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[Sergius]

I'm in the "it's just another layer out" camp, but...

"Glorified mining machines"?  As far as I can tell, the Squids aren't particularly mining-enabled.  That big boring thing (as opposed the bearded boring thing, some might say ) was quite the innovation, indeed, but the squids are the standard do-everything form.  The main computer has no imagination, and there's not even any T800 infiltrator units.  It's just a basic massed-ranks charge by loads of expendable generic units.

Of course, that's also a tactic employed by game AIs, along with the "End Of Level Boss" that also needs to be defeated.  But an actual AI could be just as 'brute-forcey'.  I don't know.  I've not encountered that many apparently malevolent AIes IRL yet.  I probably just haven't advanced my skills enough to trigger the necessary plot-events, though.

That's because the Matrix invasion is this.

I don't know why nobody has reskinned that with a Matrix theme...

EDIT: thinking about the "2nd layer" theory, I have come with my own theory: all the "humans" in the Matrix are just another kind of AI, they just live in the 2nd layer, but the TRUE real world that's outside of the computer, they're all just bits of programming residing inside this arcade machine.

It explains everything.

[Scoops Novel]

It's a book, but Murphy in the Dresden Files is so far striking me as irratatingly stupid, despite being contanstly guiltily agreed with by Harry, and it's the second book. It's goddamn magic. He's a bloody wizard. You're not going to be told everything. Neither is a setup exactly fucking impossible.

[Scoops Novel]

May i request this is extended to books? That could be fun  .

[10ebbor10]

May i request this is extended to books? That could be fun  .

I would agree with this. Better to broaden the scope than to have the thread kinda die.

Anyway, here's a bit about Darlah, which, supposedly is a science fiction novel. I think the translator had something to do with the idiotness, because the wikipedia synopsis doesn't match perfectly(especially the ending) with what I've read.

Spoiler: Might contain spoilers (click to show/hide)

So, the plot of the book is that NASA plans to send 3 teenagers to a secret military base(Called Darlah-2*) on the moon, in order to gain extra funding. However, there are some problems, most importantly that the moon is inhabited with evil, murderous, selfreplicating, unkillable doppelhangers. (Note, NASA knows this, the Apollo 11 crew was almost killed, and one of the other missions saw a doppelganger to regrow his arm without problems). In order to make the plot even more unbeliefable, the Darlah base is equiped with never explained nor referenced more than once to gravity fluxgenerators, developped by area 51. (And no, the grav gen wasn't secret, they said that on television).

Other insanity:
      -The revised Saturn rocket is supposedly a single stage to orbit (or at least to zerogravity), despite the fact that the capsule is several times larger.
      -After the moonbases power fails, it starts to overheat due to solar radiation (Highly unlikely, since any base is designed to loose more heat than it recieves. After all, there aren't much powered cooling methods that work in space )
           -For some reason, the main circuitry board is on the outside of the base, in an nonpressurized room that can only be opened/closed from the outside
                 -Also, despite the fact that emergency power is capable of sustaining the base for 24 hours, the engineers that want to repair the circuit board depart with only 30 minutes of air, and no filled backupspacesuits, rather than waiting to fill them up. (Which, afaik, doesn't take long)
     -They have to wait in the base till it's dark, because of the heat of the sun. (Not what happened during the original apollo missions. Remember, dark on the moon is absolute darkness)
     -Darlah 1 is a base armed with nuclear missiles, dug into the moon with it's own nuclear power plant and escape pod.
           -It's also completely unsecured.
           -Also, 8 50 megaton missiles are apparently capable of blowing up the moon. (Not sure anymore about the exact number and strength)**

*Surely nobody will ask what happened with Darlah 1
**Not that they are ever fired. However, the US contigency plan for a doppleganger outbreak apparently is to send someone to the moon, to reactivate the basis and launch the afforementioned warheads, in order to blow it up and sterilize it.

[misko27]

The US military plan to blow up the moon estimates around 30 trillion megatons.

[Sheb]

Source?

[Flying Dice]

Source?

GiYF.

