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Deviant posted:I don't remember who wrote it, but it's available in novel and paperback form. I thought the title was "The Change" but I seem to be mistaken. It's about a man who creates an AI that becomes self aware and creates what it believes to be a utopia. A side story occurs as his ex-wife tries to find where the creator is hiding, and eventually they meet and the AI crashes, sending man back to the stone age. Was it The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect by Roger Williams? link: http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/
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Oct 7, 2008 18:06
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Captain Equinox posted:
It was also included as a plot device in the end of Tools of the Trade also by Joe Haldeman.
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Oct 7, 2008 21:55
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Hughlander posted:It was also included as a plot device in the end of Tools of the Trade also by Joe Haldeman. I think this was the real one I remembered because I don't think I read A Modest Proposal. nemotrm fucked around with this message at 00:34 on Oct 8, 2008 |
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Oct 8, 2008 00:30
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I was studying late one night in the library, and picked up a book on a shelf to read for a distraction. It was a collection of contemporary short stories by a single author. I'm sure he is gay, and I'm almost certain he's British. The story is about a married couple who are on honeymoon, and as the story goes on, we slowly learn that the man is gay, and the woman is a lesbian. They got married for citizenship purposes (I think), and to please their respective families. The dude goes out, gets drunk, and has sex a lot, while the gal stays in and reads, or something. I forget what resolves the story, but at the end, the couple has hetero sex with each other, start a family, and live happily ever after. Pretty strange story, but pretty cool, too. Reflections on sexual orientation and society are pretty interesting to me, so, I wish I could remember the author and the story. Does anyone know this author/book/story?
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Oct 9, 2008 03:17
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This has been bugging me for a while.. I'll try to recall as much of the book as I can, I read it in middle school. Kids in a really awful situation, world gone corrupt and everyone fends for themselves, living in small apartments scrounging for basic necessities. Kids find some sort of virtual reality device, transports them to a new world where everything is awesome, they become addicted to this virtual reality world. This is all I remember of the book, I probably read it somewhere around the early 90's. Anyone have any idea what it could be?
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Oct 13, 2008 11:09
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thanks to the thread for the reminder about the Young Wizardry series. I'll have to pick those up from the library and re-read 'em. Deviant, based on your description, thequiethero has it right, it's The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect. The author, under the username localroger on kuro5hin, has written some other very good stuff. His Passages series is definitely worth a read. Links to the various stories can be found here. Start with Passages in the Void and work your way down the list. Now for my own requests. these are all sci-fi of one form or another. I read them in the late 90's or early 2000's 1. group of people are on a ship orbiting mars. segregated by gender, they are given some sort of serum or drug to allow for very fast genetic mutation. they are being prepped to be the first martians. I think that at the end of the story they rebel against their creators 2. a group of people, possibly the entire population of a planet, have taken to having all their sensory organs replaced with functional artificial equivalents, that are controlled through a central box. this gives them all completely controllable synesthesia. a big part of their education is learning to control the box. the main character (a girl, if I remember right) experiments with turning more and more of her senses off entirely, eventually shutting them all down Identified as (The Star by Arthur C. Clarke) by Rocambole Identified as (Starborne by Robert Silverberg) by sintaxi Identified as (Diaspora by Greg Egan) by Hobnob Identified as (Pandora's Legions by Christopher Anvil) by sintaxi nuvan fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Nov 26, 2008 |
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Oct 13, 2008 16:27
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nuvan posted:3. think this might be asimov or clarke. spaceship coming back from visiting another star system. star had gone supernova. there was a planet, had a civilization that was destroyed by said supernova. shipboard priest is having a crisis of faith because the supernova would have been seen on earth in about 30BC 4 might be Gemini God by Garry Kilworth maybe? I can't remember much about that though....
