31–40 of 169 posts
If you haven’t read it before, don’t read the Wikipedia summary; read the actual story. It’s easy to google and pretty short. Isaac Asimov said it was his favorite story he’d written. He imagines the entire history of the future of humanity, to the end of time, in a few pages. Really a marvelous story.
If you haven’t read it before, don’t read the Wikipedia summary; read the actual story. It’s easy to google and pretty short. Isaac Asimov said it was his favorite story he’d written. He imagines the entire history of the future of humanity, to the end of time, in a few pages. Really a marvelous story.
It’s an atheist’s most religious dream to think of becoming one’s own creator. It’s nonsense, of course, but it definitely blew my mind reading it as a child. What set the parameters that the ultimate computer must work within? The ultimate computer can reverse entropy, but it can’t make its own reality. There are limits to the power of knowledge.
Also check out "The Last Answer", the only work by Asimov I've read that actually terrified me. If it takes place in the same universe as "The Last Question", you could argue it has a bit of a "Roko's basilisk" flavor.
If you haven’t read it before, don’t read the Wikipedia summary; read the actual story. It’s easy to google and pretty short. Isaac Asimov said it was his favorite story he’d written. He imagines the entire history of the future of humanity, to the end of time, in a few pages. Really a marvelous story.
It’s an atheist’s most religious dream to think of becoming one’s own creator. It’s nonsense, of course, but it definitely blew my mind reading it as a child. What set the parameters that the ultimate computer must work within? The ultimate computer can reverse entropy, but it can’t make its own reality. There are limits to the power of knowledge.
Scientists come to God and say "OK God, we've had a lot of progress lately in synthetic biology, genetics, engineering, etc. and we're pretty sure we know how you did it."
God says "Oh really?". "Yes. We'll create living creatures out of dirt to show that we can do just as you did with Adam."
God says "Wow, fantastic!" So the scientists go outside with a shovel to collect some dirt. And as they're about to dig their spades in, God says "No no no, get your own dirt!"
Also check out "The Last Answer", the only work by Asimov I've read that actually terrified me. If it takes place in the same universe as "The Last Question", you could argue it has a bit of a "Roko's basilisk" flavor.
I thought it, in some ways, reflected the Ellison's earlier I have no Mouth, and I Must Scream which to this day is still the story that terrified me the most.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s an atheist’s most religious dream to think of becoming one’s own creator. It’s nonsense, of course, but it definitely blew my mind reading it as a child. What set the parameters that the ultimate computer must work within? The ultimate computer can reverse entropy, but it can’t make its own reality. There are limits to the power of knowledge.
Creator in what sense though? Evolution is slow enough that there was never one point at which we suddenly came into being. First we were energy, then we were energy forming into chemicals, then we were chemicals forming into chemicals with rigid structures, then we were chemicals with rigid structures forming more complex structures, etc, until we got to here. Each iteration creates the next iteration, constantly, a…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought it, in some ways, reflected the Ellison's earlier I have no Mouth, and I Must Scream which to this day is still the story that terrified me the most.
I've never actually read it, just about it, and I have no desire to just because that's a nightmare I don't need. The title itself is a candidate for a single sentence horror story.
I've heard that this is how the story originated; a friend of Ellison had a doll with no mouth named this and Ellison quickly thought that it would be a great title for a horror story...
One of my favorite things about HN, is how, every once in a while, some obscure cool thing I have not hear about before gets pointed out, which, I find cool. But then, we "hug it to death" in the HN vernacular. Which is also really cool. Some neglected corner of the web that someone cared about, suddenly, a bunch of us nerds jump on it and recognize the nerd-coolness of it. I love that. Hope this was OK to say and no…
I remember first experiencing that in the early days of slashdot (must have been late 90s). It subjectively feels like such moments were more common back then.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I remember first experiencing that in the early days of slashdot (must have been late 90s). It subjectively feels like such moments were more common back then.
It was a much smaller internet. Crowds and server overload were much more visible.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s an atheist’s most religious dream to think of becoming one’s own creator. It’s nonsense, of course, but it definitely blew my mind reading it as a child. What set the parameters that the ultimate computer must work within? The ultimate computer can reverse entropy, but it can’t make its own reality. There are limits to the power of knowledge.
The rabbi recently on the Lex Fridman podcast told a joke that went (roughly) like Scientists come to God and say "OK God, we've had a lot of progress lately in synthetic biology, genetics, engineering, etc. and we're pretty sure we know how you did it." God says "Oh really?". "Yes. We'll create living creatures out of dirt to show that we can do just as you did with Adam." God says "Wow, fantastic!" So the scientist…