= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
daenerys comments on February 2014 Media Thread - Less Wrong Discussion
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 (46)
More enthusiasm for Diaspora-- probably the best sense of wonder science fiction I've read.
I suspect the rule against exponential growth is neither definable nor enforceable, but it kept the book from turning into a series of dreary territorial fights.
Yes, I take that as very similar to Vinge's Zones of Thought - it's almost moronic if you try to take it as any sort of plausible prediction or resolution to the Great Silence, but both reader and author agree to suspend disbelief on that premise in order to keep human-level stories possible.
(At least, I really hope Egan doesn't seriously think that there would be any gentleman's agreement against exponential growth, because his particular multiverse makes the problem of the Great Silence exponentially worse than it already is.)
I don't think an effective gentleman's agreement against exponential growth is conceivable. An actual government might be possible, but that would be a very hard problem, and might have a tendency to take over the story.
Better to handwave, and hope the reader doesn't notice or doesn't care.