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  • "Demolition"

    From Stefan Ram@21:1/5 to All on Tue Jul 29 16:51:53 2025
    Back in the early 70s, binaural stereo with artificial heads was
    pretty fresh and exciting. Around that time, three public German
    radio stations went all out to produce a binaural radio drama
    called "Demolition," based on Alfred Bester's "The Demolished Man."
    Word is it first aired on September 3, 1973.

    I can't recall every single detail now, but here are a few
    highlights:

    - Spoken words mostly sounded like they were outside the listener's
    head, but telepathic speech came through as if inside the head.

    - The story's songs were set to music ("'Tenser' said the tensor.").
    I still remember the tune.

    - I was pretty young then and didn't catch all parts of the story.

    - Overall, it was a solid, high-quality production, often called
    the "first binaural radio drama ever;" but it's easier to follow
    if you already have a good grasp of German.

    119 minutes long.

    Directed by Ulrich Gerhardt, Klaus Krüger, Hans-Ulrich Minke,
    Friedrich Scholz, and Ursula Starck.

    Music by Friedrich Scholz and Klaus Dieter Mäurich.

    Cast includes Peter Hallwachs, Gert Günther Hoffmann,
    Arnold Marquis, Susanne Tremper, Ingrid van Bergen,
    Dieter Ranspach, Uta Hallant, Eduard Wandrey, Anneliese Römer,
    Tanja Berg, Nero Brandenburg, Josef Pelz von Felinau,
    Andreas Mannkopff, Helga Krauss, Hubertus Bengsch,
    Helma von Kieseritzky, Rudi Schmitt, Norbert Gescher,
    Hermann Ebeling, Hans Kwiet, Erna Haffner, Reinhard Kolldehoff,
    Otto Czarski, Klaus Jespen, Rosi Müller, Friedrich W. Bauschulte,
    Fritz Mellinger, Georg Corten, Joachim Kerzel, Evamaria Miner,
    Heinz Petruo, Joachim Nottke, Erika Matejka, Walter Tappe,
    Eric Vaessen, Michaela Pfeiffer, Paul Paulschmidt, Burghard Klausner,
    Gerd Holtenau, Jürgen Wegner, Mei Li Pfennig, Hülya Laumer,
    Hermann Wagner, Rolf Marnitz, Gertie Honeck, and Robert Matejka.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Stefan Ram@21:1/5 to Melissa Hollingsworth on Wed Jul 30 17:14:14 2025
    Melissa Hollingsworth <thetruemelissa@gmail.com> wrote or quoted:
    I love the idea of trying to hide from telepathic police. How well do
    you think "Baby Shark" would work in real life?

    I wish I could give a proper take, but "Baby Shark" is totally
    unfamiliar ground for me! I'm kind of out of the loop and don't
    know some popular stuff.

    Right now I've got a box fan running, and its noise sounds like radio
    voices that take over, and I'm powerless to stop myself from trying to
    decode them. That alone might be enough to throw off a telepath . . .

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Ted Nolan @21:1/5 to Stefan Ram on Wed Jul 30 17:34:01 2025
    In article <shark-20250730181137@ram.dialup.fu-berlin.de>,
    Stefan Ram <ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de> wrote:
    Melissa Hollingsworth <thetruemelissa@gmail.com> wrote or quoted:
    I love the idea of trying to hide from telepathic police. How well do
    you think "Baby Shark" would work in real life?

    I wish I could give a proper take, but "Baby Shark" is totally
    unfamiliar ground for me! I'm kind of out of the loop and don't
    know some popular stuff.

    Right now I've got a box fan running, and its noise sounds like radio
    voices that take over, and I'm powerless to stop myself from trying to
    decode them. That alone might be enough to throw off a telepath . . .



    I believe it was an element of _The Yngling_ that the titular character's actions were unsnoopable by telepaths because he had no interior monologue.

