Settled Science changes: Isostasis vs Plate Tectonics

Some years ago I was in a forum that used Disqus for discussions. I am going to be reposting some of my better comments from there, as I find them.

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2020-01-21:

I read a book on the history of the Continental Drift theory, and it was a fascinating look at what was considered "settled science" nearly a century ago now, and why Continental Drift theory was rejected back then (a combination of personality cult around the main opposing theory and Not Invented Here syndrome, plus lack of a convincing mechanism) and how it kept coming back until it was (a) refined into Plate Tectonics, providing a partial mechanism for it (we're still refining the "but what moves the plates?" part of the theory), and (b) we were able to make precise enough measurements over time to prove that the continents did in fact move laterally, not just up and down.

A century ago, the "settled science" was something known as "isostasis", which posited that continental chunks could rise and fall (clearly observed in the rock strata), but did not entertain the notion of them sliding sideways. In fact, every Lost World romance based on sunken continents (Atlantis, Lemuria, Mu, REH's Hyborian world) was written based on the known science of the time.

Why engineers don't get human beings

2020-01-21:

Also, in the U.S. at least, engineering students tend to take only the bare minimum of humanities they are required to, because they have so much math, physics, engineering, etc. courses to cram into 4 years. Since they're not predisposed to studying humanities in the first place (or they would have majored in them), they tend to take the easiest and most superficial courses to meet the major requirements.

Critical thinking tends to be in philosophy, though if one is lucky enough to be in computer science, you can pick it up bits of it sideways via boolean logic. History, art, anthropology, psychology, sociology, political science, etc are all in the humanities, as far as STEM majors are concerned.

This is to say that we engineers & programmers tend to be ignorant ‮sessabmud‬ where studies of humans are concerned.

Why I dislike "Ancient Aliens/Ancient Astronauts" theories

2020-01-18:

In my youth, the "Ancient Astronauts" thing was really, really big--"Von" Daniken was at the height of his notority, his books were bestsellers, as were Berlitz's "Bermuda Triangle" and Pyramid Power, and New Age Woo-woo in general. People really wanted to believe maybe-benevolent aliens were out there, helping us, or something (the other interpretation of what ancient aliens were all about gave us the movie Stargate).

For me, it lost its luster not just from the debunkings of individual sites and items, but from the realization that the central thesis of Ancient Astronauts was that our ancestors--no, Those People's ancestors!--were too stupid to pile one rock on top of another in the simplest known configuration for creating tall structures. Oh look, racism was the true core mystery. What a surprise.

Trinity Blood fan

2020-01-15:

Another Trinity Blood fan! Cool.

I loved the running thing where the awkward guy who trips over his own feet and is very pacifistic, apparently timid, and avoids conflict... is the closest thing that world has to a Super-Saiyan and is a conflict-avoiding pacifist for the same reason Bruce Banner is. You REALLY don't want to make Father Abel angry, because at '100% Crusnik', he's a Person of Mass Destruction.

I also like the way they subvert the old "Beauty = Goodness" trope: the genocidal evil guy is beautiful and angelic in his powered-up form, and the compassionate pacifist who wants to save everyone is terrifying and demonic in his powered-up form. Of course, each of them started out as the opposite of where they are 'now'...

What makes tabletop games better than MMORPGs

2019-12-28:

That's where the DM invokes the magic of tabletop games and does what MMORPGs and videogame RPGs cannot: "My world, my history, my rules. You rooted out the ‮evals‬ trade in the Duchy, made the legal and political changes to make it stick, there is no ‮evals‬ trade in the Duchy. OTOH, those ‮selohssa‬ over the border are coming here and raiding your farmers to sell over the border, you might want to do something about that... You also realize that it's potentially an act of war. How do you want to handle this?"

