Aswad
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Joined: 4/4/2007
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ORIGINAL: Tuoni
Grass is always greener on the other side.
~nod~
It starts out with the contrasts, the old "how can there be Self if there is no Other?" saying, then there's the bit about how the brain is AC-coupled, so effectively, what you're seeing is a larger-scale cognitive equivalent to "motorboating", or whatever it is called, when a loudspeaker-membrane moves back and forth its full extension at a low frequency.
At least, that's my take on it.
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At least, not reached short of any notion of godhood and humans ascending to it. A guy can dream can't he?
Absolutely. For all I know, it may be an option.
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Ooo, sounds good. I've been looking for a new series to read. Love George R. R. Martin also. Only author I know where main characters can die. And stay dead.
I'd add Tad Williams and Terry Goodkind to that list. They both lose main characters along the way, though I'm not going to spoil anything by telling you which ones that would be.
I'd point out, anyway, that by Robert Jordan's own reckoning, the leading authors in High Fantasy today are a list of (IIRC) less than 10 names, and that this list does include Tad Williams.
Anyone not interested can just skip this, but I'm including a list of some of his work:
- Caliban's Hour - Call it Shakespeare fanfic. It's a short (200pgs or so) story about the minor character Caliban, from Shakespeare's "The Tempest", who recounts much of his life history over the space of an hour.
- Memory, Sorrow and Thorn - Epic High Fantasy. No shortcuts with fictional good and evil forces; no flawless characters; no big heroes. Just human drama. Still set in an alternate world, though, with supernatural bits, and covers what some might call the end of days for humanity. First 50 pages are a bit slow, about daily life for one of the main characters, but vital to establishing the setting and that character. Next 100 pages, stuff happening, but still a bit slow, mostly foreshadowing at first. Remaining 3000 pages or so, you get sucked into the very in-setting feeling that everything is going too fast, even if it's going at the right pace, which is just great. Characters include a scullion, a prince, a band of "vikings", a scholar, a fallen priest, the "pope", a village idiot, and various others, all making an interesting read, and fitting into the story at the right places.
- Otherland - Set in a near future world, as envisioned by a guy with a firm grip on technology, but with a few artistic liberties. Some inexplicable things happen, though, and the (up until that point seperate) characters get stuck in a bizarre series of virtual worlds together, with no ability to disconnect and no idea what is going on (which I won't spoil). Characters include a teacher, an African native (last of his tribe), a serial killer, a kid with progeria, and a MMORPG addict. My favourite bits of prose include a scene from death row, where I started to feel like I couldn't breathe while reading it, and a chase sequence which got my own adrenaline going, culminating in the character having some sort of cardiac problem, which is written in a manner that works well.
- War of the Flowers - One of the most interesting twists on a faery-tale in the classic folk tradition, but set in the modern era, and centered on a "deadbeat" musician-wannabe whose life gets screwed up early on. If you lived near the Twin Towers, or know someone who does, you might want to pass on this one, as one of the core moments in the book is remarkably similar, and 1st person perspective, though the scene in question was written well before that event, and was altered somewhat after that event to reduce the similarity. I don't know how to describe or classify this book, apart from "great", and I'm glad he didn't pull that scene, because it's absolutely brilliant, and so works. I'm sure you'll agree if you read the book; you'll know the one.
- Shadowmarch - Epic High Fantasy again. I've just gotten started on this, so I can't say much more than that it's concerned with people living on the outskirt of the civilized world, guarding the bulk of the world from the threats from the Shadowmarches to the north, and that the rest of them have gotten to caught up in their petty bickering to commit the neccessary logistics to support those who deal with that boundary. Meanwhile, the rulers of the Shadowmarches are betting it all on a desperate gambit at just this time.
I'd definitely recommend Memory, Sorrow and Thorn as the first read, though I'd also toss in Caliban's Hour as zeroth or second, as it's so short; then follows the War of the Flowers. Can't say about Otherland vs Shadowmarch, since I've just started on the latter.
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I might just take you up on that offer. My biggest problem is I talk a whole lot faster than I type. I'll try and PM you a brief rundown of the setting.
PM me for my mail address first, perhaps. That may improve your odds a lot, especially with regards to feedback, as the PM system here is ... basic. Depending on various things, I might be able to give you a call at some point, but I've no idea how my schedule will be for the next 3-24 months, so mail is the best bet.
