Messages

31

General / Re: Sideshow Vote II: Battle of the 8-bit nerds

« on: 19 June, 2022, 10:14:24 AM »

I had a C64 and enjoyed it for a while - but playing out and holiday jobs had more appeal.

32

Off Topic / Re: The Black Dog Thread

« on: 18 June, 2022, 07:36:49 AM »

My condolences Mister Funt. At the risk of sounding patronizing, it seems to me that your reaction to this shite thing that happened is perfectly valid and it's good that you're confronting it. There's no right way to grieve.

Most definitely this.

For more than half of my life I've been of the feeling that grief is mostly self-pity in that I won't have this person in my life any more, which is a perfectly valid feeling. It must be balanced, though, with the feeling of joy that I was privileged enough to have had this person in my life at all. Of course, one can't very well start proselytizing this opinion to grieving relatives and so I tend to be just as awkward as most other people in such situations - stumbling through expressions of sympathy which, although heartfelt, seem little more than inadequate platitudes.

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Off Topic / Re: The Philosophical Thread

« on: 18 June, 2022, 07:19:18 AM »

If there is a God, then for me it has to be the universe (or the multiverse) itself, because that's the only thing that is both omnipresent, omnitemporal, and omnipotent.

I once heard a suggestion that brains evolved because the universe was trying to understand itself. It's a nice idea, but a bit too teleological for me.

Yes, I think I first heard that one in Babylon 5. The idea does, however, rest on the ideas that the Universe is self-aware enough to want to understand itself and also has enough self-knowledge to be able to manipulate its own molecules over long periods of time in order to create brains, the biological casings and support systems to house them, and environments in which to store them. It also aggrandizes us like most religious beliefs which rest on us being specially created for a specific purpose.

If we are "the universe trying to understand itself" then I think it's more likely we'd be a natural part of the universal consciousness (if such a thing exists), like the nerve endings in our own bodies.

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Film & TV / Re: Current TV Boxset Addiction

« on: 18 June, 2022, 07:07:18 AM »

One of the things I enjoy most about The Boys is Homelander's fake smile. Technically every on screen smile is fake, but Anthony Starr really sells the fakeness. Proper rictus grin.

Couldn't agree more. Starr's entire performance is great. I love the way he manages to get across Homelander trying to hide his ignorance or petulance behind a facade of powerful perfection. The odd little tick or stifled childish outburst in such a powerful character is chilling, creating the impression of an atom bomb on a hair-trigger.

35

Off Topic / Re: The Philosophical Thread

« on: 16 June, 2022, 08:52:16 PM »

If there is a God, then for me it has to be the universe (or the multiverse) itself, because that's the only thing that is both omnipresent, omnitemporal, and omnipotent.

However, there is a theory that we are all part of a computer simulation. If this is the case, would that make the simulation itself God, or the programmer? Or, more likely, the team of programmers? Or just the head programmer? Or the head programmer's boss? Or the head programmer's boss's political leader? Or the head programmer's boss's political leader's God? Or the head programmer's boss's political leader's universe?

Would one of my own blood cells regard me as God? If so, I am certainly omnipresent in that blood cell's universe but not omnipotent as I cannot control, or even feel any awareness of, my individual cells. So, if the universe is God, and even if the universal whole does possess some form of consciousness, it doesn't necessarily follow that Hesheit has any awareness of or control over individual human beings, or even the Earth, solar system, or Milky Way.

I think it's only human hubris and ignorance that requires God (if Hesheit exists) to be in control of every fine detail and regard humanity as something special. If there is a God, then I think Hisherits perceptions, thoughts and actions are even further beyond our own as mine are from those of my own cells.

36

Off Topic / Re: The Philosophical Thread

« on: 16 June, 2022, 11:14:33 AM »

Well yes, but are religions contradictory because God (if such an entity exists) allows free will so people can invent their own religions?

My question was more about the human concept of God as a complete and perfect being of infinite good and whether it's possible to believe this is true regardless of religion. I don't think it's possible to believe that God (if He exists) actually can be infinitely good for the reason I suggested - that a complete God would also have to contain infinite evil otherwise He wouldn't be complete and therefore not God. It could be his evil streak that allows human moral evils from crusades to inquisitions to flying aircraft into buildings to occur; and also allow natural evils like plagues, earthquakes, and tsunamis. If God was infinitely good, then surely everything He creates will be infinitely good - and looking around at the Earth, this is evidently not true.

I suppose this view might lead some religious persons to believe that if God Himself contains both infinite good and infinite evil, it would be okay for people also to practice both good and evil themselves - which is what seems to happen anyway.

37

Film & TV / Re: Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+ (High Chance of SPOILERS)

« on: 16 June, 2022, 02:08:47 AM »

Episode Five - all previous niggles aside, I enjoyed the Hell out of this episode.

38

Off Topic / The Philosophical Thread

« on: 16 June, 2022, 01:24:20 AM »

I was listening to some philosophy lectures today while I was strimming the front field and the lecturer was addressing the question of why God allows evil, if God exists, that is. All the arguments were very clever, as were the counterarguments and side-arguments, but all of them assumed God to be a "complete and perfect being of infinite good."
But it struck me that this was a contradiction - how could a being be both complete and infinitely good? To be complete would require the perfect being to contain both good and evil, because to contain only one of these would make the being incomplete and therefore less than perfect and therefore not God.
I imagined God as a set of numbers from 1 to infinity. If this were so, then imagine the number 7, and all its multiples, as good numbers and 13 and all its multiples as evil numbers and all the other numbers as neutral. That would make the perfect being infinitely good, infinitely neutral, and infinitely evil.
Why does God allow evil? Because it's in His nature. If He exists.
Or is this just bollocks and I should stick to striming*?



