Have to say I wasn’t too impressed with “Yes, Jolonah”. Its protagonist’s predicament, while undoubtedly horrible on a conceptual level, didn’t evoke much in the way of emotional horror—the presentation was too melodramatic, the premise too fundamentally silly, and the characters too flat. The tvtropes word for this sort of thing is “narm”, I believe.
On the other hand, I’ve always liked “Prime Intellect”, despite its faults and despite the Luddism it feels compelled to devolve into.
While it’s true that it’s hardly a great piece of literature, and there are certainly more enjoyable things out there for the same time, it still IS enjoyable and I think it teaches an useful concept.
The raikoth.net story is awesome. “Yes, Jolonah” is not worth reading.
Edited ages and ages later: “Yes, Jolonah” is a frightening story that caused me distress due to empathizing with the characters. If you aren’t prone to that or if you enjoy it, go ahead and read it. It is moving and well-written.
http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html
http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/2ul/free_hard_sf_novels_short_stories/
http://www.raikoth.net/Stuff/story1.html
http://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oa-story&story=dr_yes_jolonah (Warning! Scary!)
http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/mopiidx.html
http://lesswrong.com/lw/3oa/i/
http://lesswrong.com/lw/y5/the_babyeating_aliens_18/
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality
Have to say I wasn’t too impressed with “Yes, Jolonah”. Its protagonist’s predicament, while undoubtedly horrible on a conceptual level, didn’t evoke much in the way of emotional horror—the presentation was too melodramatic, the premise too fundamentally silly, and the characters too flat. The tvtropes word for this sort of thing is “narm”, I believe.
On the other hand, I’ve always liked “Prime Intellect”, despite its faults and despite the Luddism it feels compelled to devolve into.
While it’s true that it’s hardly a great piece of literature, and there are certainly more enjoyable things out there for the same time, it still IS enjoyable and I think it teaches an useful concept.
The raikoth.net story is awesome. “Yes, Jolonah” is not worth reading.
Edited ages and ages later: “Yes, Jolonah” is a frightening story that caused me distress due to empathizing with the characters. If you aren’t prone to that or if you enjoy it, go ahead and read it. It is moving and well-written.