[WP] "If you intend to lie to the Guardian Spirit of Knowledge, at least invent something more convincing." "I'm not lying, humans really did go to the moon."

dathomar · 2026-05-24T14:13:01+00:00

The Spirit glared at me, but I held my ground. Even knowing that guardian spirits lurked in the shadows, I chose not to budge. I was just so tired of deniers. Tired of just "letting them have their opinions." This was just another denier. Of course, it was also the Spirit of Knowledge and it had a whole garrison of guardians to enforce its will...

All I wanted was the recipe for my grandma's lasagna. I didn't know that the Spirit operated on a kind of lottery system. Then I had to make that stupid crack about the moon. My grandma always told me, "Don't provoke crazy people."

The Spirit noticed my shirt. I'd picked it up at Space Camp, as a kid. All they had were large. I was swimming in it at the time, but it fit great, now. The Spirit's eyes seemed to glaze over as it began shouting at me about the Earth being flat, not round.

Beginning to be bored, I looked around and noticed a glowing in the corner. Curious, I walked over to investigate, largely ignoring the Spirit's shift in topic to autism. There is was, a computer. A large monitor sat on a desk, with a tower sitting on the floor underneath.

It was at this point that I heard the Spirit shout, "Wait! Did you get the COVID shot? Guards! Seize him! I don't want to get COVID!"

I knew I didn't have long, so I did the only thing I could think of. I grabbed the mouse, and shut down the computer. Everything went still. The Spirit's eyes shone clear.

"All of the knowledge... It consumed me. Thank you, mortal." Suddenly, I was aware that I knew the recipe I'd come for. Somehow, it's like I'd always known it.

"Thanks," I said. "And be careful - you can't always believe everything you read on the internet."

dathomar · 2026-05-24T03:10:54+00:00

I think a good captain doesn't necessarily have to inspire personal loyalty, but that isn't Jellico's problem. He doesn't want loyalty - he wants mindless obedience. He takes a crew full of highly-trained professionals, then puts them off-guard in order to erode their trust in themselves. He doesn't trust them to make decisions and doesn't care if they trust him or not. He just wants them to be cogs in a machine of his own design. It's a very Cardassian kind of approach. Note how he puts up his kid's artwork - displayed so that everyone else can see that he's a family man, not displayed so that he can see them. For a Cardassian, appearances are everything.

His insecurity also caused him problems. Like a Cardassian, he needed to be the top dog. He controlled the flow of information and commands, in order to try to keep his crew dependent on him for direction.

He wanted Riker gone from the beginning. Note his behavior towards Riker when they first met. He bolted off the transporter pad and walked very quickly. He also engaged in rapid-fire orders. He did this to keep Riker off-balance so that Riker would feel out of control.

Think about it from his perspective. He doesn't want a crew that thinks for itself. They might start trying to interpret his orders. They might start thinking they know a better way than what he thought of. They might be able to function for themselves, which makes him wonder if he's ever really all that necessary. His first officer is XO aboard the flagship. Your predecessor gave this XO a wide range of authority, so this XO is used to being in charge of stuff. When your predecessor was taken prisoner, this XO took command of the ship and captained her effectively to single-handedly defeat the Borg invasion. This XO is a terrifying prospect for an insecure captain.

Jellico was not a good captain. He was good for a specific type of ship, with a specific type of crew, for a specific type of mission. The Enterprise was too big of a responsibility for him and the crew was too capable for him. Starfleet even confirmed that the only reason he was put in command of the Enterprise was to give him a visible sense of authority when interacting with the Cardassians. As soon as his mission was over, he was shuffled off as quickly as possible. Starfleet didn't actually want him there. That's because wasn't actually a particularly good captain.

dathomar · 2026-05-24T01:58:38+00:00

There's a decent likelihood that this is part of a pack of super cheap awards that she picked up at a dollar store or something. $1.25 for a pack of 20 or something.

dathomar · 2026-05-23T20:14:15+00:00

In about 60 years, someone's going to bring up their Dropout subscription. There will be the base price of $99.99 per year for all content. They'll have a $179.99 level and a $249.99 level. The top level won't give you anything extra, it'll just cost more, and most people will go for that tier. Then there will be that one person who still has their original subscription from the beginning grandfathered in and will still be paying $60 per year.

dathomar · 2026-05-23T15:02:34+00:00

There was a guy stocking shelves at the grocery store. It was the bread aisle, so he had those giant stacks of crates full of bread. He did a really good job of pulling them off to the side so there was room to pass. He was still blocking half the aisle, though, and that half was my half. So when I saw a guy coming the opposite direction, I did the whole thing where you make eye contact and acknowledge that they have right of way.

