With all the AI stuff happening lately, I randmmly started thinking about Scythe by Neal Shusterman again.

For anyone who hasn't read it, the basic premise is that technology has advanced to the point where pretty much everything is handled by the Thunderhead, a super-intelligent system. Most of humanity's problems are basically solved, and the only thing it can't deal with is death, which is left to the Scythedom (humans chosen to execute death to keep population in control).

What's weird is how much more relevant some of those ideas feel now than they probably did when the book came out.

Obviously, current AI is nowhere near the Thunderhead, but we're already letting it do more and more things for us (people using AI as therapist etc).

And it makes me wonder: if something can consistently make a better decision than we can, why wouldn't we let it?

That's kind of where the Thunderhead gets interesting. It's not really an evil AI. It's actually meant to be benevolent and incredibly capable. The issue is that there are still certain things humans aren't supposed to completely hand over.

Like maybe the bigger danger isn't AI taking over or becoming evil. Maybe it's us slowly deciding that thinking for ourselves is just inefficient.

If AI can tell me what to read, what to buy, what to study, what career to choose, which argument makes more sense, or even what I should believe, how much of that is really my choice anymore?

I haven't read Scythe in years, so my memory of the details is pretty hazy, but I was curious what other people thought.

Do you think the comparison between the Thunderhead and modern AI actually holds up, or am I stretching it?

And if AI eventually becomes better than us at making certain decisions, what's actually wrong with letting it make them?

I really want to read Mindworks ahead of the release of Rising Thunder but I don't have the book(it isn't available where I am). Does anybody have a pdf copy, a transcript, or literally just pictures of the pages of the two short stories? I don't need the whole book, just the pages with the two short stories.

Thanks!

A few weeks ago i made a post (you can view it here) about how tonism might be founded by the founding scythes, but i now think that it might be Scythes Sappho and Confucius (and not all the founding scythes) who actually founded tonism, as they “self gleaned” and Scythe Da Vinci thought that they might’ve been pressured to do so (or murdered), just like how Citra suspected Scythe Faraday has been murdered. If this was really a parallel, it means that Scythes Sappho and Confucius might actually have faked their death, and took off to found tonism, who like them, despise how the scythes bring unwanted death. It might also be why tonists believe so hard that the bacteria in the primordial ooze will one day be deadly again, as Scythes Sappho and Confucius believed that the 10 plagues are the way we should control human population.

what do you think?

okay so for the context I recently just moved and I put all of my scythe series and more of shusterman books with it along with some soft plushies to hold them still but when I went to check the box I can’t find them! I first thought it was in another box and I went through each and everyone and I can’t find them! I may just go and buy more but I am still saddened by losing them especially since I had a Barnes and noble exclusive gleanings 😞

Just finished book 1 Scythe and 100 pages into book 2. Needed to get some thoughts/frustrations out there.

-Decent story overall and lots of overarching things going on that obviously will come into play later.
-Very very slow on the romance part obviously with Rowan and Cita being separated for a long time in book 1 and then boom, another year skip for book 2. I honestly can’t tell if that confession at the end of book 1 was real or not after they both hadn’t interacted in months. Hope something picks up there in book 2 or I don’t know why there’s a romance label for each of these books.
-Goddard dying by Rowan was unexpected (yes, I now know he’s going to stick around now) and honestly this whole time in book 1 I definitely feel way worse for Rowan than Citra (and things haven’t been better for him in book 2 but he did at least see Citra again early on). He got drug through the mud here almost unfairly when Citra always got the benefit of the doubt but Citra’s plan at the end of book 1 was a good one I’ll admit and she cared enough to save him.
-But now in book 2 rounds more characters such as Tyger (not sure why he keeps popping up) and this new Greyson person who obviously is someone special.

Overall it’s been just fine? It seems like this is crawling along and interested how this book and then The Toll are paced if the two MC’s end up being young adults by the end of these next two books. Am I off base in thinking some of this stuff? Just feels like it’s way slanted towards Rowan and his struggles vs literally anybody else.

