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I think it's reasonable to give mild spoilers for a 30(!) year old book: Maximum possible intelligence is a function of the speed of light. The speed of light

by flir 4y ago

I think it's reasonable to give mild spoilers for a 30(!) year old book: Maximum possible intelligence is a function of the speed of light. The speed of light is a local constant, not a universal one, and is a function of the amount of mass in the local area (maybe). Thus, if you dive towards the core of the galaxy you get dumber, but if you head up and out you have the potential to get smarter. The reason we haven't all been eaten by the Borg is that, two thirds from the centre of the galaxy, the universe only supports boring, mundane, human-level intelligence, and everyone wants to get up and out, to where they can become Sufficiently Advanced. Sidenote: Sufficiently Advanced intelligences don't seem to hang around for long, and nobody down here is quite sure what happens to them when they stop communicating. Marooned in Realtime is almost as good as the first two Zones of Thought novels, IMO: what if time travel, but only forwards?

KineticLensman 4y ago
> what if time travel, but only forwards? Just to expand on that a bit (also teasers for an almost 40 year old novel). They don't have time machines as such, but instead indestructible stasis fields ('bobbles') in which time stands still. These are initially thought to persist infinitely, but early in the first novel ('The Peace War') it becomes apparent (in 2048) that the bobbles eventually pop releasing whatever is inside them back into real time. This causes problems for the baddies who control bobble technology and have long been using bobbles as way of imprisoning their enemies. In the follow-up novel, Marooned in Real Time, various characters who have been bobbled for various reasons travel to the far future of the Earth, long after an apparent singularity has left the planet almost devoid of human life, and witnessing changes to the planet on geological timescales. The bobbles are now a pervasive technology used in a whole range of applications (from solar mining to deep space combat), which Vinge has fun exploring.
- flir 4y ago
  Thanks, I was sure there was a second book but Google wasn't turning it up.
  - shagie 4y ago
    The series is "across realtime" - and there's a short story that happens between the two books that you'll find in a collection titled The Ungoverned. That happens 30 years after The Peace War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ungoverned https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ungoverned From the publisher: https://www.baen.com/Chapters/1416520724/1416520724___4.htm https://www.baen.com/Chapters/1416520724/1416520724___4.htm

by flir 4y ago

KineticLensman 4y ago

> what if time travel, but only forwards? Just to expand on that a bit (also teasers for an almost 40 year old novel). They don't have time machines as such, but instead indestructible stasis fields ('bobbles') in which time stands still. These are initially thought to persist infinitely, but early in the first novel ('The Peace War') it becomes apparent (in 2048) that the bobbles eventually pop releasing whatever is inside them back into real time. This causes problems for the baddies who control bobble technology and have long been using bobbles as way of imprisoning their enemies. In the follow-up novel, Marooned in Real Time, various characters who have been bobbled for various reasons travel to the far future of the Earth, long after an apparent singularity has left the planet almost devoid of human life, and witnessing changes to the planet on geological timescales. The bobbles are now a pervasive technology used in a whole range of applications (from solar mining to deep space combat), which Vinge has fun exploring.

flir 4y ago
Thanks, I was sure there was a second book but Google wasn't turning it up.
- shagie 4y ago
  The series is "across realtime" - and there's a short story that happens between the two books that you'll find in a collection titled The Ungoverned. That happens 30 years after The Peace War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ungoverned https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ungoverned From the publisher: https://www.baen.com/Chapters/1416520724/1416520724___4.htm https://www.baen.com/Chapters/1416520724/1416520724___4.htm