----- Original Message ----- From: "Simon Laub" Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.sf.science,comp.society.futures Keywords: Greg Egan, Future, Vaccum collapse, Loop Quantum gravity, Spin Foam Models, Exolife, vacuum creation, vacuum creator, Nightmares, Virtual Reality Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 11:43 PM Subject: The future of post humans (review of Greg Egans: Schilds ladder) Once you can learn in a sufficiently flexible manner- something humanity had achieved in the Bronze age - the only limits you really face are speed and storage; all other structural changes are just a matter of style. Or so according to Egan. And there we go: Enter a future world of non-flesh post humans, where all but a few deranged relics have their minds in quantum-computer 'Qusps', with a flesh body as a peripheral that many forgo. And where death is regarded as only a minor annoyance. Gone are the sad old ancient Earthlings with their limited expectations. The ones who really expected no progress, no happiness, no success, no harmony. Gone are the ancient humans burdened by their limited lifespans. Now we have immortal humans who populate the galaxy and travel vast distances disembodied. Gone are ancient concepts like male and female. Who needs sexual dimorphism anyway?, If your mind is really running on a quantum computer ready to be transmitted to another starsystem? And after all, if you want sex and death - surely even acorporals could try that out in some sort of simulation? And then curiosity almost kills the cat. And how else than with a science experiment running amok. Creating a new vacuum. A new vacuum that begin to eat its way through the galaxy, destroying thousands of inhabited planets in its wake. But not just any old, new vacuum. An intelligent vacuum that is a biosphere right down to the Planck scale. Intelligent. Begins to sound a lot like Hans Moravec's intelligent life on neutron stars doesn't it? But better, with intelligence woven into the very space time fabric of the vacuum. And again post humans must explore - and so goes the creator of this new universe (scientist Cass is the name of our heroine) inside to say hello to the beings she has created. A little difficult Egan informs us - Such communication between different structures of mind, different nature of hardware and different laws of physics - but heck, where there is a will, there is a way. And on and on. Love it all the way! Surely it might not be loop quantum gravity precisely or even close. But never mind, surely there must be an Egan universe, somewhere out there in the multiverse! Not to have it would be shameful. FUT: rec.arts.sf.written -Simon Simon Laub http://home18.inet.tele.dk/silanian/Post/myposts.htm http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/lol/1165/recentposts/mypostindex.html