📚APR 2026 Cosmicomics #8 HOW MUCH SHALL WE BET?
Original topic subject: 📚APR 2026 Cosmiccomics #9 HOW MUCH SHALL WE BET?
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1DebiCates
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino translated by William Weaver, collection first published 1965.
Discussion links:
Introduction
The Distance of the Moon
At Daybreak
A Sign in Space
All at One Point
Without Colors
Games Without End
The Aquatic Uncle
How Much Shall We Bet? (This page)
The Dinosaurs
The Form of Space
The Light-Years
The Spiral
Final Thoughts
Discussion links:
Introduction
The Distance of the Moon
At Daybreak
A Sign in Space
All at One Point
Without Colors
Games Without End
The Aquatic Uncle
How Much Shall We Bet? (This page)
The Dinosaurs
The Form of Space
The Light-Years
The Spiral
Final Thoughts
2DebiCates
Possibly my least favorite of the stories, but not to say I disliked it.
I didn't understand it as well as the others. Its scientific preface, that is in all the stories, is about cybernetics, the systems of feedback and control (already my eyes are crossing) and how some things can't help but happen once you understand the science behind it and the feedback each part provides to the system. What I got out of the story was that the more things that happen, the more things that give feedback, the less predictable everything becomes.
In the beginning I was thinking Calvino might be using it as a way to include the concept of Free Will. But, when Qfwfq started losing the bets, after he had previously a long winning streak, it seemed to fall apart, Qfwfq couldn't predict accurately any longer, started losing quite seriously, while old Dean k(yK) fared better because all he had to was bet against Qfwfq, which he had been doing all along even back when Qfwfq was winning.
I liked to play Texas Lotto when it first came out. One only had to choose 5 unique numbers, 1-50. People won millions on a regular basis but not too often, just enough that it seemed possible to win. Then they kept adding numbers (as if that were a good thing), but each new number made it exponentially less likely to win. i think they are up to 1-54 now. I don't know if that is even remotely like cybernetics, but it is the only gambling I have ever partaken in. Well, except when I used to play penny poker with my dad and he almost always won. I just played for the pleasure of his company. We started with twenty pennies each, the equivalent of 4 nickel suckers (only came in flavors cherry or grape) that i liked so much.
Unlike the other stories, I am not coming away with an excitement to learn more about the science, "the logic of cybnetics." All I can think of is L. Ron Hubbard and Tom Cruise and that leader guy's missing wife. Oh and those strange fake looking devices they hold in their hands in order to go "clear." Calvino's story was nothing like any of that. But possibly a bit related to those suckers I liked.
I didn't understand it as well as the others. Its scientific preface, that is in all the stories, is about cybernetics, the systems of feedback and control (already my eyes are crossing) and how some things can't help but happen once you understand the science behind it and the feedback each part provides to the system. What I got out of the story was that the more things that happen, the more things that give feedback, the less predictable everything becomes.
In the beginning I was thinking Calvino might be using it as a way to include the concept of Free Will. But, when Qfwfq started losing the bets, after he had previously a long winning streak, it seemed to fall apart, Qfwfq couldn't predict accurately any longer, started losing quite seriously, while old Dean k(yK) fared better because all he had to was bet against Qfwfq, which he had been doing all along even back when Qfwfq was winning.
I liked to play Texas Lotto when it first came out. One only had to choose 5 unique numbers, 1-50. People won millions on a regular basis but not too often, just enough that it seemed possible to win. Then they kept adding numbers (as if that were a good thing), but each new number made it exponentially less likely to win. i think they are up to 1-54 now. I don't know if that is even remotely like cybernetics, but it is the only gambling I have ever partaken in. Well, except when I used to play penny poker with my dad and he almost always won. I just played for the pleasure of his company. We started with twenty pennies each, the equivalent of 4 nickel suckers (only came in flavors cherry or grape) that i liked so much.
Unlike the other stories, I am not coming away with an excitement to learn more about the science, "the logic of cybnetics." All I can think of is L. Ron Hubbard and Tom Cruise and that leader guy's missing wife. Oh and those strange fake looking devices they hold in their hands in order to go "clear." Calvino's story was nothing like any of that. But possibly a bit related to those suckers I liked.
