This is the third part of my look at Charlie Stross’ three arguments against the Singularity. You can read part one here and part two here.
The third aspect of the Singularity that Charlie Stross deals with, and deals with rather briefly, is the Simulation aspect of it. There are a couple of varieties of thinking about simulations. There are Singulatarians and Transhumanists actively working towards, and arguing for, a future in which people can upload their consciousness into an elaborate computer simulation, where they can basically live forever. There’s a good novel around a society built on this in Dennis Danvers’ Circuit of Heaven. Of course, such a premise is contingent on the ability to actually upload consciousness, which, again, I wouldn’t hold my breath for.
There are a couple of other variants to a simulated world. The most popular is probably the idea that, rather than uploading your consciousness, you could simply hook your brain into a simulation, as seen in The Matrix and its terrible sequels, or a slightly different variant in Total Recall and the much better short story that it’s based on, “We Can Dream It For You Wholesale” by Phillip K. Dick.
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