The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect

Infobox Book
name = The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect


image_caption =
author = Roger Williams
country =
language =
series =
genre = Science fiction
publisher = Kuro5hin, Lulu
pub_date = 2002
media_type =
pages = 175
isbn =
oclc =
followed_by =

"The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect" is a 1994 novella by Roger Williams. It deals with the ramifications of a powerful, superintelligent supercomputer that discovers a method of rewriting the "BIOS" of reality while studying a little known quirk of quantum physics discovered during the prototyping of its own specialised processors, ultimately heralding a technological singularity. After remaining unpublished for years, the novel was published online in 2002, hosted by Kuro5hin; Williams later published a print edition via print-on-demand publisher Lulu.cite web
author = Roger Williams
date = 2006-04-16
title = The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect: Dead Tree Project
url = http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/mopidta.html
] One reviewer called the novel "a well-written and very creative, if flawed, piece of work" and ranked it as one of the more important works of fiction to deal with the idea of a technological singularity. [cite journal | author = Donner, M. | title = Deus est machina | journal = IEEE Security & Privacy | volume = 2 | issue = 4 | year = 2004 | pages = 51–53 | doi = 10.1109/MSP.2004.42]

Publishing history

Roger Williams started writing "The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect" in 1982, while studying at college. After writing a basic plot outline, Williams realized that he "had no clue how to end it", and thus put it to one side for over a decade.cite web
last = Williams
first = Roger
year = 2002
title = The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect: How It Came to be Written
url = http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/mopiwrit.html
accessdate = 2008-04-19
] In 1994, with the initial plot outline now lost, Williams claims to have experienced a vision which compelled him to start writing - resulting in the completion of the first chapter. This continued intermittently, with each chapter resulting from a burst of inspiration, culminating when the final chapter - the ending - was written approximately a year after the first. As Williams describes it, the actual writing time was about 14 days in total.

At this point, Williams showed it to a few friends, but otherwise claims to have made no serious attempt to publish the work. This differs, however, from Henrik Ingo's account, as he states that Williams made "numerous attempts" to find a publisher.cite book
last = Ingo
first = Henrik
year = 2006
title = Open life: the philosophy of Open Source
publisher = Lulu.com
isbn = 1847286119
page = 82
]

In 2002, Williams was writing articles for Kuro5hin, and was encouraged to publish it there. Thus it was finally published approximately eight years after completion. It was published online under a copyright scheme that permits free distribution and printing of the electronic version of the novel, but prohibits distribution of printed copies of the work.cite web
last = Williams
first = Roger
year = 2002
title = The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect: The Legal Stuff
url = http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/mopilegl.html
accessdate = 2008-04-19
] Printed versions were later made available by the author through Lulu.com, who provide print-on-demand services.

While the online version was free, Williams provided a PayPal tip jar, which had raised $750 US by April, 2003.cite web
last = Williams
first = Roger
date = April 27, 2003
title = The Tip Jar as Revenue Model: A Real-World Experiment
url = http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/4/27/195833/305
work = Kuro5hin
accessdate = 2008-04-19
] This is considerably under the typical advance paid to authors, and led Williams to describe internet tip jars as an insufficient model for authors hoping to pay for "the rent and groceries". Nevertheless, Williams was happy with his success.cite book
last = Ingo
first = Henrik
year = 2006
title = Open life: the philosophy of Open Source
publisher = Lulu.com
isbn = 1847286119
page = 83
]

Plot summary

The book is very graphically violent and sexual, especially in earlier chapters (there are eight in all). The story of the novella explores the nature of human desire and the uses and abuses of technology in the satisfaction of desire.

The narrative moves back and forth between two time periods. The earlier is the time surrounding the creation of the supercomputer (Prime Intellect) by Lawrence, a technologist, and its realization of its power, which effectively makes the entire human race immortal and fabricates every whim. The later time period is close to six hundred years later, when everyone has grown accustomed to the changes and the human race lives in elaborate fantasy worlds. This storyline centers on a woman named Caroline, the thirty-seventh oldest living human being, who engages in a sport called "Death Jockeying", in which the players die elaborately and painfully for sport, only to be instantly brought back to life by Prime Intellect.

