Lonely? Ugly? How about moving to copper-silver-zinc mining town, Mt Isa? (Shhh, don’t mention the heavy metals.) Remember John Molony? He’s the mayor who said that Indigenous people were the “wrong sort of people” for Mount Isa, and demanded that… Read More ›
Day: 2008-08-17
Carnivalia, transgenderism and the gender binary
Two feminist blogging carnivals were published this week: Carnival Against Sexual Violence 53 The 17th Carnival of Radical Feminists Both carnivals contain plenty of excellent posts to ponder, provoke and especially to disturb. Which brings me to the posts that… Read More ›
SF Sunday: machines and freedom from slavery
From my Quotes File (which you can see serving up random quotes at the bottom of the sidebar):
The fact is, that civilization requires slaves. The Greeks were quite right there. Unless there are slaves to do the ugly, horrible, uninteresting work, culture, and contemplation become almost impossible. Human slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralizing. On mechanical slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the future of the world depends.
Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900)
I find the search for the perfect robot society a continuing feature of SF novels,
Bedside Manner
I shared this on my eljay the other day, and thought some Hoydenizens might appreciate it. ‘Tis a conversation I had with my son, known online as The Lad, the other day after school. I wish I could adequately communicate the tone of voice and the flourishes.
“Hi. I’m Doctor Lad.”
“Hi, Doctor.”
“I’m going to have to take an X-ray. Zzht. zzp, zzp, zht. Ohhhhh.” [serious look]
Hoyden About Town 