[extropy-chat] What Human Minds Will Eventually Do

Jef Allbright jef at jefallbright.net
Fri Jun 30 05:30:52 UTC 2006


On 6/29/06, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at tsoft.com> wrote:
> 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


Thanks Lee for the clarification.  I appreciate and your use of the
more general sense of paradox but I was hoping to find a new one for
my collection.

- Jef



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