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I think the lack of books is mostly just that a society where machines is the main source of cultural output isn't very interesting. At that point humans are mo
by username90 6y ago
I think the lack of books is mostly just that a society where machines is the main source of cultural output isn't very interesting. At that point humans are more or less useless as workers so either would get culled or would live in utopia similar to our current pets, only question is if we would go the way of the cat or the way of the horse.
- inter_netuser 6y agocats were never really domesticated. they sort of just came by, and never left. So it seems the horse way is much more likely. Unfortunately.
- username90 6y agoThe machine learned models might feel there is a purpose in keeping humans around. Just like humans feels there is a purpose in keeping cats around.
- gonzo41 6y agoI'd be happy with AI taking my responsibilities and myself taking up my cats day job. Lots of sun naps and very little stress about food or resources.
- username90 6y agoYeah, human being cats is the best case scenario. Just that it wouldn't be interesting as a book. Maybe one short book, but mostly humans wants to read about human like entities doing stuff.
- WorldMaker 6y agoThere are some fun books written from a cat's perspective. Some of that comes from anthropomorphizing their inner lives and finding the drama in them. Even a life of presumed leisure may be filled with interesting drama humans want to read about. (A fun example, if anyone is looking for one, though not about house cats but feral ones is Tad Williams' fantasy novel "Tailchaser's Song".)
- furstenheim 6y agoThere are such stories. Roald dahl has a very nice short story about it https://www.roalddahlfans.com/dahls-work/short-stories/the-great-automatic-grammatizator/ https://www.roalddahlfans.com/dahls-work/short-stories/the-g....
- n4r9 6y agoAt the risk of bringing up The Culture series in every HN thread about sci fi, Iain M Banks does a thoughtful job of exploring this. In particular, in the book Look to Windward there's a discussion between the orbital's AI Mind and a renowned composer about how it could mimic their work perfectly if it chose to.
- zem 6y agojack williamson's "with folded hands" is a quietly horrifying look at that, all the more so because it takes all the holy grails of sf - unlimited free energy, faster than light travel and communication, and strong ai that obeys asimov's three laws, and crafts a truly frightening dystopia out of them.