    Then there was that story about getting away with murder when chronoviewers would be used to probe every moment leading up to the crime. Not quite
    the same thing, but interesting... Which leads to the Sturgeon story about
    the bedridden aunt who turned around her nephew's plot to kill *her*...
    --
    columbiaclosings.com
    What's not in Columbia anymore..

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  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to All on Wed Jul 30 22:54:14 2025
    On 30 Jul 2025 17:14:14 GMT, ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram)
    wrote:

    Melissa Hollingsworth <thetruemelissa@gmail.com> wrote or quoted:
    I love the idea of trying to hide from telepathic police. How well do
    you think "Baby Shark" would work in real life?

    I wish I could give a proper take, but "Baby Shark" is totally
    unfamiliar ground for me! I'm kind of out of the loop and don't
    know some popular stuff.

    Right now I've got a box fan running, and its noise sounds like radio
    voices that take over, and I'm powerless to stop myself from trying to
    decode them. That alone might be enough to throw off a telepath . . .

    You really think a telepath is going to be distracted by a fan?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Blueshirt@21:1/5 to Stefan Ram on Thu Jul 31 11:06:16 2025
    Stefan Ram wrote:

    Melissa Hollingsworth <thetruemelissa@gmail.com> wrote or
    quoted:
    I love the idea of trying to hide from telepathic police.
    How well do you think "Baby Shark" would work in real life?

    I wish I could give a proper take, but "Baby Shark" is
    totally unfamiliar ground for me! I'm kind of out of the
    loop and don't know some popular stuff.

    I have grandchildren so unfortunately I am very aware of "Baby
    Shark"... it's as catchy as hell but after the 273rd time of
    hearing it, it becomes VERY annoying!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Stefan Ram@21:1/5 to The Horny Goat on Thu Jul 31 11:53:54 2025
    The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca> wrote or quoted:
    You really think a telepath is going to be distracted by a fan?

    It's not the fan. It's the voices from the fan!

    |Why You Hear Voices in Your White Noise Machine
    . . .
    |It's called auditory pareidolia.
    (Quotation slightly edited, deleting the word "still".)

    |Can we hear imaginary voices in white noise?
    . . .
    |Yes, white noise machines, as well as other items that
    |produce constant noise ( ie bedroom fans) are known to
    |cause auditory hallucinations.

    |How come I hear voices or music when a fan is running?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Stefan Ram@21:1/5 to Stefan Ram on Thu Jul 31 12:52:07 2025
    ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) wrote or quoted:
    |It's called auditory pareidolia.

    I tried to verify the following answer from a chatbot, but it took
    too much time! At least I found out that "Details" (Short Story by
    China Miéville) seems to exist (was not halluzinated by the chatbot).
    So without further verification attempts, here's the dialog: Me,

    Science Fiction and Fantasy stories with pareidolia?

    , chatbot,

    |Several science fiction and fantasy stories explicitly engage
    |with the phenomenon of pareidolia - the tendency to perceive
    |meaningful patterns, such as faces, in random stimuli.
    |
    |Key examples include:
    |
    |- "Details" (Short Story by China Miéville): This story is
    | centered on pareidolia, following a girl who uncovers a
    | demonic presence that only she can see. The plot revolves
    | around her disappearance and her father's desperate search for
    | her. The story directly engages with pareidolia by making the
    | act of seeing hidden forms in the environment both a physical
    | and psychological danger.
    |
    |- "Pareidolia" (2011 Film by Saskia Olde Wolbers): Olde
    | Wolbers's film creates a science fiction-fantasy world that
    | blurs the line between perception and reality, weaving
    | together the theme of pareidolia with fable-like storytelling.
    | The film explores how people project meaning onto ambiguous
    | forms and experiences, merging aesthetic ambiguity with
    | narrative structure.
    |
    |- "Pareidolia: Science Fiction Stories" by J.P. Osterman: This
    | story collection uses pareidolia as a central theme -
    | exploring how humans find order in chaos and name
    | unidentifiable shapes in the universe, thus constructing
    | meaning from randomness.

    .

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