No accusation intended. Related my experience and seeking yours. Thanks for sharing what you have read about it.

Then, help me out if you feel inclined. Point me in the direction of some solid sci-fi, written in another language, with good translation to English. I’m always looking for the next read. I could Google it. But, instead, I’m looking for a recommendation from a strong critical eye. As guidance, I’m a pretty big fan of space epics, political intrigue, and/or social

Also, thanks for the language on attenuation. I’ve done a bit more reading on it, and I’ve seen the math. What I’ve learned is that most regulated radio transmissions in the Western hemisphere are capped at 50 kW. There are several transmitters that are in the 150 kW range, and, back in the 30s, there was that one titanic tower in Florida that kicked out 500 000 kW.

I guess we are going to have to disagree. The writing style and, as I perceived it, motivations within the text were clearly not of the Western tradition. It’s true, in lending the benefit of doubt, I may have enjoyed it more precisely because I disregarded standard writing mores, tropes, and conventions because it was a translated work.

I’m curious: Did you also try Murakami’s 1Q84? I found that I had to suspend expectations there in much the same manner.

I think I’d agree with you wrt. short species lifespans after developing telecommunications, space flight, and highly concentrated energy sources. The leap in capacity for attendant social distortion — and extortion — has brought us to the brink of global destruction many times since Signal Hill in 1901. The Kardashev Scale comes to mind here. The leap from about Type 0.73, ostensibly where we are now, to Type 1.0 is fraught.

As for the communications we have sent, the early ones were low-power and, over a distance of 100 ly, would significantly degrade against background EM radiation. At a range of 50 ly, where our first, more powerful and higher fidelity digital transmissions have reached, there are relatively few star systems — about 1300 (source). This source uses data from 1991, so there may be more, but not many, that are magnitude 6.5 or brighter.

I’d read that David Brin reviewed something similar in '83, but I didn’t chase it down to Saberhagen.

In following the links provided in the Wiki article, for the Berserker Hypothesis, there is the following:

The Berserker hypothesis is distinct from the dark forest hypothesis in that under the latter, many alien civilizations could still exist provided they keep silent. The dark forest hypothesis can be viewed as a special case of the Berserker hypothesis, if the ‘deadly Berserker probes’ are (e.g. due to resource scarcity) only sent to star systems that show signs of intelligent life.

So, silence is survival in the Dark Forest. The Berserker Hypothesis seeks and destroys.

e: Nice call on BSG as well! Though, that considered only human and Cylon life.

And, for my part, Cixin Liu’s second book was a really solid read. The first book, Three Body Problem, suffered all of the hallmarks of the pains taken to establish a story and a world. The last book, Death’s End, while mostly good, also suffered in needing to bring the grand story to a close.

Here’s one more:

Dark Forest Theory as a solution to the Fermi Paradox.

In 2016, the number of bacteria was reviewed, and the estimate reduced from 300 trillion to about 38 trillion microorganisms.

Cronenberg is a countryman. I’ll hand him a pass on that one.

The data is skewed. All of the functioning systems we use reward concentrations of power.

Thereby, systems of rule must distribute power and contest the concentration of power. It literally takes a village to save us from ourselves.

David Graeber and David Wengrow introduced me to historical examples of non-hierarchical societies in The Dawn of Everything.

I’m glad someone put the prions in here. As a biology student, there was only one thing more terrifying than retroviruses — prions.

Heres two:

The ratio between cells of your body that belong to you vs. cells on or in your body that are microorganisms is about 1:1 — slightly favouring the bacteria.

If the Sun were destroyed, we would not know about it until more than 8 minutes after it happened.

Act to honour and recognize all humans as human. This is Said’s Law.

Act to sustain human security. This is Cura’s Law.

Act to accept responsibility for each action, especially where it guides future actions. This is Sartre’s Law.

Bought the book. It’s the only dictionary I’ve enjoyed reading.

Inequivocal yes! Grew up with Batman:TAS.

I have never ridden a horse.

It was a cycle for me:

Not swearing led to swearing.

Swearing led to learning to swear in other languages.

Learning to swear in other languages served me well as I moved out of North America to teach.

Being out of North American led to me being more humble and less the brash North American. Also, I spent a lot of time with children.

Being less brash and speaking in other languages led me to think more about what I say before saying it.

Thinking about my speech led to downgrading swearing to make a point. I’ll swear, depending on the audience.

Specifically — like L-Boogie said — “I’ll add a MFer so you ign’ant ****s hear me.” (Fugees, The Score, “Zealots”) If I’m cursing, it’s prolly because there’s some ignorance in my area.

I admit, sometimes it’s mine.

Also, the irony is not lost on me that L fell off not too long after this rhyme. Celebrity culture can be a scene full of ignorance. I don’t blame her. I blame the industry.

