vernor Vinge: A.I's, singularity

[Mithfânion]

I know Vinge is seen as one of the forerunners of the idea of The Singularity and is said to handle that in a way that is not too bizarre or implausible ( as Stross is sometimes accused of). Is this something Vinge shows a lot of in Deepness in the Sky and Fire upon the Deep, A.I and the Singularity? Those are the two books of his I'd want to pick up.

In general I am just very interested in the idea of Artificial Intelligence, but especially so when we're talking about highly evolved beings, possibly due to the Singularity. Does River of Gods by McDonald feature this as well? Or other books that you know of?

Vinge is writing a sequel to those two books right now btw.

 

[Yobmod]

Vinge is known academically for 'inventing' his singularity, but in general his cunningly avoids actually exploring the issue in his fiction. I'm one of those that think that post-singularity fiction is an oxymoron - the whole point of a Vingean singularity is that we would be unable to fathom the workings of the post singularity society, let alone relate to any of its inhabitants. Neither Vinge nor Stross ever approach such a society.

Vinge, however, makes this inability part of the story. The post singularity society of the Beyond in Fire Upon the Deep is shown to be mysterious and incomprehensible, then ignored for most of the book, which follows characters from the slower regions of space.

Similarly, the bobbles in The Peace War might be expected to cause a singularity, but they don't. Instead society is repressed, and very similar to the repressive regimes of today.

Stross attempts to approach a post singularity directly in Accelerando, but fails completely in my view. The final third of the book lacked impact because the society and individuals shown was not particularly alien to modern day thought, they just have more advanced tech.

The future society in Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time is far nearer to post-singularity, hence the (secondary) characters motives are often absurd or contradictory, and it is difficult to care that they face oblivion.

River of Gods also skirts around the singularity idea. The plot is entirely set in a pre-singularity society, which may be on the brink of a singularity. It keeps the post-singularity future mysterious and out of the spotlight - although the artifact acts in ways that seem suspicously understandable to the reader and characters. Another example of pre-singulaity IMO, along with Stross'.

But FUtD is still a very impressive and enjoyable read, with the best aliens i've ever come across - highly recomended.

 

[Archren]

Vinge's latest book, Rainbow's End, is near-future, and may be showing the run-up to a singularity event, but that's not its focus by any means.

I heard a freind mention the other day that some people now talk about a Clarke Singularity, referrring to the end of Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End. It does share the features of the Vingean Singularity in that folks on the other side will be incomprehensible to us, but is caused by a huge jump in evolution (or conciousness or something) instead of computing power. He mentioned that he felt that Stross was touching on the Clarke Singularity more than a Vingean one at the end of Accelerando where the "Vile Offspring" are dismantling the Earth to make more computronium.

Not sure I buy that, but it's an interesting perspective.

 

[Hobbit]

Topic sort've discussed HERE. .

Hobbit

 

[Phantos]

Vinge is writing a sequel to those two books right now btw.

this is very cool news.

 

[Werthead]

Greg Bear's classic Blood Music also features a biological/ecological Singularity-style event, 'inspired' by Childhood's End.

Peter F. Hamilton has steered clear of the Singularity in his SF so far (perhaps unrealistically so: the Sentient Intelligence is basically just a more powerful and slightly more enigmatic version of HAL), but there are signs that his forthcoming Void Trilogy, set 1,500 years in our future, will dabble with the idea with 'Advancer' posthumans of tremendous mental power existing alongside and above mundane humans.