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I tried reading that. Nearly put me to sleep. Had a laugh on a couple places though, especially in regards to the chain letters. Some good stuff but it reads like it was written for a different world.
It was.
In more ways than one.
The gist of it, with regard to the quoting, is: quote infix, so that the flow goes prologue - quote - reply - [...] - quote - reply - epilogue, responding to each subtopic/point after its quoted context, and sticking anything that isn't a reply in the epilogue; use quotes for context, and trim anything that isn't necessary to understand the context; be civil; as a general rule with many exceptions, if you're saying less than you're quoting, you're not adding content.
In short, just a convention to ease communication via standardization (and it is a regular standards document).
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You might have lost me on this one. The only way I've been able to comprehend 4D objects is what I believe you are refering to as the stack-of-volumes approach. Much like a 2D image is a cross section of a 3D image, a 3D images is a crosssection of a 4D image. I can picture a 4D image, but only as a morphing 3D image at this point.
Basically, when you stack 2D slices, you get a 3D image. But it is quantized, in that each 2D image has a finite thickness. An actual 3D image in your mind will have a fine resolution, and appear continous. This can be extended with 3D hyperslices or volumes or whatever you want to call it, except you don't have a readily available way to visualize or otherwise directly grasp / comprehend it.
The "morphing" approach, is to cheat by using time as an added "dimension", and to relate to it normally.
What I figured, is that I can superimpose the 3D slices by allowing them to occupy the same mental space. When I do that, it takes a small glitch, and then it becomes a new structure, with fine / continous granularity and an intangible dimensionality to it. If I can get it to work consistently, I'll start experimenting with rotation to see if it's stable, and if I can extrapolate a 3D projection from that. Post-glitch, it lost the sense of regular 3D properties, so it's a fragile and somewhat disjoint concept at the moment.
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And cognitive enhancers? I know about smart drugs but I was under the impression that they were still in the experimental/legalization stage.
I've been legally treated with so many different drugs that I can comment on the properties of virtually every antidepressant on the Norwegian market, and a lot that were only available by special order. Suffice to say that things were really bad at the time, and that side-effects that would nullify quality of life for others were not always noticeable to me (lost in the noise) back then. One particular professor of psychiatry went above and beyond to get me on my feet again, thankfully.
Long story short, my bloodstream could probably supply a minor third-world country with pharmaceuticals at one point in time, and after I recovered from the worst phase of the illness, my cupboard remained about as well-stocked as the local pharmacy, and I had more familiarity with the drugs and their uses than any GP I've met. Possession and use are legal in Norway, and I did use some things as cognitive enhancers occasionally, which helped immensely with putting my life back together again.
Beyond the "basics", like amphetamines, though, cognitive enhancers are poorly understood.
Mostly because cognitive function is poorly understood. In that, it's experimental. I can't advise anyone on that without knowing them well enough to map my experiences onto their mind and account for the differences.
It has been my experience that CNS stimulants, a mixed partial µ-agonist / κ-antagonist, or a serious bout of sleep-deprivation, followed by hypnagogic hallucinations (I have always had those when falling asleep; read up on narcolepsy, if curious, though I don't have narcolepsy per se), are the things that are useful to me in that sense.
I'd never reccomend that anyone experiment with anything of the sort, though, unless they are extensively familiar with the pharmacology and the effects on the mind and body, or are operating under the supervision of a skilled professional. And I'd never reccomend using them recreationally, though I don't neccessarily see any harm in people choosing to do so. I haven't used them recreationally, though.
Either way, since then, I've forgotten more about psychopharmacology than most trained psychiatrists in Norway will ever know unless they're primarily involved in research. Some docs still occasionally seek my advice on it though, and I've done whatever I can to help out people who are in a place where the meds appear to be a viable aid to recovery. I don't subscribe to the notion that meds will solve a problem, but I do subscribe to the notion that they can help someone who is past the point of helping themselves, or who are trying to hold on to jobs etc and don't have the extra capacity to deal with their problems without letting go of that, and that they have some additional, valid short-term uses, such as an adjunct to treating insomnia, etc.
_____________________________
"If God saw what any of us did that night, he didn't seem to mind.
From then on I knew: God doesn't make the world this way.
We do." -- Rorschack, Watchmen.
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RE: So Why Are All The Genius's Insane? - 
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