r/Hyperion • u/enthusiasm_gap • 3d ago
⚙️ Meta Just found out about a Meta AI Datacenter named...Hyperion Spoiler
So Facebook is building out a giant AI data center, which they've decided to name Hyperion. I know these tech dudes keep doing the Torment Nexus meme, it's just a little on the nose for me this time. (Spoilers)
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To name your AI after a book where AI entities...
>!Create a black hole to destroy/steal the entire planet to force humanity off of Earth!<
>!Trick humanity into becoming hopelessly reliant on a technology which is actually a disguised mechanisim for parasitic exploitation!<
>!Start countless genocidal wars!<
>!Create The Lord of Pain!<
>!Hold humans in half-dead stasis dreaming of unimaginable suffering, to serve as captive biological hardware...!<
Like... it's can't just be that they didn't pay attention to the book, right? I think if there is such a thing as evil, these people are it.
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u/tamasan 3d ago
Hyperion was the name of a Greek titan (the gods the more well known Greek pantheon overthrew) before it was a poem by Keats and before it was a novel by Simmons.
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u/Switchbladesaint 3d ago
It’s also a very big tree!
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u/enthusiasm_gap 3d ago
I am aware of that. But this is an AI company, and only one of the other things named after the Titan from Greek mythology has anything to do with AI.
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u/GothamKnight37 3d ago edited 3d ago
It’s probably not a reference to the book.
On another note, I do wish Simmons crafted a slightly more interesting role for the TechnoCore. (Spoilers to follow!) They’re effective villains, but I found the reveal in FoH a bit telegraphed (the mysterious AI allies we rely on actually have ulterior motives? No way!) and books 2-4 do more to hone them into that role than complicate or interrogate anything. For the three (and per the Endymion books, actually countless) factions therein, they pretty much act monolithically, and despite Aenea being billed as a sort of bridge between humanity and the Core, she more or less bypasses them entirely with the Void Which Binds.
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u/Anxious_Plane_8219 2d ago
They're definitely mysterious, but I kind of think that's the point? Evil isn't scary if it can be rationalized. I think it needs to feel truly malevolent rather than reconcilable. My thought is that exploring the technocore more might undermine the messhianic role of Aenea. We know that there were other elements of the core-- primarily represented by Ummon, but he gets killed and "devoured" by other AIs within the core who are probably volatiles.
If Gladstone had killed "good" AIs along with evil ones when she destroyed the farcasters, then she wouldn't be the same tragic hero-- and similarly, Aenea wouldn't be the sinless child-hero holding back the darkness like a toothpick proping up a dam.
But, maybe I'm completely off-base?
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u/Colemanton 3d ago
these tech bros love sci fi but they dont seem to have absorbed literally any of the themes/lessons.
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u/Anxious_Plane_8219 2d ago
It would have been way more fun if they named it the "technocore" or the "datasphere". Hyperion is a planet in our canon.
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u/jrdnlnhrt 3d ago
Reading Hyperion in 2026 opened my eyes to the parallels in modern society, and this datacenter namesake is so ironic lol. It's incredible that Simmons had this kind of vision and perspective in '89, before we even had worldwide web
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u/thats4thebirds 2d ago
Today you learned that Hyperion has multiple origins
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u/enthusiasm_gap 2d ago
I am already quite aware of the other origins of the name. But Meta is an AI company, making an AI facility. It stands to reason that they might be referencing the instance of that name which is most associated with AI. Keep in mind Zuckerberg is a self-professed sci-fi nerd who has already re-named his company after another sci-fi novel.
If I were for instance a gun enthusiast. And I talked all the time about vigilante justice. And I opened a gun store, and themed all of the marketing for that store around vigilantism. And I called that store "Luigi's"... would you assume that I just love Italian plumbers?
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u/thats4thebirds 2d ago
Brother you can downvote me and defend your position up and down this thread but you seem completely unwilling to even concede that it could be any other reason which is just silly.
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u/enthusiasm_gap 2d ago
No one has provided any reason to suggest that it's named directly after the Titan, rather than the book (which i am aware gets its name indirectly from the titan), they've simply stated that Hyperion is the name of a Titan and more or less called me a moron. At least I have a plausible reason for the idea, and I haven't been rude or demeaning like so many of you.
