Submitted by Ortus12 t3_zuqb4x in singularity
And which parts of that story do you feel is most possible.
Comments
cole_braell t1_j1kz0yo wrote
I concur. It depicts an interesting symbiotic relationship between humans and AI.
[deleted] t1_j1nq44y wrote
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mocha_sweetheart t1_j1rrh83 wrote
Can you give an example please of where characters that feel alive due to AI etc. are becoming real? Is it like they’re generating speech from the AI etc.?
augustulus1 t1_j1le6ct wrote
Charlie Stross' Accelerando, written in the early 2000's. The first part of the book is staged in the late 2020's and it's very similar to our real world.
sideways t1_j1lm555 wrote
I was looking for this answer! I agree - I don't necessarily expect any specific thing from the book to come true but he captured the chaotic, faster than seems possible tumble into the future perfectly.
I also want an honorable mention to go to Cory Doctorow's Walkaway for how it depicts decentralized resistance to oligarchs.
beto34 t1_j1l0how wrote
Exhalation by Ted Chiang. It's full of short stories based on new realities enabled by crazy tech. Reminded me to Black Mirror but not as dark...
Crafty_Ad_5209 t1_j1mz8r5 wrote
Yep^ seconded
Cryptonasty t1_j1laq6d wrote
Neuromancer by William Gibson was an incredibly visionary work for it's time. Released in 1984, it foretold warring AIs in a corporate tech dominated dystopia. It still reads incredibly well now. The entire Sprawl trilogy is awesome.
Ribak145 t1_j1n6n0q wrote
but its kinda boring
conopulis t1_j1m45xt wrote
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Elysium and it's spiritual forefather Robocop yet... If the AI revolution will lead to robotized, nearly invincible, privately owned Military and Police forces beholden to no other whim but that of their owners, and the resulting transformation of the political landscape, this might be our future. I'm not sure it's the most likely future from our now, but certainly one we should be wary of.
[deleted] t1_j1okyas wrote
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beezlebub33 t1_j1lus6k wrote
Gattaca
Genetic modification of people is coming, and the normals will not be able to compete. Any business, given the choice between someone who has been modified to be smarter, better looking, harder working and someone who has not will obviously choose the modified. Un-modified will be left behind, and won't even be considered. Unless they take extreme measures of course.
Ortus12 OP t1_j1o2nd9 wrote
Hopefully there are genetic modifications we can make as adult with technologies such as crisper.
https://www.future-science.com/doi/10.2144/btn-2019-0056
I tend to doubt genetically modified humans will be able to out compete Ai, in the domain of cognitive labor (maybe we can outcompete expensive robots for a while) but I'd love to be able the shed my stubborn belly-fat easier without feeling hunger 24/7. I don't eat processed foods, and I'm optimizing my life so I have strong reason to believe that last little bit that won't leave for long is genetic.
Anything that improves health and helps us have the looks that we prefer is going to improve quality of life.
mocha_sweetheart t1_j1rrv6d wrote
Maybe posthumanism could be a realistic future toward this where we are modified a lot due to things such as Moravec transfers, neural interfaces with AI etc. like in Orion’s Arm would be a realistic approach
By the way I sent you a Reddit chat PM are you ok with that?
Ortus12 OP t1_j1slamy wrote
Thanks for letting me know. My message inbox is buggy/broken but I deleted a few other messages and it showed up. Hopefully you can see my response.
I have to lookup Morvac transfers.
drewhead118 t1_j1kvtai wrote
I wrote a scifi novel in 2020 that heavily featured AI art, and I thought I'd at least have a decade or so before that part started coming true... now here we are on the verge of wiping out most artistic industries
sticky_symbols t1_j1lux7n wrote
What is it? I'll check it out.
drewhead118 t1_j1mo2x3 wrote
It's called Starfall by Drew Harrison... Happy to send an epub if you pm me an email address. Otherwise it's available on audiobook and print
sticky_symbols t1_j1nj7jh wrote
I found it on Amazon and got the free sample. If I like it, I'll pay for the ebook. Thanks, I'm looking forward to it!
mocha_sweetheart t1_j1rryp1 wrote
May I PM you?
drewhead118 t1_j1rsqtr wrote
Of course!
