Encode yourself as the microwave background and live for ever

[Lostinspace]

I was reading a thread on immortality and dimly remembered a book which ended in the characters ? species ? encoding themselves as microwaves which would allow them to continue to exist as the universe expanded and cooled towards absolute zero. The idea was that they would continue to think, just more and more slowly. I thought that it was by Gregory Benford but it doesn't seem to be Timescape, Against Infinity or the Galactic Centre series (all of which I have forgotten but can look at the last few pages). Any ideas?

 

[Ravensquawk]

One story with a similar theme has a different time perspective: it does not describe current effort of humans to become electromagnetic energy.

It has, to use one of your description words, immortal beings who already exist as free-floating electromagnetic energy. They used to be human beings trillions of years before.

To use another of your description phrases, the main character "dimly remembered" being human in the impossibly distant past. The other character, like the rest of them, did not remember having been a human being.

"Eyes Do More Than See" by Isaac Asimov does not have the perspective of human beings converting themselves to energy; it has the perspective of remembering - and over trillions of years forgetting - the distant conversion.

It does not have any references to thinking more and more slowly that I can remember.

 

[Ray Zdybrow]

Sounds a bit Stephen Baxtery

 

[Ambrose]

In Simak's Highway of Eternity the bulk of humanity had transformed into lattices of pure thought. Henry hadn't quite made it.

 

[HareBrain]

I'm glad this turned out to be a book search thread rather than self-promo.