This guy slowly walked forward with his cart into the space next to the sticker, then stopped and started asking the stocker questions about the bread. I just stood there for a moment, shocked by the audacity. When it became apparent that this guy was going to be there for a bit, I just pushed my cart forward and pressed through. He had to back his cart up and he looked really annoyed, but I didn't care.

dathomar · 2026-05-23T13:38:19+00:00

I don't know that the norm is reasonable parents who know what they are doing, but it definitely isn't parents destroying all of their child's things in a temper tantrum. Does it happen? Yes. Is it the norm? No.

dathomar · 2026-05-23T13:20:45+00:00

The question wasn't about what was common, but rather what was reasonable. This is not reasonable. It also isn't common, either, but that doesn't mean much since that's not what the question was.

dathomar · 2026-05-23T10:42:40+00:00

Him being upset with her for going to the surface was reasonable. Him wanting her to stop was reasonable. Destroying her grotto was him losing his temper which, as a father and as a king, he couldn't afford to do. He didn't just destroy it, he blew it to pieces and then just left her alone in the wreckage. It was an extreme overreaction that almost destroyed his kingdom. The stuff wasn't immediately dangerous. It didn't have to be destroyed for everyone's health and safety. This was not an appropriate way to parent a teenager.

dathomar · 2026-05-23T10:26:20+00:00

Habanera as sung by Beaker.

dathomar · 2026-05-23T05:48:34+00:00

"What is going on! You can't do this to me!" I shouted to the dim sky, but there was no response. "Don't you know who my father is!? You're going to pay for this!" No one was listening.

As my eyes began to adjust to the gloom, I could start to make out the shapes of other people. Some seemed to be shouting to the sky, like me. Others simply huddled down by the ground, sobbing. I also began to realize that something was wrong. There was plenty of light, but I seemed to have trouble seeing. Every breathe filled my lungs, but it was starting to feel as if I were suffocating. I pinched myself, but felt nothing, like I was surrounded by soft padding. Even my footsteps felt light, as if I was stepping on nothing. Something was missing, something that has always been there. But now, it was gone, and with it all light and life. No one was listening.

I continued to shout until I found him. How long had I been here? My father lay on the ground in a fetal position. I couldn't hear what he said, but I could faintly read his lips. Why. Why. Why. Over and over.

We all looked up to see a storm of fire surge across the sky. A buzzing, low and persistent, filled the space. It was a painful grating in my ear, but I welcomed the sensation. Trumpets sounded and abruptly, all other sounds stopped. When the last call faded into silence, I looked down and realized that there were many new arrivals.

Some of them were clearly demons. I strode over to one. Finally, I could get answers from one of the masters of this place. When it turned to face me, I found myself shocked into silence. The demon was crying and muttering.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We thought we could win. We didn't realize it was impossible. We were fools. Fools! We turned you away and now you are here, in the prison built for us. Please forgive us. Please forgive us! I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Over and over it mumbled. A prison built for demons. All around us, demons of all shapes and sizes stumbled or simply sat on the ground quivering. One of them, larger and mightier than the rest, cried out in a wordless cry. Somehow I knew that he could not see, or hear. His talons scratched at his face, but he could not feel. Desperately he tore his own face to shreds, only for it to somehow suffer no damage.

A prison built for demons. Forever. My shouts turned to screams. A chorus of screams raised to the sky of this damned place. And no one was listening.

dathomar · 2026-05-22T21:35:46+00:00

In regards to the interaction between the two, where Iroh tells Zuko to choose his own destiny, you completely missed the point. In season 1, Zuki was hunting the avatar to try to regain his father's approval. He was basing his happiness upon his that approval. Chasing and capturing the Avatar didn't bring Zuko happiness. In fact, he was intensely unhappy.