Ixcanul

Submitted and short-listed for Oscar nomination in the international film category, this Guatemalan film had Spanish subs for the parts delivered in Kaqchikel.

Never saw it after its initial release in Guatemala City.

This is an impossible question to answer. But, I’ll give it a shot anyway. I’ve expanded the meaning of “franchise” to include “all properties sublicensable for the purposes of profiteering.”

If “popular culture” refers to the recognizable and persistent elements of living in society that the majority people share in common without having to communicate that recognition, I’d regard the following franchises as having broad impact worldwide:

• McDonalds/Subway and all attendant advertising as a signpost for food. Franchises abound.

• Esso/Shell/BP as gateways to modern conveniences and transportation. Every gas station, residence, farm house, hen house, outhouse, and dog house is connected to these franchises in some way.

• G4S/Securitas/Garda as the front line protecting the ‘haves’ from the ‘have-nots’. Franchises abound.

• Most athletic, luxury vehicle, and brands as the status symbols they want themselves to be. Franchisees promote the brands as a means of collecting clients.

If, on the other hand, “popular culture” is, ‘traditions and material culture of a particular society. In the modern West, pop culture refers to cultural products such as music, art, literature, fashion, dance, film, cyberculture, television, and radio that are consumed by the majority of a society’s population. … types of media that have mass accessibility and appeal’ (ThoughtCo.) then the following are some fairly strong indicators of popular culture:

• Hello Kitty (be pleasant)

• Pokémon (pursue goals)

• Superman/Batman (masculinity, vigilantism)

• Paw Patrol (institutions are essential)

• the Olympics (do athletics)

• Michael Jordan (be excellent)

• Mickey Mouse (dream big)

• Star Wars/The Bible (G vs. E)

The ones I wish would take hold and have more of an influence:

• X-men (biodiversity is good)

• the Expanse

• Battlestar Galactica (genocide, rebellion, impersonation, terrorism, coups d’état, civil war, infidelity, succession, military conflict, asymmetrical warfare, treason, mutiny, pirate broadcasts, nuclear warfare… and that’s just the first half of the series)

• Tony’s Chocolonely (ethical economics)

Charging for cell phones. So much better than a decade ago.

By the same token, and I consider these a different category, headlamps. Camping got a whole lot better with a solid headlamp setup. The red light is crucial.

Right, because being America’s whipping boy (yeah, I said it) is really working out for Ukrainians.

America needs Ukraine to buy obsolete weapons now, use them against Russia’s current military capacity so that there’s real-world applications for next generation weapons. Also, all the strategies designed to contain a more militant Russia needed to be gamed out. Ukraine will be paying this war back for generations. Think Haiti’s reparations to France, but with bigger numbers.

A years-long conflict also “softens” Russia up for the next round of sanctions — maybe they’ll be effective this time!

Chomsky said, in effect, ‘Nope, that’s dumb’ (not a quote). Also, there were months and months of Russian build-up on the border. Before that, years of signals, comments, and overt actions showing that they are legit pissed that NATO came knocking. There should’ve been diplomacy, dialogue, deal making. ‘Nope, that’s dumb. War is profitable.’

NATO (read: USA) wasn’t about to be told who can be in their little club. Russia wasn’t about to be told that ICBMs would be parked on their doorstep. So, conflict.

So, what else has Chomsky said?

“the U.S. seems to be fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian, reiterating the conclusion of Diego Cordovez and Selig Harrison that in the 1980s the U.S. was fighting Russia to the last Afghan.”

"It is, surely, worthwhile to think seriously about the history of the past 30 years since Bill Clinton launched a new Cold War by violating the firm and unambiguous U.S. promise to Mikhail Gorbachev that “We understand the need for assurances to the countries in the East. If we maintain a presence in a Germany that is a part of NATO, there would be no extension of NATO’s jurisdiction for forces of NATO one inch to the east.”

"Those who want to ignore the history are free to do so, at the cost of failure to understand what is happening now, and what the prospects are for preventing “much worse.”

Sources: Chomsky.info and Truthout

Dissident voice: Noam Chomsky

The greatest of all time make changes to whatever game they are playing. Chomsky changes the realm of ideas. He questions narratives and provides damning evidence in support of his claims. His books reveal the inner workings of the Military-Industrial complex. He contests the positions of US Presidents of both parties. He follows the money, the use of language, and the differences between official fantasies and concrete realities. He raises others up, never sought fame, just did the hard work. Took all the heat that naysayers threw.

Read:

• Manufacturing Consent (1988)

• Understanding Power

• Hegemony or Survival (2003)

• On Palestine (2015), w/ Ilan Pappé

View:

• The Corporation (2003) - features Chomsky

• Imperial Grand Strategy

• Distorted Morality (2003)