I think Mike's points are probably right a lot, I just think they go a little to far. Even if understanding tech helps eliminate fear and frustrations 9 times out of 10, maybe that 10th time is weapons or some sort of other tech or progress that is damaging and ruining peoples lives. Music was mentioned. What about records? We came up with all these convenient delivery systems for music but people are turning back towards records because they do a lot of things that iPods just don't do well. I think tech serves us a lot and does make our lives more convenient in a lot of ways, but sometimes tech loses/sacrifices essential functions in its efforts to make peoples lives more convenient. Drugs are actually a great example. We have made huge leaps in keeping people healthy, but in the process of coming up with these newer drugs that have saved people's lives we have come up with a bunch of bogus drugs that killed a bunch of people. Also, weed doesn't really need to get me any higher. Maybe I am alone on that. I don't know...I think we are all kinda damned if we do and damned if we don't. We have to make progress. We have to learn. There is too much good to be done and stuff to be learned by making progress, but if we ignore the fact that we are hurting a lot of innocent people in the process and don't stop sometimes to go back and help those people and understand our mistakes then that might make us all monsters. Right? I don't know.
generally, i think few issues are really about technology itself. they're usually just about power and who wields it, and technology is one of the realms in which power conflicts get played out. it's true of agricultural technology, to stuff like the post office, to those grody self-checkout things at the grocery store. it's all about traditional labor issues. to frame those conflicts as being fundamentally about technology is to surrender to a sort of smokescreen.
and hilariously that's always been the promise of technology. All this technology will free us up from manual labor and let us pursue educations and painting! LOL
Gary was just telling me about the neo-Thatcherism going on in England right now. Apparently the new thing in England is employers giving workers "zero hour" contracts. So the contract they both sign has zero hours on it. Which means the employer can basically tell the employee "no work this week sorry" and the employee has to suck it up.
furthermore, landlords won't rent to people with zero hour contracts. So it's basically a capitalism business initiative--that's being lauded as giving small business owners "flexibility" etc.--that is very deliberately creating a new class of homeless people!
but too bad, because on paper, it's saving businesses money, which means that under the values of capitalism it's good. If you're stuck with a zero hour contract you just must have failed to maximize your human potential somewhere along the way (perhaps by stupidly being born to poor, uneducated parents? Not sure), so sucks to be you
I need to come back to this thread more frequently but arguing with mostly people you like and mostly agree with is hard.
Do I talk about "fear" a lot? Hmmm... that's probably true. My fears are generally about lack of control. If I think I should have control of something and I don't, I have fear. If there are things that horrible that I have no control over... I have far less (possibly no) fear. This is not a responsible way to interact with the larger world as it's somewhat selfish.
Conceptually I'm still pretty into capitalism. The more I learn about it the weirder and deeper it gets. Knowledge is power, until you short a stock and lose all your money.
I come back to this board precisely because I do like most of the people on this board that I have met, but also I have some deep disagreements with some of the smartest people here. That is exciting to me. We, largely, all live in a city where most of our beliefs are constantly confirmed and people can kinda be bullies about it if you are not on board. It's good to know a little vigorous debate still happens even on a message board that, lets be honest, is 99% white privileged assholes and is mostly part of (or from) a city that is the same.
We may be mostly white and privileged but ASSHOLE is a term that should probably be reserved for true shitheads. I can guarantee you that most (all) people here on this board and in our community are generous, kind, creative individuals who have a true interest in trying to make the world a better place in whatever tiny ways we can. I know you feel differently, but I'm not going to let you refer to my awesome friends as assholes without calling you out on it.
I was using it in a humble way and thought it was clear that I was including myself as part of this board and this town, but maybe I should not? I have been here for 7 years. I have a home here. I have deep friends here. I do talk and act differently than certain parts of the main population maybe. URHO is "inclusive" right? I guess Portland and this board have to have uniformed meaning in their communication? Sorry, I guess. I'm sure everyone here is also a fine human being. I don't know you or the people on this board at all in any way I can make any deep judgements and I am VERY confident that the same is true in the other direction, but I can also say with confidence that we are all a bunch of assholes. Sorry if you misunderstand, but such is the problem of thinking you can really understand someone in largely text based interactions and are not projecting to a large degree. It is reason #1 the internet/texting bugs me sometimes.
