Two sf story ideas

[pozorvlak]

A couple of ideas for vaguely Singularitarian short stories that I've had kicking about for a while, but which I can't see how to take from "idea" to "completed story". If anyone wants to write them, be my guest. There are no doubt lots of reasons why these ideas are stupid, and I'd be grateful if you'd point them out to me. On the other hand, if

Comments

[gareth_rees]

Like ciphergoth, I am not impressed by the claim that human brain is doing anything particular with quantum mechanics that can't be emulated at the level of proteins or even neurons. I've read Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind, and as far as I can tell, Penrose's argument is:

1. We don't understand consciousness.
   
2. We don't understand quantum gravity either.
   
3. Therefore, conscious might be caused by quantum gravity.
   

It's a god-of-the-gaps argument: unanswerable but unimpressive. To argue against it: surely among the things we know about the brain is that its operation is remarkably robust, functioning moderately well under a variety of environmental conditions that would cause any quantum phenomenon to decohere into mush?

But even if the brain is doing nothing that can't be explained at the level of neurons, that doesn't mean that the singularitarians are right either. Even if the laws of physics don't rule out faster computation, there's the economic difficulty of financing the fabs. So there's plenty of room for a scenario like your first one to flourish.

As for making it into a science fiction story, there are several traditional ways to go:

* The surprise revelation. People have been uploaded onto computers ... but they are really zombies lacking consciousness! ... but due to infelicities in the mind transcription process, they are suffering in torment but unable to tell the meat people! ... they don't really exist, they are simulacra controlled by an AI which is using them to take over the world!

* The morality tale. The uploaded mind that the protagonist is setting out to destroy ... is the protagonist's mother/daughter/husband! ... offers the protagonist untold riches in return for its life! ... promises to make a Faustian pact! ... uses its 25% higher intelligence to deceive/manipulate/persuade the protagonist! ... appears as a witness at its own murder trial!

* The mundane outcome. The substate is destroyed ... but there was a backup! The protagonist is convicted of criminal damage and sentenced to 100 hours community service ... running errands for uploaded minds!

(You can see why I'm not a science fiction writer, can't you?)

[pozorvlak]

as far as I can tell, Penrose's argument is: [snip]

It's a bit more complicated than that - he uses Gödel's theorem to argue that the brain is doing something non-computable, and that this non-computability cannot arise from known macroscopic physics. But his argument for non-computability is very shaky, as discussed above.

The protagonist is convicted of criminal damage and sentenced to 100 hours community service ... running errands for uploaded minds!

I love it. That would make a great 2000AD future shock.