quotation
Cultivation
Despite centuries of terrible research by terrible people, sophotechnology has not provided either protein or machine intelligences with any viable technique to sandbox evil. Istar Essenye, wakener
sophotechnology
sophotechnology
Worldbuilding: Theory of Mind
So, let’s talk about Theory of Mind. Well, okay, not that theory of mind. The theory of how minds work in the ‘verse, and so the theory behind most sophotechnology, since this topic has come up on the Discord recently. (Much of the below was heavily inspired by Greg
sophotechnology
Why Did I Do That?
Of the various forms of mind control available today, the most subtle and horrible is that of overshadowing. Overshadowing occupies the middle ground between full possession – in which the invading mind replaces or suppresses the host mind, which is either destroyed or unconscious during the period of possession; and black
worldbuilding
October Stuff
In honor of the coming holiday, a terrifying thought I had: According to “The Blood-Brain Barrier” (and other incidental mentions elsewhere), it’s possible to target, edit, and alter the will if you know what you’re doing. By implication, this means that it must be possible to *erase* someone’
trope-a-day
Yeah, Maybe Not That Short
Academician Sesca Galith stepped up behind the podium, and tapped it gently to begin. The audience quieted rapidly as she held up a wickedly-pointed poniard, of oddly-textured metal, with lights gleaming white and amber in its hilt, whose image was repeated on the displayed behind her. “Presenting, gentlesophs, the latest
Torren Moon Incident
A Conversation, Recorded Eight Minutes Before The Torren Moon Bloom
“Yes,” said the forensic eschatologist. “Your crippling techniques all appear fully operational. Your screening talkers have detected no basilisks or dangerous memetic payloads, and neither have the people screening them. Your emergency-wipe protocols show no sign of tampering, your network links show no anomalous traffic, and there is no present
trope-a-day
Trope-a-Day: Death of Personality
Death of Personality: The techniques used to flush the brain of a ‘shell when its current occupant mindcasts out of it… (Be it the relatively simple job of a cerebral bridge in resetting a Universal Noetic Architecture-compliant brain, biological or digital, to the Minimal Maintenance Architecture, or the rather more
trope-a-day
Trope-a-Day: Baleful Polymorph
Baleful Polymorph: While a transfer and not a polymorph, there are certain distinctly not-nice people who find it… amusing… to upload their captured enemies’ minds into, say, their tropical fish rather than just keep them in dead storage, if it turns out they might be useful later. Although, really, spending
worldbuilding
On Free Will and Noetic Architecture
Another little note on identity, following on from here: On the whole, do eldraeic mainstream views on free will, determinism, and the possible interactions between the two run more towards compatibilism or incompatibilism? While ideas vary as ideas always do in the absence of proof one way or another, the
worldbuilding
Questions: Identity
Some identity questions from Specialist290: We all know by now the contempt with which a good citizen-shareholder regards the continuity theory of identity, For new readers not familiar with the Eldraeverse status quo and thus who might not know by now, the dominant theory of identity in the technologically advanced
digisapience
Questions: Why AIs Exist?
In today’s not-a-gotcha, someone questions why digisapiences (i.e., sophont AIs) exist at all, citing this passage of Stross via Zompist.com – We clearly want machines that perform human-like tasks. We want computers that recognize our language and motivations and can take hints, rather than requiring instructions enumerated in
trope-a-day
Trope-a-Day: Split Personality Merge
Split Personality Merge: Averted. You don’t try and merge two minds (an operation routinely carried out to remerge forks) while they’re running, seriously. This is a very complex operation carried out on static mind-states, and while there may be some conflicts in the resultant merged personality, there’s