From: john grigg (starman125@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Aug 02 1999 - 15:00:54 MDT
Hello everyone,
I am a third of the way through "Inherit the Earth" by Brian Stableford and
must say it is a terrific novel! It is set in the 22nd century on earth in
a world where nanotech (known as internal technology or IT) has greatly
extended lives though emortality has not yet arrived.
The main character is the son and heir of a biotech Bill Gates who
supposedly saved humanity from a terrible plague. Imagine having bank
accounts with BILLIONS waiting for you and not dipping into them! To show
his contempt for his dad the main character does that.
I will not spoil the plot but I will say that it is a very fleshed out
universe that Stableford creates that seems so possible one day. The
characterization and insights into human nature are excellent but then if
you are familiar with Brian Stableford this will not surprise you.
I do think that by the 22nd century we will be more advanced then Stableford
projects on nanotech but that is a minor quibble over a novel that everyone
on this list should definitely read. "The First Immortal" was good but
David Halperin just does not have the writing abilities of a master like
Stableford.
I suppose it will forever be a popular topic on this list as to whether we
can trust and peacefully co-exist with our "mind children" in whatever forms
they take. Of course the plot of the "Terminator" films come to mind as I
write this. One reason for nuclear disarmament may be so such weapons are
not available for renegade A.I.'s to hack into and take control of. But
with nano and biotech it does not ultimately matter I think.
If we compare bringing A.I.'s into the world and programming them to
parenting human children I would say we must be good moral examples to them.
What a concept!! Could the human race manage that one? could even the
United States? What will an A.I. think of our exploitation of third world
nations to keep our economy chugging happily along?? Scarily, they may
decide to follow our example.
Perhaps the A.I.'s will take a paternal take on humanity and will even let
us think we are in charge when actually to a large extent they really are.
Sort of like a marriage where both partners have their own spheres of
influence. Programming A.I.'s to "behave" may be hard but perhaps we can
give them some sort of moral compass to govern themselves.
If a major conflict does come to be a humanity just narrowly wins I could
see our A.I.'s being greatly scaled back in terms of ability to self-govern
and general capabilities which would slow down human progress and growth
certainly. Whether we won a war with our own machines would I think be
largely determined by the point at which our machines chose to rebel. I
would think A.I.'s would be sure of success before turning against us.
But a single renegade A.I. might be enough to give humanity the necessary
scare to radically alter course. But we could go the way of the "Dune"
novels and use human computers (mentats) to do some of what machines had
done before. I doubt the "Dune" model could ever replace powerful A.I.'s
though!
I have read posts about how to avoid the A.I. problem we should use
uploading of human minds. And to make that even safer to upload
simultaneously a number of honorable individuals so no one or small clique
can suddenly seize power. There is a logic to all of this though we must
remember that when dealing with human beings we will have the same problems
probably with uploads that we do with people down here right now! But at
least it will be a known commodity...the human condition.
On the topic of how to utterly exterminate a race of intelligent beings that
have colonized a large area of space I would think back to the Larry Niven
story "World of Ptavvs" where one race eons ago ruled with an iron hand all
the other races of our galaxy. They did this by a telepathic mind control
power native to their race that they could mechanically amplify. Now I
realize psi is a very debatable issue but I thought the concept here was
fascinating. Do not read further if you do not want the plot revealed to
you.
A slave race that were masters of bio-engineering created a semi-sentient
lifeform that could when it wanted be immune to the mind control and in the
guise of a servant class put them in almost every ship and home of the
slavemasters. When the signal was given these creatures rended to bits the
alien overlords who tried unsuccessfully to their horror to fend them off
psionically.
But in the homeworld the alien overlords had a secret doomsday weapon and
before they were all killed it was activated. This device sent a hugely
magnified message of telepathic compulsion to every intelligent being in our
galaxy. The message was "kill yourself!" When the dust settled every
slaver and slave was dead with the semi-sentient killing machines to wander
about the ruins. Eons later according to the story humanity and other races
came to be.
I found the story fascinating as an example of how one very powerful race
could be overthrown by others. The slavers had before enslaving other races
enslaved the members of their own race with little or no telepathic power
and the whole culture was based on this so it seemed only natural to do this
to those they encountered in space.
The story has a lone survivor of the race in "time-stop" stasis who uses his
powers on the human crew of a spaceship. But the wily onboard A.I. is
immune and takes him out! The tiger-like Kzinti are also a part of the
story and you would not to be a Kzinti telepath; talk about social pariahs!
It was ages ago I read the story but I very much enjoyed it. So I present
it as a fictional example for the extinction topic. Even though psi like I
said is highly debatable.
I want to say how much I enjoy reading the list. I have learned a great
deal. I am very appreciative of all the great advice I got on ways to
improve my brain function. I look forward to the Textropian timeline when
it is completed. I still havn't given up on the thought of attending the
Extro. Take care everyone.
Sincerely,
John Grigg
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