3 ms·

There was an SF story I read years ago where the core concept was that humanity had somehow "missed" an obvious power-source/FTL drive, which meant that the "so

There was an SF story I read years ago where the core concept was that humanity had somehow "missed" an obvious power-source/FTL drive, which meant that the "solution" to the Drake Equation is that the galaxy is full of intelligent, star-spanning empires that are effectively stuck at a late-1800s tech level (with starships), because getting to there was easy, and doing all the complex 20th century stuff humanity has done is really hard. Hijinks and hilarity ensues when they reach earth.

wheybags 3y ago
Do you remember what it was called?
- caffeinated_me 3y ago
  I believe they're referring to the short story of The Road Not Taken, by Turtledove. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(short_story) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(short_stor... PDF of story: https://www.eyeofmidas.com/scifi/Turtledove_RoadNotTaken.pdf https://www.eyeofmidas.com/scifi/Turtledove_RoadNotTaken.pdf
  - wheybags 3y ago
    Thanks!
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
ptx 3y ago
Is it "The Road Not Taken" by Harry Turtledove? The Wikipedia description seems to match. (If so, ChatGPT got it on the second attempt.)
- duckmysick 3y ago
  Just curious: what was the first attempt/guess?
  - ptx 3y ago
    It suggested Vernor Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky", which has some vaguely related concepts but doesn't match the description at all, as far as I can tell.
- GolfPopper 3y ago
  Yep, I'm sure that was it. I read it many years ago, but the story description, the reference to matchlocks, and the conclusion all match my memory.
- swyx 3y ago
  how do you use chatgpt to search for it? i have been searching for a science fiction short story i read ~25 years ago - it was in a short story anthology book, probably not very famous because i've tried to plug it in and got nothing. --- synopsis (since its a beautiful story and i may as well share it in case someone else here has read it and/or can prompt engineer chatgpt better than me): - Humanity reached abundance but also got overpopulated - so the solution was to shard humanity by days. 1/7 of Humanity wakes and works on one day of the week, sleeps in cryopod the other 6 days. - Main character is happily at work on a Monday tightening the screws on the planetary solar panels, when he notices a sleeping woman in another pod (another day, say Saturday idk) and falls in love on sight (i'm not 100% sure if it was physical-only, he may have read more about her or exchanged letters or something but cant fathom in-world reason how that would work) - After a lot of personal cost and effort, he manages to get a once-in-a-lifetime exemption from the government to switch days, and wakes up on Saturday for the first time in his life. - Goes over to see the woman... only to find she's asleep, because she just transferred to Monday because she also fell in love with him. He's barred from switching back because it was a onetime deal. - Goes back to work to his new Saturday job... loosening screws on the planetary solar panels. --- (above MAY be a hallucination of two stories, its been so long that i'm not sure anymore)
  - pontifier 3y ago
    Read this a long time ago, then re-read it a couple of years ago. They called the pods "stoners" and it made me laugh. Can't remember the name though. It must have been in a collection of short stories. Edit... Found it for you:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sliced-Crosswise_Only-On-Tuesday_World https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sliced-Crosswise_Only-On...
    - swyx 3y ago
      > https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sliced-Crosswise_Only-On https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sliced-Crosswise_Only-On... THANK YOU. LITERALLY BEEN HUNTING FOR THIS FOR YEARS AND HN REPLIED IN 4 HOURS WOW also interesting to see how many details i hallucinated, but i kept the core premise intact haha

wheybags 3y ago

Do you remember what it was called?

caffeinated_me 3y ago
I believe they're referring to the short story of The Road Not Taken, by Turtledove. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(short_story) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(short_stor... PDF of story: https://www.eyeofmidas.com/scifi/Turtledove_RoadNotTaken.pdf https://www.eyeofmidas.com/scifi/Turtledove_RoadNotTaken.pdf
- wheybags 3y ago
  Thanks!
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

ptx 3y ago

Is it "The Road Not Taken" by Harry Turtledove? The Wikipedia description seems to match. (If so, ChatGPT got it on the second attempt.)

duckmysick 3y ago
Just curious: what was the first attempt/guess?
- ptx 3y ago
  It suggested Vernor Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky", which has some vaguely related concepts but doesn't match the description at all, as far as I can tell.
GolfPopper 3y ago
Yep, I'm sure that was it. I read it many years ago, but the story description, the reference to matchlocks, and the conclusion all match my memory.
swyx 3y ago
how do you use chatgpt to search for it? i have been searching for a science fiction short story i read ~25 years ago - it was in a short story anthology book, probably not very famous because i've tried to plug it in and got nothing. --- synopsis (since its a beautiful story and i may as well share it in case someone else here has read it and/or can prompt engineer chatgpt better than me): - Humanity reached abundance but also got overpopulated - so the solution was to shard humanity by days. 1/7 of Humanity wakes and works on one day of the week, sleeps in cryopod the other 6 days. - Main character is happily at work on a Monday tightening the screws on the planetary solar panels, when he notices a sleeping woman in another pod (another day, say Saturday idk) and falls in love on sight (i'm not 100% sure if it was physical-only, he may have read more about her or exchanged letters or something but cant fathom in-world reason how that would work) - After a lot of personal cost and effort, he manages to get a once-in-a-lifetime exemption from the government to switch days, and wakes up on Saturday for the first time in his life. - Goes over to see the woman... only to find she's asleep, because she just transferred to Monday because she also fell in love with him. He's barred from switching back because it was a onetime deal. - Goes back to work to his new Saturday job... loosening screws on the planetary solar panels. --- (above MAY be a hallucination of two stories, its been so long that i'm not sure anymore)
- pontifier 3y ago
  Read this a long time ago, then re-read it a couple of years ago. They called the pods "stoners" and it made me laugh. Can't remember the name though. It must have been in a collection of short stories. Edit... Found it for you:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sliced-Crosswise_Only-On-Tuesday_World https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sliced-Crosswise_Only-On...
  - swyx 3y ago
    > https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sliced-Crosswise_Only-On https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sliced-Crosswise_Only-On... THANK YOU. LITERALLY BEEN HUNTING FOR THIS FOR YEARS AND HN REPLIED IN 4 HOURS WOW also interesting to see how many details i hallucinated, but i kept the core premise intact haha