#1 turing stan

Call me Ishmael (don't). She/her, 21, UK, autistic/adhd.  

[nikadd]

would it be funnier if charles died right before, during, or right after the coronation?

before

during

after

Voting ended onMay 9, 2023

[imsobadatnicknames2]

The fact that there's an actually functional website for the library of Babel is one of those things that fucks me up more and more the more I think about the implications.

[imsobadatnicknames2]

So, if anyone hasn’t encountered the concept of the library of Babel, the idea comes from a story of the same name by Jorge Luis Borges, which is set inside a seemingly infinite library which contains every possible combination of letters, periods, commas and spaces that fits within 410 pages.

So like... It isn’t THAT out there that someone was able to make a digital version of it. Making an algorithm that randomly generates every possible combination of those 29 characters within that space and making a website that lets you explore those combinations are things that are pretty squarely within the scope of things you’d expect someone to be able to make a computer do.

But it begins to get pretty out there when you start thinking about all the things that are technically contained there (and that someone randomly browsing it could THEORETICALLY stumble upon) just by virtue of being one of those possible combinations of letters, spaces, commas, and periods.

Somewhere in that website there IS a book that specifically mentions me by full name before giving an accurate, excruciatingly detailed, 410-page long physical description of me. There’ also many more books that SEEM to be that but are actually factually inaccurate. There’s also versions of all of those containing every possible combination of every possible typo, spelling mistake, and grammatical error.

Somewhere in that website there IS a book that’s a perfectly accurate prediction of how and when I will die narrated in third person over the course of 410 pages. There’s also a book that contains the exact same events narrated in first person. Not only for me, but for every person in the world. There are many more that claim to be that but are actually inaccurate.

Somewhere in that website there IS a book that’s completely blank except for the world’s funniest dick joke written right at the end of the very last page.

But chances are no one browsing that website is EVER going to see any of that because for every book we would consider useful, interesting, or even intelligible there are millions upon millions upon millions more that are just completely full of gibberish from cover to cover.

[imsobadatnicknames2]

Every single thing I will ever write (barring punctuation marks that arent periods or commas and the letter ñ) is already contained somewhere on that website.

[moderatetoaboveaverage]

OP, you forgot to mention one of best parts, that being that you can search the website, and find exactly what book and page i can find, for example, the book containing the text of this tumblr post word for word.

heres the code if you would like to read it yourself:

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

[overseer-picard]

Testing My Mother's Trek Memory

My mother has this wild ability to remember every plot detail of every show she's seen (and she's seen everything) but if you ask her to remember names it's always a wild ride.

*any character not included was either too unrecognizable (all of ENT and the new shows), too familiar (most of TNG and TOS), or I forgot to include them.

*She said this was a cruel and unusual experiment and that she'd do better with Pokemon (not true).

So here we go:

A captain. Frisco? Crisco?

Henry? Sang 'The Minstrel Boy' at some point.

Bad. A bartender. Ferngully

Rubberband. Sneaks a lot. Lives in Ferngully's bar.

Evil. Tortured Jean-Luc. Possibly a deformed Klingon.

A nice man. A hologram? Very sweet and cute, like a baby.

Captain Jane Far-Away

A Spock. You know, the Volcano people. Spocks.

Seven of Eleven

Ugly and probably stinky. Also a bartender.

A Cardassian. Margaret?

The hologram doctor (!!)

Jane Far-Away's boyfriend, Chipotle.

A dud. Made bad choices. Crashed things.

Heard of him. Never met him.

Beverly's ensign (ensign is apparently 'child rank')

Olaf.

An almost attractive Klingon. *looks closer* Wait no! A Spock!

Non-Trek Bonus:

Baby Yogurt and the Delorean

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

Why the fuck are people out there shaming disabled and mentally ill people for "letting their illness stop them" when "impairs ability to function" is a requirement for almost every kind of diagnosis?! Like no fucking shit my illness affects me sometimes - that's an integral part of being sick...

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

“it’s autism acceptance month and i’m sick and tired of allistics treating me as if ‘autism means stupid’ ‘autism means low IQ’”

it’s autism acceptance month and i’m sick and tired of autistics without intellectual disability separating themselves from autistics with intellectual disability and pretending everyone w autism have high IQ no thank you go burn go explode shut the fuck up you are a part of the problem you are not much better you are just as ableist and awful

[xylophonetangerine]

Stalin's USSR = most woke nation to ever exist. You heard it here first, folks.