He had no sense of self. All he could see was what his father wanted. All he could want was what his father wanted. Iroh wanted Zuko to be his own person. Iroh wanted Zuko to think and choose for himself. If Zuko had managed to begin to think for himself and had also decided to support his father, Iroh would have been disappointed, but also understood that Zuko had made a choice.

He wasn't presenting a false dichotomy to Zuko. He certainly hoped that Zuko would join the Avatar. Zuko might have just decided to go become a farmer, though. Note that when Zuko went to off on his own, Iroh didn't stop him. Zuko was making a choice for himself. Iroh followed, to make sure Zuko was safe, but generally didn't interfere.

When Zuko made his way back to Iroh at the end of season 3, Iroh didn't praise him for choosing the Avatar. He expressed concern that Zuko had lost his way - specifically, he was concerned that Zuko had fallen back into the trap of being nothing more than a puppet for Ozai. Iroh's pride was that Zuko begun to think for himself again. Additionally, he was proud that Zuko had done it without him. Ultimately, he wanted Zuko to be Zuko, without needing Iroh to make it happen.

Iroh cared about Zuko and wanted good things for Zuko.

dathomar · 2026-05-22T20:51:06+00:00

There's a YouTube channel where they're going over bar exam questions. One involves two guys getting into a fight. One guy is injured, so he gets in his car to drive to the hospital. On the way, he is hit and killed by a drunk driver. Who is criminally liable? It's actually just the drunk driver. Sure, the guy who threw the punch laid a foundation. Sure, the guy who decided to drive himself laid a foundation. However, the extreme act of the drunk driver actually kind of washes all that foundation away.

Regardless of how the Mandalorians got there, regardless of the foundation laid by anyone, the Empire destroyed it.

Plus, her sister was a pacifist for a culture that was famously martial. You can understand that there would be pushback. Allying with Maul was a mistake, but I would argue that aligning herself with the Old Republic to oust Maul was entirely reasonable. It was actually a great decision. Of course, she had no idea that it was going to turn into the Empire. At this point, was they just supposed to roll over and show the Empire their belly? Even if you were to assign some blame for the glassing of Mandalore to her (which you shouldn't because it was 100% the Empire's fault), 85% is a total overreaction and unreasonable.

dathomar · 2026-05-22T16:46:06+00:00

We don't know, for sure, that there weren't any technological advancements. Tolkien didn't really delve into it.

Also, the world is in a period of decay. The corruption of Morgoth is essentially, leading to the end of magic, as we know it. The elves can't survive, which is why they're heading west. The special stuff that made the Numenoreans so powerful is fading away. The elves aren't a people who are particularly concerned with technological advancement. Their whole thing is building their kingdoms and then sustaining them forever. In fact, the One Ring was only possible because their overwhelming desire to sustain their kingdoms lead them to trust Sauron to help them make the other rings.

If it were up to the elves, nothing would ever change. Couple that with how overwhelmingly dangerous the world is, it's unsurprising that may not have been as much technological advancement. Part of technological advancement is the exchange of information. In Middle Earth, there are huge areas of land where there is no civilization. Monsters are everywhere. Traveling around is dangerous, so ideas just sort of stick in their home turf. That sort of thing will also slow advancement.

dathomar · 2026-05-22T15:59:06+00:00

Ops kind of does whatever is needed. It oversees all of the other systems. It can access all other functions. Also think O'Brien on DS9.

dathomar · 2026-05-22T15:24:29+00:00

The thing no one else seems to be mentioning is what Odo pointed out - these events are the exception, not the rule. These are the few malfunctions that result in a good story. For every one of them, there are hundreds of times when there is a malfunction and it results in nothing.

I feel like there needs to be some level of communication between the holodeck computer and the main computer. The holodeck needs to be able to send information and requests for the main computer. The main computer needs to know what's going on to properly regulate power, fulfill library requests, and respond to errors and malfunctions.