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Oct 13, 2008 17:31
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This may be a long shot, because it's a book about King Arthur, and there are about a billion of those. I read this book in middle school, although I'm pretty sure it wasn't geared towards middleschoolers. It starts with Uther Pendragon and his tryst, etc., and then goes on through the whole story of Arthur as well as the other knights (including Gawain and the grail, etc.) What I do remember about it was that there were some songs in the book, with actual sheet music. I -think- it even had the word Pendragon in the title, but I'm not positive of that. I've been looking for this book forever, and I even tried emailing the librarian at my old middle school, but she never replied. Honestly, if someone can find it, I'll buy them a forums upgrade.
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Oct 16, 2008 18:51
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Vitae posted:This has been bugging me for a while.. I think I know the one you're talking about. But can't remember what it's called, either.  By an Australian author? If it's the same one, the game they play ends up taking them to a deserted new planet with none of the problems of the old one (pollution, crime etc) and they call it "Gift" or something like that? Turns out the VR game was all part of a government scheme to populate new planets, too.I also think this book was named in a recent "post-apocalyptic books" thread but bugger me if I can find its name now.
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Oct 16, 2008 20:35
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EvilMoJoJoJo posted:I think I know the one you're talking about. But can't remember what it's called, either. I think this is Invitation to the Game by Monica Hughes, posted on the first page of this thread.
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Oct 17, 2008 00:20
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I've got two, the first I think was a novel while the second one was a short story. Both were science-fiction. The first one was a novel about this excessively decadent spacefaring far-future human culture. It was mostly about the fact that, for the operation of the FTL drives they used on their spaceships, it was necessary to stimulate the pleasure centers of the pilots or navigators for some reason, and so the only qualification to be a pilot was a willingness to have that done to you. It then went on about how pilots always became addicted to space flight because of that and in the end turned insane because they couldn't stand not being connected to the FTL drives for prolonged periods of time. A major character was this one pilot who was trying to overcome this limitation through application of extreme self-discipline and how as time went by she became increasingly disinterested in any normal human affairs and behaviour, only caring to keep herself sane and healthy enough to be able to continue piloting spaceships. Oh and all the pilots had to be female too. The author also went out of their way to describe some extremely arcane and elaborate social customs and rules of etiquette that had to be observed by the (mostly extremely wealthy) passengers on these spaceships, and how the pilot (not caring about worldly affairs) always kept running afoul of them. I've no clue who it was by and what it was called, I think I found it by chance in a box of packed-away stuff in my grandparents' basement once when I was staying there and reading it then. The second one was a short story about a group of people who were put into a series of virtual reality simulations as a test to see who among them would be the most qualified to become the next ruler of the galaxy (or something similar). The part of it I remember most vividly was that in the final scenario they were put in, they had to undergo some incredibly vicious and prolonged tortures while keeping some piece of information a secret. It then turned out, once the test was over, that the only guy who had passed all of the tests (because he was the only one who was able to resist those tortures) still wasnt selected for the post, because the judges had decided some other qualification to be more important after all. Oh I just thought of two more, but these are going to be very vague. One was a short story about some people living in a castle (I think?) who had the power to make whatever they thought or wished for become reality, but with the limitation that there was some rule for deciding contradictions between them that I can't remember. Anyways it was mostly about how they were all incredibly bored and jaded with that situation and some of them had turned insane, I believe? There was also a question of which among them were real and which were just illusions called to life by some resident's wish. It ended when one of the residents managed to escape/leave the castle somehow (i'm not sure). The other I don't remember much about anymore at all; I think this was a novel. It was about some super-secret government program to breed super-humans unbeknownst to their parents; there was a lot of evil government-conspiracy type stuff with doctors who are in on the whole thing, children dying under mysterious circumstances in hospitals, and at the conclusion, the experiment turned out a success but those newly-created super-humans turned out to be horrible, sociopathic monsters and killed their families with their superhuman powers. All of those books and short stories would be rather old; the reason I don't remember their names or authors anymore is that I read them a long, long time ago, when I stumbled upon them upon some boxes of packed-away stuff in my grandparents basement and the like. Thanks in advance if anyone should happen to recognize any of these^^
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Oct 17, 2008 03:46
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PrBacterio posted:The first one was a novel about this excessively decadent spacefaring far-future human culture. It was mostly about the fact that, for the operation of the FTL drives they used on their spaceships, it was necessary to stimulate the pleasure centers of the pilots or navigators for some reason, and so the only qualification to be a pilot was a willingness to have that done to you. The Void-Captain's Tale by Norman Spinrad?
