Hacker News with Generative AI: Science Fiction

Hugo Administrators Resign in Wake of ChatGPT Controversy (gizmodo.com)
Another year, yet another Hugo Awards-adjacent controversy? That might be what fans of sci-fi lit and related media are thinking, with news today that a trio of leaders from the Seattle 2025 Worldcon, the upcoming iteration of the convention where the Hugos are annually presented, have resigned.
Science Fiction, Awards, Resignation, Controversy
13 points by doctoboggan 2 days ago | 2 comments
Hugo Administrators Resign in Wake of ChatGPT Controversy (gizmodo.com)
Another year, yet another Hugo Awards-adjacent controversy? That might be what fans of sci-fi lit and related media are thinking, with news today that a trio of leaders from the Seattle 2025 Worldcon, the upcoming iteration of the convention where the Hugos are annually presented, have resigned.
Science Fiction, Awards, Controversies, Resignations
4 points by pseudolus 3 days ago | 5 comments
Hugo Administrators Resign in Wake of ChatGPT Controversy (gizmodo.com)
Another year, yet another Hugo Awards-adjacent controversy? That might be what fans of sci-fi lit and related media are thinking, with news today that a trio of leaders from the Seattle 2025 Worldcon, the upcoming iteration of the convention where the Hugos are annually presented, have resigned.
Science Fiction, Awards, Conventions, Resignations, Controversy
7 points by HiroProtagonist 3 days ago | 3 comments
No! Repent! From! Harlan! (1998) (harlanellison.com)
A fair review of Harlan Ellison's credentials would take more wordage than allowed for this entire interview.
Science Fiction, Authors, Literature
11 points by Michelangelo11 4 days ago | 1 comments
Star Trek documentary reveals Lucille Ball's sci-fi influence (2021) (inverse.com)
Without Lucy, we’d never have reached the Final Frontier.
Star Trek, Television, History, Documentary, Science Fiction
6 points by dxs 5 days ago | 0 comments
The Philosophy of Cyberpunk: High-Tech Rebels and Neon Dreams (newintrigue.com)
The future has never seemed closer, yet we’re still struggling to find our place in it. It’s no surprise, then, that many of us are turning back to the cyberpunk genre. Its’ a world of hackers, rebels, and misfits, in the form of new videogames, movies, and novels.
Cyberpunk, Science Fiction, Technology, Culture
6 points by rntn 5 days ago | 0 comments
Welcome to the Future: The 2020s, the cyberpunk vision that arrived on schedule (noahpinion.blog)
The years of my youth must have been such a disappointment for sci-fi fans of my parents’ generation. They were raised on stories of spaceships soaring between the stars, and they grew up to see the space shuttle explode and humankind abandon the moon. They grew up expecting flying cars and robot servants, but as they reached middle age they were still trundling along the ground and doing their own laundry.
Science Fiction, Technology, History, Culture
13 points by goranmoomin 6 days ago | 4 comments
Elon Musk Just Doesn't Understand the Sci-Fi Visions of Iain M. Banks (lithub.com)
In June of 2018, before he declared himself “Dark MAGA” and before he wore a hat with the inscription “Trump Was Right About Everything,” Elon Musk took to a social media platform he did not yet own to describe his own politics.
Science Fiction, Elon Musk, Politics, Social Media
57 points by mitchbob 9 days ago | 38 comments
To 'Reclaim Future-Making', Amazon Workers Published Collection of SciFi Stories (afteramazon.world)
In 2023, the Worker as Futurist Project supported 13 rank-and-file Amazon workers to write short, speculative fiction about The World After Amazon. The result is the book featured on this website.
Amazon, Science Fiction, Labor, Speculative Fiction
91 points by m463 11 days ago | 81 comments
In Memoriam: SF and Fine Artist David Schleinkofer (downthetubes.net)
We’re sorry to report the passing of American SF and fine artist David Schleinkofer, who died earlier this week, of Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Art, Obituaries, Science Fiction
13 points by omnibrain 11 days ago | 1 comments
We need more optimistic science fiction (craig-russell.co.uk)
As a genre, science fiction has a proud heritage of shaping the future. We find it entertaining to imagine what the world could be like. Science fiction enables us to explore possible futures, and through exploring them, decide for ourselves what future we want to create.
Science Fiction, Future, Optimism
141 points by craig552uk 11 days ago | 199 comments
Watching o3 guess a photo's location is surreal, dystopian and entertaining (simonwillison.net)
Watching OpenAI’s new o3 model guess where a photo was taken is one of those moments where decades of science fiction suddenly come to life. It’s a cross between the Enhance Button and Omniscient Database TV Tropes.
Artificial Intelligence, Image Recognition, Technology, Computer Vision, Science Fiction
987 points by simonw 13 days ago | 433 comments
Ask HN: Best audiobooks you've listened to recently? (Cosmic horror/non-fiction) (ycombinator.com)
I have a long flight coming up and I’m looking for audiobook recommendations — fiction or non-fiction. If it’s fiction would be interested in cosmic horror or sci fi genres.
Audiobooks, Recommendations, Science Fiction, Cosmic Horror
13 points by febed 13 days ago | 13 comments
Show HN: I built an app so I could read the 3 Body-Problem in Chinese (readly.ink)
No more time lost looking words up and adding to Anki flashcards. Do it all with Readly, in a single tap.