Granted, the 30 trillion megatons came from after-the-fact calculations made by people who weren't involved with the plan. The Cold War birthed a lot of crazy things.

[Neonivek]

Honestly Darluh is sounding like a pretty funny movie/novel. I mean the sheer uttar rediculousness of it and the lengths it will go to legitimise things is hillarious!

[10ebbor10]

Honestly Darluh is sounding like a pretty funny movie/novel. I mean the sheer uttar rediculousness of it and the lengths it will go to legitimise things is hillarious!

It legitimates stuff?
As far as I've read, the only way it legitimates things is adding even more ridiculous things so that the main plot points seem to make sense in comparison.

[Neonivek]

Honestly Darluh is sounding like a pretty funny movie/novel. I mean the sheer uttar rediculousness of it and the lengths it will go to legitimise things is hillarious!

It legitimates stuff?
As far as I've read, the only way it legitimates things is adding even more ridiculous things so that the main plot points seem to make sense in comparison.

So it even spirals into a whirlpool of insanity!?! It still sounds pretty funny. It keeps trying to explain things but making less sense.

[Jopax]

Wait, how did the dopplegangers come to be anyways?

And how is wasting money on sending teengares to the moon increase funding?

There's stupid, then there's crazy stupid, by the description this book surpassess those two by a longshot.

[10ebbor10]

Never explained, nor even hinted at. Oh, and btw, the moon doppelgangers aren't the only ones. There are also some earthly doppelgangers, but those are apparently friendly(and not mentioned much except for the intro thingy.

As for fund raising, they are doing it the same way the Mars One guys were planning it. Try to make money of the press conference.

It's not a bad book perse, but it would have been improved a lot if the writer had just dropped the entire moon thingy. Really, it was nice till they launched towards the moon, and from that point on you were just waiting for the astronauts to be murdered. Because bloody hell they were bad at their job. (Another nice thingy, the only weapon on the mission was a single old sixshot revolver, given to the only astronaut they had bothered to brief about the dangers.)

Edit:

Spoiler: Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also, there's something weird with the translation.

The English/original (according to wikipedia synopss) version ends with a report of a future European mission that found the bodies, but not the doppelgangers.

The version I read ended with a diary page thingy from a Japanese girl, 2 years after the doppelgangers have destroyed the entire human resource.

Edit 2: I also haven't mentioned any of the completely strange stuff. (Ie, where the book doesn't even attempt to justifify). Or really, most of the science erros.

[Scoops Novel]

It's a nitpick that may be addressed, but i hope the whole one team of superheroes defeating aliens thing is dealt with. It can be argued that the immortals are also earthlings, and they're dealing with descendants, but they're still far older then we are. To be honest, the whole earth is the the centre of the multiverse thing in Marvel and DC feels a touch ridiculous.

Why does no one, ever, press the doctor as to why exactly the universe needs a race of mark 2 timelords? And if so, why let the earth be perpetually invaded? It's not exactly toughening humanity up in any way they couldn't be without needless deaths. I wouldn't expect the answer to the first one, but you'd think someone would have put two and two together by now?

[Neonivek]

The whole "Earth is at the center of the universe" in the DC is mostly a result of just the fact that most of the stories take place there. Otherwise earth tends to be considered rather insigificant all things considered.

As for Novel's second statement... I have no idea what he is talking about. The Doctor doesn't just destroy every race ever because he isn't that malicious.

[10ebbor10]

It's a nitpick that may be addressed, but i hope the whole one team of superheroes defeating aliens thing is dealt with. It can be argued that the immortals are also earthlings, and they're dealing with descendants, but they're still far older then we are. To be honest, the whole earth is the the centre of the multiverse thing in Marvel and DC feels a touch ridiculous.

Why does no one, ever, press the doctor as to why exactly the universe needs a race of mark 2 timelords? And if so, why let the earth be perpetually invaded? It's not exactly toughening humanity up in any way they couldn't be without needless deaths. I wouldn't expect the answer to the first one, but you'd think someone would have put two and two together by now?

What series/ book/ movie?