[ExI] hard science

[Ben]

William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com> wrote:

 >OK Ben and Natasha and everyone:  if we are not going to be wearing ape
 >suits in the future, what will we be like?

Whatever we want to be like.  On an individual basis.

My assumption (and it may be wrong, for various reasons) is that 
uploading will be possible.

My attitude is that if it's not possible, then we're pretty much screwed 
anyway, no matter what else is possible.  This is mainly because if 
uploading is not possible, we're stuck with biology, and biology is 
extremely fragile.  Without uploading, I see no long-term future for the 
human race at all.  Certainly no worthwhile one.

So, any far-future scenario that's at all interesting for me is one in 
which humans have been uploaded long ago.  They will be far removed from 
current humans, would likely be entirely incomprehensible to us, and 
have abilities that we can barely understand or even imagine.

Not ideal material for a story, is it?

If I wanted to write a story based in the far future, I suppose it would 
have to be about a set of uploads who decided to 'download' themselves 
into limited bodies, with corresponding limitation of their minds, and 
it would follow their adventures.  In other words, they'd effectively be 
going back to their distant past.

I suppose what I'm saying is, if you want to write a story about the far 
future, don't try to make it 'realistic'.  That's probably not 
possible.  Stick broadly within the laws of physics, and just make stuff 
up without fretting about how plausible it is.

Oh, here's another possibility:  The story takes place entirely within a 
simulation created by the uploads, then even the laws of physics can be 
played around with.  You could have a hard-SF story with magic in it!  
(been done, by Cory Doctorow, I think, but I forget the name of the story).

Ben Zaiboc