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Oct 17, 2008 03:57
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fritz posted:The Void-Captain's Tale by Norman Spinrad? 
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Oct 17, 2008 04:10
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I'm looking for the title/author of a short story. I read it in the last year, but I have been checking out SF short-story compilations from the school's (sizable) library endlessly, so I have no idea when it was from. The story begins with a snowy day, people fighting their way to this presentation (dissertation defense?) where the student had created a program designed to write poetry or prose at the same level of skill as a real human being. There are various characters present - faculty members, some of the science faculty and some of the arts faculty. There is a drunken artist-in-residence poet. They need a short 'seed phrase' of some sort to give the program a central idea to write the story about, so they use a bit from a physics textbook about two mirrors, facing each other, about how the reflection each time gets darker and further away. The computer writes a story that's basically the same as the story up until that point, except the characters are more blunt and more dirty. They go through the same thing, three or four more times, and each time the story is darker, shorter, blunter, and the characters are more direct. The very last story is something really short, just "Hope." Then it has "THE END" five times in a row (one for each story). ...Halp?
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Oct 17, 2008 06:29
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Alright guys, I've been trying to remember the name of this book for awhile now.. Basically the story revolves around a community of pacific islanders (French Polynesians?) leading up to an atomic bomb test by a government, I believe it was the US. It ends with, IIRC, a person or persons who got in a small boat and sailed into the blast zone, because they'd all been evacuated previously but he (or she, or they) decided he wanted to die there. Book closes with the bomb exploding.. I think. My memory of the details are extremely fuzzy because I read this many many years ago, when I was perhaps around 12-14.
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Oct 17, 2008 17:03
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Runoir posted:I got about 1/2 way through a science fiction book before leaving it on a train in europe and forgetting the title. I remember very little of the book: Somehow, man creates intelligence, but it quickly realizes it is smarter than man, and transports all of humanity out into the galaxy. Each settlement is given a machine that can make anything, if fed resources, and a large diamond pyramid with a set of rules carved into it.
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Oct 17, 2008 22:31
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Is this the thread where I post my question about a somewhat obscure medeival literary technique that I can't remember the name of? I hope so. There's a technique in medeival romantic poetry that involves the poet describing a woman's face from the top down, starting with her forehead and (usually) ending with her chin or neckline. Specifically, Chaucer does it in the General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales during his portrait of the Nun, and in "To Rosemounde" is pretty much a textbook example (except satirical). I looked through all my notes and my marginalia and my term papers, and I can't find the name of this loving thing even though I know there's a name for it. Anybody out there that can help?
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Oct 18, 2008 01:00
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Blason?
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Oct 18, 2008 03:20
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PrBacterio posted:The second one was a short story about a group of people who were put into a series of virtual reality simulations as a test to see who among them would be the most qualified to become the next ruler of the galaxy (or something similar). The part of it I remember most vividly was that in the final scenario they were put in, they had to undergo some incredibly vicious and prolonged tortures while keeping some piece of information a secret. It then turned out, once the test was over, that the only guy who had passed all of the tests (because he was the only one who was able to resist those tortures) still wasnt selected for the post, because the judges had decided some other qualification to be more important after all. That's Jack Vance's "The Brain of the Galaxy", also known as "The New Prime". You can find the story here. Ignoranus posted:The computer writes a story that's basically the same as the story up until that point, except the characters are more blunt and more dirty. They go through the same thing, three or four more times, and each time the story is darker, shorter, blunter, and the characters are more direct. The very last story is something really short, just "Hope." Then it has "THE END" five times in a row (one for each story). Sounds like a cool story. I don't know the name, but perhaps you can find it listed the Recursive Science Fiction page. criptozoid fucked around with this message at 15:53 on Oct 18, 2008 |
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Oct 18, 2008 15:47
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Oracle posted:Blason? Thanks though! I don't think I'd ever heard of that term, so it's good to know the name for it.  Looks like my old Chaucer professors will be getting an e-mail soon.
