io9 
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San Francisco, 8:44 AM
Mon Nov 23
10 posts in the last 24 hours
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04/15/09
04/15/09
Star Wars aside, I prefer my science fiction without nonsense like psychic powers. To me that's just magic and belongs in a fantasy story.
I guess I'm willing to make exceptions though. I liked Minority Report as movie though. I just ignored all the precognition stuff and focused on the futuristic, and mostly plausible, tech.
04/15/09
04/15/09
If the telepathy could be explained in a way that is remotely plausible, perhaps zillions of nanobots in my brain wiretapping my neurons, sending these signals out through a fiber optic cable to another person with similar nanobots and cable in his head. This might be just remotely believable enough for me to suspend disbelief. But telepathy based on some mysterious, physics defying ectoplasmic juice? No.
Precognition might also just be remotely acceptable to me if it was some very indirect, mathematical refinement to social sciences, like psychohistory. But having dreams about my mother dying in a car crash the night before. No. That's just coincidence.
Telekineses or any form of mind over matter is right out. If I wanna set something on fire, I don't just furrow my brow and chant real hard, I just turn a flamethrower on it.
All my examples require an instrumentality of some kind and are based real science that's just remotely possible.
Ectoplasmic psionic juice or The Force is just other words for mana or magic. It's hooey that ruins a modern science fiction story for me.
04/15/09
one century's man's ectoplasmic juice could be another century's man's quantum entanglement.
04/15/09
Sorry but quantum theory provides no support at all for psychic powers.
All the quantum la-la books that has been touted over the last 30 years where the authors claim that QM supports auras, dowsing and other such nonsense are just arm chair theorists who don't really understand quantum theory.
Of course we could discover some utterly new kind of physics that somehow extends known physics and somehow supports the claims of spirit mediums, Jeane Dixon, Uri Geller and so on then okay. But in over two centuries of looking and decades of parapsychological research we haven't found anything yet.
Now, a real scientist would say lack of evidence is no reason, by itself, to stop looking and I believe parapsychology research should go on. But in my personal opinion, psychic stuff is bunk.
04/15/09
02/16/09
01/12/09
01/12/09
01/12/09
01/12/09
01/12/09
War with the Newts really was a novel, though.
01/12/09
01/12/09
01/12/09
Well done!
01/12/09
01/12/09
Nevins is like a SpecFic Librarian Warlod Supreme. Has i09 ever done an interview with him?
01/12/09
Don't remember the name of the short film for the life of me, but the premise was that androids did menial tasks in an office environment day in and day out, suffering humiliation and degradation by the humans that ran them, and were left in the office every night to charge.
Eventually, a male android notices a female android in the building across the street and breaks his programming to go meet her, where they both instantly fall in love with each other, while the humans look on in amusement and horror.
It kind of made you feel ashamed to be a human after watching it.
01/12/09
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01/12/09
How about the horror on Tictok's part... one spring for talking, one for thinking, one for moving... none that he can reach.
01/12/09
01/12/09
That movie was so perfect it was awe-inspiring. It just nails the eerie atmosphere of the books.
@Adah: That's The Marvellous Land of Oz which is the second one. Ozma is the third.
01/13/09
01/13/09
12/16/08
12/15/08
[flickr.com]
12/15/08
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12/15/08
11/30/08
Joshua writes a well thought out and enjoyable article, he sets his parameters, tells us why, and that's that.
I'm looking forward to more.
11/29/08
I seem to recall another book, "We", by a Russian author (whose name I cannot recall) was published before Brave New World. This was another, communism gone berserk, story. It did not make as strong an impression on me as Brave New World. Perhaps it would warrant an honorable mention.
11/30/08
12/01/08
11/29/08