Software, Language Learning, China, Science Fiction, Productivity
29 points by alexSimpson96 17 days ago | 13 comments
The Creator of 'Cowboy Bebop' Thinks Reality Is More Dystopian Than Sci-Fi (nytimes.com)
With “Lazarus,” on Adult Swim and Max, Shinichiro Watanabe has returned to the kind of sci-fi action that made his name.
Science Fiction, Television, Entertainment
29 points by bookofjoe 20 days ago | 1 comments
No Robot Like Robot (2018) (slate.com)
An A.I. programmer responds to Annalee Newitz’s “When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis.”
Artificial Intelligence, Science Fiction, Literature
11 points by Anon84 21 days ago | 0 comments
Vivarium: The keeper of a lab's animals stumbles onto a secret [fiction] (jsomers.net)
The keeper of a university’s lab animals stumbles onto an extraordinary secret.
Fiction, Science Fiction, Animal Welfare, University Research
71 points by jsomers 22 days ago | 17 comments
Tech Billionaires Need to Stop Trying to Make the Sci-Fi They Grew Up on Real (scientificamerican.com)
Science fiction (SF) influences everything in this day and age, from the design of everyday artifacts to how we—including the current crop of 50-something Silicon Valley billionaires—work. And that’s a bad thing: it leaves us facing a future we were all warned about, courtesy of dystopian novels mistaken for instruction manuals.
Science Fiction, Technology, Silicon Valley, Dystopia, Future
7 points by gladwindos 23 days ago | 2 comments
The thing about the Kobayashi Maru (medium.com)
“The thing about the Kobayashi Maru is,” says Jim, “you have to remember it’s a simulation.”
Star Trek, Science Fiction, Simulation, Movies
9 points by fanf2 25 days ago | 0 comments
Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future (theguardian.com)
Black Mirror is more than science fiction – its stories about modernity have become akin to science folklore, shaping our collective view of technology and the future.
Science Fiction, Television, Technology, Future, Society
176 points by magoghm 28 days ago | 174 comments
Isaac Asimov describes how AI will liberate humans and their creativity (1992) (openculture.com)
Arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence may be one of the major top­ics of our his­tor­i­cal moment, but it can be sur­pris­ing­ly tricky to define. In the more than 30-year-old inter­view clip above, Isaac Asi­mov describes arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence as “a phrase that we use for any device that does things which, in the past, we have asso­ci­at­ed only with human intel­li­gence.”
Artificial Intelligence, Science Fiction, History, Technology
174 points by bookofjoe 29 days ago | 295 comments
Go back to the Grid in TRON: Ares trailer (arstechnica.com)
Let there be light cycles.
Movies, Science Fiction, Trailers
16 points by amichail 34 days ago | 2 comments
China Miéville says we shouldn't blame science fiction for its bad readers (msn.com)
“Let’s not blame science fiction for this,” he said. “It’s not science fiction that’s causing this kind of sociopathy.”
Science Fiction, Literature, Society
5 points by walterbell 34 days ago | 1 comments
Berserker Hypothesis (wikipedia.org)
The Berserker hypothesis, also known as the deadly probes scenario, is the idea that humans have not yet detected intelligent alien life in the universe because it has been systematically destroyed by a series of lethal Von Neumann probes.[1][2] The hypothesis is named after the Berserker series of novels (1963–2005) written by Fred Saberhagen.[1]
Aliens, Science Fiction, Space Exploration, Artificial Intelligence
4 points by slater 38 days ago | 0 comments
China Miéville says we shouldn't blame science fiction for its bad readers (techcrunch.com)
It’s been 25 years since China Miéville stepped into the literary spotlight with his novel “Perdido Street Station.”
Science Fiction, Books, Literature, Authors
16 points by pseudolus 39 days ago | 2 comments
Proof that Steins;Gate world is a running simulation (samyar.me)
They literally have auto-error correction in their world. Just think about it, Okabe disappears in one of the episodes, and everyone forgets about him. It’s almost like the world automatically corrects errors that shouldn’t be there, ensuring that nothing is out of order.
Science Fiction, Anime, Simulation Hypothesis
19 points by samyar 41 days ago | 8 comments
Anti-Orbit Laser Submarines (2017) (blogspot.com)
Laser-equipped nuclear-powered submarines are the perfect last line of defense against an attacking force in orbit.
Military, Science Fiction, Submarines
64 points by EA-3167 42 days ago | 31 comments
Apple TV+ announces Neuromancer based on the novel by William Gibson (apple.com)
Apple TV+ announced today that it will expand its acclaimed slate of science fiction offerings with “Neuromancer,” a new 10-episode drama based on the award-winning novel of the same name by William Gibson.
Streaming Services, Science Fiction, Novels, Television, Adaptations
31 points by wslh 46 days ago | 4 comments
The Collective Ambition Behind Odysseus, a Game-Changing Sci-Fi Larp (mssv.net)
Last year, hundreds of players inhabited a spaceship on the run, scrambling to keep one step ahead of the enemy.
LARP, Science Fiction, Games, Community, Events
115 points by adrianhon 51 days ago | 28 comments
Component Simplicity (jerf.org)
There is a common metaphor for hyperspace travel in science fiction, where some scientist type explains how the FTL works by taking a piece of paper, drawing a line on it to demonstrate “normal” travel, then folding the paper to bring the origin and destination together.
Software Development, Metaphors, Science Fiction
58 points by todsacerdoti 52 days ago | 10 comments