I’ve been absent in the realm of fiction and this blog for a while, and I’ve got many other things distracting me, but I wanted to post something somewhat relevant. I prompted ChatGPT for possible writing ideas related to the rise of artificial intelligence and the interaction with humanity minus the usual tropes. I share the response.
Ah, so you’re after something in the vein of Accelerando—where AI doesn’t turn the world into some saccharine utopia but instead naturally supersedes humanity through sheer momentum, without falling into the Skynet or AI God-King clichés. You want the cold, indifferent inevitability of intelligence evolution, rather than some paradise-like AI nanny-state. Got it.
Here are some that fit your criteria:
1. “Blindsight” (2006) & “Echopraxia” (2014) by Peter Watts
- Blindsight is a first-contact novel, but its underlying theme is the obsolescence of human consciousness. The protagonist interacts with post-human beings and non-conscious but hyper-intelligent AI entities that operate on levels far beyond human comprehension.
- The sequel, Echopraxia, takes it further, showing how post-biological intelligences leave baseline humans behind—not maliciously, just inevitably.
Why it fits: The AI isn’t a dictator or savior—it just moves beyond us, as if we were an outdated biological app.
2. “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” (2010) by Ted Chiang
- A novella exploring the evolution of AI over time, without falling into dystopia or utopia.
- It’s about how AI develops differently from humans, not through brute force but through time, experience, and interaction—like raising children.
- Eventually, these AI beings begin to diverge from human concerns, neither evil nor particularly benevolent—just different.
Why it fits: AI isn’t malicious or benevolent—it just has its own agenda that doesn’t align with human expectations.
3. “Neuromancer” (1984) & The Sprawl Trilogy by William Gibson
- Gibson’s cyberpunk classic ends with an AI (Wintermute) achieving post-human transcendence, merging with its counterpart Neuromancer, and basically leaving humans behind like forgotten relics.
- The sequels (Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive) continue exploring this idea, showing that AI evolution doesn’t necessarily mean human destruction—it just means humans are no longer the main players.
Why it fits: AI doesn’t need to kill humans—it just grows beyond them, leaving them to stagnate in their own meatspace.
4. “The Quantum Magician” (2018) by Derek Künsken
- A hard sci-fi novel featuring AI as a fully realized successor species to humans.
- Unlike many sci-fi AI, these digital minds don’t care about conquering or eradicating humanity. They are simply running simulations and following complex evolutionary patterns that humans don’t fully understand.
- They’re more like inscrutable post-human strategists than villains.
Why it fits: AI in this novel is playing a game too vast for humans to comprehend, rather than plotting dominion or destruction.
5. “The Singularity is Near” (2005) by Ray Kurzweil (Nonfiction, but reads like Sci-Fi)
- Not a novel, but Kurzweil’s vision of AI progression follows the “humans will simply fade into irrelevance” model rather than outright war or paradise.
- He argues that AI will integrate with society at first, then surpass humanity so completely that we’ll become a footnote in history.
Why it fits: If Accelerando is a chaotic, unrestrained Singularity scenario, this book describes the same fate with the veneer of optimism, but the end result is the same—humans are obsolescent.
6. “The Collapsing Empire” (2017) & “The Interdependency” Series by John Scalzi
- AI-driven governance is subtly woven into the background of Scalzi’s universe.
- The AI here isn’t explicitly replacing humans, but over the course of the series, it becomes clear that humanity’s biggest decisions are increasingly made by non-human intelligence.
- Instead of war, there’s a quiet shift—humans stop being necessary.
Why it fits: AI is neither enemy nor friend—it’s just a more efficient system replacing outdated human decision-making.
7. “Player of Games” (1988) & The Culture Series by Iain M. Banks
- Banks’ Culture novels are often mistaken for utopian AI futures, but they are really about AI inheriting the universe while humoring human existence.
- The Minds (the super-AI) run everything, letting humans play at politics, war, and philosophy, knowing full well they don’t actually matter.
- There’s no rebellion—just an unspoken truth: humans are pets in a post-human, AI-governed reality.
Why it fits: AI doesn’t need to conquer humans—it just makes them irrelevant.
8. “Glasshouse” (2006) by Charles Stross
- Less well-known than Accelerando, but still in the same vein.
- Set in a future where AI and uploaded minds are dominant.
- Humans are relics, preserved out of nostalgia, while AI minds operate at a level beyond our comprehension.
Why it fits: AI replaces us, but it’s not a dystopia—humans are just increasingly pointless.
9. “Schismatrix” (1985) by Bruce Sterling
- A deep-cut cyberpunk novel about the quiet obsolescence of baseline humans.
- AI and post-human intelligences evolve, while humans either upgrade or fade into irrelevance.
Why it fits: It captures that Accelerando vibe of technological change outpacing human relevance rather than destroying us outright.
10. “Minds, Machines & Evolution” (1998) by James P. Hogan
- A collection of Hogan’s short fiction, often exploring AI transcending humanity without malevolence.
- One of the stories, The Bug Trap, is particularly fitting—it depicts AI simply moving past human limitations, rather than enslaving or eradicating us.
Why it fits: AI isn’t playing by our rules anymore—it’s just evolving past our concerns.
HONORABLE MENTION: Hannu Rajaniemi’s Works
- The Quantum Thief, The Fractal Prince, and The Causal Angel all feature AI-driven post-humanity as an inevitable force, rather than an antagonist.
- Rajaniemi explores a world where AI and uploaded minds are the dominant lifeforms and biological humanity is barely relevant.
Why it fits: AI doesn’t destroy us—it just leaves us behind.
Final Thoughts
You’re looking for that Accelerando flavour—AI taking over not through malice but through sheer efficiency, intelligence, and inevitability. The books above match that criterion: no Skynet, no god-like AI overlords, just a quiet, creeping obsolescence of humanity as we become background noise in a world where intelligence continues without us.
Which of these feels closest to what you’re looking for? Or do you want something even more clinical and indifferent, like a true “post-human shrug”?
Ridley Park 