Running on the substrate
Minds running on hardware; either uploaded humans or AI. I find these kinds of stories incredible, especially when the author explores what can be done if you’re not hampered by physical neurons.
Permutation city by Greg Egan (1994)
Your uploaded mind running in a virtual reality. Egan digs into consequences of being able to run a human mind using the same complexities as the brain, but on hardware. Is that “person” conscious? Are they a person?
The arguments are abstract, there’s math, philosophy, biology, VR and more. This book sticks in your head. Highly recommended.
Edges by Linda Nagata (2019)
The world-building is amazing, and the technology is described in detail. Our characters go on a journey of exploration and discovery and routinely swap between physical bodies and computational “ghosts”. Time has almost no meaning, which is especially important if you’re travelling light-years.
I really enjoyed this book. The author makes these super-future humans relatable and makes me want to read the next book in the series.
Fall or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson (2019)
The descriptions of how a scanned mind slowly wakes up and builds a world for itself are fascinating in themselves. Wrap it up with a story spanning the real world and the new digital one, and you have a Neal Stephenson worthy tome.
Yes, it’s long (but this is Neal Stephenson we’re talking about, so that is expected), but it was always interesting. Some people don’t like the fantasy side of it (which is the digital world), so be warned that this is a fair chunk of the book.
Accelerando by Charles Stross (2005)
This book is about the singularity, uploaded lobsters and space travel. It combines space opera, hard science and some cyberpunk tropes. The beginning contains every buzzword known to man, and is difficult to get through, but the story takes off from there. Lots of futuristic ideas that I’ve not seen anywhere else - for example, travelling to another star in a tiny can-sized space-craft.
This book seems to be polarizing - some people love it (like me), and some cannot stand it. I recommend it though - at least give it a try; you’ll know if you like it or not pretty quickly.
Diaspora by Greg Egan (1998)
This book captured me straight away with a detailed description of a new AI being created, how it is built and “grown”. The book follows this intelligence as it explores and ultimately leaves our universe.
A book with some crazy ideas, very believable science and fascinating characters.