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Science ficiton, games, definitions, etc.

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Science ficiton, games, definitions, etc.

Wheeloffire's got a beholder in his eye

from GalCiv2 Forums
In a beta report thread, Wheeloffire says: "Science fiction isn't about the future. It's about now."

I most unhumbly disagree: it's about both, and more. While I very much enjoy the "realism" in most any sort of fiction, what sets SF apart is that the good stuff makes you think *beyond* the here and now. Sometimes that means hardware stuff that sets engineers to scheming, and other times it is "soft" stuff that sets folks to imagining themselves or their societies with fundamentally different values, fears, and aspirations.

Samuel R. Delaney wrote a great essay on what SF is (no SciFi for him, too limiting) and I'm too sloppy to remember the name. But he had a pretty simple argument for what makes strong SF: evocative phrases like when Heinlein first wrote "the door dilated open." Great 4X space games combine a practical (better word than realistic, IMO) modeling system with an engaging narrative layer that sets at least part of the audience off on their own imaginitive trails. Arguing over "realism" is just one of the kinds of fun in SF land.
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Reply #27 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The Empire of Standards encourages the use of wine, marijuana, mushrooms and other entheogenic substances.

Join the Empire of Standards today!
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Reply #28 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The show goes very well with marijuana.


The Empire of Standards encourages the use of wine, marijuana, mushrooms and other entheogenic substances.


Add beer to that list and I may very well take you up on your previous offer... i know it's technically part of other, but it's beer damnit.

And FYI beer made in America doesn't count as beer

The real question is, what does GCII go best with? I say henessee.
Reply #29 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
And FYI beer made in America doesn't count as beer


For understanding basic beer knowledge, the empire adds beer.

I'm partial to Honey Brown. Amberboch and Killian's are runners up.
Reply #30 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The Empire of Standards encourages the use of wine, marijuana, mushrooms and other entheogenic substances.


So are we going to do some bumper stickers or is this just our mantra? 

edit:  entheogenic
did you mean esoteric? I just want to know because there can be no drug/alcohol abuse without proper knowledge beforehand.  
Reply #31 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Bumper stickers need to be short: 666-All Evil
Reply #32 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Not to get away from all the OP fun, but I just wanted to let you know Wheel, as soon as I upgrade my work PC (figure I'll put in just enough to get the game to run)I am going to start posting Met scores, just because. Probably won't happen for another week or two, but it's going to happen. Just need to tweak a few things here at work and hope the cpu will accept my old NVIDIA 64mb card. I can't even remember what it is but as long as I can get the game to start, I should be good. Unless Comcast decides to actually act on their takeover of the local cable company and give us our much promised high speed internet (been waiting almost two years now)!  
Reply #33 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The show goes very well with marijuana.


I'll take this as a strong vote of confidence that prohibition won't last much longer. Otherwise you've likely opened or amended your FBI file

Entheogenic: The word entheogen is a modern term derived from two Ancient Greek words, ενθεος (entheos) and γενεσθαι (genesthai). Entheos means literally "in God", more freely translated "inspired". The Greeks used it as a term of praise for poets and other artists. Genesthai means "to cause to be". So an entheogen is "that which causes (a person) to be in God."
Reply #34 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
And FYI beer made in America doesn't count as beer


I beg to differ, Sir. Some of the finest brews on the face of the planet are made in the USA. It's that whole 'melting pot' thing. Generations of immigrants from all corners of the globe have brought their brewing skills to these shores; and it shows. I, myself, am partial to the Left Hand Brewery's Sawtooth Ale. But don't take my word for it...http://www.beertown.org/events/wbc/index.html "Excuse me, I think ye gave me the wrong mug. I ordered a beer, an' this seems ta be a tankard o' moose urine." -Durkon Thundershield (from "On the Origins of PCs") OOTS
Reply #35 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
that which causes (a person) to be in God.
Or, "that which causes (a person) to be inspired.

Reply #36 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
you've likely opened or amended your FBI file


Amended. I'm involved in more than enough leftist activities to qualify as someone to be observed.

Drug prohibition is hypocritical. Pharmaceutical companies push crap that is FAR more dangerous than the goodness of mother nature. Notice that you haven't heard "don't use designer drugs" in over 10 years. That's because designer drugs are a major industry.

The formula for testing the legality of any drug is simple: If you can produce it yourself in your garden without assistance from industry, it's illegal. If it requires industrial infrastructure and complex chemistry to produce, it's legal.

Marijuana, mushrooms, peyote, opium, etc.... illegal.

Lethal shit from pfizer... legal.

When are you joining the Empire of Standards?
Reply #37 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Marijuana, mushrooms, peyote, opium, etc.... illegal.

Lethal shit from pfizer... legal.


Three cheers for legalization!
HIP HIP HOORAY!
HIP HIP HOORAY!
HIP HIP HOORAY!

Are we there yet?  
Reply #38 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

The show goes very well with marijuana.


I have to add that any Three Stooges short with Curly is also a mind bending experience while under the influence. For starters, I'd recommend "You Nazty Spy!", which was Moe's personal favorite.
Reply #39 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I must say I didn't expect this thread to digress into psychedelia, but given my ire at the unbelievable waste of public money and the loss of freedom for so many "victimless crimes" I can't say I object.