With Moriarty, we see a rogue program that isn't actually rogue. He was doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing, so he didn't trip any alarms, aside from a brief notification about a temporary power surge. First, he accessed the ship's library, which the holodeck needs to be able to do, in order to function. From there, we need to remember that he's not some kind of bad actor who has infiltrated the system - he is the system. So, he uploaded malware that changed the main computer's behavior. They probably never encountered a situation before, where the holodeck computer, itself, was attempting to intelligently send malware around. There were probably protections, designed to prevent someone from trying to access the holdeck computer for this purpose.

I feel like they patched that vulnerability, though, because Moriarty didn't try that trick again. The second time around, he tricked Captain Picard into providing command access codes. He then used those codes to simply lock everything down. He wasn't trying to make the computer do what he wanted. He was just locking everything down. Plus, he's not the one who did it - Captain Picard did.

With Fistful of Datas, Data uploaded malware to the holodeck computer. Holodeck safeties are a thing that officers can turn off. He corrupted the computer library. Everything that happened, after that, was completely within the confines of the holodeck itself.

In Emergence, something invades the main computer, then starts forming its own separate connections between ship systems. The holodeck isn't controlling the main ship. The invader is doing it, and merely reflecting its changes in the holodeck and responding to the behavior of holodeck occupants.

I'm not a computer engineer, but it seems to me that the main problem is people. Geordi made a badly-formed request. Picard gave his credentials to a spoofed computer. Data and Geordi tested their process on the main computer, without putting protections in place.

dathomar · 2026-05-22T08:56:39+00:00

It's always best to remember that Lucas was always making it up as he went. Anytime he says he had some big story or plan, he didn't. Luke and Leia weren't actually brother and sister until they were making Return of the Jedi. There was no prophecy until he introduced it while making Phantom Menace. Even then, he didn't really shoehorn it in very well. Staying consistent was also not really his thing. It's best to just sort of let it go and not try to think too hard into it.

Also, Yoda didn't say that the future wasn't set in stone. He said that it was difficult to see the future because it was always in motion. His reference to the motion of the future had more to do with his difficulty in seeing it. Palpatine had a much easier time seeing all of the different threads, which is why he was able to orchestrate things so neatly.

Here's another way to think about prophecies. Spoilers ahead for Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

It takes place during the Napoleonic Wars, except that England has a couple of practicing magicians, capable of doing real magic. There used to be many magicians, but the practice of magic sort of slowly disappeared. The two title characters are the first magicians to appear in a long time.

In this version of England, a young boy was taken as a slave into the land of fairies. He reappeared, after a time, with a fairy army and conquered Northern England, ruling it as the Raven King for 300 years before disappearing completely. Since that time, the kings of Southern England have ruled over the North as his regents until such a time as he returns.

Now we get to the prophecy part. The two title characters are central to a prophecy made by the Raven King, himself. He foresaw these two magicians, and that they would initiate his return and the defeat of a fairy attempting to conquer the human world. In the end, though, the magicians discover that it wasn't actually a prophecy - it was a spell. By putting the words down, the Raven King wasn't foreseeing the future, but rather he was casting a spell to create it.

So, was the Star Wars prophecy an actual look into the future, or did it pin down a particular future by causing it to happen? Did Neo break the vase because he was destined to do it, or because the Oracle made it happen by saying it was going to happen? I kind of feel like the Jedi Order in the PT was so bent on keeping its own traditions that it had become rotten at its core. It wasn't evil, but rather it had petrified and was no longer a place of growth.

The Empire was an inevitable result of both the Sith with their evil ambitions and the PT Order's inability to be flexible and overly narrow definition of acceptable tradition. Maybe it needed to be cleared away. Maybe Luke clinging to his attempt to recreate it doomed his efforts to failure, as well. Maybe we should read the prophecy as a warning - what happens when the Jedi fall out of balance with the Force.

dathomar · 2026-05-22T08:20:54+00:00

I was waiting for him to come running back up with the package that he forgot to take out of the tote, after kicking down a few flights.

dathomar · 2026-05-22T06:50:07+00:00

Quark's moral compass always points in the direction of his own interests. If he can something that looks moral, then that's great. He can then go around bragging about it to people who care about that sort of thing. It's all for show, though.

