= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
Blueberry comments on Open Thread: December 2009 - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (263)
I wrote a short story with something of a transhumanism theme. People can read it here. Actionable feedback welcome; it's still subject to revision.
Note: The protagonist's name is "Key". Key, and one other character, receive Spivak pronouns, which can make either Key's name or eir pronouns look like some kind of typo or formatting error if you don't know it's coming. If this annoys enough people, I may change Key's name or switch to a different genderless pronoun system. I'm curious if anyone finds that they think of Key and the other Spivak character as having a particular gender in the story; I tried to write them neither, but may have failed (I made errors in the pronouns in the first draft, and they all went in one direction).
Looks like I'm in the minority for reading Key as slightly male. I didn't get a gender for Trellis. I also read the librarian as female, which I'm kind of sad about.
I loved the story, found it very touching, and would like to know more about the world it's in. One thing that confused me: the librarian's comments to Key suggested that some actual information was withheld from even the highest levels available to "civilians". So has someone discovered immortality, but some ruling council is keeping it hidden? Or is it just that they're blocking research into it, but not hiding any actual information? Are they hiding the very idea of it? And what's the librarian really up to?
Were you inspired by Nick Bostrom's "Fable of the Dragon"? It also reminded me a little of Lois Lowry's "The Giver".
Thanks so much for sharing it with us!
Lace is female - why are you sad about reading her that way?
Yaaaay! I'll answer any setting questions you care to pose :)
Nobody has discovered it yet. The communities in which Key's ilk live suppress the notion of even looking for it; in the rest of the world they're working on it in a few places but aren't making much progress. The librarian isn't up to a whole lot; if she were very dedicated to finding out how to be immortal she'd have ditched the community years ago - she just has a few ideas that aren't like what the community leaders would like her to have and took enough of a shine to Key that she wanted to share them with em. I have read both "Fable of the Dragon" and "The Giver" - the former I loved, the latter I loved until I re-read it with a more mature understanding of worldbuilding, but I didn't think of either consciously when writing.
You are most welcome for the sharing of the story. Have a look at my other stuff, if you are so inclined :)