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True Names podcast continues
True Names parts two and three available on Cory's podcast.
Let me know what you think.
Posted by benrosen at April 2, 2008 04:49 PM | Up to blog11 april.. Vonnegut..
May be in next podcast?
Hi,
I am just now listening to Part 5, so I'm commenting as requested, before having listened. I am rooting for Demiurge, with Beeb safely running under a constrained emulation. Paquette (sp?) is cooler than Demiurge. I'm rooting for Brogdinach (sp?) to have something interesting, or for Beeb to care. Also, ubiquitous computation would be at least partially directed towards escaping the heat death of the universe, perhaps into new universes, or time travel, or something.
A most excellent story, I am enjoying it immensely. I would say it has the makings of an great sci-fi movie, but the imagery is probably too rich to capture faithfully on film.
The proof of the lemma could that be the philosophy that had Beeb instances so excited before they succumbed to Demiurge? Is Byzantium doomed?
I am rooting for Firmament clearly the hero of the piece, then again all standards are local :-)
Posted by: Tendayi at April 9, 2008 11:12 PMI have been enjoying this novella. Please forgive any misspellings I may be generating in this comment.
I have been thoroughly charmed by Beebian life. I love all of the computational mechanics jargon: forking, running slow instances, etc.
I still haven't totally understood Demiurge yet. Demiurge is matter and Policy. Effectively it seems to boil down to Demiurge being Order and Beebe being Chaos, but mayhaps that's oversimplification. I like that one part of Demiurge is equal to all Demiurge.
I love Paquette. She is my favorite, a very darling and adorable Strategy. I wonder what anybody saw in Nadia, who was a terrific bore from day one. And now that we get to meet "Dark Nadia" and "Byzantium Nadia," I can see where "Comet Nadia" gets it.
The wedding invitation for Alonzo was absolutely perfect. Although "OK, Cancel" was a bit anachronistic, it was perfect and extremely funny.
It is interesting that every time I think I know what the Sprites look like, I get proven wrong by something in the narrative. I was thinking of the Filters as being tall and skinny with comb-like teeth in the middle of them, and bendy, skinny flailing kermit-the-frog arms. I was thinking of the Strategies as having a whirlwind of constantly changing geometries. But that's OK - I like having my prejudices challenged.
Thank you for reading this and I look forward to hearing more of the story.
Posted by: Sam Chupp at April 10, 2008 12:57 AMEdge Wise: Beebe running safely under a constrained emulation! Never!
I-contain-Legion-Beebe will survive, flourish, and it is stodgy old Demiurge who will shatter like a rose dropped into nitrogen!
Posted by: Sam Chupp at April 10, 2008 01:00 AMEnjoying the story immensely, the concepts of inheritance in Beeb are pretty potent in general and the fundamental differences between the three big players in the universe (that we know of) are striking.
Rooting for the bizarre emancipated sock puppet demiurge/paquette combination.
Posted by: Angus Fletcher at April 10, 2008 06:35 AMWow, thank you all for commenting! That's awesome, and I am particularly tickled that there is such a diversity in who you're rooting for -- that we have fans of Demiurge (with Beebe under control), Beebe, the sock puppet hybrid as Hegelian synthesis, even Brobdinag(?!) -- though everyone seems to like Paquette, which is also nice.
EdgeWise, in this story the final demise of the universe (Heat Death, Big Crunch, Big Rip, etc) doesn't really come up, as we are only a paltry few million years in the future at this point, but you might want to check out The House Beyond Your Sky for a story which is set much later...
Sam, I love your image of the filters and strategies! Particularly the kermit-like arms. My own take is that they can basically look like what they want, depending on the rules of the sim they are in (but, of course, there may be some sims which constrain all filters to look one way and all strategies another) -- their visual appearance is basically there as part of a communicative/gestural/display language. So they get to pick. Paquette tends, for some reason, to look kind of like a rodent.
Posted by: Benjamin Rosenbaum at April 10, 2008 10:36 AMI am absolutely loving this story. I'm currently rooting for twice simulated Paquette and Firmament.
On the top level, I'm not sure that I'm rooting for either Beebe or Demiurge. Beebe's too solipsistic and Demiurge's too... unfriendly? final? not playing well with others?
Posted by: JJason at April 10, 2008 03:36 PMI am loving this story, Benjamin, absolutley fantastic. rooting:in general, for more wonderfully dense ideas piled up ontop of each other at light speed. more specifically, i guess firmament filters the sock puppet in order to create a resolved combination of the two that fights brobdinag? sort of like socialism and anarcho-capitalism coming together to create some utopic social-democratic just and equitable norwegian-type society that is nonetheless fueled by the raw ego-driven capitalistic nuclear fission? anad that saves us all from imminent environmental collapse?
sorry about the thc-fueled rambling. congratulations on this really satisfying story.
Jeff
Thanks JJason, glad you're loving it, and your point about the top-level entities is well taken!
Thanks for the kind words, Jeff, I love the political analysis, a very interesting reading. (Also glad that the story apparently reads well when baked :-D )
Posted by: Benjamin Rosenbaum at April 12, 2008 09:07 AM