Cyberpunk Presentation
Immortality , Omnipotence and the
future of the Internet
Raúl Seifert - 6046804
Universität Hamburg SoSe 09
Cyberpunk and Cyberspace
Lars Schmeink
Overview and Introduction
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Introduction
Immortality and Omnipotence
Examples in literature and movies
History and Future of the Internet
Conclusion and Thesis
Questions for discussion
Bibliography
Introduction
“Today I will give my presentation on the chosen cyberspace
interest of mine. Namely the future of the Internet. If you
have read my Blog article about Immortality and Omnipotence,
you will notice that I tried to blend both topics into one. I will
start with a short overview of the terminology, continue with
examples, briefly discuss the history and future of the Internet.
Finally I will present my conclusion & thesis and also questions
for further discussion.”
Immortality
"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work..
"I want to achieve it through not dying.“ – Woody Allen, Actor
• Is a concept of living for an infinite amount of
time. Also called „eternal life“.
• This idea very old and is a typical feat of
important religious figures, mythological
creatures and (Demi)Gods.
• One of the oldest myths about the striving for
immortality is the mesopotamic poem
Gilgamesh.
Omnipotence
• Comes from the latin „omni potens“ which translates as
„all power“ or „unlimited power“.
• It is most commonly associated with the idea and
concept of a God or Godlike being.
• Closely connected with the idea of Immortality in most
major religions.
• Omnipotence also includes the related concept of
Omniscience – the power to know everything.
• The process of obtaining omnipotence or godhood is
called “apotheosis” (from the Greek word apotheoo =
to deify)
Gilgamesh - Example from early
literature
• The Epic of Gilgamesh is an
ancient mesopotamic poem
dating back at least to the
22nd century BCE.
• It is among the oldest works of
fiction known to man and one
of the first written accounts of
the human desire for
immortality.
• The epic poem is about the
incredibly powerful, almost
godlike king Gilgamesh and his
search for Immortality
following the death of his
friend Enkidu.
Immortality and Omnipotence in the
Cyberpunk genre
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Neuromancer by William Gibson:
The Dixie Flatline construct is a
deceased human hacker named
McCoy whose mind and it’s contents
are saved onto a ROM. Ironically the
Dixie Flatline wants itself to be
removed and it’s immortality ended.
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The perverse and degenerated
Tessier-Ashpool family tries to escape
the natural process of aging and
dying by cloning and freezing
themselves via cryonic preservation.
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The A.I.’s Wintermute and
Neuromancer can both be
considered immortal.
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Otherland by Tad Williams: The
search for Immortality in a artificial
reality can be considered the
leitmotif of the Otherland quadrilogy.
The Brotherhood of the Grail (!)
develops an extremely advanced AR
with the single goal of becoming
immortal gods in their particular
Artificial reality.
In the short story True Names by
Cyberspace pioneer Vernor Vinge,
the two hacker protagonists ascend
to virtual godhood but ultimately
reject the unfathomable power. Later
in the story it is revealed that one of
them plans to transfer her
personality into cyberspace and
become immortal in the process.
Examples (continued)
• In the movie Matrix , the
main protagonist Neo the
Chosen One is immortal
inside the virtual Matrix.
When he is killed by Agent
Smith, his real body dies but
shortly resurrects with
newfound power. Also
programs like the Oracle,
the Architect or Agent
Smith are Immortal and in
parts omnipotent.
Especially Smith at the end
of the third movie.
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The movie Colossus: The Forbin Project is an
early movie about the takeover of a manmade
hostile supercomputer.
Though the movie itself cannot be called
Cyberpunk, some elements of the plot seem
familiar from newer literature and movies.
A brief history of the Internet
• J.C.R. Licklider of MIT was the first one to propose a
global network of computers in 1962.
• The first form of long range connection between two
computers was accomplished in 1965 over dial-up
telephone lines.
• The predecessor of the Internet was called ARPANET
and went online in 1969. It was first developed for
military purposes.
