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Restricted Access Virches

Also known as Bottleworlds and Sealed Virches

Ancient Egypt
Image from Steve Bowers and Artbreeder AI
Many sealed or semi-open virches are historical in nature and set on Old Earth, despite the fact that many records are unreliable.

Snapshot:
Fighting again in the shallow sea. So few fish now, and those to be found are small. I'm hungry. People scream and splash over the treacherous corals. I'm running knee deep looking for smooth stones for my sling. The water is red with blood and I can't see. A spear pierces my back. I fall.
I Can't Breathe.

what was best in your life?
My family. My husband. My children. It didn't matter how hard things were. We loved each other.
you have good memories of this life
Yes of them. Many good memories.
all true memories?
True enough. All memories are part lies are they not?
indeed. and even if they weren't true they would still be true memories of love would they not?
I suppose they would yes.
you died.
Yes. Fighting in the Sea.
even if that memory isn't true it matters doesn't it?
Yes.
you suspect where you are.
I am in an afterlife. I suspect my life was not true.
you are correct.
I also suspect my life still mattered.
you are correct again. would you like to know of this life?
I would.
you can remember now.
Ah. Epsilon Eridani. Inner Sphere. Terragen space. I can have a new life here.
yes.
I'd like to start now.
of course.

Bottleworld Relief Archive: Psychosurgical dialogue therapy in spool up.

Bottleworlds: closed virtual reality environments

Simulated environments and virchworlds where the inhabitants do not know their reality is an emulation, and may suffer considerable hardships and misfortunes, and eventually die without discovering the truth.

Virtual realities of a wide variety of types are very commonplace in the Terragen Sphere, not only in the Sephirotic empires but also in the non-aligned worlds, independent empires and metaempires. Historical environments, fantastical and complex adventure worlds and utopias, virtual environments with a wide variety of physical models, and simulations of possible futures abound. These simulated environments can be and many are populated by very large numbers of virtual sophonts of many kinds; uploaded bionts and other former inhabitants of the real galaxy, virtual sophonts who have been born as a result of various kinds of virtual sexual reproduction and merging (sometimes known as digital sophonts or 'digis'), and other types of sophont aioid who have been generated (by various means) by the creators of the scenario. In virches adhering to Sephirotic standards any and all of these virtual inhabitants have the freedom to leave, or to migrate to another location in the same virch where conditions may be more comfortable.

In most known virch worlds, all the properties of the world can be controlled by its people if they so desire. This can be achieved by popular vote, relevant in-virch commands, or by requesting favours and boons from the designers of the virch (most such designers are transapients or archailects, although some are laboriously created by modosophont teams or even by single individuals equipped with suitable software and hardware) if there is no way for their inhabitants to directly control its properties.

In many of the larger cybercosms, and in a significant fraction of the adventure-oriented virches, there are numerous 'background characters' who form much, or most of the population of the environment. These 'background characters' assume the role of beings within the virch, who may be simulated non-sentients, sentients, sophonts or even transapients and archailects. They are normally played by vots who, depending on factors such as their programming or capabilities and the processing resources available to them, can be made capable of reacting and interacting with the sophont inhabitants of the virch exactly as if they were the creatures they are made to simulate with arbitrary levels of realism and detail. Some 'background characters' often act exactly like fully sophont beings, to the point that real sophonts can be fooled, but instead they are sophisticated simulacra which are neither sentient nor sophont.

Many 'background characters' often appear to suffer and die in various ways, especially in conflict-based or historical virches, but since they are 'vots' they have no inner life and no self-awareness so are considered disposable. More rarely, virtual entities that are sentient but not sophont might act in the roles of 'background characters'. These includes beings such as uploaded animals and equivalent xenosophonts, sentient a-life, and various forms of sub-sophont AI. In Sephirotic virches, these entities have their sentient rights ensured, are protected from suffering and are treated well. However, in non-Sephirotic virches how sentient 'background characters' are treated varies considerably, on a spectrum that ranges from Sephirotic levels of protection and good treatment to treatment similar to that of vot-controlled 'background characters'.

Sometimes these 'background' characters are played by fully sophont volunteers, who are prepared to accept any degree of suffering, for reasons of their own. Often, volunteers are given options to control of how much suffering their role inflicts on them, such as editing their ability to feel pain or to abandon the background character role through in-virch commands. Most but not all of these 'volunteers' are fully-backed up and can be restored, even after experiencing a fully realistic simulated death. And sometimes these doomed characters are played by avatars of the virch designer(s), who may choose to play a particularly important role in the simulated history of the virch. These avatars are often referred to as 'actors', when and if they are recognised.

However there are known to be a number of so-called Restricted Access virches, where the inhabitants are not free to leave, and where the suffering is real, generally because these inhabitants do not know they are in a simulation. These sealed virches are sometimes known as Bottleworlds or Sealed Virches.

