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- And then read Asimov's The Last Answer, good dichotomy of stories.
- Read Isaac Asimov's The Last Answer: https://www.highexistence.com/the-last-answer-short-story/
- Some stories that come to mind...
Accelerando Charles Stross https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/acceler...
Stress again has Singularity Sky which has a minor character as a weakly godlike AI (which is explored much more as a character in the sequel Iron Sunrise (the third book in the series is not to be written - http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/09/books-i-... ))
Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams (aside: it has a mention of the Vingean Singularity):
> “I and my confederates,” Aristide said, “did our best to prevent that degree of autonomy among artificial intelligences. We made the decision to turn away from the Vingean Singularity before most people even knew what it was. But—” He made a gesture with his hands as if dropping a ball. “—I claim no more than the average share of wisdom. We could have made mistakes.”
There's the classic Asimov - The Last Answer
There's a nacesant one in True Names by Vinge (the post singularity in Marooned in Realtime doesn't have any AIs) https://ia801004.us.archive.org/0/items/truenamesvingevernor...
And digging fairly deep into my library, I'll also make mention of The Risen Empire by Scott Westerfeld.
There's a lot of smart AI in sci-fi - but things that that gets close to flirting with the singularity are indeed a rarity.
- To whoever out there that hasn’t read the two greatest short stories by Asimov, here they are:
The Last Question - https://www.multivax.com/last_question.html
The Last Answer - https://www.highexistence.com/the-last-answer-short-story/
- Also check out "The Last Answer", the only work by Asimov I've read that actually terrified me.
If it takes place in the same universe as "The Last Question", you could argue it has a bit of a "Roko's basilisk" flavor.
- Wait, are you telling me there are people out there who don’t know Asimov and haven’t read one of his best short stories??? The Last Question, along with Nightfall and The Last Answer are generally accepted as the best.
