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Starfish by Peter Watts (1999)

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Re: Starfish by Peter Watts (1999)

#51

Post by pseudalopex »

GCUMstlyHarmls wrote: post #21

Peter Watts Amazon "About the Author". > https://www.amazon.com.au/stores/author/B001H6Q2TE/about > This is awkward and a little creepy. They tell me I have to do it for promotional purposes, but I've already got a blog. I've already got a website. Being told that setting up an author page on fcuking Amazon is essential to success? A company that treats us all like such goddamn children it doesn't even allow us to co…

> A company that treats us all like such goddamn children it doesn't even allow us to correctly spell an epithet with a venerable history going back 900 years or more?

This meant what?

Re: Starfish by Peter Watts (1999)

#53

Post by literalAardvark »

Verdex wrote: post #42
literalAardvark wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chimp is very much not ASI, by design. Humans have ASI but the risk of value drift was too great so they downgraded him to 4.8

Chimp isn't, but at the end of freeze frame Sunday addresses one who she thinks is. [Not sure if that was the original intent in this thread, though]

Hmm. I don't remember that, maybe it's time for a re-read.

Re: Starfish by Peter Watts (1999)

#54

Post by literalAardvark »

attheicearcade wrote: post #10

If you like his work, you can donate to “The Niblet Memorial Kibble Fund”. I did after reading Blindsight, and received a friendly thank you email from him afterwards because so few people do.

Doubly worth doing as aside from writing some of the best modern hard Sci-Fi half of them are released for free on his page.

Re: Starfish by Peter Watts (1999)

#55

Post by literalAardvark »

tialaramex wrote: post #13

I should read his long form stuff, I don't do anywhere near enough long form reading these days. I read "Malak" in Engineering Infinity years ago and it's very good indeed.

Blindsight and Starfish are both awesome.

Blindsight in particular will also blow your mind.

It'd say Starfish is a great read but it doesn't quite get to mind blowing.

They will, however, drain your trust in humanity to deeply negative levels.

Re: Starfish by Peter Watts (1999)

#56

Post by Schlagbohrer »

His Rifters books had some interesting tech in them that I want to see in the real world (for positive uses): dirigibles using vaccuum for buoancy rather than hydrogen or helium, and abiotic food production ala the "Calvin Cyclers" he has in the book. Abiotic food production using only minerals, water, and air as inputs would be tremendously helpful for space colonization and also for scarcity scenarios on earth, like living in the arctic, at sea, or in the desert.

Re: Starfish by Peter Watts (1999)

#57

Post by aaroninsf »

Every time Peter Watts comes up, it bears repeating:

TRIGGER WARNINGS APPLY

The Rifters series, which has some spectacular images and conceits, is also author-insert misogynist sadism gratification-porn.

Didn't have to be that way. Shame that it was as IMO it renders the series and indeed Watts un-recommendable.

Re: Starfish by Peter Watts (1999)

#58

Post by madrox »

cdrini wrote: post #18
AnthonBerg wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see people differently after reading Blindsight; The picture is much darker , concretely more accurate, with what light is there geared to all hell and so much brighter. I'm better for it and at a greater peace.

I quite enjoyed Blindsight, but that was not my takeaway at all :P How do you see people differently after reading it?

I'll give my own interpretation, which is different from the parent though maybe we arrive at the same place.

Blindsight dismantles a lot of noble myths about what it means to be human and human exceptionalism. The things you read and see in all kinds of stories. It makes you appreciate how easy and unconscious it is to settle for comfortable lies over truth about how smart or great you are. I think this is what freaks a lot of people out about whether AI is conscious, actually.

I think the hope comes in if you embrace the implications for yourself, because to be otherwise is to be unconscious.

Re: Starfish by Peter Watts (1999)

#59

Post by subscribed »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #43
madrox wrote: post #6

No one has ever made me feel horror and despair like Peter Watts. His books stare directly into the abyss. I think it's what makes the hope you feel at the end seem earned. If you haven't read his work but you spend time thinking about HCI, you should.

I haven't read anything from Peter Watts, but I have read Cormac McCarthy and what you're describing sounds like that.

Oh man, no, no, it's a different experience entirely. Not as shredding as McCarthy (The road or Blood Meridian alike).

Start from Blindsight and read the afterwords.

Re: Starfish by Peter Watts (1999)

#60

Post by subscribed »

aaroninsf wrote: post #57

Every time Peter Watts comes up, it bears repeating: TRIGGER WARNINGS APPLY The Rifters series, which has some spectacular images and conceits, is also author-insert misogynist sadism gratification-porn. Didn't have to be that way. Shame that it was as IMO it renders the series and indeed Watts un-recommendable.

Meh, seriously. Write a better book instead of flailing about the dark themes.

If someone is mature enough to read his book, they'll be able to process the less palatable parts themselves.

BTW,

> We present the results of a meta-analysis of all empirical studies on the effects of these warnings. Overall, we found that warnings had no effect on affective responses to negative material or on educational outcomes. However, warnings reliably increased anticipatory affect. Findings on avoidance were mixed, suggesting either that warnings have no effect on engagement with material or that they increased engagement with negative material under specific circumstances.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21677026231186625

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