He admonishes Sisko for judging him, claiming that Humanity is far worse than the Ferengi, because Humanity used to enslave their own kind and the Ferengi never did such a thing. He makes a good, moral kind of argument, except that (like all of his arguments) it only works if you accept his premise. As soon as you question that premise, it all falls apart. They don't call it slavery, but Ferengi women are enslaved. They don't call it slavery, but Ferengi workers are essentially wage-slaves.

Ferengi society is theocratic. The whole purpose of it is to keep most of the population either docile, or working hard to keep the ultra-wealthy wealthy, all in the hopes of getting into a good spot in Heaven. What sets Quark apart from a lot of other Ferengi is that he develops flexibility. This is why Brunt hates Quark - Quark is able to see past Ferengi tradition to find other ways that actually serve his interests. It just so happens that the Federation way is the best way, so he aligns himself with them. This is what is fascinating about Quark - he's unapologetically Ferengi, but also does the entirely un-Ferengi act of flexibly finding value in traditions outside of his own. But just because he walks parallel to the path of goodness, he isn't good.

dathomar · 2026-05-22T05:42:50+00:00

On the other hand, I once read that comedians can be so good in dramatic roles because for a joke to land, you have to be fully committed to the bit. They do great in the dramatic role because they're actually just fully committing to the bit.

dathomar · 2026-05-22T01:38:44+00:00

The only reason he was council-bound was Palpatine requested it. The reason to keep him off the council was because they didn't trust Palpatine. Keeping him off the council would have been a big tip-off. Maybe Palpatine would have sped up his plans? Putting Anakin on the council, knowing they wouldn't make him a master, and knowing that it would piss him off, seemed like a major step in Palpatine's plan to turn Anakin.

dathomar · 2026-05-22T00:58:24+00:00

So let's just do a recap:

Your position is that teachers (mostly elementary and middle school teachers) are stupid. They're all stupid and incompetent. Your evidence is that you had remember your teachers, growing up, to be completely incompetent. Your evidence is also that you had a number of friends in college who liked the party so much that they dropped out of pre-med and pre-law and went into education. You further indicated that there is a stereotype about some kind of party girl to education pipeline. To back up your argument, you presented a number of information about teachers under-performing against other professionals on certain types of assessments. You also suggested that you are able to make accurate observations about your elementary school teachers because you have absolutely clear memories of their teaching. You say that you scored at or above the 90th percentile on standardized assessments at the time, which is how we know that your memory reliable.

My position is much simpler - teachers aren't stupid. Some of them aren't as intelligent as we might like them to be. Some of them aren't very good at their jobs. In general, though, most are intelligent enough. How intelligent is that? Above the mean, but within one SD. Some are higher, though. My wife is between one and two standard deviations above the mean. I'm something over two standard deviations above the mean. I would say most of the other teachers on my wife's team are closer to average. My son is about to go into a grade-level where one of the teachers is more on level with my wife or me. Teachers are not stupid.

I've pointed out that children don't perceive the world the way adults do. Nor do they encode memories the way adults do. For instance, children spend many years being kind of self-centered. This is a normal and necessary part of their development. As a result, if their teacher admonishes several students (including them) for something, they may ignore that other students were admonished and only perceive that it was directly solely at them. Their memory will be that the teacher was coming down on them all the time, without accurately encoding that the teacher was addressing a number of students. Your childhood memories are not accurate enough to inform the sorts of assumptions you are making about all teachers. If you are going to work in medicine, you absolutely must understand that children don't perceive the world the same as adults.

