)

I like your take on the other. It does seem odd to put your romantic happiness in the hands of something so delicate as quantum uncertainty, if you will. That is, conditions being just right not only for the person to genetically exist, but to have had the right experiences to be the person they're "supposed" to be.

I've never heard of this town, but here's an article on the Canadian version of Hay-on-Wye--Sidney, British Columbia.