That is a very reductive assessment of that personal email to 4 people that I believe I also said I respected, cared about, and don't know if I would have acted any better than. Words that would've been better said in person but that opportunity never presented itself and has now passed as an option because I frankly don't want to talk about it. I was burying the hatchet permanently with that email. You can carry the torch (and pitchfork) if you like.
As a publicly traded person I am all about open conversation, but this is not going to work.
I am 99% certain this conversation that will not result in any satisfying resolution for the majority of the people involved.
Option A) continue to hash this out in public Option B) delete that last few comments and bury our feelings deep down inside Option C) Involved parties meet in person and talk it out
Since Option C is off the table and Option A is unlikely to produce results the best choice is Option B.*
*This is my best attempt to logically think through something I feel very emotionally about.
Maybe they tried socialism because capitalism had extracted all use-value out of the earth's resources and people? Too little, too late? I haven't seen it, I don't know.
I haven't worked out the math exactly, but based on surface area, I'm guessing we are about 1% pink assholes.
Did something get deleted? I don't know what happened in email but nothing here seemed too troublesome to this brown-eye.
I mainly cried a bunch at Interstellar. I mean, dad hurrying through space to get back to see his 10-year-old daughter before she's ninety. Pushed my buttons.
Black hole visualization was cool and movie had moments but was pretty weak in the sci-fi, I thought. Ended up all about emotion and magic.
Made me try to make Josie watch 2001: A Space Odyssey.. whoa.. talk about boring! I mean, incredible, virtuosic, symphonic boredom, claw your eyes out, why is he making us sit here in silence for 10 minutes while a door opens?? - boring.. Incredible..
I don't know if Josie will ever let me recommend a movie to her again..
yeah, in the movie America seemed vaguely socialist! We need FARMERS joe not dreamers! ha ha
another thing I was into about Interstellar was the part where the teacher told him his old science textbook was not appropriate to show to children because it had outdated information in it, like how we landed on the moon. I am SO INTO that because it's so fucking true--every era makes of history whatever it needs from it, and in the vision of the film, in that future, the idea of spending billions of dollars trying to get to the Moon before some other country would just seem criminal, absurd. It wouldn't seem heroic, it would totally emblemize all of the problems of the culture that had led to the current dire state of affairs. But I love that it was presented not as a nefarious choice to repress history but as something natural that just happened in society--the moon landing became viewed in this other way, as history. And so the textbook became embarrassing and offensive. We do this all the time and I thought that was a really cool moment in a 65% annoying film (please do see my review for more of my important thoughts)
a film that did indeed have the best robots ever though!
I got stuck in the checkout line at Ikea and missed the movie! And Ikea was out of stock on half the things I wanted! And they wouldn't let me buy the trash can I picked because I failed to grab the accompanying lid (which I didn't want).
seems like it worked out for ol' Cooper in the movie though he fell into a black hole and his dearest fantasy was waiting for him in there!
one thing I forgot to put in my various recaps: isn't it so weird how utterly Cooper failed to give a single shit about his son? He was so obsessed with his daughter, he didn't give a damn about Casey Afleck! It was so weird how all the melodrama was 100% about the daughter being all ancient and "goodbye daddy, I'm dying" but at no point was he like "WHAT ABOUT MY SON, does anyone know if he's still alive, or what even happened to him"???
I found this movie completely enjoyable, and also quite stupid.
Hans Zimmer faking Phillip Glass organ sounds is fucking awesome in 9 channel surround sound, and the Imax was gorgeous. I think I would have hated this movie on a screen that was not 75' W x 46’ H.
very good looking film, and i'm stoked you also liked the HZ fake PG!!! The organ was a truly tight and appropriate decision, evoking the past (Bach) in depicting the future (TIME, BLACK HOLES ETC)
Kevin that is crazy. Also it continues to shock me how even at the very highest levels of consumer capitalism, copywriting is SO BAD.
