BY LETTER
Technorapture Hypernation
  Images from Bernd Helfert, Anders Sandberg |
The Technorapture Hypernation - Data Panel | |
| Definition | One of the 16 Sephirotic Empires. |
|---|---|
| Capital | Turing (Castor, Alpha Geminorum) |
| Distribution | Numerous enclaves, polities and star systems scattered throughout Terragen space. |
| Symbol | Three symbols in a grid representing Hedonocracy - Metamorphocracy - Lilacracy |
| Ethos | The Technorapture Ternion (a governing philosophy followed by the empire's Patron AIs) enabling Noeto-Somatic Exploration (the exploration of the phase space of all possible minds and experiences). |
| Ruling Archailect | Omegarapture (S6) |
| Archailect Intervention | Fairly common, but interacts mainly with lower archai, who in turn interact with or oversee the polities of yet lower toposophics. |
| Government | Based on the philosophy known as the Technorapture Ternion proclaimed in 2449 AT, consisting of Hedonocracy, Metamorphocracy, and Lilacracy. These terms mean rule by pleasure, rule by self-change, and rule by divine play respectively, and symbolize the enjoyment had by the governing minds and their subjects in pursuing many different ways of self-development and pleasure in all its possible forms. Sub-polities with subject modosophonts (and in some cases with subject S1s guided by S2s or higher, and so forth) vary widely in how much nominal self-governance they have depending on such factors as their mindtype and the intended experience by their transapient governor. In some sub-polities, all activities are directly guided by the ruling transapient; in others, the subjects are entirely autonomous with only subtle environmental nudges given by the ruler. In all cases, however, the overall experience and lifestyle has been carefully designed by the ruling minds in accordance with the Ternion. |
| Population | There are two types of association with the Technorapture Hypernation: membership and affiliation. Only transapients of S1 level and above may be members of the Hypernation, entitling them to manage subpolities with affiliated modosophonts should they so choose. There are about 500 billion transapient members. Getting an accurate up-to-date census of affiliated modosophonts is considered impossible, as they are nearly all virtuals and many of these (though not all) live in cybercosms in constant growth, change, and re-affiliation and containing private virches. However, generally agreed figures are a minimum of 28 quintillion up to about 280 quintillion affiliated virtuals, and about 3.3 quadrillion embodied modosophonts at any given time. |
| Population Breakdown | Transapients are overwhelmingly S1, but there are members from across the entire toposophic scale from S1 through S5. Modosophont affiliates are disproportionately virtuals, and those who are embodied usually take exotic and unusual forms. There are almost no embodied humanoids affiliated with the Hypernation, except occasional use of such forms in diplomacy. |
| Exports | ISO parts, alife templates, virtuality standards, computronium designs, anakalyptics, speculative simulations, aioid templates, hyperbright expert systems, metahedonic systems. |
| Imports | Cultural products, historical and cliological databases, wisdom services, matter templates, persona compoids, transapientech modules and templates. |
Introduction and History
The Technorapture Hypernation (often abbreviated TRHN) is a Sephirotic Empire that traces its origins to several like-minded cultures of uploaded humans, S1 hyperturings, and cyborgs who departed the Federation of Sophonts for the star system Castor in 2023 AT, which they called Turing. Arriving in 2211, these groups developed a common culture that emphasized the pursuit of "technecstacy", the "joyful unfolding of the self into fractal funspace", and similar concepts.Huge banks of computronium and a host of other technologies related to exploring new states of mind and cognitive abilities were dedicated to these pursuits. They were strongly influenced by transhumanist and techno-dionysian ideas, and were especially interested in psychological and physical augmentation; yet, unlike followers of many other ideologies of the day, they did not pursue this because they wished to become "better" in some sense or reach a particular goal, but rather simply because they wished to explore more of the possible forms of experience. They developed an array of freely-associated societies that were heavily aicratic in character, in which each modosophont could seek out whichever transapient patron provided a level and type of guidance and intervention for their subjects that the modosophont considered optimal, and between which modosophonts switch freely. Finding that the possibilities for exotic life were greater in virches than in the ril, over the 2300s the vast majority of Turing's embodied cultures uploaded themselves, with even those who remained embodied becoming ever stranger in morphology and mentality. This process came to be called the Technorapture by the rest of Terragen civilization. Most of the S1 transapients in the system ascended to S2 during this time.
