Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Egg (2009)

galactanet.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 159 posts

Re: The Egg (2009)

#41

Post by afriend4lyfe »

ngpio wrote: post #37
dhughes wrote: post #18

Another good short story similar to this is Asimov's "The Last Question." http://filer.case.edu/dts8/thelastq.htm

And "The Last Answer", which ironically ends with a question while "The Last Question" ends with an answer. And a bunch of others that aren't quite similar except that they're short, provocative scifi. Here's my list of favorites: * Ted Chiang - Understand - http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/under.htm * Ted Chiang - Exhalation - http://www.nightshadebooks.com/Downloads/Exhalation%20-%20Te... * Ted Chiang - Hell I…

wow ngpio, this list is great. you've probably come across this one before as well but it's definitely a good one: "I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility" http://qntm.org/responsibility

Re: The Egg (2009)

#42

Post by RachelF »

ngpio wrote: post #37
dhughes wrote: post #18

Another good short story similar to this is Asimov's "The Last Question." http://filer.case.edu/dts8/thelastq.htm

And "The Last Answer", which ironically ends with a question while "The Last Question" ends with an answer. And a bunch of others that aren't quite similar except that they're short, provocative scifi. Here's my list of favorites: * Ted Chiang - Understand - http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/under.htm * Ted Chiang - Exhalation - http://www.nightshadebooks.com/Downloads/Exhalation%20-%20Te... * Ted Chiang - Hell I…

A good list, thank you!

Re: The Egg (2009)

#44

Post by whyme »

That model seems ineffective. While it operates in parallel, spawns a plethora of threads and does, I imagine, aim to end in eventual consistency, it also seems to lack any form of shared state. If I was me I would make sure I overlap myself on each new instance and not deal with that restart time. I'd also suggest picking a different tool rather than the current one... I think I might be using LISP (Lost In Self Protocol).

Re: The Egg (2009)

#45

Post by LukeShu »

I hadn't read this, but I recognized the author's name as the author of one of my favorite (no longer running) webcomics[0]. I guess that means I would probably enjoy his other writings[1].

[0]: http://www.galactanet.com/comic/view.php?strip=1 [1]: http://www.galactanet.com/writing.html

... hmm, now I'm a little disapointed in myself that I didn't recognize the domain name too.

Re: The Egg (2009)

#46

Post by chroma »

I guess I'm in the minority that doesn't find this story uplifting. The memory reset is the biggest problem, since it doesn't allow the main character to learn from his mistakes. At the end of time, the main character will have his memories and personalities merged. Then he'll look back on countless lifetimes of the same mistakes and regrets. It would be like if someone slipped you some Ambien (to prevent memory formation), played the same prank on you 20 times, then showed you a video of it after you sobered up. "Ha-ha, you fell for it every time! Classic!" Except instead of 20 times it would be billions (possibly trillions) of lifetimes. And instead of one prank, it would be countless heartbreaks, regrets, failures, and insecurities.

And that's only looking at the character's own "choices." (Is it really a choice if you can't stop yourself from becoming John Wilkes Booth?) The cruelty inflicted by nature would be much greater. Disease, famine, famine, disease, famine, typhoon, famine, rattlesnake bite, famine, tsunami, etc.

Now I wonder if a sugar-coated Lovecraftian horror story was the author's intent. No other kind of god would set up a system where you're forced to repeat the same mistakes for billions of years.

Re: The Egg (2009)

#47

Post by smky80 »

This seemed cute the first time I read it, and it explains the "why I am me?" question that most religions just don't.

But I realized, this is would be an absolute disaster if true. True story: life more or less sucks if you aren't near a local maximum of a food chain.

Re: The Egg (2009)

#48

Post by herokusaki »

rosser wrote: post #17

I've read this several times before, and this bit always gets me, as they say, "right in the feels": “Don’t worry,” I said. “They’ll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn’t have time to grow contempt for you. Your wife will cry on the outside, but will be secretly relieved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it’s any consolation, she’ll feel very guilty for feeling relie…

> It's just so human .

Now that you've described it like that I realize that evoking that feeling is the selling point of most literary fiction. I also feel a bit ashamed I didn't realize this earlier. It's more precise than just saying something has "realistic characters".

Re: The Egg (2009)

#49

Post by Xcelerate »

This would be horrifying if it was true. Think of how many billions of painful, terrible lives you would have to experience.

Edit: I suppose it's just as horrible regardless of whether or not you experience them...

Re: The Egg (2009)

#50

Post by ssully »

chroma wrote: post #46

I guess I'm in the minority that doesn't find this story uplifting. The memory reset is the biggest problem, since it doesn't allow the main character to learn from his mistakes. At the end of time, the main character will have his memories and personalities merged. Then he'll look back on countless lifetimes of the same mistakes and regrets. It would be like if someone slipped you some Ambien (to prevent memory form…

He would experience all of the mistakes, regret, pain, suffering, and all that bad stuff, but he will also experience all of the love, joy, laughter, and all the other good stuff. In the end, one of his single lives still went through the same motions of all of his other lives together, just at a smaller scale.

That is how we mature in life. We learn and grow from our mistakes and accomplishments. Our pain and our joy. You can, as many do, see life as just one big shithole of pain, but you would still be missing out on another side of it.

That's at least what I got out of the story. I thought it was lovely.

Post reply on HN