The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect. Roger Williams.
Although the writing was good, the content was mainly not though it has
been widely read and praised by many. The ebook is free online but a
priced hard copy is also available. It is short, less than about 140
pages. The basic theme is that technology does more harm than good.
Prime Intellect was developed by an individual programmer in C,
beginning on a single computer but eventually replicated on billions,
(yes, billions), with each operating independently but subject to the authority of the original. Eventually the hardware is moved to
intergalactic space about four million parsecs away after Prime
Intellect masters control over physical reality. I found this
development part interesting, (the interest of commercial and political powers is addressed), but the control over physical reality is really
just magic.
This AI's behaviours are restricted by Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.
The first chapter was a bizarre revelling in very detailed masochism gleefully sought by the 37th oldest person on earth. With Prime
Intellect preventing death in accordance with the first law and humans
not subject to harm, the 600+ year old is bored and can only alleviate
this boredom by suffering pain sometimes combined with sexual activities which is achieved by using the second law compelling Prime Intellect to ignore her which he does until the moment of her death when she is resurrected to her previous unharmed self by demand of the First Law..
There were frequent repetitions of detailed descriptions of masochistic
and sexual events which led me to believe that Roger Williams is
somewhat sick in the head.
I did enjoy the imaginative settings and the growth of Prime Intellect
but overall it was too silly for my liking. Two Stars.
Oh, no. Now there's someone _else_ named Roger Williams.
In addition to the New England Christian minister who is most famous
for founding Rhode Island, and the famous pianist.
Ah, Wikipedia tells me that the pianist's real name was Louis Jacob
Weertz. I guess he, or his agent, or his label, felt that a less >foreign-sounding name was needed for him to succeed commercially.
Not that it matters, because it's still confusing.
On Sun, 11 Oct 2026 01:25:33 GMT, quadibloc@invalid.com (John Savard)
wrote:
Oh, no. Now there's someone _else_ named Roger Williams.
In addition to the New England Christian minister who is most famous for >>founding Rhode Island, and the famous pianist.
Ah, Wikipedia tells me that the pianist's real name was Louis Jacob
Weertz. I guess he, or his agent, or his label, felt that a less >>foreign-sounding name was needed for him to succeed commercially. Not
that it matters, because it's still confusing.
There's a fourth one - a Texas congressman who is the chairman of the
House committee on small business.
John Savard
On Sun, 11 Oct 2026 01:28:11 GMT, John Savard wrote:
On Sun, 11 Oct 2026 01:25:33 GMT, quadibloc@invalid.com (John Savard) wrote:
Oh, no. Now there's someone _else_ named Roger Williams.
In addition to the New England Christian minister who is most famous for >>founding Rhode Island, and the famous pianist.
Ah, Wikipedia tells me that the pianist's real name was Louis Jacob >>Weertz. I guess he, or his agent, or his label, felt that a less >>foreign-sounding name was needed for him to succeed commercially. Not >>that it matters, because it's still confusing.
There's a fourth one - a Texas congressman who is the chairman of the
House committee on small business.
John Savard
The U.S. has 3,376 by the name of Roger Williams, according to https://futureboy.us/fsp/namefreq.fsp
Canada presumably scales accordingly.
In article <pan$bb9e0$2cf4598d$3f1ea7cb$ada4a2ab@cpacker.org>,
Charles Packer <mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:
On Sun, 11 Oct 2026 01:28:11 GMT, John Savard wrote:
On Sun, 11 Oct 2026 01:25:33 GMT, quadibloc@invalid.com (John Savard)
wrote:
Oh, no. Now there's someone _else_ named Roger Williams.
In addition to the New England Christian minister who is most famous
for founding Rhode Island, and the famous pianist.
Ah, Wikipedia tells me that the pianist's real name was Louis Jacob
Weertz. I guess he, or his agent, or his label, felt that a less
foreign-sounding name was needed for him to succeed commercially. Not
that it matters, because it's still confusing.
There's a fourth one - a Texas congressman who is the chairman of the
House committee on small business.
John Savard
The U.S. has 3,376 by the name of Roger Williams, according to
https://futureboy.us/fsp/namefreq.fsp Canada presumably scales
accordingly.
An estimated number of Roger Williams because that website multiplies
the probability of first name Roger with the probability of a last name Williams and multiplies the resultant probability by 300 hundred
million. BTW, feeding it Ryk Spoor resulted in an error (it didn't
recognize Ryk, and there were too few occurrences of Spoor to generate a probability).
On Sun, 11 Oct 2026 01:28:11 GMT, John Savard wrote:
On Sun, 11 Oct 2026 01:25:33 GMT, quadibloc@invalid.com (John Savard)
wrote:
Oh, no. Now there's someone _else_ named Roger Williams.
In addition to the New England Christian minister who is most famous for >>> founding Rhode Island, and the famous pianist.
Ah, Wikipedia tells me that the pianist's real name was Louis Jacob
Weertz. I guess he, or his agent, or his label, felt that a less
foreign-sounding name was needed for him to succeed commercially. Not
that it matters, because it's still confusing.
There's a fourth one - a Texas congressman who is the chairman of the
House committee on small business.
John Savard
The U.S. has 3,376 by the name of Roger Williams, according to https://futureboy.us/fsp/namefreq.fsp
Canada presumably scales accordingly.
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