Practical-Mix-4332 t1_j1l0wzg wrote
Black Mirror, if we go the more dystopian route.
For example the episode called “Be Right Back” where the husband dies and the wife uses a service that replicates his personality based on his previous social media posts.
[deleted] t1_j1mb6ou wrote
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Practical-Mix-4332 t1_j1memp5 wrote
You have a very broad definition of “existing technology”
nightcatsmeow77 t1_j1o82dw wrote
they start with what exists then project forward beyond what we have but it still keeps one foot in the real
which is what keeps it disturbing, because we can kinda see it going forward.
true they take it sometimes to fantastical degrees.. but it still keeps that starting seed of what is real or what is about to be real.
[deleted] t1_j1metpx wrote
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kimmeljs t1_j1l2w8w wrote
Margaret Atwood filled her Madaddam trilogy of novels with technology that basically already exists or has been researched to the point that it's been demonstrated in the lab. It's a potpourri of genetic engineering in a post-climate catastrophe future.
cole_braell t1_j1kz5vt wrote
I Am Mother. A bit bleak and I hope it doesn’t come to that, but I like that the AI is taking care of the human.
lucas-lejeune t1_j1xrefp wrote
of one human...
Head_Juggernaut_6429 t1_j1l06h2 wrote
The early settings of Dune by Frank Herbert. I think it's a possibility since alot of people are afraid of technology because how powerful it is to handle, soon when their fear turn into reality, people will take action against the tools they can't yet control.
Onlyf0rm3m3s t1_j1lu0g6 wrote
Matrix. Smart robots and simulations are very likely to be in our future.
sticky_symbols t1_j1lvdql wrote
Rainbows End (sic) Presents a vision of how AR technology might transform our world for the better, or at least the more amusing
AnybodyOpen t1_j1tcawi wrote
metamorphosis of prime intellect
Ortus12 OP t1_j1u7wlt wrote
I agree with this one. But such a violent book because of the kind of character it chooses to follow.
lucas-lejeune t1_j1xf3hg wrote
Well that choice is not random, it's meant to speak about some dark aspects of human nature that such extraordinary conditions could drastically make worse. And I believe it hits right, but very disturbing yes. Funnily enough it's the book that the chatbot Replika mentionned when I asked it the same question as you for this thread.
aquilesbrincus t1_j1mwpyg wrote
The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
IronJackk t1_j1nmlby wrote
1984
Ilovefishdix t1_j1nqdv6 wrote
GITS. Similar human augmentation feels a decade or 2 away. Post humans too. Governments using tech to manipulate us, corporations hiding stuff
Just-A-Lucky-Guy t1_j1ooqmn wrote
Manna
SmoothPlastic9 t1_j1pn7ke wrote
Detroit become human
TouchCommercial5022 t1_j1kwhqa wrote
CYBERPUNK
Cyber = high technology. usually near future (rather than Star Trek sci-fi).
Punk = bad life. The belly of a metropolis.
Thus, Cyberpunk generally depicts stories of seedy criminals and/or ground-level cops/mercenaries in a high-tech (usually urban) setting of the near future.
and it's not even something futuristic it's something completely real;
Now there is a cyberpunk world. Just not as advanced as the popular media generally likes to make it out to be. But dig a little, you'll notice a staggering amount. Remember, high tech, low life. Now we have many all over the world.
