[extropy-chat] What Human Minds Will Eventually Do

[Lee Corbin]

Jef wrote

> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2006 8:30 AM
> To: lcorbin at tsoft.com; ExI chat list
> 
> On 6/26/06, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at tsoft.com> wrote:
> > And unfortunately, by the Campbell/Vinge paradox, we can't
> > understand the experiences of deities.
> 
> As a collector of paradoxes, I'm interested in knowing whether
> "Campbell/Vinge paradox" refers to anything specific.  I'm familiar
> with the singularity writings of both, and the concept that of the
> fundamental inability to model the "experiences of deities", but I'm
> not aware of any paradox fitting this name.

I probably should not have called it that; I was referring
to the "paradox" that one cannot write a story featuring
the thinking and plans of more advanced entities. 

It came about when Vinge tried, in one of his earlier stories,
and Campbell rejected it for the following peculiar reason:
"You can't write this story. No one else, can, either" or
words to that effect.

It's the only anecdote connecting the two, and I thought it
to be in very wide circulation; if you were thrown off by the
word "paradox", again, my apologies.

Lee