
Journal pudge's Journal: Pudge Answers 32
I've finally answered the questions from the recent Ask Pudge. I took your questions and ran them through speech synthesis and played them back and recorded the whole thing and it resulted in this. Download the audio file directly or subscribe to the podcast feed.
Let me know what you think. Or not. And send me new questions for next time. Or not.
"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually real" (Score:2)
I loved your answer to the question about Star Trek eliminating poverty. :)
The question reminded me of my high school English class, where we were encouraged to pretend that novels were somehow laboratories which put real humans into real situations and performed tests on them which could yield meaningful insight into human nature, rather than artificial constructions created by an author possibly to prove a point.
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
Isn't the Future, by definition, fiction, because it doesn't exist yet?
More important though, is Pudge missed the point that replicator technology isn't free, even in Star Trek's future. The replicators use up resources to create and repair them, not to mention the elements and compounds that get turned into food and goods.
What my question was driving at is that Star Trek's future E
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
No, you're misrepresenting the series. We know that Earth is a paradise. We know that there is no money on Earth. So it necessarily follows -- and we know it from watching the serie
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
What my question was driving at is that Star Trek's future Earth apparently has a semi-socialistic society in which people are guaranteed minimums of food and shelter to live a lifestyle better than "poverty".
If it becomes cheap enough, I would be happy to help voluntarily fund a program that provides a minimum of food and shelter to every sentient being. Currently it is not cheap enough to do this for everybody, and so I would like to be choosy with my help. I would like to help those who are most re
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
That's why the quote said "standing on the backs of the poor" and not 'standing on the backs of others'.
To me that implies Clemens was talking about exploitation. If you want to play fast and loose with the definition of exploitation, then every worker and manager is exploited by
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
Twain!
was talking about exploitation. If you want to play fast and loose with the definition of exploitation, then every worker and manager is exploited by his or her boss.
That's not playing fast and loose with the definition, that is being correct according to the actual definition.
In ST, people who want to work will still have bosses, but apparently those who don't want to work don't have to. There won't be factories and sweatshops exploiting workers ten hours a day, six days a w
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
How do you figure?
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
Oh, and as far as that episode goes, his character is credited [photobucket.com] as Samuel Clemens, and Troi refers to him Mr. Clemens.
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
Maybe the same person who thinks we can immanentize the eschaton.
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
The reason Clemens phrased it using "backs of the poor" was because he meant definition #2 of what Websters says:
1 : to make productive use of : UTILIZE
2 : to make use of meanly or unjustly for one's own advantage
Re:"It's Science-Fiction ... it's not actually rea (Score:2)
The reason Twain said it is because he misunderstands how economies actually have to work in order to be successful.
Reloading and moderation (Score:2)
It might have changed since the FAQ was penned, but the official slashdot stance has been that moderation picks from the "middle of the pack" in order to avoid persons such as "obsessive compulsive reloaders" for some time now: http://slashdot.org/faq/com-mod.shtml#cm520 [slashdot.org]
Uh? (Score:2)
Re:Uh? (Score:2)
Really? (Score:1)
Re:Really? (Score:2)
Re:Really? (Score:1)
Re:Really? (Score:2)
Thanks for the answer... (Score:2)
Re:Thanks for the answer... (Score:2)
And yeah, funny how many on the far left are first to complain about someone else's exercise of free speech. I see far more cries of censorship from the left than from the right, not that most people realize it.
Pudge asks, etc (Score:1)
Pudge asks: "If you could create or get rid of any holiday, what holiday would it be?"
Timex answers: That's a tough call. My initial reaction is that there are too many holidays (in the United States). I might consider making Patriot's Day a national holiday-- it's currently only recognized in Maine and Massachusetts.
My question for the next Ask Pudge: What is your take on the recent push for a national language for the United St