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The Egg (2009)

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Re: The Egg (2009)

#91

Post by singleshot_ »

naikrovek wrote: post #77
bccdee wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The guy in the story has as much free will as anyone does. Just because everything's stitched together with time travel, doesn't mean the individual instances of the character aren't making authentic choices in each moment. Free will doesn't mean our choices are non-deterministic and detached from our circumstances and history; I don't know why that would even be desirable. Compatibilism is the only coherent stance o…

> Surely the real burden would be remembering all those billions of lives with only your paltry human mind to bear it. the being going through this in the story is not a human. a tiny part of them dips its finger into the universe created by the narrator and what is experienced is a human life, but the being experiencing those lives is not human. the human is the lower dimensional representation of the higher-dimensi…

If you “touch” a piece of paper, aren’t your electrons a fraction of a distance above the paper, and not coplanar at all?

Re: The Egg (2009)

#92

Post by [deleted] »

ZeroTalent wrote: post #89
Chiyote wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

This is not plagiarism. These two works express their ideas in very different ways and with very different details, structures, and styles. That's like saying that Orwell's 1984 is a plagiarism of Yevgeny Zamyatin's We or that Harry Potter is a plagiarism of Ursula K. Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea. You are just tackling similar topics. Maybe he took some inspiration from you. You should be proud instead of being butth…

[deleted]

Re: The Egg (2009)

#93

Post by macavelli64 »

ZeroTalent wrote: post #89
Chiyote wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

This is not plagiarism. These two works express their ideas in very different ways and with very different details, structures, and styles. That's like saying that Orwell's 1984 is a plagiarism of Yevgeny Zamyatin's We or that Harry Potter is a plagiarism of Ursula K. Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea. You are just tackling similar topics. Maybe he took some inspiration from you. You should be proud instead of being butth…

[dead]

Re: The Egg (2009)

#94

Post by PufPufPuf »

Chiyote wrote: post #82
xutopia wrote: post #13

I can't recommend this author enough. Project Hail Mary and The Martian are amazing works of science fiction. Project Hail Mary is actually amazing as an audiobook.

[flagged]

18 years ago you wrote an essay which shares the general premise with this short story: https://charmonium.com/infinite-reincarnation/

What exactly do you mean by "plagiarizing" here? Sharing the basic idea?

Re: The Egg (2009)

#95

Post by Chiyote3 »

PufPufPuf wrote: post #94
Chiyote wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

18 years ago you wrote an essay which shares the general premise with this short story: https://charmonium.com/infinite-reincarnation/ What exactly do you mean by "plagiarizing" here? Sharing the basic idea?

[dead]

Re: The Egg (2009)

#96

Post by Chiyote3 »

ZeroTalent wrote: post #89
Chiyote wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

This is not plagiarism. These two works express their ideas in very different ways and with very different details, structures, and styles. That's like saying that Orwell's 1984 is a plagiarism of Yevgeny Zamyatin's We or that Harry Potter is a plagiarism of Ursula K. Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea. You are just tackling similar topics. Maybe he took some inspiration from you. You should be proud instead of being butth…

[dead]

Re: The Egg (2009)

#97

Post by dang »

croisillon wrote: post #47

Related, some past submissions: - 2018, 51 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17145811 - 2014, 153 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7203095

Thanks! Macroexpanded:

The Egg - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37852535 - Oct 2023 (6 comments)

The Egg - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31687818 - June 2022 (1 comment)

The Egg – In Animation Format - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20856614 - Sept 2019 (1 comment)

The Egg (2009) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17145811 - May 2018 (51 comments)

I am Andy Weir, and I wrote "The Egg". AMA - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15673764 - Nov 2017 (1 comment)

The Egg (2009) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7203095 - Feb 2014 (153 comments)

The Egg - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1489497 - July 2010 (20 comments)

Re: The Egg (2009)

#98

Post by m463 »

Ashymad wrote: post #48
siliconc0w wrote: post #44

I asked Weir about the The Egg at a signing and whether he planned to write anything similar- I got a weird vibe back, "I shat it out over a weekend" - like be kinda resented it or possibly just people asking about it.

Honestly I am not surprised. I imagine he wrote it quickly as this fun quirky look at the universe but then it got extremely popular, kurzgesatz video released and all. A lot of people based their personal beliefs off of the story. Imagine you write a small story for fun but then it becomes nearly a religion. It must be a little frustrating for Andy.

> but then it becomes nearly a religion

Life of Brian when he opens the window...

Re: The Egg (2009)

#99

Post by yetihehe »

singleshot_ wrote: post #91
naikrovek wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Surely the real burden would be remembering all those billions of lives with only your paltry human mind to bear it. the being going through this in the story is not a human. a tiny part of them dips its finger into the universe created by the narrator and what is experienced is a human life, but the being experiencing those lives is not human. the human is the lower dimensional representation of the higher-dimensi…

If you “touch” a piece of paper, aren’t your electrons a fraction of a distance above the paper, and not coplanar at all?

Only if that paper is a perfectly flat and non-elastic surface. When you touch real everyday paper, it has pretty fuzzy soft layer, some atoms of your finger will be below "average" level of that paper's surface.

Re: The Egg (2009)

#100

Post by K0balt »

ZeroTalent wrote: post #89
Chiyote wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

This is not plagiarism. These two works express their ideas in very different ways and with very different details, structures, and styles. That's like saying that Orwell's 1984 is a plagiarism of Yevgeny Zamyatin's We or that Harry Potter is a plagiarism of Ursula K. Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea. You are just tackling similar topics. Maybe he took some inspiration from you. You should be proud instead of being butth…

I think the concept is a common insight among people who introspect a bit. The first time I read the story I was surprised because it closely mirrored one of my own musings. In retrospect that’s probably because it is one of those “obvious” ideas that presents itself from the memetic environment of the moment. That’s also probably why it’s irritating to Weir that it practically became a religion lol.
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