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Oct 18, 2008 15:52
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Can a mod please sticky this thread? Every few days there's some wanker who starts a new thread to ask about one book.
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Oct 19, 2008 07:16
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criptozoid posted:
I actually think I'm going to go to the library and do some trolling through the books to see if I can find it. Now that I've been thinking about it, it's really bothering me. I didn't see it on the Recursive SF page, but then again, that is a pretty long list, so... yeah.
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Oct 19, 2008 07:38
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I was rereading Frank Herbert's Destination Void a while ago and parts of the plot suddenly struck me as similar to something I'd read a long time ago. It's been about 18 years, but here's what I remember 1) Some form of small expedition is sent to Alpha Centauri. 2) The expedition members play the I Ching with pieces made from their own toe bones. 3) They develop some extraordinary technologies on their voyage. 4) They have children. Super smart children bred using aforementioned tech. 5) Their destination doesn't actually exist as promised. 5) They return to earth and gently caress it up a bit in revenge. I think I remember them disabling all of the planet's reactors. Hedrigall posted:Can a mod please sticky this thread? Every few days there's some wanker who starts a new thread to ask about one book. This is a good idea as search is down. Also you need to relax. Read a book or soemthing.
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Oct 19, 2008 14:20
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I remember coming across another book in my library set in New York during the late 1940s and the Red Scare. The story revolves around a Jewish lesbian stenographer and a black male playwright, and how hard it is to be anything but straight, white, and male in the late 1940s. The stenographer's name is Sylvia, and her last name is something very foreign sounding, ending in -ovsky. The author is a woman. (Also, Oracle: where is your avatar from?)
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Oct 20, 2008 01:04
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Got it in the gifs for geeks thread in BSS. Its (surprise surprise) Oracle from the Birds of Prey comic.
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Oct 20, 2008 03:32
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Can't remember much about this book except it opens on a moon of Neptune (I think) and has the main character in some kind of a mining or exploration vehicle called "Napoleon", "Nappy" for short. Honestly can't remember a single other detail about this book, I grabbed it off a shelf in middle school because it had a spaceship on it and was kinda thick. The protagonist might steal/run off with some kind of alien artifact.
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Oct 20, 2008 03:44
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Oracle posted:Blason? Also, not like it's got anything to do with you or anything but that wikipedia entry is pretty lovely. Edit: The professor also mentioned that it comes from a Latin motif called an effictio. I think that's the name I put in my (shorter-term) memory banks since it does sound familiar. AtraMorS fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Oct 20, 2008 |
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Oct 20, 2008 18:44
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Zakalwe posted:I was rereading Frank Herbert's Destination Void a while ago and parts of the plot suddenly struck me as similar to something I'd read a long time ago. That sounds very much like a short story called 'The Gold at Starbow's End' or something similar. I don't recall the author. Hope this narrows your search a bit.
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Oct 21, 2008 07:02
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d8 posted:That sounds very much like a short story called 'The Gold at Starbow's End' or something similar. I don't recall the author. Hope this narrows your search a bit.
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Oct 21, 2008 07:25
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Rocambole posted:If it's The Gold at the Starbow's End it's by Frederik Pohl, but I thought I'd read that and it doesn't ring any bells. Mind you that was years ago.... It's been decades since I've read it. The I Ching with toe bones was what caught my attention here. Also, I vaguely recall some bit about the expedition members developing a plant that grows hot french fries, though I may be mixing it up with some other story in my mind.
