this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2024
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The show's good btw...

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 8 months ago (6 children)

FWIW, book three is basically "a feminized society is incapable of making the hard but necessary choices". I like the series for its concepts, but not its themes or characters. It has a lot of Incel-adjacent stuff going on.

That said, when we're being so half hearted about global warming, it's hard not to be cynical. People want the solutions to keep everything the same, but without carbon output. It's not going to work that way.

We're having a hard time convincing people that they don't need an EV with 600 miles of range if you're just willing to rest for 20 minutes every two to four hours of driving. Which would be a good idea, anyway. That's a relatively minor change compared to the status quo.

The real solution is high speed rail and bikes. How do we get people to go along with that if we can't even go so far as small changes to road trips?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago

Thank you, I have been saying the same thing about the books for a while now. They are incredibly misogynistic and the characters are pretty badly written. And yet I still keep seeing them recommended. They remind me of the old scifi novels like Niven and shit where its just a few cool scifi concepts and then a heaping load of sexism.

I listened to them on audiobook, most books I read more than once, don't plan on going back to them though. A good series I recently listened to was the wayfarers by becky chambers, very good characters.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Honestly, I love driving so, so much, and I cannot fathom a road trip where we don't make a pit-stop at least every four hours. In fact, you kind of had to do that back in the 80's, because fuel economy was total shit back then. My little Mazda fuel sipper had a max range of a bit over 400 miles, and if we had to use my parents' van, it was closer to 250-300.

Also I'm old and I need to pee regularly. chomsky-yes-honey

Who the fresh fuck needs an EV that goes for a billion miles?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

and I cannot fathom a road trip where we don't make a pit-stop at least every four hours

yall must be roadtrip spartans if you can go 4 hours without a pitstop

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

As someone who's read the series, every single character of wood which is a damn shame.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's a lot like golden age American SF. Fantastic concepts, cardboard characters.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

I’ve only had some exposure to chinese society, but the little I do know helped flesh out the characters. Remember how Bilbo did not off his relatives tea, and it was a serious disrespect? There’s a lot of cultural norms followed or disobeyed in the book that describe the characters’ natures.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

FWIW, book three is basically "a feminized society is incapable of making the hard but necessary choices".

That is one way of reading it. Another is that the vast majority of humans will do the decent thing even if it ends up backfiring on them. Which, if anything, is wildly optimistic. I would also point out that of the two species in conflict, the one that played decent went on to become a galactic civilisation, while the other died out.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Trisolarans did make it to the end. The message sent out to everyone included their language. The humans who became a galactic civilization were from a renegade ship that took the selfish choice in the Prisoners Dilemma.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Wasn't it only one Trisolarian who survived? Also the humans were from two ships if I remember correctly, and one was a civilian ship.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

you’re not wrong, but is easier to buy a car that can travel that than it is to convince people to build thousands, if not tens of thousands, of charging stations

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Are charging stations really the problem nowadays? At least here in Germany, it is not.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

In the US, it's getting there, but not good enough.

I just did a trip to Minneapolis and tried to use some of the chargers around the suburb of Plymouth. They chose a deployment based on the DirtRoad app, which is terrible. Totally broken. Tried three different L3 stations and they all errored out in unique ways.

Came down to going to the other side of the city to a Walmart, with only a few miles of range to spare. Of all places, Walmart seems to at least have reliable chargers.

US needs lots more L3 chargers, and tons more L2 chargers in places you'll tend to be a while (hotels and event parking and such). Once that's done, though, there isn't much call for more than 400 miles of range, tops. Further battery improvements can go into making it cheaper and lighter, not go longer.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Just an anecdote: Any bike I’ve ever owned, got stolen or if it was well locked, wrecked and hacked to shit for no apparent reason. I have ADHD so it’s difficult for me to go through the motions of carrying the bike with me to the office and back, each time I leave, and at home I haven’t the space to bring it up with me. Most grocers or markets or shops don’t allow me to wheel it along with me inside.

It would be amazing if that was an option, but I’m not rich enough to replace a bike every few months, and I do move enough to warrant having a good bike, not just any cheap and rusty one. So it’s a pickle.

I am still very much in opposition of unnecessary cars in cities, so I do not own one currently, and instead of bike, I move about with buses and trains. It’s okay, but I’d love to have the freedom some days, that a bike provides.

But it is simply impossible for me to own one. It makes no sense whatsoever, since for some reason, the cities are not even close to safe to keep one for someone like me who’s not so great with self-execution and routines. And I live in one of the safest countries on earth, that has been declared the happiest country on earth for 7 years in row now… I can’t imagine how bad it is elsewhere…

Sometimes reality does not fit well with ideals.

Luckily, I have the option of public transport. But I don’t even know what I would do if I didn’t…

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That's surprising. I own a bicycle too, as does practically everyone here. Never got it stolen.

A tip is to not have an expensive looking bicycle, but one that looks shoddy. Locking can also happen in multiple ways, and at different places. You might need to bind it to a street light for example, through the wheel and the frame.

A foldable bicycle is also an option.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Most everyone I know have and daily drive one too.

The difference is in the having adhd and not having adhd department. They are very careful and dutiful with them. I can only ever attempt my best to be so, and it only takes the one slip of the mind and it’s gone.

I’m not saying having and using a bike is not safe. I’m saying having and using a bike is not safe, if you end up offering the low hanging fruit to thieves even once a while.