Seriously, I'm still trying to figure out how to rewrite the Forgotten Realms history, because our Time of Troubles didn't follow the plan AT ALL. None of the future trouble Cyric causes will happen, because Cyric isn't a god. Nothing Fzoul Chembryl would do as Chosen of Waffling matters, because he's perma-dead. Ditto for Elminister. Bane ain't coming back, either, because an older and more experienced god of evil has stepped into that portfolio and is making sure that the Baneson has a fatal and permanent accident. Etc, etc, etc. And I can do that, because it's our campaign, not TSR/WOTC/Hasbro's.

Forgotten Realms elves are Neutral

2019-12-28:

(Re: High Elves) They're dicks in the Forgotten Realms, too, but with lots of good press about how they're the good guys. Funny how their ancient history involves magical WMDs, genocide and attempted genocide of whole nations of their own species, not to mention other species, and consorting with fiends to breed powerful children, which is only a racial crime worthy of being cursed and driven into the underdark if you're black-skinned. (Oh yeah, I side-eye the drow's origin story a lot after I found out what DIDN'T happen to the gold elf nation that was pulling the same ‮tihs‬ the drow were. Correllon Larethian, chief elf god, is a racist. Or it was a really bad divine breakup, because the pre-drow dark elves were worshipping his lover/consort. Either way, he isn't worthy of worship by decent people).

In the "present time" of the Realms, elves and elven gods are major backers of an international organization of supposed do-gooders (The Harpers), whose major agenda is keeping strong human empires from forming. So instead of some kind of Pax Romana, they prefer small, constantly squabbling city-states. I don't think the Harpers are working in the best interests of humans...

FR Elf alignments should default to neutral, not good.

I AM MY SCARS!

2019-12-16:

For me, it was a powerful scene about consent, and doing things to people "for their own good", and the appropriate response to people who condescendingly decide that consent doesn't matter if they "know better". Illidan chose every step of his path, and became what he is by his choices and suffering and descent into evil and recovery. His running theme through the expansion (once he's actually back and not dead from being an old raid boss) is that there is no relying on divinely-appointed fate or special destiny to defeat evil, just us working together to defeat the powers of evil.

"Our destiny was never in fate's hands".

Also, if you're not familiar with the game context, the light being that was trying to remake Illidan was the Prime Naaru Xe'ra, the next best thing to an archangel in the Warcraft universe (and worshipped as the closest thing to gods the draenei have).

The Central Mystery of Christianity is the Resurrection

2019-12-16

I have long thought that the atonement theories missed the point of the Resurrection entirely because they're so focused on the Crucifixion. The execution of Jesus was a necessary prerequisite for his Resurrection, which is (or should be), the central Mystery of Christianity. It certainly is for Catholicism.

For me, the lesson of the Resurrection is this: evil will not and cannot win, and God wants us to know that.

Evangelicism is not all Christianity

2019-12-17:

Problem with Evangelicalism is it's Every-Man-For-Himself with NO institutional memory or experience, just Spontaneous Individualism. A Gospel of Personal Salvation and ONLY Personal Salvation, everything else Is All Gonna Burn. And since they have no institutional experience, they keep reinventing the wheel over and over. I remember Evangelicals arguing theological points that the historic churches made a decision on CENTURIES ago, repeating the Same Old Mistakes that the RCC settled when years AD had three digits. If you're always Reinventing the Wheel (or returning to the Altar Call), how can you ever grow beyond that?

I've noticed that. And the atheists who came out of Evangelicalism tend to assume that the Evangelical level of theology is all Christianity has, and argue their "gotcha" points against Evangelical theology, while those of us who are familiar with older theologies are like, "You know the Catholic Church and the Jewish Rabbis both came up with comprehensive answers to that over a millenia ago, right?"

The Intellectual Poverty of Conservative/Evangelical Arguments

2019-12-11:

Whenever you look at the "arguments" of conservatives and fundagelicals, they haven't changed since the 1980s. If then. Back in the 1980s, they were still using arguments from the 1950s and older; newer "arguments" only happen when something new comes along, like tabletop RPGs. They do not seem to be aware that society and science have changed a great deal since those "arguments" were first fossilized. Violent crime has drastically dropped, NYC isn't insolvent, evolution and global warming are settled science, democratic socialism of the European variety hasn't turned into Stalinism, etc, etc, etc.

