Robot revolution stymied by defective consumers

Current cohort of elderly Japanese don't want robots.

Of course, the people who will make up the elderly by the mid-point of the century aren't the current cohort of elderly, who presumably were young back in the 20s or 30s. Arbitrarily defining "elderly" as 70, the 2050 elderly will be about 20 now and I wonder what that group thinks of robots.

nicked from sclerotic_rings

Robot revolution stymied by defective consumers

Current cohort of elderly Japanese don't want robots.

Of course, the people who will make up the elderly by the mid-point of the century aren't the current cohort of elderly, who presumably were young back in the 20s or 30s. Arbitrarily defining "elderly" as 70, the 2050 elderly will be about 20 now and I wonder what that group thinks of robots.

nicked from sclerotic_rings

Robot revolution stymied by defective consumers

Current cohort of elderly Japanese don't want robots.

Of course, the people who will make up the elderly by the mid-point of the century aren't the current cohort of elderly, who presumably were young back in the 20s or 30s. Arbitrarily defining "elderly" as 70, the 2050 elderly will be about 20 now and I wonder what that group thinks of robots.

nicked from sclerotic_rings

Presented without implied indorsement

Because I have no idea if the following is true or not.

David Drake on Robert Jordan

I'm inclined to be at least a little skeptical when he says I further said and will repeat: there were quite a lot of people who sneered at 'Robert Jordan' but whose own books wouldn't have been published without the Wheel of Time to subsidize them. Since the onset of Jim's (Jim Rigney's) illness, he hadn't been able to write--and a lot of those people are not being published any more.

The thing is, publishing is a horrible darwinian battleground, especially for writers, and over any given interval a large subset of mid-listers will find that their careers have come to an end. It wouldn't particularly surprise me if Tor's total number of titles per year stayed roughly constant at the same time that the mix of authors changed.

[Added later: titles per year should be easy enough to check. More later]

Presented without implied indorsement

Because I have no idea if the following is true or not.

David Drake on Robert Jordan

I'm inclined to be at least a little skeptical when he says I further said and will repeat: there were quite a lot of people who sneered at 'Robert Jordan' but whose own books wouldn't have been published without the Wheel of Time to subsidize them. Since the onset of Jim's (Jim Rigney's) illness, he hadn't been able to write--and a lot of those people are not being published any more.

The thing is, publishing is a horrible darwinian battleground, especially for writers, and over any given interval a large subset of mid-listers will find that their careers have come to an end. It wouldn't particularly surprise me if Tor's total number of titles per year stayed roughly constant at the same time that the mix of authors changed.

[Added later: titles per year should be easy enough to check. More later]

Presented without implied indorsement

Because I have no idea if the following is true or not.

David Drake on Robert Jordan

I'm inclined to be at least a little skeptical when he says I further said and will repeat: there were quite a lot of people who sneered at 'Robert Jordan' but whose own books wouldn't have been published without the Wheel of Time to subsidize them. Since the onset of Jim's (Jim Rigney's) illness, he hadn't been able to write--and a lot of those people are not being published any more.

The thing is, publishing is a horrible darwinian battleground, especially for writers, and over any given interval a large subset of mid-listers will find that their careers have come to an end. It wouldn't particularly surprise me if Tor's total number of titles per year stayed roughly constant at the same time that the mix of authors changed.

[Added later: titles per year should be easy enough to check. More later]

Question for the Australians

I am reading an Australian YA set in the present. The protagonist has just noted the presence of an "electric jug". Is this a kettle?

Question for the Australians

I am reading an Australian YA set in the present. The protagonist has just noted the presence of an "electric jug". Is this a kettle?

Question for the Australians

I am reading an Australian YA set in the present. The protagonist has just noted the presence of an "electric jug". Is this a kettle?

Please explain

I notice that discussions of Belgium and its coming [voice = Baron von Ruthless] inevitable disintegration often refer to Belgium as an "artificial state."

What would a natural state look like and why is it superior to the artificial sort?

Please explain

I notice that discussions of Belgium and its coming [voice = Baron von Ruthless] inevitable disintegration often refer to Belgium as an "artificial state."

What would a natural state look like and why is it superior to the artificial sort?

Please explain

I notice that discussions of Belgium and its coming [voice = Baron von Ruthless] inevitable disintegration often refer to Belgium as an "artificial state."

What would a natural state look like and why is it superior to the artificial sort?

Speaking of presenting things without an implied endorsement

I believe that this is the text of K. Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation.

Speaking of presenting things without an implied endorsement

I believe that this is the text of K. Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation.

Speaking of presenting things without an implied endorsement

I believe that this is the text of K. Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation.