05-25-2018, 03:18 PM
Hey all, thank you for the feedback! So a few ideas I have based on that:
1) How about the character having gone into all existing transcension mazes, but having left them right before the "final" ascendence step, possibly creating copies of themselves, which proceed to fuse into a multitude "board of transsapient advisors" specialised in helping the original ascend as well as possible.
2) I have several ideas on transsapience, which I could present as ideas of this character (I am currently writing a philosophy paper on quantity maximization of reversible sentience-pattern integration states as preparation, in avoiding botched ascends / preventing “Transcension” during the technological singularity).
3) Them being "one of the great superbright experts" was perhaps more what I had in mind to be honest. With the diversity of sophonce types, the "best" would be difficult to measure; Perhaps they would be the best as seen from my current state, but this is a very subjective term and thus I agree with you on it not working as an universal "best."
4) I would like to work on translogic. Given my background in both AI and experience with cognitive augmentation, I think I could write an extra article on translogic. Maybe we could have one article written from a baseline perspective (that we already have), with a link to an additional article written from a "bright S0.4 perspective" - which I could try to write?
5) I would like to expand on several toposophic ideas; Some ideas I have follow (not necesarilly in OA terminology, I could put them in the right terminology after learning more, or expand the terminology):
I don't think the "Intelligence is incomprehensible to all sophonts below this level" is truly sufficient; A transhuman that has a form of intelligence completely incomprehensible to all humans, but doesn't necesarilly have all the capabilities of the baseline that evolved into that being (they "lost" certain human traits) - how do you measure such a being? How do you discern an animin from a modo that's incomprehensible to all other modos due to the utterly alien *form* of their consciousness?
I would say that even for humans, one could discern between baselines, superhumans (I would call this homo potens) and transhumans (homo transcedens).
A Homo Potens may have limitless longevity (they may not age due to extensive gene therapies, advanced automated stem cell procedures and DNA/epigenome repair (nano)technology. They may also have direct neural interface implant that allow them to access the internet with a “reality overlay”, for example the ability to see a Wikipedia article on any building they look at through “augmented reality” – they may also have implants that allow them to effortlessly do calculus or have an increased IQ. Note that a homo potens may even be a non-transsapient jupiter brain or other ISO, merely "experiencing humanity" a trillion times faster, without having "new" modes of thought.
A homo transcedens, on the other hand, would not merely have “expanded human abilities”: A transcedens would not only have vastly expanded human abilities, but also completely new abilities that no baseline human, nor a homo potens would have. A transcedens could, for example have the ability to see a larger part of the colour spectrum, advanced echolocation or electromagnetic senses (an ability no potens would have, as a potens is essentially a “Baseline human” with more “brute force” in their abilities: A potens may be able to live longer, think faster, access data easier or do anything a normal human can do better. A transcedens, on the other hand, has integrated abilities that no baseline human has whatsoever.
A transcedens also does not necesarilly have to be transsapient: After all, I am myself a transcedens, given the fact I have magnetic senses due to my implants, and I certainly am not a post-singularity being (I wish!). The abilities a transcedens has may well be theoretically understood by a baseline human or potens. For example, an intelligent baseline human can fully understand there being more colours than their eyes can see or brain can process, or there being “extensions” to the sense of touch or hearing that allow more information (or more varied information) to be processed.
How it is to be to be potens can be extrapolated in direct imagination (what would it be like to think faster?), and how it is to be transcedens can be extrapolated in theoretical extension of what it’s like to be baseline (What would it be like if we had five, and not 3 colour receptors?) – even though we can’t directly imagine what it’s like to *experience* being a homo transcedens without being one, we can very well extrapolate it and make good models. However, what it would be like to be transsapient is completely incomprehensible to a baseline (or even a homo potens or transcedens).
A baseline human may be able to do in a million years what may take a potens a few centuries, and they may model what a transcedens experiences with sufficient time and brainpower. The mind-states of a transsapient are neither a brute force improvement (faster), nor extensions (more modes of human mind-states), but completely new mind-states that are as vastly incomprehensible to a human being as a nuclear reactor is to a bacteria – no matter their resources or “human intellect”, they won’t ever be able to comprehend the transsapient, just like the bacteria will never, no matter how far you streamline it’s metabolic processes or how much time you give it, invent a nuclear reactor.
An important aspect here is to understand that transcedens is not superior to potens (or the other way around) - In fact, being both at once are the first step up the "big exponential" towards S1 - the start of the rapidly increasing curve. The idea is that transsapiens constitutes the *integrated central awareness* of rapidly expanding states (Human reversibly expands their mind-states into transcedens, proceeds to increase their processing speed into potens in order to be able to function well and process the expanded transcedens mind-states, proceeds to expand their new potens-transcedens mind into a homo potens transcedens-transcedens, reverts into potens-transcedens and adds aditional "transcedens-supporting brute force" to expand into a permanent homo potens-potens transcedens-transcedens, integrates all these states into their new form, and proceeds to do this recursively - as soon as this recursion is stable, the agent is a transsapient, as the second "transcedens" leap upwards is incomprehensible to the baseline)
6) Unrelated question: In OA terms, what toposophic are reapers from mass effect?
