A Temple to Saturn

Jun 13, 2006 13:04

I guess it's sort of funny, really, how much better it is once you stop fighting the inevitable and simply succumb to it instead. It's not the fear of death that's so horrible, you know. It's hope that's the problem-- the vain hope that somehow you can do something to stop what has already happened. Once you give that up, it's so easy. Once you ( Read more... )

sf, story, mortality

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Comments 8

crisper June 13 2006, 20:06:41 UTC

packbat June 14 2006, 02:02:58 UTC
That is a marvelous story - I like the moral, too. Have you read "Rogue Moon", by the way?

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crisper June 14 2006, 04:02:29 UTC
I haven't, not familiar with it.

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harper_knight June 14 2006, 05:38:28 UTC
Huh, one also reccomends Rogue Moon. by... Algis Budrys. It has that transmission of conscience sort of idea, except only as far as the moon and... well. it's odd, kinda scared me when i first read it, at about 3 in the morning several years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_Moon describes it well without spoiling it.

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packbat June 14 2006, 11:54:13 UTC
It's an old story (©1960) by Algis Budrys. I mentioned it because in the story, people get moved to the Moon by transmission of data and reconstruction at the other end. It's odd in many ways, but an interesting read.

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To Be luserspaz June 14 2006, 09:09:44 UTC
I enjoyed the story. The best presentation of this philosophical question I have seen to date is in the short animated film "To Be".

I actually ordered it on DVD, despite it costing way too much for a 10 minute film. I dislike that most science fiction glazes over this issue, although to me it seems like the most important issue involved with teleportation of any kind. Even Wil McCarthy, who takes his science seriously, skirts the issue by saying that people "decided not to worry about it."

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Re: To Be polyomino June 15 2006, 04:57:41 UTC
Huh! Now I'm curious to see To Be.

I vaguely recall some 1950's era space opera, maybe by Pohl? about agents who would train and train and then get "sent" via duplicator to some distant world to perform their mission. But the arrivee was *invariably* surprised to *actually* be the one who got there. The doublethink was ineffective...

A current author who explores this a lot is Greg Egan. Gosh do I recommend Greg Egan. He has a recurring spin: People accept and embrace that having your replicate take over where you left off is Just As Good as living, without doubt.

This one, Temple of Saturn, takes a different (and more identifiable, to me) view. Still, it could pass for one of Egan's best, and then some.

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Think Like A Dinosaur nerdsholmferret June 15 2006, 00:42:00 UTC
James Patrick Kelly's short story on the subject is available as read by Michael O'Hare at http://www.scifi.com/set/playhouse/dinosaur/ if one can stop hating RealPlayer long enough to make it work.

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