Three Worlds Collide
This is a story of an impossible outcome, where AI never worked, molecular nanotechnology never worked, biotechnology only sort-of worked; and yet somehow humanity not only survived, but discovered a way to travel Faster-Than-Light: The past’s Future.
Ouch, thought Akon, I never realized how embarrassing that sounds until I heard it explained to an alien.
Up until then, all wars were wars of total extermination – but afterward, the theory was that if a large group of people could all do something wrong, it was probably a reasonable mistake. Their conceptualization of probability theory – of a formally correct way of manipulating uncertainty – was followed by the dawn of their world peace.
Akon waited. This was why he couldn’t have talked about the question with anyone else. Only a Confessor would actually think before answering, if asked a question like that.
A must-read story by Eliezer Yudkowsky. Read it online or download pdf. I don’t think I can explain the whole awesomeness of it without spoiling something. It’s not universally appealing though if you read carelessly. Don’t give up on it before the third chapter.
By the time you have read it, you’ll be wanting more, so here you are.
16th October 2009
