"'I don't believe in argument," he said......'You don't?' Erens said, genuinely surprised. 'Shit, and I thought I was the cynical one."'It's not cynicism,' he said flatly. 'I just think people overvalue argument because they like to hear themselves talk.''Oh well, thank you.''It's comforting, I suppose.' ... 'Most people are not prepared to have their minds … Continue reading Agree to Disagree or Fight
Tag: Iain M. Banks
Knife Missiles
"Designated the Hellfire R9X, the missile has no explosive warhead—instead, its payload is more than 100 pounds of metal, including long blades that deploy from the body of the missile just before impact. 'To the targeted person, it is as if a speeding anvil fell from the sky,' according to the WSJ. Some officials referred … Continue reading Knife Missiles
Why “The Culture” Wins
"Now consider Banks’s scenario. Consider the process that is generating modern hypercultures, and imagine it continuing for another three or four hundred years. The first consequence is that the culture will become entirely defunctionalized. Banks imagines a scenario in which all of the endemic problems of human society have been given essentially technological solutions (in … Continue reading Why “The Culture” Wins
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