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Marshall Brain has died

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Re: Marshall Brain has died

#21

Post by readthenotes1 »

willio58 wrote: post #10

Very sad, just a reminder that success doesn’t translate to happiness. The podcasts that came out of HSW.com have heavily influenced my life. Especially Stuff You Should Know (still a top 20 podcast but no longer owned by How stuff works. I remember 16 years ago going through the whole rigmarole of downloading the podcast on my white MacBook, syncing to my iPod, repeating each week so I could keep up with the episode…

"success doesn’t translate to happiness."

I suspect that the pursuit of happiness, without the capture, leads to success. Or perhaps a strong avoidance of the fear of failure (iirc, that was a common motivation for Olympic athletes)

Re: Marshall Brain has died

#24

Post by chgs »

ryoshu wrote: post #5
lwhalen wrote: post #3

He was also the author of https://marshallbrain.com/manna , a sci-fi story that has stuck with me for years.

Very relevant in the age of smart glasses for workers.

I was think about the software some companies use to “monitor productivity”

Re: Marshall Brain has died

#27

Post by monocasa »

simpaticoder wrote: post #12
monocasa wrote: post #6

I'm going to use this time to drop the Marshall Brain work that had the biggest impact on me, and is some of the most prescient speculative fiction I've read. Manna: Two Views of Humanity’s Future He contracts two societies. One is a dystopia where AI very, very similar to today's ML models is integrated into society as a replacement for the middle class, removing social mobility as well as acting as a panopticon low…

Very cool story, quite impactful on my thinking, although I will caution that the dystopia is better conceived than the utopia, mainly because the later requires inventing fantasy technology while the former does not. Indeed it's not clear at all what forces might destabalize the dystopia, since the power structures are immortal and self-replicating, and physics and biology (at least) prevents the utopia from existin…

Which physics and biology prevent the utopia from existing?

Re: Marshall Brain has died

#28

Post by nazgulnarsil »

simpaticoder wrote: post #12
monocasa wrote: post #6

I'm going to use this time to drop the Marshall Brain work that had the biggest impact on me, and is some of the most prescient speculative fiction I've read. Manna: Two Views of Humanity’s Future He contracts two societies. One is a dystopia where AI very, very similar to today's ML models is integrated into society as a replacement for the middle class, removing social mobility as well as acting as a panopticon low…

Very cool story, quite impactful on my thinking, although I will caution that the dystopia is better conceived than the utopia, mainly because the later requires inventing fantasy technology while the former does not. Indeed it's not clear at all what forces might destabalize the dystopia, since the power structures are immortal and self-replicating, and physics and biology (at least) prevents the utopia from existin…

Accelerando

Re: Marshall Brain has died

#29

Post by panoply220 »

FlynnCruse wrote: post #8

Marshall was one of my closest Mentors through college. Truly heartbreaking to hear of his passing. I wish his family; wife and kids, the best through this tragic period. He inspired me daily with his dedication to his students, incredible work-ethic and love for entrepreneurial engineering. My life is forever changed for having met and been mentored by Marshall, I cannot express enough gratitude for the time I got t…

Same! I owe so much to him. Heartbreaking and forever grateful for the time we got to spend together.

Re: Marshall Brain has died

#30

Post by StephenSmith »

I just wanted to highlight that he was also an entrepreneurship professor at NC State and shaped many students' views of what they could do with their lives.

I was one of those students. I now own my own company as a result of his teachings. He was very influential and a wonderful human being. This news is tragic.

RIP Marshall. You were loved.

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