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[AdamK]

Dwarf Fortress has been mentioned in new SciFi novel 'Samotność aksolotla' ('The Old Axolotl: Hardware Dreams') by Jacek Dukaj (already mentioned on this forum). DF is mentioned by full name, indicating that Dukaj had to play it, or at least is pretty familiar with it.

SPOILER:

Story begins in the near future, when robots are much more advanced and common, and humanity developed technology that allows to create copy of person mind in computer (but it remains largely unused because of ethical, religious and legal reasons). One day, a mysterious neutron (or microwave, not really full explained) ray destroys all life on Earth. Some of the people 'survive' by uploading their minds to computers. Because most of them are more or less hardcore gamers, they form 'alliances' similar to alliances or guilds in today's MMO games. One of this alliances named 'Dwarfes', is described as being formed by nerd-fans of DF, and aims at restoring industry into working condition. It is not really important for the main character and his story, and is just mentioned from time to time as a back-story.

[Flying Dice]

Hm, regardless of the shout-out that sounds like an interesting mix of the 'trapped-in-MMO' shtick and older transhumanism. I've been looking around but couldn't find anything, but in the process stumbled across the synopses of his other novels. Do you know if his novels have been translated into English? Most of them sound like the sort of writing I'd enjoy. The only one I've found mention of being translated is Ice.

[scrdest]

It's also notable insofar as being the first major Polish book to be electronic-exclusive, apparently.

[RedKing]

Dwarf Fortress can into Poland, and thus by the transitive property, into space.

[scrdest]

Dwarf Fortress can into Poland

Several forumites were testament to that already

[wierd]

It's not a proper transumanism + Dwarf Fortress shout-out, unless the dwarfies attempt to create a meta-nested transhuman AI inside a dwarfputer, running in dwarf fortress.
/joke

Just about transhumanism in general, the stories I have seen always seem to focus on "Life inside the machine", rather than the obvious existential crisis that the uploaded minds would have:  Sure, they are still functioning, but on borrowed time. Computers arent some construct that is magically free from entropic decay; they NEED maintenance, and with no humans around to maintain things, the computers they are housed in will have problems.  Say, disks in disk trays going bad--- Sure, the array can handle a few failures, but once you run out of spares in the controller, or you have multiple failures? Ooops! Lots of people just got irretrievably lost.

You have what, maybe a year or two to cobble together a remote controlled service robot, and keep your host platform operating, before you start experiencing systemic problems? (storage controllers need more human provided care than you realize.) Then you have the problem of people wanting to steal/hack your robot, rather than try and build their own--  Not all robots are going to have the gentle touch and dexterity needed to service computers and storage controllers, so not just any robot would do.

Then there's the whole power system infrastructure problem.  Coal fired plants need coal delivered, and the humans doing the deliveries all died suddenly.  Nuke plants could operate for several months on stored fuel pellets, but they will still need waste removal and processing, and new few pellets installed. 

And then there's raw materials and replacement parts logistics...

The situation would be VERY grim for the uploads after such a catastrophe.  Yet, most stories about it just ignore it, and focus on the bizarre nature of the virtual worlds they make for themselves.

[Flying Dice]

Sounds like it's already taken care of.

robots are much more advanced and common

And it's a world where mind upload tech is already good enough to be a viable out for anyone familiar with it and in position to use it. Chances are there are already robots specialized as caretakers alongside managing industry and infrastructure.

[wierd]

There's still the "infrastructure destruction" problem following a major political upheval, coupled with increased passions about the ethics of mind uploads.

Take for instance, people who made mind uploads against religious objections, simply because it was becoming necessary to do business.  Their organic form is now dead, and all that remains of them is the upload, which naturally, has their beliefs.

These uploads would believe themselves, and all other surviving uploads to be monsters.  Do you honestly think that at least some of these uploads would not become terrorist uploads?

Etc.

[Flying Dice]

Did... you not even read the summary of the novel?

[wierd]

Yes. Here, let me highlight it for you.

Story begins in the near future, when robots are much more advanced and common, and humanity developed technology that allows to create copy of person mind in computer (but it remains largely unused because of ethical, religious and legal reasons). One day, a mysterious neutron (or microwave, not really full explained) ray destroys all life on Earth. Some of the people 'survive' by uploading their minds to computers. Because most of them are more or less hardcore gamers, they form 'alliances' similar to alliances or guilds in today's MMO games. One of this alliances named 'Dwarfes', is described as being formed by nerd-fans of DF, and aims at restoring industry into working condition. It is not really important for the main character and his story, and is just mentioned from time to time as a back-story.

This has a couple of different possible interpretations.

The technology exists but is not widespread, because most people find it objectionable (for stated reasons);
this makes the "Not enough people surviving/infastructural collapse form lack of personnel" problem happen.

