Re:Human Brain Project: $1.61 billion to achieve human brain...
by nickknw on Wednesday May 18, 2011 @04:28PM
(#2561651)
I was about to mention Altered Carbon, glad I'm not the only one who has read it. He did an amazing job of exploring many of the far-reaching impacts of being able to transplant consciousnesses.
To your examples of crime and law enforcement I'd like to add religion and drug use as well.
(minor spoiler alert)
All that's left of Christianity is basically a small fanatic cult, and drug use is far more casual and widespread.
If your body is almost disposable and death isn't necessarily inevitable, then I guess it makes sense things like this follow.
Re:Human Brain Project: $1.61 billion to achieve human brain...
by anateus on Wednesday May 18, 2011 @06:01PM
(#2562017)
Although not nearly as fast-paced and cinematic, the kinda-badly-written Permutation City by Greg Egan does a much more thorough job of exploring uploading and simulation, imho.
Morgan is a wee bit oversimplifying certain aspects, in particular the tech is almost too nicely packaged and very "physical". Which is certainly a possibility, but Permutation City crosses the speculation with the distributed computing trends we are currently experiencing.
I bet everyone here knows the former book. Kurzweil's exploration of the ramifications of thinking machines is fascinating, but his response to the question of ethics can best be summed up as between "meh" and "we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."
The other book takes place in a future where consciousness can be digitized, and mankind has already surpassed the threshold of computing power represented by the ability to simulate/host consciousness. The fictional treatment of this technology and its impact on society -- especially on crime and law enforcement -- is fascinating.