Think robots, AIs, hell even nanites or even a spaceship! Do you guys have any sci fi recommendations in this vein?
The Bobiverse and Old Man’s War series’ are both super fun examples that fit the bill perfectly! I really enjoyed them both.
Another vote for Bobiverse written by Dennis E. Taylor
Synopsis
The Bobiverse is the story of Robert “Bob” Johansson, who, after becoming financially independent by selling his software company, decides to spend some of his money by contracting to have his head cryonically frozen by CryoEterna Inc. upon his death. The idea is that his head would be preserved until later, when technology permitted a body to be grown and his thawed head attached to it - thus resuming life. The next day he is unexpectedly killed in an automobile accident. He wakes up 117 years later to find that he has been harvested from his frozen head and installed as simulation in a computer matrix to be an artificial intelligence. The series follows Bob as he is installed into the first Von Neumann Probe, to explore and replicate across the galaxy.
I’ll second Bobiverse.
I’ll also suggest Tree of Aeons if you want a magical equivalent (guy becomes a magical tree). Both series capture the transition to non-human thinking pretty well
I haven’t heard of Tree of Aeons, that sounds really cool though. I’ll have to check it out!
Have you read Old Man’s War?
I have to just add that HIGHLY recommend Old Man’s War series! My all time favourite scifi series that has it all: Action, humor, philosophy, romance and more.
There is a trilogy set in the Babylon 5 universe about this. I read it a long time ago, I don’t remember if it’s good, but a younger version of me enjoyed it.
The first book seems to be titled:
Babylon 5: Casting Shadows: The Passing of the Techno-mages: Book I
If you aren’t aware of Babylon 5, the universe has technomages. They are people who merge with technology and they use it to appear like they can do magic. They only had one episode dedicated to them in the original TV series. The spin off was cancelled early but showed a lot more of them.
The best best sci-fi series I’ve ever read (in my opinion) is The Expanse, and this is the main plot point (though the first book doesn’t really dive deep into it, you need to get to know the characters and society before it can explore how merging humans and technology will affect things).
The book, rightly in my opinion, presents it as pretty horrifying and treats it as an extinction level threat. Technology is a useful tool. It should remain a tool. Operated by humans. Having said that, it’s not all bad and there are some people in the story who don’t believe that.
The TV series, while great, takes the story in a different direction. Also they cancelled it before it reached the end of the story. Sigh.
I second this recommendation of the Expanse series of books. I thought the TV series did a pretty good job even though they did not get to tell the whole tale.
It’s not the core concept of the books, but there’s a lot of those elements in the Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds. Not sure how much I can say without spoiling, but a human merges with a giant spaceship, it’s normal for humans in their society to get nanotech implants, and they can and do create different types of clones of themselves using AI.
There’s at least 5 major books in that series with several more short stories set in that universe. https://www.goodreads.com/series/56392-revelation-space
If you just want to read the major works, I recommend this order:
- Chasm City
- Revelation Space
- Redemption Ark
- Absolution Gap
- Inhibitor Phase (I actually haven’t read this one yet as it only came out in 2021 and I just got it)
For the short stories, a lot of the best ones are in Galactic North, and Nightingale is probably right up your alley.
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars fits perfectly. The technology the protagonist merges with is an organic alien technology. There are also other humans in the book who have merged with technology. Murderbot and Ancillary Justice sort of fit but neither of the protagonists really existed apart from the technology.
The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey
Here’s the book description:
Helva had been born human, but only her brain had been saved—saved to be schooled, programmed, and implanted into the sleek titanium body of an intergalactic scout ship. But first she had to choose a human partner—male or female—to share her exhilirating excapades in space! Her life was to be rich and rewarding . . . resplendent with daring adventures and endless excitement, beyond the wildest dreams of mere mortals. Gifted with the voice of an angel and being virtually indestructable, Helva XH-834 antipitated a sublime immortality. Then one day she fell in love!
- Martha Wells “Murderbot” series
- The Nexus Trilogy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nexus_Trilogy
- Scalzi’s Lock In books https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_In
- Maybe the Daemon series https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_(novel_series)
I could probably think of more… Oh, the Imperial Radch series maybe, by Ann Leckie.
Altered Carbon maybe?
The Forever Man is a book about a person who transfer’s his consciousness into his Space Craft.
A Boy And His Tank has a person who uses VR to assist his Tank’s AI.
Lieserl by Stephen Baxter is a short story, that if you can find it, is about a girl writing about her life before she gets turned into an AI, and is followed up in the book Ring.
The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect. Thank me later!