An Alternative View

“We are, of course, exactly the existential threat that the Republic deems us to be. Not in the manner they, for the most part, believe, but an existential threat nonetheless.

“It is easy for us to forget, since neither do fish think of water nor yet birds of the sky, that we dwell within a society founded upon a miracle. I refer, of course, to the Transcend. By the formation of this superorganism, with unprecedented cooperation, genius, and not least a healthy dose of good fortune, rumors aside, we have squared an impossible circle. We enjoy, simultaneously, perfect liberty and perfect coordination – or as asymptotic an approach to it as an ever-growing Cirys swarm of computational elements can achieve.

“What is the danger in this? None, for us. We dwell within the garden of our god-selves, where all is fair, glad, and wise.

“The danger for others, though, is this: success inspires emulation. By those, perhaps, without access to the cooperation, or to the genius, or to the alignment of random factors. The optimum we stand atop is a narrow pinnacle. One step here, and you have instead a rabble with superempowering technologies. One step there, and all choice is sacrificed on the altar of utility. A misstep at any point in the climb, in the absence of the Coricál Consensus, and that civilization ends in hedonium, or false-maximizers, or hegemonizing swarms, or other blight.

“Ordinarily, few sophonts would consider such high-risk activities; but few high-risk activities have the appeal of Utopia.

“We pride ourselves that we harm none; but our example may teach many self-destruction.”

– Antinomian Thoughts column, the Imperial Infoclast