The Singularity: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

Some writers are hopeful, and look to improvements: an end to death, scarcity, and the errors of ignorance and stupidity. There is the prospect of self-editing, [[Mind Control|mental]] and [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke|physical]]: people [[Transhuman|finally able to be whatever they wish to be]]. A singularity can be transcendent; we [[Rewriting Reality|hack]] [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|the cracked walls]] [[Reality Warper|of reality itself]] and move on to [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|better things]]. This is an excellent [[Hand Wave]] or a literal [[Deus Ex Machina]] for writers struggling with the impossibility of plots involving entities many orders of magnitude greater than themselves or the reader. Others see no end: endless ecstatic ascent.

The singularity is sometimes called the "rapture of the [[nerd]]s". There are inevitably spiritual overtones to a singularity. Spirituality deals with transcendence; that which lies beyond the everyday. A singularity opens a door to the transcendent, drawing in interested writers.

 

 

There's also a question of who, exactly, gets to be part of the Singularity; while technology is progressing at leaps and bounds in the First World, there are plenty of places around the world where people have little-to-no access to the kind of technologies most tropers take for granted, and even within the First World not everyone has an equal share of the pie ("We are the 99%," anyone?). Far from ushering in a utopia of egalitarianism and plenty in which everyone is part, there are plenty who argue that the Singularity could just accelerate elitism, creating an exclusive club where only those who can afford to pay can take part.

 

 

A singularity may produce [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]]s, and in doing so act like cosmological hyperinflation: species differences stretched into nothingness. We all end up as snooty [[Crystal Spires and Togas|toga-clad points of light obsessed with mathematics]] in the end; or, it may not work like [[Evolutionary Levels]]. Those who pursue one particular path might end up that way, while others may choose different directions of development.

 

=== [[Literature]] ===

* ''[[Accelerando]]'' by [[Charles Stross]]. Towards the end of the novel, the posthuman protagonists are referred to as living in the mentally retarded backwater slums of the universe, and yet are immortal shapeshifters who can have all their dreams come true. That is how amazing the singularity is. On the other hand, it's not at all clear that the entities at the center of the hard singularity are really sapient, anymore. The logic of Capitalism 2.0 suggests that self-awareness might well be a market inefficiency to be dispensed with. They are not called the "Vile Offspring" for nothing. Then again, there's the Cat, which is, quite clearly a post-organic super intelligence who {{spoiler|openly mocks us for having pathetically limited brains that are easy for it to manipulate with its superior theory of mind. How can you deal with something so powerful that its ideas about you are ''equivalent to'' you?}}

* In ''Glasshouse'',<ref>[[Non-Linear Sequel]] to ''Accelerando''</ref> mankind appears to have gotten a grasp of post-singularity civilization. Though people regularly switch bodies and live online, nanotech can make anything, and distance is meaningless due to wormhole-based construction, the idea of the independent self and democratic human society are mostly intact. Though [[The Virus|Curious Yellow]] is doing its best to screw that up...

:At least one other civilization, the Overarch Bedeckants from ''Excession'', seem quite firmly grounded in physical reality, and yet exhibit powers as vastly in excess of the Culture's as the abilities of the Culture exceed ours. Their ability to escape the Heat Death of their own Universe is one. Possibly there are benefits to not Ascending.

* In ''[[The Golden Oecumene|The Golden Age]]'', most humans seem to spend their time building elaborate dream worlds and abstract art pieces, while the AIs, who have rates of cognition humans cannot match, mostly explore abstract mathematics. The conflict begins when the hero realizes he isn't satisfied with this.

* ''[[Blood Music]]'' by Greg Bear: a character creates biological computers from his own cells. Inside his own body, the new cells evolve, becoming self-aware. The microscopic civilization they construct transforms the protagonist, then spreads, assimilating most of North America. Finally, the new civilization is forced to transcend the physical world as its presence is warping it too much for the original inhabitants to survive in if they remain.