The technology exists and is widespread, but the uploads themselves are  rarely used. (Not active), because of ethical concerns. Say, using a mental upload pattern as proof of identity, like an ID card.  The upload is not "Running", it is used to compare against a live biological instance, and prove identity.  This leads to the "Terrorist uploads" problem.

[Flying Dice]

No, no. This part:

Story begins in the near future, when robots are much more advanced and common, and humanity developed technology that allows to create copy of person mind in computer (but it remains largely unused because of ethical, religious and legal reasons). One day, a mysterious neutron (or microwave, not really full explained) ray destroys all life on Earth. Some of the people 'survive' by uploading their minds to computers. Because most of them are more or less hardcore gamers, they form 'alliances' similar to alliances or guilds in today's MMO games. One of this alliances named 'Dwarfes', is described as being formed by nerd-fans of DF, and aims at restoring industry into working condition. It is not really important for the main character and his story, and is just mentioned from time to time as a back-story.

It happened rapidly enough and with so little warning that pretty much the only people who managed to upload were people already actively using the technology. It was a literal "Poof, everyone dies," day. What you highlighted is pretty clearly the same sort of thing as the continuity-of-self line of thought behind the people who want nothing to do with Star Trek style teleporters and cloning as a way of living past body-death.

I'm not sure where you're getting any of this other stuff when it was pretty clearly stated. Plot happens, humanity undergoes extinction event which doesn't mess with their advanced robot-riddled infrastructure (or there'd be no plot, everyone dies in a couple weeks when the server crashes). No body is left alive, only the uploads. I don't even know where "terrorist uploads" thing is coming from. It's a technology. Not many people use it because of issues of continuity of self. Some of those who do manage to survive an extinction event that fries humanity by uploading. Plot starts. o.0

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Dwarf Fortress can into Poland, and thus by the transitive property, into space.

Poor Polan. What shall do now that DF take free time?

[wierd]

What I was getting at, is that under this condition, the robots themselves will still need human operators, which now no longer exist as humans.

The infrastructure is not magical, simply because it is more advanced. It will break down.  There are now no longer sufficient minds available to control the robots effectively to sustain the technological develpments upon which the uploads are sustained.

That was the original statement, more or less.  Simply because there are "Lots of robots" does not mean that the robots can go to places meant for human traversal, or do tasks meant for human operators, even when controlled by an uploaded mind.

Then you have the knowledge loss that such an event would cause-- You have all this tech, but the knowledge of HOW to keep it running is just plain gone.

Also, the latter interpretation is not in any way harmed by the suddenness of the event.  Initially, the only "active" uploads would be the ones from people actively using the tech at the time, while the hypothetical inactive, "legally restricted use" ones would just be data.  After the event, because of the personnel problem, the activation of these dormant uploads would be necessary. BOOM, upload terrorists.

[wierd]

Here-- I'll give you some hypothetical plot outlines

1)

Humans invent upload tech, but it is considered too ethically encumbered to allow widespread adoption. Event happens, organic humans die, only a handful of upload personalities survive due to hobbyist interest in the tech. Due to statistical laws of distribution, these uploaded personalities will be pretty randomly distributed across technologically advanced countries of origin. There are not sufficient minds per region to sustain the infrastructure, existential crisis trumps "Zany life inside computer" type plot.

2)

Humans invent upload tech, and it is widely adopted, but due to ethical concerns, the use of the uploads is restricted by law. Because the data is considered confidential, with agreements that the upload imprints are never going to be activated, people feel more comfortable with the tech.  This could be useful for highly futuristic versions of things like FaceBook-- Instead of uploading pictures and sound files, you can upload whole imaginatory sessions, dreams, emotional states, etc-- for others to experience by selectively downloading parts of the upload stored by the service.  People who are very much religiously minded may come to begrudginly accept this new tech, as things like the job market start demanding it (much like social media is becoming that way now.)  After the event, the only few uploads that are "Active" are those by enthusiasts, who lack the collective experience to manage the global infrastructure that they now desperately need to survive.  So, they activate the stored uploads that were previously held confidential, against the wishes of the now dead humans, when these uploads were first created.  As a consequence, some of the uploads will experience existential horror. BOOM-- Terrorist uploads.

The direction you are trying for requires that the few willing uploads be able to manage a global infrastructure all by themselves, with sufficient alacrity that they do not have any issues whatsoever, and can have the "Whee! Zany life in a computer!" plot happen. Because "Robots".

[AdamK]

It's also notable insofar as being the first major Polish book to be electronic-exclusive, apparently.

I really do not know. But there is a contact page (http://www.dukaj.pl/kontakt) listing his 'Foreign rights' agent, so it seems the answer is yes.