[ExI] SF - cyberspace and utopian narratives for meatless bodies

Sat Feb 11 06:43:37 UTC 2012

On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 8:31 PM,  Samantha Atkins <sjatkins at mac.com> wrote:

> On 02/10/2012 11:39 AM, Natasha Vita-More wrote:
>>
>> Can someone suggest five well-known science fiction authors and their
>> book titles that speculate on cyberspace as an alternative environment
>> for leaving the flesh/meat body behind?  You don't have to like, agree
>> with or support the narratives, and they don't have to be
>> transhumanist in scope.
>
> Please share this list when you collect it.  I would love to read more
> stories like that.  The only ones that spring immediately to mind are:
>
> Permutation City  (Egan)
> Accelerando  (Stross) (parts of it)

Go here:  http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando-intro.html

Download the RTF version and search for "FieldCircus."

You actually need to read the whole thing to get the context, but if
you have, this will get you to the right place to appreciate perhaps
the best book to date on the Singularity.

The world Stross places this novel in is right out of the late 80s,
early 90s Extropian mailing list, when M Brains and computronium were
brand new ideas.  An exchange between Hans Moravec and me (reviving
authors through their works) becomes a plot element toward the end of
the novel.

"The Clinic Seed" also explores the uploaded world, in this case a
tiny African village is uploaded.

Per my recent posting, I no longer think it's practical to surround a
star with computronium (speed of light problems).  Instead population
centers will probably shrink to sizes in the few hundred meter range
and sunk the the deep oceans for cooling.

I really don't see any way out of this.  Being smart is a prime goal
for transhumanists.  Everyone wants to be smarter than average.  A
substantial part of being smart is being able to think faster.  This
leads to a runaway situation where we rapidly run into distance being
time.  We hardly notice telephone communication delays unless they are
going through satellites.  But speed us up a million fold and the
maximum delay is (20,000 km/300,000 km/s) or 1/15 s.  At a million to
one speed up, that would impose a subjective round trip delay of a day
and a half from one side of the earth to the other.  Subjective round
trip delay to the moon would be a month.

Maybe this isn't important.  People went around the earth when it took years.

