Transhuman Space 2110, 2130, 2200

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Eventually they'll lose interest in modelling their human parent and move on.

That's what I thought the singularity meant. That everything human from bio-people to "uploaded" people will be vastly outpaced by pure A.I. program entities. What we create will become like gods to that which descends from us.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

But by definition "uploaded" brains are virtual neurons.

Yes, and the virtual neurons are subject to modification so that needing sleep, getting bored, and imperfect memory are mitigated or eliminated.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

Yes, and the virtual neurons are subject to modification so that needing sleep, getting bored, and imperfect memory are mitigated or eliminated.

Again that assumes sleep, boredom, and imperfect memory are fixable flaws rather than features inherent in earth type biology.
I don't believe that one can "fix" them without so modifying the digital biology as to be easier to just chuck the whole thing and start from scratch.
(This is my grandfather's axe. I've replaced the head twice, and the shaft five times, but it's still the same axe.) To use a metaphor.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Again that assumes sleep, boredom, and imperfect memory are fixable flaws rather than features inherent in earth type biology.
I don't believe that one can "fix" them without so modifying the digital biology as to be easier to just chuck the whole thing and start from scratch.

Canonically, you can. If you want to discard such an essential part of canon, you are of course free to do so, but this is not the forum.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

Canonically, you can. If you want to discard such an essential part of canon, you are of course free to do so, but this is not the forum.

So just a few more ridiculous things from THS, a supposedly hard sci fi setting? They just keep cropping up, don't they?
Oh, well, still better than all the others in its genre.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

So just a few more ridiculous things from THS, a supposedly hard sci fi setting?

They're not ridicuous, as there are creatures of earthly biology that apparently do without human-like sleep (sharks, dolphins), imperfect memory (Marilu Henner), and bordeom (sharks again).

[Astromancer]

Frankly I think Cyborgs that look fully human would be the norm. Flesh is fun, and humans like pleasure. An AI human hybred, which wouldn't be odd or impossible in this setting would have many advantages and a great deal of fun/pleasure.

Some AIs might get out into "Star Swarms" and found "Pure AI" societies. But humans will stay mainly human and/or hybred because of pleasure, not cultural stagnation.

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

Canonically, you can. If you want to discard such an essential part of canon, you are of course free to do so, but this is not the forum.

Canonically... I don't think that you can get Doesn't Sleep or Photographic Memory from brainbugs or nanomods, but I'd have to check the letter of the rules as written. I wouldn't allow it in my games, anyway. I could see a mod granting Attentive, but that's not quite the same as total immunity to boredom. (Roleplaying games rarely talk about boredom as factor in character capabilities. I guess that designers consider it boring.)

There aren't any parahumans or bioroids with Doesn't Sleep, as I recall; I think that the setting design accepts that sleep is an inherent feature of organic/vertebrate brain/memory design.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

There aren't any parahumans or bioroids with Doesn't Sleep, as I recall; I think that the setting design accepts that sleep is an inherent feature of organic/vertebrate brain/memory design.

I think that the question at hand may be whether you can apply Photographic Memory and/or Doesn't Sleep to an uploaded human. He already gets Absolute Timing and Unaging (IQ only) as standard, which one might argue are equally not part of the organic brain's capabilities.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Canonically... I don't think that you can get Doesn't Sleep or Photographic Memory from brainbugs or nanomods...

Not from manfactured brainbugs or nanomods, but from their simulated virtual counterparts, which are not bound by inconvenient physical laws like conservation of energy. "That would require dozens of watts per cubic centimeter; the brain would boil itself!" "*moves alpha slider* No problem!"