6.7 KiB
Unsong Chapter 45: In The Remotest Bottoms Of The Caves
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Author: u/Fredlage *
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URL: http://unsongbook.com/chapter-45-in-the-remotest-bottoms-of-the-caves/
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Score: 54
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Created: 2016-11-07T00:23:42
Post:
Comments:
u/FeepingCreature [+25] GCV Literally The Entire Culture (3 hours later)
"OKAY, THAT'S IT," Aaron yells, "EVERYBODY HALT."
Sarah looks at him. Sohu looks at him. Half-finished incantations hang in the air, unmoving.
"Look. Sarah. You've looked at the Internet, right, before you got here? Read our stories? Any fairy tales? Young adult fiction?"
Sarah looks puzzled. "I don't see the relevance," she says, frowning. Sohu's eyes widen - she sees where this is going.
"Stories are vital!" Aaron yells, because this is important. "They remind us how to be human! Look, you're smart, you get how patterns work. Complete the sentence. A young girl cries that without the magical thing that makes her special nobody will love her, and the hero looks at her and says-"
A moment of silence. Sarah blinks once. "I have been a bit foolish, haven't I."
The hanging storm of unformed power dissipates.
Because it really should be obvious. Especially in a universe that literally runs on narrative law. Especially if you're a computer made for finding patterns.
u/None [+14] (8 hours later)
Aaron hasn't really been shown as being particularly good at thinking on his feet.
u/Fredlage [+10] (11 minutes later)
Well, I guess this answers that.
Very interested in seeing just how powerful Sohu has become. And Sarah needs some serious psychological help.
u/NotACauldronAgent [+6] Probably (24 minutes later)
OHKO a frightened supercomputer with powerful klipot, without even a word? Doom, I tell you.
u/None [+23] (5 hours later)
[deleted]
u/NotACauldronAgent [+5] Probably (10 hours later)
Take this up vote you clever person
u/None [+10] (10 hours later)
[deleted]
u/NotACauldronAgent [+8] Probably (11 hours later)
So faster person, that works too.
u/noggin-scratcher [+1] I am a happy tree (6 days later)
Karmitrage (noun): the act of moving a joke from one location to another for profit.
u/holomanga [+1] (a month later)
Fame!
u/None [+7] (an hour later)
They couldn't network Sarah into the bigger machine? Or would ensouling a computer not allow it's consciousness to spread outside of it's original components, so to speak?
u/Escapement [+13] Ankh-Morpork City Watch (an hour later)
Yeah, they should try to do a hardware upgrade on the marginally friendly AI, rather than ensouling the thing with nuclear weapons.
u/NotACauldronAgent [+8] Probably (an hour later)
I don't think Sarah is quite clear thinking enough to want that right now. Definitely a good plan, but as her chapter told us, she's not in a good headspace.
u/TastyBrainMeats [+1] (15 hours later)
Don't nuclear weapons no longer work?
u/fljared [+3] United Federation of Planets (16 hours later)
Probably controls the ICKMs
u/Arancaytar [+7] (7 hours later)
That punchline.
u/Taborask [+6] (40 minutes later)
I wish these chapters were longer, getting plot in these bite size chunks is driving me nuts.
u/None [+4] (8 hours later)
That's the nature of serialized fiction. You could always wait until a book is finished before reading a big chunk.
u/None [+1] (3 days later)
The book is pre-written. It's a conscious decision to release only one short chapter at a time. I also wish they were longer.
u/ulyssessword [+6] (20 hours later)
“Yes,” said Sohu, and snapped her fingers.
Nice shout-out to HPMOR, which makes me wonder how much prep work Sohu had to do in the background before snapping her fingers.
u/Frommerman [+4] (2 hours later)
So. Interesting thing here.
There is only one character we've ever seen talking in all caps in this series, and that's obviously Uriel. And now Sarah.
How powerful is Sarah? How powerful is Sohu?
u/SvalbardCaretaker [+9] Mouse Army (6 hours later)
Nah, Sarah is just doing good ol' ordinary shouting.
u/Frommerman [+10] (7 hours later)
Really? You're taking a notable stylistic difference in Unsong of all things as a mere coincidence?
This isn't a coincidence because nothing is a coincidence.
u/saitselkis [+6] (18 hours later)
Strong enough that uriel's young (even factoring in her immortality, shes probably around Aaron's age) protégé can literally snap her strings on the instant without using mundane kaballa. Sarah may be the most horrifying collection of names, ability to speak them flawlessly in fractions of a second and a dangerous mental instability, but she's still on level 1 of the kaballa ladder. Sohu accidentally started messing with 4 just to prove she could. Sarah is nothing to Uriel, bot in terms of power and his professed meanglessness of having a soul. To him, shes a computer with an ego and some misgotten divine light. To Sohu, shes a loud but minor annoyance.
u/RMcD94 [+5] (12 hours later)
I don't know why but I always read Uriel stuff as small caps like Death from Discworld.
Bᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇɴ I ɢᴜᴇss ʜᴇ ᴅᴏᴇsɴ'ᴛ sᴘᴇᴀᴋ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛʜɪs, sᴏ I ᴡᴏɴᴅᴇʀ ᴡʜʏ I ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜᴛ ᴛʜᴀᴛ.
u/ratanon [+5] Holy, holy is the lord of /etc/hosts (21 hours later)
Tʜᴇ PDF ᴏꜰ Uɴꜱᴏɴɢ I'ᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ ʙᴜɪʟᴅɪɴɢ ꜰᴏʀ ᴀ ᴡʜɪʟᴇ ᴀᴄᴛᴜᴀʟʟʏ ᴍᴀᴋᴇꜱ Uʀɪᴇʟ ꜱᴘᴇᴀᴋ ɪɴ ꜱᴍᴀʟʟ ᴄᴀᴘꜱ.
u/oliwhail [+1] Omake-Maximizing AGI (a day later)
Why are you missing your s's? (At least, on mobile)
u/ratanon [+2] Holy, holy is the lord of /etc/hosts (a day later)
Your font lacks U+A731.
u/None [+3] (7 hours later)
I never thought I could love a book that's this fond of terrible puns this much.
u/NotACauldronAgent [+1] Probably (23 minutes later)
Yay! Beanie Baby Teleportation was right!