2018.09.30
Now, the key word for both of you, the word that unlocks you both, is the word future. I can even sort of see why. Both of you are the kind that wants to change things, to Make a Better World. You figure like this: the past is gone, unchangeable. The present is here right now and it's too late. So the only part you can change is the future. You're both heavy into politics, am I right? Right? So one day, it dawned on you that the best way to change the future is to colonize it. With little Xeroxes of yourselves. Of course one of the first concerns of a colonizing country is to properly condition the colonists. To ensure their loyalty. Because a colonist is supposed to give you the things you want to have in exchange for the things you want him to have, and for this golden opportunity he is supposed to be properly grateful. It wouldn't do for him to get any treasonous ideas about his own destiny, his own goals.He also tends to call couples looking to adopt (in a world where kids and parents are more free to divorce each other) "Atlases", as in folks carrying the world on their shoulders, but also looking to hand the burden off to something else.
"I think it comes down to a kind of innate failure of mathematical intuition, common to most humans. We tend to confuse any sufficiently high number with infinity."This must be where I got to speculating about how many possible melodies (or, to be more specific: single voice tunes expressible in more or less standard Western musical notation) there are, but I had forgotten and thought the idea was my own - a lapse that harmonizes well with the theme of the story, actually.
"Well, anything above ten to the eighty-fifth might as well be infinity."
"Beg pardon?"
"Sorry--I should not have interrupted. That is the current best-guess for the number of atoms in the Universe. Go on."
She struggled to get back on the rails. "Well, it takes a lot less than that to equal 'infinity' in most minds. For millions of years we looked at the ocean and said, 'That is infinite. It will accept our garbage and waste forever.' We looked at the sky and said, 'That is infinite: it will hold an infinite amount of smoke.' We like the idea of infinity. A problem with infinity in it is easily solved. How long can you pollute a planet infinitely large? Easy: forever. Stop thinking.
Beware Mozart at Midnight.
I always liked the Matrix sequels. Admittedly, it was probably more for the shallow reasons, but this video argues the philosophy holds up:
I'm cis + goy but this is a fascinating thread on talmudic rulings and transgender issues.
There should absolutely be a regulation against boldly displaying calorie counts and then playing games with serving size. Oh, this popcorn is one of those 150 Calories ones? Awesome. Oh but there's 3 servings per bag? Get bent. "PER 2 TBSP UNPOPPED" - you know, because of all that unpopped popcorn people enjoy eating.