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Document comments on Greg Egan disses stand-ins for Overcoming Bias, SIAI in new book - Less Wrong Discussion

35 Post author: Kaj_Sotala 07 October 2010 06:55AM

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Comment author: Document 20 October 2010 02:03:29AM 7 points [-]

There are a stories about dangerous knowledge and stories about censorship gone mad, but I can't think of one where the reader theirself isn't sure which it is.

Comment author: khafra 08 November 2010 06:17:44PM 4 points [-]

There's a related concept in the stage production Urinetown, where the draconian controls of the police state turn out to have been necessary all along; and the Philip K. Dick short story The Golden Man, where the government's brutal crackdown on mutants and sadistic experimentation are defied by a lone researcher, directly leading to implied cosmic waste.

But the closest story I can think of to ambiguous censorship is Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone, where the protagonist controls some Langford Basilisks; and censorship per se doesn't play a big part in the plot.

Comment author: Alicorn 08 November 2010 06:52:50PM 5 points [-]

There's a related concept in the stage production Urinetown, where the draconian controls of the police state turn out to have been necessary all along

As a musical, Urinetown is okay, but its premise does not make sense. They have somehow managed, in spite of the water shortage and the wherewithal to institute massive societal change to manage it, to continue using restroom facilities that cost water, and they only don't all die because they charge money to use those facilities, as though this will affect how much waste a person produces. This is all instead of a water-free facility, or better yet, reclamation.

Comment author: Broggly 23 February 2011 02:06:29PM 0 points [-]

And given that the Haber-Bosch process requires water (to produce the hydrogen gas), it seems a little stupid to ban public urination rather than simply insisting they urinate on trees or into buckets for their farmers to use.

Comment author: HonoreDB 18 February 2011 12:43:27AM 0 points [-]

The Pillowman and The Metal Children, both recent plays, come to mind.