Flatland - A romance of many dimensions
http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/~banchoff/Flatland/Flatland - A romance of many dimensions, by Edwin A. Abbott, a Square
Why the future doesn't need us
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy_pr.html"Our most powerful 21st-century technologies - robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech - are threatening to make humans an endangered species."
Why the future doesn't need us, by Bill Joy
Matrioshka Brains
http://www.aeiveos.com:8080/~bradbury/MatrioshkaBrains/MatrioshkaBrainsPaper.html"Predictable improvements in lithographic methods foretell continued increases in computer processing power. Economic growth and engineering evolution continue to increase the size of objects which can be manufactured and power that can be controlled by humans. Neuroscience is gradually dissecting the components and functions of the structures in the brain. Advances in computer science and programming methodologies are increasingly able to emulate aspects of human intelligence. Continued progress in these areas leads to a convergence which results in megascale superintelligent thought machines. These machines, referred to as Matrioshka Brains
1, consume the entire power output of stars (~10
26 W), consume all of the useful construction material of a solar system (~10
26 kg), have thought capacities limited by the physics of the universe and are essentially immortal."
Matrioshka Brains, by Robert J. Bradbury
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
http://www.cbe.wwu.edu/dunn/rprnts.omelas.pdf The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, by Ursula Le Guin
