The perils of ignorant dependance

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So I came down with a cold on Wednesday, and was re-reading Lord of the Rings and came across a wonderful quote. It's from Gandalf, of course.

"Perilous to all of us are the devices of an art deeper than we ourselves possess."

This is spoken to Pippin after Gandalf realizes that Saruman has been perverted by his use of the palantír, a device made in the depths of time and no longer completely understood. It is, of course, a cautionary tale, and taken with a grain of salt I think there is great wisdom in it that can be applied to technology, but especially to computers. It is no coincidence that the palantír is essentially an communications device, like the modern day computer. I was pleased to run across this mailing list post by Kragen Sitaker that goes into some depth of explanation.

There are several lessons, actually. First, do not get frustrated with people, especially older ones, who stubbornly refuse to use certain kinds of technology. It may be stubbornness, but it may also be an intuitive understanding that nothing comes without it's cost.

Second, it brings to light how much of our lives are governed by "devices of an art deeper than we ourselves possess". Kragen uses the examples of software and cars, but certainly there are many other engineering feats that fall within this exegesis. I don't really know what it takes to build a road, for example, or a house, or how to weave or farm or do any of the many things it takes to keep me alive.

There is obviously something to be said here, but it's not clear if it's already been said. Certainly it is troubling to be so far removed from the activities that actually support my life. But the only peril that could really harm me is outright global catastrophe, I think. Our society is extremely skilled in understanding information, and if given sufficient incentive, recreate processes at virtually any level of the technological scale.

There are other perils, of course, of the "enemy of the state" variety - where one's "identity" is maliciously perverted or removed.

It is strange, our world. Life is so very easy with money; food is so cheap as to be free, even basic shelter (at least in most parts) may as well also be free. But with *no* money, it would be very hard to live. One cannot pick one's own food in the city. Certainly it would be difficult, if not impossible, to build one's own computer from raw materials. That in itself makes the computer perilous, I suppose.

In a sense, the entire society in which I live is a 'deeper art than I possess', because I don't really understand how it all fits together and why it doesn't all just fall apart. To use a physical analogy, why is society apparently stable, like an airplane, rather than unstable like a helicopter? Why does it all-of-a-sudden become unstable and convulse into revolution and war?

With respect to software, one thing is for certain: if you take Gandalf seriously, all computer users should understand computers to a far greater degree than they currently do. Since we all use computers now (in one form or another) that means we all should really understand them. Furthermore, we can minimize our peril by using thick client open source software. That way we can, if we have the skill and the desire, peek into the black box and see how the gears turn. Closed source software isn't so easy to peak into, but it is at least possible. Thin-client applications like Google are the most opaque; as a rule, one only sees the interface and has no chance to see how things work behind the scenes. Practically speaking, it makes no difference to the public-at-large, since the source code of Firefox is just as inaccessible as the algorithms of Google. Well, I think it makes a difference, and surely that counts for something?

A Road Trip I'd like to Take

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As part of the publicity for Ferrari's new Maranello (the 599 GTB), they went on a little road trip.

I think I would like to do that, too, someday. I haven't done it already out of fear - the tales of corruption are hard to ignore, and I don't know how long I would last. Alone is vulnerable. Nowadays being American is vulnerable, too (thanks George!). Traveling with a pack of 50 journalists and with corporate sponsorship would make the journey a bit less risky.


Protecting our future with frozen seeds

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This story appeals to my Science-Fiction sensibilities: Norway is paying $5m to squirrel away 1.5 million varieties of food crops in a remote, frozen, and elevated (to guard against the rising sea levels of global warming) seed vault, just in case biodiversity takes a plunge.

This project reminds me of the Australian thing where information is being etched on silicon blocks (I can't remember the name of the project), and the North American project to store nuclear waste safely for tens of thousands of years.

Stranger than fiction

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Astronaut faces attempted murder charges

I'm not normally a fan of this kind of story. But the irony here is just delicious: astronauts are the closest thing we have in our society to aristocracy. And for the most part, they stay out of the news. Of course, the higher they all, the harder they fall.

The right wing is going to shake their collective head and let that nagging doubt about women in the workplace speak a little more loudly. That's too bad because men are just as likely to act like idiots when they're in love.

This is definitely movie-fodder. Charlize Theron as Lisa Nowak?

Penny Arcade takes on Vista

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Penny Arcade! - The Manifold Faces of Vista

ROFLMAO

Starting the Fantasy Fire

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James Nicoll has an interesting comment on fantasy and science-fiction.

Why is it that fantasy works (the successful ones anyway) tend to be much longer than the sf works? Of course I am aware of several exceptions to this generalization, not the least of which would be The Foundation Series and The Dune Series. But when you count the sheer number of Robert Jordan's in the world, you realize that there really is a difference.

The key difference is that fantasy readers want to stay in that world and the sf readers want to apply what they've learned to the real world. I think this offers insight into two related entertainments, tabletop RPGs (like D&D) and MMORPGs (like World of Warcraft), and to a certain extent all manner of fanfic and even criticism.

A fantasy book is like a chemical handwarmer - it reliably starts, warms you for a bit, and then falls cold and dead. People like the longer books because that translates to more hand-warmth, and it allows them to forestall the inevitable. Table top RPG is a bunch of friends getting together to light a fire. If started, such a flame is hotter than the hand-warmer and is generally better (by all accounts). Sometimes the wood is too soggy to light, but there's a certain pride in even making the attempt. The successful MMORPG is The Sun.

Does opening a Harry Potter hotline constitute a spoiler?

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harry potter: Hotline Opens to Counsel Heartbroken Potter Fans

My prediction:
1 - Dumbledore isn't dead (he's only mostly dead)
2 - Snape isn't really evil
3 - Harry Dies.
4 - Voldemort Dies.

It's kind of like the end of Lord of the Rings - sure, the One Ring is destroyed, and the armies of Mordor are dispersed by the Aaragorn and his buddies. But, the other rings' power is also destroyed, and while Barad-Dur crumbles, so does the foundation of Lothlorien and Rivendell. The message is quite simple: that there can be no destruction of evil without some destruction of good. The calculas of epic-fantasy resolution is almost always bitter sweet like that.

But you know what, whatever happens props to Rowling for writing a consistently rousing tale that really only gets better which each passing book. Even bigger props for not drawing the tale out into some interminable garbage a la Robert Jordan (who's 24th brick of a book was just released).

Oh yeah, in other fantasy entertainment news, I got Earthsea from Netflix. Pretty darn bad! With a cast like that, and some really amazing prior success (the Dune and Children of Dune miniseries are astoundingly good) I had high hopes despite the warnings. Ged's blacksmith father has got to earn some sort of award for Worst Acting Ever. Kristin Kruek is quite easy on the eyes and does a decent acting job. I really wanted to see more action on Roke. Oh well, at least I didn't have to watch commercials. :)

sound advice from a sci fi master

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Robert A. Heinlein: "“Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.”

The new Blogger

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Eric Case talksabout the new Blogger, who's most important feature is the addition of categories.

However, I'm deeply concerned that without static publishing it will be more difficult to get data off the site.