| This genre is my favorite. For anyone who wants to read more similar to it: Three Worlds Collide (Metaethics, moral relativism, etc) http://robinhanson.typepad.com/files/three-worlds-collide.pd... The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect (Thinking machines,
brains-in-vats experience machine, a world without death)
This one is my favorite of the three http://localroger.com/prime-intellect/mopiall.html The Last Question (Thinking machines, the end state of a universe full
of technologically powerful beings) http://filer.case.edu/dts8/thelastq.htm Not as relevant as the previous three, but still brain tickling (and
not as long): Relevant scene from Star Trek: The Next Generation (Episode: The
Measure of a Man)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PMlDidyG_I Let's Help Germinate This Seed
http://www.thrivenotes.com/lets-help-germinate-this-seed/ The Egg
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html |
My main criticism is that it simply assumes the point it sets out to make (SPOILERS: basically that if you can't die and anything is possible, life would have no meaning). It really doesn't do anything to show why that'd be the case.
It also really fetishises extreme violence and, to a certain extent, incest. (My beef is not with the fact that it involves those things, but with the way that it handles them).
If you're looking for something with similar machine-intelligence, fairly limitless possibilities, and the like, I think Greg Egan's Diaspora is a far superior treatment. http://www.amazon.com/Diaspora-Greg-Egan/dp/0575082097