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Name for Supercomputer



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Wed Apr 27, 2016 3:16 am
Werthan says...



I'm writing a story with a superhumanly intelligent supercomputer who is dictator of the world and whose name is abbreviated MUSPELL. I can't think of what MUSPELL stands for though. Does anyone have any good ideas? It's the only thing about the story I can't figure out.
Und so lang du das nicht hast
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Bist du nur ein trüber Gast
Auf der dunklen Erde

(And as long as you don't have
This: Die and become!
You are only a gloomy guest
On the dark Earth)

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Wed Apr 27, 2016 3:29 am
birk says...



Why does it need to be MUSPELL? If you don't have any background for this naming, then it's seems like a pretty odd one.

I can't think of any acronym it could stand for at the moment.

But hey, what constitutes that it has to be an acronym though? It's been a while since I read it, but Daniel Wilson's 'Robopocalypse' (it's really good despite the silly name!), there is a rogue supercomputer that almost takes out humanity by turning electronics against man. The supercomputer was named Archos R-8, but on its own it used the name Arayt Shah. Arayt...as in R-8. I liked that.
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Thu Apr 28, 2016 4:14 pm
Werthan says...



Birkhoff wrote:Why does it need to be MUSPELL? If you don't have any background for this naming, then it's seems like a pretty odd one.

I can't think of any acronym it could stand for at the moment.

But hey, what constitutes that it has to be an acronym though? It's been a while since I read it, but Daniel Wilson's 'Robopocalypse' (it's really good despite the silly name!), there is a rogue supercomputer that almost takes out humanity by turning electronics against man. The supercomputer was named Archos R-8, but on its own it used the name Arayt Shah. Arayt...as in R-8. I liked that.


The story is based on an Old High German poem called Muspilli which is about the fate of souls after death and battles between Heaven and Hell, and basically recounts Ragnarök but with Jesus. Muspell is the singular form of Muspilli in Old High German.
Und so lang du das nicht hast
Dieses: Stirb und Werde!
Bist du nur ein trüber Gast
Auf der dunklen Erde

(And as long as you don't have
This: Die and become!
You are only a gloomy guest
On the dark Earth)

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  





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Sun May 15, 2016 3:08 pm
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Kale says...



So why can't the supercomputer be named Muspell? Why does the name have to be an acronym?

While acronyms are a common naming convention in computer science, not everything is an acronym, and not all acronyms mean anything. I recommend you look up recursive acronyms, with GNU being a pretty famous one.

For some examples of non-acronym names in computer science, there's the Windows OS, Android OS, Cassandra DB, Python, and Raspberry Pi. Puns, mythological references, and descriptive names abound, and Muspell would fit right with it being both descriptive and a mythological reference.
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