[ExI] Uploads

[SR Ballard]

Think of it like this: 

Have you ever played a video game? The characters you play can do thinks which are not possible for you to do. But you can still relate to those characters.

How is writing about uploaded people any different to Fantasy and soft SF?

SR Ballard

> On Mar 29, 2020, at 4:36 PM, Keith Henson via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> 
> Ben Zaiboc <ben at zaiboc.net> wrote:
> 
>> On 29/03/2020 00:19, Keith Henson wrote:
>> Fiction is a problem because
>> if the entire race uploads (possible), you don't have characters in
>> your story.
> 
>> Sorry, Keith, you've completely lost me there.
> 
>> Surely there's far more scope for storytelling in a world of uploads?
>> The much wider range of environments, personalities, and plotlines that
>> would be available?
> 
>> Greg Egan manages a whole novel where more than 90% of the characters
>> and action are in an uploaded environment.
> 
>> What do you mean?
> 
> The essence of characters in a story is to identify with them.
> Uploads, where the entities are much more than human (virtually
> god-like), are impossible to identify with.  Or at least *I* don't
> know how to write a story with characters about as advanced over
> humans as much as humans are mentally advanced over, say, cats (or
> maybe cockroaches).  I have no idea what might motivate them.
> 
> The medical AI, Suskulan, who runs the clinic in "The Clinic Seed" is
> limited on purpose.
> 
> Keith
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