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Jonathan Kamens 86 47
Jonathan Kamens 86 47
@jik@federate.social  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

#scifi nerds, I need your help identifying an #SF novel I read decades ago.
The main characters each possess some sort of device which gives them essentially infinite power. They use it to create and destroy whatever they want, to travel all over the planet, basically anything.
They don't understand how the devices work. Turns out they're connected to giant machines—maybe originally for terraforming?—that are starting to break down, and the knowledge of how to fix them has long since been lost.

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Jonathan Kamens 86 47
Jonathan Kamens 86 47
@jik@federate.social replied  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

(I am thinking of this novel today because I believe that all-powerful machines which start to break down after humanity has forgotten how they were built or how to fix them because they provided for every need, strikes me as an apt metaphor for what generative AI is going to do to us if we go down the path that Altman and Musk think we should.)

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Amber Or Bust
Amber Or Bust
@masp@wandering.shop replied  ·  activity timestamp yesterday

@jik it sounds like it could easily have been a prequel to Forbidden Planet, but I’m sure that’s not what you’re thinking of!

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