Learning From Animal Friendships

[extherian]

It turns out that many animals are far closer to our level of intelligence than we might think (click HERE). The dogs in particular display highly empathetic and intuitive behaviour around other species.

Considering that modosophonts and transapients are often compared to humans and animals, it might be interesting to consider the ways in which their mental space overlaps.

[rom65536]

Considering that modosophonts and transapients are often compared to humans and animals, it might be interesting to consider the ways in which their mental space overlaps.

Something I've pointed out in the past: Some portion of OA's transapients actually used to be modosophonts. They know already exactly what it's like to be an "Ordinary Average Guy". Those that never were modosophonts have the ability to create a sub-self that can experience life as an "Ordinary Average Guy", and then report back.

Unlike the Animal/Human relationship (which would be a venn diagram with some area overlapping), the modosophont/transapient relationship is more akin to subset/superset. In other words, Transapience contains the entirety of modosophonce.

The real trick comes down to motivation and the will of the transapient to bother with entirely understanding the modosophont condition. One might consider this as the difference between "ahuman" and "friendly" transapients (though it could be put forth that a transapient tried life as a modosophont, recoiled in horror and decided to "bleach the bathroom floor" as it were).

We humans do not have that option when interacting with our pet dogs. We can make some smart guesses as to what being a dog would be like, but we don't have the sensory apparatuses (aparatii?) nor the flexibility of mind state to actually exist as a dog for some time. Our guesses can be quite accurate and useful for interaction (Caesar Milan, for example), but it's pretty easy to see that some of the nuances of the canine mind are beyond us.

[Rakuen07]

For me, what really matters is how the goal of the modo and S1+ aligns. A helpful S1+ will have goals that once realized will further the modo goals. A reactionless drive AI can be seen as friendly, since it helps modos in the ship to arrive at their destination. Their relationship, however, isn't very deep. The modos are simply benefiting from the fact that it gives the ship speed to reach their destination faster. And the AI likely doesn't understand the modos and I doubt it even knows they exist at all.

What the increase in the overlap of the mental map between the modo and S1+ may do is increase the likeliness of the S1+ wanting to deal with the modo, and how profound their relationship can be. For good or for bad.