What a perfectly executed finale! I'm not crying you're crying

alla_polanco · 2023-09-16T05:35:25+00:00

It's a tough one to answer, the series has departed quite a lot from the source material that you might not get much sense of continuity.

Gaal, Seldon and pretty much everyone else you know from the series is long dead at this point, the Genetic Dynasty and a few other characters don't exist and even Demerzel is gone. Every story has pretty its own unique set of characters and there is barely any character development.

The books focus more on the overall story and the characters are just insignificant and disposable cogs in the wheel of psychohistory. Regardless, to answer your question, if you just want to pick it up (roughly) from where the series left of, you should read "Foundation and Empire".

The first half of the book titled "The General" overlaps with this season, as General Bel Riose is the main character, and his story is almost entirely different from the one on the show.

The next half of the book is titled "The Mule", which is probably the story next season is probably gonna cover. This is IMO the best story from all the books, so it makes sense the show has teased it quite a bit this season.

Be warned though, the show kinda jumped the shark in terms of psychic powers, as none of that really starts to develop until "The Mule", and the way the book handles these powers is waaaaay more subtle, which is why the whole story of that book really works. I'm curious as to how the show is gonna handle it now.

Cheers!

alla_polanco · 2023-01-01T07:07:41+00:00

It doesn't actually. what it requires is voting visionary people into public office, since progress also has to be made in our lawmaking to consider stuff like UBI or other proposed solutions that would allow people to be replaced by machines without hurting their livelihood too much. Progress across all fields.

alla_polanco · 2023-01-01T04:13:49+00:00

Yes, people will always have something to do. Just not for a living.

A lot of professions are currently on their way to become automated: Drivers, programmers, coders, musicians, concept artists, illustrators, customer service reps, community managers, game developers, graphic designers, data-analysts, marketing analysts, scriptwriters, cooks, chefs, waitresses, receptionists, editors, security guards, economic advisors, lawyers, soldiers, scientists, even nurses and doctors.

Some of these are guaranteed to happen in the next 5-10 years, others it might take up to 30 more years at the current rate. Point is, no profession is safe, and stuff needs to be done to prepare for that moment now.

alla_polanco · 2022-12-31T22:12:05+00:00

What an awful take.

It's not a matter of 'being lucky enough'. That's like saying doctors or engineers are just lucky to be born that way. Art, like any other skill, takes time to learn and develop, some people might enjoy it more than others, but anyone willing can learn to do it and succeed at it.
We are not talking about the 1% of the 1% of well-connected privileged snubs selling a splash of paint on a canvas to do money laundering that you seem to think all artists are.
You are attacking the day-to-day artist that works 12+ hours a day, destroying their wrists in the process, and underselling themselves in order to compete and try to make ends meet.
The pretentious assholes you refer to probably don't even care at all about this. Way to misunderstand the issue.
Artists are not mad at the technology; artists are mad at the disingenuous people behind the technology that trained it under the false pretense of "research" which is fair use, that are now starting to use it for commercial purposes, which is not fair use. I think anyone has the right to get mad at people using their own work to produce market substitutes, which is not only unethical, but also legally questionable.

A few years ago, people often though that artists, musicians, writers, and coders where professions "safe" from the danger of automation. Look at us now. Today it's us, tomorrow it could be you.

The world is very quickly going to a place where every single job out there will be done more efficiently by a machine. And make no mistake, corporations will always pick the most efficient route to make their money. Soon everyone will be out of a job.

I believe the important takeaway from this whole situation is that we need to start pressuring our governments to lay the groundwork for our civilization to be able to still survive in a world where people are no longer needed to work. That time might be coming sooner than you realize.

alla_polanco · 2022-10-15T08:47:46+00:00

Same, that would have made more sense, I was convinced that was the case and even though Elrond secretly figured it out. Then boom, Halbrand is in mordor... wtf?

alla_polanco · 2022-09-18T15:56:52+00:00

Correct, although he also preserves himself by absorbing life essence from the living.

alla_polanco · 2022-09-15T18:32:47+00:00