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KADO - The Right Answer (TV).


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Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2815
PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 2:02 pm Reply with quote
Tuor_of_Gondolin wrote:
^ I think the movie you're thinking about is Chain Reaction with Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman in it. I could be wrong, though, as I only saw about 5 minutes of The Saint.


Might well be both. I didn't watch Chain Reaction, but I do know the plot for the Saint was one scientist who had the secret to clean, unlimited energy with everyone going after her.
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xyz



Joined: 10 Jan 2002
Posts: 243
PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 6:22 pm Reply with quote
So they're making fun of the UN (especially the US.) And maybe they're making fun of people who like free stuff. If it's free, it must be good even though we don't really need it and know fully well that it will create all sort of serious problems. How the PM defended the gift of Wam reminds me of Americans' argument against banning guns. Guns don't kill people. People kill people.
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Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
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PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2017 10:06 pm Reply with quote
xyz wrote:
So they're making fun of the UN (especially the US.) And maybe they're making fun of people who like free stuff. If it's free, it must be good even though we don't really need it and know fully well that it will create all sort of serious problems. How the PM defended the gift of Wam reminds me of Americans' argument against banning guns. Guns don't kill people. People kill people.


I thought about the gun argument as well when watching the episode, then realised the key difference is that WAM doesn't kill people on its own. We've seen what it does, it just acts like a multi-purpose power adapter drawing energy from the anisotropic field. We've seen how the scientist can put her hands on it and play around for ages without physical or mental harm to herself.

The UN's big worry is that terrorists take WAM and hook it up to an underground generator which keeps their mountain hideout functioning, or for national military forces to utilise WAM to create bigger and more powerful weapons that existed previously. Arguments for cold fusion in the day never went this far (it was a hoax after all) since the object in question ISN'T A TOOL USED TO KILL PEOPLE.

The open-source solution for the Japan government in this series probably was the only way for it to avoid sanctions and to save face in the international community without upsetting the unknown quantity that is zaShunina (Tsukai already has misgivings over its intentions and no one can tell what its ultimate goal really is beyond public statements). The PM in this series shares Shindo's enthusiasm in dealing with the extraterrestial being and to obtain the best possible outcome, so now the world has to deal with the consequences (next week's trailer indicates the scientist's great reveal isn't as easy as it looks so Japan has bought itself time to shift Kado to someplace less disruptive).
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sat May 06, 2017 12:23 am Reply with quote
Got to say big shocking moment in realising that she just made Wam by paper folding. And how funny it was at a finger to the problems in handing over the Wam.

I also liked the part where scientist girl started gnawing on his hand in trying to understand what he is like.
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xyz



Joined: 10 Jan 2002
Posts: 243
PostPosted: Sat May 06, 2017 6:40 am Reply with quote
Harleyquin wrote:
xyz wrote:
So they're making fun of the UN (especially the US.) And maybe they're making fun of people who like free stuff. If it's free, it must be good even though we don't really need it and know fully well that it will create all sort of serious problems. How the PM defended the gift of Wam reminds me of Americans' argument against banning guns. Guns don't kill people. People kill people.


I thought about the gun argument as well when watching the episode, then realised the key difference is that WAM doesn't kill people on its own. We've seen what it does, it just acts like a multi-purpose power adapter drawing energy from the anisotropic field. We've seen how the scientist can put her hands on it and play around for ages without physical or mental harm to herself.

The UN's big worry is that terrorists take WAM and hook it up to an underground generator which keeps their mountain hideout functioning, or for national military forces to utilise WAM to create bigger and more powerful weapons that existed previously. Arguments for cold fusion in the day never went this far (it was a hoax after all) since the object in question ISN'T A TOOL USED TO KILL PEOPLE.

The open-source solution for the Japan government in this series probably was the only way for it to avoid sanctions and to save face in the international community without upsetting the unknown quantity that is zaShunina (Tsukai already has misgivings over its intentions and no one can tell what its ultimate goal really is beyond public statements). The PM in this series shares Shindo's enthusiasm in dealing with the extraterrestial being and to obtain the best possible outcome, so now the world has to deal with the consequences (next week's trailer indicates the scientist's great reveal isn't as easy as it looks so Japan has bought itself time to shift Kado to someplace less disruptive).


