[HN Gopher] I wrote a short story about von Neumann probes
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I wrote a short story about von Neumann probes
Author : whatrocks
Score : 101 points
Date : 2022-10-08 03:02 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (f52.charlieharrington.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (f52.charlieharrington.com)
| jimmcslim wrote:
| I look forward to this appearing in the next series of "Love,
| Death & Robots"
| genmon wrote:
| For anyone interested in this topic, I went back and looked at
| the earliest von Neumann feasibility paper recently, and came
| away wondering... what if _we_ are the von Neumann probes
|
| https://interconnected.org/home/2022/09/29/interstellar
| h4t wrote:
| I read this title thinking it was gonna be about chess. /facepalm
| I need to go to sleep.
| ggambetta wrote:
| Very nice :)
|
| I'm not quite sure I "got" the binary numbers thing. Is that how
| the sending civilization determines whether intelligence has been
| found?
| whatrocks wrote:
| I'm not sure I even made this connection when writing this.
| But, as OP, I'm going to say yes. I mainly was thinking about
| how to connect Lemmings and Gremlins.
| whatrocks wrote:
| Oh, also, "A Boy and his Blob" was another major influence.
| Such a weird game that my sister and I loved on regular
| Nintendo.
| whatrocks wrote:
| Another influence, especially for the binary numbers bit,
| was "Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and
| Software" by Charles Petzold. I've always loved his
| explanation of counting in binary.
| mannykannot wrote:
| Nice story!
|
| One small point about the binary-counter process is that you
| cannot stuff an arbitrary number of nibbles back into the box
| - the smallest counter-example being three. On the other
| hand, you can always increase the number of them by one
| through selecting one and feeding it (and for the same
| reason, you cannot assume there are an even or power-of-two
| number of them to start with.)
| behringer wrote:
| Yes I felt the reason for the numbering system may not even
| need an explanation, due to it being all weirdly alien!
| whatrocks wrote:
| This is definitely helpful. I am thinking about making this
| story into an iPhone game. Not sure there's enough game
| mechanics to keep it fun yet, but maybe there's something
| with the feed vs stuff with a timer?
| TruthWillHurt wrote:
| Ha ha! Very good! The writing is good, the ending is brilliant!
| :)
|
| I love the binary numbers bit. It appears very often in sci-fi
| when interacting with aliens. very good to have it explained
| nicely and be a "puzzle" to solve.
|
| But I'll just note that as far as I know - von Neumann probes are
| not passengers, but rather the ship itself, which replicates and
| travels to new destinations.
|
| It might be ok in this short story because kids found the ship,
| so they didn't know better, but it's important to get the science
| right in sci-fi. Readers are smart :)
|
| Keep at it! I'd love to read more of your stories. (Short stories
| are great for sci-fi in my opinion!)
|
| P.S
|
| A great book about Von Neuman probes is - We Are Legion (We Are
| Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
| JoeAltmaier wrote:
| The Bobiverse - A good read to be sure. But for some reason Bob
| never engages in geometric growth. The resources in our
| asteroid belt for instance could run to billions of Bobs, but
| his numbers somehow grow linearly (even though out of
| communication with other Bobs for millenia; how do they
| coordinate?)
|
| Also the contradiction where you can make backups, but somehow
| they lose some Bobs to accident or war. Wtf? The principle
| benefit of being a Bob is backups.
|
| Then there's the oddity that backups work and reinstate the
| same Bob, but new containers for Bob always end up with
| slightly different personalities even when programmed with a
| backup. Seems a direct contradiction, but oh well.
|
| The central conceit of the series is, most personalities
| instantiated as a machine intelligence went nuts. But Bob was a
| science fiction fan/writer. So he managed. I like that.
| fbdab103 wrote:
| > ...lose some Bobs to accident or war. Wtf?
|
| Because the copies are imperfect, I took the in-universe
| explanation to be that, while yes, they can technically
| restore a backup, the restoration is going to be another new
| personality.
|
| >...but new containers for Bob always end up with slightly
| different personalities
|
| I think this is a story-telling device to give us new
| character perspectives. Otherwise the majority of the story
| would be, "Great idea Bob", "I agree, Bob". It also allows
| for the writer to invent whatever character expertise is
| required for the plot.
