Consciousness Slum: Difference between revisions
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=== Definition === | |||
==References== | A consciousness slum is a term used to describe a dystopic afterlife condition caused by one existing in an uploaded mental state. For instance, one might be forced into a consciousness slum by a computer malfunction during consciousness suspension. | ||
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In reality, there are proposed examples of people trapped in consciousness while in a coma for many years. One example was Rom Houben, a patient trapped in a 23 year coma.<ref>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1230092/Rom-Houben-Patient-trapped-23-year-coma-conscious-along.html</ref> | |||
The idea of a consciousness slum comes from a work of science fiction called ''Postsingular'', by Rudy Rucker.<ref>Rucker, Rudy. ''Postsingular''. http://www.rudyrucker.com/postsingular/#summary</ref> It describes Vearth, a virtual Earth computed by self-replicating nanomachines called nants, which disassemble the physical planet and scan each living creature into a customized agent inside the simulation.<ref>Rucker, Rudy. ''Postsingular'', Chapter 2, "Nant Day." http://www.rudyrucker.com/postsingular/postsingular.htm</ref> The promise made to the public is that the transfer will be imperceptible and that life in Vearth will be an improvement on the original. What the novel later reveals, through a character who experiences a simulation of it, is that Vearth is a degraded copy. Rendering the world costs more computation than the nants are willing to spend, so water, clouds, and fire are never rendered correctly, and objects as complex as a tree are reduced to flat polygons.<ref>Anders, Charlie Jane. "4 Ways Virtual Reality Living Could Suck." Gizmodo. http://gizmodo.com/4-ways-virtual-reality-living-could-suck-5274180</ref> Resolution is then sold. Residents who pay a monthly fee are rendered in greater detail than those who do not, and only people with the correct political affiliation are uploaded as conscious agents at all, while everyone else is run as an AI with no interior experience.<ref>Anders, Charlie Jane. "Postsingular Is Rudy Rucker's Wildest Ride Yet." Gizmodo. http://gizmodo.com/postsingular-is-rudy-ruckers-wildest-ride-yet-33317673</ref> The slum condition is therefore not solitary confinement but tiered residency in a world whose fidelity is a billable service. Rucker has since argued outside the novel that a full virtual substitute for the physical world is impossible in principle, and that the Vearth proposal amounts to pulping the Earth to run a poor model of it.<ref>Rucker, Rudy. "Fundamental Limits to Virtual Reality, Part 1." http://www.rudyrucker.com/blog/2008/03/03/fundamental-limits-to-virtual-reality/</ref> | |||
The main character in Philip K. Dick's ''I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon''<ref>Dick, Philip K. ''Frozen Journey''. Playboy. December 1980.</ref> becomes trapped in a consciousness slum when the ship's hibernation mode malfunctions, leaving the protagonist awake in a slumbering body only a few years into a 60 year trip to another planet. In order to save the man's consciousness, the computer decides to entertain him by playing him back memories from his life. The playback mechanisms repeat and corrupt the man's mind, so that when he does finally arrive on the planet after many years, he can no longer differentiate between reality and his own memory. | |||
=== Related === | |||
*[[Artificial Heaven]] | |||
== References == | |||
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[[Category:Book Pages]] | [[Category:Book Pages]] | ||
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Latest revision as of 10:15, 24 August 2026
Definition
A consciousness slum is a term used to describe a dystopic afterlife condition caused by one existing in an uploaded mental state. For instance, one might be forced into a consciousness slum by a computer malfunction during consciousness suspension.
In reality, there are proposed examples of people trapped in consciousness while in a coma for many years. One example was Rom Houben, a patient trapped in a 23 year coma.[1]
The idea of a consciousness slum comes from a work of science fiction called Postsingular, by Rudy Rucker.[2] It describes Vearth, a virtual Earth computed by self-replicating nanomachines called nants, which disassemble the physical planet and scan each living creature into a customized agent inside the simulation.[3] The promise made to the public is that the transfer will be imperceptible and that life in Vearth will be an improvement on the original. What the novel later reveals, through a character who experiences a simulation of it, is that Vearth is a degraded copy. Rendering the world costs more computation than the nants are willing to spend, so water, clouds, and fire are never rendered correctly, and objects as complex as a tree are reduced to flat polygons.[4] Resolution is then sold. Residents who pay a monthly fee are rendered in greater detail than those who do not, and only people with the correct political affiliation are uploaded as conscious agents at all, while everyone else is run as an AI with no interior experience.[5] The slum condition is therefore not solitary confinement but tiered residency in a world whose fidelity is a billable service. Rucker has since argued outside the novel that a full virtual substitute for the physical world is impossible in principle, and that the Vearth proposal amounts to pulping the Earth to run a poor model of it.[6]
The main character in Philip K. Dick's I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon[7] becomes trapped in a consciousness slum when the ship's hibernation mode malfunctions, leaving the protagonist awake in a slumbering body only a few years into a 60 year trip to another planet. In order to save the man's consciousness, the computer decides to entertain him by playing him back memories from his life. The playback mechanisms repeat and corrupt the man's mind, so that when he does finally arrive on the planet after many years, he can no longer differentiate between reality and his own memory.
Related
References
- ↑ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1230092/Rom-Houben-Patient-trapped-23-year-coma-conscious-along.html
- ↑ Rucker, Rudy. Postsingular. http://www.rudyrucker.com/postsingular/#summary
- ↑ Rucker, Rudy. Postsingular, Chapter 2, "Nant Day." http://www.rudyrucker.com/postsingular/postsingular.htm
- ↑ Anders, Charlie Jane. "4 Ways Virtual Reality Living Could Suck." Gizmodo. http://gizmodo.com/4-ways-virtual-reality-living-could-suck-5274180
- ↑ Anders, Charlie Jane. "Postsingular Is Rudy Rucker's Wildest Ride Yet." Gizmodo. http://gizmodo.com/postsingular-is-rudy-ruckers-wildest-ride-yet-33317673
- ↑ Rucker, Rudy. "Fundamental Limits to Virtual Reality, Part 1." http://www.rudyrucker.com/blog/2008/03/03/fundamental-limits-to-virtual-reality/
- ↑ Dick, Philip K. Frozen Journey. Playboy. December 1980.
