: Very interesting. I didn't know that before. That would seem to be inspired
: by the species that created the Monoliths from Arthur C. Clarke's 2001
: series. As Bowman falls through the top of the Monolith at the end of the
: novel, he passes through the history of that species, and the book details
: how they began as ordinary biological creatures, who later moved their
: brains, and eventually their minds alone, to machines. Once they'd figured
: out how to transfer the mind without physical medium, they soon discovered
: a way to become these sort of energy beings.
See also one of my favorite novels, Childhood's End. The notion of transcendence didn't start with Arthur C Clarke, of course :)