History of the Internet (continued)
• The important “ftp protocol”, which enables file transfer
between different internet sites is developed in 1973,
later in 1983 the TCP/IP architecture is universally
adopted.
• In 1989 scientists from CERN (Switzerland) propose a
new protocol for information distribution. This protocol
became the hypertext based World Wide Web we know
today.
• Implementations such as better search engines and new
internet browsers make the web easily accessible for
almost everyone around the year 2000.
Future Outlook on the Internet
• The Internet and the WWW are already a part of the daily lives of
countless people. Web-communities connect people even better
with each other and make the exchange of knowledge even simpler
than before.
• The full impact the internet has made on civilization as a whole still
remains to be seen.
• Internet connections have become the norm in industrialized
countries. Prices for connections and barriers for entry have
dropped significantly.
• Nearly everything mankind has ever known is archived somewhere
in the web.
• Future technologies will further connect the human user with the
internet. It is also said by Scientists and Futurists that technological
singularity could be achieved in the next 30 to 50 years.
Internet outlook (continued)
• The number of
internet users in the
developed world and
other parts has
increased enormously
over the last 10-12
years.
The Internet as an entity or threat ?
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Graphical illustrations of the Internet look
almost like a (human) brain with billions of
neurons firing at the same time and
connections everywhere in every direction.
If in the future a strong A.I. is successfully
created, this Intelligence could incorporate
all of mankind’s knowledge into itself and if
not properly restrained would become near
omnipotent with control over the worlds
bank accounts, nuclear silos etc. At least this
is what popular Cyberpunk stories suggest.
This thought is in so far doubly terrifying,
since the Internet as an entity of pure
information couldn’t be fought in any way
unless all computers worldwide were shut
down simultaneously and their power taken
away. And even then as the movie “The
Matrix” makes us believe a malevolent,
hyperintelligent A.I. could probably still find
ways around that.
Conclusion and Thesis
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The use and deveIopment of the
internet will influence the future of
humanity in a significant way.
Through the connection and
knowledge of billions of minds, there
is no saying to what could be
achieved. I believe if there is any
possibility immortality and in
consequence omnipotence could be
possibly achieved via the internet of
the future, a strong A.I. or bodily
augmentation, people will go that
route, wherever it may lead.
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I hope you enjoyed my presentation,
if you have any questions feel free to
mail me under r-seifert@hotmail.de
Possible Questions for further
Discussion
• Do you think it could be even remotely possible that
Immortality is attainable through electronic means?
For example with the fictive process of copying or
saving a human consciousness on data?
• And finally do you think the Internet as an abstract
being of interconnected supercomputers and human
minds could one day gain consciousness? A
“Manmade God” so to say. Is this a desirable goal?
Bibliography and References
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Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York: ACE Books, 1984
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Hooker, Richard, Mesopotamia - Gilgamesh Summary, Washington State University 1996 (available under
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/GILG.HTM last visited June 7th, 2009)
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Kurzweil, Ray, The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence, New York, NY: Penguin, 1999
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Ruthfield, Scott, The Internet's History and Development - From Wartime Tool to the Fish-Cam. Houston, TX, Rice University
1995 (available under http://www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds2-1/inet-history.html last visited June 7th, 2009)
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The Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy : Article on Omnipotence (availabe under
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/omnipotence/ last visited June 7th, 2009)
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Vinge Vernor, Novella -True Names in: Dell Binary Star 5, 1981 (available under
http://web.archive.org/web/20051127010734/http://home.comcast.net/~kngjon/truename/truename.html last visited
June 7th, 2009)
Vinge Vernor, What if the Singularity does NOT happen? Originally presented at Long Now Foundation Seminars About Long
Term Thinking, February 15, 2007. Published with permission on KurzweilAI.net March 14, 2007. (available under
http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=memelist.html?m=1%23696 last visited June 7th, 2009)
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Wachowski, Andy and Larry , The Matrix, Warner Brothers and Village Roadshow Pictures, 1999
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Williams, Ted, Otherland, New York, NY: DAW Books Inc. 1996