I wrote and tried publishing a short story about a species like that.
where only occasionally people on top of mountains see stars, and they chuck it as a consequence of low pressure. eventually they invented flight, and assume pilots going high enough to see stars are having cognitive issues due to lack of air.
They asked pilots to draw the stars they see, and they get different drawings (they sent pilots at different times of the year because they couldn’t ever expect stars to shift) and assume its proof that thise stars are a cognitive artifact.
Eventually a pilot swears they are real and can actually use then to navigate, skepticism, he proves it. brand new research field emerges.
Although the story focuses more on deep DEEP time an omniengineering. (A term I just made up because mega engineering is a concept way too small compared to the one in the story).
If you want I don’t mind putting that story in the conversation.
Seems like you were going for a bit of a twist ending where the letter is actually a threat. It didn’t really land for me.
The threat could be more concise and pointed which would give it more impact. Instead of speculating about how humans may react and then saying the aliens will counter it, maybe just say something that amounts to “resistance is futile”.
Its also not exactly clear to me what “the problem” is. Its that their race will someday come to an end? There is a lot to be said about this idea and I think you should explore the philosophy of that more. How does prolonging their existence save them? Seems to me like they’re still left with the inevitable.
the problem is the inevitability of the heat death of the universe, and the meaningless of existence if there’s no life at the end.
While the solution is to optimize the entire universe, though massive galactic engineering (using plausible physics) to maximize their research in order to break thermodynamics. I’ll try to make it clearer.
the ending is clear, but wether it’s good or bad is ambiguous and up to the reader, as they basically incarcerated humanity on earth and took away any possibility of humanity ever leaving earth. without any negative effects on the planet or humans.
My issue with “the problem” is that this doesn’t really make sense to me philosophically. The science is more or less fine.
If they are thinking on the most macro of time scales then doom in 10 years or doom 10^1000 years is still doom. 100 is not any closer to infinity than 10 is. The inevitable is still inevitable.
They admit that they cant use suns from other galaxies. So, even if the universe is infinite, that doesn’t help them. Galaxies are not. No matter how slow they make their sun, it will still burn out some day.
Maybe I’m missing the part about breaking thermodynamics.
I wrote and tried publishing a short story about a species like that.
where only occasionally people on top of mountains see stars, and they chuck it as a consequence of low pressure. eventually they invented flight, and assume pilots going high enough to see stars are having cognitive issues due to lack of air.
They asked pilots to draw the stars they see, and they get different drawings (they sent pilots at different times of the year because they couldn’t ever expect stars to shift) and assume its proof that thise stars are a cognitive artifact.
Eventually a pilot swears they are real and can actually use then to navigate, skepticism, he proves it. brand new research field emerges.
Although the story focuses more on deep DEEP time an omniengineering. (A term I just made up because mega engineering is a concept way too small compared to the one in the story).
If you want I don’t mind putting that story in the conversation.
Post it for sure
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PTzQQKXLnBL1ICUK8IYa8YoUSD2ncQk5-jse-FaFPAI/edit?usp=drivesdk
tried putting the text in a comment, but it’s too long, I enabled comments.
I loved it. Thanks for sharing!
Given who you are, it means a lot.
That was a good read! I liked the pacing, the dawning not quite horror.
I liked it. It seems to fall apart at the end a bit but this is a really cool concept for sure.
if you don’t mind. could you elaborate? it’s ok if you don’t, I am rudely asking for free labor.
Seems like you were going for a bit of a twist ending where the letter is actually a threat. It didn’t really land for me.
The threat could be more concise and pointed which would give it more impact. Instead of speculating about how humans may react and then saying the aliens will counter it, maybe just say something that amounts to “resistance is futile”.
Its also not exactly clear to me what “the problem” is. Its that their race will someday come to an end? There is a lot to be said about this idea and I think you should explore the philosophy of that more. How does prolonging their existence save them? Seems to me like they’re still left with the inevitable.
the problem is the inevitability of the heat death of the universe, and the meaningless of existence if there’s no life at the end.
While the solution is to optimize the entire universe, though massive galactic engineering (using plausible physics) to maximize their research in order to break thermodynamics. I’ll try to make it clearer.
the ending is clear, but wether it’s good or bad is ambiguous and up to the reader, as they basically incarcerated humanity on earth and took away any possibility of humanity ever leaving earth. without any negative effects on the planet or humans.
My issue with “the problem” is that this doesn’t really make sense to me philosophically. The science is more or less fine.
If they are thinking on the most macro of time scales then doom in 10 years or doom 10^1000 years is still doom. 100 is not any closer to infinity than 10 is. The inevitable is still inevitable.
They admit that they cant use suns from other galaxies. So, even if the universe is infinite, that doesn’t help them. Galaxies are not. No matter how slow they make their sun, it will still burn out some day.
Maybe I’m missing the part about breaking thermodynamics.
keep cracking layers of reality, what’s possible when understanding deeper physics enables unpredictable things. I’ll have to make it clearer
Shit yeah go for it, I love those kinds of stories!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PTzQQKXLnBL1ICUK8IYa8YoUSD2ncQk5-jse-FaFPAI/edit?usp=drivesdk
tried putting the text in a comment, but it’s too long, I enabled comments.
thank u, good read
I’d read it
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PTzQQKXLnBL1ICUK8IYa8YoUSD2ncQk5-jse-FaFPAI/edit?usp=drivesdk
tried putting the text in a comment, but it’s too long, I enabled comments.
Heck yeah, I’d read that. Feels like it could have been a Hal Clement story idea.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PTzQQKXLnBL1ICUK8IYa8YoUSD2ncQk5-jse-FaFPAI/edit?usp=drivesdk
tried putting the text in a comment, but it’s too long, I enabled comments.
Thanks! Will review.
no pressure. and be honest, if some parts are shite tell me. and especially if it is all shite.