A salient point within by @pluralistic "As of this moment, the human race has lit more than $1.4t on fire to immanentize this eschaton, and it remains stubbornly disimmanentized.

[proteusbcn@masto.es]

@marjolica @rellek_m @InkySchwartz @pluralistic Perhaps the most unsettling thought is that when we finally reach that multi-trillion dollar 'discovery', we’ll encounter the same ending as in the book. Arthur C. Clarke was a giant; 70 years later and he’s still the most relevant compass for our technological obsession.

[wesdym@mastodon.social]

@InkySchwartz Those who've seen THX1138 might recall that the relentless pursuit of the protagonist only ends when his pursuers decide that it's too costly and no longer justified.

However oppressive that society was, they understood cost/benefit down to the penny. Ours? Not so such, it seems.

[angusm@mastodon.social]

@rellek_m @InkySchwartz @pluralistic I say we get right on it. What's the worst that could happen?

[brainwise@mas.to]

@marjolica Robert Powell's reading for BBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWvUKSIjBYk

/ @rellek_m @InkySchwartz @pluralistic

[marjolica@social.linux.pizza]

@brainwise @rellek_m @InkySchwartz @pluralistic I think I remember hearing a reading of the story by Arthur C Clarke himself, but it was some time ago and I can't now find either a reference or link, so maybe it wasn't him, maybe it was the BBC reading you mention.

[cassandracorvid@mstdn.social]

@InkySchwartz

Robert Anton Wilson FTW!

@pluralistic

[pomcountyirregs@mstdn.social]

@InkySchwartz @pluralistic @lisamelton It hasn’t been lit on fire, exactly. One entity’s expense is another’s income.

Now, for those who claim to believe in marketplace efficiency may, in a Professor Pangloss way, argue that this had to happen and is a good thing.

I have skepticism regarding the complete efficiency and what kids once called the wisdom of crowds. But I do believe the more extended, the more painful the correction for a solution looking for a mass scale problem.

[brainwise@mas.to]

@marjolica There was also a fully dramatized reading, but I cannot find a recording of that posted online. / @rellek_m @InkySchwartz @pluralistic

[kirch@tilde.zone]

@arfisk @marjolica @rellek_m @InkySchwartz @pluralistic I actually did this a few years back, using a 23-character alphabet like in the story produced 9gb of text... And the world's still here

[cptbutton@dice.camp]

@marjolica @rellek_m @InkySchwartz @pluralistic

A while back I did some calculations based on line printers from back then. Don't have it to hand, but I think it came 10 of the best line-printers then, with some allowance for maintenance.

[mannydexter@beige.party]

@arfisk @marjolica @rellek_m @InkySchwartz @pluralistic

Fellow workers,

This is The Way.

[wcbdata@vis.social]

@arfisk @marjolica @rellek_m @InkySchwartz @pluralistic And I glanced up and saw the eyes of billionaires blinking out one by one leaving only the rapturous joy of literally everyone else.

[damonwakes@mastodon.sdf.org]

@rellek_m @InkySchwartz @pluralistic I can do it way cheaper: https://damonwakes.itch.io/the-ten-million-invocations-of-esnesnon-22022022

[marjolica@social.linux.pizza]

@kirch @arfisk @rellek_m @InkySchwartz @pluralistic are you sure? Seems a bit like a bad dream at the moment. But of course the tech bros are very busy replacing the stars with satellites so it's hard to tell if the stars have really gone or not.