Neither of these articles indicates what kind of scientific background the researchers has. Are they cognitive linguists, or anything of that sort? I doubt it. Because if they were, they’d know from pragmatics that language is not logical in the conventional sense.

“Attention & Intention are the mechanics of…

That’s exactly it—it’s “clever,” but very far from wise or compassionate. They’re grinning because they know they’re doing something destructive, but they can’t help themselves, like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. The same way Martin Schkreli grinned during his fraud hearing—it’s a kind of deeply…

It’s not about mind-control yet. But it stands to reason that one day these brain-machine interfaces will involve sensory feedback from the external device back to the brain, and when that happens, hijacking someone’s senses, or even their thought processes and memories, might only be a matter of having the right…

This is really neat, but shouldn’t we just plant more trees?

Wow. That was surprisingly touching—Alec Guinness’ performance really shines through.

You win the Internets for today, Sir or Madam. Well played!

That’s what happens when the leadership caters so much to the interests of the Galactic Military-Industrial Complex...

Interesting. I had the opposite feeling—I was surprised by how up-to-date the The Stars My Destination seemed. I only read it for the first time a couple of years ago (and have yet to read The Demolished Man), but it seemed like a much more recent story than it is. I mean, we don’t have mass teleportation, but Bester…

YES! YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!!! YAAAAAAAAASSSSS!!!!

I think you’re right about the deadlines, and certainly writing within an established universe like Star Wars, Dune, or Warhammer tends to guarantee a certain minimum level of sales, irrespective of quality.

Oh man. That definitely sucks. He didn’t sour me on everything Star Wars, but I definitely avoided any novels after his series. Personally, the prequel films felt like more of a let-down, but realistically there’s a lot that could go wrong, and did, between all the various media.

Short answer? No.

The books of the Jedi Academy trilogy are among the worst I’ve ever read. The only one I can think of that was worse was Outlander by Matt Keefe (Necromunda - Warhammer 40,000 tie in fiction).

I feel the same way. I read the Zahn trilogy and was blown away, then read Anderson’s and practically hurled the first book at the wall. Then, like a sucker, I read the other two books in the triology just because I was a completist as a teenager. But I’ve avoided Anderson’s writing since then. In a way, the Jedi…

You may be right about drinking and io9’ing... http://observationdeck.kinja.com/being-sufficie…

Hmm, in terms of fiction: Dune is a big one. Also Star Wars, and The Lord of the Rings. I would also say The Matrix had a formative effect, even though I was well into my twenties when that came out. For two years I had been at university learning about cognitive science & Artificial Intelligence, psychology, Eastern…

Hmm. I really enjoyed Ready Player One, but everyone’s taste is different.

I hope I’m not the only one that finds the prospect of intentionally engineering lab animals with degenerative medical conditions to be unbelievably callous and cruel. When fiction authors talk about scientists playing “God,” this is exactly what they mean. Scientific progress is a fine and wonderful thing, but…

Wait have the fundamentalists heard about this? Once they do, no doubt the apocalypse will be upon us once more. But if the world is coming to an end again, for like the fifth time in two months, just wake me when it’s over. I’m pretty sure most of us will still have to go to work the following Monday.

Agreed. I’m not savvy enough to be sure who on the production is to blame for it, but I definitely also found Genisys to be incredibly boring. The action sequences went on way too long with very little tension, and the plot was somehow both thin and convoluted at the same time.