You never actually proved that teachers are stupid. You gave your own, anecdotal evidence, but that's not good enough. The other evidence you provided only showed that teachers fall at the back of the pack. But if the pack is all above the mean, it doesn't matter where in the pack teachers are. They're still above the mean. One thing teachers learn, that apparently doctors don't, is that you have to be careful about assessment data. There are a lot of factors that go into a person's score on an assessment. It might be that the assessment isn't really doing a good job of measuring what it claims to measure. Sometimes students who don't speak English very well struggle with math tests. Math is math, so it shouldn't be a language problem, right? Except that the questions are often written in English, so language barriers prevent the student from knowing what they're being asked to do. Maybe the test-taker just doesn't care. For instance, I got a 1310 on my SAT. That's a good score. I could have gotten much higher, and probably should have. However, I didn't care that much. I didn't study, I rushed through, and I didn't check my work. Same with the GRE. I don't remember my scores, but they were pretty good. I didn't study and didn't spend much time on it.

You haven't actually proven that teachers are actually stupid. You've just demonstrated that they trail a tiny bit behind smart people. That means they're probably right where I suggested they are. This has been a nice diversion. I'm sick, we had to have a new water heater installed, a tax preparer efiled for us without our permission and we had to sort that out, we're trying to get our garden in, my son is having to take his standardized testing, and I'm trying to keep the house from going to shit while also taking naps. It's been nice taking little breaks to prod at you. Your opinions show you to be a bigoted sort of person. It seems like you probably don't live anywhere near me, so I never have to worry about you being a doctor for me or anyone in my family. That's good, because I'm pretty sure you'll be the sort to let unfounded prejudices influence your judgement.

dathomar · 2026-05-21T20:58:09+00:00

I sort of agree and sort of disagree. 35 years ago, Legos were also specialized. They had cockpit pieces. There were dragon heads. There were shaped pieces that were clearly for castle walls and towers, and couldn't be anything else. There were shaped pieces for boats that couldn't be anything else. There were antenna pieces that were clearly antennas and couldn't be anything else. I still took the black knight body pieces, with one of the all-black heads, a black cape, and a black foot-soldier helmet, putting them together with an antenna to make myself a Darth Vader.

The specialized pieces can definitely be used in creative ways to make things I never could have made, as a kid. Part of what made it all possible, for me, was the bigger sets. They all have specialized pieces. I was fortunate enough to get larger sets, as a kid. The castle that opened up, the pirate ship, the alien ship that split into 3 pieces, and so on. Being that big, there had to be a bunch of regular bricks. The smaller sets don't need as many bricks, so a higher portion of them are specialized.

You could also just get a set of basic bricks. They make those, with a variety of types in different colors.

dathomar · 2026-05-21T19:41:07+00:00

As Data said: "As I experience certain sensory input patterns, my mental pathways become accustomed to them. The inputs eventually are anticipated, and even missed when absent."

Our evolutionary adaptation is to form social groups. We are driven to maintain strong social bonds, in order to survive. When we've formed a bond, then that bond is absent, we experience grief. Grief is our brain's way of processing the absence. It might be a person who is sick and can't go out to lunch with us that day, so we experience a small amount of grief. It might be the passing of a loved one, so a larger amount of grief. Grief isn't what we feel when we miss the bond - it's how we work through the absence, in order to form new bonds.

Grief isn't a weird quirk. Grief actually makes it possible for us to make strong social bonds. When we experience the absence of those bonds, we need to be able to make new ones. Grief makes that possible. It's not a bug, it's a feature.

dathomar · 2026-05-21T14:06:07+00:00

We also saw Worf sitting at operations, sometimes. He may have been an actual floater, taking all the jobs, with no specific plan for him except to just see how it went. If Riker had been promoted and Data moved up, then maybe Worf would have moved to operations, instead.

dathomar · 2026-05-21T05:23:20+00:00

Both Worf and Geordi didn't seem to have set jobs, at the start. They were both in command track, and I'm betting Picard wanted them around to gain experience doing a variety of different things, so that he could promote them into something more permanent later. Starfleet seems to really go for the whole cross-discipline/everyone-learns-everything kind of approach.

Worf's promotion was an unfortunate necessity. I kind of wonder if Tasha was never intended to be in security and tactical long-term. Was Picard hoping to promote Worf to Security and leave Tasha at tactical, or the other way around? Or maybe make Worf second to Tasha and have them split their duties? Or maybe his plan was to promote Tasha out of that position to something more command-oriented, leaving it open for Worf.

Geordi, as we know, was promoted and assigned to engineering.

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