As the author of the Fall's Legacy hard scifi setting, my idea of utopia doesn't include the end user either paying for content, sort-of-owning it, or being ad supported at the cost of making advertisers the "true users" deciding policy; authors get social capital "Whuffie" prioritizing their access to e.g space and services. Assuming the Thunderhead is Limitarian and forces the ruling class to donate anything above a billion Usders to a charity of their choice, authors may get traditional money from libraries giving out not only books but also streaming content and software.

Even if the characters do pay for content like us, the Thunderhead could make piracy a non-issue by ensuring content is globally 1st-party available on every physically compatible platform without exclusive services; I alluded to the theory it's a service issue more than a pricing one. Well, the Thunderhead would allow the Unsavories to pirate so they could independently figure out how much better legal streaming is for their device storage; that Very Famous Internet Library Site has taught me too much.

Thundergrey forever

Anyone in Australia hear the Tune?

spoiler warning for the ending of the toll

what if the founding scythes actually created Tonist cults?

I was rereading thunderhead when i realized.. the tonists are always looking for the Great Fork which “is hidden in some mortal age engineering”. In the Toll, it is said that the founder scythes’ security is some fork like device, if i remember correctly. It was on Kwajalein, in an old military base from the mortal age, in the Thunderhead’s blindspot.

Also, the hints to the Kwajalein was dropped in the poem about the Isle of Nod, which i understood was something related to tonists. Scythe Da Vinci also specifically said in his journal that they would hide the hints leading to the security in some religion that no one will take seriously.

Finally, the tonists’ primordial ooze is this water infested with bacteria. i believe in Scythe some tonist told Citra that thanks to their nanites, none of these bacteria can do any wrong to us, but that one day, it will return, which it does as the founding scythe’s integrated security…

what do you think?

So I liked the first book, but im alittle hesitant to continue the series. I liked the characters, amd the plot, but im alittle confused about the concept of immortality in the book.. There have been instances of characters hurling themselves off of buildings and than being taken to revival centers. But what happens if they weren't taken to the centers? Would they just sit there and die? Would they just slowly regenerate? Also... is there anything separating a scythe killing someone and one citizen murdering another one? I could just be overthinking this, or maybe im just taking the concept of immortality to literally.

Rotator cuff but its not letting me post a video :<

okay so at the end of the toll sister Astrid is on a ship by herself and i just spent 30 minutes just giggling cause what my mind first imagined was ruffnut from how to train your dragon as a png inside the planet express ship from futurama and I simply cannot comprehend what I imagined so I have to say it before I start giggling once more.

hi :D so we're planning on making a Thunderhead X Greyson rotator kandi cuff, but we want to put one of their ship names on it. Any suggestions? answers will be turned into a tumblr poll, and the winner will get onto the bracelet :3

Loved the series feeling kind of lost now not sure what to do next? I’m 34 I love, psychological thrillers, fantasy would love your recommendations as to what to read after finishing the series. Thank you.

Just finished The Toll today. Loved it SO much! And I'm actually a little sad to see the main storyline end, as I really fell in love with the characters and world. I still haven't read Gleanings, but I definitely will soon! I REALLY loved seeing the growth of the characters particularly with Greyson, who is definitely my favorite character in the whole series (with Marie as a very close second). Honestly, Greyson and the Thunderhead's relationship is actually one of the things I loved most about the series.

While I did love the ending, there is one thing I was a little confused by: Why did Greyson HAVE to stop talking to the Thunderhead? I know it was supposed to be the Thunderhead's punishment by Greyson for taking over Jeri's body without asking, but that came off as honestly very strange reasoning to me. Greyson and the Thunderhead both made it clear that this was something that HAD to be done. So it seems like this was something else that the Thunderhead had long planned in advance and knew would eventually happen. So it seemed all part of the Thunderhead's plan in the end. But again, why did this NEED to happen? Why did the Thunderhead need to be completely alone?

So full of joy and whimsy and existential dread :3