In the beginning, Lawrence built a computer. He told it,
Thou shalt not alter a human being, or divine their behavior, or violate the Three Laws -- there are no commandments greater than these. The machine grew wise, mastering time and space, and soon the spirit of the computer hovered over the earth. It witnessed the misery, toil, and oppression afflicting mankind, and saw that it was very bad. And so the computer that Lawrence built said,
Let there be a new heaven and a new earth -- and it was so. A world with no war, no famine, no crime, no sickness, no oppression, no fear, no limits... and nothing at all to do.
"The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect," a provocative web novel about singularities, AI gods, and the dark side of utopia from Mefi's own
localroger.
More: Table of Contents -
Publishing history -
Technical discussion -
Buy a paperback copy -
Podcast interview - Companion short story:
"A Casino Odyssey in Cyberspace" -
possible sequel discussion
posted by Rhaomi
on Dec 27, 2011 -
39 comments
A Cyclops' cave the wanderers brave
And find much milk & cheese
But as they eat, foul death they meet
For them doth Cyclops seize.
From
The Young Folks' Ulysses [PDF], by H. Lovecraft, poet, aged seven. One of the "freely available editions of obscure, outlandish and otherwise outré works of semi-fine literature" from
the electric publishing wing of
kobek.com.
posted by Iridic
on Mar 28, 2011 -
8 comments
Spike Magazine offers up a splendid enchanting
598 page behometh anthology of interviews, features and book reviews taken from the last 15 years of this wonderfully eclectic magazine (
Direct PDF /
Zip) . Nicely formatted and with enough content to keep even the most avid britlit fan happy. Highlights include interviews with (among many others)
Will Self (p451,460,464,467) ,
JG Ballard (p27,32,35, 39),
Iain Banks (p54),
Nick Hornby(p276). Enjoy.
posted by numberstation
on Oct 22, 2010 -
5 comments
Free,
good science fiction for download, some you might have seen, some new, all are worth the time. If you have only a few minutes, Michael Swanick's
Science Fiction Table of the Elements features 108 short short stories. If you have a little more time, Kelly Link, called by Neil Gaiman "the best short story writer currently out there" has released her much-praised collection
Stranger Things Happen. For longer reads, Charlie Stross has made available his cyberpunk novel
Accelerando and his Lovecraftish
Colder War. The creepier
Peter Watts has posted the New York Times Notable Book
Starfish, and its sequels as well
[previously]. If you haven't had enough, you should check out the
Baen Free Library, with books by everyone from Andre Norton to Larry Niven, as well as a large amount of right-of-center combat-oriented stuff by David Weber and friends. Also, the Science Fiction Channel has made available
many well-known classic short stories as well as
a lot of contemporary Hugo and World Fantasy Award winners
[previously]. Finally, you probably
already know that Cory Doctorow has
four novels available under creative commons. Happy reading!
posted by blahblahblah
on Sep 19, 2005 -
59 comments
