Comic Discussion > ALICE GROVE
Alice Grove MCDLT - September 2016
Pogopotamus:
--- Quote from: JimC on 07 Sep 2016, 04:59 ---
--- Quote from: Pogopotamus on 06 Sep 2016, 07:24 ---... since there are "new stars" in the sky...
--- End quote ---
One of my readings of that is that the "new stars" are in fact all the oribital habitats.
--- End quote ---
In re-reading Alice's short form history on the conflict you are correct. The new stars are not stars but orbital habitats. The combatants were separated and the thinking trees "Praeses" appear to be the (alien?) entities responsible for the teleportation and instant terraforming. If that's the case the door opens not just for extensions of current technology but ultra-high alien tech which is (or can be) effectively akin (plot wise) to magic.
retrosteve:
--- Quote from: Pogopotamus on 07 Sep 2016, 07:45 ---
--- Quote from: JimC on 07 Sep 2016, 04:59 ---
--- Quote from: Pogopotamus on 06 Sep 2016, 07:24 ---... since there are "new stars" in the sky...
--- End quote ---
One of my readings of that is that the "new stars" are in fact all the oribital habitats.
--- End quote ---
In re-reading Alice's short form history on the conflict you are correct. The new stars are not stars but orbital habitats. The combatants were separated.
[\quote]
Agreed.
--- Quote ---and the thinking trees "Praeses" appear to be the (alien?) entities responsible for the teleportation and instant terraforming.
[\quote]
Possible, but unlikely. If the Praesides did it, where were they before the Blink? Not on the habitats, since they didn't exist. I think it's more likely that the Praesides were sent as agents of the godlike entity that did the teleportation and instant terraforming. Keep in mind also the origin of the word praeses (plural praesides) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praeses
The word effectively means "governor of a colony". What a coincidence, eh?
If, as you say, the Praesides did it, they were ultra-powerful godlike aliens living elsewhere at the time. If so, they must be really bored by now having to babysit space colonies of deliberately-kept-ignorant ex-Earth creatures for 5000 years.
A more reasonable and non-magic explanation to my mind is that there's exactly one Godlike Entity that did the Blink. It also fetched the Praesides from wherever they lived before and put them in charge of the colonies, possibly for compensation.
The most likely explanation for the godlike entity is that it's the Singularity ( see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity ) : it created itself during the war between the factions -- the first AI to figure out how to rewrite its own code to make itself better, then use the next version to do a better rewrite, repeat until godlike. After bootstrapping itself into godlike intelligence and capability, it came to two obvious conclusions:
* The planet it was living on was at war, and that was a risk to its own existence, and it had better do something about that, right quick.
* Any future AI could in theory also bootstrap itself into godlike intelligence, which would also be a threat to its own existence, so it had better eliminate all the other AIs, also right quick.
Hence the Blink. Hence, also, the idea for the Praesides to insist to the colonists that AI was impossible.
--- Quote ---If that's the case the door opens not just for extensions of current technology but ultra-high alien tech which is (or can be) effectively akin (plot wise) to magic.
--- End quote ---
True, but that's why this godlike entity has kept itself out of sight for the last 5000 years, and may continue to do so. It not only screws with the plot to have it around, it probably has better things to worry about.
--- End quote ---
--- End quote ---
retrosteve:
P.S. If I'm right about the Singularity, this also explains why Alice can't be an AI: the Godlike Entity permits no competition.
Why AIs as opposed to organic intelligences? Because AIs can, in theory, rewrite their own code.
By the way, [edit], there's another reason, besides logic, that I think Jeph is thinking along these lines. He has obviously met Charles Stross, who wrote a couple of books in a similar vein. Stross apparently attended Maurice's wedding: http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2394
And the plot of Singularity Sky is the closest I've seen to Alice Grove's backstory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singularity_Sky
BenRG:
New Comic Up!
Yeah, that sounds like he's a Hunter of Super-Soldiers, all right. Something so strong that Alice thinks that he'd take down her and Sedna even if they took him on together. She also clearly thinks that he's likely still got his programming to hunt and kill them running.
brasca:
Alice said her level of bad news which could mean numerous things, but what we can coclude is that Alice recognizes him, but he doesn't recognize her or is just pretending and considering that 2 immortals like Alice are no match for him he is indeed very powerful.
Of course this is a really big setback for the plan to return Ardent and Gavia home.
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