"Orchestral sampling is at the core of our business here at Spitfire. We pride ourselves at having created probably the best sounding most intuitive selection of orchestral tools on the planet today."
at having created probably the best sounding.....this sounds like Dirk Diggler's lines from a Brock Landers movie. "Good? It's not good. It's probably the best food in the city"
"FIRST UP BROAD, EASY TO USE ORCHESTRAL SAMPLE THAT JUST WORK OUT OF THE BOX WHATEVER LEVEL OF EXPERIENCE YOU HAVE. GREAT FOR PROS IN A HURRY, GREAT IF YOU NEED TO QUICKLY BUILD AN ORCHESTRAL PALETTE THAT HAS EVERYTHING IN. GREAT AS AN ENTRY POINT INTO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF BRITISH STRING PLAYERS AND STUDIOS."
NO WAY, neither did I?! I'm really surprised--I associate HZ completely with rooms full of synthesizers but I guess he is flexible. I mean, the organ is basically just a pretty epic analog synthesizer. OHHH HE JUST SAID THAT IN HIS INTERVIEW!!!!!! nailed it
So weird, I just read a long article about pipe organs last night. Did you know that a big organ with all the stops pulled out is louder, in terms of decibels, than, like, a loud-ass rock concert? It's apparently really hard to write for organ and orchestra because when played quietly with orchestra you can't hear it at all, but if you try to play louder it IMMEDIATELY overwhelms even a 100-piece orchestra
Saint-Saens did a pretty good job what do you guys think?
such a bizarre invention. And they invented it so long ago! Imagine it's like 1700 and you're sitting in some freezing-ass Lutheran church listening to that shit. Of course you would be scared of hell
"the feeling of religiosity....they attempt to represent mankinds attempt to portray the mystical, the metaphysical, what's beyond us, beyond our realm," Christopher Nolan, I have to hand it to you, that is pretty true, and a great musical symbol for the plot of your weird movie
In college I took pipe organ lessons, and was given my own personal key to the chapel on campus, which contained one of the biggest pipe organs on the west coast. I took all this 100% for granted and did not think it was that exciting, and in fact after 4 lessons I said I needed to focus on my thesis and I quit the lessons and gave back the key
I have made so many bad decisions in my life, it's so depressing
Comments
I think I have a contrarianism problem...
http://thefrailestthing.com/2013/03/01/borg-complex-a-primer/
I am just that extreme of a guy.
Why can't we have that kind? Why is it even an argument?
and hilariously that's always been the promise of technology. All this technology will free us up from manual labor and let us pursue educations and painting! LOL
furthermore, landlords won't rent to people with zero hour contracts. So it's basically a capitalism business initiative--that's being lauded as giving small business owners "flexibility" etc.--that is very deliberately creating a new class of homeless people!
but too bad, because on paper, it's saving businesses money, which means that under the values of capitalism it's good. If you're stuck with a zero hour contract you just must have failed to maximize your human potential somewhere along the way (perhaps by stupidly being born to poor, uneducated parents? Not sure), so sucks to be you
whoa
I just bought a Zizek book about september 11 and I keep looking at it ruefully, like "what was i thinking"
Do I talk about "fear" a lot? Hmmm... that's probably true. My fears are generally about lack of control. If I think I should have control of something and I don't, I have fear. If there are things that horrible that I have no control over... I have far less (possibly no) fear. This is not a responsible way to interact with the larger world as it's somewhat selfish.
Conceptually I'm still pretty into capitalism. The more I learn about it the weirder and deeper it gets. Knowledge is power, until you short a stock and lose all your money.
I am 99% certain this conversation that will not result in any satisfying resolution for the majority of the people involved.
Option A) continue to hash this out in public
Option B) delete that last few comments and bury our feelings deep down inside
Option C) Involved parties meet in person and talk it out
Since Option C is off the table and Option A is unlikely to produce results the best choice is Option B.*
*This is my best attempt to logically think through something I feel very emotionally about.
(also, best robots of 2014, am i rite?)
There was very little explanation of the larger organizational structure of the society.
(And: Yay, a movie without a single gun!)
Did something get deleted? I don't know what happened in email but nothing here seemed too troublesome to this brown-eye.