I know gun is a tool made for the sole purpose of killing and WAM isn't. But the similarity is in the justification. And maybe the show is making fun of the justification, the naive idea that humans can be so moral, responsible, do the right thing and would never use it to harm others.
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Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2815
PostPosted: Sat May 06, 2017 12:26 pm Reply with quote
xyz wrote:


I know gun is a tool made for the sole purpose of killing and WAM isn't. But the similarity is in the justification. And maybe the show is making fun of the justification, the naive idea that humans can be so moral, responsible, do the right thing and would never use it to harm others.


I'm seeing it completely differently. zaShunina wants mankind to advance, his method of doing so is providing an infinite source of energy with no obvious shortcomings or side effects (there are disadvantages but they are long-term issues).

He also made it clear that he wants the human species to constantly think and ascertain the "right" course of action. Even if the process of thinking ends up leading to conflict and possible deaths over the issue.

Assuming you paid attention to the very last comment made by the interior minister, the Japanese PM made the decision to publicly release the method for creating WAM sphere knowing full well that such an action would have unpredictable consequences because of the myriad ways in which WAM could be applied. He went ahead with it anyway because he thinks this is what zaShunina wanted when he made the offer to produce WAM a few weeks back. A bloodless revolution, but a revolution nonetheless because what humans do with the new knowledge will be entirely their responsibility; there is no indication of naivete since it's almost guaranteed some humans in this series will abuse the knowledge leading to loss of life at the worst.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
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PostPosted: Sat May 06, 2017 4:46 pm Reply with quote
The way I see this show is that zaShunina is trying to advance humanity sociologically using technology as a means. He seems to view the concept of countries as an impediment to "sharing bread" and is using wam as a means to force a more universal outlook.
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xyz



Joined: 10 Jan 2002
Posts: 243
PostPosted: Sat May 06, 2017 8:46 pm Reply with quote
Harleyquin wrote:

I'm seeing it completely differently. zaShunina wants mankind to advance, his method of doing so is providing an infinite source of energy with no obvious shortcomings or side effects (there are disadvantages but they are long-term issues).

He also made it clear that he wants the human species to constantly think and ascertain the "right" course of action. Even if the process of thinking ends up leading to conflict and possible deaths over the issue.

Assuming you paid attention to the very last comment made by the interior minister, the Japanese PM made the decision to publicly release the method for creating WAM sphere knowing full well that such an action would have unpredictable consequences because of the myriad ways in which WAM could be applied. He went ahead with it anyway because he thinks this is what zaShunina wanted when he made the offer to produce WAM a few weeks back. A bloodless revolution, but a revolution nonetheless because what humans do with the new knowledge will be entirely their responsibility; there is no indication of naivete since it's almost guaranteed some humans in this series will abuse the knowledge leading to loss of life at the worst.


I feel that the PM seems very optimistic about the outcome (maybe partly thinking that things would work out like it's supposed to for the most part, like how humans would do what they're supposed to do). Reason why he went ahead with it without thinking thoroughly. People always say how they are well aware of the consequences but those words don't mean anything because they aren't really feeling the consequences. The reaction to the revelation of WAM to the public was "wow, this is a revolution" in an exciting kind of way. They say they know the consequences but they weren't feeling the grief of loss of life or loss of something yet.
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Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2815
PostPosted: Sat May 06, 2017 10:49 pm Reply with quote
xyz wrote:

Reason why he went ahead with it without thinking thoroughly.


He waited until the last possible moment to hold a press conference on this despite protests outside his office and with economic sanctions ready to be implemented instantly had he not complied. Yet you still think he didn't think it through properly?

No way of convincing you otherwise, but I'd still refer you to the last comment made by the interior minister. The PM knows there'll be misuse of WAM now that knowledge to create it is publicly available, but he's convinced zaShunina is doing this for the right reasons and the consequences for disobeying an extraterrestial being with technology advanced enough to fry Japan aren't something to trifle with.
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Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2815
PostPosted: Fri May 12, 2017 1:54 pm Reply with quote
#6

So a worldwide revolution thanks to freely available energy hasn't come to fruition because it's not simply a matter of following the professor's live demo with origami paper; one has to adapt to the field of origin before being able to create WAM. One way to see it is a clever cop-out from the show's creators to stop the whole world from going in flames because some terrorist organisation decided it would be fun to create WAM-powered chemical weapons. If Shindo is right, then the professor, himself and two other random civilians (who could only fluke it once) are the only sources of WAM at present with more to come as human beings begin to adapt to the anisotropic field as a concept.

