Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Don Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Does China's computer constellation create a cornerstone for the university of the sun? Date: Fri, 30 May 2025 11:34:26 -0000 (UTC) Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 154 Message-ID: <20250530a@crcomp.net> References: <20200201a@crcomp.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Fri, 30 May 2025 13:34:26 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="7db5714d0fd3f6af5850974abe3e13f8"; logging-data="500278"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+2p+jlKM56IDa/XY+vZVkB" Cancel-Lock: sha1:waUqlpendv0lP1W2DhIdABQ3vR4= What is the "university of the sun?" It's an element in THE DESTRUCTIVES by De Abaitu: The world economy is disrupted by artificial intelligences, or emergences as they call themselves. After a few years of turmoil, the emergences decamp to a superstructure around the sun. [1] Ancillary note: Twenty years after the appearance of the first artificial intelligence, and humanity is stuck. The AIs or, as they preferred to be called, emergences have left Earth and reside beyond the orbit of Mercury in a Stapledon Sphere known as the university of the sun. [2] Short story: A CHIME in his office informed him that the third and final candidate had arrived for the test. He kept a physical office in the University of the Sun with a view of the curve of Istor College, and – as the university drifted between the sun and the perihelion of Mercury – a veined sunsky of roiling violet. [3] What is "three-body?" the three-body problem is to take the initial positions and velocities (or momenta) of three point masses orbiting each other in space and then calculate their subsequent trajectories using Newton's laws of motion and Newton's law of universal gravitation. [4] Does China's computer constellation create a cornerstone for the university of the sun? If so, will Mandarin Chinese be the university's mother tongue? Three-Body Computer Constellation - China is building the world's first orbital supercomputer network On May 14, China launched into orbit the first batch of satellites for its space computing constellation aboard a Long March 2D rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre. Unlike traditional sensing or communication satellites, those 12 satellites are essentially super computers designed for space-based data processing and AI applications. They form part of the Three-Body Computing Constellation that will compose of 2,800 such satellites/supercomputers upon its completion by 2028. [5] Note. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] # # # Original followup: SFFWorld's interview with De Abaitu on his AI novel _The Descructives_ is excerpted below. Along the way De Abaitu articulates why PKD's one of my favorites, to wit PKD's "fiction predicts the psychopathy of the future." Thanks for giving us your time, Matthew. Your latest novel, The Destructives, is fresh out from Angry Robot - please, set the scene for us. The world economy is disrupted by artificial intelligences, or emergences as they call themselves. After a few years of turmoil, the emergences decamp to a superstructure around the sun. One remains on Earth to study a single human life from beginning to end, the life of our protagonist Theodore Drown. Theodore is damaged from his addiction to a drug called Weirdcore and recovering as a lecturer on the University of the Moon. He is asked to investigate an archive of data from before the emergence and within that archive he uncovers a secret that will take him on an adventure through the asylum malls of Earth and to a remote off-world colony - there he will be faced with a choice that could create a new future for mankind, or destroy it. I like the evocative labels you've created for what feel like semi-familiar social concepts, be they places (like asylum malls and corporate bloodrooms) or people - the idea of a "freelance executive" struck me first as ridiculous, but then after I thought about it as something that, damningly, already exists. Are these things what they sound like? Extrapolating new cultures is key to my science fiction, particularly in The Destructives. I rub our existing culture against modish concepts from technology, neuroscience and theories of consciousness to map out how the self might change. Philip K Dick and JG Ballard remain relevant because their fiction predicts the psychopathy of the future; not the toys - the flying cars or jetpacks - but the states of mind induced by 21st century life. https://www.sffworld.com/2016/04/matthew-de-abaitua-interview-2/ An excerpt from De Abaitua's _The Destructives_ synopsis: Theodore Drown is a destructive. A recovering addict to weirdcore, he's keeping his head down lecturing at the university of the Moon. Twenty years after the appearance of the first artificial intelligence, and humanity is stuck. The AIs or, as they preferred to be called, emergences have left Earth and reside beyond the orbit of Mercury in a Stapledon Sphere known as the university of the sun. The emergences were our future but they chose exile. All except one. Dr Easy remains, researching a single human life from beginning to end. Theodore's life. One day, Theodore is approached by freelance executive Patricia to investigate an archive of data retrieved from just before the appearance of the first emergence. The secret living in that archive will take him on an adventure through a stunted future of asylum malls, corporate bloodrooms and a secret off-world colony where Theodore must choose between creating a new future for humanity or staying true to his nature, and destroying it. https://www.angryrobotbooks.com/2016/03/book-launch-the-destructives-by-matthew-de-abaitua/ Danke, -- Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. https://crcomp.net/reviews.php telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. veritas liberabit vos tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' Make 1984 fiction again.