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Comment by geuis | Hacker News Reader

Overall, a poor story. I continually tried to place myself in the minds of people living through this encounter and failed. Only the Confessor seemed to offer any insite into this culture. People simply would not jump to such conclusions so immediately. Yes, people might be horrified about conscious children being eaten but they would not immediately jump to conclusions of Lets Invade!

The story seemed lime an ad-hoc mix of the ideas of Charles Stross, Ray Bradbury, and edited by the rambling and incoherent Steve Gilmore

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One theme in Eliezer Yudkowsky's other writing (which is mostly not fictional, at least not overtly so) is that the future is likely to be weirder than we expect, and that non-human minds are likely to be much much much weirder than we expect.

Therefore, if it's difficult to put oneself in the minds of the characters of the story, "that's not a bug, it's a feature".

Also, we are supposed to imagine that the people in the story are smarter and more disciplined thinkers than we are.

Therefore, if the characters reach quickly conclusions that we would agonize over for longer, that again may be a feature rather than a bug. (It depends on how good their reasoning actually turns out to be.)

The story probably does (as it stands) assume too much acquaintance with the ideas Eliezer's been talking about on the "Overcoming Bias" blog; but then, that's where it was posted.

Also, the story reads like a fable in a SF setting. 'Realism' doesn't seem a fitting priority. A more believable account of the mental processes of the crew would add bulk without substance to the narration.

It was so bad that I read all 8 parts!

Your comment indicates you probably lost interest before part 4. Give it a chance. It's better than you describe.

<sarcasm>Like the pro-rape defense</sarcasm>

Just remember the only human as we know them in the story is the Confessor.

A central point of the series is to discuss the validity of imposing one's moral standards on others that share little or no background with you.

Just remember the only human as we know them in the story is the Confessor.

A central point of the series is to discuss the validity of imposing one's moral standards on others with little or no shared background.

The first part was great. A great opening. The second part was so bad I couldn't continue.

What a shame.

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