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Comment by YeGoblynQueenne | Hacker News Reader

We're not at the beginning. AI research started in 1956 with the Dartmouth workshop [1]. We've already had several cycles of boom and bust and at least two AI winters already [2].

Btw, there was a sci-fi novel where the plot took place on a planet where winter came in periods too long for the natives of the planet to remember (they had short lifespans, or they had limited memories, I er, why, I can't remember!). I don't remember the title of the novel or the author and I've been trying to find it. I thought it was something by Ursula K. Le Guin, but it doesn't sound like it.

And no, it's not Game of Thrones. I think GoT took the idea of long-coming winters from the earlier novel, or it's just a coincidence (or cryptomnesia).

Anyway I'd appreciate if someone knows what I'm talking about and lets me know.

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmouth_workshop

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_winter

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We're not at the beginning, but we're not close to the end either.

The fact that organic brains exist proves the baseline of what's fundamentally possible and at very low power levels too if optimized well. We haven't reached that yet, and it's impossible to say what the upper limit is.

LLMs might not get there as an end-to-end solution but they'll will certainly be a significant part of one.

BingChat says it's Helliconia[1] by Brian W. Aldiss.

Nightfall and the movie Pitch Black also go in that direction.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helliconia

Thanks!

Unforutnately Helliconia is not the one. I've read quite a bit of Brian Aldiss, but not that one. I think I would have remembered reading the Winter book in particular, judging from the discussion of the "Wheel of Kharnabar" in Wikipedia:

>> The Wheel is an extraordinary revolving monastery/prison built into a ring-shaped tunnel with a single entrance and exit, powered entirely by the efforts of the prisoners pulling it along by means of chains set into the outer wall. Once a prisoner enters a cell of the Wheel, it is impossible for him to leave until its full ten-year rotation has passed.

That's the kind of thing that sticks in my head. Anyway I remember bits of the plot and there wasn't so much intrigue and armies and whatnot. The native society was a primitive society that lived in yurts or tepees and didn't have much technology. I think they were supposed to be less intelligent than humans.

I don't think I'll ever forget Nightfall! :)

> I thought it was something by Ursula K. Le Guin, but it doesn't sound like it.

The Left Hand of Darkness is set on a planet with perpetual winter, though it somewhat warms up at times. Maybe that's what you're thinking of?

>a planet where winter came in periods too long for the natives of the planet to remember

Not Asimov's Nightfall?

Nope. Winter, not night-time :)

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