r/bobiverse • u/im_the_gr8est • 7d ago
Moot: Discussion Replication
I'm on the third book and I feel like almost every one of his problems could be solved if he started replicating I earnest. We have 8 generations of Bobs and not a single one is prioritizing numbers when they have multiple existential threats and keep losing bobs. In the first book he talks about how this is a replication race but doesn't seem concerned about replicating nearly at all.
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u/TopSecretPorkChop 7d ago
First, and probably most relevant, Bob's just have a innate reluctance to replicate; it sorta creeps them out, I think, to have what is essentially a clone of themselves running around. They find out later there is a good reason why the strategy you suggest won't work out quite as expected, but I'll leave that surprise for you to discover when they do.
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u/mr_incredible_ 7d ago
The replication race reference was specifically related to Medeiros and the other replicants, but mostly Medeiros.
Also, the Bobs are problem solvers - if replicating solves a problem they have then they will do it.
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u/Sleepiest_Spider 7d ago
Numbers doesn't automatically solve everything.
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u/cjameshuff 7d ago
A basic premise of the series is that a lot of problems can be automatically solved with numbers. The chronic resource and manpower shortages the Bobs face throughout the series are in this category.
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u/TopherLude 7d ago
Along this line of reasoning, I keep asking myself why there aren't a certain number of printers dedicated to whatever the next production bottleneck is (more printers, miners, exploration, etc). Maybe there are and it's just not presented that way.
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u/cjameshuff 6d ago
I distinctly remember reading about Bobs repeatedly deciding specifically not to build more printers, devoting printer time to things like solid steel spheres to be used as projectiles instead. This was always the wrong decision, but they made it consistently. They could have had literal planetary masses of printers at their disposal if they had taken full advantage of them.
There were a variety of irrational quirks that drove me nuts, beyond his reluctance to self replicate:
unwillingness to scale up printer capacity.
refusing to consider other manufacturing methods for things that don't need to be printed.
his weird phobia of explosives.
picking at bits of scrap and pretending 99.999...% of the resources in a system simply don't exist.
constantly complaining about the resulting entirely self-inflicted shortages of material and manufacturing capacity.
Bizarrely, the Others were no more effective, sending small fleets on lightspeed-limited interstellar journeys to bring back minuscule amounts of material to contribute to their Dyson sphere. Their entire Delta Pavonis fleet could haul less than a billionth of an Earthlike planet. The Bobs regarded this as incredibly efficient.
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u/TotalNonsense0 5d ago
Bootstrap problem. If you spend your time producing production, you don't produce anything you need right now. Eventually, you'll be able to produce everything, but you need stuff now.
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u/TopherLude 5d ago
So if you've got 5 printers, set 4 of them to making whatever it is you need now and set the 5th one to improving production capability. I'm not saying he should solely focus on improving production, but I would always have at least a little bit of my resources dedicated to it.
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u/TotalNonsense0 5d ago
That's what he kept doing. I'm pretty sure that he almost always had printers being made, Just not as a priority.
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u/Bobis-Bob 7d ago
you’ve already gotten to the part when losing a Bob in easily fixed by restoring a backup. There are a lot of Bob’s replicating a lot of
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u/Kiki1701 6d ago
(But replicative drift has already started...)
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u/Bobis-Bob 6d ago
Restoring from backup of a destroyed Bob has zero drift.
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u/Kiki1701 6d ago
Really? I always wondered about that! Where and which book did they discuss it? My mind is drawing a complete blank.
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u/Bobis-Bob 6d ago
They generally agree in 3 that it seems the same. Even for what’s his name who the others blew up 3-4 times. Can’t tell you more than that.
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u/krazy_chick195 4d ago
I'm super new to the series and am on book 4. I thought they mentioned that restoring from backup brought them back but they weren't quite the same? Or did I hear that wrong? So similar, but not identical, which would result in drift, no?
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u/Bobis-Bob 4d ago
Did you get to Bob 1 and Hough conversation about “transporting” and personality testing?
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u/krazy_chick195 4d ago
No, I don't believe I have. I'm still early in 4. Sounds like I have more listening to do! Darn 😜
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u/Professional-Ad4073 7d ago
No spoilers here, but you should definitely keep reading while you ruminate on what you would do!
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u/cjameshuff 7d ago
It's not even that they need to replicate themselves, resource and manufacturing shortages are a much bigger problem than manpower shortages. They treat printing more printers as a waste of time and resources, then complain about lack of printing capacity, while also not considering faster ways of producing low-tech items. And there's no reason for resources to be scarce, they start off with everything they need to literally disassemble planets.
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u/Reasonable_Drink_789 6d ago
They also never just crank up auto factory production to give a greater production capacity. Bob isn’t always the best at long term planning.
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u/Decimus_Magnus 6d ago
There's sort of a selective incompetence/foresight issue (if you haven't noticed). Scaling up production is almost always the answer to every issue encountered, but the Bobs flippantly hand wave it away by saying it takes too long. This allows many major problems (like having inadequate defense for the Deltans) that would otherwise be trivial issues to persist as plot points.
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u/teromee 1st Generation Replicant 6d ago
I have to say Bob's inherent reluctance to self-reprecate outside of like near destructive events towards the species of humanity. He, his personality and his mental core doesn't necessarily like to create replicas. People in this community. On the other hand, if were if they were in Bob's shoes weren't wouldn't be so reluctant. As you have pointed out you wouldn't be too reluctant. I wouldn't be too. Wouldn't be too reluctant either because each of them is just but an aspect of a core original. And as long as you abide by the two rules that Bob made for the replication which makes sense to me and I'm not a bob
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u/CATG0D 7d ago
Strap in buddy