BarnerCobblewood

Did I miss something? I can't recall any discussion of actually creating AI in the book. If anything the sims were a shortcut, and no one seemed to treat them as "Artificial." Mimesis is different from manufacturing. Maybe we're talking a…

in The Terminal Experiment Q7: Scanned Minds Comment by BarnerCobblewood June 2025

Distracting, I think mostly because now the future centre of the world is moving away from North America and Europe.

in The Terminal Experiment Q6: The Net News Digest Comment by BarnerCobblewood June 2025

Had no idea. The relation between Peter and the sims made me think of this quote from Inception: (Quote)

in The Terminal Experiment Q5: Three-Pete Comment by BarnerCobblewood June 2025

Have no idea of his views then or now. Thought the discussion would now be considered clickbait, although that I don't think that was the intention, or would have occurred to anyone at the time.

in The Terminal Experiment Q4: Larger Questions Comment by BarnerCobblewood June 2025

Mostly it felt out of date, in the sense that Sawyer, and everyone else at that time, hadn't really faced 1) Just how many people exercising agency there are in the world, and 2) The consequences for centralised intervention that the internet entail…

in The Terminal Experiment Q3: Tech Extrapolation Comment by BarnerCobblewood June 2025

I suppose this is the moment for me to engage in the long-standing Montreal vs TO feud, (TO is the generic city, it has everything but a soul - now we know why, etc.) but I'll be bigger than that. Anyway, I was born in TO - Weston actually, which wa…

in The Terminal Experiment Q2: Setting Comment by BarnerCobblewood June 2025

Kind of left me cold to be honest. Reminded me of why I didn't like this style of cyber SF back in the day. That said, there was nothing wrong with it. I'll discuss more in the other questions.

in The Terminal Experiment Q1: General Impressions Comment by BarnerCobblewood June 2025

I know it's quite late to respond to this, but I've found that this book has remained with me. I'm going to try another book by Chandrasekera. @Apocryphal I wanted to ask you if you think the importance of books being coherent and readable change…

in The Saint of Bright Doors Q1 – General Overview Comment by BarnerCobblewood June 2025

This is very long. Sorry. There are really two points, which I labelled 1 and 2. If one bores you, skip to the other. If both bore you, well I guess it's just R(eally)TLDR. If you already know this, just ignore my self-importance in trying to speak…

in The Saint of Bright Doors Q2 – Buddhism and South Asian Culture Comment by BarnerCobblewood May 2025

I have some things to do, so I will return to this later. However I want to say that I found this interview is really helpful for understanding the intentions of the text.

in The Saint of Bright Doors Q2 – Buddhism and South Asian Culture Comment by BarnerCobblewood May 2025

Lots. This is very much the kind of setting I want to next play with, including the South Asian cosmology. It's encouraging to see how the problem of presenting what is going on to a reader / player who doesn't really understand the situation was qu…

in The Saint of Bright Doors Q6 – Gaming Comment by BarnerCobblewood May 2025

Don't have a lot to add. The characters seemed okay, I understood their motivations, and they conducted themselves accordingly. I appreciated the fact that society was beyond them. I consider that an accurate assessment of how the world is. One thi…

in The Saint of Bright Doors Q5 – Characters Comment by BarnerCobblewood May 2025

I thought the devils were pretty standard. I think the idea that functional things emerge from a world that is not actual is common to South Asian tantric thought, which of course spread throughout Asia and is present as a functioning cosmology from…

in The Saint of Bright Doors Q4 – Doors and Devils Comment by BarnerCobblewood May 2025

I don't think this is magic realism, because the cosmology taken as reality is not what this society considers realism. Also, I am under the impression that magic realism deals with an intersection of the shared actuality of the reader with an uncom…

in The Saint of Bright Doors Q3 – The story format Comment by BarnerCobblewood May 2025

I quite enjoyed this book - thanks for suggesting it. I would definitely read another book by Vajra Chandrasekera, but I'm not sure I will seek it out. More if I run into it I will pick it up to read. Like @Apocryphal I found the second quarter drag…

in The Saint of Bright Doors Q1 – General Overview Comment by BarnerCobblewood May 2025

@NeilNjae Is interesting you mention this. I was thinking it might be a good book for us to read here.

in In Universes, by Emet North Comment by BarnerCobblewood May 2025

Sounds fine to me. BTW, that website doesn't let you control cookies when you visit, you're supposed to go into your browser settings and do it by hand. Shit designers looking to grift your info. Won't visit again.

in Current book choice rotation thread Comment by BarnerCobblewood April 2025

This inability to communicate (aphasia) becoming a social problem would make a great theme for a highly relevant SF novel. Personally I believe this is perhaps the second biggest challenge facing us, the first being of course climate change. It's in…

in In Universes, by Emet North Comment by BarnerCobblewood April 2025

I agree with @clash_bowley there were plenty of clues. But there was so little explanation or description of the puppet makers that I don't think anyone could have seen it coming.

in Emphyrio Q3. The Setting Comment by BarnerCobblewood April 2025

Ok I will definitely look at this. Not being able to reply on our own social values is pretty much what I want to do, and seeing how the problem of getting the PCs to get that will definitely help. EPT is another thing that seems like it might b…