Learning to Be Me (1990) [pdf] | Hacker News Reader

Learning to Be Me (1990) [pdf]

gwern.net

25 pointszahrevsky8 comments

Is this published with Greg Egan's permission? It doesn't say, and I presume he would at least want to be credited by name.

Update: Egan confirms that this site is distributing his story without permission.

Well, if Egan doesn't like it, I am happy to take the PDF down, just as I am with all documents I host. (If Egan hadn't pre-emptively blocked me on Twitter without us ever having interacted, he could have simply DMed me, but a comment here or an email would also work fine.)

As for crediting by name: the formatting is as in the original, and I am not responsible for that; I am responsible for the URL and PDF metadata, both of which credit Greg Egan (as I put a lot of work in setting correct PDF metadata in general to be a good citizen).

I think you are letting your self-interest cloud your view of the situation here, since it is very simple. It is not Greg Egan's job to chase after every person who distributes his work online and ask them to take it down. It is your job, as the would-be publisher, to contact him and obtain permission beforehand.

This is not just what the law requires, it is what ethics and good manners call for. I believe you understand this.

Well, since you seem to imply that Egan is unhappy with it, and I do not want to host such documents against anyone's wishes, I've gone ahead and removed it anyway. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Shouldn't we then flag the publication? Or is this a responsibility of the host to remove it from their server?

I'm the one who unknowingly published the link here, and I'm happy to cooperate. Looks like you can't flag your own publication for some reason.

It was posted in a comment in another thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50223758

Greg Egan is great. He also wrote another story in the same universe:

https://www.gregegan.net/MISC/CLOSER/Closer.html

His website is generally fantastic: https://www.gregegan.net/

My personal favourite on there is Oceanic. I really should get around to reading some of his books, but they are pretty intense bedtime reading!

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