Initially Shindo said he managed to get going without sleep because he was running on adrenaline around episode 3 or so. Turns out zaShunina's direct mental communication with him seems to have made him the first prototype of the new breed of human beings which zaShunina believes will advance humankind. In some ways this is less revolutionary than unlimited clean and free energy since humans have talking about machines and how they would replace humankind since the early days of science fiction. If one is capable of devoting the approximately 1/3rd of our lifespans into something more productive, it's not surprising this could lead to better things for humanity.

If anything I like this episode for the visual spectacle of seeing Kado roll along half of metropolitan Tokyo in 12 hours; the culmination of a vast and detailed logistics operation planned out in just 3 weeks.

Next week's episode looks like one of those summary episodes which encapsulates everything aired to date into a 24-minute precis. The second half of the show (two weeks from now) will see what else zaShunina has in store for humans.
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FenixFiesta



Joined: 22 Apr 2013
Posts: 2581
PostPosted: Sat May 13, 2017 1:44 am Reply with quote
spoiler[The final scene might be taken on very different stance based on the assumption that zaShunina asked if Shindo "needed to sleep" or alternatively it could be taken that if Shindo, as well as humanity, "needed to dream on".

zaShunina probably lacks the capacity to lie and seeing even his bluntness that humanity could openly take him as an enemy, but just as well it is for certain he is withholding information on his eventual future plans.]
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Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
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PostPosted: Sat May 13, 2017 3:00 am Reply with quote
FenixFiesta wrote:
spoiler[The final scene might be taken on very different stance based on the assumption that zaShunina asked if Shindo "needed to sleep" or alternatively it could be taken that if Shindo, as well as humanity, "needed to dream on".

zaShunina probably lacks the capacity to lie and seeing even his bluntness that humanity could openly take him as an enemy, but just as well it is for certain he is withholding information on his eventual future plans.]


Unlikely. Subtitles only go so far, but the exact line is:

君がいつから寝ていない?

=

When did you stop sleeping?

When taken together with the earlier scene when Tsukai forced Shindo to take the day off, note how Shindo was still working even when everyone else around him was fast asleep. Looking at Tsukai's incredulous expression when Shindo had to point back to Kado's arrival as the last day he wasn't on active duty it's quite clear that the emphasis is less on "humanity dreaming" and more on "Shindo is the living example of what humans can achieve when they no longer need to sleep to maintain peak performance".
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
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Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sat May 13, 2017 5:55 am Reply with quote
Okay, unlimited clean energy is one thing, but altering humans so we no longer need to sleep, I think that kind of falls into crossing a corner of what really makes us human, before we know it he will want us to be immortal and no reproducing the normal way. Changing energy could totally alter our economies and is really fast, but if he plans to just alter all people like that even within a single generation, it sounds crazy. Then you will get a huge amount of religious backlash itself, I can't imagine religions to not just come out and call him a demon.
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FenixFiesta



Joined: 22 Apr 2013
Posts: 2581
PostPosted: Sat May 13, 2017 1:12 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
"Shindo is the living example of what humans can achieve when they no longer need to sleep to maintain peak performance".

The "death of the soul" is an inevitable outcome when you have still a contemporal society that could not grasp the balance of having a body that needs no rest.

Similar to the Wam, if reproducing Shindo's current status is possible, even if extremely rare, with current human technology it would mean creating a "perfect servant" that exists solely for there task.

It would take at least a few generations and proper early education for a future human to embrace the concept of never having to rest, else any other person "uplifted" from the current world would always lament the moments of not being able to something as "simple" as sleeping and resting.
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Harleyquin



Joined: 29 May 2014
Posts: 2815
PostPosted: Sat May 13, 2017 1:16 pm Reply with quote
FenixFiesta wrote:
Quote:
"Shindo is the living example of what humans can achieve when they no longer need to sleep to maintain peak performance".

The "death of the soul" is an inevitable outcome when you have still a contemporal society that could not grasp the balance of having a body that needs no rest.

Similar to the Wam, if reproducing Shindo's current status is possible, even if extremely rare, with current human technology it would mean creating a "perfect servant" that exists solely for there task.

It would take at least a few generations and proper early education for a future human to embrace the concept of never having to rest, else any other person "uplifted" from the current world would always lament the moments of not being able to something as "simple" as sleeping and resting.


Shindo's not yet a robot in human form since he still needs food and drink to survive. If episode zero is anything to go by, it looks like he lived for his work since his peers were always going on about how he was looking for the next big challenge for his skill set.

Going by his own reaction when asked by zaShunina when he last went to sleep, it looks like the man himself hasn't quite realised the implications yet. Next week won't tell us anything new over the recap, but it's the week after that should prove interesting regarding Shindo's changes and how he reacts to them.
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