互联网与文化qntm.org
“我不懂,Timmy,当上帝可是重大责任”(2007)
I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility (2007)
2010 — 2021,它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页(≥ 50 分)的那次投稿,空心点是没冲上去的投稿,点越大分数越高。
导读
这是 Sam Hughes(qntm)2007 年写的一篇短篇科幻,围绕模拟宇宙、嵌套现实以及“创造并关闭一个世界”所意味着的责任展开。标题借“Timmy,当上帝可是重大责任”点出核心伦理困境,读者也常从结局中读出令人不安的意味。
为什么经久不衰:它用极短的篇幅把模拟假设、嵌套宇宙和创造者的道德责任讲得紧凑又难忘,在 AI 与模拟意识讨论正热的今天依然值得重读。
HN 评论精选
提出一种更黑暗的结局解读:关闭模拟会反过来让上层失去继续运行的理由。
你可以给这个故事加一个有点恐怖的结局:让角色们在弄懂关闭模拟的含义之后意识到,上一层世界本来就不会出现那个黑色球体,因此也就没有理由继续运行他们的模拟,并且正准备把它关掉。
Lerc查看英文原文
You could give this somewhat of a horror ending by having the characters realise, after figuring out the implication of turning the simulation off, that the top level would not have had the black sphere appear and as such would have no reason to keep their simulation running and were about to turn it off.
从物理和计算极限角度质疑故事里的宇宙模拟设定。
以前读过,有几处让我不太舒服:以我们当前的分辨率模拟一个宇宙是不可能的,因为那会比原宇宙消耗更多物质;不能只模拟“可观测区域”,一切都需要被模拟;无限循环即使在全能计算机里也不会结束;ZFS 的人还做过一个有趣计算:要填满 128 位文件系统(即枚举所有组合)需要大量能量,多到足以煮沸地球海洋。
achille查看英文原文
Read this in the past and there's a few things that bother me * It's impossible to simulate a universe of our current resolution, because it would take more matter than the original universe. * You can't just simulate 'observable areas'. Everything needs to be simulated. * An infinite loop does not end, even in an infinitely powerful computer * A fun calculation from the ZFS folks: To fully populate a 128bit filesystem (ie permute all combinations) you a lot of energy. So much energy you could boil the world's oceans, See: * [1] Physical Limits of Computation: http://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/9908043.pdf * [2] https://blogs.oracle.com/dcb/entry/zfs_boils_the_ocean_consumes
盛赞作者 qntm 的短篇与 SCP 系列,强调其科幻写作地位。
他是当代最好的科幻作家之一。这里的短篇合集非常棒,他在 SCP wiki 上写的“Anti-mimetics division”系列也是。
kian查看英文原文
He's one of the best modern sci-fi writers. The whole collection of short stories here is fantastic, as is the "Anti-mimetics division" series he wrote over on SCP wiki.
把 qntm 与 Ian M. Banks 相比,并指出《Lena》对大脑模拟伦理的恐怖推演。
我一直希望有人能接伊恩·M·班克斯的班,而 QNTM 差不多是我最喜欢的同路人科幻。尤其是《Lena》(qntm.org/mmacevedo)处理了大脑模拟非常可怕的后果:把一个模拟心智放进确定性的“Red”(即折磨)脚本里,只为让它准备好做你需要的工作,这很吓人。
karmicthreat查看英文原文
I've been hoping someone would fill the shoes of Ian M Banks. QNTM is probably some of my favorite fiction in the same vein. Lena https://qntm.org/mmacevedo in particular deals with some very frightening ramifications of brain simulation. Just running a simulated mind through a deterministic "Red" (ie: torture) script to prep it for the work you need it to do is frightening. Jeph Jacques of QC fame did Alice Gove which was a good Banks like comic. https://www.questionablecontent.net/alice1.html I also read quite a bit of Kris Schnee's work https://www.amazon.com/Kris-Schnee/e/B00IY1HDDY his earlier Thousand Tales novels I think deal with early brain scanning issues well. IE: Flatbed scanning a living brain.
历次讨论
同类还值得读
如今电脑上几乎所有操作在感知上都比 1983 年更慢(2017)
Almost everything on computers is perceptually slower than it was in 1983 (2017)
2017 年的推文串认为,尽管计算机硬件比 1983 年快得多,日常操作的感知速度却常常更慢:启动、界面响应和网络应用被层层抽象、动画、后台检查与网络依赖拖累。
互联网与文化上首页 5 次 · 2017–2020twitter.com网站肥胖危机
The Website Obesity Crisis
Maciej Cegłowski(idlewords)的经典演讲文稿《网站肥胖症危机》,批评现代网页越来越臃肿:动辄数 MB 的 JavaScript、追踪脚本和广告,把本可以轻…
互联网与文化上首页 5 次 · 2016–2021idlewords.com编辑精选亚马逊那本标价 23,698,655.93 美元的苍蝇书
Amazon’s $23,698,655.93 book about flies
博文讲的是亚马逊上一本关于果蝇的二手书被标到 23,698,655.93 美元。
互联网与文化上首页 5 次 · 2011–2022michaeleisen.org浏览器 User-Agent 字符串的历史
History of the browser user-agent string (2008)
2008 年的经典文章用戏谑的“创世纪”口吻,讲述浏览器 User-Agent 字符串如何从简单的标识演变成层层叠加的伪装:浏览器为了绕过按 UA 分发的网站检测,纷纷把自己伪装…
互联网与文化上首页 5 次 · 2012–2022webaim.org编辑精选最后的问题——艾萨克·阿西莫夫
The Last Question - Isaac Asimov
阿西莫夫最著名的短篇科幻小说《最后的问题》的在线全文。
互联网与文化上首页 5 次 · 2009–2019multivax.com编辑精选