Author Topic: EP142: Artifice and Intelligence  (Read 27742 times)

wakela

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Reply #50 on: February 14, 2008, 12:13:19 AM
Fun little story, but didn't really stick to my ribs.  The characters were fun, but the ideas didn't seem to fresh.  Isn't the idea of super intelligent beings playing games with humans out of boredom the plot of like half of the Star Trek OS episodes?

Minor gripes:
-Is anyone else tired of AIs in fiction just waking up one day?  There are more interesting ways to create an AI. 
-If Sarisvati made the water spirit (which I think she did) and the ghosts to challenge herself or Pradesh (thanks, TAD), then she chose Edgar and Raven to play, too.  But with every human being in the world to chose from, why pick these dopes?  They don't seem particularly stimulating as players or opponents.   



eytanz

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Reply #51 on: February 14, 2008, 12:21:30 AM
Fun little story, but didn't really stick to my ribs.  The characters were fun, but the ideas didn't seem to fresh.  Isn't the idea of super intelligent beings playing games with humans out of boredom the plot of like half of the Star Trek OS episodes?

Minor gripes:
-Is anyone else tired of AIs in fiction just waking up one day?  There are more interesting ways to create an AI. 

Sort of, but not quite. For me it's not so much the self-awakening that's the problem, but the fact that stories about self-awakening AIs seem to go down predictable paths.

Quote

-If Sarisvati made the water spirit (which I think she did) and the ghosts to challenge herself or Pradesh (thanks, TAD), then she chose Edgar and Raven to play, too.  But with every human being in the world to chose from, why pick these dopes?  They don't seem particularly stimulating as players or opponents.   

Well, Edgar was a well-placed programmer before he screwed up - and if Sarisvati made the ghosts, then she must have also made the first one that was responsible for his disgrace, probably as part of her master plan. So he may well have had useful skills. Why Raven, though, is a pretty good question.



Tango Alpha Delta

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Reply #52 on: February 14, 2008, 01:47:00 AM
Hmmm... what about Jane from Ender's Series?  Did she "just awaken" or something?


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deflective

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Reply #53 on: February 14, 2008, 05:00:21 AM
If Sarisvati made the water spirit (which I think she did) and the ghosts to challenge herself or Pradesh (thanks, TAD), then she chose Edgar and Raven to play, too.  But with every human being in the world to chose from, why pick these dopes?  They don't seem particularly stimulating as players or opponents.   

she might not see a whole lotta difference in the average person. kinda like asking a kid why he chose a particular red & black ant to throw into a jar.

on the other hand, her fixation with one particular person suggests she likes a limited scope. maybe she's creating narrative for real life (like news networks, only proactive). knowing that 'average person elevated' and 'odd couple' are two popular devices she may have chosen her opponents more to drive story than provide actual opposition.

Hmmm... what about Jane from Ender's Series?  Did she "just awaken" or something?

until he decided to use some retcon to fill out the last books, yeah =p



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Reply #54 on: September 16, 2010, 01:53:35 PM
I'm echoing many here when I say this was too short for the content.  And you know that I don't say that often.  There were so many characters in such a short tale that I felt I only got the introductory "rising action" chapters for each of them, and never really reached the climax or falling action.  If there'd been half the POV characters or twice the length, I think it could've been much more satisfying.

The question of how the AI could speak through frogs was a very good one, one which bugged me as well.  I'd considered that the other incarnations could be extensions of the AI, but the frogs were enough to convince me that that at least was a separate entity.  Only to be proven wrong, with no apparent explanation.

And it does get a little bit old when there are so many stories of bored immortal playing games with mere mortals to entertain itself.  Terry Pratchett in particular does this well, and for my tastes is hard to top.