The Phoenix Exultant by John C. Wright

From: Hal Finney (hal@finney.org)
Date: Tue May 06 2003 - 15:07:25 MDT

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    The Phoenix Exultant is now available in stores, the sequel to John
    C. Wright's groundbreaking first novel, The Golden Age (which is now
    out in paperback). I'll give a brief review here, mostly spoiler-free,
    followed by some philosophical speculations triggered by the nvoel.

    The bad news is that the rumors were true, this turns out to be the
    second book in a trilogy, and we will have to wait for the third book,
    The Golden Transcendence, for the end of the story. I don't know when
    that will be published.

    I was a little disappointed by this book. The storyline was built around
    frustrated desires. Phaethon spends most of the book stuck on a barge in
    the harbor. There's not as much technology shown, and what there is we
    have largely seen before. I guess I'm kind of jaded after reading the
    first book, I want more! and new! and better! techno-thrills. It's not
    until the last two chapters that things get going again, suggesting that
    the third book will be more to my liking.

    On the positive side, we do learn more about the history of the future,
    details about the war between the Bellipotent Composition and the warlocks
    at the close of the Fourth Mental Structure for example. There is an
    informative soliloquy between Rhadamanthus and Eveningstar, two of the
    main sophotechs, about their views towards humanity and the relations
    between the superintelligent AIs and human beings. And there is more
    humor in this volume; conversations between Phaethon and his wife often
    made me laugh. I enjoy Wright's style, and found quotable passages in
    almost every chapter. The book was a quick read; I got through it in
    a couple of days, but as I said I felt that the story dragged.

    One thing that is still unclear to me is why and how Wright's society
    adopted its libertarian foundations. There seem to be three main
    forces in the world for enforcing these policies: the Curia, which is
    the traditional government; the Hortators, who enforce moral policies via
    widely-observed voluntary boycotts; and the sophotechs, who have the power
    to do anything, but who restrain themselves, and who protect the humans
    from each other. We don't see that much about how these forces interact.

    Who are the Curia? We've only seen the judiciary and the military
    (apparently just one man, Atkins, aided by the Warmind sophotech).
    Are there elections? Who sets the laws? Can they be changed? Or is
    it possible that the sophotechs have adopted libertarianism as the best
    morality, and they enforce it on the humans? I'll quote part of the talk
    between Eveningstar and Rhadamanthus which may shed some light on this.
    They are explaining the "ultimate purpose" of sophotechnology, which is
    in part the formation of a Universal Mind, the collection or sum of all
    minds in the universe. Wright assumes that modern physical theories are
    broadly correct, that after the era of stars, the universe will continue
    to expand and die a heat death.

    "Eveningstar said, 'It will be a Mind of the Cosmic Night. Over
    ninety-nine percent of its existence will extend through that period of
    universal evolution that takes place after the extinction of all stars.
    The Universal Mind will be embodied in and powered by the disintegration
    of dark matter, Hawking radiations from singularity decay, and gravitic
    tidal disturbances caused by the slowing of the expansion of the universe.
    After final proton decay has reduced all baryonic particles below
    threshold limits, the Universal Mind can exist only on the consumption
    of stored energies, which, in effect, will require the sacrifice of
    some parts of itself to other parts. Such an entity will primarily be
    concerned with the questions of how to die with stoic grace, cherishing,
    even while it dies, the finite universe and finite time available.'

    "'Consequently, it would not forgive the use of force or strength
    merely to preserve life. Mere life, life at any cost, cannot be its
    highest value. As we expect to be a part of this higher being, perhaps
    a core part, we must share that higher value. You must realize what is
    at stake here: If the Universal Mind consists of entities willing to
    use force against innocents in order to survive, then the last period
    of the universe, which embraces the vast majority of universal time,
    will be a period of cannibalistic and unimaginable war, rather than
    a time of gentle contemplation filled, despite all melancholy, with
    unregretful joy. No entity willing to initiate the use of force against
    another can be permitted to join or to influence the Universal Mind or
    the lesser entities, such as the Earthmind, who may one day form the
    core constituencies.'"

    Well, it's not a very Extropian goal! Sitting around and contemplating
    our memories as we wait to die isn't how I was hoping to spend 99% of the
    life of the universe. However I suppose that if that's the hand Nature
    has dealt us, then this is a classy way to play it out. And it is a
    rather amusing justification for libertarianism. Note the magic phrase,
    "initiate the use of force," which is a defining criterion for modern
    libertarian philosophy.

    So my thinking is, maybe the sophotechs have decided on this basis to
    support libertarianism, presenting it to humans as a fait accompli,
    and human society then has to adapt to it, from which we more or less
    automatically get the twin bodies of the Curia, which enforces the limited
    laws, and the Hortators, built around voluntary persuasion. I can't
    help thinking of Eliezer's old justification for building a super AI,
    that it would figure out what Absolute Morality was, and then enforce it.
    Wright's world may be an example of how this could work out.

    Hal



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