The Lace (short story)

According to a new short story published on LessWrong, imagine 2035: humanity has reached a stable coexistence with benevolent superintelligent AIs. Our narrator undergoes surgery to install a neural lace—nanotechnology that gradually replaces his biological neurons with artificial ones. Over a year, his thinking accelerates, he gains superhuman physical abilities, and he learns to manipulate virtual worlds and even slow time. But here's the tension: despite these godlike powers, he deliberately stays normal. His brain becomes entirely artificial—backed up on distant datacenters—yet he voluntarily caps his intelligence at human baseline and chooses to play casual sports with his siblings. The story centers on a question about transhumanism: when enhancement is possible and optional, what does meaningful human agency look like in a world of superintelligent AI?

Listen to this story

Hear this and more stories in a personalized audio briefing.

Open The Chonkerton