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This made me think of "focus" from Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky" where individuals are converted to narrow their entire life down to a particular subject area
by arethuza 7y ago
This made me think of "focus" from Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky" where individuals are converted to narrow their entire life down to a particular subject area so that they can be used as components in distributed systems.
Edit: One of the reasons for requiring this kind of approach is that they don't have "real" AI for reasons that would only be apparent if you have read the earlier novel.
- bitwize 7y agoLiterally, weaponized autism.
- arethuza 7y agoI seem to remember that there is a discussion at the end of the book where characters discuss whether focus is worth it as a tool for society and perhaps even something that individuals would choose willingly. I suspect if focus was available as a medical procedure there are people who would choose it - not something that you would be able to regret. Edit: Greg Egan's excellent Quarantine also has the protagonist using "neural mods" to prime him into a state where he was a more effective policeman - but at least they could be turned on/off rather than being semi-permanent like focus.
- manigandham 7y ago> “I suspect if focus was available as a medical people” What does this mean?
- xtiansimon 7y agoMust have been a slip of the tongue. Post-human.
- arethuza 7y agoApologies - I wasn't focusing enough on my comment and wrote nonsense! ;-) Fixed now.
- goatinaboat 7y agoAlastair Reynolds also has characters who are mentally hyper-specialised in order to operate certain technologies, to the extent that they are effectively a part of the machine
- bitwize 7y agoSo... accurate description of long-time Googlers?