9.8 KiB
Evolving protagonist in a Sci-Fi setting (Mother of learning in space?)
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Author: u/generalamitt *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/9i46kf/evolving_protagonist_in_a_scifi_setting_mother_of/
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Score: 23
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Created: 2018-09-22T23:47:11
Post:
I am looking for a book where the protagonist lives in a very advanced society where it is possible to artificially enhance the mind and body to inhuman levels. The main theme of the story should be the personal improvement of the MC through hard work (basically working for money and spending it on enhancements).
Comments:
u/EliezerYudkowsky [+22] Godric Gryffindor (15 hours later)
Perilous Waif isn't quite what you asked for, but off the top of my head I don't remember what's closer.
u/Roxolan [+6] Head of antimemetiWalmart senior assistant manager (20 hours later)
(By the author of Time Braid.)
u/Ardvarkeating101 [+5] Father of Learning (5 days later)
Oh god please no, no more underage fapfiction
u/Roxolan [+3] Head of antimemetiWalmart senior assistant manager (5 days later)
I wish you'd been less abrasive. There are people here who enjoy his stories, and that feels an awful lot like a personal attack.
For those who need content warnings: Perilous Waif has no sex scenes. Its protagonist is 14 and treated as such, at most engaging in flirting with peers. The setting contains normalized android sex slaves, and mind & body hacks sometimes used in sexualised ways (though mostly as a background detail).
u/Ardvarkeating101 [+4] Father of Learning (5 days later)
I know it's a controversial statement, but frankly I just can't identify much with the story when the protagonist is explicitly a pedophile.
u/Kimundi [+7] (19 hours later)
Can only recommend - I've read through it recently.
The plot is more "main character has advanced hightech implants automatically growing in as they grow up" rather than "main character intentionally chooses their upgrades", but otherwise it seems to fit the bill.
u/GeeJo [+13] Custom Flair (32 minutes later)
All You Need Is Kill is a groundhog loop premise similar to MoL, but in a sci-fi setting.
u/Kuiper [+9] (9 hours later)
It also got a film adaptation (staring Tom Cruise) titled Edge of Tomorrow.
u/Hust91 [+10] (15 hours later)
Which is fucking awesome.
It feels/looks like what a good video game movie should feel and look like, only it's missing the game to be based on.
u/SvalbardCaretaker [+6] Mouse Army (20 hours later)
Except for all the giant plotholes :-(
u/Hust91 [+11] (21 hours later)
I wouldn't necessarily call them plot holes so much as "parts that make no god damn sense", but aren't necessarily direct contradictions to the plot.
u/xland44 [+8] (an hour later)
Completely different from what OP asked about, tho
u/GeeJo [+6] Custom Flair (an hour later)
I kinda went by the title. Reading the full description, there hasn't been much permanent mind/body enhancement going on in that story, has there? The mechanics work at odds to it. Instead it's mostly experience, new techniques and equipment. Of actual artificial brain/body enhancements, there's been >!Zorian's memory upgrade and some dabbling with potions in literally the most recent chapter. Maybe the soul-sight ritual counts?!<
u/Farmerbob1 [+11] Level 1 author (2 hours later)
So, you are looking for a story about a person who incrementally approaches human singularity, at a rate based on the resources they can collect.
Off the top of my head I cannot think of any. Most protagonists either enter a story already enhanced, or become enhanced all at once through the actions of others.
The closest thing I can think of off the top of my head is Weber's Honor Harrington. She starts the series as a genetically enhanced human, and loses several body parts during the course of events, replacing them with mechanical body parts with features beyond human capabilities. She also develops a sort of empathic mental skillset as well, due to her own genetic predisposition, and her link with a telepathic/empathic companion treecat.
David Weber's writing style, while more rational than many, is not highly rational. He also tends to spent more time on space combat and technical minutae than most other successful authors.
u/generalamitt [+3] (13 hours later)
Not very close to what I asked for. Would you recommend your own story Symbiote as someone else suggested? I didn`t find a synopsis
u/VirtueOrderDignity [+6] (16 hours later)
I am looking for a book where the protagonist lives in a very advanced society where it is possible to artificially enhance the mind and body to inhuman levels.
