Author Topic: EP144: Friction  (Read 55182 times)

stePH

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Reply #100 on: July 22, 2008, 03:46:28 PM
what is the thing called where they assign a numerical value to the various pros and cons of the situation and if it comes out to be positive or negative etc

Cost/Benefit Analysis?

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Reply #101 on: October 04, 2008, 03:53:18 AM
Came back and relistened to this classic.

Did any of the pilgrims read any of the wall besides Gruen's work?

I guess I'm the only one that almost saw the pair of them as an old married couple.  I was amazed that nobody brought up Western's request that Gruen tip him on his side.  The friction necessary for this action had to be immense.

I loved the point in the story when Gruen started looking at the works of the other masters with the eyes of a critic rather than the eyes of a supplicant.



crem8d_boogaloo

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Reply #102 on: October 09, 2008, 10:15:07 PM
amazing story.  Friction and Tideline are the two episodes that I recommend to thinking people, and so far they all have become Escape Artists fans.  I listened to this episode a couple of days after its release and I still think about the 'wall' and what we will, and should (or should not) give up for posterity.



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Reply #103 on: November 13, 2008, 05:24:10 PM
Best Episode Ever.



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Reply #104 on: November 26, 2009, 12:56:54 PM
If anyone is a member of Second Life, my Science Fiction Discussion group will be listening to this podcast at 2.00pm PST on Saturday 28 November. Just search for "Science Fiction Saturday" in  Events.



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Reply #105 on: March 22, 2010, 05:28:51 PM
I was amazed that nobody brought up Western's request that Gruen tip him on his side.  The friction necessary for this action had to be immense.

I don't doubt that it cost him much friction, but was well worth it.  Western had carried him for 40+ years before that.  If Gruen hadn't tipped him than it seemed like Western would've taken much longer to died and gone through much pain, and Gruen was able to pay him that final kindness in return for his aid.




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Reply #106 on: March 22, 2010, 05:39:45 PM
Wow!  This has to be one of my favorite stories ever, let alone on this podcast.  I love a good philosophical tale, and attaching a story that's entertaining in its own right in such a way that the message doesn't overshadow is a tough balancing act but when it's done well (as it is here) the results are just amazing.

Mostly the story made me sad.  I work with a few people who concentrate on work to the exclusion of everything else.  I can't help wondering what they will think of their life when they are lying on their deathbed.  Will they be content with the life they'd lived?  Don't get me wrong, I like my job.  But there are other things in life.  Even though Gruen had a super-long lifespan, he spent that life reliving the lives of others, and then he is too broken to live a life of his own.

I wonder if there's a visible shift in the scholars on the wall to understand their life-wasting ways.  I mean, the first scholar didn't have to spend any time reading other people's ideas.  He just had his own words transcribed and then he could go do whatever he wanted.  But once you get up into the dozenth scholars, then it is a major feat just to make it through the rest of the works.  Gruen only managed it because Western carried him for 40 years.  Without that he wouldn't have had a chance.  Which makes me think that the later scholars fall into one of two groups:
1.  Those who skipped a bunch of the wall for brevity's sake.
2.  Those who actually interacted with the outside world to gain the aid needed to reach the end.
Anyone who didn't do one of these two things was doomed to die partway through the teachings.

Did anyone else think that the way he recorded his message was rather cruel, whether he meant it to be or not?  It seems that ordinary people don't read the wall, so his message wouldn't do much for them.  Certainly there will be other scholars, but if they read the wall sequentially like he does, then they will get all the way to the end and THEN read his message that might mean "you can learn more by living life than by reading the wall."  But imagine how infuriating it would be to get that message at that time!!!  You've spent your life to learn these teachings and at the end the message is "You paid the ultimate price, and for it, you get nothing."

I like how the idea of a lifespan limited by time rather than motion was such a foreign idea.  That those who live their lives in motion are wasting their potential, when those people might say the same thing of him, because he has never really lived.

Great story!



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Reply #107 on: March 23, 2010, 01:26:57 PM
I forgot to add one thing:
Did anyone else find it strange that none of this race has ever discovered shoes?  There are apparently other animals on this planet, and their food must come from somewhere.  Imagine the longevity with a strip of leather or bark tied to the bottom of the feet could add!

And lubricant?  We know that they're aware of the concept of lubricant because one of the masters had talked about harmonious thoughts being a lubricant for the mind.  But they didn't seem to use any actual lubricant.  It's not like it wasn't available--there was slug trails all over the desert.  They could even have set up a symbiosis based on that.  The rock-people would gain longevity through making their parts last longer.  The slug-people would also gain longevity because the rock-people would spread their trail all over the place, and much more quickly than the slug-people could manage.



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Reply #108 on: March 24, 2010, 12:23:59 AM
A) I think it might be argued that his adventure in helping Western took at least as much time off of his lifespan, what with the savage whirlpool and suchlike.

B) I think any sort of shoes would probably rub them away just as much as barefoot walking, just in different ways.  They seem to be a very crumbly, chalk-like stone. 



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Reply #109 on: July 08, 2014, 10:19:21 PM
Named this story #8 on my Best Podcast Fiction of All Time List:
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2014/07/the-best-podcast-fiction-of-all-time-the-complete-list/