This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
IMHO, this community should be about technology. Novel inventions. Interesting or creative applications. Discoveries. Dangers, advances, impacts, experiments, tutorials, etc.
Instead, it’s overrun with stock market and business news having no more to do with technology than CEOs of wood pulp factories have to do with literature.
I wish Rule 2 was phrased in a way that clearly excludes the latter, and enforced.
no more to do with technology than CEOs of wood pulp factories have to do with literature.
This has me envisioning a literature community filled with stories like "Random House and Penguin merging" (I know, old news), "Layoffs at PRH", etc.
I've kind of felt the same way, would rather have a somewhat-stronger focus on technology in this community.
The current top few pages of posts are pretty much all just talking about drama at social media companies, which frankly isn't really what I think of as technology.
That being said, "technology" kind of runs the gamut in various news sources. I've often seen "technology news" basically amount to promoting new consumer gadgets, which isn't exactly what I'd like to see from the thing, either. I don't really want to see leaked photos of whatever the latest Android tablet from Lenovo or whatever is either.
I'd be more interested in reading about technological advances and changes.
I suppose that if someone wants to start a more-focused community, I'd also be willing to join that, give it a shot.
EDIT: I'd note that the current content here kind of mirrors what's on Reddit at /r/Technology, which is also basically drama at social media companies. I suppose that there's probably interest from some in that. It's just not really what I'm primarily looking for.
+1 for an actual tech focused community. I think it has to be focused on software or hardware as a rule. News about stocks, CEOs, rebranding etc should not be allowed. Maybe put them in tech_news or something.
I want to read about what new feature the openbsd folks are working on or innovations by the quebes os team or a new RISC based laptop or the raspberry pi 420 that can play half life 3.
I think it has to be focused on software or hardware as a rule.
I don't. Those fields are but small slivers in the realm of technology, and they're not even particularly novel any more. A community dedicated to one or both of them might make sense, but there's no reason to let them dominate the technology community.
News about stocks, CEOs, rebranding etc should not be allowed.
I agree with you there.
"Business" also exists. If it's news about the business, not the technology, it should go to Business.
It might be too technical for some, but Linux Weekly News (lwn.net) has been a long-running source of articles dating back to the 1990s, if memory serves aright, that's kind of in that ballpark.
EDIT: Hmm. It looks like at some point, some of their articles went subscriber-only, though.
Back in the days of Star trek the next generation, Voyager and Deep Space 9, I Would say Star Wars is not really Science Fiction but Science Fantasy.
But unfortunately that's become true for Star Trek too.
As Science Fiction I clearly prefer old school Star Trek, but as Science Fantasy Star Wars does it way better IMO.
I hadn't heard about Poul Anderson’s Polesotechnic League stories before, they look very interesting, I'll bookmark that for when I feel like some old school SciFi. 👍 😀
To be fair, Star Trek always had its fantasy element as well. They dressed it up with Treknobabble a lot, but many of the episodes had fundamentally fantasy elements as well. Like, remember the time Kirk gets beamed down to a planet where the inhabitants use literal, actual magic and it turns out the Salem witches were actual witches?
You are absolutely correct, I'd also argue Q is more fantasy than SciFi, it's probably more correct to say Star Trek was MOSTLY SciFi, while Star Wars had more fantasy elements as a fundamental part of the Universe that are the basis for the stories.
Personally I consider time travel as absolutely a fantasy element, I see no reason to believe the past and future exist at the same "time" as the present. Which makes time travel basically nonsense.
All time travel speculation quickly ends out in either infinities or paradoxes. Only a very careful author, who set up strict limitations prevent that.
To be honest I'm extremely tired of all the time travel babble Star Trek has turned into, where time travel is a key element of the stories.
I completely agree with all the people regarding more "Technology" news, like MIT stacking more transistors onto chips breakthrough.
When I was looking for a tech community to subscribe to, I wasn't expecting this... 🙈
Y'know, I was just browsing earlier and thinking that there wasn't even any technology stuff in my feed anymore, it'd all been subsumed by the political churn...
Anyhow, to answer properly: I like Star Wars' aesthetic better, but Star Trek also had some incredible stuff. I've also been increasingly burned out on Star Wars since the Disney takeover, to the point I barely follow it anymore. Back in the day I was neck-deep in the community of nerds who loved analyzing how the technology in the setting worked!
But the real love of my science-fiction life is Babylon 5. Something about how they planned the show's myth arc out over multiple seasons leading to huge payoffs for both characters and the overall story.
Disney is really milking it, but I loved Andor.
Poul Anderson mentioned 🗣️ 🗣️🗣️
He and H.Beam Piper are my favorite SF writers, be sure to check Three Hearts and Three Lions, the book where the hero solves fantasy problems with Science(tm).
I like turtles
TMNT never made enough sense to me.
Better?
I see a valid point for posting topics in the category "technology & society" etc. However, nowadays this is a field of its own, so why not start a hardcore tech community?
Neither, baratna. I am of The Expanse.
What boggles my mind is that there have been about fifty movies based on Philip K. Dick and zero based on Poul Anderson.
Anderson has galactic empires, roguish heroes, dozens of alien species, strong females, etc etc.
I think that it because Dick could write short stories that could get made into movies. A lot more of the sprawling book series are only done justice with multi movie series or TV series.
Poul did a throwaway story that I'd love to see expanded into a series.
A group of time travelers from 4,000 AD travel back to Renaissance Italy. They run into an evil baron and his henchmen, including one very learned monk. A little torture and the Italians have their own time machine. They set up a base in 10,000 BC and raid across time. They know that the Time Patrol can only use things in the historical record, so as long as they keep a low profile they'll never get caught.
PKD is special somehow. He's the one author where, I think, the movies are better than the books pretty consistently. Maybe it's luck or my flawed opinion.
I think Dick was writing to be read in a particular time and place. Take Dashiell Hammett. 'Red Harvest' works a century later. there are some references that are dated [wearing a red tie] but overall you can give the novel to a modern person without a great deal of explanation needed. 'The Thin Man' requires a ton of annotation to be understood.
imho.
Or you could start posting about the technology related things you expect to see here?
Some of us do, but that doesn't remove the unending flood of business news and corporate drama that we don't want in our feeds, so it doesn't solve the problem.
New age sci-fi, but you have GOT to read the Murder Bot books. They are absolutely incredible. They've also won Nebula and Hugo awards.
Also: children of time series, as well as the bobiverse series
I haven't read Children of Ruin yet, but Children of Time was awesome.
Ruin is awesome. The story is like going on an adventure.
People are split on Memory, but I like it. It's just written differently
I have a soft spot for star wars but only the first 3, probably because I was young and it was so breathtaking.
So now I roll with star trek, especially the older ones.
But back on track, Where are the robots? The DIY? The fun stuff. Where are posts about a new ESP32? Some portable 3D printer (probably garbage, lets have a flame war!), how to use phone chargers to get 20 vilts to your led strip, funky homelab setups and deals, better network stuff, even retro computing I'd say.
Yeah, block all the boardroom chatter and bring back real tech!
I just started reading the dune series, after watching the movies, and I'm having a great time with it! Somehow the books do a better job of detailing the conversations between all the different characters, and setting the stage for movie 2.
DS9 > TNG > BSG
I'd put 'The Expanse' at the head of the line
The Expanse is great
I am firmly Star Wars, my wife is Star Trek. It's a mixed marriage. We both love Firefly and Doctor Who.
I have not yet shown her Battlestar Galactica.
Whoa!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold it right there.
What about Babylon 5?!?
Star Trek for the technology and exploration (both of space and the human condition). Star Wars because WOW that dude just moved that shit with his FREAKIN' MIND!
