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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1518 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 30, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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So, what are you reading?

I finished al-Ghazali's Banes of the Tongue, which was well worth the read. I can dimly see some aspects of Islam, and in particular the hadith "Beware of the believer's intuition because he sees by the light of God" has caught my eye. There is a sense of leaving uncovered what God has covered and not speaking about what doesn't concern you; in particular, if one is gossiped to, the gossip says more about the gossiper than the one who is spoken about. It has kindled an interest in ways of knowing which might arise from an Islamic mindset.

What is forbidden is supposition [about another's alleged evil ways], and supposition is an expression of what the soul believes is reliable, and the heart inclines toward. God says, O you who have believed, avoid much negative assumption. Indeed, some assumption is sin [Q. 49:12]. The reason for its unlawfulness is because the secrets of the hearts are known only to the Knower of the unseen, so it is not for you to believe in another’s wickedness unless it is disclosed to you by observation and cannot be explained away.

The book is quite comprehensive, talking about things like arguments, joking, praising or being praised, and I'm sure to be revisiting this often.

This Inevitable Ruin, the seventh book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I blasted through the first four books but it has been a bit of a slog ever since, despite some fun "high points" in each entry. At this point I feel sufficiently invested, and the high points sufficiently high, to continue through the books when I have time, but very few authors seem to be able to keep up with their younger selves.

I also wonder how the author feels about the fact that his anarcho-communist hero/worldbuilding is literally sustained by Deus ex Machina. I haven't bothered to dig into the fandom so I have no idea whether the author has commented on this, but I assume the readers have! The sci-fi trope of "preach communism but (accidentally?) notice that it's only genuinely sustainable in a world of magically unlimited resources" is one I've been contemplating for decades now, thanks to Star Trek. It feels like such a self-own except that I imagine most readers don't see it that way.

Isn't it also a trope in Rand? The infinite energy generator in Atlas Shrugged?

Atlas Shrugged is a little funny because it's (likely unintentionally, given the timeline) a send-up of the magically unlimited resources concept.

  • The Strikers don't need the generator: they're able to produce all the oil they need anyway.
  • Its existence motivated the Strikers to strike, fearing that the broader world would use it to empower a system of slavery-in-all-but-name.
  • Except the broader world ended up with a leading scientist and a machine operator that couldn't perform basic maintenance on a car radio; they couldn't use unlimited energy even if it were delivered to their front door.

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