8 ms·

Only tangentially related, but the lovely (quite) short story "I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility" is fantastic and kind of hits on simulati

Only tangentially related, but the lovely (quite) short story "I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility" is fantastic and kind of hits on simulating worlds, in a sense: https://qntm.org/responsibility https://qntm.org/responsibility

golergka 2y ago
I just love how a world-class quantum computer scientist who just made a discovery that just blows up everything known to mankind is up to the very end is worried about missing a bus.
gavmor 2y ago
To deepen this tangent, I'll recommend Philip K. Dick's The Trouble With Bubbles which imagines 60s cocktail party guests showing off their miniature planet-scale terrariums.
- arminiusreturns 2y ago
  Amazing, thank you for introducing me to this!
Waterluvian 2y ago
I’m not sure I really know how to handle this. Do I just read the latest version linked at the top of the page? Or is the one offered by this like somehow more canonical or something? I’m not sure I’ve ever been faced with different versions of a fiction before. Just textbooks. I really love thought pieces like this if you refrain from poking holes in the logic or physics. I love the idea of a multiverse where they’re all actually just identical so it’s mostly moot.
- bee_rider 2y ago
  Canon is just a construct invented to sell merchandise and keep out competitors. Enjoy whichever version of the story you’d like!
  - Bluestein 2y ago
    Enjoy all. Several, in fact :)
- scbrg 2y ago
  > I’m not sure I’ve ever been faced with different versions of a fiction before. You probably have, but haven't thought of it like that. Ever seen a Director's Cut version of a movie? :-)
  - Waterluvian 2y ago
    Oh gosh it’s true. And that whole Star Wars thing. I guess I’ve just not yet faced it with print.
    - LoganDark 2y ago
      > I guess I’ve just not yet faced it with print. Sure you have, if you've ever bought an Nth edition of a book (where N > 1). Editions aren't always just an artwork/formatting change, they sometimes contain changes to the text too.
- Andrews54757 2y ago
  I read both. They are both great but I like the original better. The new edition is accessible but I think the original's prose is beautiful.
diego_sandoval 2y ago
I'd love to read alternate endings to it. I've been thinking about writing a story with a very similar plot for a couple of years, but it had a big plot hole: computation overhead between the universes, and I hadn't thought about quantum computers as a way to solve it. The other main difference with the story that I had in mind is that the characters would write a story about it, which would be "my" story, and they'd find a way to make it so that the ending would tell the reader the universe depth they are in, by creating a variable whose value is incremented by 1 for each universe. For anyone reading this on HN, you're 8474771628371839 levels deep.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago
  > it had a big plot hole: computation overhead between the universes Unless you're going hard sci-fi, you can do what this story did. Give them by fiat "infinite processing power and infinite storage capacity."
  - LoganDark 2y ago
    I think all of qntm's stories are hard sci-fi.
    - Retric 2y ago
      Infinite processing power, infinite storage, zero latency, etc is about as soft of a setting as it gets.
      - LoganDark 2y ago
        Is it? A new fundamental particle doesn't necessarily make it soft sci-fi. The story seems perfectly technical to me. Can't black holes already encode an infinite amount of information past the event horizon?
        Retric 2y ago
        > Can't black holes already encode an infinite amount of information past the event horizon? No, current physics has a bunch of hard limits on information. > A new fundamental particle doesn’t necessarily make it soft sci-fi Calling something a particle doesn’t matter here. It’s a fully formed computational device that happens to magically solve all problems. Consider, how do you encode and read information from such a particle. Qubit’s are physical properties of something, such as spin. Is this particle supposed to have infinite properties which you can access with infinite precision? No, it’s just a magic macguffin that does whatever the author wants.
zxexz 2y ago
I remember watching a (won‎d‎erful) T.‎V. ‎show[0] that came out within the last couple decades, and feeling like a certain scene was definitely a nod to this story. The drama, and physics (and resolution) was done differently, but it left me in a similarly, pleasantly pensive state. [0] I almost made the mistake of naming it, or the director - but caught myself, realizing the context of this comment alone could be a major "spoiler". Maybe I've encoded the name in this comment (honestly though, I tried, and it's late - maybe search engines are good enough for it these days :) )
- kennyadam 2y ago
  What's the name of the show?
  - zxexz 2y ago
    U+200E before letters spelling out show in my comment. Just noting that while I would have enjoyed the show very much even if I had this "spoiler", it certainly would have lost some "magic".
    - chii 2y ago
      you could use a url shortener to hide the link to the show's wikipedia page. For those who don't mind spoilers, they can know what you're talking about.
      - arrowsmith 2y ago
        https://tinyurl.com/mrx6rfef https://tinyurl.com/mrx6rfef
        fredoliveira 2y ago
        That is, in fact, a great tv show.
- namanyayg 2y ago
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
mbil 2y ago
Thanks! For anyone who liked that here's another [0] short story in the same vein. [0]: https://pastebin.com/raw/gA4aRc0T https://pastebin.com/raw/gA4aRc0T

golergka 2y ago

I just love how a world-class quantum computer scientist who just made a discovery that just blows up everything known to mankind is up to the very end is worried about missing a bus.

gavmor 2y ago

To deepen this tangent, I'll recommend Philip K. Dick's The Trouble With Bubbles which imagines 60s cocktail party guests showing off their miniature planet-scale terrariums.

arminiusreturns 2y ago
Amazing, thank you for introducing me to this!