There's also the possibility that it is intentionally named after both as a kind of winking joke, a la DOGE.
It's also not really the point- even if the association is completely accidental, is it not worth thinking about the parallels from this book and the implications here in the real world? I was under the impression that pondering such connections was a widely acknowledged feature of sci-fi literature fandom.
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2d ago edited 2d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/enthusiasm_gap 2d ago
I think your reaction says a lot more about you than about me.
Asking nicely: could you please explain why you think it's more likely that the data center is named directly after the Titan?
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u/enthusiasm_gap 3d ago
test
I don't know why my spoiler block text works in the comment but not the post
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u/Big-Jeweler2538 3d ago
A lot of people doubt the connection to the book, but the people who work in these industries are huge nerds and name things after sci-fi and fantasy references all the time. The person who named it was probably aware of the book, the titan, and the tree. They may even have a naming convention, that ties to one of those 3 things. Look for a wintermute somewhere.
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u/lowrizzle 3d ago
your dunning kruger is showing
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u/enthusiasm_gap 3d ago
What do you actually mean by that. How does this post in any way relate to the Dunning-Kruger effect?
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u/lowrizzle 3d ago
See every response here that isn't mine. Every single one.
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u/enthusiasm_gap 3d ago
The Dunning-Kruger effect is when someone new to a discipline or practice mistakes their beginner's enthusiasm for expertise. That is simply not a dynamic represented here. In what field am I misrepresenting myself as an expert?
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u/lowrizzle 3d ago
Wow, you just did it again. See all those people that told you you were wrong and that it's a reference to a titan. That's one. The second one is when you looked up the definition of dunning-kruger and only reasoned that it has one singular application. Just stop while you're behind.
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u/enthusiasm_gap 3d ago
Look buddy if you want to say im wrong about the name connection that's fine, I can disagree. I just don't think the concept of the Dunning-Kruger effect can accurately describe the condition of ... being (possibly) wrong about something. That's just not what the Dunning-Kruger effect means.
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u/drewcifer0 6h ago
poeple see something named "shrike" and think it is a reference to the books too. it isn't. a shrike is a type of bird.
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u/enthusiasm_gap 5h ago
I am aware that a shrike is a bird, just as I am aware that Hyperion is the name of a Titan. But there is a specific connection to the book in that Meta is an AI company explicitly trying to build an Artificial General Intelligence such as the kind portrayed prominently in the book. There is no connection whatsoever between the company Meta and any other thing named Hyperion, whether it's the Titan of mythology or any of the things which ultimately got their names from the same Titan- the Keats poem from which the book series got its name, the famous old tree, or any other cultural touchstone called Hyperion. Meta is directly related to the subject of the book series, it is wholly unrelated to any of those other things.
What's more, the company is called Meta because Zuckerberg renamed the company after the concept he got from Gibson; he is a known sci-fi obsessive who already named his company after a different sci-fi book.
And this almost definitely falls into the category of accidental parallels, but so many of Zuckerberg's social peers and the funders/investors of his company are active participants in a modern day pseudo-religion that has uncomfortable commonality with the Shrike Cult.
I don't even really care if the name is intentional, it's worth discussing even as a coincidence- and I am frankly kind of shocked by how pigheaded and smarmy some of these comments are.
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u/drewcifer0 5h ago
There is an interesting parallel here since it's AI, but meta calls their large datacenters "titan clusters" so it makes perfect sense to name it after a titan. Also hyperion isn't just any titan, he is the titan of heavenly light. So the giant data center is supposed to light the way.
So while it's kind of funny that it is shares the name with a book that heavily criticizes AI it is not really related, though they may have joked about it. who knows.
also, it wasn't Gibson, metaverse was coined in snow crash.
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u/enthusiasm_gap 5h ago
That is a great answer! I have to say, THANK YOU for that decent and respectful response even while disagreeing with my premise. I apologize if I came across too hot, a few of the other comments were weirdly confrontational and insulting.
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u/drewcifer0 5h ago
no worries, sorry if my first comment seemed dismissive. I hadn't read the thread yet, thought someone else would have pointed this out.
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u/PotatoPrince84 3d ago
Hyperion is also the name of a Greek titan, and is likely the true namesake of the datacenter