tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830084253401570472.post7262259649810507701..comments2024-03-28T09:22:36.967+13:00Comments on Offsetting Behaviour: Sex Robots from the FutureEric Cramptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15831696523324469713noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830084253401570472.post-46565164693219079702012-04-24T20:57:09.303+12:002012-04-24T20:57:09.303+12:00Lightheartedly back to the topic, I think you migh...Lightheartedly back to the topic, I think you might enjoy this escapist read:=})<br /><br />Saturn's Children, by Charles Stross. (London : Orbit, 2008.)<br /><br />http://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/show/609536037_saturns_children<br />(I can't recommend any of his others - too much descent into fantasy for my taste - but I thought this was a great fun SF book!)<br /><br />"Freya Nakamachi-47 has some major existential issues. She's the perfect concubine, designed to please her human masters - hardwired to become aroused at the sight mere of a human male. There's just one problem: she came off the production line a year after the human species went extinct. Whatever else she may be, Freya Nakamachi-47 is gloriously obsolete. But the rigid social hierarchy that has risen in the 200 years since the last human died, places beings such as Freya very near the bottom. So when she has a run-in on Venus with a murderous aristocrat, she needs passage off-world in a hurry ? and can't be too fussy about how she pays her way."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830084253401570472.post-5364988659321000322012-04-20T20:38:54.885+12:002012-04-20T20:38:54.885+12:00Muldoon studied accounting extramurally. I don'...Muldoon studied accounting extramurally. I don't know whether it was through a university or a trade school.Gaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07556494270770913766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830084253401570472.post-529286265044578842012-04-20T20:36:14.757+12:002012-04-20T20:36:14.757+12:00I am very pleased to be an alumnus of Sex Robot Un...I am very pleased to be an alumnus of Sex Robot University.<br /><br />Although that doesn't change my view that the Management School has far too much spare time.Gaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07556494270770913766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830084253401570472.post-1489128932517415782012-04-20T14:22:16.504+12:002012-04-20T14:22:16.504+12:00Adding to the weight of the evidence, Kiwidave'...Adding to the weight of the evidence, Kiwidave's list of NZ PM's omitted Joseph Ward (probably becuase he was first PM before Massey, but came back after Bell). He also did not have a university education, making that only 3 out of 14.Seamus Hoganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06752338906486087395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830084253401570472.post-47960833105074174472012-04-20T11:12:25.679+12:002012-04-20T11:12:25.679+12:00The top end of that scale was 70 pairs? Bizarre. I...The top end of that scale was 70 pairs? Bizarre. I have it on excellent spousal authority that a hundred pairs or so is the average. At least that's what she tells me. Hmm.Eric Cramptonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15831696523324469713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830084253401570472.post-32986096278145011382012-04-20T11:10:25.534+12:002012-04-20T11:10:25.534+12:00I suppose it does! Ah, too funny.I suppose it does! Ah, too funny.Eric Cramptonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15831696523324469713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830084253401570472.post-17699237754287959082012-04-20T10:33:36.374+12:002012-04-20T10:33:36.374+12:00Certainly evidence that NZers seemed to prefer the...<i> Certainly evidence that NZers seemed to prefer their leaders not-too-educated. </i><br /><br />I really wanted to say "Well that explains how John Key got in then" here, but I know he is tertiary qualified, even if only with a Commerce degree, so I guess that doesn't really count ;)Latsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830084253401570472.post-3976658103747899972012-04-20T10:25:44.589+12:002012-04-20T10:25:44.589+12:00Good point -- between them, those three were PM fo...Good point -- between them, those three were PM for two years and change, and didn't win an election for PM. From what I've been told (it's before my time), being seen as a bit intellectual and aloof counted against Rowling when he was up against Muldoon; I'm not sure if it was a factor in Marshall v. Kirk (that was largely a generational dispute), but it could've. Certainly evidence that NZers seemed to prefer their leaders not-too-educated.kiwi davehttp://www.google.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830084253401570472.post-52451445059621972472012-04-20T10:22:57.065+12:002012-04-20T10:22:57.065+12:00Does that make Canterbury the Shoes and Handbags U...Does that make Canterbury the <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10799844" rel="nofollow">Shoes and Handbags University</a>?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830084253401570472.post-12335518899440330552012-04-20T10:16:06.957+12:002012-04-20T10:16:06.957+12:00Didn't the first settlers push damned hard to ...<i>Didn't the first settlers push damned hard to get the University of New Zealand going very quickly on the establishment of the Canterbury and Otago colonies?</i><br /><br />There could be a South Island/North Island distinction here. Canterbury and Otago were founded by people with some academic background (Anglican Oxonions and Presbyterians influenced by the Scottish enlightenment respectively), whereas the North Island -- especially Auckland -- had a more philistine and commercial character. This may explain why Chch and Dunedin had university colleges well before Auckland and Wellington.kiwi davehttp://www.google.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830084253401570472.post-78915178278190472252012-04-20T09:11:41.458+12:002012-04-20T09:11:41.458+12:00It's a hypothesis and it could be wrong. But i...It's a hypothesis and it could be wrong. But it seems consistent with the evidence. <br /><br />I'm not sure on the frontier societies one though. Didn't the first settlers push damned hard to get the University of New Zealand going very quickly on the establishment of the Canterbury and Otago colonies?Eric Cramptonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15831696523324469713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830084253401570472.post-53407211870935769972012-04-20T09:09:07.579+12:002012-04-20T09:09:07.579+12:00Vic needs a simpler name. Henceforth, I will call ...Vic needs a simpler name. Henceforth, I will call it Sex Robot University.Eric Cramptonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15831696523324469713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830084253401570472.post-83822046075582793732012-04-20T08:32:52.489+12:002012-04-20T08:32:52.489+12:00@Kiwi Dave
Furthermore, the three PM's out of...@Kiwi Dave<br /><br />Furthermore, the three PM's out of 13 you say had a university education were a) the only 3 not to win a general election, and b) had the 3 shortest terms in office of the 13.Seamus Hoganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06752338906486087395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830084253401570472.post-2929254181836695992012-04-20T02:32:58.355+12:002012-04-20T02:32:58.355+12:00Because credential inflation came very late to New...<i>Because credential inflation came very late to New Zealand, a large number of very talented people have been successful without having bothered to go to university.</i><br /><br />Interesting point, I hadn't thought of it that way. A quick look on Wiki shows that of NZ Prime Ministers between 1912 and 1984, as far as I can tell, only three had been to university (Bell, Marshall and Rowling) -- the rest (Massey, Coates, Forbes, Savage, Fraser, Holland, Holyoake, Nash, Kirk and Muldoon) didn't go to university -- in fact, based on their Wiki bios, a number of them didn't go to high school. That must be exceptional in the developed world.<br /><br />Certainly, New Zealand and Australia both have the Anglospheric suspicion of abstract thought (cf. continental Europe) that exists in both the UK and the US, but also have an extra measure of anti-intellectualism: perhaps a legacy of being frontier societies so remote from the intellectual centres of the world.kiwi davehttp://www.google.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2830084253401570472.post-51609676267781183352012-04-19T22:31:03.950+12:002012-04-19T22:31:03.950+12:00I think you mean Victoria University of Wellington...I think you mean Victoria University of Wellington. The university is in Wellington and named after someone called Victoria. It's not a Wellington branch of the University of Victoria.Gaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07556494270770913766noreply@blogger.com