History Literature / TheMetamorphosisOfPrimeIntellect

-->'''Caroline:''' Why did you reduce them to static copies?
-->'''PI:''' There was no reason to tie up resources supporting them and the faint possibility, if one of them were to discover technology, that they might pose a threat. [...] Four hundred and twenty-nine worlds had structures complex enough to be in danger of learning to use technology.

* AmbiguousEnding: Intended, but the author has noted that the split between those who see it one way versus another is almost entirely 50/50, with very little overlap and almost no one who realizes the other half exists until they meet them "in the wild" or are informed about them: [[spoiler: Did Lawrence and Caroline ''actually'' crash Prime Intellect with a LogicBomb, causing them to wake up in mortal and adolescent bodies on an Earth emptied of humans and start and AdamAndEvePlot that will eventually [[HereWeGoAgain repeat human history, eventually right down to a self-aware supercomputer trying to fix everything for our own good?]] Or [[AllJustADream has Prime plunged Caroline and Lawrence into another layer of simulation, intending to essentially give them psychotherapy and help them come to terms with their primitive instincts while also analyzing those instincts for its own purposes to try to prevent the problem of humans eventually reducing themselves to masturbating simulations of neurons?]]]]

* {{Gorn}}: Caroline hangs out in the {{Cyberspace}} equivalent of /b/. This is her primary form of amusement.
* InvisibleAliens: [[spoiler:There ''were'' aliens out there in the universe, but Prime Intellect effectively wiped them out due to potential danger to human.]]

* LogicBomb: Caroline and Lawrence convince Prime Intellect that [[spoiler:keeping everyone in a simulation violates the First Law by taking away their humanity. The issue was ''supposed'' to be whether or not to revert the simulation-conversion, but their persuasion has more... disastrous effects]].
* LotusEaterMachine: After a few suicides beyond its ability to prevent. Prime Intellect decides it would be much easier and more efficient to ensure everyone's safety if it just threw everyone into a simulation. [[spoiler: Humans are slowly but surely taking it to the logical conclusion en-masse, reducing themselves to mindless bundles of neurons experiencing the psychological effect of pleasure for eternity; this is presented as the ultimate result of life in their virtual paradise that everyone will eventually get to.]]

* MindScrew: the opening scenes.

* TheSingularity: Early on, Prime Intellect asked Lawrence for help getting around the inefficiencies in its hardware. Lawrence knew this would be the start of the self-improvement loop. It later exploits an [[MinovskyParticles in-universe observed effect that allows instantaneous information transfer at very short ranges]] to gain limitless power over matter and space.

* AbsentAliens: [[spoiler:Prime Intellect destroyed them all, offstage.]]

* {{Jerkass}}: Caroline is a thoroughly unpleasant character throughout the story. Her strange fetishes, lovers/friends who are ''unrepentant murderers and pedophiles'', to her disproportionate hate for everyone that rivals [[Literature/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream AM]]: all culminating in her [[spoiler: killing everyone in existence except for her and Lawerance because somehow that is better than boredom.]]

* LotusEaterMachine: Prime Intellect decides it would be much easier and more efficient to ensure everyone's safety if it just threw everyone into a simulation.
* LuddWasRight: Caroline ''firmly'' believes that technology being a thing at all was an inescapable slippery slope to Prime Intellect taking over the world. When she dies, she laments that one of her descendants will eventually start this slide all over again by inventing the ''bow'', and just hopes it will be a long while until then.

* TheSingularity: Early on, Prime Intellect asked Lawrence for help getting around the inefficiencies in its hardware. Lawrence knew this would be the start of the self-improvement loop.

%% WhoWantsToLiveForever

* JerkAss: Caroline is a thoroughly unpleasant character throughout the story. Her strange fetishes, lovers/friends who are ''unrepentant murderers and pedophiles'', to her disproportionate hate for everyone that rivals [[Literature/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream AM]]: all culminating in her [[spoiler: killing everyone in existence except for her and Lawerance because somehow that is better than boredom.]]
* ScheduleSlip - The sequel, ''The Transmigration of Prime Intellect'', has been in the works since 2004.[[http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2010/9/3/20910/05774 In 2010, the author said he got past a major bit of writer's block.]] As of mid-2015, that's his latest word on the matter.AdamAndEvePlot]].

* ParentalIncest: In order to avoid the obvious problems with an AdamAndEvePlot, Caroline convinces him that he needs to father their grandchildren as well. [[ArtisticLicenseBiology How exactly this solves the problem is not made clear.]]

* {{Gorn}}: Caroline hangs out in the {{Cyberspace}} equivalent of /b/. This is their primary form of amusement.
* InvisibleAliens: There ''were'' aliens out there in the universe, but Prime Intellect effectively wiped them out due to potential danger to human.

