While reviewing some of the deep cuts on accelerationism – stuff that won’t make it onto the current episode by may well be part of a standalone ep – several things kept popping up. One of those is Kurzweil’s earlier work on the Singularity (and I do happen to have a copy of that in the depths of Dr Implausible’s Bookshelf, so we’ll dig into that a bit more later). The second is repeated reference’s back to Simulation Theory, most formally put forth by Nick Bostrom, and picked up by others since.
The two competing theories mesh quite well – they’re situated at different “sides” of the singularity, pre- and post-. Kurzweil’s “A Theory of Technological Evolution: The Law of Accelerating Returns”, presented as chapter 2 of The Singularity is Near (2005) uses various trends in computing tech to extrapolate a trend where we can achieve full brain simulation and eventually neural uploading. (The timeframes he suggested for these two events were 2013 and 2025, respectively, and while there are still a few months left in 2024, I think we’ll miss those targets.) The obvious goal here, is to reach a state where full simulation can be achieved.
On the other side of that – taking a jump through the event horizon of the technological singularity – we have the Simulation Hypothesis, where the acceleration is already assumed to have taken place, and we’re all already uploaded (or NPCs in someone else’s simulation, tbh). Bostrom was writing around the same time as Kurzweil (2003 compared to 2005), so it was floating around in the zeitgeist.
Viewed in this way, simulation theory can’t be seen as anything less that a cyber-eschatology. (Eschatology being the theological interest in the final judgement and the soul). If the drive by accelerationists is to go fast enough with the development of technology that they can outrun death by uploading their consciousness, then living in a simulation is that final goal. Eternal (virtual) life.
Hail to the new (machinic) flesh.
We’ve seen this cyber-hell before, in various forms, but nowhere near as vividly as that described in Iain M Banks’ Surface Detail (2010), the penultimate novel in his Culture series. Here, we are treated to a war in the virtual heavens (and hell), and the fate that may bestow billions if this were to be achieved.
Within the context of the novel, the souls are released, but such a fate was by no means assured. And depending on your view of the fate of humanity locked away within the creches of The Matrix (1999), one might wonder if they fate they escaped to was perhaps worse than the virtual one they were entombed within.
Hard to say. This is why it remains firmly within the idea of the “post-singularity”; there’s no way to answer the question until after that event horizon is crossed.
Perhaps.
Perhaps our collective imagination will allow us to evaluate the promises and perils of the course we’re on, before we hit the point of no return. To take a look from the side at the width of the Snake River Canyon before launching down the ramp, Evel Knievel style. And maybe, just maybe that allows us to judge whether strapping rockets to our motorcycle is really the best way to make that leap.
1970s-era accelerationism at its finest.
We’ll see if that’s the fate in store for us.