*Which I'll have to continue with anyway because I haven't finished it yet. It's like a damned mutant copse with dock stems as thick as my finger and clumps of weeds like discarded mammoth skins. Lost count of how many times the bloody string snapped. Why don't these clever-dick philosophers ask why God allows that kind of thing to happen, eh? And why has He allowed me to suffer from a sore back?

39

Off Topic / Re: Thought Police: Are we allowed to query 'woke'?

« on: 13 June, 2022, 08:35:01 PM »

I'm worried that I'll get it wrong, that other people in my personal life will be judgmental (both of my acceptance of the person's choice, and of the person's choice). Part of me wants to warn them of the danger of standing up above the parapet, because we live in a world where being shitty to each other has become so normal.

Get what wrong? By making the odd linguistic slip or by wrongly accepting the person's choice? In my not-so-humble opinion, the odd linguistic slip is nothing to worry about so long as one is willing to self-correct, and accepting a person's choice (so long as it causes no loss, harm, or damage to others) cannot be wrong - difficult, perhaps, but not wrong. Furthermore, the judgement of others is also not worth worrying about. Simply listen to those judgements, consider them, and then accept or reject the individual elements of that judgement, altering your thinking or behaviour by as much or as little as you deem necessary. I think that by even considering the question of whether you're going to get it wrong you're less likely to do so.

As one who has stood above the parapet many times, and suffered for doing so, I would say that it's okay to warn them but far more important to stand with them if you possibly can. A problem shared is a problem halved, as the saying goes. As social animals with an instinctively tribal predisposition, we long for acceptance. To be accepted by a large group of people is definitely what most of us desire and to be accepted by nobody is probably a good definition of Hell on Earth. To be accepted by just one person can mean the world and be a source of great strength. Just because some (unelightened) people cowering behind the safety of the parapet are shitty, that doesn't mean we all have to be - and it seems to me that you won't be, that you will be one of those people who mean the world to this person.

There's a lot of work to go in terms of acceptance in these cases and feeding the rabid elements of the British press is not really helping matters.  Then again, how much do such rags reflect reality?

This is one of the main reasons I gave up on the msm years ago - it takes advantage of our tribal instincts to set us against one another for various selfish reasons. The msm does reflect reality, but in the same way a fairground Hall of Mirrors does, through warped looking glasses - and the image is always reversed. Every human being is a complex entity, perfect and flawed at the same time, and a creature of infinite worth and potential who cannot be summed up in simple nouns like trans, Tory, Russian, immigrant, or whatever the msm thinks will get us to join one faction or another. As the world grows smaller, the only tribe worth a damn is humanity and we must all strive to be a part of it, difficult though that is.

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Film & TV / Re: Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+ (High Chance of SPOILERS)

« on: 11 June, 2022, 07:55:54 PM »

I'll stick with my headocanon that he's a chancer who was pulling shite out of his hoop.

Best explanation so far!

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Film & TV / Re: Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+ (High Chance of SPOILERS)

« on: 11 June, 2022, 03:02:25 PM »

Ah, but point five what past lightspeed? 0.5% of lightspeed is ~931.4 mi/s, making the Falcon's top speed ~187213.4 mi/s, meaning it would take the ship ~4.231 years to travel from Earth to Proxima Centuri, our closest star beyond the Sun (disregarding relativistic effects). 0.5% of infinity, however, is still infinity, meaning that the Falcon could make the same journey in 0 seconds. Using the JMS interpretation, however, 0.5% of plot means that the uncertainty principle comes into play, making the journey time from here to Proxima slightly too fast, just right, or slightly too slow depending on the nature of the story.

I'll get me waistcoat...

42

Film & TV / Re: Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+ (High Chance of SPOILERS)

« on: 11 June, 2022, 10:18:36 AM »

I like the answer to the speed problem that JMS gave in relation to Babylon 5; "ships travel at the speed of plot."

43

Film & TV / Re: Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+ (High Chance of SPOILERS)

« on: 10 June, 2022, 08:39:19 PM »

All true, and maybe I am being a bit harsh. I suppose we can't all like everything and holes can easily be poked. For example, wouldn't medical droids do scans of everyone who joins a rebel cell in order to help with future care, and wouldn't Luke and Leia's DNA be on file and cross-referenced?

44

Film & TV / Re: Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+ (High Chance of SPOILERS)

« on: 10 June, 2022, 07:48:34 PM »

"I can't believe he's gone."

"I know. He helped me once too, you know."

"Really?"

"Yes. Flew all the way from Tatooine just because my father asked him to."

"He knew your father too?"

"Well, I was adopted but..."

"Hang on... Do you think...?"

"Come on, Kid, we ain't outta this yet."

"Graaaawwrr."

45

Film & TV / Re: Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+ (High Chance of SPOILERS)

« on: 10 June, 2022, 04:30:10 PM »

Rex was a clone trooper, not a stormtrooper, and I'm sure would fight you for it

Heh - and that's why I'm an armchair amateur!