Nornagest comments on A Kick in the Rationals: What hurts you in your LessWrong Parts? - Less Wrong

24 Post author: sixes_and_sevens 25 April 2012 12:12PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 26 April 2012 01:05:20AM *  8 points [-]

Mass Effect kicks me in the LW.

Quantum entanglement communication. AI (including superAI) all over the place, life still normal. Bad ethics. Humans in funny suits.

Your strength as a rationalist is your ability to scream 'bullshit' and throw the controller at the screen.

Comment author: Nornagest 26 April 2012 02:52:26AM *  8 points [-]

Eh. If violations of physics and common sense (never mind unusual cognitive-science concepts) in space opera had the ability to make me angry, I'd have to spend most of my time getting angry. Mass Effect actually seems fairly sane as space opera goes, though its handling of the robot rebellion motif is pretty damned ham-fisted.

The most recent Deus Ex game actually bothered me more, thanks to explicitly tackling transhumanist themes and then completely failing to resolve them in a way that showed any understanding of the subject matter. Very little in media irritates me more than a work rendering complex philosophical issues down into a trite moral quandary and then trying to award itself cool points for knowing about the issue at all.

Comment author: Jayson_Virissimo 26 April 2012 02:07:28PM 2 points [-]

In what way could Deus Ex: Human Revolution have "resolved" it's transhumanist themes without violating continuity with Deus Ex?