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For higher dimensional mind bending his Diaspora book is a must read! For mind games: The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi. Plus for a related rabbit hole: th

by pas 7y ago

For higher dimensional mind bending his Diaspora book is a must read! For mind games: The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi. Plus for a related rabbit hole: the idea that a random pattern can just pop into existence and have consciousness is basically the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boltzmann_brain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boltzmann_brain concept.

strig 7y ago
The first chapter of Diaspora is available on the author's website, I'd highly recommend reading it: https://www.gregegan.net/DIASPORA/01/Orphanogenesis.html https://www.gregegan.net/DIASPORA/01/Orphanogenesis.html
delecti 7y ago
Diaspora was going to be my answer as well, the ending in particular. It kinda forced me to accept as inevitable that at some point my consciousness will cease, in one way or another. I can plausibly see life extension technology arising that gives me hundreds, or even thousands of extra years of life. It doesn't seem entirely impossible to extend that premise to millions of years, but at billions it doesn't really seem fathomable, and trillions seems to be well beyond what we know about the likely fate of the universe. And once I accepted that inevitability, it suddenly seemed a lot more plausible that my time left was probably closer to decades than even centuries, let alone anything beyond that. There were definitely a fair few existential crises in the weeks and months after finishing that book.
- pas 7y ago
  Uuuuuhmmmm, yes, agreed. That whole story still gives me the existential shivers sometimes. The juxtaposition of the big and small. Brilliant, raw, too elegant, too calculatingly cold, too far out - and all because of its hardness (as in I don't even know if you have to suspend disbelief, it seems so perfectly real/possible), truly a masterpiece of science-fiction.
Chris2048 6y ago
According to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future The emergence of a Boltmann brain is on the scale of "all iron stars collapse via quantum tunnelling into black holes" The next milestone is all matter decaying, and the universe being empty..

by pas 7y ago

strig 7y ago

The first chapter of Diaspora is available on the author's website, I'd highly recommend reading it: https://www.gregegan.net/DIASPORA/01/Orphanogenesis.html https://www.gregegan.net/DIASPORA/01/Orphanogenesis.html

delecti 7y ago

Diaspora was going to be my answer as well, the ending in particular. It kinda forced me to accept as inevitable that at some point my consciousness will cease, in one way or another. I can plausibly see life extension technology arising that gives me hundreds, or even thousands of extra years of life. It doesn't seem entirely impossible to extend that premise to millions of years, but at billions it doesn't really seem fathomable, and trillions seems to be well beyond what we know about the likely fate of the universe. And once I accepted that inevitability, it suddenly seemed a lot more plausible that my time left was probably closer to decades than even centuries, let alone anything beyond that. There were definitely a fair few existential crises in the weeks and months after finishing that book.

pas 7y ago
Uuuuuhmmmm, yes, agreed. That whole story still gives me the existential shivers sometimes. The juxtaposition of the big and small. Brilliant, raw, too elegant, too calculatingly cold, too far out - and all because of its hardness (as in I don't even know if you have to suspend disbelief, it seems so perfectly real/possible), truly a masterpiece of science-fiction.

Chris2048 6y ago

According to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future The emergence of a Boltmann brain is on the scale of "all iron stars collapse via quantum tunnelling into black holes" The next milestone is all matter decaying, and the universe being empty..