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Comment by 2mur | Hacker News Reader

Full text from Watts’ site:

https://www.rifters.com/real/STARFISH.htm

"Rifters" series also has some of the most grimdark-fun & chaotic versions of the "net" that I've ever read.

I had an absolute blast with so far the first two books. Watts' mastery of psychology & neurosis & suspense is captured in an incredibly tightly confined dark scary isolated space at the bottom of the ocean. The setting here is just so exceeding. What a series (so far).

GPT has me worried that Watts's net was prescient. We're really looking at a world where people set AIs to write their emails, which are read by AI.

That's not the grimdark part of the series though.

Well this makes me think of personal assistants. Lots of people have their assistant email someone else's assistant to set up a meeting. If these AIs actually work properly, the scenario may not end up being terribly concerning.

Oh, sure, Watts has those, too. The problem is that in that world, the public Internet consists entirely of bots screaming at each other, and is basically unusable for anything else. Now listen to the fears about GPT spam finally rendering Google utterly useless, and tell me you don't feel the foreshocks of that future.

Lovely imagery, loved it, & well related.

I do think it a little over reduces the imagery/situation, a bit. Watts' late internet has so many factors of just wrecked savage badlands, being endlessly blasted with savage e-storms. Endless bots screaming, oh yes oh yes, but also just everything under active caustic assault, all pieces of information actively being degraded, constant brownout/black outs, storms & turbulence aplenty. It's wild imagery for a hellacious information space.

Packets are like little programs sent out into the din, trying to make it through the chaos, but being injured mangled warped & hobbled at every step. Picking up all kinds of riders & viruses or just being assaulted & damaged. It's wonderfully terrible imagery.

The second book is Maelstrom, named for this howling shrieking post-internet storm. Book 2, like book 1, has, best I can tell, nothing at all like it in all existence. Amazing grimdark shit.

I believe SEO spam has alreaedy ruined Google. So no need to wait for an AI-originating event. The data-apocalypse is already here.

And where the AI's fail to fill the subway station with air because someone smashed the clock on the wall visible on the security cameras and no onw realized that that was what was triggering the AI to fill the room with air before the train doors opened...

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