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Oct 21, 2008 07:30
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d8 posted:That sounds very much like a short story called 'The Gold at Starbow's End' or something similar. I don't recall the author. Hope this narrows your search a bit. Rocambole posted:If it's The Gold at the Starbow's End it's by Frederik Pohl, but I thought I'd read that and it doesn't ring any bells. Mind you that was years ago.... Yes, that's it! I had thought it was a Pohl story and even Googled Pohl + I Ching to no avail, which made me believe it was another author.Thanks! http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/003553.html quote:# "The Gold at the Starbow's End" [1972 novella] (Rating: 4/5) [Read 01/27/06]
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Oct 21, 2008 16:39
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Commissar posted:This may be a long shot, because it's a book about King Arthur, and there are about a billion of those. I swore I posted this, but in any case, it sounds similar to Stephen Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle (each book has a different POV character, except one or two that are 3rd person; there's like 5 books and the first was published in 1989, with the last sometime in the mid to late 90s).
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Oct 23, 2008 03:02
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timeandtide posted:I swore I posted this, but in any case, it sounds similar to Stephen Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle (each book has a different POV character, except one or two that are 3rd person; there's like 5 books and the first was published in 1989, with the last sometime in the mid to late 90s). I don't think that's it. Did they ever release it as one single book? The whole story was complete, and it wasn't really POV. It was fairly 3rd person omniscient. EDIT: Nope, not it. Thanks, though.
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Oct 23, 2008 14:09
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Ignoranus posted:I'm looking for the title/author of a short story. I read it in the last year, but I have been checking out SF short-story compilations from the school's (sizable) library endlessly, so I have no idea when it was from. Someone else found it for me - it's entitled "Silicon Muse", by Hilbert Schenck. Published in the Oxford Book of Science Fiction, ed. Tom Shippey. Unfortunately, it's in the library of my old school, and not my current one, so I'll have to go to greater lengths to get it...
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Oct 26, 2008 17:49
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It was posted here a while ago, but I can't remember the name of a short story. I know that its a really old scifi story.It's about a guy who works recieving morse code messages. One night he gets a message and finds out that a whole town has been wiped out by something. Does anyone have an idea?
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Oct 26, 2008 22:37
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Commissar posted:I don't think that's it. Did they ever release it as one single book? The whole story was complete, and it wasn't really POV. It was fairly 3rd person omniscient. Maybe "Arthur Rex" by Thomas Berger? http://www.amazon.com/Arthur-Rex-Legendary-Thomas-Berger/dp/0316091464/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225078380&sr=8-1 which everybody should read...
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Oct 27, 2008 04:34
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A children's scifi novel I saw often in my primary school library, but for some reason never read, even though it looked awesome. It was called "Virtual ____" (I can't remember the second word, I don't think it was "reality"), and had a big neon dinosaur on the front. It also had a sequel or two. Other than that I don't know anything about it, not even what it was about. Edit: It might have been called "______ Virtuality". Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 07:00 on Oct 27, 2008 |
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Oct 27, 2008 06:56
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yaffle posted:Maybe "Arthur Rex" by Thomas Berger? The reviews make it sound like it might be, but since I can't see inside, I'll have to go find a copy and check.
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Oct 27, 2008 15:07
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Hubcap Hal posted:It was posted here a while ago, but I can't remember the name of a short story. I know that its a really old scifi story.It's about a guy who works recieving morse code messages. One night he gets a message and finds out that a whole town has been wiped out by something. Does anyone have an idea? This makes me think of an old story called The Waveries, about the Earth getting attacked by alien radio waves that initially copy the form of broadcasts sent out from Earth. At the beginning all the radios on earth start getting a fuzzy Morse code "S... S... S..." and the viewpoint character that's listening to it and immediately says, "That's Marconi" works in radio, so it's sort of his job. It moves on past Morse pretty quickly, though. It doesn't actually sound much like your description, but I thought I'd mention it just in case.
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Oct 27, 2008 16:06
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yaffle posted:Maybe "Arthur Rex" by Thomas Berger? Seconding the "everybody should read", it's very funny and one of the raunchier books I've ever read that weren't full-fledged erotica. Was the one you read full-on filthy-durty, Commissar? Because if not, A. Rex is not the book you're looking for. Ballsworthy fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Oct 27, 2008 |
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Oct 27, 2008 16:31
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