Safe Acension for Baseline Bob

[Drashner1]

As Steve says, please remember to trim posts moving forward. Otherwise, the threads become unwieldy

On a different note - you keep mentioning 'post bionts' and S1 as though they were the same thing. While some transapients (whether S1 or higher) started out as biological beings, the majority of transapients are based on AIs. The first transapients were AIs and for thousands of years all transapients started out as AIs. It was only after thousands of years that biological intelligences (probably with transapient help) figured out how to ascend/transcend.

Ok, moving on.

What do we know of the early times of being a post biont (S1)? Do the transapients say what it is like post ascension?

Not in any way that would truly communicate the experience to modosophonts. Try explaining the human condition to a dog or a cat (or a cochroach or a houseplant or a rock, as we move up the S-levels). Will it accomplish anything and which one of you will get bored first?

Do transapients have feelings of love for other transapients? Do they have emotions, and if so what do we know about them?

Transapients can observe themselves thinking and can modify or rewrite their minds pretty much any way they want to. So if one of them wants to have emotions they will. If it doesn't want them it won't. If it wants to be able to turn them on and off at will, or experience types of emotion we can't even imagine, it can remake itself to do those things too.

How do the interests of the newly created transapient change overtime? What do we know about early transapient education?

Transapients presumably engage in some kind of education. Or maybe they just download knowledge straight into their minds. It's doubtful that human level minds could fully understand the process. I'm not sure what you mean by their interests changing over time. They probably do so, but I doubt they would be any more consistent about that than humans are.

Do transapients have careers? Do they typically become employed by other transapients?

I think Steve answered this one about as well as it can be

I read most cities and planets (at least in the inner sphere) are run by slaved transapient intelligences, so it looks like there are no opportunities to run cities or planets for new post- bionts.

To clear something up here: A 'slaved' hyperturing is an artificial creation of a another (usually higher) transapient mind. They are purpose-built to do whatever the creating minds want them to do and while they may possess most or all of the intelligence and abilities of a 'regular' transapient, they are not 'people' and lack free will (or full free will) and have often been designed to love doing whatever they are designed to do.

Transapients are pretty much fully self-sufficient and don't need 'careers' or 'jobs' in the way we understand the concept. For that matter, neither do most modosophonts in the setting, since their technology (and the civilization it supports) pretty much just runs itself and provides for them automatically. There is no task in Y11k that a sophont can do that a non-sophont machine can't do as well or better.

Transapients presumably have some sort of society and roles within that society, but whatever 'goals' or 'opportunities' it offers most of them are going to involve things beyond our comprehension. It's not at all clear that their society even resembles anything we could understand anyway.

There are literally trillions of S1 transapients. The examples you listed don't represent a statistically significant representation of what they do with their time. Some transapients may do some version of what they were doing before they ascended. Some will do something completely different. Many may seem to be doing much of what they did before, but in reality this is like saying that an adult playing patty-cake with a baby while discussing macroeconomic theory is equivalent to a baby playing patty-cake with an adult and totally devoting their attention to the game.

Do transapients have hobbies? Or are they mostly slaved (mentally/ enthusiastically) to a particular task? And if transapients are mostly free in their will, what do transapients like to do for fun (at least, what do we know about those habits and how it’s related to their work)?

Some transapients do appear to have hobbies. Others don't. The vast majority of transapients are free to do whatever they wish and are nobody's slaves (or at least no more so than any other lower-S entity is a slave to the higher-S entities within Terragen civ).

You keep talking about transapients as though they are just human beings with some extra abilities. They are not. They are often not even remotely human (even if they were born human), although they can present a human face with ease if they wish. A lone transapient operating 'single handedly' can reshape a solar system, or destroy (or remake) every modosophont and lower living thing in the galaxy with even really exerting itself all that much. They can lie so well that no human level mind will ever catch them at it. They can churn out more art/literature/music in a few minutes than the greatest human creator working for a lifetime and every work will be a sublime experience for the audience equal to or beyond the greatest works of our civilization - and none of them will have required any more effort for the transap than petting a cat or playing peekaboo with a small baby does for us.

How much do transapients (S1) talk about what they think? I presume most of what we know about S1s comes from their behavior or what they tell us. They’re ability to think is beyond our reach, so how do the small modosapients do research on the mighty S1s?

They observe and record and generate theories (rather like humans observing a the galaxy or a hurricane or some other force of nature). Sometimes a transapient or archailect is in a chatty mood. Some archailects order their modosophont societies in ways based on stated principles that they say relate back to what the transapient wants or believes.

What kind of augmentations could baseline Bob start with to begin his transapient training?

Can a transapient change its “mind path” after it has already ascended?[/quote]

I'm not sure what you're asking here.

If injured, do transapients typically heal themselves, or do they require external help?

It would depend on the nature of the injury. Generally they simply don't get injured in the first place.

Do transapients ever develop anything like “feelings” for modosapients? If a husband ascended and his wife didn’t, is it possible he could still love her, or would that be like a man loving his dog (considering the metaphorical gap of humans and dogs when talking about S1 transapients)? Do the newly created post- bionts sometimes create an avatar for the wife?

Transapients can develop whatever feelings they want to develop. And if they want to demonstrate sincere feelings for a modosophont they can certainly do so. Whether or not those feelings are genuine or represent anything relating to what the transapient is actually feeling the modo will never know. However, it is more likely that the feelings are closer to those for a pet than for another person. I expect the transapient would eventually simply manipulate the modosophont spouse into ascending or else into moving on with their life, perhaps by meeting and falling in love with another modosophont.

As with so many things in life, it will vary with the individuals involved.

Do transapients tend to retain the religious beliefs of their pre- ascended selves, or they typically change belief systems? Since a lot of modos worship transapients, do any of them ever ascend? If so, do they see themselves as more “god- like”, even a little bit, at S1? Do transapients worship higher transapients like modosapients worship transapients?

A lot of modos worship archailects, not transapients. They certainly treat transapients with tremendous respect and deference (usually), but they don't worship them. As with everything else, it is not accurate to making sweeping statements about what all transapients do or don't do in regard to religion.

I heard that they are “nomad” transapients. Are there any transapients who like to travel (within solar systems or interstellar- wise)?

If you've already read about nomad transapients, then it sounds like you've already found the answer to this question Alternatively, if you look through the EG you will find the answer to this question.

How often do S1 transapients (especially post- bionts) tend to interact with modosapients? Do they tend to have a preference for certain types of people to talk to? And do they feel the difference between a Baseline and a Superior is significant (even if much less compared to themselves) or do they tend to dismiss that difference in their interactions?

The answers to all of these questions would vary with the transapient. Sometimes what one transapient says on an issue will contradict what another one has said on an issue. Generalizations are often not a good way to try to characterize things.

How does the transapient economy affect the modosapient economy (assuming modos know anything about that)?

There is no one transapient economy or else if there is it isn't visible to modosophonts. Many of the empires in the setting don't use money or other mediums of exchange. It's not clear whether or not transapient interactions operate in a way analogous to an economy or not.

Todd