I was thinking more along the lines of “Old One was making a low-probability high-expected-value bet on the Zones of Thought being generated by a simulator with access to much larger resources”, with the travelers being lockpickers who could operate in the corridor of Beyond, and Pham containing the payload. At least, Pham contained the obvious payload. There might be a much more subtle payload hidden in the interaction characteristics of the whole group, possibly appearing only after considerable computing time.
There might be a much more subtle payload hidden in the interaction characteristics of the whole group, possibly appearing only after considerable computing time.
Interesting. The fact that none of the group members mention this possibility is good evidence that it is true (or there’s some other kind of hidden payload). I guess we should expect that Maria’s world will be taken over by the Old One eventually.
BTW, have you made any progress on the problem of how much resources an FAI should spend on exploring escapes out of simulation? The last time I asked, you were still stuck.
Hmm, you seem to wedge in general on paradoxes involving very large numbers times very small ones.
I know that my own heuristic is simply to refuse to multiply with very small numbers. This prunes the paradoxes but has obvious disadvantages. The counters “but, number of fundamental particles in universe” and “but, other daft things with similar small probabilities” feel like cop-outs.
Or maybe when the Blight fleet reaches the Countermeasure it can undo it and revive the Blight, so by delaying the fleet arrival they make it possible for the Tines to build up fleets of their own and defend the Countermeasure?
Wow, I guess Old One really cared about Pham and Ravna.
I was thinking more along the lines of “Old One was making a low-probability high-expected-value bet on the Zones of Thought being generated by a simulator with access to much larger resources”, with the travelers being lockpickers who could operate in the corridor of Beyond, and Pham containing the payload. At least, Pham contained the obvious payload. There might be a much more subtle payload hidden in the interaction characteristics of the whole group, possibly appearing only after considerable computing time.
Interesting. The fact that none of the group members mention this possibility is good evidence that it is true (or there’s some other kind of hidden payload). I guess we should expect that Maria’s world will be taken over by the Old One eventually.
BTW, have you made any progress on the problem of how much resources an FAI should spend on exploring escapes out of simulation? The last time I asked, you were still stuck.
Reason for blowing up = Pascal’s Mugging, still not resolved to my satisfaction.
Hmm, you seem to wedge in general on paradoxes involving very large numbers times very small ones.
I know that my own heuristic is simply to refuse to multiply with very small numbers. This prunes the paradoxes but has obvious disadvantages. The counters “but, number of fundamental particles in universe” and “but, other daft things with similar small probabilities” feel like cop-outs.
Do you always refuse to multiply by small numbers, or only in certain situations? What do you do instead, then? How do you do your physics homework?
Only in the context of probability since that is where the paradoxes are.
(rot13 for Fire Upon the Deep spoiler)
Gung synj vf va gur bevtvany nf jryy; gurer’f ab bgure ernfba gung gur tbqfunggre va Cunz jbhyq unir obgurerq nobhg gur Oyvtug syrrg neevivat nsgre gur Pbhagrezrnfher npgrq. (Naq jnf vg ernyyl jbegu gur fnpevsvpr bs unys bs Fwnaqen Xrv’f syrrg gb fnir Gvarf’ Jbeyq sbe n srj zvyyraavn?)
And yes, I just read A Fire Upon the Deep in order to understand the fic.
Yeah, that bothered me too. But maybe Old One didn’t know how long it would take to activate the Countermeasure.
Or maybe when the Blight fleet reaches the Countermeasure it can undo it and revive the Blight, so by delaying the fleet arrival they make it possible for the Tines to build up fleets of their own and defend the Countermeasure?