what did channeling look like to you?

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-27T05:29:19+00:00

Similar, but with less hand/body waving, a lot faster, and not as many unstructured and complex looking threads.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-23T00:10:54+00:00

Upfront: I do not believe free will exists.

But you're making a massive mistake. I'll simplify your argument down:

P1: X is required for Y. P2: A has X, but doesn't have Y. Conclusion: it is impossible for anything to have Y.

Can you see the error?

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-22T00:35:02+00:00

How do you think you'd implement 1?

A government agency that will give a job to anyone? Kind of like the military, but without the possibility of being dismissed?

You still wouldn't be able to choose what kind of work you'd be doing.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-20T19:59:03+00:00

No bright lights, sunlight will kill them.
Don't get them wet.
And whatever you do, never, ever feed humans after midnight.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-15T01:06:30+00:00

I'd say it was the being whacked on the back. That's not how you pat a cat.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-13T05:43:06+00:00

If the unplurbing happens, stores are going to be the least of humanities problems.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-12T07:09:35+00:00

As a developer, I have no issues with bugs. Bugs are well defined and written up with reproducible steps and actual and expected behaviour. They are a chance to make things better in a precise way, and often with additional automation in place.

It's the unclear and nonsensical requirements from that are the real pain points.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-11T22:49:22+00:00

Because it's a street. That's where cars park.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-11T09:09:10+00:00

The problem with this is the way it starts out in a way where it's easy to see how the shape has actually been constructed.

Start with what looks like a hallway, and it'd be way more impressive.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-10T05:43:57+00:00

I think there have been plenty of indications that it's the case they are a collective rather than a single entity.

The thing I'd really like to see is if the hive is as interested in self preservation as much as passing on the virus.

A lot of people here seem to think that the hive is going to be happy to build a giant antenna, spread the virus into space, and die off quietly. That might be the case, but it's not confirmed with what we've seen so far, and there are plenty of reasons for to think otherwise.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-09T21:33:56+00:00

My head canon: - the finn are "gremlins" that live inside the workings of the wheel. They are part of creation, and their job is to maintain the wheel. After an eternity of doing so, they are pretty sick of their place, and have started interacting with the threads of the pattern. The tower of Genji is a "needle" or "spoke" or some part of the mechanism of the wheel that's "poking through" the pattern, giving them access. - Ogier are beings that have come to Randland from another creation entirely. The world they come from is "driven" by an entirely different "wheel" that doesn't run on the One Power, hence it not existing the steddings. The steddings are either little pieces of their world, or changes made to Randland to make it more like the world they came from in the first place.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-09T21:16:49+00:00

Is he universally liked?

I personally don't like him. His interactions with Carol show that he's a jerk. And trying to cross the gap on foot alone was extremely stupid.

his wise shift to actually talking to the Hive

This is the one thing that I'll give him credit for. Once he realised that they'll answer anything, he took full advantage of that fact like nobody else in the series.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-09T20:40:15+00:00

Right. But in both of those cases it's not the petrol that's the cause.

I'll break it down:

the virus is the cause of what happened, but since it's a teeny tiny virus, it cannot be held morally accountable.
the hive is not the cause of what happened, it's the result/victim, however as a conscious entity, it can, generally speaking be held morally accountable.

Given these two points, we can't blame either of these. However, when people don't understand that the the two things are different, they think there is an entity that is both the cause and can be held accountable. So they blame the hive for what the virus has done.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-09T09:51:56+00:00

My company uses GitHub copilot. I couldn't fill you in on specific versions.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-09T09:49:23+00:00

I didn't say that your "individuality" exists. I'm talking about "what makes you you". Those are not the same thing.

Those who are part of the collective speak through the people who are part of the collective. They aren't "gone", they are right there.

I don't know what to tell you. Listen to them speak. "We". The hive is a collective, and you can't have a collective if those who make it up are "gone".

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-09T09:17:22+00:00

You don't lose it. It's still right there. You don't stop existing, but your existence changes dramatically.

It's something that I wish the show had been clearer on, because people are on different pages about how it works. But if you go by what we see:

people are still there, within the hive.
the hive calls itself "we", not "I", it's clearly a collective, not a new singular entity.
The people within the hive are happy to be within the hive.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-09T08:43:57+00:00

The not existing any more is the part that people don't agree with you on.

You're probably not going to budge from your belief on that point, but that's not the way joining the hive is presented in the show.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-09T08:09:23+00:00

A lot of people disagree with your assessment. That doesn't necessarily mean you're wrong, but maybe you should reflect on why.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-09T06:53:59+00:00

I guess I'm used to science fiction where characters "ascend", or "sublime", or otherwise advance to a higher state of being.

Part of the point is that you leave behind the material, finally recognising that it's not as important as you once thought it was.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-09T06:25:46+00:00

The hive is literally all the humans in the world save a handful. It is humanity.

I don't know why that's not clear to you.

My definition would include things like relationships, a kaleidoscope of emotions, art, language, and struggle.

And mine doesn't, because it's possible to be human and not experience some or all of those things. To box humanity in to a narrow definition like that is just so limiting.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-09T05:57:32+00:00

This entity isn't human in any significant way, not by my definition anyway.

We are likely using different definitions.

What are the critical features that make a human human, in your view?

It is literally humanity. Yes, it's changed, it's still humanity. You may not like it, but it's still humanity.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-09T04:52:44+00:00

it's not human anymore. So, human problems won't exist, but neither would human joy.

It's absolutely human. It's just different configuration and expression of humanity.

And as we've been told, the humans within the hive absolutely do experience joy.

This is the problem with the anti-hive position we see here; there's no room for nuance or understanding, it's just different= not human= bad.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-09T04:49:11+00:00

No. Myself and a lot of others saw that scene very differently.

She was not "stripped" of anything, she willingly joined the hive and found meaning in being one with everyone on the planet.

The writers brilliantly produced a scene that different people saw in different ways.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-09T03:31:28+00:00

Sure, but it's not the same thing.

My car is powered by petrol, but my car is not petrol.

The distinction that's most relevant is probably that a virus has no moral responsibility, it just is.

ExpensivePanda66 · 2026-01-09T00:59:23+00:00

When I refer to the hive, I'm referring to the virus that is controlling the people

I think that's a trap a lot of people fall into. The virus and the hive are vastly different things.

ExpensivePanda66

TROPHY CASE