Keith

> Golden Age triology (John C Wright)
>
> - samantha
>
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> Message: 16
> Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:17:48 -0800
> From: Samantha Atkins <sjatkins at mac.com>
> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Subject: Re: [ExI] SF - cyberspace and utopian narratives for meatless
>        bodies
> Message-ID: <4F35B3AC.10509 at mac.com>
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> On 02/10/2012 12:39 PM, Stefano Vaj wrote:
>> 2012/2/10 Natasha Vita-More <natasha at natasha.cc>
>>
>>     Can someone suggest five well-known science fiction authors and
>>     their book titles that speculate on cyberspace as an alternative
>>     environment for leaving the flesh/meat body behind?  You don?t
>>     have to like, agree with or support the narratives, and they don?t
>>     have to be transhumanist in scope.
>>
>>
>> Egan and Gibson jump to mind, but I am sure you have already thought
>> of them.
>>
>
> Lawnmower Man
> TRON
>
> When I think about it though, I think the Golden Age triology is about
> the only fully developed post-singularity upload universal culture I
> have come across.  If I am missing some I would love to hear of them.
>
> - s
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> Message: 17
> Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:31:42 -0800
> From: Samantha Atkins <sjatkins at mac.com>
> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Subject: Re: [ExI] SF - cyberspace and utopian narratives for meatless
>        bodies
> Message-ID: <4F35B6EE.3050406 at mac.com>
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>
> True Names (sort of but not a full blown uploaded culture)
>
> On 02/10/2012 12:39 PM, Stefano Vaj wrote:
>> 2012/2/10 Natasha Vita-More <natasha at natasha.cc>
>>
>>     Can someone suggest five well-known science fiction authors and
>>     their book titles that speculate on cyberspace as an alternative
>>     environment for leaving the flesh/meat body behind?  You don?t
>>     have to like, agree with or support the narratives, and they don?t
>>     have to be transhumanist in scope.
>>
>>
>> Egan and Gibson jump to mind, but I am sure you have already thought
>> of them.
>>
>> --
>> Stefano Vaj
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> extropy-chat mailing list
>> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
>> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>
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> Message: 18
> Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:43:02 +0100
> From: Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com>
> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Subject: Re: [ExI] SF - cyberspace and utopian narratives for meatless
>        bodies
> Message-ID:
>        <CAPoR7a5tqWrXrYmqBD=DUgSkOFHBjoy6Mm3RP8aWbz3PGESM5Q at mail.gmail.com>
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>
> 2012/2/11 Samantha Atkins <sjatkins at mac.com>
>
>> **
>> Permutation City  (Egan)
>>
>
> At least parts of Schild's Ladder and above all of Diaspora civilisations
> live permanently in a virtual wordl, even though much different of that of
> Count Zero.
>
> --
> Stefano Vaj
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> Message: 19
> Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:10:02 -0500
> From: Mike Dougherty <msd001 at gmail.com>
> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Subject: Re: [ExI] SF - cyberspace and utopian narratives for meatless
>        bodies
> Message-ID:
>        <CAOJFdbK9xKAk9Ua=_C-9YMuwmHRA87aS3qdM7ZusP57xAtfzLQ at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
>
> 2012/2/10 Natasha Vita-More <natasha at natasha.cc>:
>> Can someone suggest five well-known science fiction authors and their book
>> titles that speculate on cyberspace as an alternative environment for
>> leaving the flesh/meat body behind?  You don?t have to like, agree with or
>> support the narratives, and they don?t have to be transhumanist in scope.
>
> Rudy Rucker's Ware series.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ware_Tetralogy
>
> I'm assuming everyone here has already read it and simply forgot about it
> or otherwise didn't think of it in response to "cyberspace as an
> alternative environment."
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> Message: 20
> Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:05:03 -0800
> From: "spike" <spike66 at att.net>
> To: "'ExI chat list'" <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Subject: [ExI] good bexarotene article
> Message-ID: <00e301cce861$92298c90$b67ca5b0$@att.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>
>
> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=alzheimers-disease-sympto
> <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=alzheimers-disease-sympto&
> offset=2> &offset=2
>
>
>
> Remember that Star Trek original Miri, one of the most memorable episodes of
> the bunch, where the people age very slowly, but some virus or something
> kills people whenever they get well into adolescence, with no effect on
> children.  Consequently, the only inhabitants of the planet appear to be
> children, and revolting bastards they are for the most part (".bonk bonk on
> the head.")  The apparently fifteen yr old Miri has it bad for Kirk, but he
> doesn't get involved with older women.
>
>
>
> Bones races to find a cure, but isn't sure what is the correct dose, so he
> has to make a wild guess and hope for the best, then use it on himself,
> otherwise they will all die.  It works.
>
>
>
> It is better to take a shot in the dark than to meekly die never having
> fired one's weapon.
>
>
>
> spike
>
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> Message: 21
> Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:17:37 -0800
> From: "spike" <spike66 at att.net>
> To: "'ExI chat list'" <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Subject: [ExI] temporary open season declared on bexarotene was: RE:
>        good    bexarotene article
> Message-ID: <00fa01cce86b$b5802280$20806780$@att.net>
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>
>
>
> As your friendly nanopotent ExI-chat moderator, I propose a temporary open
> season on what looks like an exciting development, the use of bexarotene
> against Alzheimer's.  We have tried this before, and it works pretty well:
> for the next week, if you are posting on this topic, it doesn't count
> against your normal daily posting guidelines of five posts a day.  Let's do
> this for a week, shall we?
>
>
>
> If one is a non-cryonicist, the best thing that can happen is to live a long
> life and have a sudden heart attack.  No suffering, low cost to the family,
> etc.  You are just gone.  Getting cancer is the worst thing.
>
>
>
> If on the other hand, one is a hardcore cryonics believer, a sudden heart
> attack is a bad thing because you cool and perhaps suffer brain degradation
> while the local yahoos figure out what to do.  Some form of cancer is
> actually good perhaps, for one knows about how long one has to live and can
> make arrangements for the Alcor team.  But for the cryonics hipster,
> Alzheimer's is perhaps the worst thing that can happen, for the brain is
> ruined by the time the family can call in the team.
>
>
>
> If that is not bad enough, Alzheimer's is probably one of the most likely
> ends for those who take good care of themselves.  Any promising Alzheimer's
> therapy is exciting.
>
>
>
> spike
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
> [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of spike
> Sent: Friday, February 10, 2012 6:05 PM
> To: 'ExI chat list'
> Subject: [ExI] good bexarotene article
>
>
>
>
>
> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=alzheimers-disease-sympto
> <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=alzheimers-disease-sympto&
> offset=2> &offset=2
>
>
>
> .
>
> spike
>
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>
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