2 ms·
Astonishing book which I reread regularly. Echopraxia has grown on me upon further reading - initially I focused on the seeming promise of action and plot, vs
by NikolaNovak 1y ago
Astonishing book which I reread regularly. Echopraxia has grown on me upon further reading - initially I focused on the seeming promise of action and plot, vs ideas and concepts.
His Starfish book however has the most realistic, plausible, feasible, likely AI doomsday scenario though - published as it was 26 years ago and without AI being the focus for majority of the book.
- duskwuff 1y ago"Checkers or chess?" But yes. Especially when you boil it down to the essentials: humans take an AI built to perform one task and press it into duty for another, much more impactful task which it was completely unsuited for.
- throwanem 1y agoBut, importantly, not obviously completely unsuited for. Indeed, so subtly so that it almost ended the world before anyone noticed.
- atombender 1y agoThe Freeze-Frame Revolution is also fantastic, along with the short stories, which collectively form the "Sunflower" cycle. Watts writes the smartest but also scariest science fiction. There's an aura of existential, Lovecraftean dread in all his writings that I find incredibly appealing. In the case of Sunflower, Watts is able to make the idea of floating through space for millions of years, unable to stop, into something genuinely upsetting. It's bleak, but also really well plotted. Not too long ago, Watts published a short story set right after Blindsight, "The Colonel". It's an excellent, standalone read.