My crystal ball is working.

I came across this quote today, in the context of a book review of Judith Harris's new book, No Two Alike:

Judith Harris .. has attempted to formulate a new theory of personality formation - the first, in fact, since Sigmund Freud. Basically, Mrs. Harris believes there are three "perpetrators" at work in the formation of the human personality, each associated with an aspect of a modular brain. One is the "Relationship System," designed to maintain favorable relationships in society. Another is the "Socialization System," where the goal is to be a member of a group. The third is the "Status System," where we compete with our peers for status. The interplay among these systems accounts for the emergence of differences between individuals.

No offense to Mrs. Harris, but this thesis has been a core assumption on the formation of personality in much of Singularity fiction: see the opening chapter of Greg Egan's Disapora to see it described. It is an underlying assumption of Minsky's "Society of Mind" thesis. It has been explicitly described in several texts on Evolutionary Psychology (most notably Non-Zero by Robert Wright). It's a defining feature of and discussed in several episodes of The Journal Entries where the tension between anarchy and chaos play out in the tensions of "wanting to get along" while "wanting to get ahead". As I've said in a couple of places, most human progress arises from creative responses to that tension.

Even worse, it's incomplete. Mrs. Harris completely misses out on a fourth system, one that is as important as the others and completely necessary to understanding certain aspects of personality: The Other System. "Other" as in "Reacting to those who are neither family or peers." How we identify ourselves and our peers by what they are not: not a different color, not a different gender, not a different religion, not a different language, and so on. Unless and until Mrs. Harris or those who follow her deal with that aspect of development, any theory of personality will be incomplete.

Fortunately or unfortunately for Mrs. Harris and reviewer Peter Pettus, science fiction writers are a decade ahead of them.

Have I been too harsh?

For sure, this is probably not my last post on Nyssa's Guardian, and I hope Reese Gabriel, if she's googling for people talking about her, takes it all in the spirit of Oscar Wilde. Some of you have read the excerpt and now know the daunting challenge I face in finishing this load of tripe, and yes I probably will finish it, if only to figure out if the author's quoting of Thucididyes was accidental or deliberate-- or if she just stole it from some other clueless S&M novelist.

Omaha suggested last night that I was being harsh, but only in the company of people who would understand why. ( Cut for discussion and adult content. )

Look at all that hardware!

The New Lara Croft!
From Yahoo! News. Click to enlarge.

Well, I'll say this for Ms. Karima Adebibe. She certainly has all the right, um, equipment to pull off being the new Lara Croft.

The universe brings me a gift. I share it.

At first, I thought to keep this secret to myself, a treasure trove to mine for ideas and scenes, dialogue and snippets. That is, after all, one of the things that writers do. We hope that what we find is fresh and interesting (I winced this morning when I read Iain Banks in The Algebraist quote the whole "interesting times" quote).

But I can't. The webcomic A Miracle of Science is too good, Benjamin is too cool, Caprice is too wonderful to not share. Read each page carefully: there are little jokes scattered about this graphic novel that are absolutely hilarious. The themes and ideas of Caprice's post-humanism are so well handled I'm in awe.

I could (and should) also advocate for Jett's Frakkin' Toasters, but it has a built-in base of Battlestar Galactica fans. I think Frakkin' Toasters is funny and sometimes hilarious ("Awwwwww!!!!"), but it has over 500 external sites linking to it.

Miracle of Science has less than 40. It deserves more. A lot more. Give it your attention. Hate me when you realize it's not finished and it's currently waiting on a cliff hanger. Send them encouraging noises. Experience SRMD for yourself.

[Edit: Oh dear, I hope I didn't create my own slashdot effect on their poor server. In any event, seem to be back up as of 1:30 PM PST.]