| ptsneves wrote:
| The newest bobiverse book hints that the copies are
| slightly different due to the no clone paradox.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-cloning_theorem
| whatrocks wrote:
| Thank you! I recently read a great von Neumann biography (The
| Man from the Future by Ananyo Bhattacharya) and I've thinking
| about the von Neumann probes ever since. Definitely agree with
| you on how von Neumann probes are typically represented as
| ships or machines, but I wanted to make the nibbles "cute", so
| I thought "why not make the probes organic little blobby
| things?" But I'm definitely going to pick up the "We are Bob"
| book this week - seems from comments below that it has a lot of
| fans!
|
| Also, I have been writing one short story every week this year,
| as a project to get better at writing, and you can read them
| all here: https://f52.charlieharrington.com/
|
| Some favorites of mine are: - The Correctives - Flynn's Arrow -
| El Codigo de los Estados Unidos - Plastic Man on the Moon
| pts_ wrote:
| Love the pun on nibbles too since half a byte is a nibble,
| and there are 4 slots.
| whatrocks wrote:
| I was torn about whether or not to call them nybbles :)
| sputr wrote:
| Came here to recommend the Bobiverse (first book of 4 so far:
| We are legion (We are Bob)) as it's simply fantastic read or
| listen.
| NotEvil wrote:
| Can't recommend it more. The whole series is _muah_
| pwelch wrote:
| 100% This series is so fun to read.
| nehal3m wrote:
| I had the same thought. Great series.
| robalfonso wrote:
| Another vote for bobiverse, absolutely great book.
| UncleSlacky wrote:
| "Spin" is also an interesting Von Neumann probe story:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_(novel)
| fbdab103 wrote:
| The Hypotheticals are far removed from the majority of the
| plot. While it is in the background, with some philosophical
| waxing about their nature, I do not think that is fair to
| characterize it is as a Von Neumann probe story. To a fairly
| similar effect, the novel could have been catalyzed by a
| wizard casting a magical spell.
|
| (spoilers)
|
| Granted it is a sci-fi novel, but I did not care for how
| humanity's probes are able to spread across the galaxy for
| generations before ultimately being absorbed by the already
| established super entity. Said super entity which has been
| already been manipulating Earth for billions of years.
| Somehow, humanity's first generation probe is able to slip
| under the radar of the ancient, highly evolved, intelligence?
| dwheeler wrote:
| von Neumann probes are also relevant to the clicker game
| "Universal Paperclips":
| https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/
|
| Universal Paperclips is a strange game that I found intriguing.
| Its premise is that you are an AI created to create paperclips (a
| "paperclip maximizer"); this is a thought experiment described by
| philosopher Nick Bostrom in 2003. At first Universal Paperclips
| looks like a normal silly clicker game, but eventually it starts
| making you think about things you probably hadn't before:
| <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Paperclips>. What I
| particularly appreciate is that it has several stages; each at
| first seems like a surprise, and yet within its context is 100%
| logical (if horrifying).
|
| A nice video about the _feeling_ it can give you is here
| (Universal Paperclips is about 1 /2 way through): "The Horror of
| Universal Paperclips and Space Engine"
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oca8BnDMin4
|
| If you don't want to actually play it, you can watch others doing
| so, e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnhWc_kRzVE
| jonas21 wrote:
| Spoiler alert!
| jeffrallen wrote:
| I love it. Keep writing!
| behringer wrote:
| Critique here:
|
| The audio has a couple loud bangs, the first of which scared me
| to death because I thought something hit my car! Filter and/or
| re-record mic drops recommended :D
|
| Second, it was a good story but I really would have liked to have
| a go at solving the problem myself before it was explained to the
| friends. Perhaps you could have given us, the reader, the problem
| first and the entire thought process of solving it, with the end
| of that explanation containing the solution, perhaps that's where
| you could cut in and explain the solution to the friends. That
| way if we the readers figure it out ahead of the narration then
| we get that little bump of dopamine!
| whatrocks wrote:
| Great points. My mic literally dropped during the recording (I
| was sitting in my bed). I'll try to fix that now and re-upload
| it (up to this point, the only regular listeners have been my
| parents and occasionally my wife). Also, excellent call on the
| problem/game part of the story - I should rewrite that part.
| I've also been thinking about this story as the backstory to an
| iPhone game, so maybe I can make it more fun that way.
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