![The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect is a 1994 novella by Roger Williams, a programmer living in New Orleans.[1][2] It deals with the](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cf/The_Metamorphosis_of_Prime_Intellect_%28cover%29.jpg "The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect")
The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect
The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect is a 1994 novella by Roger Williams, a programmer living in New Orleans.[1][2] It deals with the ramifications of a powerful, superintelligent supercomputer that discovers god-like powers to alter reality while studying a quirk of quantum physics discovered during the prototyping of its own specialised processors, ultimately heralding a technological singularity. After remaining unpublished for years, the novel was published online in 2002, hosted by Kuro5hin; Williams later published a print edition via print-on-demand publisher Lulu.[3] One reviewer called the novel "a well-written and very creative, if flawed, piece of work" and ranked it as one of the more important works of fiction to deal with the idea of a technological singularity.[4]
Roger Williams started writing The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect in 1982, while studying at college. After writing a basic plot outline, Williams realized that he "had no clue how to end it", and thus put it to one side for over a decade.[5] In 1994, with the initial plot outline now lost, Williams claims to have had an unusually vivid dream which compelled him to start writing—resulting in the completion of the first chapter.[5] This continued intermittently, with each chapter resulting from a burst of inspiration, culminating when the final chapter—the ending—was written approximately a year after the first. As Williams describes it, the actual writing time was about 14 days in total.[5]
