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Accelerando (2005)

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Re: Accelerando (2005)

#141

Post by shawn_w »

stackghost wrote: post #111
underlipton wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would feel the same about anyone working in augmented/virtual reality who hadn't read "Rainbows End" or watched any number of XR-focused anime. What do you mean, you can't come up with anything to do with these devices? What do you mean, you're hiring webdevs to make another Snap filter? If you're on the cutting edge, I would expect that your knowledge base includes niche, related texts.

The quality of the prose, the actual craft displayed in the writing of TFBook is... Not great. I tried to read it but couldn't. Merely existing does not make a book worthy of being widely read. It's insane to criticize the openclaw team for not having read it.

It was one of Stross's first books, a fixup of older short stories. He gets better.

Re: Accelerando (2005)

#142

Post by BLKNSLVR »

daynthelife wrote: post #131
SonnyTark wrote: post #19

Accelerando has prophecies that are coming true and it's scary. Spoiler warning in case you want to read it. The first part's main character basically has the future version of openclaw running in his glasses that let him dispatch agents to do any tasks/research he wants or to autonomously do things for him. -> we are already kinda here He's got such total dependency on his agents that when he loses his glasses he's…

It always bothers me when people suggest that AI could be the "great filter" in the sense of Fermi's paradox. Yes, AI may well wipe out biological life, but all evidence suggests AI will have a much easier time with space travel compared to biological life, and it will emit much louder signals unless it is intentionally staying silent.

Awareness of the dark forest theory would cause AI to stay as silent as possible.

Re: Accelerando (2005)

#143

Post by Thegn »

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #29
SonnyTark wrote: post #19

Accelerando has prophecies that are coming true and it's scary. Spoiler warning in case you want to read it. The first part's main character basically has the future version of openclaw running in his glasses that let him dispatch agents to do any tasks/research he wants or to autonomously do things for him. -> we are already kinda here He's got such total dependency on his agents that when he loses his glasses he's…

https://ucp.dev/ looks an awful lot like the first step towards Economics 2.0

At the time I read the story, Economics 2.0 and its effect on humans that installed the upgrade paralleled with some stuff I had read about sociopathic behavior. Stross later wrote about the same ideas in Rule 34.

Re: Accelerando (2005)

#144

Post by andrewflnr »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #142
daynthelife wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It always bothers me when people suggest that AI could be the "great filter" in the sense of Fermi's paradox. Yes, AI may well wipe out biological life, but all evidence suggests AI will have a much easier time with space travel compared to biological life, and it will emit much louder signals unless it is intentionally staying silent.

Awareness of the dark forest theory would cause AI to stay as silent as possible.

Dark forest theory is fun to think about but there's very little reason to think it's actually true.

Re: Accelerando (2005)

#145

Post by mcmcmc »

SonnyTark wrote: post #19

Accelerando has prophecies that are coming true and it's scary. Spoiler warning in case you want to read it. The first part's main character basically has the future version of openclaw running in his glasses that let him dispatch agents to do any tasks/research he wants or to autonomously do things for him. -> we are already kinda here He's got such total dependency on his agents that when he loses his glasses he's…

This is nothing new though; industrialization and specialization have already caused basic survival skills to atrophy in most of the population. Take the case of a massive EMP taking out all computer systems. Gaps in supply chains and power failures would lead to millions (or billions) dying of starvation, dehydration, or exposure because they don’t know how to provide for themselves. People who’ve studied and practiced survival skills (or who retained that knowledge in physical media like a book) would survive. Drop someone from humanity’s hunter-gatherer days into the same situation and they’d have a better chance of surviving than most contemporary humans.

Re: Accelerando (2005)

#146

Post by Apocryphon »

stackghost wrote: post #111
underlipton wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would feel the same about anyone working in augmented/virtual reality who hadn't read "Rainbows End" or watched any number of XR-focused anime. What do you mean, you can't come up with anything to do with these devices? What do you mean, you're hiring webdevs to make another Snap filter? If you're on the cutting edge, I would expect that your knowledge base includes niche, related texts.