** In ''Darwin's Radio'' also by Greg Bear, humanity's "junk DNA" contains a retrovirus that transforms fetuses into next-gen humans. Apparently, evolution isn't the slow process we believe it to be, but rather some semi-sentient [[Hive Mind]] churning out a new and better model. Last time this happened was when the Neanderthals began squeezing out Homo Sapiens instead of Homo Neanderthalis. {{spoiler|The governments of the world is less than happy about this, and put all the new kids in concentration camps.}}

* ''Perfect Imperfection'' by Polish author Jacek Dukaj is all about this. For an example, it begins with one (hundreds of years old) character being assassinated ''twice'' the same day... And this dude is one of the traditionalist ''Standard'' Humans. Dukaj invented his own grammar for those who aren't, as male-female-neuter division (it matters in Polish) no longer applies to them. Pocket universes are routinely exploited, for things both big (Solar System has been moved to one) and small (instant communication is easy, when physical constants are manipulated so that the message travels any distance in just one Planck-time). Virtual reality is mixed with actual one in proportions dependent on one's needs. And on top of all this, an [[Fish Out of Temporal Water|astronaut]] from what could be [[Space Opera]] for us, but is ages past in this world.

* The Solarian Combine in [[Alan Dean Foster]]'s ''Design for Great-Day'' is a multispecies [[Hive Mind]] that is seeking to evolve into a higher order of consciousness (while still having enough mental power to spare to send ships into neighboring galaxies to resolve their disputes). It is implied that The Singularity will be the result. This is also an example of nested singularities, as the Solarian Combine is itself the product of a singularity event that produced the [[Hive Mind]] in the first place.

* The ''Minds'' series of teen novels by Carol Matas at first appear to be set in a fairly typical [[High Fantasy]] world, albeit one based around [[Psychic Powers|psionics]] rather than magic. At the end of the second book, ''More Minds,'' however, we learn that {{spoiler|theirs is actually a post-singularity society which long ago agreed to maintain the illusion of a storybook-style magical land by general consensus, because the alternative was [[Reality Is Out to Lunch|rampant chaos]] as everyone's godlike [[Reality Warper|Reality Warping]] powers ran unchecked.}}

* ''[[Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future|Man After Man]]'' by Dougal Dixon. One post-human race has become crippled by mutational meltdown and completely dependent on technology, another becomes aquatic and evolves into a mermaid-type creature, another is genetically and cybernetically modified for space, etc. At the end, the [[Transhuman Aliens]] return to Earth and end up destroying all surface life on it.

** In the Void Trilogy The Void itself at the heart of the galaxy was created by the firstlifes, who were the first sentient life in the galaxy to evolve and it (the Void) had the potential to consume everything in the outside galaxy, which the firstlifes believed to be lifeless anyways.

* [[Michael Moorcock]]'s trilogy "The Dancers at The End of Time" is set in a post-singularity society inhabited by almost omnipotent beings.

* The classic [[Harlan Ellison]] story "[[I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream]]" is about a seemingly godlike AI who hates ''everyone.'' It ends about as well as you'd expect.

* This trope is [[Older Than They Think|way older]] than you may expect. ''[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27462/27462-h/27462-h.htm The Last Evolution]'' is a [[Older Than Television|1932]] short story by [[John W. Campbell]] about a future where mankind and robots coexist peacefully. When aliens attack the Solar System using [[Death Rays]] of an unknown type, mankind builds a robot of unheard-of intelligence to figure out a defense. Said robot builds an even more advanced machine, which builds even more avanced robots, up to the creation of a race of [[Energy Beings]] that [[Curb Stomp]] the enemy fleet. Too bad that mankind, and all organic life, has been killed in the battle... So the superintelligent energy beings inherit the Earth.

 

=== [[Web Comics]] ===

{{quote|'''Dmitri''': Sounds awfully religious coming from an atheist.