The "war on drugs" is no more sensible than any of our insane binge of wars on non-states that started with that famously fiesty half-lefty, LBJ (poverty, drugs, and terrorism are the big three, but "war on X" is about as trite as a new cliche can get).

Methinks, though, that the RIF Hooligans might be straight-edgers. I don't know of any garden-growable or cellar-brewable intoxicants that improve your reading speed or retention. The designer stuff...well, I have a hole in my back yard where I regularly bury my head and wonder how I can love SF so much when newspapers are so scary...
Reply #40 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I don't know of any garden-growable or cellar-brewable intoxicants that improve your reading speed or retention.


New studies with marijuana suggest that it has incredible properties with regards to halting and maybe even curing people with alzheimer's disease. Furthermore, those same studies showed that cannabis helps to keep brain proteins from clumping together and even more amazing, stimulate rejuvenation of brain cells.
Also, one acre of "hemp" can produce more paper than one hundred acres of trees, or something along that line. The numbers are truly staggering and I would've taken the time to Wiki, but work calls. Trust me though, I have researched marijuana thoroughly and could only conclude that certain entities, like the HEARST family, which happen to be big in saw mills and paper, had marijuana snuffed for fear of losing money. Check it out, it's all legit.  
Reply #41 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There's far more than pulpwood owners behind reefer prohibition. Marijuana is terribly tangled with US race issues and earns dread from some elites b/c they fear stoners will shop less, which might be true for poorer folks but makes no sense to me when I think of rich folks with gold cards and hash brownies.

Re the "health" research, I'm afraid I'm a skeptic all around in that camp. The pharm pigs definitely need a comeuppance, but to talk about "cannabis" as medicine is about as precise as talking about Christians as a religion--far too much going one for a one-word label to do more than tell you where to start. The number of different compounds in the raw plant, much less what happens when it is burned, cooked, or frozen, well...there ain't no decent science yet, not least b/c it is so hard to get authorized to do research.
Reply #42 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'm glad that marijuana might help Alzheimer's but I'm not doing it myself except on special occasions. I like to expand my mind, not feel like a tiny dot in the universe.

The body builds an insane tolerance to mushrooms but that's what makes them special. You can't do it right unless it's monthly or more. They are not meant as party drugs.

I think that's what people don't understand. There are party drugs like alcohol, marijuana, ecstasy and others. Then there are the entheogenic drugs which you really should not play with unless you are seeking something besides immediate poon.
Reply #43 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
What you say may have some truth to it with regards to different compounds and various reactions that truly haven't been properly researched. Nevertheless, the only real "nasty" thing that marijuana has been shown to have is carginogens when burned. Obviously, filtering through a "water medium", ahem, reduces these drastically. Further than that is vaporization, which although can cost more (because you use more), is the best way to introduce said product. The best way however, is to eat it, but then the cost is exhorbitant because you need to consume a decent quantity.  
Reply #44 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
As a second generation counterculture person, I find it very interesting that two folks so very well known here for feistiness have been praising an herb famous for "mellow vibes."

As someone with a painfully strong family tendency to tell other folks what to do, I have to say that Wheel's bit about drug tolerances and user mindsets is terribly important to consider regardless of whether you're hitting the ibuprofen, Xanax, or something non-industrial. Evil adds the also-crucial business of cost, which includes both what you pay for a dose and what you pay for having taken a dose.

I'm a recovering postmodernist--apologies for the libertarian paternalism
Reply #45 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I think that's what people don't understand. There are party drugs like alcohol, marijuana, ecstasy and others. Then there are the entheogenic drugs which you really should not play with unless you are seeking something besides immediate poon.


I understand exactly what you mean Wheel, even though I didn't realize the definition of entheogenic  . The problem for me is I did all of the "spiritual travelling" of which you speak, even acting as a guide for a few of them, but preferring to have someone truly experienced show me other ways to "meditate". But alas, that was years ago, and I found all that I needed to. Nowadays I can honestly say that despite that path choice, I have wound up a better person in many more ways than if I hadn't taken a chance to take my mind to the next level of awareness.  
Anymore, mj is just a way to relax after a hard day's work. Some people drink, other's smoke cigs... I say whatever works for you is your choice/right. Just don't hurt others in the process. 

And just to get this back on topic, anyone remember the role playing game Paranoia? Awesome game set in the future where computers run everything and dispense various pills to control your character's moods.
Reply #46 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
dispense various pills to control your character's moods.


Isn't that the point of the evening news? The drug commercials are the reason that American networks don't get my eyeballs. I watch Deutsche Welle instead of what passes for "national news" here.

Tonight, an in-depth report on popcorn. A NASA study discovers that popcorn stuck between your teeth creates a perfect environment for the development of botulism among millions of Americans who fail to brush their teeth for weeks on end. Stay tuned.

I totally understand the choice of marijuana for the end of a long day. I drink wine every evening.

I don't remember Paranoia. I'll have to research it. Sounds interesting.