Wednesday, December 25, 2013

The Thriller concept destroyed by Adam Carolla

Maynard, I share your tastes (Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge) but I've never seen our aesthetic destroyed more completely than by Adam Carolla's thriller parody concept. Terrorists hold the U.S. Olympic team hostage. The young Olympians defeat the terrorists by slightly besting world record physical achievements in battle with the terrorists (an 8.96m long jump across building tops, a 98.49m javelin throw to stop a terrorist, etc.). The existential implication is that the path to our survival will be either unremarkable, unlikely, or we're living in a thriller simulation.

3 comments:

  1. My follow on with commener Cawley:

    Cawley, thanks for the honor of response.

    "I certainly believe that biochemistry plays a role in most (if not all) mental illness but I hardly think that precludes the possibility of awareness of one's circumstances from playing a significant role as well."

    I think you misunderstand me, friend. I wrote " we know happiness vs. depression reduces to biochemistry, not to awareness of one's circumstances, one's purpose, or one's social network."

    By that I mean biochemistry is a more fundamental layer than "awareness of one's circumstances". Awareness of one's circumstances my cause many people's brains to pump a certain chemical, but it's the biochemistry, not the awareness, that's fundamental. Change the biochemistry but maintain the awareness, and the person is happy, not depressed. What's left may be an aesthetic preference on the route to happiness, but I we're going to referee the empirics, we should do so in good faith.

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  2. Where were these comments originally posted?

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  3. Whoops. Brad DeLong's blog. a post he made about existential despair in novels. Should be easy to google search.

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