This may seem like it’s coming out of left field, but reading A Fire Upon the Deep a few weeks ago helped me find a calm perspective on this idea. In-universe the characters straight up have some of these discussions over the course of the book, and there’s so much of all this stuff happening “just off screen”.
The story is in part about the folly and impossibility of something as easy and comforting as “trust” between agents and systems in radically different scales and realities. Yet they are forced to coexist and interact regardless.
I haven’t read his other books yet, but his lectures and interviews have also been extremely fascinating; I am surprised I haven’t seen much mention of Vernor Vinge until recently, though perhaps it’s a “roman concrete” problem where he’s assumed to have been read? Forgive me if I am sounding like, “Guys guys have you heard about this great old sci-fi called Frankenstein!”
This may seem like it’s coming out of left field, but reading A Fire Upon the Deep a few weeks ago helped me find a calm perspective on this idea. In-universe the characters straight up have some of these discussions over the course of the book, and there’s so much of all this stuff happening “just off screen”.
The story is in part about the folly and impossibility of something as easy and comforting as “trust” between agents and systems in radically different scales and realities. Yet they are forced to coexist and interact regardless.
I haven’t read his other books yet, but his lectures and interviews have also been extremely fascinating; I am surprised I haven’t seen much mention of Vernor Vinge until recently, though perhaps it’s a “roman concrete” problem where he’s assumed to have been read? Forgive me if I am sounding like, “Guys guys have you heard about this great old sci-fi called Frankenstein!”