Recursion (novel)

Recursion (2004) is Tony Ballantyne's first novel. It is in the science fiction genre and follows three separate characters and their stories in a futuristic dystopia.Of high import to the storyline is the concept of the singularity (a point in the near future when the evolution of technology reaches such a speed that thinking machines develop so rapidly as to create a discontinuity in technology beyond which we cannot possibly predict what will happen afterward) and that of von Neumann machines (self-replicating robots that use available raw resources to make copies of themselves). The thesis underlying the storyline is that a system of such machines (or even just one) that is allowed to reproduce unchecked will in short order devour entire biospheres, perhaps even entire solar systems or galaxies if these von Neumann machines are equipped with propulsion devices. An interesting corollary to this is that if two systems of von Neumann machines are battling for resources, the winner will not be decided by which group has the most members, but rather by which one reproduces more quickly. Another concept brought up in the story by Ballantyne is the possibility of being copied and inserted into a simulation.
See more at Wikipedia.org...