I mainly cried a bunch at Interstellar. I mean, dad hurrying through space to get back to see his 10-year-old daughter before she's ninety. Pushed my buttons.
Black hole visualization was cool and movie had moments but was pretty weak in the sci-fi, I thought. Ended up all about emotion and magic.
Made me try to make Josie watch 2001: A Space Odyssey.. whoa.. talk about boring! I mean, incredible, virtuosic, symphonic boredom, claw your eyes out, why is he making us sit here in silence for 10 minutes while a door opens?? - boring.. Incredible..
I don't know if Josie will ever let me recommend a movie to her again..
and uh... that's bad for Capitalism..!
another thing I was into about Interstellar was the part where the teacher told him his old science textbook was not appropriate to show to children because it had outdated information in it, like how we landed on the moon. I am SO INTO that because it's so fucking true--every era makes of history whatever it needs from it, and in the vision of the film, in that future, the idea of spending billions of dollars trying to get to the Moon before some other country would just seem criminal, absurd. It wouldn't seem heroic, it would totally emblemize all of the problems of the culture that had led to the current dire state of affairs. But I love that it was presented not as a nefarious choice to repress history but as something natural that just happened in society--the moon landing became viewed in this other way, as history. And so the textbook became embarrassing and offensive. We do this all the time and I thought that was a really cool moment in a 65% annoying film (please do see my review for more of my important thoughts)
a film that did indeed have the best robots ever though!
MY SPOILING WORDS
Capitalism has failed me again!
he fell into a black hole and his dearest fantasy was waiting for him in there!
one thing I forgot to put in my various recaps: isn't it so weird how utterly Cooper failed to give a single shit about his son? He was so obsessed with his daughter, he didn't give a damn about Casey Afleck! It was so weird how all the melodrama was 100% about the daughter being all ancient and "goodbye daddy, I'm dying" but at no point was he like "WHAT ABOUT MY SON, does anyone know if he's still alive, or what even happened to him"???
Hans Zimmer faking Phillip Glass organ sounds is fucking awesome in 9 channel surround sound, and the Imax was gorgeous. I think I would have hated this movie on a screen that was not 75' W x 46’ H.
Also, YT have you seen this: http://www.spitfireaudio.com/novemberannouncement.html
Kevin that is crazy. Also it continues to shock me how even at the very highest levels of consumer capitalism, copywriting is SO BAD.
"Orchestral sampling is at the core of our business here at Spitfire. We pride ourselves at having created probably the best sounding most intuitive selection of orchestral tools on the planet today."
at having created probably the best sounding.....this sounds like Dirk Diggler's lines from a Brock Landers movie. "Good? It's not good. It's probably the best food in the city"
"FIRST UP BROAD, EASY TO USE ORCHESTRAL SAMPLE THAT JUST WORK OUT OF THE BOX WHATEVER LEVEL OF EXPERIENCE YOU HAVE. GREAT FOR PROS IN A HURRY, GREAT IF YOU NEED TO QUICKLY BUILD AN ORCHESTRAL PALETTE THAT HAS EVERYTHING IN. GREAT AS AN ENTRY POINT INTO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF BRITISH STRING PLAYERS AND STUDIOS."
I do wish I owned them.
HZ is a dork; Bear McCreary forever
So weird, I just read a long article about pipe organs last night. Did you know that a big organ with all the stops pulled out is louder, in terms of decibels, than, like, a loud-ass rock concert? It's apparently really hard to write for organ and orchestra because when played quietly with orchestra you can't hear it at all, but if you try to play louder it IMMEDIATELY overwhelms even a 100-piece orchestra
Saint-Saens did a pretty good job what do you guys think?
such a bizarre invention. And they invented it so long ago! Imagine it's like 1700 and you're sitting in some freezing-ass Lutheran church listening to that shit. Of course you would be scared of hell
"the feeling of religiosity....they attempt to represent mankinds attempt to portray the mystical, the metaphysical, what's beyond us, beyond our realm," Christopher Nolan, I have to hand it to you, that is pretty true, and a great musical symbol for the plot of your weird movie
Nolan is such a goddamn creep
I have made so many bad decisions in my life, it's so depressing