Post 9kJHicPH5WIF0f7VA0 by Azure@vulpine.club
 (DIR) More posts by Azure@vulpine.club
 (DIR) Post #9kJC1DzrT5QV54ipg8 by enkiv2@eldritch.cafe
       2019-06-28T12:46:44Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       An idea that's sort of implicit in FALL (and in some of Stephenson's other work) that I find problematic is that some rare people are naturally creative & everybody else is naturally dull. I suspect that the creative impulse is nigh-universal & some folks get socialized out of it.
       
 (DIR) Post #9kJC1ECygJuzjkrJ7g by vector@weirder.earth
       2019-06-28T13:01:43Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @enkiv2 This kind of thinking is necessary to justify hierarchy, and as much as Stephenson loves stories about overturning old and unjust hierarchies, he never replaces them with anything other than new hierarchies.
       
 (DIR) Post #9kJHiYU5ffliqRLI6y by Azure@vulpine.club
       2019-06-28T14:15:37Z
       
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       @enkiv2 I'm kind of curious to read Fall just to see how he reconciles what seems to be his dualist assumptions. (At least based on his 'AI is impossible and to think otherwise was arrogant' in Diamond Age and the Syntactic Device vs. Human Brain in Anathem.)
       
 (DIR) Post #9kJHic40MbHNwhAW0W by enkiv2@eldritch.cafe
       2019-06-28T14:36:20Z
       
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       @Azure @enkiv2Oh, in FALL, he's not dualist at all. I always took those things to be pot-shots at a dualist culture, tbh, & not representative of his actual beliefs.
       
 (DIR) Post #9kJHicPH5WIF0f7VA0 by Azure@vulpine.club
       2019-06-28T14:38:07Z
       
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       @enkiv2 In Diamond Age it could at least be argued as a Necessary Weasel to get the connection between the Narrator and the Protagonist, too.
       
 (DIR) Post #9kJHicge2wBhsXFNEe by enkiv2@eldritch.cafe
       2019-06-28T14:43:30Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @Azure @enkiv2Right. In FALL, he takes basically the same position as Stross does in Neptune's Children: that the easiest way to produce human-like AI is to scan & simulate a connectome. In FALL, though, this is a lossy process because some state is in charge levels & neurotransmitter levels, so they spawn amnesiac & confused and slowly reassemble their memories.