Reading Cixin Liu’s “The Dark Forest” at the moment and thought I might just share some vocabulary you don’t often find in coursebooks✨
💫Word of the day: abode
Example from the book:
“Option two: a Starship Civilization—that is, humanity will use their escape ships as a permanent abode, and human civilization will endure on an eternal voyage.”
💫Word of the day: abode
Example from the book:
“Option two: a Starship Civilization—that is, humanity will use their escape ships as a permanent abode, and human civilization will endure on an eternal voyage.”
#unexpected_itsaskill
“It was empty, so with some effort he climbed up and — looking down at his lone audience member — sang a verse from “Tonkaya Ryabina” about the slender hawthorn tree.” — Excerpt from The Dark Forest, Cixin Liu.
Two interesting things here:
💫Who has mixed the trees up: the English translator or the author himself? Or, perhaps, this is the way it had originally been translated in Chinese?
Рябина - rowan, rowanberry, rowan tree
Hawthorn - боярышник
💫Is “Tonkaya Ryabina” a well-known song in Chinese culture?
“It was empty, so with some effort he climbed up and — looking down at his lone audience member — sang a verse from “Tonkaya Ryabina” about the slender hawthorn tree.” — Excerpt from The Dark Forest, Cixin Liu.
Two interesting things here:
💫Who has mixed the trees up: the English translator or the author himself? Or, perhaps, this is the way it had originally been translated in Chinese?
Рябина - rowan, rowanberry, rowan tree
Hawthorn - боярышник
💫Is “Tonkaya Ryabina” a well-known song in Chinese culture?
💫Word of the day: Uproar
✨Example from the book: “Although the governments of the two countries denied the existence of any plans, an uproar in the international community sparked a “socialized technology” movement.”
✨Example from the book: “Although the governments of the two countries denied the existence of any plans, an uproar in the international community sparked a “socialized technology” movement.”
Another bit of familiar culture in this book:
“he walked onto the lawn and came to a statue. When his gaze passed over it, he noticed that it was of a man hammering a sword: Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares. It had been a gift to the UN from the former Soviet Union”
We know this saying as «Перекуем мечи на орала» and originally, the way many internationally recognizable phrases did, it came from the Bible:
"They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."🌱
Look at the word “plough” (AmE: “plow”) — we can feel the connection to our Russian «плуг», and indeed it exists. The oldest words usually can show us that Indo-European languages are related far more than we might think. This one was borrowed into Proto-Slavic (the ancestor of Russian) from Proto-Germanic language (the ancestor of English)🌾
#thedarkforest
“he walked onto the lawn and came to a statue. When his gaze passed over it, he noticed that it was of a man hammering a sword: Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares. It had been a gift to the UN from the former Soviet Union”
We know this saying as «Перекуем мечи на орала» and originally, the way many internationally recognizable phrases did, it came from the Bible:
"They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."🌱
Look at the word “plough” (AmE: “plow”) — we can feel the connection to our Russian «плуг», and indeed it exists. The oldest words usually can show us that Indo-European languages are related far more than we might think. This one was borrowed into Proto-Slavic (the ancestor of Russian) from Proto-Germanic language (the ancestor of English)🌾
#thedarkforest
💫Word of the day: lackadaisical
✨Example from the book:
“He seemed more careful and cautious now, different from the lackadaisical image he used to project.”
#thedarkforest
✨Example from the book:
“He seemed more careful and cautious now, different from the lackadaisical image he used to project.”
#thedarkforest
For all of you night owls 🦉 out there: 💫Word of the day: Opaque
✨Example from the book: “Letting an enemy whose thoughts are totally opaque flee into the cosmos is very dangerous.”
*another correct variant to pronounce it is [opa:k] - this is the variant I actually prefer*
#thedarkforest
✨Example from the book: “Letting an enemy whose thoughts are totally opaque flee into the cosmos is very dangerous.”
*another correct variant to pronounce it is [opa:k] - this is the variant I actually prefer*
#thedarkforest
💫Word of the day: smithereens
✨Example from the book: “it’ll blow the whole carrier to smithereens”
#thedarkforest
✨Example from the book: “it’ll blow the whole carrier to smithereens”
#thedarkforest
A rationalist community (with many prominent AI experts as members) has recently created a thread to ask any questions you might have related to AGI safety, even the ones you might worry seem dumb✨
As always within the lesswrong community – the goal is to share the ideas and knowledge, not to judge others💫
*AGI - Artificial General Intelligence
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/wqeStKQ3PGzZaeoje/all-agi-safety-questions-welcome-especially-basic-ones-april-1
As always within the lesswrong community – the goal is to share the ideas and knowledge, not to judge others💫
*AGI - Artificial General Intelligence
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/wqeStKQ3PGzZaeoje/all-agi-safety-questions-welcome-especially-basic-ones-april-1
💫Word of the day: shrewdness
✨Example from The Dark Forest:
“Real shrewdness means not letting any shrewdness show. It’s not like in the movies. The truly astute don’t sit in the shadows all day striking a pose. They don’t show off that they’re using their brains. They look all carefree and innocent. Some of them are tacky and mawkish, others careless and unserious. What’s critical is not to let others think you’re a person of interest. Let them look down on you or dismiss you and they won’t feel you’re an obstacle. You’re just a broom in the corner. The pinnacle of this is to make them not notice you at all, as if you don’t exist until the moment right before they die at your hands.”
#thedarkforest
✨Example from The Dark Forest:
“Real shrewdness means not letting any shrewdness show. It’s not like in the movies. The truly astute don’t sit in the shadows all day striking a pose. They don’t show off that they’re using their brains. They look all carefree and innocent. Some of them are tacky and mawkish, others careless and unserious. What’s critical is not to let others think you’re a person of interest. Let them look down on you or dismiss you and they won’t feel you’re an obstacle. You’re just a broom in the corner. The pinnacle of this is to make them not notice you at all, as if you don’t exist until the moment right before they die at your hands.”
#thedarkforest
💫Word of the day: schadenfreude
✨Example from The Dark Forest: “Though his face was indistinct in the darkness, Fitzroy could sense the schadenfreude in Ringier’s expression”
✨Example from The Dark Forest: “Though his face was indistinct in the darkness, Fitzroy could sense the schadenfreude in Ringier’s expression”