[FRIAM] Science Fiction Books

[Steve Smith]

Great list Carl!  And more interesting yet to me:

    /I would like to feed.../
    /...into the AI and see what millennium long sci-fi it could turn out. /

I'm definitely fascinated by the implied interpolation (and 
extrapolation?) an LLM can do in what is by definition firstly 
*linguistic* space and what that implies for it's ?dual? in conceptual 
space?

and even more interesting:

    /How would what it writes be different if it could be taught to
    write using a nib pen a la Stephenson or a brush on washi paper?/

In my lifetime I have kept various chronicles and correspondence via 
handwriting using (mostly) roller-ball ink pens but also for some 
periods fountain pens.    A great deal more of that type of 
chronicle/correspondence was effected on a keyboard much like (or 
exactly) the one I'm typing on now (circa 2011 13" Macbook Pro)... As 
you all painfully know, I'm pretty prolific in e-mail/e-txt which 
reflects a few things:

  * my handwriting is abysmal and can be physically/emotionally/mentally
    excruciating to execute sometimes.
  * I learned to type at a very young age to compensate for the above
    and it really freed me.
  * I sometimes feel that I am actually *thinking* differently whilst
    using the von-Neuman-esque linear "tape" as extended
    memory/program-space.
  * I have at times in my life had a similar experience when working
    with mathematical notation and with geometric constructions.
  * These experiences are significantly different qualitatively (when
    done by hand vs keyboard/mouse/etc)...
      o each mode is distinct with benefits/detractions
      o I feel I *think* and *feel* differently when coupling my
        cognitive self to my recorded/expressive self?

I choose to use a fountain pen on well-toothed paper when I want to 
write "meditatively"... the feel of the nib on the tooth and the flow of 
the ink and the smell and the sounds all provide something similar to 
"breath work" for me.

I'm not sure my facility with the keyboard actually serves me. As many 
of you may suspect, and I suspect so myself, it allows me to be much 
less thoughtful and rigorous than I would be in handwriting or if I had 
some other throttle or impedance elements between linguistic centers and 
"paper"?

On 9/3/23 10:44 PM, Carl Tollander wrote:
> Gregory Benford's "Galactic Center Saga".
> Greg Bear's "Darwin's Radio" and "The Way" series.
> Benford, Bear, and David Brin also extended Asimov's "Foundation" 
> series - more stuff actually happens
> Larry Niven's "Ringworld" and all its spinoffs and prequels, anything 
> with the character Louis Wu in it.
> Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age"
> Bruce Sterling's "Distraction"
> Anything by Terry Pratchett.
> Adrian Tchaikovsky's "Children of Time" and sequels.
> Lin Carter's short story "Masters of the Metropolis"
>
> That should keep you busy for a few days.  I suspect not everyone 
> would think of these as optimistic.
>
> I would like to feed Timothy Snyder's Youtube lectures on Ukraine
> and Neal Stephenson's "Quicksilver"
> and Eiji Yoshikawa's "Taiko"
> into the AI and see what millennium long sci-fi it could turn out.
> How would what it writes be different if it could be taught to write 
> using a nib pen a la Stephenson or a brush on washi paper?
>
> R.A. Lafferty wrote sometime ago "Arrive at Easterwine" about a 
> computer writing a novel from a mashup perspective of its creators.
>
> Carl
>
>
> On Sun, Sep 3, 2023 at 11:13 AM Jochen Fromm <jofr at cas-group.net> wrote:
>
>     I have read "Highway of Eternity" from Clifford D. Simak this
>     weekend, one of the books from the golden age of science fiction
>     which is comparable to "The city and the Stars" from Arthur C.
>     Clarke and "The end of eternity" from Isaac Asimov. Both belong to
>     my favorite books. Modern authors don't write like this anymore.
>     Their books are often gloomy and depressive, and do not span
>     millions of years. What is your favorite science fiction book?
>     Will the AI breakthrough in large language models lead to more
>     optimistic science fiction books again?
>
>     -J.
>
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