Uncorrelated, Not Uncaused II

Random thoughts.

• In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, vampires don't have souls. Now, I could see if they were simply reanimated by demons (which would presumably have access to the memories in the physical brains, to pass for their old selves), but they appear to actually retain their old identity, since that lets them angst.
  
  Joss, Joss, Joss. Get out the crayons and construction paper, I need you to try to explain what you think the word "soul" means. 'Cause, body-self dualism is bad enough: but soul-self dualism is just...it's just awful.
  
  God what a hack.


• Did you know Cortana's voice actress does the voice of Princess Peach in English? Yeah. Which, uh...remember that part in Halo 3, when you think you've rescued her, but then it's just a recording? Ahem: "Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!"
  
  Also: Halo 4 trailer at E3! Wooo! Combat Evolved re-release with the Reach engine! Wooo! The Flood portrayed with Reach's graphics engine! Uh, I'm not so sure I like that idea.


• I'm also not so sure about this Wii-You, or whatever it's called, thing. On the one hand, it's another gimmicky peripheral for the Wii (they are apparently adamant it's not a new console), and the Wii is built around a gimmicky peripheral. Yeah, there's some cool stuff in Metroid on the Wii—I could turn those switch-levers all damn day—but nevertheless you should not get tennis elbow from a video game.
  
  On the other hand, though, I do like each player having a second screen, wherein they can...do things. Most of the applications I can think of don't have much use in the kinds of games the Wii is most associated with, but if they broaden their horizons that wouldn't be so bad.


• Speaking of, why don't people understand that the optimum control scheme for almost any machine is basically a 360 or DualShock controller? Two joysticks, each with four buttons at its top and two in its front: more than enough to control anything that moves. Now, in a real machine you'd probably put the six buttons on top of the controller, like some of those joysticks from the PC gaming days, but the principle is still the same.
  
  Also, it is really long past time that NASA noticed that the "rotational hand controller" and "translational hand controller", on vehicles like the Space Shuttle, are basically the two sticks on a 360 controller. They're even on the same sides of the body (which some FPS at some point may have copied, I remember Red Faction used a similar layout). Hey, UAWs are controlled with PS2 controllers, why not spaceships?


• Which reminds me, science fiction isn't just making people's politics stupid by making global warming seem much more urgent, with the idea of terraforming. No, it also makes them stupid about UAWs and other unmanned drones.
  
  Example. I was in this one class, and, I forget why, but we were talking about how the military uses robots for a lot of things, like IED disposal (IED-EOD?). And this guy was saying that worried him, because "what if it starts attacking people?" A legitimate concern, but not borne out by the facts: I explained that they're "robots" only in the sense they aren't manned, but are remote controlled, not autonomous AIs.
  
  But science fiction, for all the love I bear it, must take the blame: it's us, mes frères, who put the idea of rogue robot rampages into this gentleman's head. Now admittedly the journalists who don't do enough to acquaint the public with the military and its practices and equipment, are probably more to blame, but SF sure didn't help.


• So I realized a good name for my political ideals: I'm a political nihilist. I don't mean I don't believe in politics, I just mean I dwell within a howling wilderness of skepticism regarding all political ideologies. And yes, your politics is an ideology, I don't care where it comes from.
  
  A peculiar effect of this political nihilism is that the right annoys me more than the left. Although the left quite vocally believes that its politics are simply civilization and common decency (a conceit shared by nearly all Westerners, especially the English-speaking ones, since roundabout the 15th century), the right just as vocally believes its politics are common sense and rationality. Which is bullshit, read Libertarian arguments about any cultural issue some time: a lot of emotivism, appeals to the camel's nose ("We allow alcohol, so why not crack?"), and other logical fallacies, in support of what is essentially an unreasoned tribal fetish, but actual reason is in short supply.


• Finally, I'm changing my comments policy to require some sort of actual ID (OpenID, I guess it's called). I've been having some intensely annoying comments—borderline trolling, though I think the person responsible really is trying to communicate ideas, not just pick a fight. Unfortunately mixed in with those ideas is a lot of offensive and unfounded accusations, based on ill-informed journalistic stereotypes. I deal with enough of that other places without needing it on my own blog. So, anyone who wants to comment will have to log in for realsies.
  
  It's too bad, I liked my old comment policy. I shall here memorialize my old comment form message:

  Commenters are kindly requested to sign some kind of a name; anonymous comments will be deleted unless their brilliance is a radiation hazard.

  I just get a kick out of that last part.