The quality of the prose, the actual craft displayed in the writing of TFBook is... Not great. I tried to read it but couldn't. Merely existing does not make a book worthy of being widely read. It's insane to criticize the openclaw team for not having read it.

It was a pretty prominent work of the singularity subgenre. At least I remember it being the first one featured in this Popular Science article about the future of science fiction:

https://books.google.com/books?id=yaHf5PavpB8C&lpg=PA93&dq=%...

Re: Accelerando (2005)

#147

Post by Apocryphon »

jauntywundrkind wrote: post #114
lxgr wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that the OpenClaw creators seemingly missed that parallel tells you everything you need to know about the project.

One of the robots ("moravecs" (amazing)) in Dan Simmons' Ilium was also crustacean formed: Orphu of Io (and his friend Mahnmut. Beat Charles to that particular weird coincidence-to-be by plus or minus a year! It's not quite as memorable or as strong a theme as Accelerando laid down. But still quite a serendipity, imo. Edit: oh, Charlie is down thread pointing out Lobsters was published on 2002, written 1998. Nice. ht…

Carcinization is a meme these days, guess sci-fi was just ahead of the curve

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/carcinization

Re: Accelerando (2005)

#148

Post by Apocryphon »

FL33TW00D wrote: post #14

Anyone have recommendations on books that can rival the first part of Accelerando in number of prescient ideas about how the near future, pre singularity might look? My own list is: Starmaker by Olaf Stapledon Counting Heads by David Marusek Nexus by Ramez Naam Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge But I'm always on the look out for more! The more predictive the better!

Not a book, but the new Marathon computer game might be the first non-indie title where you play as a disembodied posthuman entity. Very neat and unconventional aesthetic for a sci-fi future, too.

Re: Accelerando (2005)

#149

Post by XorNot »

mcmcmc wrote: post #145
SonnyTark wrote: post #19

Accelerando has prophecies that are coming true and it's scary. Spoiler warning in case you want to read it. The first part's main character basically has the future version of openclaw running in his glasses that let him dispatch agents to do any tasks/research he wants or to autonomously do things for him. -> we are already kinda here He's got such total dependency on his agents that when he loses his glasses he's…

This is nothing new though; industrialization and specialization have already caused basic survival skills to atrophy in most of the population. Take the case of a massive EMP taking out all computer systems. Gaps in supply chains and power failures would lead to millions (or billions) dying of starvation, dehydration, or exposure because they don’t know how to provide for themselves. People who’ve studied and practi…

Its irrelevant if you can provide for yourself. The ecosystem cannot support 9 billion Hunter gatherers - period. Subsistence level agriculture is also wildly inefficient and so again: the ecosystem cannot support it.

A hunter-gatherer dropped into a metropolis where all the logistics has suddenly failed would be as dead as everybody else.

Re: Accelerando (2005)

#150

Post by varenc »

mcmcmc wrote: post #145
SonnyTark wrote: post #19

Accelerando has prophecies that are coming true and it's scary. Spoiler warning in case you want to read it. The first part's main character basically has the future version of openclaw running in his glasses that let him dispatch agents to do any tasks/research he wants or to autonomously do things for him. -> we are already kinda here He's got such total dependency on his agents that when he loses his glasses he's…

This is nothing new though; industrialization and specialization have already caused basic survival skills to atrophy in most of the population. Take the case of a massive EMP taking out all computer systems. Gaps in supply chains and power failures would lead to millions (or billions) dying of starvation, dehydration, or exposure because they don’t know how to provide for themselves. People who’ve studied and practi…

If everyone in Manhattan had Bear Grylls-level survival skills, most would still starve in the long term without modern supply chains and industrial agriculture. The damaged ecosystems around large population centers can't support millions of primates, however skilled, suddenly relying on it.

Same would be true if you dropped off a million wild black bears in their natural habitat. The natural environment just can't support that many large animals in a small area.

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