YASID: post-singularity fiction with lots of nootropics.
Robin Lee Powell
novelette length. This was within the last 5 years or so.
Basically, it's the future, humans have done lots and lots of
intelligence enhancement; each generation is smarter than the one
before. Then we find a planet with alien ruins. There is a ship sent
there. For reasons I can no longer remember, one of the people
(male?) on the ship tries to destroy the ruins, and another tries to
stop her (pretty sure female). She is younger, and hence smarter,
than him, so he ends up taking lots of heavy-side-effect nootropics to
keep up with her. The war is fought almost entirely by 3-D printed
robots from the ships machine shops.
The emphasis is very much on intelligence: that a standard deviation
of IQ is going to determine the results of any strategy game (probably
mostly true, given equal experience) and that war is basically that
(also mostly true in this case, since the robots won't freak out and
run).
-Robin
Robin Lee Powell
wrote:
> I read this on the web. I *think* it was a short story; at most
> novelette length. This was within the last 5 years or so.
>
> Basically, it's the future, humans have done lots and lots of
> intelligence enhancement; each generation is smarter than the one
> before. Then we find a planet with alien ruins. There is a ship sent
> there. For reasons I can no longer remember, one of the people
> (male?) on the ship tries to destroy the ruins, and another tries to
> stop her (pretty sure female).
Woo, incoherency! IIRC, the protector is male, the destroyer is
female, and the latter is younger (and hence smarter, due to baby
engineering) than the former.
sRobin
Joseph Nebus
>On Dec 26, 11:41=A0am, Robin Lee Powell <robinleepow...@gmail.com>
>wrote:
>> I read this on the web. =A0I *think* it was a short story; at most
>> novelette length. =A0This was within the last 5 years or so.
>>
>> Basically, it's the future, humans have done lots and lots of
>> intelligence enhancement; each generation is smarter than the one
>> before. =A0Then we find a planet with alien ruins. =A0There is a ship sen=
>t
>> there. =A0For reasons I can no longer remember, one of the people
>> (male?) on the ship tries to destroy the ruins, and another tries to
>> stop her (pretty sure female).
>Woo, incoherency! IIRC, the protector is male, the destroyer is
>female, and the latter is younger (and hence smarter, due to baby
>engineering) than the former.
I'm afraid I haven't got any ideas for the story identification
(I'm also not perfectly clear on what ``nootropics'' are; among my many
incompetencies as a science fiction fan are I have no idea what the
modern slang is), but with any luck this will boost the signal some and
the better-informed can help.
--
Joseph Nebus
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Robin Lee Powell
Awww. :)
"nootropics" means "drugs that enhance cognition"; I first saw the
term in the late 1980s. See
http://www.imminst.org/forum/topic/36691-ten-months-of-research-condensed-a-total-newbies-guide-to-nootropics/
for a modern perspective.
-Robin
Norm D. Plumber
Now all you need to do is figure out if the dealer's idea of "enhance"
is the same as yours. LSD? Cocaine? Pfffft!
--
plan [n]: a list of the reasons you aren't done yet
Robin Lee Powell
Wow. I *really* didn't expect this to be so hard to find. :(
I'm putting together a page of all the transhumanist and post-
singularity fiction I've liked; it's at
http://teddyb.org/robin/tiki-index.php?page=Post-Singularity+And+Transhumanist+Fiction+I%27ve+Enjoyed&no_bl=y
, for what it's worth. Suggestions and help welcome.
-Robin
Robin Lee Powell
Found it. See http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/3ju/looking_for_some_pieces_of_transhumanist_fiction/
; it's "Fossil Games" by Tom Purdom.
-Robin