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A comment on China using big data to detain people before crime is committed. Parent comment

Re:China using big data to detain people before crime is com... by dekhn on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @04:45PM (#16487336)
That's completely wrong. The Palantiri were created by the Noldor (one of the powerful old races of elves) and used without corruption, and then given to the Numenoreans as a gift; they were used for a long time without corruption. They were so powerful that even Sauron could not make arbitrary images appear. But the weak-minded were easily influenced by him through it; not through the nature of the stones.

The ring was created by Sauron and embedded most of his life-force, and nobody alive at the time of the LotR had enough strength to resist his will.

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Re:China using big data to detain people before crime is com... by SketchySeaBeast on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @05:08PM (#16487576)
The exception being Tom Bombadil, but he is a strange creature.
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Re:China using big data to detain people before crime is com... by pmontra on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @06:30PM (#16488263)
You'll probably enjoy this essay "Oldest and Fatherless: The Terrible Secret of Tom Bombadil" https://km-515.livejournal.com/1042.html
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Re:China using big data to detain people before crime is com... by SketchySeaBeast on Thursday March 01, 2018 @09:52AM (#16492436)
Ok, that was awesome. I don't buy it at all (if Sauron was indeed a threat to Tom, or if Tom could be bound by the art of the Valar, I feel as though the ring would effect him as well), but it was a really fun read.

A fun thought invoked by this, and given Tolkien's intent to create a creation myth for our Earth, is somewhere out there Tom still sits in his forest, waiting, for when the might of the Valar fades. Feels almost Lovecraftian.

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Re:China using big data to detain people before crime is com... by pmontra on Sunday March 04, 2018 @02:42PM (#16516222)
Oh, if you're also in Lovecraftian horrors you should read this paper https://arxiv.org/abs/1210.8144

"Possible Bubbles of Spacetime Curvature in the South Pacific"

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Re:China using big data to detain people before crime is com... by dekhn on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @05:32PM (#16487794)
oh, yeah, sorry, I left that out, but that's a subtle issue, because it's not clear whether he is actually a creature, or an embodiment of nature.
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Re:China using big data to detain people before crime is com... by YeGoblynQueenne on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @06:02PM (#16488066)
That must be why he was left out of the movies.

/s

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Re:China using big data to detain people before crime is com... by dekhn on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @07:54PM (#16488769)
There's a lot of writing about the omission that I think explains Jackson's thinking (and it's clear he thought about this).

Personally I think Tom is one of the most important moments of the book, but not as part of the plot; rather, it's fascinating to somebody who considers the LoTR as an archetypal myth, because Tom's identity is intentionally kept mysterious, even when his powers are not.

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Re:China using big data to detain people before crime is com... by leggomylibro on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @05:38PM (#16487867)
Oh.

Well, stuff happens; thanks.

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