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Apocryphal
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I’m saying that AI is not fixed to its body. What prevents an AI that lives on an internet from moving to new hardware? Nothing that I can see. When my hardware gives out - my mind will give out too. I can’t move my mind to new hardware. When I can…
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Whereas I was born in Montreal and now live in Toronto. I somewhat agree with Barner - I find Montreal much more interesting. But this isn't really a question about whether the city itself has character, so much as whether the city in the novel had …
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He is apparently not a religious person, though I thought it seemed likely he was.
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Yes, I also thought it would be the control - mainly because I imagined that we were meant to believe it was one of the others.
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I like it as a short-hand for showing how the world was evolving. I'm not sure it was the best executed part of the book, but I liked the concept.
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I'm not sure about that. Currently, intelligences are born with bodies, they grow with the bodies, and they die with the bodies. This is natural intelligence. Artificial intelligence would be any other kind of intelligence - an intelligence that was…
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@BarnerCobblewood Humans will die of old age - they are mortal. But there's no reason AI would ever die of old age. AI is effectively immortal. That doesn't mean they can't cease to exist, but it means that their end is not guaranteed if they are al…
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Good observation re: the play on terminal and terminus. It is difficult to remember the 90's. Watching Prisoners of Gravity is reminding me LOL. We've come quite a long way. In one episode, Rick Green mentions that he and the entire show team are on…
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Some general thoughts on experience: * Experience and advancement are artifacts of D&D's wargaming roots. D&D was originally seen as a military squad type game, where the squad infiltrated a dungeon. Only the squad were a hodgepodge of adve…
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But for the ultimate in techs that went nowhere - see the last segment of that Prisoners of Gravity video I shared in the other thread - flying cars, a walking tv, and robo-jockeys. The 90s really was a long time ago!
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I was surprised how many things he got rather right - Videophones (eg. Facetime) which he would hardly have been the first to predict. Carphones. But he didn't see smart phones. At one point he mentions a maglev train from Toronto to Montreal. I la…
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So, on this matter, there were a lot of refences to parts of the city - like he tried to include a scene in every part. But there were also a lot of references to specific things and people and I had a chuckle coming across these. Some of there were…
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@BarnerCobblewood When I'm reading a book, I'm more inclined to not miss important facts, so it's easier for me to develop a more complete picture of what the author intended (if that's possible - not always!). With audio books, it's much easier to …
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Glad you liked it. The only other one I’ve read was Calculating God, which was about an alien that lands in Toronto and has discussions with a local scientist at the Royal Ontario Museum about the existence of God. Hominids is another of his well k…
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I’ve finished the book, and yes, the questions were answered. Fettered and Unfettered - another dualism. I guess my overall impression remains the same as when I began the book. I liked the prose and was intrigued by the setting and big idea, but th…
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Every so often this book flips into the first person present. I haven’t wrapped my head around this yet. “The Perfect and Kind is not looking at Fetter. He’s looking at me. He can’t see me - it’s not possible - but he is looking regardless.” Is …
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There’s a certain amount of dualism in the book - pairings, perhaps. Acusdab, the place, is alternately Cusdaba. And there’s a character named Siculu which a sister named Ucalas. Does this reflect your theme #1? Also, thinking about Fetter as li…
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> @BarnerCobblewood said: > @NeilNjae Is interesting you mention this. I was thinking it might be a good book for us to read here. I read this not too long ago - I’d be willing to give it a re-read.
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I can’t answer that except to say they are genderless to this reader, and I don’t particularly care about gender except that it’s one tool I use to help distinguish characters, and that tool is not available to me here.
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I’m finding it hard to differential the characters. Not least because they all have two-syllable, genderless, names, 😂. Which means I’m also having a hard time differentiating relationships and plot.
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I loved the Doors concept, but at the halfway point I’m wondering what happened to it? The Devils seems like little more than set dressing - ubiquitous as Jinn in an Arabian Nights story, but less consequential. Maybe that will change?
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I don’t have much to say about this, except that I think it’s a really interesting topic, and to point out that we have a genuine expert in the group in the form of @BarnerCobblewood , so I’m interested to see what he has to say.
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I’m pretty sure this is not a ‘magic realism’ book, but I’d have to conduct done research to lay out a case for this. Suffice to say, I think we’ve had this discussion before and that’s how it landed. Magic Reslism is a specific thing, and I don’t t…
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I’m just over halfway ATM, so I’ll post on that basis for now. My initial impression was quite positive. I found the prose-style compelling. I rather liked the world-building, overall, for being a bit unusual. I thought the bright doors conceit …
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So Murder of the Orient Express meets Roadside Picnic? Maybe with a dash of Snowpiercer? Sounds interesting. Railside Piercenik?
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OK, let's make it The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer for May. I'll put Make Room in the back pocket for a future pick.
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As we get older, it’s quite possible we’ll increasingly be unable to read certain things. The UK limited run show called Adolescence, which is currently getting a lot of attention, features a coded use of emojis among the school kids in the show tha…
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There’s a passing mention of Cixin Liu being heavily influenced by the Strugatsky brothers in the Lost Transmissions book I’m reading. Which might logically mean he’s drawn more on the Russian tradition than the American one. And maybe this extends …
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Looks like I'm up in May Here are two books I'm considering: * Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrrison Or * The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer Both are SF set on Earth. The first is a classic by Harry Harrison about overpopulation and …
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Hmmm, ok. You could take a look at this maybe. I haven’t read it myself, as I don’t really like rules for these kinds of things, but I understand it covers things like status and reputation, as well as wealth: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product…