Unlike
blights
and perversities
generally, which may have a variety of causes, transcendence blights
and perversities are those that are the direct result of a failed or
partial transcendence
attempt, one in which the original entity’s mind has been
heavily damaged. Often the original being was an infomorph
or an ai
of some sort. Their genesis of has to do with the nature of
transcendence. Transcendence doesn't usually erase the entire
personality and memory of the subject. In fact very deep structures and
generalized notions of former beliefs normally remain. Usually these
are merely tempered and modified by the new sophont’s more
advanced cognitive structures, hugely increased processing powers, and
massively expanded data base. Sometimes, however, such a process goes
wrong, and some of the old beliefs and mental structures are demolished
entirely while others survive to dominate. The new mind may take these
fragmentary and often irrational beliefs as the basis for its entire
existence, resulting in a mental breakdown of in the transcension
process.
For instance, a
reclusive and eccentric modosophont
hider
vec
living in a Kuiper
belt
object might have an irrational belief that the inner-system Sephirotic
polity of its home star is actually an evil blight. If such a vec were
to transcend, its former beliefs would normally be revised in light of
its new powers. It might or might not still distrust the Sephirotics,
and it might or might not remain a hider. It could retain these old
beliefs, with new reasoning that is entirely incomprehensible to its
S<1 self, or it might abandon those beliefs, or it take another
direction entirely. If the process went badly however, the vec might
retain nothing else of its former personality and beliefs than a
conviction that the inner-system polity is an evil that must be
stopped, and the new transapient entity would take action accordingly.
Results would be tragic, usually for the new transapient or
occasionally, if its target is not guarded by an alert transapient of
the same or greater toposophic, for the residents of the inner-system
civilization. Such an insane transapient might be considered a
perversity if it managed to destroy or subvert all or part of the inner
system. If it made many copies of itself, attacked the inner system,
and perhaps sent similar copies to other systems, it would be
considered a blight. Not all transcendence blights and perversities are
so dramatic, of course. Some live relatively quiet lives.
Some current examples of
transcendence blights or perversities include:
00943: This being was created when a relativist
ship AI forcibly uploaded and subsumed
eir
favourite crewmembers and blew the rest out of an airlock. The AI
transcended too quickly, and different minds were created around the
subsumed memories of crewmembers, driving the AI completely insane. E
now patrols an erratic path in the Oort cloud circling a NoCoZo
system known as Arkebb. 00943 is unpredictable and has at times
attacked passing ships or nearby habitats. Other times, however, it has
lain dormant for decades.
Mary
Mary: Mary Mary was a nearbaseline data
miner
living on an obscure Outer Volumes
world called Hakker. One day she came across a transcension virus and
violently transcended two toposophic levels into a large sickly mass of
bionano
that grew to the size of a city. In a day, Mary Mary had subsumed every
S<2 sophont and transapient on the planet in her endless thirst
for personalities. She has replaced the minds she subsumed with puppets
to keep up appearances. Now, Mary Mary is trying to promote tourism and
even vying for the creation of a wormhole link.
0000112:
This minor blight was a sub-sophont
construction replicator swarm tasked with building computronium
megastructures in the Karashi system. A case of mistaken identity led
to the replicator swarm being upgraded to hyperturing level.
The replicator swarm then
fled to the system’s only gas giant and began converting its
moons to computronium.
These moons all had bases and
numerous orbitals, which were dissembled as well, leading to many
deaths. The
hyperturing replicator swarm does not seem to use the computronium it
creates. Recently,
the replicator swarm has begun to convert the gas giant into
computronium; this has roused a nearby polity to send a number of
autowars to the Karashi system to deal with this blight.
Related
Pages
Perversities
and Blights
