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I'd like to note that this is probably the biggest borderline-plausible hard SF idea not to have caught on (at least on a large scale) in genre fiction. And tha
by cstross 17y ago
I'd like to note that this is probably the biggest borderline-plausible hard SF idea not to have caught on (at least on a large scale) in genre fiction. And that I shamelessly strip-mined Mr Bradbury's mountain of ideas for props in "Accelerando".
(In case you were wondering where SF writers get their ideas from ...)
- chromophore 17y agoOf course it has. Dyson Spheres are famous in SF. The Matrioshka Brains are just distant relatives of the same.
- lionheart 17y agoWow, Charles Stross, I didn't know you were on HN. I'm a big fan. I love the sheer intensity of your work. Props!
- swombat 17y agoHeh, I wanted to post a comment pointing out that anyone who likes this article should definitely read Accelerando... Great book, thanks for writing it! :-)
- electromagnetic 17y agoIt is a shame they haven't caught on, but I believe there's a positive-feedback mechanism in advertising these ideas. Once an ingenious idea is made, it is only disseminated to a smaller percentage of people. One of these people then has to be inspired enough by the idea to borrow from the original creator. If the idea is borrowed, it is likely to live on for longer. If it gets borrowed in a movie, the idea will go global due to the sheer amount of people who will receive the idea compared to reading a sci/fi book. Once the idea has been spread enough, it will get borrowed enough. Before Asimov, robots were basically a chromed Frankenstein. However, now it's rare and rather dated to see a Frankenbot. Now it's typically benevolent robot/AI hurts humanity to help it, which was a frequent element in Asimov's own work. Megastructures haven't really appeared in Hollywood movies before. There was the Deathstar and the planetary ring in Verhoeven's Starship Troopers, aside from that I seriously can't think of another without seriously stretching it. So until we see an actual-factual ringworld or dyson spheres, which are far more recognised ideas, I doubt we'll see a matrioshka brain, even though it has the biggest uses.
- Alex3917 17y agoProbably because it's so improbable. It essentially assumes that we'll hit the limits of technological innovation without discovering that any of our current ideas about physics and the nature of the universe are completely wrong. Long before we could ever make such a device I suspect we'll discover something along the lines of zero-point energy being real harvestable, that the universe is not in fact material and local, etc. I'm sure there are thousands more possibilities. And any one of them being true would make this device completely obsolete way before our technology advances to a point where we can create it.
- eru 17y agoThe universe is in fact not 'material' in some senses of the word. We already know that information / entropy is as least as real as energy and matter. And there are some hints that they may be even more fundamental.
- apsurd 17y agohttp://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/03/reminder-why-theres-no-tipjar.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2009/03/reminder... Respect.
- elblanco 17y agoOne of the things I like about HN is all the neat people on here. On the things I love about HN is all the people I see here who I'd like to know!