Waterluvian 2y ago

I’m not sure I really know how to handle this. Do I just read the latest version linked at the top of the page? Or is the one offered by this like somehow more canonical or something? I’m not sure I’ve ever been faced with different versions of a fiction before. Just textbooks. I really love thought pieces like this if you refrain from poking holes in the logic or physics. I love the idea of a multiverse where they’re all actually just identical so it’s mostly moot.

bee_rider 2y ago
Canon is just a construct invented to sell merchandise and keep out competitors. Enjoy whichever version of the story you’d like!
- Bluestein 2y ago
  Enjoy all. Several, in fact :)
scbrg 2y ago
> I’m not sure I’ve ever been faced with different versions of a fiction before. You probably have, but haven't thought of it like that. Ever seen a Director's Cut version of a movie? :-)
- Waterluvian 2y ago
  Oh gosh it’s true. And that whole Star Wars thing. I guess I’ve just not yet faced it with print.
  - LoganDark 2y ago
    > I guess I’ve just not yet faced it with print. Sure you have, if you've ever bought an Nth edition of a book (where N > 1). Editions aren't always just an artwork/formatting change, they sometimes contain changes to the text too.
Andrews54757 2y ago
I read both. They are both great but I like the original better. The new edition is accessible but I think the original's prose is beautiful.

diego_sandoval 2y ago

I'd love to read alternate endings to it. I've been thinking about writing a story with a very similar plot for a couple of years, but it had a big plot hole: computation overhead between the universes, and I hadn't thought about quantum computers as a way to solve it. The other main difference with the story that I had in mind is that the characters would write a story about it, which would be "my" story, and they'd find a way to make it so that the ending would tell the reader the universe depth they are in, by creating a variable whose value is incremented by 1 for each universe. For anyone reading this on HN, you're 8474771628371839 levels deep.

JumpCrisscross 2y ago
> it had a big plot hole: computation overhead between the universes Unless you're going hard sci-fi, you can do what this story did. Give them by fiat "infinite processing power and infinite storage capacity."
- LoganDark 2y ago
  I think all of qntm's stories are hard sci-fi.
  - Retric 2y ago
    Infinite processing power, infinite storage, zero latency, etc is about as soft of a setting as it gets.
    - LoganDark 2y ago
      Is it? A new fundamental particle doesn't necessarily make it soft sci-fi. The story seems perfectly technical to me. Can't black holes already encode an infinite amount of information past the event horizon?
      - Retric 2y ago
        > Can't black holes already encode an infinite amount of information past the event horizon? No, current physics has a bunch of hard limits on information. > A new fundamental particle doesn’t necessarily make it soft sci-fi Calling something a particle doesn’t matter here. It’s a fully formed computational device that happens to magically solve all problems. Consider, how do you encode and read information from such a particle. Qubit’s are physical properties of something, such as spin. Is this particle supposed to have infinite properties which you can access with infinite precision? No, it’s just a magic macguffin that does whatever the author wants.

zxexz 2y ago

I remember watching a (won‎d‎erful) T.‎V. ‎show[0] that came out within the last couple decades, and feeling like a certain scene was definitely a nod to this story. The drama, and physics (and resolution) was done differently, but it left me in a similarly, pleasantly pensive state. [0] I almost made the mistake of naming it, or the director - but caught myself, realizing the context of this comment alone could be a major "spoiler". Maybe I've encoded the name in this comment (honestly though, I tried, and it's late - maybe search engines are good enough for it these days :) )

kennyadam 2y ago
What's the name of the show?
- zxexz 2y ago
  U+200E before letters spelling out show in my comment. Just noting that while I would have enjoyed the show very much even if I had this "spoiler", it certainly would have lost some "magic".
  - chii 2y ago
    you could use a url shortener to hide the link to the show's wikipedia page. For those who don't mind spoilers, they can know what you're talking about.
    - arrowsmith 2y ago
      https://tinyurl.com/mrx6rfef https://tinyurl.com/mrx6rfef
      - fredoliveira 2y ago
        That is, in fact, a great tv show.
namanyayg 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

mbil 2y ago

Thanks! For anyone who liked that here's another [0] short story in the same vein. [0]: https://pastebin.com/raw/gA4aRc0T https://pastebin.com/raw/gA4aRc0T