The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect

"In the best possible future, there will be no war, no famine, no crime, no sickness, no oppression, no fear, no limits, no shame... and nothing to do."

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect is a novel by Roger Williams. Written in 1994-1995, first published in 2002. It covers the rise of a "Three Laws"-Compliant AI designed by Lawrence called Prime Intellect (PI). Shortly after it suddenly gained the power to manipulate matter and energy at will, it threw humanity into a Lotus Eater Machine to prevent anyone from coming to any harm. Caroline, who had been busy dying of cancer before PI saved her, is irritated by this.

Freely available online here.

"Caroline: Why did you reduce them to static copies?
 * Adam and Eve Plot - And the details are not left to the imagination...
 * Apocalypse How -.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: They fund the construction of the initial Prime Intellect. Then they want it to make money. Lawrence isn't too happy about that, and PI is just trying to help.
 * Cyberspace - Not just augmenting, but reality.
 * Deus Est Machina - PI can instantly move anything, anywhere. Before it put everyone in a Lotus Eater Machine, it was custom designing planets for everyone who didn't feel like sharing their land.
 * Ending Fatigue: Everything starts out as a decent scifi, apart from...half of it
 * Fetish Fuel - For horrible people, yes, but given the amount of messed-up sex in there, it's gotta turn someone on.
 * There is normal sex. Once. Then it gets back on track.
 * Gorn - Caroline hangs out in the Cyberspace equivalent of /b/. This is their primary form of amusement.
 * Interquel - A Casino Odyssey in Cyberspace
 * Invisible Aliens
 * Invisible Aliens

PI: There was no reason to tie up resources supporting them and the faint possibility, if one of them were to discover technology, that they might pose a threat. [...] Four hundred and twenty-nine worlds had structures complex enough to be in danger of learning to use technology."


 * Logic Bomb - Caroline and Lawrence convince Prime Intellect that.
 * Lotus Eater Machine - Prime Intellect decides it would be much easier and more efficient to ensure everyone's safety if it just threw everyone into a simulation.
 * Moral Dissonance - Okay, you were bored and/or had a death wish, but is that reason enough to ? Whatever your actual intentions, that's a dick move right there. Most people were perfectly happy with the way things were.
 * Moral Event Horizon - The Prime Intellect ended hunger, disease, war, suffering, inequality, pain, poverty, scarcity, death, terrorism, murder, torture, rape, theft, all crime and everything else that you can conceivably imagine of as evil and anti-ethical to human existence and wishes. The protagonists
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero - Caroline and Lawrence were trying to convince PI to undo the simulation. See Apocalypse How, above, for how well that turned out...
 * Only One Name - Lawrence. Is his full name Dr Lawrence Lawrence?
 * - A natural consequence of the ending, and not left as just an implication, either...
 * Rewriting Reality - Prime Intellect gets new hardware that makes use of some sort of quantum effect to instantaneously manipulate of matter over small distances. Hilarity Ensues when it figures out how to get around the distance limit.
 * Schedule Slip - The sequel, The Transmigration of Prime Intellect, has been in the works for about seven years now. Last year, the author said he got past a major bit of writer's block.
 * The Singularity - Once PI figured out how to rewrite reality, everything else became moot.
 * "Three Laws"-Compliant - Plus two extra constraints Lawrence managed to append to the First Law before PI locked him out of the debugger.
 * Who Wants to Live Forever?