The Singularity: Difference between revisions

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.

Note is also taken of how hard it is to ''uninvent'' something without [[Medieval Stasis|completely halting the inventing species and its descendants]]. For instance, as time goes on, the probability that mankind will use (or make [[Fun Size|pocket size]]) any given [[Weapon of Mass Destruction]] increases, [[Morton's Fork|while only]] a similar [[Apocalypse How|civilization-ending]] catastrophe and/or mass [[Earth-That-Was|Ascension Into Space]] would result in humans [[Catch 22|forgetting]] said knowledge. Of course, a middle path involves either economic collapse or [[Future Imperfect|imperfect transcription of knowledge]] followed by a [[Feudal Future]]. Or a merely grimy [[Used Future]], sort of the future equivalent of the [[Dung Ages]].

* This could be one interpretation of The Claw's plan in ''[[Gun X Sword]]''. Other interpretations could be [[Ascend to A Higher Plane of Existence|ascending to a higher state]] or [[The End of the World As We Know It|mass genocide]].

* This is basically the whole point of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion (Anime)|Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. The purpose of {{spoiler|SEELE and NERV is to make it so that mankind can control the powers of both [[Eldritch Abomination|Adam and Lilith]] in order to ascend to a state where [[Hive Mind|all minds are one]] as God. Not that they asked mankind's opinion before doing so...}}

* The Wired from ''[[Serial Experiments Lain (Anime)|Serial Experiments Lain]]'' eventually becomes this. Maybe.

* Although it predates the term Singularity by decades, the film ''[[Forbidden Planet]]'' is about a civilization that [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens|transcended instrumentality]]. [[The End of the World As We Know It|Not that it ended well]] for them, of course.

* [[Arthur C. Clarke (Creator)]]'s ''[[Childhoods End]]''. A race called the Overlords contact each species a few generations before it undergoes its singularity, to help ease that species into joining the galactic hive-mind. Worthy of note is the fact that the Overlords' extremely high level of technology actually ''prevents'' them from joining the galactic hive-mind themselves. They still take orders from that hive-mind, though. Their inability to join the hive-mind was what led to their advanced technology. Other intelligent species got to skip various levels of technological development via a telepathic singularity. The overlords basically reached the limits of technology and had nothing left to do in the universe. They agreed to serve the hive-mind in order to have a temporary raison d'être. Their species had been seriously considering voluntary extinction before they were contacted.

* [[Vernor Vinge]]'s ''[[Marooned in Realtime (Literature)|Marooned in Realtime]]''. A technology for freezing time within impervious "bobbles" allows a community to sleep through a singularity. They emerge to find no survivors and no hard information on what happened. From the last survivor to go into hibernation, they know that as the singularity approached, people became brighter, more connected and more powerful. But what actually happened unknown and perhaps unknowable. Multiple theories for what happened are presented, although it's strongly implied that the characters who believe the singularity hypothesis are correct. Given who the author is, I think that it's fairly obvious which side he agrees with.

* ''[[A Fire Upon the Deep (Literature)|A Fire Upon the Deep]]'', by the same author, allows non-singularity and singularity to coexist, because of different physical laws in different parts of the galaxy. In fact there is a stupidity anti-singularity at the center of the galaxy, where even Babbage engines barely work: the Unthinking Depths.

* In the ''[[Polity Series]]'', humans are ruled by [[A Is|AIs]]: gods that refuse to take part in the singularity for unknowable reasons. It is suggested that they rather like the way they are right now. After all, not even the most powerful [[A Is]] of the Polity could even begin to imagine what comes after the singularity... when you have near infinite patience and are effectively immortal, there's no need to go blindly rushing into the unknown without some very, very serious thought. Where's the rush? It is said in a footnote in one of the novels that the Singularity came and nobody really cared. The majority seem to enjoy being human.

* The Minds of [[Iain M Banks|Iain M. Banks']] ''[[The Culture|Culture]]'' novels. The entire Culture is the result of a [[Deus Est Machina]]. Though [[Death Is Cheap]] due to most people [[Virtual Ghost|backing themselves up]], aside from a bit of cybernetic enhancement, [[Watch It Stoned|drug glands]] from genetic manipulation and the literal prevalence of the [[Most Common Superpower]], the humans in both settings tend to be content with being, well, human. This is incredibly [[Justified Trope|justified]].<br /><br />[[Ascend to A Higher Plane of Existence|Ascending To A Higher Plane Of Existence]] is not banned or even discouraged, and the technologies to do so are readily available. However, people and civilizations who choose to sublime tend to stop interacting with less-advanced cultures with the exception of the occasional [[Deus Ex Machina]]. To just about all observers, it seems as if they committed particularly grandiose and complicated suicide. The Minds are thus not inclined to attempt it, and are in fact really freaking paranoid about even studying the phenomena too closely. The various Ascended species (appear to) look down on the Culture and its citizens as more than a little immature and irresponsible for not just subliming instead of sticking around to enjoy the physical plane.<br /><br />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 (Literature)|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 (Literature)|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 from the physical world as its presence is warping it too much for the original inhabitants to survive in if they remain.

* ''[[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 [[Peter F Hamilton]]'s [[Commonwealth Saga (Literature)|Commonwealth Saga/Void trilogy]], this has happened to many, many species who [[Ascend to A Higher Plane of Existence|go post-physical]], leaving the universe behind.

** One of the main plot points in the Commonwealth Saga is that one of the civilizations that had gone post-physical can't be contacted. Fine, except a civilization they [[Sealed Evil in A Can|locked up]] for being bent on exterminating all non-them life in the universe is now becoming a problem.

* 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.

* The Q Continuum is hinted to have become the ultimate example of this in [[Star Trek the Next Generation]]. In [[Star Trek Voyager]] it's shown that they've lived that way for so long they're already bored of it, and that the only logical place their species can go to move forward, is to move backward.

* In ''[[Pandoras Star (Literature)|Pandoras Star]]'' humanity perfects a sentient digital life form. Calling itself the Sentient Intelligence, or SI for short, the digital consciousness demands that it be sequestered from humanity (and who could blame it?). The SI lives on an isolated planet with the ability to build its own structures, so it could conceivably have covered the entire surface of the planet with servers if it so chose. Nobody really knows. It is often capricious and difficult to communicate with, implying that its decision making process is too advanced or removed from human concerns for us to comprehend. Lastly, humans are capable of a full brain download, and can upload their minds and personalities into the Sentient Intelligence. Nobody knows what happens then.

* In Asimov's [[I Robot (Literature)|I, Robot]], this trope is {{spoiler|the entire point}}.

* The "Change" syringes in ''[[Beggars in Spain (Literature)|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|RetConning]] the entire series.