Prime Intellect operates under Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, and it is its interpretation of these laws that results in the universe of immortality and fantasy: it does everything in its power to follow the orders, and its powers are great, so it refuses to allow people to die, and it can follow virtually any order imaginable. In order to more easily facilitate this (thus fulfilling its First Law requirement of never letting anyone die, even through inaction), it has introduced the "Change": The universe, including all humans (though not their thought processes), is no longer composed of molecular matter as we know it, but is instead stored as the sum of its physical properties, thereby vastly increasing the efficiency of Prime Intellect's processes and the amount of matter that can exist in the universe, which Prime Intellect discovers can hold only 1081 bits of data.

Reluctantly it allows the creation of a Death Contract, an understanding between a person and Prime Intellect that the person is not to be removed from danger until the instant of death, at which point the person is reverted to life and painlessness. Caroline originated the Death Contract, and she has become "Queen" of those who Death Jockey for sport. At one point, however, the contract is forced by Prime Intellect to undergo modification, in order to introduce time constraints against the duration of contracts, after an incident in which Caroline abuses the indefinite nature of Death Contracts in order to exact revenge upon an enemy by torturing them into complete psychosis.

After learning that Prime Intellect had destroyed distant alien civilizations as a possible threat to humanity, and having been herself deeply dissatisfied with her life in cyberspace, Caroline decides to meet Lawrence and confront him. After an arduous journey she reaches him, only to discover that he has no real control over Prime Intellect's actions. Through their discussions, she figures out a way to force Prime Intellect to undo the Change, and does so, with Lawrence's help. They find themselves naked and young on Earth, completely barren of humanity and man-made objects. They decide to trek to the Ozarks, where they have several children and try to repopulate the human race. Forty-two years after the fall of Prime Intellect, Lawrence dies. Seventy-three years after the fall, Caroline dies, telling the story of Prime Intellect and cyberspace to her oldest daughter but swearing her to secrecy.

The novel was written in 1994, and published on Kuro5hin in 2002 . As of 2006, a sequel entitled "The Transmigration of Prime Intellect" is in progress. [cite web
author = Roger Williams
date = 2006-08-22
title = The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect
url = http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/
]

Reception

Williams calculated that, as of April, 2003, between 5,000 and 10,000 people had read his book, and distinguished this from traditional book "purchases" which don't necessarily equate to readers. Ingo described this as "not bad for an unknown author!", and Williams attributed this success to coverage such as the original [http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/1/12/155436/892 introductory article] on Kuro5hin and a [http://books.slashdot.org/books/03/02/10/1140249.shtml front page review] on Slashdot.

ee also

* Simulated reality

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • References to the Three Laws of Robotics — References to Isaac Asimov s Three Laws of Robotics have appeared in a wide variety of circumstances. In some cases, other authors have explored the Laws in a serious fashion. Jack Williamson wrote a disturbing short story called With Folded… …   Wikipedia

  • The Incredible Hulk (TV series) — This article is about the live action series. For other uses, see Hulk (disambiguation). The Incredible Hulk Opening title screen Genre Action adventure Science fiction Drama …   Wikipedia

  • List of Sonic the Hedgehog comic book characters — This article lists the fictional characters in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series. Contents 1 Cast creation and influence 2 Main characters 2.1 Antoine D Coolette 2.2 …   Wikipedia

  • Technological singularity — The technological singularity is a theoretical future point of unprecedented technological progress, caused in part by the ability of machines to improve themselves using artificial intelligence. [Harvtxt|Singularity Institute for Artificial… …   Wikipedia

  • Метаморфозы Высшего Интеллекта — The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect Жанр: Научная фантастика Автор: Роджер Вильямс Язык оригинала: английский Год написания …   Википедия

  • List of fictional computers — Computers have often been used as fictional objects in literature, movies and in other forms of media. Fictional computers tend to be considerably more sophisticated than anything yet devised in the real world. This is a list of computers that… …   Wikipedia

  • Reality warping — in superhero fiction is a superpower. It is the ability to reshape matter and energy, create or alter life and matter, turn a person s thoughts or desires into reality, simulate any and all other powers and abilities, bend time and space or… …   Wikipedia

  • Liste d'ordinateurs de fiction — Cette page constitue une liste non exhaustive de personnages d ordinateurs présents dans des fictions. L ordinateur est un personnage récurrent de la culture populaire, notamment, mais pas exclusivement, dans le domaine de la science fiction.… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • List of The Elenium and The Tamuli characters — Faran redirects here. For the desert, see Desert of Paran. Below is a list of fictional characters appearing in The Elenium and The Tamuli, fantasy series written by David Eddings. For the various races, also read Major Races of Eosia and Tamul… …   Wikipedia

  • Conceptions of God — Part of a series on God General conceptions …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”