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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

Conversational account. For work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian. IKEA builder.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 18
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      Philosophical interestingness ranking of sci-fi universes (in terms of meaningfulness, complexity, intelligibility...): 12. Star Wars 11. MCU 10. Doctor Who 9. Dune 8. Star Trek 7. Foundation 6. Deepness in the Sky 5. Hainish 4. Schismatrix 3. Rick & Morty 2. HHG 1. Culture

      32 replies 6 retweets 157 likes
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    2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 18
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      I’ve only read 1 culture novel but it’s obviously the most philosophically interesting by a mile

      3 replies 0 retweets 19 likes
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    3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 18
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      Pity so many famous writers didn’t bother to build proper universes. As in literally spanning space. PKD, Heinlein etc are a bunch of killer apps with no platform underneath. Le Guin squeaks through with a vagueworld universe.

      2 replies 0 retweets 13 likes
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    4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 18
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      Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Duncan Paterson

      Read the first volume. Didn’t strike me as philosophically interesting outside of a couple of points (dark forest theory, psychology of an unstable world) though the story is very imaginative.https://twitter.com/ethicallorax/status/1318054423717838849?s=21 …

      Venkatesh Rao added,

      Duncan Paterson @EthicalLorax
      Replying to @vgr
      Have you read Three Body Problem?
      4 replies 0 retweets 8 likes
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    5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 18
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      Futurama is a lot of fun but even I’ll admit it’s not philosophically interesting. It’s just fun. My list is correct and profound. If you disagree you are wrong and should feel bad.

      2 replies 0 retweets 22 likes
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    6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 18
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      No accident that the top 3 have a strong element of humor and absurdity. Most universes do poorly on the philosophical interestingness test by not taking that element seriously enough.

      1 reply 0 retweets 11 likes
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    7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 18
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      Some start out interesting but then go meh. Firefly universe was interesting until I saw the confederacy-apologia angle and couldn’t unsee it. Still interesting as a story but dull as philosophy.

      1 reply 0 retweets 8 likes
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      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 18
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      Hyperion was very interesting but in a very narrow way around the Shrike as a philosophical Rorschach test. I read only one volume. Wasn’t inspired to read the rest when the first one totally punted on actually resolving the Shrike plot 🤬

      10:22 PM - 18 Oct 2020
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      • Joshua Goins Scott Cunningham Jernau Morat Gurgeh roon Boris Mann Macross
      6 replies 1 retweet 5 likes
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        2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 18
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          People hating on R&M bring so high, I get it. To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty.

          3 replies 0 retweets 26 likes
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        3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 18
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          Venkatesh Rao Retweeted ykgoon.com

          Unpopular opinion but Dune is below Star Trek because it is pseudo-deep and too impressed with itself. Premium mediocre intellectualism. Star Trek is middlebrow and knows it. Self awareness gains big points on my scale.https://twitter.com/ykgoon/status/1318059482048385024?s=21 …

          Venkatesh Rao added,

          ykgoon.com @ykgoon
          Replying to @vgr
          Man Star Wars don't deserve a spot. Dune lesser than Star Trek?
          3 replies 0 retweets 34 likes
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        4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 18
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          I think I like 2nd order worlds that subvert first-order ones. Like Dune is too primal-archetypal to be interesting. But the interesting ones need them to have something to subvert. Dune parody references are more interesting than Dune itself.

          4 replies 0 retweets 13 likes
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        5. End of conversation
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        2. Beau Butler‏ @oddynz Oct 18
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          Replying to @vgr

          Haha, the rest do explain the shrike

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Oct 18
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          Replying to @oddynz

          Total ripoff

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        4. Show replies
        1. Erik Marks‏ @rekmarks Oct 18
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          Replying to @vgr

          Simmons also can't write women worth a damn, but does enjoy objectifying his female characters early and often.

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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        1. Christopher G‏ @galtenberg Oct 18
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          Replying to @vgr

          First book was just the first half of the planned story Shrike is an eternal(atemporal) character, it gets more complex as the series progresses 2nd novel was just as good, lovely, worthwhile - more literary than philosophical

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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        1. Chasemas Time Is Here‏ @chasews Oct 18
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          Replying to @vgr

          dang. Missing out. Where does 3 Body fit in?

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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        1. Jernau Morat Gurgeh‏ @himura_k3nshin Oct 19
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          Replying to @vgr

          The Shrike plot is never "resolved" so much as almost admitted to be a deus ex machina. But it's a good deus ex machina. Like the appearance of cybertron in the Ninja Robots series.

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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