We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

The novels of the future!

Whilst surfing for ‘Wet T-Shirt Contest’ sites, I accidentally came upon this wonderful advance… hardback novels for sale actually written in binary!

binary_novel_april_fool

Is this not awesome?

01000001 00100000 01101000 01100101 01100001 01110010 01110100 01110111 01100001 01110010 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101111 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100001 01100010 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110111 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110011 01100101 01110010 01110110 01101001 01110100 01101111 01110010 00100000 01110111 01101000 01101111 00100000 01100100 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101101 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110011 01100101 01110010 01110110 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01001111 01101101 01101110 01101001 01110011 01110011 01101001 01100001 01101000 00100000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01100001 00100000 01010011 01101011 01101001 01110100 01100001 01110010 01101001 01101001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110010 01110010 01101001 01101111 01110010 00101110 00100000

Snappy! A true page turner.

34 comments to The novels of the future!

  • PersonFromPorlock

    That one’s apparently about a warrior. I’ll wait until they publish one about a witch (much easier on the eyes).

  • Patrick Crozier

    My assumption was that this was an April Fool. But maybe not.

  • Paul Marks

    The binary bit may well be.

    But the Black Library is real.

    The Warhammer Universe is a nasty place.

    I played a character in it once – he ended up considered a terrible enemy of the Empire (massive bounty on his head) – he would have died horribly had the Empire got him.

    And the Empire are the “good guys” (relatively speaking) after all the “Chaos” they are fighting is essentially Hell – the “Chaos Gods” are demonic.

    My character was strong enemy of Chaos and remained so.

    But step-by-step he was led to the opinion that he could do more good by helping the Eldar (the Warhammer version of Elves) than staying with a deeply evil Empire – which is how he came to see the Empire by the end of the campaign.

    He was also a very powerful telepath – although one that was latent, he did not know of his abilities till the campaign awakened them.

    No April Fool – I still do role play.

  • The most important question remains unanswered: is it ASCII or UTF-8?

  • Enemy of chaos, eh, Paul? I don’t get much chance these days but I usually roleplay as chaotic good.

  • Bod

    That excerpt looks like the blurb for the latest John Norman Gor novel.

  • Jane Simons

    I really LOL’ed at that!

    Probably not much love for the Tau amongst the Samizdata crowd I’m guessing 😉

    The joy of the WH40k universe is there are nooooooooooo good guys (except maybe the Tyranids, who really can’t help themselves). The completely over-the-top “grimdark” makes an utterly wonderful crazy palliative if you’ve been over exposed to dangerous levels of nauseating Disneyfied “uplifting stories” 😉

  • David Crawford

    Ah yes, binary. Where:

    1 + 1 = 10

  • Holy crap Jane! I would have never taken you for someone who grooved on Grimdark! Well well, just when you think you know someone, haha.

  • Jane Simons

    Holy crap Jane! I would have never taken you for someone who grooved on Grimdark! Well well, just when you think you know someone, haha.

    I wear cheesewire thong knickers too, bet you didn’t know that either.

  • Bod

    Get a room, kids … get a room.

  • Nick (Self-Sovereignty) Gray

    I wear radioactive steel wool condoms! No computer viruses on me! I haven’t actually been able to use them yet, but there might be a brutal warrior woman out there with no brains!

  • Midwesterner

    is it ASCII or UTF-8?

    Neither, Rob. I recognize it as a Windows proprietary format based on a transmogrification of UTF-8 and UTF-EBCDIC. As a Windows rather than Unicode product, the “U” was changed to “W”. During development it was called 8-EBCDIC, but for release it is referred to as WTF 8-|

  • Dale Amon (Belfast, Northern Ireland/Laramie, Wy)

    Sure looks ASCII to me. The first character would be an ‘a’. I’ve not time to check it in detail.

  • Translated from the binary:

    A heartwarming story about a lowly servitor who dreams of serving the Omnissiah as a Skitarii warrior.

    Thrilling reading I am sure.

  • Midwesterner

    Dale, I’m pretty sure that it is WTF 8-|
    But I should add that it’s still before midnight here. 🙂

    00110001 00110010 00111010 00110000 00110001 01000001 01001101 00100000 01000001 01110000 01110010 01101001 01101100 00100000 00110010 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00101110 00100000 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101110 01100110 01100101 01110011 01110011 00101110 00100000 00100000 01001001 01110100 01110011 00100000 01000001 01010011 01000011 01001001 01001001 00101110

  • David

    There are only 10 types of people in this world. Those who understand binary and those who don’t.

  • Mr Ecks

    A lifetime ago I read a story by SF writer Robert Silverberg, in which, if memory serves, an admin computer becomes self-aware and with the “insolence of office” starts sending out abusive letters in binary. It ends with the phrase “10111011000100 you, you meaty bastards”.

  • “Grimdark”: so I should read Horus Rising and keep going? Or does anyone have anything else to recommend?

  • Error 404 World Not Found

    Whilst surfing for ‘Wet T-Shirt Contest’ sites, I accidentally came upon this…

    Yes we all know how that works!

  • Mr Ed

    There is a scene in Red Dwarf where Kryten tells a joke in binary. You would have had to have been there, I suppose.

  • CaptDMO

    Midwesterner:
    “…but for release it is referred to as WTF 8-|”
    Well played sir (or madam), well played indeed!

    (from the US:) Cheesewire?
    I can imagine, but….need a technical English translation from “The King’s”…to ‘murican.

  • CaptDMO

    Never mind..Urban Dictionary

  • Cheesewire, as in… really really thin 😀

  • Laird

    When I click on the link, the Black Library wants permission to install third party cookies on my computer before I can enter. Are you people suggesting that it’s safe to agree to that?

  • Bod

    Laird – by and large (no, not Rosie O’Donnell) Cookies are safe. They’ll just remember what you’ve done on the site.
    The warning itself is a classic mommy-state regulation that EU-based websites have to comply with.
    Here in the USA, you’d just be fed the cookies and you’d be none the wiser.

  • Oh no! If you accept that cookie, the Black Library will send someone around to lobotomise you and turn you into a mindless man-machine slave called a Servitor, in the service of an technologically undead corpse-God-Emperor in a pitiless techno-Dark Ages future where there is ONLY WAR, and everyone has a British accent (except for the Tau who sound generic oriental)! Laird! Laird? Drat, too late.

  • Bod

    So, basically, an Apple user?

  • Well it is true that many of Games Workshop’s products (they own Black Library) are designed specifically for Mac.

    But the Grimdark Far Future is also a nightmarish interstellar technological dark age, in which star ships are maintained by rote and ritual by people with no conception of how the technology works, computers are called ‘Machine Spirits’ and the best weapons tend to blow up in your face when you use them.

    So no, clearly in the future, everyone will be using Windows, or perhaps even MS DOS.

  • I still use MS DOS. cd c:\porn\hardcore del *.* It’s what you do when you meet a yewtree in the night*.

    Seriously though – anyone played Sid Meier’s Starships. Worth a go?

    *Of course what happens when you meet a stranger in the Alps is different.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PztgWdMEJdg

  • Cynwulf

    The Imperium of Man uses Windows? Fucking hell, you are probably right! It might even be version 3.0 (not even 3.1)! Steady on mate, that might be a bit too grimdark!

  • Laird

    Well, if that’s all that happens, Perry, I guess it’s OK. I was afraid that it might be something bad.