Random KS Discussion

[metalangel]

The guy in the apartment across the hall from me is a lot like what I imagine older Kenji will be like - the feminism conspiracy is gone and replaced by overt weirdness. Getting cornered by him into a bizarre conversation hasn't changed, though.

[Zarys]

In what he is weird, if you want to be me precise ?

[brythain]

In the past, we've had discussions on the role of technological compensation for disabilities.

If our KS main characters survived into the 2020s, there's a great chance they'd mostly be able to 'fix' their disabilities (should they even wish to, which isn't a given for those who, for example, have been completely blind or deaf from birth). Over on Reddit, they've had an AMA with Vanessa Tolosa, an engineer at Lawrence Livermore Labs, who works on such things. Many interesting discussion points. [LINK]

Especially, the top question thread (selectively quoted):

Do you think you will ever try to enhance or augment the function of healthy people?
How long do you think it'll take until we start doing augmentations on healthy people on a larger scale?
What do you think the legal implications of this will be? Will it be tightly regulated, or maybe banned outright in some places or professions?

[Atario]

I was just thinking of reasons why self-insertion fanfics are not the best idea... when I came across (snip*) abomination. Funny, though.

*MOD EDIT: trust me, you're better off not knowing.

Uhhh...

Link not KS-related, plus commercial stuff. Therefore, removed.

Wait. A commercial product involving self-insert fanfic??

During my first play through of Katawa Shoujo (Emi's route) I had a lingering suspicion (that lasted until around the end of second Act) that there would be a sudden plot twist where it would be revealed that Kenji was actually a ghost that only Hisao could see, presumably killed by the vengeful feminists of his conspiracy theories. I don't know what kind of story I was expecting Katawa Shoujo to tell, honestly.

Hah, sounds like my "Noel is imaginary" theory regarding Sora No Method that got shot down around episode 3.

Do you think you will ever try to enhance or augment the function of healthy people?

I can't wait till I can have my smartphone built in to my brain and powered by my own blood glucose/ketones. Never missing, never needs charging, can't be stolen…

Come to that, just give me a heater powered by my blood glucose/ketones too. Then I could just leave it running to lose weight.

banned outright in some places or professions?

Almost seems more likely to be de facto required in some…

[Eurobeatjester]

I'm on a new cocktail of medication my dreams have been insane.

Last night I was visiting Yamaku when the school morphed into a giant dragon and I had to fight it off with a Green Lantern ring.

I have to share that so it doesn't fade away into obscurity.

[AaronIsCrunchy]

I'm on a new cocktail of medication my dreams have been insane.

Last night I was visiting Yamaku when the school morphed into a giant dragon and I had to fight it off with a Green Lantern ring.

I have to share that so it doesn't fade away into obscurity.

You have done the right thing.

[Mahorfeus]

I'm on a new cocktail of medication my dreams have been insane.

Last night I was visiting Yamaku when the school morphed into a giant dragon and I had to fight it off with a Green Lantern ring.

I have to share that so it doesn't fade away into obscurity.

I'll have some of what you're having.

Yamaku has yet to surface in my dreams, even after almost two years. Maybe it's a writer thing.

[Eurobeatjester]

I'm able to drift in and out of lucid dreaming. It's an amazing skill to learn, if you can.

The problem is, things don't always go as planned. I'll lose control of the dream or only have control of certain elements in it. Makes for a hell of a ride

[Munchenhausen]

I'm able to drift in and out of lucid dreaming. It's an amazing skill to learn, if you can.

The problem is, things don't always go as planned. I'll lose control of the dream or only have control of certain elements in it. Makes for a hell of a ride

I pretty much dedicated half a year to learn how to do that
I've done it thrice now. The first two were by accident, and the third, I was so excited that I had finally done it, I accidentally woke myself up

[Mahorfeus]

My last dream involved a lesbian moon colonist that falls in love with a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. I'm not entirely sure I want to introduce lucidity into that kind of context.

Well, unless I need inspiration for a shitty YA novel.

ANYWAY, in that random line of thinking, I was reminded of a short story by Arthur C. Clarke that I read in high school called "The Secret." The gist of it is that because gravity on the moon is six times weaker, the reduction of strain on colonists' bodies would allow for them to live exponentially longer. (For a moment I'll just ignore the societal themes of the story.) Now I can't help but to imagine Hisao living out his days on the moon. How badly would he have to fuck up his life on Earth to even consider making that kind of decision?

[Atario]

the school morphed into a giant dragon and I had to fight it off with a Green Lantern ring.

BOOM, fanfic!

[Eurobeatjester]

I actually meant to go Super Saiyan.

[metalangel]

In the past, we've had discussions on the role of technological compensation for disabilities.

If our KS main characters survived into the 2020s, there's a great chance they'd mostly be able to 'fix' their disabilities (should they even wish to, which isn't a given for those who, for example, have been completely blind or deaf from birth). Over on Reddit, they've had an AMA with Vanessa Tolosa, an engineer at Lawrence Livermore Labs, who works on such things. Many interesting discussion points. [LINK]

Especially, the top question thread (selectively quoted):

Do you think you will ever try to enhance or augment the function of healthy people?
How long do you think it'll take until we start doing augmentations on healthy people on a larger scale?
What do you think the legal implications of this will be? Will it be tightly regulated, or maybe banned outright in some places or professions?

I was actually thinking about this the other day, and was thinking about how (as in this and related threads) we know that artificial replacements for blindness or deafness need to be applied as early as possible, while the brain is still developing, or else it will not be able to learn to process the information.
That got me thinking, and I thought of two examples from science fiction where advanced technology treated the blind.
The first and most well known is Geordi LaForge from Star Trek TNG. He was born blind, and received his VISOR when he was five. That accounts for it working, and later on (after the events of the Generations movie) got ocular implants. The reason I was intrigued by this is I recalled the episode where Riker is given the powers of a Q, and uses it to give LaForge vision – perfect, full colour vision. We see that the VISOR makes everything look like bad visual effects from a 1980s music video.
The other I thought of was Olhado from the Ender’s Game universe, who was born sighted and lost his eyes at a young age due to an accident involving a laser. His replacements consist one of eye that allows him to see and functions as a camera, and the other which functions as the power supply and (and this is considered grotesque even by his contemporaries) a network port that he can plug into to upload his recordings.

[Atario]

We see that the VISOR makes everything look like bad visual effects from a 1980s music video.

I got the impression that was how it rendered all the extravisible wavelengths and weird particles and such.

[Eurobeatjester]

We see that the VISOR makes everything look like bad visual effects from a 1980s music video.

I got the impression that was how it rendered all the extravisible wavelengths and weird particles and such.

It does. In Star Trek canon, the VISOR allows users to see into the UV and infrared spectrum, so arguably it's more useful than standard eyes.

As far as enhanced sensations and augmentations go, there are people that get small magnets implanted into their fingertips. They claim that after they heal, the magnet allows them to sense magnetic fields and things like live wires just by touch and proximity. Pretty cool.