• dakanektr [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Neal Stephenson wrote a sequel to Reamde 2 years ago titled "Fall.. or Dodge in Hell" that goes in on the topic of your conversation. Extremely trippy thought experiment that assumes that having mapped out your neural map in full, and actively simulating your brain could register consciousness in a virtual sandbox. It explores the power struggle experienced when managing the power consumption of this simulation, and how this impacts the resources and politics of organic life on earth as it is shaped by a cloud computing monolith in which all people have the opportunity to join the digital hive.

      Not sure if Neal is considered reactionary because his insights often do stray towards lolbertarian ego, but he usually remains restrained materially.