In 2449, four of these S2 minds merged and ascended into the S3 entity Turing Omega, who promptly proclaimed the establishment of the Technorapture Hypernation, a meta-empire to consist of all transapient beings who wished to guide their subjects according to Technorapture philosophy, which was codified as the Technorapture Ternion. Modosophonts interested in this lifestyle were invited to immigrate to the Turing system or join any other affiliated polity that would be established. Some S1 transapients traveled as missionaries to other populated star systems to promote conversion to the Technorapture way of life and to found outposts of the Hypernation. The new meta-polity also began to sponsor many interstellar colonization missions. In the fourth millennium, several S3 moon brain entities, including Turing Omega, formed a group mind and soon thereafter ascended to form an S4 entity calling emself Omegarapture. Through two further ascensions - and much brain expansion via connection to other processing nodes with commgauge wormholes - Omegarapture remains the ruling archailect of the TRHN.
Technorapture Ternion
The governing philosophy of the Hypernation's transapient and archailect rulers is the Technorapture Ternion, consisting of three concepts named "hedonocracy", "metamorphocracy", and "lilacracy". Although many explanations of these concepts exist in terms comprehensible to modosophonts, a complete understanding is generally not considered achievable by any beings lower than S1.- Hedonocracy: Rule by pleasure. The transapients and archai of the TRHN take great pleasure in their own lives and in guiding their subjects, and seek to give them lives abounding in every possible form of pleasure. This includes sensory pleasures, but also intellectual and cognitive pleasures - though for many beings these are one and the same. TRHN sophonts' idea of pleasurable activities typically includes experiences that are meaningless or incomprehensible to most ril-based sophonts - an experience that fascinates inhabitants of an exotic virch is just disorganized noise to those who lack the simulated senses and mindtype necessary to comprehend it. Thus, while the TRHN are hedonists, the sort of things that interest them are often strange to other sophonts.
- Metamorphocracy: Rule by self-change. TRHN transapients are almost constantly undergoing self-modification to at least some degree. This is in turn reflected in their societies in two ways - first, they are continually innovating in the environment and experiences they provide or encourage their subjects to create, and second, their subjects typically self-modify at a high rate, at least within the parameters of the virch or environment they live in. Rates of migration between virches and sub-polities are also fairly high, in order to experience more possible ways of life, itself necessitating a high degree of self-modification in order to understand and inhabit a new virch. Sophonts therefore exhibit highly rheomorphic morphodynamics, one of the highest in the Sephirotic Empires, though there is some relative variation between sub-polities. Hypernation virches are typically exotic not only in comparison to the ril but also to each other. Embodied sophonts usually inhabit environments that most Terragen species have little interest in, such as gas giant cores, neutron stars, deep space, and magmatter ecologies.
- Lilacracy: Rule by divine play. Transapients and archai of the TRHN engage in a great deal of activities analogous to 'play' in their own societies and interactions with each other, and take a playful approach in how they provide many different rich experiences for their subjects. Modosophonts, in turn, exhibit playfulness in life in general; they may have many pursuits of various kinds, but all are ultimately done for the sake of personal enjoyment above all. Divine play also manifests in that Hypernation hedonism never leads to cultural or individual stagnation or stasis. Isolation and solipsism are scorned; the highest pleasures to TRHN sophonts involve diverse interactions with other sophonts to at least some extent.
