buc.ci is a Fediverse instance that uses the ActivityPub protocol. In other words, users at this host can communicate with people that use software like Mastodon, Pleroma, Friendica, etc. all around the world.

This server runs the snac software and there is no automatic sign-up process.

Admin email
abucci@bucci.onl
Admin account
@abucci@buc.ci

Search results for tag #butler

4 ★ 4 ↺

[?]Anthony ยป 🌐
@abucci@buc.ci

I'm thinking I'll get myself a copy of Samuel Butler's Erewhon. It's on Project Gutenberg but lately I've been acquiring paper books and this seems like a good one to have in hard copy. I feel vaguely embarrassed that I've never read it, given how closely it relates to what I've researched in computer science (evolutionary algorithms and artificial life) and what I spend my time thinking about these days (clarifying why I believe machines cannot be alive or intelligent in the way we usually mean these words).

Apparently Giles Deleuze and Felix Guatarri were influenced by this book and Butler's other writings on machine life. The Butlerian Jihad of Dune is possibly named after him (so far haven't found a definitive statement of this, though a very similar event happens in Erewhon). Even Alan Turing references it. Butler, in turn, was heavily influenced by Darwin's On the Origin of Species. So there is a fascinating confluence around this book.

Without spoiling it, does anyone have thoughts about Erewhon?


    AodeRelay boosted

    [?]Sir Rochard 'Dock' Bunson ยป 🌐
    @SrRochardBunson@universeodon.com

    Is anyone rethinking the Butler, PA attempt, the Charlie Kirk shooting & the 2024 election, in light of yesterday's news that we are, in fact, the baddies?
    :blobcatthink:

      about this site - powered by snac/2.86