'''Kim''': Shut up. You just wait. }}

{{quote|'''Dmitri''': You're insane and you're going to kill off the human race.

'''Kim''': ''Good!'' All they ever do is ''Die!'' ''Or leave.'' }}

 

=== [[Western Animation]] ===

=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===

* The backstory (or rather, [[Time Travel|future history]]) of the ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' novels and [[Anime]] features a soft singularity that spells the end of mechanical technology as contemporary humans understand it, leaving humanity the same but technology completely unrecognizable. As a literary device, this is mostly to [[Hand Wave]] how [[Time Travel]] works and to make a character from [[The Future]] [[No Social Skills|completely oblivious]] to things like personal computers. This also includes the Data Integration Thought Entity that has reached its evolutionary end and has its non-tangible technology that equals [[Magic From Technology|magic]].

 

=== [[Film]] ===

 

=== [[Literature]] ===

* William Gibson's [[Cyberpunk]] novel ''All Tomorrow's Parties'' ends with an AI becoming flesh by means of cheap atomic assembly; emerging from "every 7-Eleven in Christendom".

* ''[[The Difference Engine]]'' by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling is an extended journey through a soft singularity. The widespread use of a working Babbage engine brings the IT revolution to Victorian times.

* The ''Ægypt'' books by John Crowley. The protagonist, Pierce Moffatt discovers that there is more than one history of the world. The ancient world was governed by alchemy, magic and astrology, and then the world changed to what we know now. The moment this change occurred was basically a protracted Singularity called the Renaissance and our distorted memories about this old world, now lost, are what gave rise to fortune telling and stories about Gypsies. And the sixties.

* Several [[Greg Egan]] novels, especially ''[[Diaspora]]'' and ''Schild's Ladder'' take place ''after'' Singularities. Diaspora in particular casts most of its characters as genderless AIs who think something like a thousand times faster than human beings {{spoiler|and wind up travelling through various multidimensional - as in, bearing more than 3 spatial dimensions - parallel universes.}} [[Greg Egan]] generally looks upon singularities as an adolescent power fantasy more worthy of primates. His position seems to be that a mature real-world advanced civilization will find they can create everything they need for themselves inside a few kilos of virtual world substrate. To this end in ''Crystal Nights'', he has Lucian ridiculing singularity seekers as "Uberdorks battling to turn the moon into computronium." and "Throwing [[Grey Goo]] around like monkeys throwing turds while they draw up their plans for Matrioshka brains."

* The "Change" syringes in ''[[Beggars in Spain]]'' use [[Bio Augmentation]] to turn an entire generation of human beings autotrophic. Changed people can obtain all the nutrition they need from just lying out in the sun: they can photosynthesize, fix nitrogen directly from the atmosphere, and absorb nutrients directly through the skin via special tubules that liquefy and absorb certain kinds of organic matter. (Yes, this does lead to [[Clothing Damage]]. Most people wear plastic clothes by that time anyhow.)

* [[William Shatner]] (yes, [[Star Trek|that one]]) takes the concept a bit too literally in his ''[[Quest For Tomorrow]]'' novels. As the protagonist Jim (!) discovers, long ago, a Huzzna ship discovers Earth and finds two species of primitive humanoids on it: our own ancestors and the Neanderthals. The latter turn out to be naturally telepathic. Seeking to find out which genes cause telepathy and improve themselves, the crew transplant a number of the Neanderthals to a different world and kill the rest with a genetically-engineered plague, which doesn't harm the other humanoids. After their experiments yield no results, the Huzzna decide to wipe out the Neanderthals in order to prevent anyone else from succeeding. Some of them survive and rebuild their civilization. Hundreds of thousands of years later, they are re-discovered by the Huzzna, who send a fleet to wipe them out. By that point, the Neanderthals (who advance much slower than humans due to lack of writing) have only just managed to reach the Industrial Revolution. Facing destruction, they use their telepathy to "[[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|Leap]]" - turning them all into a single nigh-omnipotent being. The process also results in the star collapsing into a black hole (a literal singularity), destroying the Huzzna armada. Now, the Neanderthals' distant cousins, humans, appear to be nearing the threshold themselves, although they achieve it using technological means, by joining millions of minds into a single computing entity - the most powerful computer in the galaxy. Fearing humanity's Leap, the Huzzna and their long-time enemies join forces and send a huge armada to destroy Earth (apparently, the Huzzna never learn). Facing with extinction, humanity will undoubtedly use the Mind Arrays to force-Leap themselves. Unfortunately, doing this will unravel the very fabric of reality. As Jim explains, the Multiverse was created by a God-like being formed by the natural Leaps of all galactic races with humanity being the key. Force-Leaping humans and turning the Sun into a black hole will result in this never happening. Thus, the Multiverse will not be created. He ends up going back in time and altering his own past, effectively [[Retcon]]ning the entire series.

