• 1 Post
  • 60 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: December 27th, 2023
  • GorGor@startrek.websitetoBooks@lemmy.world•The Three Body Problem is not good
    1·
    5 days ago

    The point of the story is

    spoiler

    The wallfacers have to have a secret plan that they cant share because the sophons can intervene if it is known. The Sophons are so powerful because they can interfere with any technology, only the human mind is beyond their reach. So he creates a technology to do exactly what he tested out that would achieve mutually assured destruction and the sophons cant do anything about it because… reasons.

    It was obvious the entire time what he was planning and the result of that plan was MAD. If you come to destroy us, we will both die. He couldnt say it outloud because the premise was he was a wallfacer and there is no good reason this particular plan would suceed.

  • GorGor@startrek.websitetoBooks@lemmy.world•The Three Body Problem is not good
    13·
    10 days ago

    After much struggle I got some geeky friends of mine to start a book club. I suggested this as the first book based on the hype. Almost no one finished it. When we got together to drink and talk, only two others bothered to dial in (It was during COVID and we are scattered), no one else finished it.

    I dislike this book in so many different ways. It has some interesting Ideas and some surprising insights into the modern Chinese view of the revolution, but as an actual story? Ive read better fan fic.

  • GorGor@startrek.websitetoBooks@lemmy.world•The Three Body Problem is not good
    135·
    10 days ago

    the Dark Forest sucks just as hard if not more so. the premise of the story

    spoiler

    Mutually Assured Destruction

    isnt an original thought, but the author refuses to acknowledge it until the end, pretending like it wasn’t obvious the whole story. then he hand waves the problems he sets up (how do you deal with an alien technology so much more sophisticated than your own) pretending like the sophons just couldn’t deal with the threat. All this and the character doesn’t ever really develop. Things happen to him, but we don’t get any meat to his personality, just external bullshit.

    I started listening to the third book because I am a gluten for punishment and I have a long commute, but it just meandered. If it was another author Id give them the benefit of the doubt, but I havnt been able to get through it.

  • GorGor@startrek.websitetoNo Stupid Questions@lemmy.world•Why do people like the Punisher comics?
    9·
    12 days ago

    I didn’t get to get a lot of comics as a kid. I got punisher because they tended to be more insular. I borrowed friends/relatives Carnage comics but never got to finish the run. I couldn’t get into fantastic 4 partly because there were so many iterations, and some of those I would get the lecture of ‘well you really gotta start here and this references this story line from 5 years ago’.

    Punisher was simple action and tended to have shorter story lines.

  • GorGor@startrek.websitetomemes@lemmy.world•Allow me to offer my strength
    1·
    4 months ago

    Listen, Im over here wearing my floaties, watching sales people doing a triple gainer off the high-dive. I’m not trying to pretend to be especially good with the social skills. All I’m saying is water is wet. Some people have an affinity to those sorts of skills, some don’t. Some people work at it. Some can’t. Everyone has to at least bathe though. That’s a metaphor, but also not.

  • GorGor@startrek.websitetomemes@lemmy.world•Allow me to offer my strength
    61·
    4 months ago

    Why do you need to be forced by society to develop social skills?

    Social skills is another way of saying the abilities required to function in a society. You might as well ask why do you need to learn to swim to get in the pool.

    Why isn’t putting your best forward enough?

    Often it is, but to stretch the metaphor used above, they are going to be stuck in the shallow end.

  • GorGor@startrek.websitetoGlobal News@lemmy.zip•Trump vows huge new China tariffs as markets nosedive
    21·
    4 months ago

    Higher quality? Not likely. Actually available Id give you. We don’t have the equipment to make a lot of the stuff china can make. If we can make it, its probably on newer machines with better tolerances. This is a sweeping generality of course but so is the contrary claim.

    Ive been to manufacturing sites in china, Ive outsourced sub-assemblies. They have a lot of capabilities. The US still (for now) has more sophistication/infrastructure. Given proper controls, Chinese manufacturers can match our quality for cheaper, it is a lot of work though.