ROSS'S GAME DUNGEON: RAMA

[sojourner]

Ross, have you read Blindsight by Peter Watts? It's a very realistic, although rather bleak, look at first contact with aliens. Parts of the video reminded me heavily of it.

[Steve the Pocket]

Your "reality TV astronauts" quips reminded me of an episode of The Big Picture that Bob Chipman did once, where he lamented that the defunding of NASA and the shift towards privately-funded space exploration would probably mean the next giant leap for mankind would be taken by a crew of reality TV contestants aboard the USS Mountain Dew. I'm half-quoting, half paraphrasing here. My takeaway from that was that that would at least be an amusing premise for a work of fiction — basically hard sci-fi with the merciless satirical wit of a Douglas Adams book — and I still stand by that.

 

And... huh. I used to say that the idea of naming sequels by just tacking numbers onto the end was stupid, and that the easiest way to show other people how stupid it is would be to try doing it with a book and see how quickly they'll laugh at it. I was not aware that a celebrated author already unironically did it and got away with it. So that throws a bit of a monkey wrench into that.

[Mico Selva]

Great episode. Funny and informative, as Game Dungeons tend to be. It made me take interest in Artur C. Clarke's books - I queued a few of them on my audiobook list. Thanks for that.

[continuous_spectrum]

Wonderful episode! I really need to check out the Rama series and just get back into reading more in general. I was giggling at the dig at Mass Effect. What are you saying, Ross? Blue alien babes aren't realistic? Although they could just be mind controlling everyone to look more like the species that's viewing them. Like in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?start=102&v=CZ7r80IOxtE

 

It would be interesting if the game actually went with that idea.

[Vortai]

Yet another interesting and entertaining video Ross, thank you. However I have to ask, Ross with all your complaints about navigation were you ever tempted to try and make a map of the place?

 

Also quick question about the music, do you have it in a format aside from mp3? .ogg would be great, .flac or another lossless format would be even better!

[BTGBullseye]

Also quick question about the music, do you have it in a format aside from mp3? .ogg would be great, .flac or another lossless format would be even better!

+1 for requesting better quality audio formats.

[danielsangeo]

Going through the video now and typing up the subtitles. Ross makes mention that he thought that astronauts were "some of the most well-rounded people on the planet" and need to be in "fantastic physical and mental condition".

 

There's a real life story that throws a monkey-wrench in this however, and that's the story of Lisa Nowak, NASA astronaut who logged nearly 13 days in space.

 

Nowak divorced her husband and began to become romantically involved with William Oefelein, another astronaut, who had also been divorced. However, after two years, Oefelein gradually broke off his relationship with Nowak and began to see Colleen Shipman, an engineer at the 45th Space Wing of the US Air Force, supposedly a friendship.

 

On February 4-5, 2007, Nowak drove from Houston to Orlando International Airport with supplies including rubber tubing and plastic garbage bags (among other items). When Shipman arrived at the airport, Nowak followed her to her car. When Shipman was inside her car, Nowak knocked on the window and requested a ride, then began crying. When Shipman rolled down her window, Nowak pepper sprayed Shipman and Shipman drove off to the parking lot booth and contacted police.

 

Nowak was attempting to kidnap and injure Shipman, but was unsuccessful. Nowak was arrested and held without bail. After her arraignment, she was to be released on a $15.5k bond, had to wear a tracking device, and could not contact Shipman, but was then charged with attempted first degree murder and her bail was dropped.

 

Following a second arraignment, Nowak was released on $10k bail. She was eventually separated on an "other than honorable" discharge from the US Navy following a demotion.

 

This is the only one I know about but I'm willing to bet there are others. Not all astronauts are "well-rounded" and in "fantastic...mental condition".

[danielsangeo]

All right. I'm about to collapse on my bed but I wanted to let you folks know that I'm done typing up the subtitles for this episode. I only have to time them out and reformat them. They should be done sometime tomorrow or the day after that.

 

Thanks for your patience on this, folks. This episode was a long one.

[danielsangeo]

Triple-post!

 

Subs up!

[Presence]

Thank you Daniel.

[ScottD.Betson]

Triple-post!

 

Subs up!

sweet

[Lion O Cyborg-Dark Redshif]

Don't know if you already know this Ross, considering you must have read Garden of Rama and Rama Revealed (or read the wiki), but the human colony established in Rama III in the third book is taken over by an evil businessman, Nicole's second daughter becomes his willing bitch as well as an alcohol, drug and sex addict, and he turns the whole human colony into a combination of Trump America and the Combine from Half Life 2. (not that there's much of a difference between the two)

 

He even leads a xenophobic and genocidal war against the avian and myrmicat colony in a bid to take over more of the Central Plain. I haven't finished Rama Revealed yet so no spoilers.

 

So I guess your comment on Sabatini ends up being correct; the Ramens or at least the Nodal Intelligence get a better picture of humanity, barring the few smart individuals like our protagonists who end up joining the octospiders in the South Hemicylinder with two surviving avian chicks and some myrmicat manna eggs and sessile webbing.

[Gigelinho]

Hey, remember the part in this episode where Ross is talking about Tiffany Helm - the actress playing Nicole Desjardins - and he points out that her last acting performance was Rama, and that she decided to quit acting after this?

 

Well, she must have seen this episode two years ago, because she decided to come out of retirement and has since starred in TWO new films, both coming out this year.

 

Coincidence? I think not!