 

And then there's speculation about '''what might happen next'''...

* With the Industrial Revolution or the invention of writing we had a complete departure from the previous sort of existence in ways no one predicted or fathomed. On the other hand, sentient artificial beings [[The Matrix|are]] [[Battlestar Galactica|not]] [[Halo|a]] [[Terminator|new]] [[Andromeda|idea]]. It wouldn't be a ''totally'' unpredicted change, though which bits would turn out to be [[Truth in Television]] and which "[[Reality Is Unrealistic]]" is up for grabs.

* The mass application of cheap [[wikipedia:3D printing|3D printing]] has been suggested by some futurists as killing off the manufacturing industry for almost anything smaller than a microwave. Why go out to buy a toothbrush or wrench when you can download blueprints and make a cheaper, customized version in your own home?

** It's already known roughly how far semiconductor computation can go, and it should be more than enough - and that's not even accounting for competing technologies, like optic and quantum computers.

** However, this also predicates a better understanding of the human brain itself. And, as any psychologist can tell you, there's a ''lot'' we don't know. Let's start with basic stuff: how is memory stored? What portion of the human brain would need to be mapped onto the computer's hard drive? It is assumed that one day we will know the answer to this question, but until we do, brain-uploading is going nowhere.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hKG5l_TDU8 Charlie Kam] is [[Major-General Song|The Very Model Of A Modern Singularitarian]].

* [[Vernor Vinge]] has written several essays describing how he expects the singularity to happen.

* A variation of the mind uploads is immortality. Presumably Type II. What form this would take is unclear, but either as a result of radically enhanced medical science and genetic engineering, or as a result of consciousness uploads, it would by definition make post-immortality life on Earth nearly incomprehensible to those in the past. As an example, most vampire fiction stops with its incredibly [[Badass]] Elder vampires being a few hundred years old, anything much older being too arcane or too difficult to write - and nearly invariably a [[Complete Monster]] when they do occur. According to [[wikipedia:Aubrey de Gray|Aubrey de Gray]], immortal humans could easily triple-up [[The Vampire Chronicles|LeStat]] and that's if they weren't particularly careful. Imagine ''that'' culture shock to any point in human history.

** He acknowledges the challenges along with way. The genetic revolution will lead to smaller and smaller groups being able to engineer biological superweapons. This will lead to an exponentially increasing probability of a global scale attack. This in turn will be countered by the nano machine revolution since nanobots will be able to overpower any virus. But the nanotech revolution will create its own destructive potential which necessitates us moving to (or creating a species of) synthetic resilient bodies with human and/or synthetic intelligences (with the possibility for hybrids of the two.)

** What he envisions for the next singularity (that's right, [[Up to Eleven|he's thinking two major singularities ahead]]) is that we will begin saturating the universe with self replicating, self improving substrate of maximum computational density (dubbed computronium by some.) And that the universe itself will become an immense super intelligence beyond all fathoming which we may or may not be a part of. Hence the "rapture of the nerds."

[[Category:Transhuman Tropes]]

[[Category:The Singularity]]