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I adore Banks' universe, but recall reading some notes from him years ago, as tialaramex indicated, that 'all the interesting stuff happens at the edge' given u
by Jedd 1y ago
I adore Banks' universe, but recall reading some notes from him years ago, as tialaramex indicated, that 'all the interesting stuff happens at the edge' given utopias are, almost by definition, pretty tedious.
Even though there's a good amount of utopia-description in the novels, I'd still be wary about extrapolating too much from what are primarily stories of exceptions.
(One might suggest, in response to TFA's expectation there'd be more arseholes in the Culture, that one of the most important things a utopian Culture would ensure is a robust education for all its citizens -- but I realise some popular contemporary earth-bound cultures may take that as a subtle dig.)
> we need more fiction examples of positive AI superintelligence
I'd rate the Eschaton series by Charlie Stross (sadly only two books ever published in that series, and it's unlikely we'll ever see a third) - Singularity Sky & Iron Sunrise - in this category.
I think Accelerando might fit, too.
- OgsyedIE 1y agoMost of the members of the human race present on Earth, Jupiter, Saturn etc. during the events of Accelerando are murdered by their posthuman descendants. This includes the vat-grown population of conservative humans used to sway the electoral outcomes of the gas giant societies, who were murdered after they had served their use of swaying those societies.
- ableal 1y ago>> we need more fiction examples of positive AI superintelligence Neal Asher did pretty well with his Polity universe. Besides AIs with some capacity for playful violence (Agent Cormac thread, but always there), we also get crablike aliens (the Prador war) and very weird biology (in particular the Spatterjay water world).
- chrisweekly 1y agoTchaikovsky's "Children of Time" might qualify, if you look at it right.
- rsynnott 1y agoWell, depending on whether you view Kern as an AI at all. She certainly wouldn't thank you for implying it.
- davidivadavid 1y ago> given utopias are, almost by definition, pretty tedious. By definition, if they're tedious, they're not utopias. It's more that writing convincing utopias is hard and people are lazy.
- DowsingSpoon 1y agoHow so? In this context, “tedious” clearly means “not very exciting for the reader.” Were you hoping for more relationship drama, or romance? I’d be down for that. Though, it doesn’t seem to be what Banks was most interested in writing about.
- bryanrasmussen 1y agoIt is often remarked, by those who may be assumed to have some insight into it, that the difficulty in writing Superman is to convey his perfection and goodness, but that for people who do not understand Superman well the difficulty is that he is too perfect and unbeatable and thus boring. I put forward thus that in the same way Superman can be tedious so can Utopias, and Utopias can be interesting in the same way that Superman can.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> Were you hoping for more relationship drama, or romance? I’d be down for that It’s tedious to a modern audience. Hemingway but in space isn’t really an improvement. (The closest we have is Ted Chiang.)
- jessicamathias2 1y ago[dead]
- Barrin92 1y ago>By definition, if they're tedious, they're not utopias Utopias are by definition tedious because a utopia is an end to history and as such an end to meaning or negotiation of how to live. A utopia is always an end to a story or Freedom with a capital f. As Dostoevsky points out in Notes from Underground, on man in utopia: "[he] would purposely do something perverse out of simple ingratitude, simply to gain his point. I believe in it, I answer for it, for the whole work of man really seems to consist in nothing but proving to himself every minute that he is a man and not a piano-key! It may be at the cost of his skin; but he has proved it!" Another way to phrase it. If you are in a utopia, you cannot be in a democracy that entails the possibility of ending it. Which is to say, you can't govern yourself at all. And that is why Ian M Banks culture is nothing of the sort. It's a society literally controlled by "perfect minds" using a Sapir-Whorf like language to manage the behavior of its people. Even Banks who tried to write a positive utopia and that's not his fault, couldn't imagine a utopia that entails the possibility of rebellion.
- svieira 1y ago> we need more fiction examples of positive AI superintelligence There are some _very_ interesting examples in John C. Wright's Count to the Eschaton sequence.
- jauntywundrkind 1y agoPure power fantasy & gratuitous as heck, but man, loved the The Golden Oecumene series, Wright's debut novels. Had not thought to see what else Wright has done! Side note, my homelabs Kube cluster's naming scheme is AI from fiction. Rhadamanthus is one of the computers from Golden Oecumene, a powerful manor computer. Also in the cluster: Jarvis (Iron Man), Cohen (Spin State), Epicac (eponymous Vonnegut short story).
- radley 1y agoNext up: Peanut Hamper, Agimus, and Badgey
- jauntywundrkind 1y agoExcellent Star Trek: Lower Deck references. All pretty evil/bad though, which I don't want for my computer nodes!
- db48x 1y agoSpace Pirates of Andromeda was fun too.
- EdwardCoffin 1y agoYou're probably referring to A FEW NOTES ON THE CULTURE by Iain M Banks [1] [1] http://www.vavatch.co.uk/books/banks/cultnote.htm http://www.vavatch.co.uk/books/banks/cultnote.htm
- logicprog 1y agoI really don't think accelerando is a good example of positive AI super intelligence LMAO.
- exe34 1y agoI'm not sure the vile offspring was universally loved. are you referring to the cat?