[headspace-hotel]

Imagine, for a moment, trying to figure out what the fuck is being measured on a scale where the USSR is a 10 and Portland, Oregon is an 8 without the excruciating knowledge of the hyperspecific neuroses of fascists over the past decade

[lesbianhallieparker]

they hated her for her clitoral swag

[cerulean-city-gym]

[catilinas]

Franny Choi, Soft Science

[ryebreadgf]

every two months taylor swift is like i’m going to make another album of me saying ooh aah baby your love was like a knife but i’m a flower and thanks to you i can now take in more water. and everyone goes crazy over it

[ryebreadgf]

[ryebreadgf]

[hooved]

[penflowerink-deactivated2024010]

So Deep Space Nine is almost perfect, but here are some things I would have done differently. I know this isn’t a Star Trek blog but I love how I can just write big blurbs of ramble here on Tumblr. Some of these won’t be that surprising, some might be controversial (who knows!). In no particular order:

1. Garak and Bashir should have been on-screen canon, and it should have been REALLY MESSY right up until the last season, when it becomes wholesome and cute.

2. Dukat should have been Kira’s arch nemesis, not Sisko’s. Sisko somehow separates the Pah Wraith from Dukat and Kira is there to finish him off in an appropriately epic duel.

3. Ezri should have become friends with Jake and maybe they could have started dating by the end of the show.

4. Ziyal should have had more to do, becoming friends with Jake and Nog (teens in space!).

5. Any prospect of Kira x Odo should have ended with Crossfire. They stay best friends until the very end. No awkward romance.

6. Pel should have come back and rekindled things with Quark.

7. Weyoun 6 should have survived and stayed on the station. Odo would deputize him to keep an eye on him and they’d eventually become friends. He’d get a nickname like “Sixie” or something and wear a bajoran militia uniform.

8. Alexander should have returned sooner and also been a part of the teens in space squad!

EDIT: 9. If Odo HAD to be paired up with anyone, it should have been Lwaxana Troi. Their chemistry together was beautiful and I honestly think they would have been so happy together.

[twunkish-cleric]

One of my favorite historical deepdive topics is the friendship between CS Lewis (the author for The Chronicles of Narnia) and JRR Tolkien (the author for The Lord of the Rings).

There's so much good stuff to talk about like how Tolkien nearly broke off his friendship with Lewis because he wanted to put Santa Claus in his books, or how Tolkien got pissed about CS Lewis being called an "ascetic writer" in an interview because he watched him sling back 4 beers at lunch the day before. Plus the fact that Tolkien famously hated his work being taken as an allegory or metaphor, meanwhile Lewis was like "if one person doesn't understand that the lion is Jesus I'll shoot myself"

But I think my favorite piece of their history together is the letter CS Lewis sent to JRR Tolkien describing Aslan.

Because you think back on this time period and go "everyone was so stuffy and uptight and miserable, they're nothing like us"... but then the first ever drawing of Aslan by CS Lewis was this

[ilexvici]

Kirk & Spock fight scene but Mamma Mia is playing

[trekheritageposts]

star trek heritage post (August 15th, 2018)

[raisinchallah]

spock: fascinating captain this planets infrastructure seems to entirely revolve around the construction of trolley tracks

kirk: yes mister spock we should investigate

–

spock: it seems captain we have been tied to a pair of trolley tracks and a man is being instructed-

kirk: yes yes theyre engaging in what i heard the locals call a trolley problem

spock: and it appears we are the problem

–

kirk(upon finding the evil computer responsible for constructing various ethical dilemmas to solve and thus learn and attempt to create a perfect society): and so you say you wish to create an ideal society by learning from these various ethical dilemmas but have you not created a graver ethical dilemma by sacrificing the populace in service of your so called trolley problems

evil computer: does not compute ethics is an exercise not a practice i was programmed to learn not to be ethical

kirk: no but you were programmed to be ethical it was simply when you were struck by lightning a century ago that it rerouted your memory circuits its a deviation from your original purpose

evil computer: fantastic point i think ill go kill myself now this is very embarrassing

–

kirk: well wouldnt you say the real trolley problem is the friends you made along the way?

