This is the original ending I had planned for Three Worlds Collide.
After writing it, it seemed even more awful than I had expected; and I began thinking that it would be better to detonate Sol and fragment the human starline network, guaranteeing that, whatever happened in the future, true humans would continue somewhere.
Then I realized I didn’t have to destroy the Earth—that, like so many other stories I’d read, my very own plot had a loophole. (I might have realized earlier, if I’d written part 5 before part 6, but the pieces were not written in order.)
Tomorrow the True Ending will appear, since it was indeed guessed in the comments yesterday.
If anyone wonders why the Normal Ending didn’t go the way of the True Ending—it could be because the Superhappy ambassador ship got there too quickly and would have been powerful enough to prevent it. Or it could be because the highest decision-makers of humankind, like Akon himself, decided that the Superhappy procedure was the categorically best way to resolve such conflicts between species. The story does not say.
I’ve just a couple days ago returned home from Rationality Camp, and to the best of my estimates, about half the participants prefer this ending, and also, among rationalists that I encounter elsewhere, a non-trivial portion of them prefer this ending as well. What am I saying? Other than the mass suicides, it is not immediately obvious that this original ending is “awful” in any way.
And including the mass suicides? remember that in this story, 6 billion people become 1 in a million, and over 25% of people died in this branch of the story. Destroying Huygens resulted in 15 billion deaths.
″… must relinquish bodily pain, embarrassment, and romantic troubles.”
that’s worse than letting billions of children be tortured to death every year. that’s worse than dying from a supernova. that’s worse than dying from mass suicide. that’s worse than dying because you can’t have sex with geniuses to gain their minds and thus avert the cause of death that you die from.
you really think existence without pain is that bad? you really they are not “true humans”.
what about the 3WC humans? are they not “true humans” either. only us?
what about those with CIP? what about cold people? are they not “true humans”?
do you think there should be less but non-zero pain in our minds? how much?
ignore the loophole. explain why this superhappy ending is worse than the supernova ending.
that’s worse than letting billions of children be tortured to death every year. that’s worse than dying from a supernova.
No? The story explicitly rejects this. It is only because the Superhappies can deal with the Babyeaters on their own, and that solutions to the human problem do not prevent this that the story is resolved other ways.
that’s worse than dying from mass suicide.
I don’t see the story as advocating this—Akon does not suicide, for example. It is not that the value difference between human life before and after the change is so large (large than the negative value of death) that is the problem. It is that difference in value, multiplied by the entire human race and it’s future potential/member is so large as to outweigh a comparatively tiny number of deaths. I’m not sure that is true, but it is the position of those in the story.
you really think existence without pain is that bad? you really they are not “true humans”.
I don’t think he thinks that. I think he (Eliezer_2009) thinks they have lost something important, some aspect of their humanity—but that doesn’t mean they are completely inhuman.
In the spirit of true Soft Science Fiction, it seems more plausible that once they gain understanding of human interaction, the Supperhappy would simply make a technological gift of their communications modality, and allow social change to take it’s course. The end result might be much the same, with the Confessor feeling progressively the more alienated as events unfold.
As for the Baby Eaters, 1quite frankly, they’d likely be Sadists. There is plenty of precedent in Human societies, of Sadism as a value, one way or another. But that might pose a conundrum even for the Superhappy.
I like this original ending better; it’s more thought-provoking (which is almost a synonym for more disturbing). And I’d like to see this submitted and published in a print SF magazine, likely Analog.
This is the original ending I had planned for Three Worlds Collide.
After writing it, it seemed even more awful than I had expected; and I began thinking that it would be better to detonate Sol and fragment the human starline network, guaranteeing that, whatever happened in the future, true humans would continue somewhere.
Then I realized I didn’t have to destroy the Earth—that, like so many other stories I’d read, my very own plot had a loophole. (I might have realized earlier, if I’d written part 5 before part 6, but the pieces were not written in order.)
Tomorrow the True Ending will appear, since it was indeed guessed in the comments yesterday.
If anyone wonders why the Normal Ending didn’t go the way of the True Ending—it could be because the Superhappy ambassador ship got there too quickly and would have been powerful enough to prevent it. Or it could be because the highest decision-makers of humankind, like Akon himself, decided that the Superhappy procedure was the categorically best way to resolve such conflicts between species. The story does not say.
I’ve just a couple days ago returned home from Rationality Camp, and to the best of my estimates, about half the participants prefer this ending, and also, among rationalists that I encounter elsewhere, a non-trivial portion of them prefer this ending as well. What am I saying? Other than the mass suicides, it is not immediately obvious that this original ending is “awful” in any way.
And including the mass suicides? remember that in this story, 6 billion people become 1 in a million, and over 25% of people died in this branch of the story. Destroying Huygens resulted in 15 billion deaths.
As they say, shut up and multiply.
″… must relinquish bodily pain, embarrassment, and romantic troubles.”
that’s worse than letting billions of children be tortured to death every year. that’s worse than dying from a supernova. that’s worse than dying from mass suicide. that’s worse than dying because you can’t have sex with geniuses to gain their minds and thus avert the cause of death that you die from.
you really think existence without pain is that bad? you really they are not “true humans”.
what about the 3WC humans? are they not “true humans” either. only us?
what about those with CIP? what about cold people? are they not “true humans”?
do you think there should be less but non-zero pain in our minds? how much?
ignore the loophole. explain why this superhappy ending is worse than the supernova ending.
literally unbelievable.
No? The story explicitly rejects this. It is only because the Superhappies can deal with the Babyeaters on their own, and that solutions to the human problem do not prevent this that the story is resolved other ways.
I don’t see the story as advocating this—Akon does not suicide, for example. It is not that the value difference between human life before and after the change is so large (large than the negative value of death) that is the problem. It is that difference in value, multiplied by the entire human race and it’s future potential/member is so large as to outweigh a comparatively tiny number of deaths. I’m not sure that is true, but it is the position of those in the story.
I don’t think he thinks that. I think he (Eliezer_2009) thinks they have lost something important, some aspect of their humanity—but that doesn’t mean they are completely inhuman.
In the spirit of true Soft Science Fiction, it seems more plausible that once they gain understanding of human interaction, the Supperhappy would simply make a technological gift of their communications modality, and allow social change to take it’s course. The end result might be much the same, with the Confessor feeling progressively the more alienated as events unfold.
As for the Baby Eaters, 1quite frankly, they’d likely be Sadists. There is plenty of precedent in Human societies, of Sadism as a value, one way or another. But that might pose a conundrum even for the Superhappy.
I like this original ending better; it’s more thought-provoking (which is almost a synonym for more disturbing). And I’d like to see this submitted and published in a print SF magazine, likely Analog.