pjwestin
@pjwestin@lemmy.world
- Comment on Why aren't all rooms holodecks? 3 weeks ago:
- Energy. In TNG, the holodecks burn a lot of energy. Can’t imagine what would happen if you turned every room into one.
- The holodeck isn’t a Tardis. The space inside the holodeck is an illusion created by the room. The room can make the space look infinite, and the floor can function as a hard-light treadmill that let’s you explore that infinite space, but the room still needs to be large enough to accommodate all the real-world things in it. That’s why they’re so large in TNG and Voyager. Holo-quarters would still need to be roughly the size of regular quarters.
- Same problem with the bar. Sure, you could make anyone’s quarters look like Ten Forward, but if your quarters fit 3 people, that’s how many people can drink there.
- The sickbay would still be essential because the problem isn’t medical equipment, it’s staff. Unless you’re going to have the medical staff running all over the ship making house calls, having that staff in a centralized location and having the crew come to them just makes more sense, especially in an emergency. Emergencies are also why that equipment should never be holographic. If the ship is under attack, the last thing you want is sickbay disappearing because of a phaser hit or having to turn off the medical equipment to power the sheilds.
- Comment on Don’t panic, but an asteroid has a 1.9% chance of hitting Earth in 2032 1 month ago:
That’s 0.9% more than the last time I checked. I know those are still really low odds, but we can hope…
- Comment on Tough question 1 month ago:
Astrology daughter. NFT son will be bankrupt in your basement, no matter what. Astrology daughter might marry a rich guy.
- Comment on What is the origin of aliens looking like humans? Why and when did it become the norm? 2 months ago:
Yeah, that’s my thinking as well, although to be clear, I’m not saying that intelligent life would be humanoid, just that it’s the most reasonable real-world explanation I can come up with for why fictional aliens look human. I’m not an exobiologist, and I have no idea what the leading theories are on what intelligent life might look like. I’m just saying that, whenever I’m watching some sci-fi with a bunch of human-looking aliens, my go-to head cannon to explain it away is Convergent Evolution, and it at least feels like a reasonable explanation.
- Comment on What is the origin of aliens looking like humans? Why and when did it become the norm? 2 months ago:
If you’re asking why it appears in our sci-fi, you were correct in assuming it was mostly about cheap costuming and special effects. If you’re asking for a general canonical reason for it, there isn’t one, but many sci-fi shows have come up with unique ones (for example, Star Trek had the Progenitors, a species of humanoids that seeded world with their DNA). If you’re looking for a possible real-world explanation that could account for it, Convergent Evolution might explain why intelligent species wind up being bipedal tetrapods.
- Comment on Trump confirms plan to declare national emergency, use military for mass deportations 4 months ago:
On this, we agree.
- Comment on Frog's Gift 4 months ago:
It also can’t be understated how much private corporations benefit from technology this research yields. We spent $25 billion ($175 billion in today’s money) on the Apollo programs alone, and NASA research has led to everything from cell phones and laptops to the rubber molding process used for sneakers. The DoD wasted a ton of money in the 80s on this new technology that involved getting computers to communicate with each other, and now we have the internet.
The government spends money in ways that could never be justified by cooperations, then the cooperations enrich themselves with that research and use the profits to lobby Congress for lower taxes and limited spending. It’s absolutely infuriating.
- Comment on If Nintendo went belly up today the retro community would have a field day 4 months ago:
Their track record on consoles is hit or miss because they don’t make the same product every generation like Sony and Microsoft. For every Wii and Switch, you get a Wii. U and Virtual Boy. They’re shitty with their IP, but hardware development is literally the best thing they do.
- Comment on Trump confirms plan to declare national emergency, use military for mass deportations 4 months ago:
I’ve seen the person who posted this article, return2ozma, called a Russian troll account at least once a week since I joined Lemmy, so color me skeptical. Who knows, maybe you’re right, but if so, then you’re the instance that cried, “bot,” one too many times.
- Comment on Trump confirms plan to declare national emergency, use military for mass deportations 4 months ago:
Yeah, but was it, though? Or was it full of people making legitimate criticisms of the Democratic Party only to get accused of being bots or told they thought, “both sides,” were the same? Because I know which of these two things I’ve seen more of in the last year.
- Comment on Trump confirms plan to declare national emergency, use military for mass deportations 4 months ago:
“Well, what have you to say now, strawman I’ve been ranting about for the entire election cycle? Isn’t it odd that person I made up in my head to he mad at suddenly has nothing to say?”
- Comment on ... 5 months ago:
Thank you. Something about me was rubbing me the wrong way, but I couldn’t articulate it.
- Comment on 'It Has Plateaued': Should We Be Worried About Console Gaming's Future? 5 months ago:
Well, there also seem to be credible leaks that it’ll have some sort of duel screen system, potentially functioning like the DS. It’s probably going to be more than just a bigger switch.