2019-12-08:

I can't debate Creationists, because it's like arguing with a two-year-old. They don't care about facts, they don't even understand facts, they only get holding their breath and throwing a tantrum until you leave in disgust, and then claiming they 'won'.

They have no science to debate with, so what's the debate? "The Bible says so", is not a scientific argument, and not even all *Christian* religious denominations agree that "the Bible says so" on the subject of evolution.

Russian Prejudices

2019-11-30:

I remember my mother, who knew some Russian emigres, telling me what they told her about Russian attitudes. Soviet Russians were very bigoted, with a definite social hierarchy--"Great Russians" (natives of the original Russia) were at the top, while White Russians (natives of Belarus) were considered almost as good, while all the other ethnicities in the rest of the Soviet Union were considered a bunch of barbarians and were second-class citizens at best. People outside the Soviet Union were, of course, beneath contempt. Except maybe for East Germans, who were respected and feared. The Soviets never forgot the carnage of WWII, and feared the possibility of the Germanies reuniting.

Writers Who Shouldn't be Allowed to Touch a Property

2019-12-02:

I still remember how ticked off Transformers fans got when one of the IDW writers (NOT one of the good ones) insisted that Transformers were very hard to write interesting stories for, because they were robots and robots don't have emotions or relationships. It was like, "dude, how did you manage to land a job writing Transformer comics apparently without having had any contact with the reams of previous TF material (multiple comics, multiple cartoon series, toy box character descriptions, movies) whatsoever??"

90% of us fanfiction writers had a better grasp on TF characters than this writer had.

Never got posted due to Slactivist censorbot

2019-11-22:

Critical Race Theory and intersectionality aren't ideologies, they're sociology theories and terms. It's like calling "quantum mechanics" a "political ideology". Bwuh?

"Radical feminism", which is to say, the intolerant extremists in feminism whose views are remarkably congruent with the religious right except that "straight white male" is replaced with "lesbian white woman" in the power hierarchy (both groups hate transgender people, bisexuals, queer POCs, "pornography", women who don't perform gender correctly, and freedom of speech), is used by the religious right to demonize all feminism the way ISIS and the Taliban get used to demonize all of Islam.

2019-11-20:

You know what I loathe about this asinine censorbot? It takes away my freedom of speech. I am not free to write in my native language as I intend--with or without consequences. I don't get to choose the consequences of my speech. I am forced not to write certain words, for no obvious reason. I am being trained to be inoffensive, to never be emphatic or angry, to always use euphemisms, because I have no other choice. I stand convicted by the pre-crime unit of using language, and therefore cannot be allowed to use it freely, because apparently one wrong word will end the world in flames.

And Fred keeps using this dystopian garbage-forum, so he must support and endorse it. Fred, you are a contemptible hypocrite; you write about the anti-Christian theology and behavior of the religious right, while tacitly supporting an even more insidious form of oppression. I am losing all respect for you and your opinions.

True Sign of Julius Caesar's Military Genius

2019-11-18:

Many years ago, I read a translation of Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars. One of the many things that impressed me about the man's military skills was his careful planning of logistics before every year's campaigning. He drew on his knowledge (and gathered intelligence) of tribal politics to guess who was going to make trouble next year, and established supply depots in those areas.

The man is considered one of the greatest generals in history--and one of his top concerns was his supply line. You can bet he valued the soldier whose job was to fill tool boxes.

Heinlein's sheepdogs vs wolves

2019-11-18:

Someone totally misunderstood Heinlein, who invented that metaphor. Heinlein was talking about people capable of doing violence, and that not all of them are or have to be "wolves"--violent predators. The better path is that of the "sheepdog", the one who can use violence to protect those who aren't violent.

