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Iain Banks still reigns supreme. Throw a couple LLMs in a chat together and they sound similar to his conversations between intelligences (particularly in Exce
by operatingthetan 8mo ago
Iain Banks still reigns supreme. Throw a couple LLMs in a chat together and they sound similar to his conversations between intelligences (particularly in Excession).
- discardable_dan 8mo agoI do not want to read a bunch of gross torture porn, though. Greg Egan is far more interesting and spares you that.
- rsynnott 8mo agoThat's _mostly_ just Consider Phlebas and Surface Detail.
- Rzor 7mo agoSome of Player of Games, too. Use of Weapons has a creative piece of furniture. You gotta excuse Banks, he was also a horror writer.
- rsynnott 7mo agoIt's definitely _alluded_ to in Player of Games, mostly as a method of emphasising how unpleasant the Azad society is, but I don't think we ever really _see_ any of it? (I may just be forgetting; it's probably at least a decade since I last read it.)
- Rzor 7mo agoIf I remember correctly, Gurgeh's internal narrative reveals what he observes in one of the secret channels that are restricted to the upper class. Unpleasant is quite the understatement. lol But yeah, I don't think we actually see it firsthand, it's more disturbing than gory.