Zendegi
Nasim is a young computer scientist, hoping to work on the Human Connectome Project: a plan to map every neural connection in the brain. But funding for the project is cancelled, and she ends up devoting her career to Zendegi, a computerised virtual world used by millions. Then, 15 years later, the Connectome Project is revived.
Stats for nerds
6recommend
13mentions
11people
2011–2026years
54% recommend38% neutral8% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Another book by Greg Egan - "Zendegi" - has more overlap with MMAcevedo. It covers a different approach to mind uploading (possibly) more practical in near future: a generic model of the brain is fine-tuned on responses from a specific human. The generic model itself is made by averaging over many scanned connectomes. The other part of the book is VR Shahnameh which, honestly, was a bit too boring.
He also has a whole bunch of short stories on the same topic. Some assume reader is already familiar with concept of sideloading, as it's explained in the passing:
1. Bit Players: https://www.gregegan.net/MISC/BIT/BIT.html
2. 3-adica
3. Instantiation
4. Uncanny Valley (available online)
Other:
1. "Reasons to Be Cheerful"
2. “Learning to Be Me”
3. Closer
- Zendegi, by Greg Egan, is basically about this.
- Also something like this happens in the Greg Egan book Zendegi. It starts off with a anecdote about someone ripping their music files and the issues that arise from the copy (or something along those lines). But definitely an interesting read and one that tackles the possible issues that could arise in a different way than other novels.
- Puzzle games that reward hyperfocus and minimal-movement and minimal-thinking are always always going to be preferred to be played on other platforms than VR, mostly because of the convenience factor but also because of VR's anti-convenience factor of a heavy weight on your face, lenses fogging up, etc. These issues are never going away.
I feel like the rest of your comment kinda proves my point more than it proves the opposite? Forcing yourself to engage in cerebral activities simultaneously utilising different motor, language and problem-solving skills is GOOD.
I'll say though that quoting Greg Egan is putting the cart before the horse, because his brand of end-point transhumanism sorta assumes that we WON'T destroy ourselves through Huxwellian dystopias before getting to that level of technology.
Read Egan's Zendegi for a more realistic take for how that technology integration will go down.
- If you haven't already, you need to read as much Greg Egan as you can. His short stories "Learning To Be Me" and "Closer" are as disturbing as they are wonderful, but it's the novel "Zendegi" where Egan really starts to explore the challenges of BCI and actual integration or digitization of a human mind.
- If you like hard sci-fi I'd recommend reading Zendegi by Greg Egan. One of the main plot-lines is about a father creating a digital version of himself to leave for his son when he dies.