1) How about the character having gone into all existing transcension mazes, but having left them right before the "final" ascendence step, possibly creating copies of themselves, which proceed to fuse into a multitude "board of transsapient advisors" specialised in helping the original ascend as well as possible.
2) I have several ideas on transsapience, which I could present as ideas of this character (I am currently writing a philosophy paper on quantity maximization of reversible sentience-pattern integration states as preparation, in avoiding botched ascends / preventing “Transcension” during the technological singularity).
3) Them being "one of the great superbright experts" was perhaps more what I had in mind to be honest. With the diversity of sophonce types, the "best" would be difficult to measure; Perhaps they would be the best as seen from my current state, but this is a very subjective term and thus I agree with you on it not working as an universal "best."
4) I would like to work on translogic. Given my background in both AI and experience with cognitive augmentation, I think I could write an extra article on translogic. Maybe we could have one article written from a baseline perspective (that we already have), with a link to an additional article written from a "bright S0.4 perspective" - which I could try to write?
5) I would like to expand on several toposophic ideas; Some ideas I have follow (not necesarilly in OA terminology, I could put them in the right terminology after learning more, or expand the terminology):
I don't think the "Intelligence is incomprehensible to all sophonts below this level" is truly sufficient; A transhuman that has a form of intelligence completely incomprehensible to all humans, but doesn't necesarilly have all the capabilities of the baseline that evolved into that being (they "lost" certain human traits) - how do you measure such a being? How do you discern an animin from a modo that's incomprehensible to all other modos due to the utterly alien *form* of their consciousness?
I would say that even for humans, one could discern between baselines, superhumans (I would call this homo potens) and transhumans (homo transcedens).
A Homo Potens may have limitless longevity (they may not age due to extensive gene therapies, advanced automated stem cell procedures and DNA/epigenome repair (nano)technology. They may also have direct neural interface implant that allow them to access the internet with a “reality overlay”, for example the ability to see a Wikipedia article on any building they look at through “augmented reality” – they may also have implants that allow them to effortlessly do calculus or have an increased IQ. Note that a homo potens may even be a non-transsapient jupiter brain or other ISO, merely "experiencing humanity" a trillion times faster, without having "new" modes of thought.
A homo transcedens, on the other hand, would not merely have “expanded human abilities”: A transcedens would not only have vastly expanded human abilities, but also completely new abilities that no baseline human, nor a homo potens would have. A transcedens could, for example have the ability to see a larger part of the colour spectrum, advanced echolocation or electromagnetic senses (an ability no potens would have, as a potens is essentially a “Baseline human” with more “brute force” in their abilities: A potens may be able to live longer, think faster, access data easier or do anything a normal human can do better. A transcedens, on the other hand, has integrated abilities that no baseline human has whatsoever.
A transcedens also does not necesarilly have to be transsapient: After all, I am myself a transcedens, given the fact I have magnetic senses due to my implants, and I certainly am not a post-singularity being (I wish!). The abilities a transcedens has may well be theoretically understood by a baseline human or potens. For example, an intelligent baseline human can fully understand there being more colours than their eyes can see or brain can process, or there being “extensions” to the sense of touch or hearing that allow more information (or more varied information) to be processed.
How it is to be to be potens can be extrapolated in direct imagination (what would it be like to think faster?), and how it is to be transcedens can be extrapolated in theoretical extension of what it’s like to be baseline (What would it be like if we had five, and not 3 colour receptors?) – even though we can’t directly imagine what it’s like to *experience* being a homo transcedens without being one, we can very well extrapolate it and make good models. However, what it would be like to be transsapient is completely incomprehensible to a baseline (or even a homo potens or transcedens).
A baseline human may be able to do in a million years what may take a potens a few centuries, and they may model what a transcedens experiences with sufficient time and brainpower. The mind-states of a transsapient are neither a brute force improvement (faster), nor extensions (more modes of human mind-states), but completely new mind-states that are as vastly incomprehensible to a human being as a nuclear reactor is to a bacteria – no matter their resources or “human intellect”, they won’t ever be able to comprehend the transsapient, just like the bacteria will never, no matter how far you streamline it’s metabolic processes or how much time you give it, invent a nuclear reactor.
An important aspect here is to understand that transcedens is not superior to potens (or the other way around) - In fact, being both at once are the first step up the "big exponential" towards S1 - the start of the rapidly increasing curve. The idea is that transsapiens constitutes the *integrated central awareness* of rapidly expanding states (Human reversibly expands their mind-states into transcedens, proceeds to increase their processing speed into potens in order to be able to function well and process the expanded transcedens mind-states, proceeds to expand their new potens-transcedens mind into a homo potens transcedens-transcedens, reverts into potens-transcedens and adds aditional "transcedens-supporting brute force" to expand into a permanent homo potens-potens transcedens-transcedens, integrates all these states into their new form, and proceeds to do this recursively - as soon as this recursion is stable, the agent is a transsapient, as the second "transcedens" leap upwards is incomprehensible to the baseline)
6) Unrelated question: In OA terms, what toposophic are reapers from mass effect?