He is that guy

Nothing this guy can't shrug off. Litterally.

He's got the shotgun, you've got the briefcase. All in the game, though.

Truly ? What aspects of it ?

I mean they do have universal basic income on earth but apart from that humanity is all kinds of fucked. And it doesn't exactly get better as the story progresses.

Maybe the robots in Asimov's universe lead to the creation of Erasmus and eventually the Butlerian Jihad.

We do. In some of the set in the same universe novels but not written by Asimov there are references to Brain Fever. A disease that virtually 100% of humans get at least once that makes them dumb for life. All advancement in galactic culture comes from the like 1 out of a million people who were immune.

That would account for Dune. Dune only makes sense if you assume that everyone is stupid and living in a hazy of drugged religious fantasy. Ffs the main power of their space witches is to use a sexy voice. Which everyone knows about! Just put in earplugs or jerk off prior or get gay guys or use deaf people or get straight women before dealing with one. Thousands of years of eugenics defeated by 30 cents of earplugs. Dune everybody!

That makes more sense.

Dune has one of the most complex (and necessarily logical) universe in it. I'm not surprised every reader found different themes more fitting.

It wasn't the qctual only hope, just the only path Paul and Leto could see, and we know they aren't omniscient

I read an interview where frank said that his intention was for Dune to be a cautionary tale about the dangers of charismatic leaders (which is to say, the "classic" hero archetype). Which - for the first book - tracks pretty well. The free are basically just used as cannon fodder for Paul to win back his power (and a lot more), then when he wins, he sets them loose on the universe because he can't control them.

The trouble I have with that though is that he goes on to contradict that point in later books, but I won't get into that because I don't want to spoil anything for you

I mean, I feel like manipulating a whole culture's established religious beliefs to place themself at the highest seat of power and war a holy war in their name is a pretty poignant display of "religion bad, m'kay"

The original movie was good for the art direction and fantastic acting by supporting characters.

That's kinda where it ends though, comparing the two of them, the new Dune features human emotion which is pretty cool; all the main characters were kind of animatronic feeling in the old one imo.

Ok, either the internet can't identify a great joke or... no, I guess the only reasonable explanation is that your comment whooshed over people's heads.

I'm still absolutely loving the fact we are on different instances in completely different parts of the world, yet we can still communicate.

From the Wikipedia page for Paul Erdős:

After his mother's death in 1971 he started taking antidepressants and amphetamines, despite the concern of his friends, one of whom (Ron Graham) bet him $500 that he could not stop taking them for a month. Erdős won the bet, but complained that it impacted his performance: "You've showed me I'm not an addict. But I didn't get any work done. I'd get up in the morning and stare at a blank piece of paper. I'd have no ideas, just like an ordinary person. You've set mathematics back a month."[66] After he won the bet, he promptly resumed his use of Ritalin and Benzedrine.[67]

Melange, I'm sure. Seeing how it enables you to fold space, I'm assuming it also helps with the math involved.

They don't make it easy. They make it better. Source: am mathematician.

Lmao, good to know CS majors haven't changed.

I'll see you at FurCon in a few, it's just a matter of time now.

the "moment of relief when the pain recedes" kind of fun. And then you realize you made a trivial mistake in the beginning and all your conclusions were useless.

but I took so many drugs 😭

Not necessarily, being a mentat doesn't require the use of spice. Many use it because it enhances their thought process

Sapho juice.

The Culture is so incredibly fascinating. Banks' death was a loss to science fiction.

Hadn't read The Algebraist yet, so there's a new one on my list. Thanks! I'll make sure to check out Barnes, too.

Actually, you're right.

Oh well, a humanity, then, just not ours.

Exactly what I thought for Heinlein. All aboard! 🚂

That sounds more like post-post-post-Roddenberry Trek.

Gene Roddenberry: We're headed for some bleak imperialist nonsense, but don't worry, it'll get better.

Gene Wolfe: We're headed for some bleak imperialist nonsense, but humanity's salvation will come from traversing complex, labyrinthine narratives and deciphering symbolic, metaphysical riddles we haven't begun to understand yet.

yeah IIRC that power of love thing was the way our fleshbag brains could deal with the same stuff that the AIs interacted with directly

They shoulda brought a gun

One two three four I declare EXTERMINATUS

It's kids' problem now.

But guns are inferior to melee combat in the 40k universe so the kids would win.

I don't really agree that the spice wasn't put forward as a way to salvation. I think it clearly was key to finding the golden path.

The spice enabled the Bene Gesserit to see what was needed in their breeding program, and they were trying to breed Kwisatz Haderach who would lead humanity through a dangerous time, avoiding the destruction of the race. (Also the scene in the sietch that I won't go into detail about, becuase spoilers)

Leto II uses the spice to see the golden path and forge humanity into what it needs to be to survive. (Also the other thing which I haven't mentioned due to major spoilers of a cool moment).

The spice is pretty clearly necessary for the path taken to salvation.

While the spice may not have been necessary to avoid the destruction of the human race had another path been found, in the story as it was told it was absolutely central.

Just wait 50 years like I did to reread the trilogy and it will almost seem like you've never read it before.

Hey, for spoilers do:

::: spoiler [visible text]] [spoiler text] :::

They were going on an adventure

Even if you ignore its inherent worth (and a major theme of the books is the inherent worth of things that don't look or think like you), it was still an amazing discovery with incredible potential. IMO it was less dangerous that the (admittedly much less innately terrifying) sympathetic aliens, who were capable of deep space travel, unpredictable, warlike, and also very difficult to communicate with.

(I was actually asking the opposite question by the end of the book - once it was convinced to play nice, why wasn't everyone signing up for it?)

Some people like adventures.

Oh, I haven't read the second one yet. o_O

But wasn't it that he saw the future showing he we embark on a jihad, and he worried that his trying to prevent that would still cause it to happen? I'd say it shows Paul as more complex and far thinking than you'd expect from a 14 year old kid. A kid sees that and says "I just won't do that." Paul said "I need to prevent this, but I'm not sure how, so I must be constantly vigilant of my actions to ensure it doesn't happen."

Thou shalt not make a machine in the image of a man.

Foundetion?

Edit: took me a second. Math -> Meth. Let's hope the field of Methmatics can save us.

Oh fuck don't remind of this

Yup, The Killing Star🙃

Snow Crash: VR Molly

I always read it as like, radical Islamic Star wars.

You have the whole rebellion and the chosen one and the mystical powers and everything but instead of it being a blonde haired blue-eyed white boy it's a dark haired man incorporated into a desert tribe

Let's see. The prequel his bodyguard and later wife is vital, Daneel isn't real male or female being a robot, his granddaughter basically started the Second Foundation and saved Sheldon. I can't remember her name but the leader of the board of the Second Foundation was also a women. Then you add in Bliss plus the two Second Foundation agents, plus the daughter of the resistance.

Seems pretty equal to me.