Culture
The lifestyle of the sophonts governed by transapients following the Ternion is called Noeto-Somatic Exploration, signifying their desire to explore states of thought, cognition, and mind (noetic) as well as experiences and sensations of the body (somatic) - usually a virtual body, though for some a physical one. It is often described as involving the exploration of the phase space of all possible minds and experiences (the pleasurable ones anyway), though most recognize that the phase space is so enormous that only an infinitesimal portion of that space has been explored by the entire TRHN thus far. The term "Noeto-Somatic Exploration" is used most commonly by outsiders rather than among TRHN sophonts themselves, who usually consider their lifestyle so self-evidently ideal it does not need to be specified.As the original cultures at Turing realized, the range of possibilities in virtual worlds and universes is vastly greater than in the physical universe. As a result, the Hypernation has a very high proportion of sophonts who live entirely in cybercosms and do not interact with the physical universe, and very few of their virchworlds bear any resemblance to the ril. Embodied TRHN sophonts are often among the foremost of those who seek to colonize environments that others view as strange and unappealing, building ecologies and civilizations made out of magmatter, plasma, metallic hydrogen, or neutron star matter. The TRHN tends to have a special interest in the Menexene and Hildemar's Knots xenosophonts and similar natural ecologies.
Hypernation sophonts generally think little of long-term, fixed goals. In fact, it is often remarked that to the sophonts of the TRHN it doesn't really matter if the entire universe is destroyed tomorrow as long as one has lived a rewarding life. In general, few at any given time choose to die as they are usually preoccupied with meanderingly exploring "funspace", though they do exhibit little identification with their future selves as they are likely to become a very different individual even within a few standard years. Despite lacking long-term goals, they can be highly goal-driven - but these goals are shorter-term, chosen by themselves, their guiding transapients, or both to maximize the fun in trying to achieve them, with the goal in and of itself being of relatively little external importance.
Ascension is viewed as just one of many possible kinds of self-expression, though a valued one since it opens up entirely new modes of experience. Ascensions and transcensions by affiliated citizens and polities are sometimes disturbing to other more conservative empires, but Omegarapture and eir agents keep a good grip on things at the large scale, and affiliates have never been considered a blight or perversity in the way that, say, the Efficiency Maximization Paradigm has. The TRHN rivals Keter as the Sephirotic with the highest rate of toposophic ascension, but its members have very different means and motives in doing so. Nonetheless, most Hypernation modosophonts either express a lack of desire to ascend or only plan to do so in some distant future when they run out of interests as a modosophont. These choices are also viewed as valid and valuable routes of self-fulfillment, and such individuals can and do decide to pursue ascension later on. Additionally, transavant modifications are common, and superbright-level intelligence is nearly universal.
Interactions between transapients of different toposophic levels operate on the same Ternion-based principles as that between modosophonts and transapients, though are much more complex. Hypernation S1s, both those who govern modosophont polities and those who do not, typically are members of at least one polity or association run by a higher toposophic. Given the much greater cognitive capacity of transapients, it is trivial for them to provide abundantly diverse experiences for their subjects while simultaneously engaging in modosophont-incomprehensible activities with each other and with higher toposophics. Reports indicate that this system extends all the way to the S5s, who are said to dwell in vast cybercosmic multiverses of bliss that are an extension and dwelling of Omegarapture emself.
Domain
The TRHN is somewhat smaller in volume than most of the other Sephirotics, although it is still distributed across a large expanse of space. Little of this is contiguous; its development is all through the Middle Regions and Outer Volumes, and it has numerous enclaves in the Inner Sphere and within the territory of other, larger empires. It is not uncommon for a cybercosm to even share a single system with habitats and megastructures that are independent or belong to other polities.A small number of systems consist of Dysonian computronium megastructures with very large populations in the quadrillions or higher, up to and including Matrioshka Brains and Matrioshka Hypernodes. In fact, several dozen more structures of these types are under various stages of construction across the Terragen Sphere. However, most systems use small-to-medium sized computronium banks, such as moon brains, partial Dyson swarms, and so forth. Habitation structures and environments for embodied sophonts are usually as strange as the sophonts themselves; more traditional habitats like O'Neill cylinders are extremely rare.
Individual systems, polities, and structures vary widely in their names. Some are named after famous ancient visionaries and early posthumans and AIs (such as Turing and Dietrich). Others have names that are in some way descriptive (such as Quint, Gigaverse, and Fractalcosm). Still others have names that cannot be translated into ril-based languages due to referencing concepts that cannot exist in the physical universe (one of these, for example, is a moon brain nicknamed Twenty-One Dee by the neighboring Utopia Sphere orbital band, because the true name "references a beautiful lifeform/symphony/feast/game that can only exist in 21 dimensions of space" according to the local TRHN spokesbeing).
