31 OCT 2018 by ideonexus
Adult is Not a Term of Approval
Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about bei...Folksonomies: maturity juvenillia
Folksonomies: maturity juvenillia
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notes27 JUL 2018 by ideonexus
Infective Hallucination in "Martian Chronicles"
The psychologist shut his eyes and scratched his nose. “This is the most incredible example of sensual hallucination and hypnotic suggestion I’ve ever encountered. I went through your «rocket,» as you call it.” He tapped the hull. “I hear it. Auditory fantasy.” He drew a breath. “I smell it. Olfactory hallucination, induced by sensual telepathy.” He kissed the ship. “I taste it. Labial fantasy!”
He shook the captain’s hand. “May I congratulate you? You are a psychotic genius! You have done a...Folksonomies: science fiction
Folksonomies: science fiction
1 notes
notesAn alien psychologist on a planet of telepaths believes visitors from Earth are insane and their insanity is contagious.
10 MAR 2017 by ideonexus
The Race Where Children are Fathered by the Tribe
The key to the understanding of this race is, I believe, its strange method of reproduction, which was essentially communal. Every individual was capable of budding a new individual; but only at certain seasons, and only after stimulation by a kind of pollen emanating from the whole tribe and carried on the air. The grains of this ultra-microscopically fine pollen dust were not germ cells but "genes," the elementary factors of inheritance. The precincts of the tribe were at all times faintly ... 1 notes
notes21 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
World-Building Questions
1. BASIC INFRASTRUCTURE
There can be no human (or alien) civilization or settlement without plumbing, energy supply, or waste disposal. So you need to spend at least a little bit figuring out how all of this worksunderneath your story’s setting.
How do your characters eat? How do they transport and store food?
How is waste handled?
Where does the water come from?
Who provides the clothes and shoes (or gear)?
What money system is there? Is there a single currency? Several? Electronic money? Wh...Folksonomies: writing science fiction
Folksonomies: writing science fiction
1 22 FEB 2015 by ideonexus
Scent as Data in a Beehive
To shield her antennae from the many bruising signals in the air, she walked with her head low. Air currents and electrical pulses from thousands of bees rippled against her, but Flora ignored them all. The pulsing track alone held her focus, clear and simple across the perilously busy lobby, where she had to slow down because of the tempest of data underfoot.
A rush of workers came through in a tumult of scent and Flora lifted her head—then the rhythm of the foot-current drew her on. She tr... 1 notes
notes21 APR 2014 by ideonexus
History in "A Song of Ice and Fire"
In this, the obvious contrast is with the only work of fantasy to compare in terms of ambition and achievement to Martin's own: The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien's Middle-earth, unlike Westeros, is the creation of a dauntingly learned scholar: his ambition was to fashion from the languages, literature and history of the early middle ages an invented mythology that would nevertheless retain the stamp of the period that had inspired it. Martin's approach is infinitely more slapdash. Just as the ch... 1 notes
notesASOIF contains many references to real history.
24 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Geometry Sets the Mind Right
Geometry enlightens the intellect and sets one's mind right. All its proofs are very clear and orderly. It is hardly possible for errors to enter into geometrical reasoning, because it is well arranged and orderly. Thus, the mind that constantly applies itself to geometry is not likely to fall into error. In this convenient way, the person who knows geometry acquires intelligence. It has been assumed that the followmg statement was written Upon Plato's door: 'No one who is not a geometrician ...Folksonomies: mathematics meditation
Folksonomies: mathematics meditation
Makes me think about mindfulness meditation, which is fine, but there are meditative practices that are proactive as well.
24 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Multisensory Integration
In sensory perception, multisensory integration is the rule, not the exception. In audition, we don’t just hear with our ears, we use our eyes to locate the apparent sources of sounds in the cinema where we “hear” the voices coming from the actors’ mouths on the screen, although the sounds are coming from the sides of the theater. This is known as the ventriloquism effect. Similarly, retronasal odors detected by olfactory receptors in the nose are experienced as tastes in the mouth. The sensa...Folksonomies: perception senses
Folksonomies: perception senses
1 notes
notesBarry C. Smith describes how our senses collaborate, our hearing with our sight to read lips and our sense of smell with taste to enhance one another.
28 MAY 2013 by ideonexus
A Succinct Response to Overgeneralization
I think you may be mistaking what are actually contrasting and often contradictory statements of discrete individuals across several communities for a monolithic statement of belief by a single collective mind.Folksonomies: debate
Folksonomies: debate
Posted to a forum.
21 MAY 2013 by ideonexus
You Are Not the Same Person You Were as a Child
Think of an experience from your childhood. Something you remember clearly, something you can see, feel, maybe even smell, as if you were really there. After all, you really were there at the time, weren’t you? How else would you remember it?
But here is the bombshell: you weren’t there.
Not a single atom that is in your body today was there when that event took place … Matter flows from place to place and momentarily comes together to be you.
Whatever you are, therefore, you are not the s...
2 All your cells and atoms have been replaced since then -- this is not true, but it is partially true and food for thought.
