Earth: Growth Is Ending, You Fucked Yourselves, Haha

Mirimir mirimir at riseup.net
Mon Jul 16 15:37:03 PDT 2018


On 07/16/2018 06:53 AM, John Newman wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 14, 2018 at 08:03:13PM -0700, Mirimir wrote:
>> On 07/14/2018 03:25 PM, juan wrote:
>>> On Sat, 14 Jul 2018 14:53:55 -0700
>>> Mirimir <mirimir at riseup.net> wrote:

<SNIP>

>>>> _Accelerando_ and the "Flower Prince" trilogy both explore virtual
>>>> dystopias. _Accelerando_ is especially dark. There's lots of running
>>>> away in _Diaspora_, through multiple levels of reality, but in the end
>>>> it's painted as pointless. 
>>>
>>>
>>> 	Oh, OK. I'll check those out then =)
>>
>> As I recall, _Accelerando_ is unremittingly dark. Although one could say
>> that the "Flower Prince" trilogy has a happy ending for some, everyone
>> and everything else gets unhappened. It's a fun read, though.
> 
> Yeah, the brief "utopia" on Mars gets utterly destroyed (i think the whole
> planet gets destroyed), there is a war between like 7 people who
> control planet-sized constructs made of "computronium", all of them
> trying to accomplish the "Great Common Task" (which is uploading all
> sentient beings, with or without their consent as I recall), and all
> sorts of other dark shit in Hannu's stuff. 

Yeah, Rajaniemi's "Flower Prince" trilogy is awesome. It doesn't have
quite the visceral punch of Abercrombie's stuff. Or Morgan's stuff. Or
Stover's Caine stuff. But damn, Jean le Flambeur is a trip. He's a riff
on Arsène Lupin, Maurice Leblanc's gentleman thief.

And actually, "he" is inaccurate. Because the novels feature several
copies of him. One copy, Jean le Roi, is a distinct character. And at
the start of _The Quantum Thief_, millions of copies are undergoing
selection for cooperation ...

| As always, before the warmind and I shoot each other, I try to
| make small talk.
|
| “Prisons are always the same, don’t you think?”
|
| ...
|
| “Prisons are like airports used to be on Earth. No one wants to
| be here. No one really lives here. We’re just passing through.”
|
| ...
|
| A fiery wink: the black pupil of its gun, flashing. My trigger
| finger jerks. There are two thunderclaps. And a bullet in my head.
|
| You never get used to the feeling of hot metal, entering your
| skull and exiting through the back of your head. It’s simulated
| in glorious detail. A burning train through your forehead, a warm
| spray of blood and brain on your shoulders and back, the sudden
| chill—and finally, the black, when things stop. The Archons of
| the Dilemma Prison want you to feel it. It’s educational.
|
| The Prison is all about education. And game theory: the
| mathematics of rational decision-making. When you are an immortal
| mind like the Archons, you have time to be obsessed with such
| things. And it is just like the Sobornost – the upload collective
| that rules the Inner Solar System—to put them in charge of their
| prisons.

And going back further, Jean le Flambeur is a synthetic construct,
created by Sobornost Founder (one of seven) Joséphine Pellegrini, to
serve her. But various copies of him have rebelled and escaped. I gather
that she's a riff on Countess of Cagliostro, from Maurice Leblanc's
novels. Gotta read those.

Mieli, the other main character, also serves Joséphine Pellegrini. She
seems extremely naive, albeit a fierce warrior. But there's much more to
her than that. There's a very deep game, which I won't ruin for y'all.

> Same with the Alistair Reynolds books I recommended - they are *not*
> utopian visions of the future, at all.

Thanks. I need more new stuff. I've reread Stover's Caine novels _many_
times. Because I love the action! And also because the plot (if you can
call it that) is extremely convoluted and branched. It's vaguely similar
to Heinlein's _All You Zombies_, but no where near as obvious.



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