just enough spoilers for a fire upon the deep to read a yudkowsky fanfic

posted on 2022-11-22

The Finale of the Ultimate Meta Mega Crossover is a fanfiction that i think is pretty great, written by eliezer yudkowsky. it has major spoilers for two books: the excellent Permutation City by greg egan which i love and thoroughly recommend, and A Fire Upon the Deep by vernor vinge which i enjoyed.

because:

i think many would consider that latter book too large a dependency to read the fanfic,
it doesn't take that many spoilers about it to enjoy the fanfic — whereas it does take a lot of spoilers about Permutation City if you haven't read that,
many people i know have read Permutation City but not A Fire Upon the Deep,

i'm writing this post where i give just enough spoilers for someone who hasn't read it but has read Permutation City to enjoy the fanfic.

my general recommendation would be: read Permutation City if you haven't, then read this post, then maybe read A Fire Upon The Deep if this post has made you interested enough in it, and then go read yudkowsky's fanfic.

the book's setting is pretty interesting. it's a science-fiction adventure set in our galaxy, with a peculiar limitation: given an information system of a particular level of capability — such as a human mind, a superintelligence, or an advanced computer program — it can only exist above a certain "Zone of Thought", a geographic region of the galaxy. if they move to a lower zone, closer to the center of the galaxy, then they start either being reduced in capability or breaking down altogether.

these levels go, in increasing capability and increasing distance from the center of the galaxy:

The Unthinking Depths, where nothing of much intelligence can exist
The Slow Zone, where basic computers and human minds can function but computers are still not advanced enough to do the computations necessary to do FTL travel and communication
The Beyond, where computers are capable of capable of much more and FTL communication and travel are possible
The Transcend (not pictured in the map below) where superintelligences — called "Powers" in the book — can exist, moslty at peace with each other.

(this map of the galaxy is included at the very start of the book)

at the start of the story, a Power called "The Blight" appears in the Transcend, and starts attacking other superintelligences. the book follows (among others) two characters aboard a ship headed down towards lower zones of thought to look for a way to defeat the Blight.

aboard the ship are notably two humans:

Ravna Bergnsdot, a fairly normal human
Pham Nuwen, a human who used to serve a Power called the Old One by being its interface to interact with humans. the Old One, just before being killed by the Blight, left in his mind fragments that he can't make sense of yet, but are expected to become useful as time goes.

and that's, i think, about all you need to know about A Fire Upon The Deep to go and enjoy The Finale of the Ultimate Meta Mega Crossover.

posted on 2022-11-22