Who really needs to know that another species has "conscious awareness" to prevent them from torturing it?

If it reacts enough like a human to a wide enough range of stimuli, it'd have to be a very sophisticated program indeed, and at that point we would, in fact, have to start wondering whether it is conscious. A simple and obviously non-conscious computer program would not be able to imitate human behaviour very closely.…

In a predictable twist of fate civilization collapses the very next day, and roberttravis spends the next forty years quite safe from hearing the phrase 'post-apocalyptic' — because he's the only survivor.

Ahh, this is a really exciting theory. The fact that scientists are starting to seriously look at the very nature of the basic dimensions of our universe, and the possible other states of what we call space and time, seems to me like it heralds a whole new fertile field for ideas. And it's exciting from a sci-fi…

I agree with you that it's the way an issue is handled, rather than the issue itself, that determines the maturity of a show — but I reach the exact opposite conclusion. The fact that SG-1 sometimes became very silly did not detract from the fact that they knew how to act serious when the subject matter called for it.…

Well, no, I think before we start wondering about whether scientists are throwing this out on faith, we should *first* make an effort to read more about the phenomenon and understand it. I don't understand it myself. Near as I can come, it's like this: When particles are entangled, they share some physical property.…

Okay, that last bit always confuses me. But whenever I read any article in which scientists discuss quantum entanglement, they always emphasize that it cannot be used to send information. Also, from my admittedly shaky understanding (well, duh, no layman can have a non-shaky understanding here :P) of Relativity,…

As I understand it, quantum entanglement cannot actually be used to send information. And if there was a way to instantly send information, this would not play nice with the principles of relativity at all — it'd basically be the same problem as having FTL ships.

I agree completely with most of your analysis, except... "Atlantis was perhaps slightly more "grown up" [than SG-1]..." Wat? No, no, it was not. I always felt the exact opposite: SG-1 incorporated humour quite frequently, but basically it still tried to tell a solid, often fairly complex story. Moral and emotional…

The discussion about different extents and types of awareness, and about the extent of human free will, makes me think that this whole approach to crime and punishment must eventually be made obsolete. Punishment as a goal in itself always seemed weird and creepy to me. What happens to a criminal should depend on more…

Oh my god! It's the Space Amazons from the Moon! They're stealing our space telescope mirrors to build a gigantic death ray and enslave the Earth! D:

It just doesn't have the same awesome audaciousness as building a gigantic lens at the Lagrange point between the Earth and the Sun. :( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_radiation_management#Dispersive_solutions

Look, what do you think is more likely to work: Asking corporations to cut back on their profit-making a little bit so that we can reduce the amount of greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere? Or mad super-science experiments designed to master the weather itself so that we can control the climate on a planetary…

An old idea: Jules Verne envisioned cities filled with compressed air - driven automobiles in his 1860s novel Paris in the Twentieth Century, which described life in the 1960s with surprising accuracy.

There was a TV series sequel to the movie, and in it Yzma did eventually get a villain song — different, but still pretty fun:

ABC is developing the steampunk adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

The version I heard in junior school was — "It was a dark and stormy night. The ship was sinking. The captain asked me to tell a story. And so I began..."

I believe TvTropes calls this the "Seinfeld Is Unfunny" effect. Or, this seems to be something related to it, anyway. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny

I honestly wouldn't mind reading that fantasy prize winner. :P

Yes, but I was thinking of that quote about English following other languages down dark alleys and etc. :P