
The Egg (2009) - Tomte
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html
======
sharkweek
Here's a fun "before he was famous" moment - Andy Weir did an AMA on Reddit
pre-The Martian success where he talked about writing The Egg. Here he
responds to a question about his other writing where he goes on to mention
that he's disappointed that The Martian hasn't been successful.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/zt1n6/i_am_andy_weir_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/zt1n6/i_am_andy_weir_and_i_wrote_the_egg_ama/c67grl6/)

~~~
jlv2
"Thanks! I wrote The Egg in an evening but it took years to write The Martian.
Sometimes I'm a little sad that The Martian wasn't anywhere near as popular,
but I guess it's a niche readership. Hard sci-fi isn't for everyone."

That's great!

~~~
ianai
I think it says much that hard sci-fi isn’t popular to modern science and or
the economy or government. Ie modern society lacks some sort of gee whiz goal
on the horizon to push interest. Electric cars are cool, for instance, but
they’re here and they’re not practical for apartment renters and distance
drivers. Space discoveries are cool, but they take a long time to pull off and
the results aren’t very compelling - with the exception of anything ET life
related.

I feel like modern science may somehow be restricting or restricted from
ground breaking, compelling discoveries.

Like, imagine if the world had a big-budget moonshot research project? Mining
and colonizing asteroids, a space elevator, novel thruster technology,
colonizing the seas even.

~~~
kolpa
We went to the moon because we were afraid of Russian hegemony on Earth. Not
sure that's "gee-whiz".

~~~
ianai
And yet it still serves as a common talking point for inspiration. People did
go into the sciences in the past and day dream of all sorts of things because
of the Apollo missions. The political realities of the Cold War helped fund
the project...sort of like how the fight against terrorism helps fund projects
to this day.

------
jenno
I love stories like these. Reminds me of The Last Question by Isaac Asimov --
[http://www.physics.princeton.edu/ph115/LQ.pdf](http://www.physics.princeton.edu/ph115/LQ.pdf)

~~~
teh_klev
That's one of my all time favourite stories.

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TruthSHIFT
This is a great story.

It's been submitted to HN 18 times.

Also, it's written by Andy Weir, who wrote The Martian.

~~~
kposehn
I had no idea it was written by him until now. I see it on HN usually once a
year and every time it brings a smile to my face.

Elegant, simple and meaningful.

~~~
sneak
I don’t get much meaning from it. What do you take away from it?

------
harperlee
This reminded me of a physics theory in which all electrons are actually the
same electron, going back and forth in time:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-
electron_universe](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-electron_universe)

~~~
kolpa
It's not a theory so much as a metaphysical interpretation -- it's
scientifically equivalent to the many-electron Universe.

~~~
jerf
It isn't if we can't find the electrons going backwards, which we generally
can't. Nowhere near enough positrons in the right places. I consider it a fun
example of the sort of thing that modern physicists should be familiar with,
so it's useful both historically and for didactic purposes, but as a
conjecture it appears to be simply false.

~~~
jenno
Sometimes I wish I knew some in-depth physics, take a bunch of LSD, and see
what hidden truths would emerge... Does that happen? A bunch of scientists
should really take some psychedelics together.

------
Dangeranger
Have loved this story since the first time that I read it several years ago.
Until today I never knew that it was written by Andy Weir of The Martian fame.

------
potatote
A great story. It's similar in a lot of ways to how people believe that
Buddhas (according to Theravada Buddhism, many, many Buddhas live among us and
almost all of us will become one) fulfill his path to enlightenment this way--
reincarnation after another, absorbing all experiences along the way until he
is ready to become the Enlightened one.

Disclaimer: I was born Buddhist, but no longer. But I still admire a few
aspects of Theravada Buddhism.

~~~
magicbuzz
Agreed. And the story was well-written. It takes time for people to appreciate
that their mother and father is them as well.

------
nickysielicki
> Eluding is the invariable game. The typical act of eluding, the fatal
> evasion that constitutes the third theme of this essay, is hope. Hope of
> another life one must “deserve” or trickery of those who live not for life
> itself but for some great idea that will transcend it, refine it, give it a
> meaning, and betray it.

 _The Myth of Sisyphus_ , Albert Camus

The submitted story really rubs me the wrong way. It's just fatalism with a
bit of make-up. It's saying that should let go of your lack of growth as an
individual, because you can just pretend you don't exist in the grand scheme
of things, and defer to your relationship to the universe and live vicariously
through some bastardized concept of the universe growing as one. It's just an
excuse for fully embracing fatalism. Sure, you walk away from this story with
a tinge of positivity and a slight mandate to start _treating others the way
you want to be treated_ , but that's just a meaningless platitude, and it's
just a red herring to distract you from the horrible message underneath.

------
monort
I think the idea that we all share the same consciousness, but different
memories, is called "open individualism" in philosophy

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_individualism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_individualism)

------
rockostrich
This story was also the basis for the skits from Logic's album Everybody where
Neil deGrasse Tyson plays the role of God.

------
stuaxo
Heh, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought if you have reincarnation then
why would time also be linear? You could be every living thing in a universe.

S

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qqqwww
It's interesting to try to reconcile that on the one hand:

"Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different
where I come from"

And on the other hand, there is a clear passage of time implied here:

"This time around, you’ll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD"

"You’re still growing. Once you’ve lived every human life throughout all time,
you will have grown enough to be born"

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OscarCunningham
This story seems to be suggesting that if the universe was a training program
for a superbeing then we would be more incented to be moral. But as far as I
know the universe isn't a training program for a superbeing, so I'm not sure
what the moral is supposed to be. It's like an anti-allegory.

~~~
Bakary
It's also assuming morality will be meaningful to such a superbeing.

------
milkytron
Read this a while back and found it to be unique and thought provoking. I
really enjoyed it, however my only issue with it was the part where you have
to live every human life. It made me think of “The Species Problem.” Basically
a God in the idea he portrays would have to live through the lives of every
living being on earth.

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mikeash
I’m always interested in the positive reactions to this story. I think it’s
quite good, but it also terrifies me. Living a hundred billion lives, many of
them mindbendingly horrible, and getting mind wiped after each one, sounds
like Hell.

~~~
noonespecial
I think its kind of cool because if true you would basically derive the
"golden rule" of most religions from first principles.

Treat others as you'd have them treat you _because they are you_.

~~~
mikeash
That’s cool, but it’s uncool that it doesn’t seem to actually work, and I have
to spend trillions of years living through the consequences without the
ability to learn from my mistakes.

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mcd160230
It's interesting to learn where the intro to Logic's album Everybody came
from.

