Brin: Singularities, Nightmares, and Japanese Sci-Fi

[KZK]

 > I exclude positive intervention in order to let them -
 > or God - off the hook.  There is (1) no evidence for
 > such events and (b) had others the power to intervent,
 > there have been mega tragedies they could have helped
 > us to avoid.  Just the availablity of glass lenses,
 > would have let us skip past a thousand hellish years.

Perhaps mere human tragedies are not enough to get get the neutral / 
semi-neutral Aliens to intervene.  I would expect them to only intervene 
if they had to, not because they particularly wanted to.  (I'm also 
partial to the Matrix within a matrix scenario's.  You can never prove 
you're actually on the top level, just as any so-called deity can't 
prove it's the highest deity either.).

 > See http://ieti.org/articles/brin.htm

 > Hey, if I were anti-Japan, do you think they'd have
 > made me guest of honor for their biggest show ever,
 > the World SF Convention, in Yokohama, last year?

Stereotypes.  And you have attacked anime/manga in the past.

I stupidly forgot to mention sci-fi games, since most games have been 
made in Japan since the 80's.  Me Dumb.

 > I've seen a couple of the movies you cite.  And
 > thanks, I'll look into more.

 > Alas, I must tell you that storytelling logic often
 > seems deeply lacking.  PlanetS actually had some
 > elements I quite liked, though.

I think that's "Planetes".  As with most things 99% is not so great.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=2654

Now if you a looking for examples of various animation studio's quality, 
for say a 13 or 26 episode widescreen adaptation of _Startide Rising_:

--Sunrise does a lot space opera and mecha type shows and probably does 
it the best.  Shows that would serve as good examples of the quality of 
Sunrise work include: _Planetes_ , _Crest of the Stars_ / _Banner of the 
Stars I + II + III_, _Outlaw Star_, _The Big O_, and their masterpiece 
_Cowboy Bebop_ (altho most of the staff that made _Cowboy Bebop_ great 
moved to studio Bones).

--Bones (Spinoff company from Sunrise) does a lot of good work. 
Examples of the quality found in studio Bones work include _Cowboy 
Bebop_, _Cowboy Bebop The Movie_, and _Scrapped Princess_.

--J.C. Staff has been impressing me lately.  _Shakugan no Shana_ (Not 
Sci-fi) is a good example of their recent quality.

--Madhouse does fantastic work.  _Trigun_, _Gungrave_, _Death Note_ (Not 
really Sci-fi) are all great.

--Gonzo does a lot of CGI / Traditional animation mix, some of it pretty 
good, some not so good.  _Kiddy Grade_ is a good example of their quality.

--Production I.G. does a lot of high quality animation and CGI mixed. 
_Ghost in The Shell_, and it's even better animated TV series is their work.

--Bee Train (Spinoff Company of Production I.G.), does very Good Work. 
_Noir_ (not sci-fi) is their best work.

--Studio DEEN does OK work.  _Simoun_ is a recent show of theirs that 
can be used to gauge their quality.

--Studio Comet does OK work.  _Peach Girl_ (not sci-fi) looks great and 
follows the original manga almost exactly.

--Gainax does some interesting Work.  _Noein_, and _Neon Genesis 
Evangelion_, are their best work.  Speaking of City / Planet stomping 
monsters..

--Toei Does OK work.  Their Best work Recently is _Air, The Motion 
Picture_ (Not Sci-Fi).

--Studio Pierrot Does OK work.  Sometimes the animation is really Good, 
other times it's not so good.  They do Shows like _Bleach_ (not sci-fi).

--Studio Fantasia Does OK work.  _"Rumbling Hearts"_ (not sci-fi) is 
their great work.

And of course Ghibli does the best work of all (but you already knew that).

Their are others..

Basically the Quality of any anime comes down to
1. Who The Director(s) are.
2. Who The Character / Mechanical Designers are.
3. Who The Composer(s) are.
4. Which studio is animating it.
5. and how much $ is spent per episode.  For example, an average anime 
episode costs about $100,000, whereas a _Big O_ Episode costs upwards of 
  $400,000 per episode.

The Great thing about Japan is that creators can't be forced to give up 
their rights.  So if someone is mistreating a property, the author can 
put the kibosh on the whole the thing, etc.  Which is why you can 
actually get good long running drama series, and series / movies that 
are relatively faithful to the original work in Japan instead of the 
by-committee-tries-to-please-everyone-but-actually-pleases-no-one crap 
that usually comes out of Hollywood.

 > What I am trying to learn more about is the rising
 > KOREAN sci fi film renaissance.  I glimpsed one live
 > action time travel story, set in a parallel univ where
 > Japan still dominated Korea nowadays.  Lots of verve.
 > Wish I knew the name.

So here's my two favorite grandfather paradox scenarios:
1. Send a Less than critical-mass amount of plutonium or uranium back in 
time to near where it originally was.  Combine, critical-mass with self, 
Boom, and paradox.
2. Send a very large star into the past, to approximately where it was 
before it was sent, collapse, super-nova, black hole forms, paradox.

Most stories that deal with time travel forget that we are also moving 
very rapidly in space, so if you were to travel in time you wouldn't be 
in the relative vicinity of where you traveled from..


It seems to me, the biggest problem with faster than light travel (and 
time travel) is traveling at exactly the speed of light (which is 
division by zero).   If you could 'jump' over close to exactly c you 
could avoid most of the unpleasantries.

 > ANyway, thanks and keep spreading the memes.