What are you reading, watching and listening to? - All languages

[Ares Land]

I bookmarked this a while ago: Resources for learning Wolof. Courses, dictionaries, grammars, and linguistic papers both in English and French. Free, with links to non-free resources.

Nice, thanks!

[Raphael]

Currently reading Connie Willis' Doomsday Book, published in the early 1990s. Very early in it, there's a brief mention of how decades before the start of the main plot, when one of the older characters was young, early in the 21st century, there was a pandemic.

Then again, there's also a minor character who can't be reached because he's gone on a vacation to Scotland.

[Travis B.]

Then again, there's also a minor character who can't be reached because he's gone on a vacation to Scotland.

People are not very good at predicting the future. People decades ago thought we'd be regularly traveling in space by now, beyond our tiny toehold at the International Space Station. At the same time, people never predicted that computing devices would be embedded into everything by this point, no matter what the scale.

[Raphael]

Iain M. Banks predicted "terminals" - basically smartphone-like - in The Player of Games back in 1988.

[Rounin Ryuuji]

That book's almost as old as I am.

[Raphael]

Player or Doomsday?

[Rounin Ryuuji]

Player; I was surgically removed from a uterus at a very inconvenient hour the morning of the third of July, 1988.

[Ares Land]

People are not very good at predicting the future. People decades ago thought we'd be regularly traveling in space by now, beyond our tiny toehold at the International Space Station. At the same time, people never predicted that computing devices would be embedded into everything by this point, no matter what the scale.

Writers were probably not the type of people who would've been overly enthused by the idea of mobile phones!

For that matter Heinlein did predict cell phones in one of his juvenile novels (can't remember which) though he seems to have forgotten the idea later on.
Crewmen in The Mote in God's Eye have what basically amounts to an iPad. (I'd argue the newspad in 2001 don't count!)

That said, Connie Willis is massively overrated. What I like is that she did her work on the social consequences of technology.

[Travis B.]

People are not very good at predicting the future. People decades ago thought we'd be regularly traveling in space by now, beyond our tiny toehold at the International Space Station. At the same time, people never predicted that computing devices would be embedded into everything by this point, no matter what the scale.

Writers were probably not the type of people who would've been overly enthused by the idea of mobile phones!

For that matter Heinlein did predict cell phones in one of his juvenile novels (can't remember which) though he seems to have forgotten the idea later on.
Crewmen in The Mote in God's Eye have what basically amounts to an iPad. (I'd argue the newspad in 2001 don't count!)

That said, Connie Willis is massively overrated. What I like is that she did her work on the social consequences of technology.

Cell phones seem to be one of the few things that were accurately predicted in the relatively recent past (i.e. decades ago), e.g. Star Trek communicators (the TOS kind, not the TNG kind).

[rotting bones]

I'm goofing off while waiting for class to start by reading the collected works of Chogyam Trungpa: https://www.pdfdrive.com/search?q=Trung ... &more=true It is precisely this dude's notoriety that appeals to me. If I had to be a real Tibetan Buddhist, I'd probably be a Sakyapa because I like their intense focus on scholarship. If you like shamanism, go for Nyingma. If you like ceremonial magic, Kagyu is the way to go. If you like moral discipline (plus the associated repression of dissenters), join the Dalai Lama's Gelug sect. Whatever you do, stay the hell away from Chogyam Trungpa.

[Raphael]

I've now decided that I am willing to occasionally send Amazon some money, despite them being evil and all, and so I've now watched Lower Decks (in English). Best Star Trek ever.

[rotting bones]

Best of the Quran: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

In case this feels incomplete without a note of blasphemy: https://youtu.be/qI7ZnHIF0Xo?t=2566 Does anyone know of specifically anti-Islamic blasphemy of this quality?

[MacAnDàil]

I have recently read Désinformation by Emmanuel Ostian and Les intellectuels faussaires by Pascal Boniface (the latter talks specifically about some intellectuals like Bernard-Henri Lévy or the new Caroline Fourest).

I like the idea of the Journalism Trust Initiative (https://jti-rsf.org) that Ostian mentions near the end.

[ratammer]

Currently reading "John Dies at the End" by David Wong. No spoilers, please!

[KathTheDragon]

Does John die at the end?

[Rounin Ryuuji]

One would imagine, though the death may be somehow figurative rather than literal.

[Man in Space]

A live rendition of “Billabong Valley” by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Starts at about 9:41. (It sounds weird because it’s microtonal.)

[rotting bones]

I haven't been able to get into games that are less abstract than chess for years, but empowered by my desperation to avoid studying for the Finals, I bought some video games on Steam:

Opus Magnum
Epic Battle Fantasy 5
Airships: Conquer the Skies

Opus Magnum is a puzzle game where you design machines that build fictional alchemical molecules:



Unlike what happens in some truly difficult puzzle games, even when I'm temporarily confused in Opus Magnum, the next step is always clear. I suspect this is because, like in programming language syntax, the underlying language used here approximates to a context-free grammar.

Epic Battle Fantasy 5 is essentially a non-Japanese JRPG, but the dialog is alternately snarky and super nice. I don't know how else to describe it. The game mechanics are solid, and I would recommend it.

Airships: Conquer the Skies is a game where you build custom airships and use them to fight. I've only played this for two days, so I'll just say it looks interesting so far.


---

Trigger warning: Antisemitism.

I read this book: https://www.pdfdrive.com/heideggers-bla ... 81141.html

After years of being told that abstract thought which leaves Real Life behind was the foundation for 20th century atrocities, it was interesting to see the intellectuals who support this theory squirming to explain why the father of their movement was a Nazi.

Not that I'm a superfan of Judaism myself, but looking forward to enslaving your enemies strikes me as a good deal more civilized than reveling in visions of them being roasted in hellfire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ji_Y7YEbKY

[Ares Land]

And, in addition, you know, I'm actually pretty confident that Judaism doesn't say that. Even the most radical views. And I did a good deal of research into Judaism, and listened to very, very radical point of views.
As I can see, the very Orthodox view is that the Jews will ultimately serve as, so to speak, priests for the whole of mankind.

Ovadia Yosef said a lot of batshit crazy things. No one's going to admit it. In Orthodox Judaism talking ill of anyone is, if I understand correctly, a very severe transgression of the Law. All the more so if you're talking of the highest authority in Sephardic Judaism.


Re: Heidegger: yeah, a sad fact is that many philosophers were extremely disappointing outside the few ideas that made a lasting impression. As a consolation to existentialists and post-modernists, Sartre had much of the same idea, expressed them in a clearer way, and generally more defensible views. Though he was still defending Stalin in the 70s, and his favorite activity was banging his students. As Nietzsche said, 'Be careful lest a statue fall and kill you!'

[rotting bones]

In the video, some Jews seem to think it does. Strictly speaking, in Islam, anyone being punished is supposed to be a tragedy. Here is one of the most evil villains on the planet crying over divine punishment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hj5hqg9JQI Even in popular culture, everyone in the Arabian Nights sheds rivers of tears over the destruction of advanced civilizations of the past, though the Quran makes it abundantly clear they were destroyed because they rejected the word of God. At the same time, many Muslims obviously enjoy the thought of their enemies going to hell. These days, many scholars even say Islam doesn't allow you to love anyone who is going to hell, even though IIRC revelation says that Muhammad loved an uncle (Abu Talib?) who protected him and who, Sunnis believe, died without accepting Islam and is going to hell. (IIRC the Shia believe he must have been a Muslim because he was Ali's father.)

Re: Heidegger, philosophers only say interesting things when reality pushes them into self-contradictory positions.