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TAID (Toposophic Ascension Identity Disassociation)
 Image from Bernd Helfert |
When a sophont ascends to a higher toposophic level, great stress is put on the mind. When this stress is too great, it can have a very negative impact on the ascending mind. Most of the time, this results in a failure in the ascension process, usually leading to the destruction of the mind. However, in some very, very rare cases (1 in 100,000,000), the being ascends, but refuses to accept its new existence. The higher toposophic mind then creates as accurate a model of its pre-ascended mind as it can, and uses that model to interact with its environment. This model may or may not accurately mimic the pre-ascended sophont mind. In the few recorded cases of TAID to date, those models that have deviated from the pre-ascended mind have deviated wildly - Such as a nearbaseline male creating a mental model of a female tigersplice rianth after the ascension process.
It is important to note that in cases of TAID, ascension was "successful". Underneath the mental model the sophont uses to interact with its environment resides the ascended mind. However, the model has no idea that it is anything more than what it appears to be, and the ascended mind will do all it can to maintain the illusion.
More than 80% of the cases of TAID have been self-correcting over time, although some residual personality alterations have been noticed. Over time, the ascended mind becomes accustomed to its new state and has less use for the defensive mechanism of the mental model. There is no "typical" estimate on the duration of TAID. It varies from individual to individual, and can last anywhere from days to centuries.
TAID is most commonly noticed among sapients ascending to S:1 or S:2. It may be just as common among the higher toposophics, but would be much less likely to be noticed by normal sapients.
In many of the cases of TAID, the created sapient model the newly ascended mind is often embodied as a "leftbehind". This usually happens when the model is an accurate portrayal of the ascended being's pre-ascended mind.
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- Ascension Maze
- Ascension, Resistance to
- Baseline Ascent, Problems of Failed
- Hyperautism and Ultraconscious Depersonalization Disorder
- Transcend
- Transcend-Ascend
- Transcendence Blights and Perversities
- Transcendent Burn-out Theory
- Transcension
- Transcension Machine
- Transcension Prediction - Text by Anders Sandberg and M. Alan Kazlev
Given the huge population of the civilized galaxy, and the fact that ascensions and transcensions are moderately common and have been going on for thousands of years, many polities and civilizations have developed some fairly reliable methods for predicting the onset of one of these events. Often this is comparable to pre- and post-singularity efforts at predicting the weather (and a large transcendence event does indeed share some conceptual characteristics with a force of nature to those watching from outside at a lower S level). - Transcension Virus
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Development Notes
Text by ROM 65536
Initially published on 09 March 2005.
Initially published on 09 March 2005.