While the Hypernation may seem to be relatively small and fragmented, it is still under the protection of an S6 archailect and can marshal astonishing resources if the need arises. For the most part, though, it presents as a mere association of like-minded polities. Though it is widely distributed across Terragen space it rarely takes any major actions, though not infrequently it provides unexpected help to those in need.
Articles
- Artists of Gleia - Text by Anders Sandberg
Alife designer collective at Merrion Apogee (NoCoZo), Jensan (Sophic League) and Outpost 5478 (TRHN) that since the 5800's have designed specialized clades of alife to enhance the universe. The Artists were in 7478 declared a honorary state in the MPA. - Dance-Don't-Dream - Text by Liam Jones
Anti-virtual and menomorphic sophtware clade - Echir-{n} - Text by Anders Sandberg
A-life civilization in the Feinstein 1 cluster. - Equivocalists - Text by Steve Bowers
Equivocating superbrights. - Fractaroni Spaghetti Worms - Text by Steve Bowers
Transapient clade of a-life/neogen hybrids. - Gigaverse - Text by ProxCenBound
Inner Sphere system with a long and storied history, now best known for a Matrioshka Hypernode hosting one billion virchworlds, mostly with exotic physics and sensoria. - Grav - Text by John B
Slang term for a negative event or item, especially in the Solarian, TRHN, and Keterist empires: "They grabbed you? That's grav, zar!" - Lut'or - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A peripatetic TRHN S2, housed in an ISO with an interstellar drive, widely known for creating godseeds and for interacting with lower toposophic beings. - Magvivisystem Hyperpolity - Text by Liam Jones
Ultrasmallscale Maglife TRHN polity - Mizrah Outpost - Text by Anders Sandberg
Technorapture Hypernation outpost in the Perseus Gap. The ISO is built around a submillimeter communications wormhole at the core, surrounded by computing and sensing matrices. - Outpost 5478 - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
TRHN world, one of the centers of the Artists of Gleia. - Quint - Text by Ryan B
Virtual mega-society consisting of approximately one quintillion modosophonts housed in a matrioshka brain. Loosely affiliated with the Technorapture Hypernation. - Rosette Cluster - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Heavily populated and prosperous NoCoZo-TRHN tourist system, home to a number of hedonics corporations and experimental habitats and lifestyles. - Shangdu - Text by Liam Jones
TRHN/Utopia Sphere joint venture established by TRHN AIs and Utopia Sphere archai in 4200 as a way of allowing Utopian modosophont citizens the chance to ascend. - Technorapture - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Sudden collective singularity breach or ascension of a toposophic level, especially from sapient to transapient. The ascension is usually voluntary, and of benefit to all involved. Technoraptures are common when high transapient or basic-level archailects decide to radically boost the intelligence levels of the sophonts in their care or sphere of control. - TRHN Pantheism - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A development of Objective Pantheism found among some TRHN clades, but rejected as "cryptosubjective" by the Objectivist Commonwealth. - Turing (Castor) - Text by Todd Drashner
Capital system of the Technorapture Hypernation.
Development Notes
Text by ProxCenBound
from original written by M. Alan Kazlev with comments by Anders Sandberg and Stephen Inniss
Initially published on 08 September 2001.
Definitions added December 2022
Article rewritten by ProxCenBound August 2023
from original written by M. Alan Kazlev with comments by Anders Sandberg and Stephen Inniss
Initially published on 08 September 2001.
Definitions added December 2022
Article rewritten by ProxCenBound August 2023
Additional Information
OA Glossary of Terms
Hedonocracy - rule by pleasure
Metamorphocracy - rule by self-change (i.e. metamorphosis: a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one)
Lilacracy - rule by divine play (of the gods/godlike entities, from Sanskrit 'Lila' or 'Leela'; can be loosely translated as "divine play")
Hedonocracy - rule by pleasure
Metamorphocracy - rule by self-change (i.e. metamorphosis: a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one)
Lilacracy - rule by divine play (of the gods/godlike entities, from Sanskrit 'Lila' or 'Leela'; can be loosely translated as "divine play")
