justifive
@justif5.bsky.social
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There are more. There was a mini-boom of such stories in the 2000s; the one I'm specifically referring to is the Axis of Time series. (As an example of how fast it dated, the carrier in that one was the USS Hillary Rodham Clinton).
December 19, 2025 at 2:12 AM
There are more. There was a mini-boom of such stories in the 2000s; the one I'm specifically referring to is the Axis of Time series. (As an example of how fast it dated, the carrier in that one was the USS Hillary Rodham Clinton).
Huh, I think I vaguely remember that, and, uh, yeah...
December 17, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Huh, I think I vaguely remember that, and, uh, yeah...
That 2020's US carrier group sent back to 1942: maybe not quite so clear whose side it will wind up on.
December 17, 2025 at 6:56 PM
That 2020's US carrier group sent back to 1942: maybe not quite so clear whose side it will wind up on.
Should have named it after the doctor. Of course no-one remembers the guy's name anymore, so younger viewers would be like, "doctor who?"
December 3, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Should have named it after the doctor. Of course no-one remembers the guy's name anymore, so younger viewers would be like, "doctor who?"
And then, a century or so later, someone would be tasked with repeating that exact parenting mistake.
November 25, 2025 at 1:08 PM
And then, a century or so later, someone would be tasked with repeating that exact parenting mistake.
Ten, twenty million shouting and killing and revelling in joy, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks.
November 11, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Ten, twenty million shouting and killing and revelling in joy, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks.
And he's still living there are a hermit years later because he got as far as, "Step 1: take recruits from their families while they're too young to really remember anything else" and noped out.
November 1, 2025 at 6:18 PM
And he's still living there are a hermit years later because he got as far as, "Step 1: take recruits from their families while they're too young to really remember anything else" and noped out.
I assume that's what was actually in those ancient Jedi tomes Luke found in the sequels. Not the secrets of the Force, but rules for running the Jedi Order (which he'd already tried himself and failed at.)
November 1, 2025 at 6:04 PM
I assume that's what was actually in those ancient Jedi tomes Luke found in the sequels. Not the secrets of the Force, but rules for running the Jedi Order (which he'd already tried himself and failed at.)
Also explains why Yoda thought Anakin was "too old": he wasn't worried Anakin was too old for force training but for the Jedi indoctrination to take hold--and he was right to worry.
November 1, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Also explains why Yoda thought Anakin was "too old": he wasn't worried Anakin was too old for force training but for the Jedi indoctrination to take hold--and he was right to worry.
Plate tectonics was confirmed in the mid ’60s, a few years before he died, but it been developing for some decades before. He still didn’t need to take it into account when world building, of course.
November 1, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Plate tectonics was confirmed in the mid ’60s, a few years before he died, but it been developing for some decades before. He still didn’t need to take it into account when world building, of course.
Well, he's not going to refuse it thrice.
October 29, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Well, he's not going to refuse it thrice.
Notable that his examples are both extrinsic causes, not the intrinsic problems of empires that you mention.
October 26, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Notable that his examples are both extrinsic causes, not the intrinsic problems of empires that you mention.
Sid Meiers said that when he was developing Civ 1, at one point he tried making it about the rise and fall of civs, but “The moment the Krakatoa volcano blew up, or the bubonic plague came marching through, all anybody wanted to do was reload”
October 26, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Sid Meiers said that when he was developing Civ 1, at one point he tried making it about the rise and fall of civs, but “The moment the Krakatoa volcano blew up, or the bubonic plague came marching through, all anybody wanted to do was reload”
They're replacement-level guys whose biggest win was signing up to work for the greatest political talent of a generation, and they've been coasting on that ever since.
October 22, 2025 at 1:45 PM
They're replacement-level guys whose biggest win was signing up to work for the greatest political talent of a generation, and they've been coasting on that ever since.
Well, nothing anti-Nazi Germans tried in the '20s and '30s stopped Hitler, so it's not like the animal costumes can do worse.
October 14, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Well, nothing anti-Nazi Germans tried in the '20s and '30s stopped Hitler, so it's not like the animal costumes can do worse.
Being able to just stick on a new skill or whatever would be pretty handy.
October 14, 2025 at 1:48 AM
Being able to just stick on a new skill or whatever would be pretty handy.
For starters, I'd guess that any teenager reading Cyteen these days would be wondering why they keep talking about "tape".
October 14, 2025 at 1:34 AM
For starters, I'd guess that any teenager reading Cyteen these days would be wondering why they keep talking about "tape".
And some of them want to roll back 160 years of labor laws...
October 13, 2025 at 1:44 AM
And some of them want to roll back 160 years of labor laws...
"Tadpoles Tav, who eats 10,000 tadpoles a day, is an outlier and should not have been counted."
October 11, 2025 at 4:39 PM
"Tadpoles Tav, who eats 10,000 tadpoles a day, is an outlier and should not have been counted."
Seems to still be available on Kobo?
October 11, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Seems to still be available on Kobo?
Everyone else has covered the rest of it, so I want to complain about that first sentence. Dr Strangelove is very specifically a 20th century archetype! You can't talk about him as a model for the 17th or 18th centuries, especially since "mad scientist" was not really a thing then.
October 10, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Everyone else has covered the rest of it, so I want to complain about that first sentence. Dr Strangelove is very specifically a 20th century archetype! You can't talk about him as a model for the 17th or 18th centuries, especially since "mad scientist" was not really a thing then.
They spent three whole movies (and a bunch of TV episodes) setting up and then discarding Chekov's guns unfired, so...
October 9, 2025 at 1:24 AM
They spent three whole movies (and a bunch of TV episodes) setting up and then discarding Chekov's guns unfired, so...
See also Roko’s Basilisk and all the other Singularity stuff.
October 4, 2025 at 11:24 PM
See also Roko’s Basilisk and all the other Singularity stuff.
Obviously useful for an animal, especially a highly social animal, to be able to predict the actions of other animals. Presumably also useful to be able to predict its own actions. Get good enough at that and turn it on itself and maybe you get consciousness: "you" are a model of your own actions.
October 4, 2025 at 4:45 AM
Obviously useful for an animal, especially a highly social animal, to be able to predict the actions of other animals. Presumably also useful to be able to predict its own actions. Get good enough at that and turn it on itself and maybe you get consciousness: "you" are a model of your own actions.
A case where consequentialist arguments work better than virtue ethics arguments for persuasion.
September 29, 2025 at 12:25 AM
A case where consequentialist arguments work better than virtue ethics arguments for persuasion.