toynbee

It is now safe to turn off your Birmingham.

Ah, gotcha. Thank you for the information. I’m at least a bit behind on that show and don’t remember that premise from it at all, so I think it must have been after I last watched it. I think the last Black Mirror thing I saw was that interactive choice movie, but I might be misremembering.

FWIW, I also liked Love, Death & Robots and it was mostly less depressing and/or frightening.

You’re right, several of them would be perfectly relevant in this case, but I was specifically thinking of an episode where they put electric contact lenses in soldiers and made them think they were fighting monstrous creatures rather than other people.

When the protagonist of the episode realized that and refused to fight any more, he found that the contacts were not removable by the user. His superiors put horrific displays on his lenses. Because of their nature, he couldn’t escape even by closing his eyes. Eventually he agreed to behave so as not be forced to see such horrible things.

I don’t actually remember that detail. I mostly remember the premise of the episode: torturing you with visuals to make you comply.

But yeah. Torture in general, physical or mental, is messed up.

… Not because of that one episode of Black Mirror?

What if I accidentally say “this baby can fit so many spywares in it” instead?

Was there a bestial roar? That documentary Twister promised a bestial roar.

I went to college at eleven. Right before I graduated, they introduced photo IDs. They didn’t really change their processes for validating IDs for about twenty years and it got me student discounts in the area, so I carried mine for … About twenty years. Basically, until it snapped in half and a little longer. That was probably the oldest card in my wallet.

For what it’s worth, I was referring to a nemesis of Superman. Admittedly it was a bit of a stretch.

What happens if I say your username backwards?

Wasn’t the author of that really young when she wrote it?

I’ve recently procured The 7 and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and have been wondering whether it’s similarly themed. If not, at least it reminds me of NerdCubed.

I forget what point I was trying to make.

Perhaps you would be interested in this short story.

The use of the backwards sports jacket as a blanket is clever.

My parents had to explain this detail to me while watching the movie Hair, IIRC.

How about whatever is was that opened the TARDIS’ dashboard?

I know, but only because of an early episode of Family Guy.

I suppose that’s a valid point, but engaging in discourse with a person before and, ideally, after a request seems to me to express that you appreciate them as both a person with whom you’d like to engage as well as someone who can help you. Admittedly the positive impact is diminished if you only do so when you need something.

It is highly dependent on the other person’s interpretation of the situation. If they don’t like to chat, then the person attempting to do so certainly could be interpreted as the rude one.

If the only messages I ever receive from that person are requests and demands, I don’t know if I would call it rude from them, but I certainly wouldn’t feel valued as a person.

If you only reach out to someone with straightforward requests, it seems like they’re being used. I value the hypothetical you as an individual, rather than a resource that provides me with something.

I’ve grown to realize that most other people don’t seem to feel the same way and I try to accommodate, but every time I start a conversation with a demand, it feels rude to me.