Orion's Arm - FAQs page - OA and Transhumanism

What is "The Singularity"?

Central to the Orion's Arm setting is the concept of a technological-cognitive singularity, or rather, a large number of such "singularities", which we have termed toposophics. This theme was inspired by mathematician/writer Vernor Vinge who put forward the idea of the Singularity. Vinge suggested that within the near future the rate of self-catalyzing, self-organizing, and autonomous (human-independent) technological change will increase to such a stage that it undergoes a "singularity," becoming effectively instantaneous from the perspective of current biological humanity. Events after this point must also be "future-incomprehensible" to existing humanity. This is a concept that has been tremendously influential in the transhumanist movement.

The Singularity in the Orion's Arm setting

Some links concerning the Singularity

What is "Transhumanism"?

Transhumanism is a basically (but not naively) optimistic and rationalistic interdisciplinary approach to understanding and evaluating the possibilities for overcoming biological limitations through technological progress. It is based on the assumption that the "human condition" is not  a constant, as has often been held, but can be augmented and enhanced, almost without limit. Transhumanists seek to expand technological opportunities in order to enhance human intellectual, physical, and emotional capacities to superhuman levels.

  See The World Transhumanist Association Website, and especially Nick Bostrom's The Transhumanist FAQ for more.

Some links concerning Transhumanism

What is meant by "Pessimistic Transhumanism"?

Conventional Transhumanism assumes that optimisation and ascension to higher, superhuman states of existence will be the most likely outcome of coming technological advancements in ai, nanotech, and biotech, even though this may possibly take some time and result in an intermediate stage in which both humans and posthumans coexist. In Orion's Arm we present a more pessimistic, but also equally likely, scenario, which is that instead of a mass ascension there will be multiple and partial ascensions, resulting in a stratification of consciousness and power, in which those intelligences who have attained the highest states (in this setting, the Archailects) will reign over those beneath them, who in turn will rule over those beneath them, and so on down to the human level of consciousness, which still constitutes the largest category of sentient (sophont) beings. Humans will continue to rule over subhuman consciousness - just as today where humans dominate animals and nature - but in a far more limited and localised way, due to the fact that the overall milieu will now be dominated by ascended transhuman and superhuman intelligences.

It is this essential tragedy (if such it be) that defines the setting of the Orion's Arm universe - a science fiction scenario in which standard "baseline" human beings have been surpassed by other intelligences, some of whom are ascended humans themselves. Yet ordinary humanity (albeit far more diverse than today) still continues to exist quite happily and even to contribute to galactic civilization as a whole just no longer in the role of the highest form of intelligent life.

What is the relationship between Orion's Arm and Transhumanism?

Orion's Arm uses many Transhumanist ideas (or memes) because these are the most interesting for our purposes.

How does Orion's Arm differ from Transhumanism?

First, Orion's Arm is a work of imagination (worldbuilding and storytelling); it is not intended as actual prediction or futurism (although it may indeed incorporate many such elements). Second, there is a popular belief among many Transhumanists, Extropians, and Singularitans (people who believe in a coming Singularity) that the current exponential growth in human knowledge and technology will culminate in the very new future (say mid 21st century or sooner) in a radical collective singularity - the so-called "hard take off" scenario. For the sake of a long epic time-line, we assume here that this collective transcendence does not eventuate (see also the reply to this problem here). Of course, no one really knows how the future will turn out; all that futurists and SF writers can do is speculate.

There is too much Transhumanism in OA

Well, we're sorry you feel that way. Can you be more specific? Do you have some non-transhumanist ideas you'd like to present for consideration? OA is a very big universe and transhumanism is only one of its elements.

The fact is that many science fiction writers are increasingly mining transhumanism for new ideas, and are themselves in turn contributing to the development of Transhumanism. Greg Egan, Alistair Reynolds, David Brin, Ken Macleod, and many others are among important writers today that employ transhumanist concepts in one way or another.

Again, to reiterate, OA is not a Transhumanist website or worldbuilding project. OA is a worldbuilding/creative-writing project that uses - among other things - transhumanist themes, many of which predate Transhumanism itself.

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