Honest Opinion (May Contain Spoilers)

Expert snuggler wrote:AIs go unstable with time. Can you "freeze" and "thaw" one? Easy with today's computers, but that doesn't mean AIs work the same way.

They normally operate at ridiculously fast speeds, but slow down for human interaction. That suggests that they could slow down much, much more for... call it "historical interaction." Suppose it's only aware of history whizzing by for centuries, then spins up to check things out at a glance, as it were, 1000 years after. It'd avoid a strict freeze/thaw cycle - it'd be a matter of degree, rather than of kind - and hopefully keep it from having too much time on its psyche not to wig out before it's got work to do.

Guaranteeing that Safehold remains a-technological forever through means of an eternal artificial intelligence does seem a bit wrong in the head though.

JeffEngel wrote:

Expert snuggler wrote:AIs go unstable with time. Can you "freeze" and "thaw" one? Easy with today's computers, but that doesn't mean AIs work the same way.

They normally operate at ridiculously fast speeds, but slow down for human interaction. That suggests that they could slow down much, much more for... call it "historical interaction." Suppose it's only aware of history whizzing by for centuries, then spins up to check things out at a glance, as it were, 1000 years after. It'd avoid a strict freeze/thaw cycle - it'd be a matter of degree, rather than of kind - and hopefully keep it from having too much time on its psyche not to wig out before it's got work to do.

Guaranteeing that Safehold remains a-technological forever through means of an eternal artificial intelligence does seem a bit wrong in the head though.

Owl was "asleep" for nearly that long... admittedly a less sophisticated state of development than the primary AI on a star-ship; and David has already had some interesting AI personalities in other stories so... maybe this one wakes up and says "Oh good you're back on track" but I cannot shake the thought that humans on Safehold must "De-fang" the orbital platform no matter what is asleep under the temple or wherever it is in the system.

By remarkable coincidence, the attack mode I had alluded to on an other post is the same that O Scott Card used in Earth Awakens
I have had three well advanced storyboards come to a halt when I read the same idea in a well known authors recent work... OF course, I must be the one that plagiarized because they got it to the publisher first But ideas pop up everywhere and from common knowledge of the underlying principles of physics or psychology, these ideas must have a similitude of structure

Even when it actually happens, which as you say is less often than it looks, borrowing is _not_ plagiarism. The only reason to toss a story because someone 'got there first' is if the market can only support the one version - and the evidence is solidly against that proposition!

When you develop a notion independently, you invariably give it a unique feel and background that readers pick up on. Which can lead to unseemly squabbles of the 'X did it first! Yeah, but Y is much more believable!' sort, but that's not always a bad thing. When you do borrow, more often that not it's to go in a direction that the originator _didn't_ go, either as a what if? or because it simply seems like the thing to do. David Brin, for example, most certainly didn't invent the notion of uplift, but he's gone ahead and created a unique and interesting universe out of it. And that's how notions become tropes.

C. O. Thompson wrote:< snip >

By remarkable coincidence, the attack mode I had alluded to on an other post is the same that O Scott Card used in Earth Awakens
I have had three well advanced storyboards come to a halt when I read the same idea in a well known authors recent work... OF course, I must be the one that plagiarized because they got it to the publisher first But ideas pop up everywhere and from common knowledge of the underlying principles of physics or psychology, these ideas must have a similitude of structure

TBird50 wrote:I've also been thinking about the Archangels lately. To be able to return in the year 1000 (or maybe it was after 1000 years) it seems apparent that they are in cryo-sleep somewhere. Where would that be do you suppose? Perhaps under the temple??? I don't recall if there is a moon, but I suppose there could be a "Nimue's Cave" on the backside of the moon, or maybe a compartment attached to the Rakurai. I'm leaning towards under the temple myself. I've forgotten what Wylsynn's key told us, tho, so perhaps there is something there that would negate that possibility.

There is a moon.

Louis R wrote:Even when it actually happens, which as you say is less often than it looks, borrowing is _not_ plagiarism. The only reason to toss a story because someone 'got there first' is if the market can only support the one version - and the evidence is solidly against that proposition!

When you develop a notion independently, you invariably give it a unique feel and background that readers pick up on. Which can lead to unseemly squabbles of the 'X did it first! Yeah, but Y is much more believable!' sort, but that's not always a bad thing. When you do borrow, more often that not it's to go in a direction that the originator _didn't_ go, either as a what if? or because it simply seems like the thing to do. David Brin, for example, most certainly didn't invent the notion of uplift, but he's gone ahead and created a unique and interesting universe out of it. And that's how notions become tropes.