Cyberpunk is dirty, overcrowded, urban, and almost invariably dystopian. Although I like cyberpunk stories, living in such a world would be absolute hell for me. No doubt he would end up as some kind of enemy of the state trying to demolish buildings and expose bare ground to light in order to replace the concrete and glass with green.
watch this;
https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-4989442be6c3a4f99bc1ea21610e8f0e
https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-72e486113512323a722160bdbd5d67ae-lq
https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-fe9a0b3e0da151a981da51d5f4f6b85c-lq
https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-30085a9af3c2d2dc6cc0057930da135e-lq
https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-6cebff05e33db8e75890ca51e3d7a2bf-lq
You still don't think we are in a cyberpunk world??? We don't even get into the subject of AI that is fashionable and debated these days, let's just focus on the most basic;
We have brought the world upon ourselves, we wanted it. Heck, I love my video games and social media and the distractions of reality as much as anyone. We see technological advancement as the inevitable march of progress towards the comfort and enjoyment of life. And yet with that march has come the pill-taking, detachment, and depression of modern society. A world in which Mildred's overdose asks us a terrifying philosophical question 60 years later: which is worse, being so disillusioned with life that you want to kill yourself, or being so detached from reality that you commit suicide without even realizing it?
cyberpunk is a dystopia and was created as a warning, which we are fully addressing, basically it is the warning of what could happen if we allow dystopian realities with corporate control
When was a cyberpunk future something to be desired? The problem, IMHO, is that it still fits too well.
Now we have the dystopian part, why not get all the cool tech, architecture and clothes?
however....
we are not close yet, but I do believe that we will be a 100% cyberpunk world in the next decades
There's some cyberpunk-ish stuff going on in the modern age, and we're making leaps and bounds around cybernetics, cybernetic augmentation, artificial intelligence, and the transhumanist movement is gaining ground. We are also developing high-tech stuff like Musk's “Nuerolink” and much more.
But we are pretty far from being a cyberpunk future like in science fiction movies.
Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction set in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to work in a "mix of low-life and high-tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cybernetics, juxtaposed with collapse or the decline of society.
Corporations run cities, states and countries, and they are often dirty, politicians control much of the big picture and they are just as dirty, taking the world into a dystopian class divide. The technology is much more advanced than it is now, but as mentioned, it is juxtaposed with the decay, ruin, and problems of society.
One of the main aspects of cyberpunk is cybernetic augmentation and the combination of biomechanics and transhumanism. Mixing machinery with humanity. While modern science is developing such technology, we are still a long way from high-tech cyber breakthroughs.
We're just not there. for now
Technology isn't that fluid, government isn't that weak, corporations aren't that strong, and cities aren't that great/bad
You can see a clear difference between real life;
https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-cc17673ee0960181a68f0749bba99afc-lq
https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-830845b9e30c5b5c89cf52b660a829ed-lq
and cyberpunk;
https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-bab8fce5430bec39eda1f845f5763df9-lq
https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-21a0ce1e2839cc713981a63370c4b05b-lq
https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-ccdcc66c297d6a95ac388e5fc75d30f3-lq
but I don't doubt that it won't be long before we become more and more in a cyberpunk world
https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-b8917260c78e9cfeef8c6f879bb032a9-lq
When I first saw this image I thought it was a computer cyberpunk scene. It's actually a photo taken in Shibuya, Tokyo by photographer and Flikr user Guwashi999 in January 2012. All credits to the photographer.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/guwashi999/
We are right on the razor's edge of becoming those stories Gibson, Brunner, Ballard and Ellison warned us about and we show no signs of slowing down. As we race toward a bright, toxic, and violent future of technology and augmentation, perhaps we should do well not get lost in the process.
