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I wrote a short story about von Neumann probes
- ggambetta 4y agoVery nice :) I'm not quite sure I "got" the binary numbers thing. Is that how the sending civilization determines whether intelligence has been found?
- whatrocks 4y agoI'm not sure I even made this connection when writing this. But, as OP, I'm going to say yes. I mainly was thinking about how to connect Lemmings and Gremlins.
- whatrocks 4y agoOh, also, "A Boy and his Blob" was another major influence. Such a weird game that my sister and I loved on regular Nintendo.
- whatrocks 4y agoAnother influence, especially for the binary numbers bit, was "Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software" by Charles Petzold. I've always loved his explanation of counting in binary.
- mannykannot 4y agoNice story! One small point about the binary-counter process is that you cannot stuff an arbitrary number of nibbles back into the box - the smallest counter-example being three. On the other hand, you can always increase the number of them by one through selecting one and feeding it (and for the same reason, you cannot assume there are an even or power-of-two number of them to start with.)
- whatrocks 4y agoThis is definitely helpful. I am thinking about making this story into an iPhone game. Not sure there’s enough game mechanics to keep it fun yet, but maybe there’s something with the feed vs stuff with a timer?
- behringer 4y agoYes I felt the reason for the numbering system may not even need an explanation, due to it being all weirdly alien!
- TruthWillHurt 4y agoHa ha! Very good! The writing is good, the ending is brilliant! :) I love the binary numbers bit. It appears very often in sci-fi when interacting with aliens. very good to have it explained nicely and be a "puzzle" to solve. But I'll just note that as far as I know - von Neumann probes are not passengers, but rather the ship itself, which replicates and travels to new destinations. It might be ok in this short story because kids found the ship, so they didn't know better, but it's important to get the science right in sci-fi. Readers are smart :) Keep at it! I'd love to read more of your stories. (Short stories are great for sci-fi in my opinion!) P.S A great book about Von Neuman probes is - We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
- sputr 4y agoCame here to recommend the Bobiverse (first book of 4 so far: We are legion (We are Bob)) as it's simply fantastic read or listen.
- NotEvil 4y agoCan't recommend it more. The whole series is muah
- pwelch 4y ago100% This series is so fun to read.
- robalfonso 4y agoAnother vote for bobiverse, absolutely great book.
- nehal3m 4y agoI had the same thought. Great series.
- UncleSlacky 4y ago"Spin" is also an interesting Von Neumann probe story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_(novel)
- jimmcslim 4y agoI look forward to this appearing in the next series of "Love, Death & Robots"
- genmon 4y agoFor anyone interested in this topic, I went back and looked at the earliest von Neumann feasibility paper recently, and came away wondering… what if we are the von Neumann probes https://interconnected.org/home/2022/09/29/interstellar https://interconnected.org/home/2022/09/29/interstellar
- Tepix 4y agoA civilization capable of building von Neumann probes would likely be much more advanced than ours. Chances are all life that we see in our solar system has been planted by a passing von Neumann probe. The odds that this life develops into a technological civilization that builds more probes eventually are deemed high enough. Perhaps even more so once the technology has advanced enough to discover and decode the forefather's message in all DNA...
- h4t 4y agoI read this title thinking it was gonna be about chess. /facepalm I need to go to sleep.
- jeffrallen 4y agoI love it. Keep writing!
- behringer 4y agoCritique here: The audio has a couple loud bangs, the first of which scared me to death because I thought something hit my car! Filter and/or re-record mic drops recommended :D Second, it was a good story but I really would have liked to have a go at solving the problem myself before it was explained to the friends. Perhaps you could have given us, the reader, the problem first and the entire thought process of solving it, with the end of that explanation containing the solution, perhaps that's where you could cut in and explain the solution to the friends. That way if we the readers figure it out ahead of the narration then we get that little bump of dopamine!
- whatrocks 4y agoGreat points. My mic literally dropped during the recording (I was sitting in my bed). I'll try to fix that now and re-upload it (up to this point, the only regular listeners have been my parents and occasionally my wife). Also, excellent call on the problem/game part of the story - I should rewrite that part. I've also been thinking about this story as the backstory to an iPhone game, so maybe I can make it more fun that way.
- whatrocks 4y agoI just re-recorded that big pop at the beginning and re-uploaded. Hopefully that should fix things and sorry for the pop scare! Thanks again for the helpful advice and feedback.
- BizarroLand 4y agoDepending on what software you are using, there are a lot of pop filtering plugins that can automatically remove or reduce those events from the audio. It's worth looking into to make sure you only have to do as little work as possible to produce good quality results.
- whatrocks 4y agoI use Logic and I barely understand it. I need to watch some YouTube videos!
- dwheeler 4y agovon Neumann probes are also relevant to the clicker game "Universal Paperclips": https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/ https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/ Universal Paperclips is a strange game that I found intriguing. Its premise is that you are an AI created to create paperclips (a "paperclip maximizer"); this is a thought experiment described by philosopher Nick Bostrom in 2003. At first Universal Paperclips looks like a normal silly clicker game, but eventually it starts making you think about things you probably hadn't before: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Paperclips https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Paperclips>. What I particularly appreciate is that it has several stages; each at first seems like a surprise, and yet within its context is 100% logical (if horrifying). A nice video about the feeling it can give you is here (Universal Paperclips is about 1/2 way through): "The Horror of Universal Paperclips and Space Engine" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oca8BnDMin4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oca8BnDMin4 If you don't want to actually play it, you can watch others doing so, e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnhWc_kRzVE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnhWc_kRzVE
- jonas21 4y agoSpoiler alert!