Scythe
by Neal Shusterman · first published 2016
50% recommend50% neutral
Thou shalt kill. A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control. Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own. (Description from GoodReads)
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Here are a few recommendations based on things I've read this year and last: - Infinite by Jeremy Robinson - The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (this series is a rabbit hole) - Scythe by Neal Shusterman - Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson - Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
on “Ask HN: Recommend one book I need to read this summer?” ↗Thanks — corrected! Did you enjoy Thunderhead even more than Scythe (like I am, 2/3rds done)? Some absolute insanity... poor "Scythe" Tyger's deception! Book was recommended to me by my now-attorney, after rambling about LLMs enabling commoners access to lawfare during…
on “Going Through Snowden Documents, Part 1” ↗Scythe by Neal Shusterman https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28954189-scythe
on “Ask HN: Book recommendations for ChatGPT shaped future?” ↗Thanks for the link; I liked the author's introduction more than the rest of the book, and wouldn't recommend it to any casual reader, nor most people. Instead, read Shusterman's Scythe trilogy (~2016-2020~); each author embraces fiction for different reasons, but I feel Shusterman's storytelling is rapidly becoming truth, whether his soothsaying was intentional (or not). ---- Welcome…
on “Going Through Snowden Documents, Part 1” ↗…— this arrangement has saved lots of prep time, and led to interesting discussions with both counsel, human ¬. One interesting conversation led to my human attorney recommending Neal Shusterman's Scythe Trilogy, which I've since read and absolutely re-recommend. Written in 2016 (same year as Attention is All You Need), it eerily hypothesizes many of the SciFi complexities that omnipotent general AIs…
on “I Have 30 Years of Career Left. AI Made Me Rethink All of Them” ↗There's a very popular young adult novel out called Scythe written by Neal Shusterman. In this novel there is a benevolent cloud-based AI in charge of ruling over the whole world named The Thunderhead ( because The Cloud wasn't impressive enough). It's cool…
on “Someone has entered an AI in a Japanese mayoral race” ↗…which obviously is going to affect population growth. Although, this could change if somehow we manage to live considerably longer lives. Then population would grow again. Which is the main promise of Scythe by Neal Shusterman. We would need a very good reason to spend the resources to go colonize other planets.
on “Where are they? Why I hope the search for ET life finds nothing (2008)” ↗A good fable, I’m reminded of a tale of the other side of curing aging: The Arc of Scythe by Neal Shusterman. To give a brief overview: A utopia in which humanity has cured permanent death and is managed by an AI, with the role of providing death given to a chosen host, tasked to maintain…
on “The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant” ↗…manufacturing facility. That was a Cassandra-like experience. If anybody has never read Vonnegut, I'd definitely recommend Piano over Thieme's Mindgames. ---- I'm currently halfway through Neal Shusterman's Scythe Trilogy, which he published right before LLMs became reality. A ficticious global AI entity, known collectively as "Thunderhead," begins each chapter with its own all-knowing passage about how it perceives…
on “Going Through Snowden Documents, Part 1” ↗