What Heinlein didn't quite get is something that another old scifi author, James Schmitz, did: all humans are feral, untamed. All humans are capable of violence if sufficiently provoked. There are no sheep, just fluffy lazy sheepdogs who haven't been annoyed (and lazy wolves who haven't had a rabbit run past). Even avowed pacifists are capable of violence, they just choose not to use violence.
(Louis L'Amour was fond of pointing that out outside his stories, too--a lot of those 'peaceful townsfolk' in the REAL Old West included Civil War veterans who took a dim view of fools shooting up the town and robbing the local bank).

My Religion

2019-11-18:

I'm proud to call myself a "cafeteria Christian": I test all things, and keep what is good, instead of swallowing theological poison without question.

2019-11-15:

Y'know, it occurs to me that the whole doctrine of "Original Sin means all babies and children and adults everywhere are condemned unless they are baptized as Christians" is just another form of self-righteous elitism: "I'm a saved Christian, and Those People are damned heathens". Worse yet, that doctrine means it is pointless to help people in this world who are Not Saved, because they are going to eternal torment anyway, so what's the point?

The doctrine of Original Sin as taught by most Protestant sects is incompatible with God's Love, therefore, I reject it.

The interpretation of Original Sin that means "we're all born less than perfect, and have to work at being good people" is actually useful and anti-elitist.

On Abortion

2019-11-12:

Abortions have steadily dropped over the years as affordable contraceptives have become more available. Guess where the rate of abortions goes back up? In places where contraception is restricted, unaffordable, or outright illegal.

Abortions for medical reasons will continue to be necessary, and the anti-choice position of "let the mother die rather than have a medically-necessary abortion" is one of the truly evil results of the Church's war on women's choice. Any church that takes that position and/or forces hospitals they own to follow such a policy is guilty of murder and firmly in the hands of Satan, not God.

Stop trying to tie women's hands to choose when they want children, and abortions will decline, because women who don't want children for whatever reason will use contraception, and women who want children won't. Women who don't get pregnant in the first place don't have abortions.

This is Cultural Calvinism, btw

Note: going through my old Disqus account and reposting some of the more interesting comments I made to Slactivist back in the day.

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2019-11-09:

I have quite a few thoughts on this topic, because I realized that so much of pop culture about vigilantes and rogue "good-guy" cops like Dirty Harry are based on some Very Bad Ideas: to wit, (1) that people can be divided up into Good People and Bad People, and that (2) "A leopard never changes his spots", i.e., Good people never "go bad" and Bad People can never truly be good, and (3) You can infallibly tell Good People from Bad People because reasons (the reasons vary, but traditionally, being an unrepentant criminal is considered a signifier of Badness. Or being a minority criminal). The logical implications of these exceedingly bad ideas leads to "if we just eliminate all the Bad People, then no one will ever do Bad Things again and the world will be Safe", and that "Only Good People should have rights, so ignore the rights of Bad People, they're just 'technicalities' that keep us from punishing the Bad People".

These are Very Bad Ideas because they're flat-out wrong, and lead to very bad conclusions. (1) People are complex and volatile; they are neither good nor bad, for the most part, but just human, with needs, fears, ignorance and literal brain damage driving a lot of apparent criminal behavior. (Then there's the condition of living under an oppressive system, wherein just surviving from day to day may be a crime in the eyes of the oppressors, but in no way is actually bad or evil). (2) People grow and change; people grow out of youthful folly, and people fall into mature debauchery or just do something stupid out of desperation or lose touch with their compassion and let fear drive them instead. (3) Given that there are no such animals as "Good People" and "Bad People", you certainly can't tell them apart.

Why doesn't Batman just kill the Joker? Because he's really tempted to do just that, and he knows it would set him on the road to becoming an even bigger monster than the Joker.

Why doesn't Superman fix every disaster, rescue everyone, stop every crime and put every corrupt politician and criminal away/remove them? He's capable of it. Because Clark Kent is wise enough to know that humanity neither needs nor wants a vengeful god looking over everyone's shoulder, and, as much as they might want it, it's not good for humans to have everything solved for them. And it would probably turn him into a monster like TurboJesus in Left Behind.