[HN Gopher] The Toynbee Convector
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The Toynbee Convector
Author : PaulHoule
Score : 48 points
Date : 2021-10-16 18:35 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (en.wikipedia.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (en.wikipedia.org)
| NKosmatos wrote:
| I don't know why, but it reminds me of Roko's Basilisk:
| https://slate.com/technology/2014/07/rokos-basilisk-the-most...
| AutumnCurtain wrote:
| The story in full as a PDF:
| https://kwarc.info/teaching/TDM/Bradbury.pdf
| ctoth wrote:
| I'm reminded of a great little short story I read a couple years
| ago called "Noise Level." I'd be very surprised if Bradbury
| hadn't gotten the idea from there. I guess it's a bit of a
| spoiler to reference the story here, but it's still worth reading
| if you haven't.
| varelse wrote:
| Or perhaps the same idea was in the air in the same sense that
| Think Like a Dinosaur and The Prestige had the same plot twist?
| Jun8 wrote:
| "This is a reference to Arnold J. Toynbee,[1] who proposed that
| civilisation must respond to a challenge in order to flourish."
|
| A recent work that I love which uses this idea is the Dark Forest
| Trilogy, where detecting the existence of aliens stimulates human
| progress.
| pkdpic_y9k wrote:
| Couldn't agree more, anything and everything by Liu Cixin.
| Although now that I think about it Three Body / Dark Forest /
| Deaths End are the only works of his Ive read where theres any
| serious amount of quasi time travel. But its just done so
| incredibly well.
|
| Just have to give Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley
| Robinson a shoutout too, could definitely use some time travel
| though...
|
| Sorry, spoiler alert?
| yboris wrote:
| Ray Bradbury was one of my favorite authors when I was in High
| School. What novel(s) by him would you recommend now that I'm in
| my 30s?
| handrous wrote:
| _Dandelion Wine_ is one I bounced off of during my initial
| Bradbury infatuation around age 11 or 12, but in my 30s have
| found to be excellent. It is, in part, about experiencing the
| world as a child, but is probably not something most (to put it
| mildly) children can appreciate, if that makes sense.
|
| I did have a fair bit of exposure to small midwestern town &
| country life as a kid, and a lot more second-hand via my
| parents, and I can't discern how much of my appreciation of the
| story is due to that. To someone with--for example--only urban,
| coastal experience, would it hit anywhere near as hard as it
| does for me? Will the next group of people turning 30, who've
| never seen a house in the US with actual you-have-to-go-work-a-
| pump-by-hand-to-get-water well water, with a wood burning stove
| in the kitchen that sees daily use, et c., be able to relate to
| it as I do, which relation may itself be far weaker than people
| who grew up like that full-time? I'm not sure.
|
| His short stories are great. There were two thick hardback
| volumes published, each collecting 100(!) stories, that'll give
| you plenty to chew on. Widely available used, pretty cheap.
| Unless you dove _really_ deep on Bradbury in high school, odds
| are much of it will be new to you.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stories_of_Ray_Bradbury
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradbury_Stories:_100_of_His_M...
|
| No repeats between the two volumes. 200 total stories. Does
| include most or all of _The Martian Chronicles_ , which I
| prefer to read on its own, personally, though these might be
| useful for filling in gaps since IIRC they contain a couple
| stories that weren't in _every_ printing of The Martian
| Chronicles.
| PaulHoule wrote:
| There is this TV series
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ray_Bradbury_Theater
|
| which is a unique SF show in that it is not based on
| characters and settings the way Star Trek or Gundam or even
| Quantum Leap are. They are free to tear down the world each
| time and take the imagination far and they did most of it
| when Bradbury was still alive.
|
| Characters of all ages from young children to old men and
| women are represented. There is artistic input from the
| writer but also the director, actors, casting, music, etc. I
| can't think of another anthology SF series that is this
| successful.
| unkeptbarista wrote:
| My personal favorite was "Something Wicked This Way Comes".
| ineptech wrote:
| He has a lot of greatest hits (Dandelion Wine, Fahrenheit 451,
| Martian Chronicles) but if you're looking for something
| different, I really enjoyed his murder mystery trilogy (Death
| Is a Lonely Business, A Graveyard for Lunatics, Let's All Kill
| Constance). They are all kind of loosely based on (and
| playfully parodying) the noir detective style, and a lot of
| fun.
| mcguire wrote:
| _Something Wicked This Way Comes_. Perhaps _Dandelion Wine._
| anon_cow1111 wrote:
| If you want a potential wiki rabbit hole to go down, be sure to
| check the "toynbee tiles" link at the bottom.
| actually_a_dog wrote:
| Interesting. The name "Toynbee" immediately reminded of this:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toynbee_tiles
| bastardoperator wrote:
| Same, I love the mystery surrounding the tiles too.
| jerrysievert wrote:
| that's exactly where my mind went.
|
| well, with the addition of convection making me think it was a
| faster/better way of sticking the tiles to the road.
| gumby wrote:
| Funny to see this here as the book was sitting on the kitchen
| table this morning. Hmm...
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(page generated 2021-10-18 23:01 UTC)