I don’t think a post has ever felt this alien to me. Lol.

Enjoying fiction at any level is an exercise in tricking yourself that something fake is something real, but the deeper you can take that process, the more fun the experience is.

Those of us who do that type of thing are unsatisfied with “insight into someone else’s imagination,” which sounds like an extremely shallow appreciation for fiction. We want full immersion in that imagination. With that comes an appreciation for internal consistency, well thought out lore, curiosity in how different universes we care about might interact, disagreements with any of the former, etc. all colored by our real lived experiences.

I’ll use your example as my example. I’m a big STEM guy, so naturally, I appreciate thinking that’s more in line with those areas. I think George Lucas’ idea of lightsabers being lasers frozen in place is dumb. I prefer to think of them as electromagnetically contained plasma, which also explains other sabers and laser/plasma projectiles bouncing off of them. That headcanon allows me to appreciate lightsabers (and thus the stories around them) more. That headcanon is also fun to express to others (like here).

If you want a less dark explanation, I think the toys are powered by both individual and collective imagination. Really popular toys like Buzz gain sentience immediately, because there are masses of children already thinking of them that way so much so that proximity isn’t needed. Non-toy items like Forky can gain toyhood and sentience from a concentrated dose of imagination. Most toys would be somewhere between those two extremes.

You could also go a step further and say collective imagination results in a lower quality sentience, explaining all the Buzzes, green aliens, etc. starting out less self-aware.

Thanks. I’ll be sure to do that. I just haven’t already due to being at work.

I didn’t watch the video (yet), but it sounds like I’m going to have the exact same reaction. The best workspaces support a bunch of different workflows “well enough” instead of supporting one workflow really well. Customizability is even better.

I don’t care if some people consider having a command accessible via direct text entry, search via text entry, search via browsing a list, navigating dropdown menus, visual shortcut, etc. all at the same time is wasteful due to all the redundancy. I still want those simultaneously all the same.

And yes, agreed on window management. I use (usually simple) automatic tiling, custom prescribed tiling with overlap (see FancyZones and the KDE equivalents), and freeform placement at the same time all the time.

I watch my mouth in general, but I wish we would stop normalizing the idea that people have a right to not be offended. Also, if someone uses a slur, any judgement on them should be based on the intent behind the usage, not the usage itself. Cue the Michael Scott R-word clip here.

It looks like the other side needs a bit more representation here. I’m late 30’s. While I’ve had the occasional wine with friends and family, I’ve never been drunk and have no plans to change that. I’ve also never done drugs unless you count stuff like caffeine. I guess my rule of thumb is if a substance makes me not me, I don’t want it.