Science Fiction

I absolutely DETEST the "dark forest" theory because it's utterly ridiculous. It assumes that capitalism, imperialism, and conquest is universally normal, which is absurd. It isn't even normal for all of humanity! It's an aberration! And even if it was normal universally, the universe is so goddamned HUGE that there are basically infinite resources in the universe to use without even touching planets with life. Just mining the asteroid belt and the dead planets of our own solar system would probably take us thousands of years to start running dry of things. Then there are nebulae thousands of light-years across filled with so much water and amino acids and other good stuff that it would take a fleet of ten thousand ships with ramscoops a million years to deplete. There are massive, gigantic rocky planets with water and ingredients for life but are icy and dead or too hot for anything to live there, or the gravity is too high because they're so massive. An interstellar civilization could mine those as well, since these super-massive, vaguely earth-like worlds are much too extreme for complex life. Probably too extreme even for simple life!

The explanations I favor for why we aren't hearing signals from aliens are:
1. Aliens are out there and sending signals, but the universe is just so goddamned big that none of those signals have reached us yet, or they're too weak to ever reach us because they spread out too thin. I like this one because no matter how big you think even our galaxy is -- let alone the whole universe -- you are WAY off the mark because everything in space is bigger than the human mind can even begin to comprehend. And the signals we're sending out are already thinning out so much that I'm betting most of the oldest signals are indistinguishable from the cosmic radio background noise.

2. Humans are the only sapient species stupid enough to rape and wreck our own home planet for greed and capitalism. I like this one because I like the thought that war, conquest, imperialism, and capitalism are such aberrations that most alien civilizations are living their "milk and honey / hunter gatherer" lifestyle in peace, and it's only here on Earth that anyone went insane enough to invent war, conquest, imperialism, or capitalism.

Now these two ideas aren't even mutually exclusive. I could see agriculture and even industry developing without fucking up the planet's ecosystem or the aliens killing each other over resources. It would just take longer, with more cooperation, and focusing on mining areas and techniques that would do minimal damage to the environment, and then fixing any damage done as soon as possible.

Call me an idealist, but damn... if I was a better writer, I would be writing a sci-fi novel where industrial civilizations based on cooperation and sustainability arose, and were so common as to be normal. And Earth would be there, but I'd write a humanity that had realized they had no need to bother their neighbors because there's more than enough resources in our own solar system and in solar systems without any life of their own, that it would take millions of years to even begin running out of resources. And by then, hopefully humanity would learn good sustainability lessons both from their own mistakes and from the good examples of their neighbors. And the book or books would make it damned clear that humanity was singularly unique in the sheer speed and violence of their rising from hunter/gatherer to intergalactic civilization. We'd be the barbarians shocking everyone else with how fast we flung ourselves off our home planet. Before us, it would be unheard of for anyone to achieve an intergalactic civilization in less than a million years after the advent of writing.

Sure, there would be examples of civilizations that made it to an industrial level in less time, but the only evidence for any of those would usually be found by xenoarchaeologists digging up the ruins of such civilizations after they nuked themselves into extinction before ever getting so much as a probe into outer space. It would be considered a miracle or something that we managed to overcome our own barbarism. That "or something" making a great many other alien races decide to give us a wide berth in case we were just really good at pretending to be civilized. Basically, "humans are space orcs" but in a... not so good way. Not bad exactly, just... a bit like watching a civilization of the nastiest, most violent meth addicts manage to not blow themselves up, die of an overdose, kill all their own babies from neglect or abuse, or kill each other off for drugs or money, and then get clean and begin getting their lives back on track. There'd always be the memory of what we were, and the fear we'd fall off the wagon again.

Of course we're 100% still in that "violent meth addicts" stage. As long as capitalism exists, we're going to stay there. If we want to get clean, we have to get rid of capitalism and replace it with cooperation and sustainability. We have to start caring for the Earth and the ecosystem and helping it heal from our past mistakes.

This year I'm doing Community Thursdays. Some of my activity will involve maintaining communities I run, and my favorites. Some will involve checking my list of subscriptions and posting in lower-traffic ones. Today I have interacted with the following communities...

* Posted "Esbat" to dreamwidth_pagans.

* Posted "Climate change" to environment .

* Posted "Books" to ethical_society_of_satan.

The first crocuses are blooming! I just had to take pictures when I spotted them this morning. Yesterday they were just buds.

( Walk with me ... )

What I Just Finished Reading

Nothing!

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( 1776 #4, Captain America #7, Doctor Strange #3, Dungeons of Doom #2, Fantastic Four #8, New Avengers #9, Ultimate Spider-Man #24 )

What I'm Reading Next

To make lysimache happy, I have very slowly started reading Les Misérables in the original French, after learning that the Kindle can now load translating dictionaries. (My old Kindle could not, but it's like 15 years old.) I don't think I'm going to finish it ever but, hey, I'm trying.

Today is sunny and actually warm, with a light breeze -- it's 69°F outside.

I fed the birds. I've seen a small flock of sparrows, and a mourning dove flying around.

I put out water for the birds.

The crocuses are blooming in the rain garden! :D I'm pretty sure this is the earliest I've seen anything bloom here. The snowdrops don't even have their buds up yet. I took a few pictures of the crocuses.

EDIT 2/18/26 -- While we were out, I spotted 2 red-winged blackbirds. They are waaayyy too early. They won't find much to eat yet. :/

EDIT 2/18/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 2/18/26 -- I trimmed the dead stems from the 'Autumn Joy' sedum in the septic garden.  The garlic chives are already sprouting there too.

I've seen a flock of sparrows, a male cardinal, and a male house finch.

EDIT 2/18/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.

NASA fired three rockets into the northern lights and the results are stunning

NASA has pulled off a high-flying aurora investigation, launching three rockets into the glowing northern lights over Alaska. One mission targeted mysterious dark patches called black auroras, while the twin GNEISS rockets created a 3D scan of the aurora’s electrical currents. All rockets reached their planned altitudes and returned strong data. The result: an unprecedented look at how these dazzling light shows are wired from space to sky.


That's such a cool concept for an experiment!

Thanks to a lot of work from fuzzyred, the landing page for Not Quite Kansas is now visible!  \o/  It's dark fantasy with demons and angels.  You can read the introduction and the previously published poems.  This series is featured in our current Half-Price Sale if you want to see more.  fuzzyred is hosting a pool in case you want to magnify your impact with the quarter-price option.

Today we made the Cold Stream Farm order. This is one of the few remaining nurseries with affordable prices, focusing mostly on native species of trees and bushes. Most have wildlife value. Some are good for permaculture.

( Read more... )

I know that everyone who wanted to play Hades has probably already played Hades and moved on to Hades 2, because Hades came out back in 2020, but this is my journal and I just finished the main storyline yesterday, so.

( Hades, including some plot spoilers )

Up next in gaming: Not sure. I might play TR-49, which I just bought; I think that's a short one, and it looked like a fun puzzle game. I might also just play more Slay the Spire in preparation for StS2 next month. I know I said I wasn't gonna do Ascensions in StS, but I lied and started doing them. Of course, I'm at, like, 2. Out of 20. I will probably not get to 20.

I am also starting to feel well enough that I might consider playing a game on the Switch, which I haven't done since the migraines got bad, really, because holding a Switch is apparently a lot to ask of me, whereas games on the laptop means that the laptop sits right here next to me, and the 8bitdo controller also sits in my lap, so I don't have to lift anything. Yeah, I know. I've been really tired. At least right now I have enough energy to type this.

Humanity has “lost the fight against climate change”.

This video looks at lost opportunities to fight climate change, and the shitty circumstances that humanity has created. As bad as things are now, this is the least-worst they will ever be again within a human timescale.

( Read more... )

Yesterday I shared photos from the House Yard and South Lot plus Savanna and Prairie Garden. Today I did a bit of yardwork that revealed fun new things. :D

( Walk with me ... )

Naalbinding

I maintain that this is the class that most people take multiple times. So many of my friends have tried it, thought they had it, then two days later it was gone. I was one of those, so I have collected the websites that got me past it. Am I an expert? Heck no. But my socks have all stayed intact so I'm running with it.
I know exactly one stitch. I'm fine with this.


Are you desperate for a way to say "fuck AI" nowadays? Learn a historic craft!

Human noise is stressing birds worldwide - but we can help

Birds don’t just “put up with” our noise. A new analysis suggests that traffic, construction, and other human-made sounds are changing how birds behave, how stressed they get, and even how well they reproduce.

Some of these shifts look small on their own, but together they paint a picture of animals constantly adjusting to a louder world.


Anthropogenic noise is bad for many kinds of wildlife. It is also terrible for humans. There are things you can do about it.

( Read more... )

Today is cloudy and dim, chilly and damp.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a flock of sparrows and a female cardinal.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 2/17/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 2/17/26 -- I raked the leaves off the rain garden.  Underneath I found not just a lot more shoots, but the first tiny lavender buds of crocus!  :D

EDIT 2/17/26 -- I trimmed off the dead stems from the 'Autumn Joy' sedum in the maple garden and purple-and-white garden, plus peonies in the purple-and-white garden.  I still need to trim the sedum in the septic garden.

EDIT 2/17/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I am done for the night.

Happy Lunar New Year!

Time keeps slipping away from me again, and I keep thinking of things I want to post about, but when I finally sit get to down and open DW, I've forgotten all about it.

But I remembered the New Year, at least! *g*