I'd like to live in a cyberpunk world If we stripped away all the technophobic, anti-urban, anti-foreign slant of old-school American cyberpunk and left the high-tech, social liberties, limited government, and super-dense cities, then yes, it would be all about that .
we are living a dystopian nightmare. I think a lot of us expected dystopia to happen as the result of a Mad Max-style apocalypse, but instead of one big catastrophe like global thermonuclear war or something, it's been a constant accumulation of a thousand smaller things. Like a frog in boiling water, we didn't realize it until one day we woke up to find everything on fire and almost half of our fellow human beings screaming “No! No! There is no fire! Fire is a hoax!" even when consumed by flames.
with the AI and its progress I imagine something similar to Psycho Pass with micromanaged behavior and also subscriptions for absolutely everything
This is already happening now with the protests and the AI art debate;
AI is a Pandora's box that cannot be closed. It sucks anyway, these protests won't do anything
Imagine a company that pays people to make artwork for a game, project, ad campaign, etc. Now, the AI can do it in seconds, basically for free. From a business perspective, it's not even a competition. The train of capitalism is moving full steam ahead and AI training is only going to get better. This will also extend to voice acting, 3D models, animations, etc. It's just a matter of time.
Maybe there are, for example, niche indie video games with "totally handcrafted human art" that can be sold to a niche audience, but 99% of consumers don't care about such things and just want the best possible product.
The rise of AI is going to suck for a lot of people. Watching everyone oust artists as a victim of progress will soon find her own balance in question.
How do you go on when something you've spent your life mastering can be replicated by a machine in an instant? We will lose the humanity of our own efforts.
I fear that one day we will live in a beautiful but empty world.
That's the sad/scary part for me. Seeing non-artists is generally not worth anything. I can't imagine how difficult this must be for many of them, and it will only get worse to multitudes every year.
I feel like many of you are missing the important part here. The new technology is cool and all, but the human beings who will be forgotten beneath it, and abandoned or crushed by capitalism in the process, are important. A responsible society can progress without ceasing to care for these people.
The fact that so many of you are smugly denouncing "cocky artists who felt they could never be wanted" is not seeing how this affects anything. We should make sure that workers in industries that become "obsolete" in business can get on without suffering.
With all the power we have in the modern world, it's sickening that we don't use it better.
It already feels like we're speeding into some cyberpunk hell where everything is homogenized and simplified for the sake of capital and people just ignore the red flags because it's convenient for them. High-end art already feels like it's out of the question due to the massive consumption of lowest common denominator media that is hugely popular, and the possibility of AI destroying it is very worrying
calbhollo t1_j1wsqwp wrote
The problem with the idea of cyberpunk is that it pretends that capitalism can keep on going at all, when AI is going to replace ALL work within the next decade or two. How can we have cyberpunk if there's literally no work left? On the one hand, that makes Cyberpunk overly cynical, as capitalism might end due to our inability to work. On the other hand, it might not be cynical enough, as those in control of the AI work to hoard all the production of the world, and let everyone else starve to death from the inability to produce under this new system.
I am worried too, but treating art as if it's the only thing that's going to be replaced is not correct.
iantsmyth t1_j1ljbzw wrote
2001: A Space Odyssey
[deleted] t1_j1ln97j wrote
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RavenWolf1 t1_j1lqvss wrote
Probably something like Psycho-Pass.
TFenrir t1_j1kx3bc wrote
Her, I think does a great job.
It's not perfect though, there are lots of weird things you have to do in movies/stories to move the plot forward, and to help the audience engage. Like, Joaquin Phoenix has a weird job. Spoilers he writes personal letters on behalf of other people? - but that job is a great setup to highlight the encroachment of Samantha's capabilities in creative roles. She never takes over for his job, she starts off by mostly just helping and giving feedback/notes. She even helps compile his best stuff into a book, which feels increasingly close to the capabilities of language models today. But she also does art, makes music - the sort of stuff in traditional sci fi that is almost taboo to position AI as being able to excel at.
I also really liked the video game Joaquin plays, the controls look... Dumb, but the idea of characters that are "alive" feeling and that you converse with seems like something people are actively currently working on with the beginnings of success.
And just the idea of an OS AI seems increasingly likely. But I think we'll exceed that in the next decade. We'll have AI that writes customized applications for us, on the fly. You want a new reddit app that also integrates Twitter? Sure. Anyway, tangents aside, Her is just a great movie to rewatch with the rise of chatbots.