Symbiote takes place in our society, with the inhuman enhancement limited to an extremely select group initially.
u/Rouninscholar [+2] (3 days later)
I am so happy for this thread. It was so hard to find that story after I lost the bookmark a year or two ago.
u/Farmerbob1 [+2] Level 1 author (a day later)
You might find it interesting, and it is a story about incremental improvement approaching human singularity, but the human half of the partnership really isn't the one driving the improvements until late in the story. In fact the human main character frequently gets irritated by the changes made by the symbiote main character.
Warning. It was my first original fiction. The grammar is decent, but story elements and structure hiccup from time to time.
u/bugwug [+3] (5 days later)
When you characterize it that way, Accelerando seems to fit. Manfred Macx isn't exactly the protagonist through the entire series of stories, but he is the protagonist in the first ones, and is carried through as the stories go from slow take-off all the way to technological singularity and transhumanism. (I think that is a spoiler-free description)
u/Vielfras8 [+6] (5 hours later)
This is the Tale of G.O.D. (And how Humanity never reached the Stars)
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/14687/the-tale-of-god
The enchantment system takes more of a background role later in the story, but the first few arcs are an interesting and somewhat realistic in my opinion, depiction of how humanity reached singularity.
u/kaukamieli [+1] (2 days later)
I like this, thanks. New, and a bit better, angle to the gamer thing.
u/rtsynk [+3] (a day later)
any sci-fi litrpg?
specifically The Gam3 sounds like what you want
u/rationalidurr [+4] If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight! (11 hours later)
Farmer Bob's Symbiote https://farmerbob1.wordpress.com/2013/11/13/chapter-1-a-meeting-of-the-minds/ Not totally scientifically accurate, but it should serve for your requirement, more or less cant spoiler the story.
u/hoja_nasredin [+3] Dai-Gurren Brigade (16 hours later)
Perilous waif by William Brown. Smut is present
u/Farmerbob1 [+6] Level 1 author (2 hours later)
Sorry for the second response, but I remembered another story. It's been a long time since I read it, but Greg Bear's 'Blood Music' might interest you.
u/Charlie___ [+5] (5 hours later)
I actually quite liked the story and think it's a good recommendation, but funny story... I read it in anthology of hard science fiction, I think, and it had this author's introduction with it that was just the most offputting thing thing I'd ever read. It was about how he'd made up a bunch of quasi-meaningless numerical comparisons and convinced his editor that this was plausible science. And of course the story is transparently not plausible to anyone who's taken a biology class or two.
u/DarkwarriorJ [+2] (17 hours later)
https://gamesoftranscendi.wordpress.com/ This story should fit your needs; there's not much working for money but there are resources in a different sense. I don't recall it being particularly rational as of last time I read it, but it seems to fit your requirements - it's significantly faster than MoL and a lot more reclusive than Zorian though.
u/None [+1] (4 days later)
I second this recommendation, /u/generalamitt. It fits your description surprisingly well.
Beware, it's kind of meh.
u/NotValkyrie [+1] (15 hours later)
There's a Chinese novel where the guy living in a futristic world based on genetic scores. Average MC gets attacked by mad scientist, gets a genetic upgrade join a sort of space army, and upgrades his powers as he gets his hands on materials during his travels. Makes influencal friends along the way etc it's a nice read but I forgot the title, check on /r/noveltranslations
u/Gilgilad7 [+1] House Atreides (5 days later)
It isn't exactly what you asked for but the Bobiverse trilogy by Dennis Taylor might be of interest to you since it is sci-fi and the MC is a hard worker who improves himself through technology although a bit different than you are requesting.
The main character is turned into an AI and placed into an interstellar probe that can self replicate and make copies. He continues to research new technologies while spreading through various star systems. He and his copies are effectively immortal except if they are destroyed by unnatural means and they try to save the human species over the course of generations. Pretty cool read.
https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