spock: i believe not i think you in fact walked yourself into your own trolley problem by in fact killing the computer so the populace may live you in fact proved the conceit of the computer and engaged in a not too different ethical experiment

kirk: why mister spock are you calling me a computer

spock: dont flatter yourself

end music

[a-treatise-on-velociraptors]

The reason categorizing fanfiction by tropes works is because there's already an established setting, cast of characters, and theme in the original work, so when people write fanfics they're building sand castles in pre-existing beaches, but when you advertise your book as "sci-fi enemies to lovers where there's only one bed and also they're gay" it says nothing about what the premise is, who the characters are, or what the book is actually trying to say. That's not to say that books containing stuff like "sci-fi enemies to lovers where there's only one bed and also they're gay" can't be absolutely fantastic books, but if you only advertise by listing off tropes that are inherently cookie-cutter then you're implying (whether intentionally or not) that there's nothing interesting or memorable about the book besides smashing tropes together like you're playing with action figures.

[incompletebutconsistent]

Sci-fi? I love sci-fi. Is it hard sci-fi where you explore cool possibilities of science, for instance a society of intelligent spiders who do biological engineering, as in Children of Time? Is it utopian or dystopian, to explore possible future societies, as in Oryx and Crake? Are the aliens really us, or is that asteroid hurtling towards that planet really a variation on the trolley problem, as in Star Trek? Can you step into alternate worlds with a potato, as in The Long Earth, or defeat the Daleks with a sausage roll, as in Doctor Who? Or is the sci-fi genre just a backdrop for character-driven stories, as in the Wayfarers series?

Of those different intentions you can have for sci-fi, I would assume the last is closest to what the author of this blurb intends. This is already worrying, because I’m beginning to think that either the sci-fi elements are not interesting enough to warrant a mention or the literary elements are not strong enough to be told without the genre setting.

Wayfarers is a rare example of non-sci-fi-first science fiction that I actually enjoy, by which I mean that its universe, while being very well thought-out, does not have a unique selling point (except perhaps for the Exodus Fleet my beloved), unlike in the above cases. It’s deliberately designed to be familiar to fans of the space-opera variety of science fiction, ones who perhaps wish there were more women and gay people in the future. So here’s the heavily abbreviated blurb of A Closed and Common Orbit:

“Lovelace is an AI newly housed in an illegal synthetic body. Pepper is an escaped genetically engineered slave turned engineer. Pepper helps Lovelace to discover her own place in the world.”

Instantly, this tells you about the themes of the book, how it relates to the title, and what makes the two main characters and their relationship unique. It could say: “There’s found family tropes, diverse representation, and a genderfluid alien tattoo artist.” But those things put together are not a book, they’re incidental features of one.

[chaotic-dumbass-energy]

When you need to tell her about your 60000+ word Spirk fanfiction

[catalystofthesoul]

[apas-95]

the US education system isn't even that bad. many countries have objectively worse-funded education systems, but don't display the same belligerent idiocy as them. the fundamental issue is that USAmericans have no real reason to care about the rest of the world, as it will never meaningfully affect their lives unless they decide to go on vacation or take part in an invasion. their lack of intellectual curiosity is because the rest of the world never really registers as a real place.

[apas-95]

love the notes on this. 'oh actually our education system is really underfunded' that's very unique of you. no other country is like that. i know people who are not legally allowed to attend higher education because of their gender who demonstrate more intellectual curiosity about the world than you. 'actually we're all struggling and just trying to survive so theres no time to care about the world' no you're right the USA is the poorest country on earth after all. would sort of break the argument if people from much more impoverished countries showed significantly more interest in learning about the outside world than usamericans do. almost like people everywhere suffer from lack of access to education but the imperial core uniquely generates people who have no material reason to care, specifically because of their privilege even in poverty. 'um actually most of us can't afford a vacation overseas' so, again, since you're not going to be invaded, and your government isn't at the international financial gunpoint of a foreign empire, you will literally never be affected by other countries.

[apas-95]

you tell a usamerican that the people they bomb, invade, coup, and sanction have it worse than they do and they start sobbing and crying about how they're actually the least privileged people on the planet, because they don't have [social welfare that western europe has] because, again, they don't see the rest of the world, outside the west, as a real place.