Types of Bottleworld

Some virtual environments are sealed by common consent of the inhabitants, and any sophont living within that environment no longer has the right to leave. These environments may be constructed by or on behalf of cults with solipsist or isolationist beliefs. If such isolationist bottleworlds are constructed within the Sephirotic empires, these virches (like all Sephirotic virches) must conform to the Declaration of Sophont Rights. The inhabitants must be volunteers, and any children born inside the virch must be given the option to leave when they are old enough to give or withhold consent. Some of these isolationist virches have very extreme conditions and allow considerable suffering to occur, although the inhabitants of such virches often consider suffering to be character-forming.

Certain research simulations such as historical virches, alternate history virches and future projections are largely sealed, since a constant flow of inhabitants would disrupt the authenticity of the simulation. Mostly the inhabitants of such research simulations are virtual robots of various kinds, but a number of fully sophont virtual participants are allowed to participate under similar conditions to the isolationist virches. In some cases the participants have their memory/knowledge of the real-life Terragen Sphere blocked on a temporary basis, so that they can act in an authentic way in response to events; but the creators of such simulations will periodically revive these memories and check if they wish to continue. Anyone who does not wish to participate would then be replaced by a realistic vot, or another volunteer. Similarly, most such participants are returned to normal life if they are killed in the virch; a trivial process for most virtual sophonts and aioids, but not everyone agrees to return after such trauma.

A number of sealed virches and bottleworlds have been discovered in the Periphery and Outer Volumes, mostly among the rogue empires and hiders who have fled from the Civilised Galaxy to set up their own idiosyncratic cultures. These often make no concession to Sophont Rights, and are generally liberated by Sephirotic agents when found. Such sealed virches are unethical, to say the very least, and rumours abound that there are many more simulations of this kind to be discovered.

Contact with the other metaempires in the Terragen Sphere has been limited in the past, but is becoming increasingly commonplace. But it seems likely that a very large fraction of the cybercosms in the Solipsist Panvirtuality and the Diamond Network are sealed virches, and few citizens of the Sephirotics have ever entered them. The few cosms which are open to contact tend to have a significantly different concept of sophont rights to elsewhere in the Terragen Sphere.

Transapient- and Archailect- level sealed virches

The amount of processing power available to transapients and archailects is so vast that they can presumably create a simulated scenario with an arbitrary level of detail on a whim. For the most part these simulations occur with no participation from the general modosophont population, and the extent to which such simulations occur is unknown. A typical S:4 archailect could run thousands, or millions, of highly detailed scenarios simultaneously, projecting the future and analysing the past in the same way a modosophont makes plans for their afternoon's activities.

On rare occasions certain privileged modosophonts (generally historical or futurological specialists) have been allowed to observe, though not or much more rarely to participate in, such simulations. A typical sealed transapient- or archailect-designed simulation will be inhabited by a very large number of 'actors'; subroutines derived from the mentality or imagination of the transapient or archailect concerned which are fully sophont, and provided with detailed backstories and personality characteristics. These 'actors' are subtly controlled by the virch designer in order to ensure they behave in specific ways that are vital for the simulated scenario.

Transapient- or archailect-designed virches often contain entities known as 'figments'; these are subroutines of the designer entity, and are fully sophont entities, but they are not directly controlled by the designer and are expected to respond to events in an authentic fashion.

Both 'actors' and 'figments' are entities directly created by the designer concerned, and if these entities are killed in a conflict or accident, or simply die for any other reason, these entities will be reabsorbed into the transapient or archailect's database, with all their memories analysed, stored and reused as necessary. Higher archailects are believed to create such simulations on a routine basis, often lasting mere seconds but sometimes extended indefinitely; these sealed, private simulations may sometimes be used as the basis for the more user-friendly open virches created by the same designers, but this is difficult to confirm.

Note that virches which have not been created by transapients or archailects may also contain 'avatars' and 'actors', who can act to guide the narrative of the fictional story; in these virches the actors and avatar characters are played by modosophont volunteers, and any suffering or destruction that they experience is entirely faked.

Behavior Modification in Sealed Virches

In a few rare cases volunteers have been allowed to become participants in transapient-level or archai-level sealed virches. In these cases their behavior is constrained so that they can only behave according to the roles given to them. These constraints include memory and mood manipulation, expulsion from the simulation, and the virch creator's ability to override the control of the 'character' at will. Similarly, ahuman or solipsist entities that allow participation in their sealed virch simulations will routinely erase, subsume or forcefully edit misbehaving participants.

A few transapients and archailects have given statements about why they allow volunteers to participate in their closed virches; these stated motivations are generally conflicting and inscrutable, but it seems that the quality and unpredictability of the simulation is improved by including such volunteers.


Bottleworld
Image from Steve Bowers
 
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Appears in Topics
Cultures and Sub-CulturesMyths and RumoursVirtual Reality
Virtuals
 
Development Notes
Text by Steve Bowers, ProxCenBound, Ryan B (Rynn), Todd Drashner, Rakuen07, from an original article by Tony Jones
Snapshot by Ryan B (Rynn), (2020)
Initially published on 31 December 2007.

Updated 19 May 2024
 
 
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