C. O. Thompson wrote:< snip >

By remarkable coincidence, the attack mode I had alluded to on an other post is the same that O Scott Card used in Earth Awakens
I have had three well advanced storyboards come to a halt when I read the same idea in a well known authors recent work... OF course, I must be the one that plagiarized because they got it to the publisher first But ideas pop up everywhere and from common knowledge of the underlying principles of physics or psychology, these ideas must have a similitude of structure

Louis,

Thank you for the insights... I believe that I agree with the core of your remark. Perhaps I should consider dusting off the old files, however; I cannot shake the thought that anyone reading them would not see the actual time I drafted them only how much they happen to be like something that someone well known wrote.

Still, I won't rule it out. One thing that is really nice about my situation is that I don't have to do what I don't want to do and another is that I have the time to do what I want so.

One of the stories I am working on now (that I have not seen anyone else use) requires mathematics that I know of but cannot perform I am the kind of person who puts 2 and 2 together and comes up with 22 but I need to have accurate numbers for orbital mechanics that brings an asteroid across the orbit of Earth inbound and outbound in such a way that Earth gradually catches up to it for a phenomenal near hit that is only hours ahead of the moon in its orbit inbound and would have just cleared the moons orbit outbound if it had not collided with enough rocks in Mercury's L3 and changed its course.

See... I know what I think would set the stage for the story I want to tell but, if the math were not right, it falls to the level of pulling a magic sword from the rock. and that is not the way I wanted the story to go... I'd rather have two jugglers with chainsaws passing between each other OH and maybe a clown on a unicycle passing through the whole act at the same time

Google is approaching supernatural powers these days. Are you sure there's no orbital mechanics simulator online? Failing that, is there an equivalent of Dan Alderson these days? He was a NASA orbital mechanic who consulted with authors.

Expert snuggler wrote:Except that there's a time limit on cryopreservation which is much less than a thousand years.

OK, I'd forgotten that. But then my question becomes where are the Archangels and how are they staying alive for 1000 years (or whatever) so that they can return?

Charles83 wrote:Hello I just finished my copy of HFQ, I was very unimpressed with the book, the book is enjoyable, but it feels slow, the story is getting boggled down in thousand of minor details and minor battles and the main plot is moving at a very slow pace, Its the first time that I find I can resume the entire book to 4 sentences, usually RFC books are harder to describe because you have multiple threads and the plot is moving forward along multiple lines with twists and turns, this last book is missing all that, if someone presented this book to me without telling me the author i would have never believed that this was a David Weber's book.

I feel cheated, waiting 2 years for such an unimpressive book, I finished reading it, and the worst part while the other books gave me the excitement and reasons to read them for a second time, to see what details i had missed and how the situation develop, this book didn't spark any interest in rereading it, the only other book from david weber's that didn't spark any excitement for me to read it again has been so far dahak 3, Well I'm putting this here so that the author may know what I think, I don't know if he will read it, and I do not know if he will write anything different even if I give my opinion, but hey as a loyal RFC fan I feel a duty to at least be honest and tell him that in my personal opinion the book didn't measure up.

Hope next book is better, and that we don't need to wait another 2 years for it.

I have to totally agree with you. I just finished reading this as well and I have to totally agree with you.

Of all the books the author has written this is the one series I do not own and the only series of his I will not read more than once unlike the Harrington series that I read completely ever year. Harrington series is enjoyable Safehold series not very much.

Sorry to say it but Safehold is a waste of good shade trees that can be better utilized in the Harrington series. Just my opinion for what it is worth.

Senior Chief wrote:Safehold is a waste of good shade trees

Whoa there. Saying that one book is not good enough, after a long wait and before another long wait, is one thing, especially if one gives a specific reason why.

But you're saying that the entire series is "a waste of good shade trees" without giving any reason at all. That's just bashing/flaming.

In my opinion, Safehold is an excellent series. Yes, it has moments with more meetings than action, but no series is perfect. Honorverse has moments like that as well.

Safehold has a lot of deep philosophical and religious meaning in it, an interesting cast of characters, good sea and land battles, shows how advances in technology affect a war - both directly through advanced weapons, and indirectly through production (can the other side produce shitloads of steel to armor their ships? can they produce winter gear for a whole army?), etc etc.

TBird50 wrote:

Expert snuggler wrote:Except that there's a time limit on cryopreservation which is much less than a thousand years.

OK, I'd forgotten that. But then my question becomes where are the Archangels and how are they staying alive for 1000 years (or whatever) so that they can return?

It's a darned good question. Merlin couldn't figure out the answer.