What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
► UNSOLVED: One specific book
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SciFi: short story: Humanity realizes it is in a simulation, and causes universe to BSOD
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A bunch of authors have done something like this. Baxter's "Touching Centauri" might be what you're looking for www.oocities.org/firstspeaker.geo/sho...
" A thought-provoking story about the first attempt to bounce a laser signal off a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. The attempt would lead to a series of events that would cause the collapse of knowledge about the universe as we know it as well as leading to interesting speculations about what intelligent aliens would do to attempt to set up 'alternative' types of reality."
*bump*Looks like "Touching Centauri" was pretty much only published in Phase Space.
Have not gotten that yet. Still interested in any other suggestions?
I think I read "Touching Centauri" when it was first published. Here's a list of stories with simulated reality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulat...
It occurs to me that blowing up the sun in a simulation is a Jack Chalker kind of plot twist - I wonder if this is in his "Wonderland" series?
Andy wrote: "Here's a list of stories with simulated reality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulat..."The World of Tiers, Volume 1 "In the series, it is eventually revealed that our existence is also based in a pocket universe whose extent reaches only part of the way to Alpha Centauri." - Although that is probably before MS's BSOD?
Touching Centauri was also published in Asimov's Science Fiction, August 2003
Banjomike wrote: "Touching Centauri was also published in Asimov's Science Fiction, August 2003"Yeah, that's where I read it.
Banjomike wrote: "Touching Centauri was also published in Asimov's Science Fiction, August 2003"Yup, that's in the link I posted. But *every* other publication was _Phase Space_ and magazines usually don't get stored and sold later, like books - which is why I said "pretty much".
*bump*There's anonymous flash fiction that goes something like this, and has the phrase: "We were essentially a thought experiment on the nature of evil, and the answer apparently was us." - but does not have BSOD, nor sun-killing, nor famous author.
*bump* New Decade, w00+!
I don't know about blowing up the sun per se. But the short story [The Nine Billion Names of God] by Arthur C. Clarke has some similarities to what you are describing. In the story Tibetan monks believe that by completing the task of counting the names of God it will bring about the end of the universe. They contact with a group of scientists to speed up the counting of the names of God using a supercomputer.
The ending line of the story is, "Then they notice that "overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nin...
I've read 9 billion. No, this isn't that. That story is from 1953, and substantially pre-dates the idea of microsoft's BSOD.Still looking.
What's the Name of That Book???
Books mentioned in this topic
The World of Tiers, Volume 1 (other topics)Phase Space (other topics)
"Wasn't there some short story some prominent SF author wrote where Humanity realizes they're in a simulated reality and decides to fuck with the operators by concentrating all their resources for several hundred years into blowing up the sun or some shit, and it causes the universe to BSOD??"
And was wondering if anyone knows if this is a story that actually exists, and what it is?
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edit:
BSOD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_sc...
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Ruled out:
NOT
The Nine Billion Names of God