Imagine the Chinese taking the Alamo with noclipping special forces wiping out 20,000 men as they sit in a digital forest around a thousand bright but cold campfires talking about Christian values, the merits of racism, and which anime girl is best.
You say this while there is currently a bitter war being fought with drones controlled with X-box controllers with VR goggles. The next wars will be conducted via gaming.
(I mean, besides all the civilians who might get between our murderbots.)
I think the name of the paperback was ‘The Best Of Cordwainer Smith.’ I read it years ago.
Fun bit of trivia. Harlan Ellison used the pen name ‘Cordwainer Bird’ on projects he’d written but had been badly produced. ‘Bird’ appeared as a character in at least one short story.
Man, I wish he had gotten more work done on the Instrumentality. The first novel I read was Norstrilia, maybe when I was like 13 or 14, and that absolutely got me hooked on the universe he built.
Now I have to go back and read everything again if I can dig those out of the boxes. I was really getting down on the pointlessness maundering of modern SF stories and had pretty much shut down reading it. Now I’m excited again.
John Varley is pretty underrated. “Titan” is an anime ready adventure story and “The Ophiucci Hotline” is good old fashioned hard SF. He’s the first writer I think of who compares with Smith.
not gonna lie it would be awesome if wars were actually conducted by gaming
The rampant cheating would make for some… Interesting streams.
Imagine the Chinese taking the Alamo with noclipping special forces wiping out 20,000 men as they sit in a digital forest around a thousand bright but cold campfires talking about Christian values, the merits of racism, and which anime girl is best.
You say this while there is currently a bitter war being fought with drones controlled with X-box controllers with VR goggles. The next wars will be conducted via gaming.
(I mean, besides all the civilians who might get between our murderbots.)
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/74098/74098-h/74098-h.htm
War No. 81-Q by Cordwainer Smith. Written in 1928.
Thanks. I thought I’d read everything Cordwainer Smith had written, but had never seen that before.
I think the name of the paperback was ‘The Best Of Cordwainer Smith.’ I read it years ago.
Fun bit of trivia. Harlan Ellison used the pen name ‘Cordwainer Bird’ on projects he’d written but had been badly produced. ‘Bird’ appeared as a character in at least one short story.
https://woldnewtonresource.fandom.com/wiki/Cordwainer_Bird
That might have had a rewritten version in it because it was vaguely familiar and I’m pretty sure I have that collection.
I can’t believe that they haven’t made an anime out of the original catgirl, C’Mell.
Man, I wish he had gotten more work done on the Instrumentality. The first novel I read was Norstrilia, maybe when I was like 13 or 14, and that absolutely got me hooked on the universe he built.
Now I have to go back and read everything again if I can dig those out of the boxes. I was really getting down on the pointlessness maundering of modern SF stories and had pretty much shut down reading it. Now I’m excited again.
John Varley is pretty underrated. “Titan” is an anime ready adventure story and “The Ophiucci Hotline” is good old fashioned hard SF. He’s the first writer I think of who compares with Smith.
Loved Varley, haven’t read anything of his since Steel Beach though.
They already are, but the controls are connected to physical weapons that kill people IRL.