[Event "rated blitz match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2014.09.16"]
[Round "?"]
[White "NN"]
[Black "Quylthulg"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2026"]
[BlackElo "2091"]
[ECO "B00"]
[TimeControl "180"]

<{Game 205 (Bandobras vs. Quylthulg} Bandobras checkmated} 0-1

Blitz rating adjustment: 2141 --> 2142
Blitz rank: 88/16182 (up 1)
Blitz hrank: 57/16131
You have achieved your best active rating so far.>

<Turning blunders into sacrifices is always fun :)>

Nothing better to leave you opponents with lasting trauma and impending nervous breakdown next time they see you blunder...or is it sac? ;)

Beautiful Kside demolition job and finish. =)

<I was wrong. I did get my usual September peak :)>

[Event "rated blitz match"]
[Site "Free Internet Chess Server"]
[Date "2014.09.17"]
[Round "?"]
[White "NN"]
[Black "Quylthulg"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1975"]
[BlackElo "2142"]
[ECO "A40"]
[TimeControl "180"]

Had a fiction-related question, so figured you or Dom would be the usual suspects. And given that Dom seems to be gone for a bit.. :/

Anyway, do you happen to know of any novels, short stories, or the like - where humanity as a whole actually dies? You know, on a mediocrely-short timescale? Not that Principle Characters travel in time a million years and look, everyone is dead by now.

There are ever so many Apocalypse stories, but there are always these vigilant little pockets of humans fighting against the evil outside wild world and all that. Same with super villains - they never manage to actually kill everyone [presumably including themselves].

It's quite a bore.

A year or more ago one of you linked to a short story by.. Asimov I think, of a planet with.. I think 7 sun, whereby no-one knows of the stars, and with a total eclipse completely goes bonkers and society collapses. That's more or less the closest I could think of.. Of course it still doesn't do, as a society collapse isn't the same as a wipeout.

Well, of course in reality the possibility of the entire race dying out is quite, erm, possible, but as <fiction> goes, that begs the rather obvious question of what a writer is supposed to write about in such a scenario. It can be somewhat difficult to write a book without any characters (and therefore not much plot possible either)? ;s

Unless you stipulate ghosts, some other kind of afterlife, other terrestrial life forms developing intelligence and realizing there used to be another dominant species on the planet back when they were still living under rocks or whatever, or aliens dropping by to discover the empty planet. I believe there may be a few short stories with that last premise, though I can't recall any titles off the cuff.

Or you mean the reg'lar sorta novel that just <ends> with humanity dying out? Wouldn't be very popular I suspect (too realistic and not what most people would consider entertainment), though it may have been done.

I don't know really. I started wondering about that [not in a planning-kind of way - no worries], right after I realized I'd never read something like that. And surprisingly, everything man-made didn't seem up to par. Usual suspects [atomic bombs, pandemics etc] seem not strong enough; perhaps climate change could be - but from a story point-of-view it takes too long.

<Or you mean the reg'lar sorta novel that just <ends> with humanity dying out? Wouldn't be very popular I suspect (too realistic and not what most people would consider entertainment), though it may have been done. >

Yes. It started more or less the following way: came across some generic evil dude who wants to blow up the world or something. And then I thought "heh, imagine he'd succeed, and the story would end. That'd be something".

We didn't get where we are today by trying to be popular. Wait. That could in some cases be the case. Hmmm let's not go there.

Anyway, I suppose a load of short stories were written because the authors thought it was an interesting idea. And I guess a portion of novels start out that way. Without really pondering about whether it would sell. :P

<Oh, but if you don't insist on the dying-out to be done specifically by humanity>

<(Of course you do.)>

As you say, of course I do. :) Wouldn't tackle more than a short story, though - and even for that length, it has to be noted that really successful round robins (as ours was, if I say so myself) ;) are exceedingly rare.

Most attempts die out in embarrassed chaos, pulled in too many different directions by the contributors, usually none of whom wants to put any serious research and development into the others' plot elements, until the whole sorry mess sinks under the weight of all the introduced-but-undeveloped twists. :s

OK, some memory is starting to kick in.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bzb...

Certainly!

In most other respects, it's a positive finding though ;D

--

Their ship jerked, there was a purple warning light, and one of the things that went "beep" went "beep", repeatedly, as if it feared the twins needed waking up. There was another purple warning light.

In this case, however, as the twins sent out impact report inquiries to the sensors located in various parts of the ship, the smooth inflow of information soon assembled an unusual picture: hatch #27 had been blown open, and a small vessel had docked just by the left airlock.

Space "legs" they'd acquired throughout endless cycles of zero-grav manoevreing within stellar and planetary gravity wells kicked in smoothly. Warding off collisions with surrounding equipment and walls with their free hands and tucked in postures, the twins looked at each other.

'Are they trying to take over the 'work?'

'Must be,' Ilya shouted back, '...wait, no! No, it's worse.'

'Worse?'

'They're nerd-sniping it! It's been hit by an array of complicated chess problems and it's concentrating entirely on solving them... all the other functions are just going on and off at random - aaaaaaaah!'

Exhalation by Ted Chiang was a joy to read! I quite liked his style :)

<twinlark> thanks for the Baxter tip, he's one of the many writers I've heard about but never got around to.

-------

... once Ilya got his wind back, he clambered up and sprinted after Gudga, who had, inexplicably, veered off their course and was heading toward the kitchen instead, with a blank look in his eyes. His brother caught up with him, but Gudga paid him no heed until Ilya forcibly stopped him by getting in front of him and giving him a good shake.

'And just where in the Galaxy do you think you're going?'

Gudga's eyes slowly focused, and then he looked puzzled.

****

“Don’t be a monkey’s bum!” yelled Ilya, who was saved from saying anything that he might actually regret when a dragon burst from the kitchen, accelerating in pursuit of a large bird that suddenly flew from an opening further down the corridor.

“Back on point, Gudga!”, and grabbing his arm, Ilya popped anti-nerf tabs for each of them to neutralise the mission creep of the intruders' Caissa Algorithm that was now attempting to fry their brains, along with their livers.