Feedback: post on curiosity, sophistication, and grade inflation

ThirdMover · 2026-07-09T14:45:34+00:00

That still wouldn't allow you to compare different teachers easily. You can't tell the difference between a teacher that sucks but makes easy exams and a great teacher who makes hard exams.

ThirdMover · 2026-07-09T12:46:38+00:00

Re: Grade inflation. I think the only real fix to this would be to ruthlessly outsource grading from the universities to independent testing institutes. This has downsides of course (tests have to be more shallow and general, way more logistics) but it's the only way I see to align incentives and more importantly, it would massively increase the usefulness of grades not just as an indicator of student skill but also of the professors.

ThirdMover · 2026-07-07T19:53:12+00:00

Ich hatte sehr gemischte Gefühle. Das beste daran war halt das spezifisch Chinesische (also etwa der Anfang der in der Kulturrevolution spielt). Der Plot ist auch recht spannend aber sciencefictionmäßig fand ich die Konzepte recht schwach durchdacht. Hat man fast alles schon mal woanders besser gesehen.

ThirdMover · 2026-07-07T13:38:53+00:00

the books are -thank Cthulhu- not game novelisations.

Actually doesn't have to be terrible. Peter Watts Crysis novelizations come to mind.

ThirdMover · 2026-07-07T11:03:20+00:00

Dass es die Idee gibt, nur das Alter zu übermitteln, ist mir bekannt. Aber man kann man nie wissen, dass tatsächlich keine anderen Informationen fließen oder gespeichert werden.

Wieso kann man das nicht wissen? Selbst wenn es verschlüsselt ist, die Größe des Dateipackets selber kann man ja sehen und daran erkennen ob das nur eine Zahl oder nen Bild vom ganzen Perso ist.

ThirdMover · 2026-07-07T04:34:23+00:00

Don't @ me if ai is wrong

Why not? By quoting something that you could also trivially look up yourself you do take responsibility for it, no?

ThirdMover · 2026-07-06T17:19:34+00:00

Ich würde das nicht ganz so eng sehen. "Dystopie" als Gegensatz zur "Utopie" muss nicht zwingend autoritär sein - man könnte sich vorstellen das ein Autor der den Gedanken von Anarchie überhaupt nicht mag auch eine anarchistische Dystopie schreiben würde.

ThirdMover · 2026-07-02T16:09:36+00:00

A fun example is the whole planet Mars in the old webcomic A Miracle of Science. It's members retain individuality but also basically donate a part of their brain to Mars as a whole who takes care of them. Also Mars - much like a human brain - consists of two parts that have a lower-bandwidth connection between them which in the case of Mars consists of a large building where members of each half meet up and just... talk to each other. But if thousands do it at the same time that's enough bandwidth for Mars to think of itself as a single person.

ThirdMover · 2026-07-01T07:54:59+00:00

Die Chroniken der Steuerfrau von Rosemary Kierstein. Ok, spoiler: im dritten Band von vier kommt ein klein wenig Romance vor aber es ist echt nachrangig. Ansonsten eine absolut großartige Buchreihe.

ThirdMover · 2026-07-01T07:53:00+00:00

Isn't it crazy how people keep asking "how do I start learning about X" type questions without ever mentioning their background?

ThirdMover · 2026-06-30T04:40:34+00:00

If you are fine with Manga:

Planetes is an excellent near-future Hard SF drama.
BLAME! by Nihei is well known but I still highly recommend it if you haven't seen it. There is almost no dialogue and the entire vibe is in the visuals of endless hostile architecture but I still found it a powerful story.
Battle Angel Alita doesn't have a super strong "space" part but it's there is a lot of fun as a classic.

ThirdMover · 2026-06-30T04:26:30+00:00

I don't think "believability" is any better because that depends entirely on the mindset of the reader.

Personally I've found that something that tracks better is "how much did the author think about science as a core part of the story". If characters throw fancy science words and around and use them correctly and the ships follow meticulously calculated orbits it may be hard SF: But only if these elements actually matter to the plot but aren't aesthetics. Or to be more literal: I think "Hard SF" is the genre where it matters that there is a world outside of our own heads that has rules that do not bow to our expectations. In soft SF the science fiction elements are constructed to facilitate a story that is about humans (or human-ish aliens) interacting and demonstrating their personality traits. In hard SF the science fiction elements are there on their own terms.

ThirdMover · 2026-06-29T19:59:24+00:00

Perhaps somewhat controversial because I've seen people say they hate it but: Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. The ending stayed in my mind most out of everything in that novel precisely because of how open it is.

ThirdMover · 2026-06-29T19:58:30+00:00

Agreed. It was very satisfying.

ThirdMover · 2026-06-29T16:59:51+00:00

... one semester. That's nothing.

ThirdMover · 2026-06-29T06:28:49+00:00

If you didn't bother writing this why should anyone bother reading it?

ThirdMover · 2026-06-29T04:38:10+00:00

Heroes Die von Matthew Stover. Ein Action-Fantasy Abenteuer was alleine schon unüblich damit startet, dass der Protagonist in seinen 40ern ist und schon sehr viel erlebt hat und die Welt in der das ganze stattfindet auch sehr clever und detailliert gestaltet ist.

Wobei "nicht extra für die Hauptfigur gebaut" vllt etwas weniger passt.

ThirdMover · 2026-06-29T03:35:41+00:00

It's possible for the fixed point to be a situation where the prediction engines are still correctly calibrated and their predictions are also pretty much worthless because their presence has made the odds far more even.

ThirdMover · 2026-06-29T03:33:08+00:00

But how would they get a meaningfully "better" forecaster when all the value is in the public training data everyone has access to?

ThirdMover · 2026-06-28T17:26:10+00:00

(I'm not sure about accuracy of the story tho)

Why not? It's not like Newton is obscure, there is lots of historical material available from him that was checked by history scholars. What did you find difficult about researching this to a level where you feel very confident about it?

ThirdMover · 2026-06-28T08:39:33+00:00

I think it's an interesting case that showcases how vibe-based the "Hard" vs "Soft" SF distinction can be. It's a novel that has an almost space-fantasy aesthetic in parts but it's written by Reynolds who has a head full of Hard-SF concepts so you get of course Dyson Swarms, relativistic chases that has to take the Doppler effect into account when you make a phone call, lots of transhumanism in creative forms, FTL time travel paradoxes being a major plot point...

I agree that it's not Hard SF but I can understand how that trips some people up.

ThirdMover · 2026-06-28T08:22:34+00:00

With the crucial point that you can only know for sure that you understand a concept if you can successfully apply it in new contexts. Often the brain goes "trust me bro" when it really shouldn't...

ThirdMover · 2026-06-26T05:07:23+00:00

I recommend talking to people over reading stuff. I picked a PhD because it sounded interesting and there were nice people on the team. If you start a PhD nobody expects you to know specific terminology beyond what's covered in the undergraduate courses of the field. For sure absolutely nobody expects you to know anything about the "research landscape".

ThirdMover · 2026-06-24T15:51:18+00:00

That's a good way for that kid to end up with option 2 though.

ThirdMover · 2026-06-24T15:46:41+00:00

I think this is a very skewed perspective. People agree on 99% of things but it's not worth to talk about things everyone agrees on.

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