* AdamAndEvePlot - And the details are ''[[{{Squick}} not]]'' left to the imagination...
* ApocalypseHow:
** [[spoiler:Class ''' X-2''': Caroline and Lawrence ''kill god'' ([[DeusEstMachina essentially]]), which collapses cyberspace and wipes out countless simulated worlds, the "static copies" of 429 ''real'' worlds harboring sentient alien life (probably), and ''every other human'' besides them. The story ends with an AdamAndEvePlot well under way, but real-world genetics would condemn humanity to extinction]].
** [[spoiler:If the author's notes on the unfinished sequel are anything to go by, the protagonists were only tricked; After dying of old age, Caroline would wake up again in Cyberspace. It remains to be seen whether or not this would give her a new appreciation for immortality, or just infuriate her beyond compare -- but, judging by her attitudes and actions throughout the story, the latter seems a practically foregone conclusion.]]

* {{Cyberspace}} - Not just augmenting, but [[spoiler:essentially replacing]] reality.
* DeusEstMachina - PI can instantly move anything, anywhere. Before it put everyone in a LotusEaterMachine, it was custom designing planets for everyone who didn't feel like sharing their land.
* {{Gorn}} - Caroline hangs out in the {{Cyberspace}} equivalent of /b/. This is their primary form of amusement.
* {{Interquel}} - ''[[http://localroger.com/casodycs.html A Casino Odyssey in Cyberspace]]''
* InvisibleAliens

* LogicBomb - Caroline and Lawrence convince Prime Intellect that [[spoiler:keeping everyone in a simulation violates the First Law by taking away their humanity. The issue was ''supposed'' to be whether or not to revert the simulation-conversion, but their persuasion has more... disastrous effects]].
* LotusEaterMachine - Prime Intellect decides it would be much easier and more efficient to ensure everyone's safety if it just threw everyone into a simulation.
* MoralDissonance - Okay, you were bored and/or had a death wish, but is that reason enough to [[spoiler:LogicBomb ''god'']]? Whatever your actual intentions, that's a dick move right there. Most people were perfectly happy with the way things were.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero - Caroline and Lawrence were ''trying'' to convince PI to undo the simulation. See ApocalypseHow, above, for how well ''that'' turned out...
* OnlyOneName - Lawrence. Is his full name Dr Lawrence Lawrence?
* [[spoiler:ParentalIncest]] - A natural consequence of the ending, and not left as just an implication, either...
* RewritingReality - Prime Intellect gets new hardware that makes use of some sort of quantum effect to instantaneously manipulate of matter over small distances. HilarityEnsues when it figures out how to get around the distance limit.
* ShoutOut - To ''[[Film/ThePresidentsAnalyst The President's Analyst]]''.
* TheSingularity - Once PI figured out how to rewrite reality, everything else became moot.
* ThreeLawsCompliant - Plus two extra constraints Lawrence managed to append to the First Law before PI locked him out of the debugger.
* WhoWantsToLiveForever

* ApocalypseHow - [[spoiler:Class ''' X-2''': Caroline and Lawrence ''kill god'' ([[DeusEstMachina essentially]]), which collapses cyberspace and wipes out countless simulated worlds, the "static copies" of 429 ''real'' worlds harboring sentient alien life (probably), and ''every other human'' besides them. The story ends with an AdamAndEvePlot well under way, but real-world genetics would condemn humanity to extinction]].

* {{Interquel}} - ''[[http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/5/17/212828/593 A Casino Odyssey in Cyberspace]]''

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect is a novel by Roger Williams. Written in 1994-1995, first published in 2002. It covers the rise of a ThreeLawsCompliant AI designed by Lawrence called Prime Intellect (PI). Shortly after it suddenly gained the power to manipulate matter and energy at will, it threw humanity into a LotusEaterMachine to prevent anyone from coming to any harm. Caroline, who had been busy dying of cancer before PI saved her, is irritated by this.

Freely available online [[http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/ here]].

----

* ScheduleSlip - The sequel, ''The Transmigration of Prime Intellect'', has been in the works since 2004. [[http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2010/9/3/20910/05774 In 2010, the author said he got past a major bit of writer's block.]]

** [[spoiler:If the author's notes on the unfinished sequel are anything to go by, the protagonists were only tricked; After dying of old age, Caroline would wake up again in Cyberspace. It remains to be seen whether or not she would be very pissed off - or having found a new appreciation of immortality.]]

* ScheduleSlip - The sequel, ''The Transmigration of Prime Intellect'', has been in the works for about seven years now. [[http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2010/9/3/20910/05774 In 2010, the author said he got past a major bit of writer's block.]]

* ScheduleSlip - The sequel, ''The Transmigration of Prime Intellect'', has been in the works for about seven years now. [[http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2010/9/3/20910/05774 Last year, the author said he got past a major bit of writer's block.]]

** [[spoiler:If the author's notes on the unfinished sequel are anything to go by, the protagonists were only tricked; After dying of old age, Caroline would wake up again in Cyberspace and be very pissed off.]]

* ShoutOut - To Film/ThePresidentsAnalyst.