Hi There - Welcome to OA!
Feel free to join in on any discussions that grab your interest or to start new ones if you'd like.
Also, please feel free to ask any questions that come to mind, whether about the setting or how/why the project does things as it does, or whatever.
Re having Asperger's - we have/have had a number of members (including contributing authors) who are neurodivergent in one way or another, both here and on the discord. So you're in good company, as far as we're concerned.
Regarding your specific questions below...
(03-10-2023, 01:17 PM)TheDefender221 Wrote: When reading the article on W-brains, I agree that what described generally makes sense both to exist and as a method that would be used, but I was immediately curious as to how there could actually be an article on the topic of "using wormholes and spacetime geometry as a medium of computation", and the article seemingly isn't. Not directly, at least. From my limited ability to understand the extremely advanced physics and mathematics, I decipher the article as stating "Because of the nature of this mathematical group, it is possible to alter the algorithm being used on a set by applying a new step, which gives a different output that can then be translated to what we originally wanted, and by 'changing the question' like this, it makes quantum algorithms faster"
- Is my smoothbrain baseline summary remotely correct?
- Regardless of my understanding of the article, how does this relate to "the ability to warp spacetime geometry to act as logic gates as a basis for computation"?
Unfortunately, the member who wrote the article and provided the paper (a practicing physicist) is no longer active, otherwise we could just as him. I am very much not a physicist, but do have an interest in the area and generally had pretty good luck at translating the author's more technical thoughts into 'layperson friendly' versions that (per the author) were generally pretty accurate. So, fingers crossed I can do that...
What I'm taking from the reference paper is that it's possible to arrange/structure quantum computing hardware in such a way that it reduces the time to perform the quantum computations. My (extremely limited) understanding of quantum computing is that it can be done in a variety of ways, including via electrical signals, optical methods, and possibly others. Presumably, the 'warp drive' method described in the paper is independent of the exact hardware used and could be implemented in an electronic quantum computer or an optical quantum computer or whatever - although the exact design of the hardware involved would presumably differ depending on the type of machine.
Apply this to the concept of W-brains (as I interpret it) - A W-brain is based on some large amount of hardware connected by a large number of wormholes (so signals pass through it via wormholes, not just optical or electrical signals moving through 'conventional space), and is either entirely configured as a quantum computer (the wormholes and related computing hardware operates as a huge quantum computer spanning hundreds or thousands of light-years) or incorporates both quantum and 'classical' computing in its operation. In addition to this - and this is where the paper becomes relevant - the whole construct is configured such that the 'warp gate' effect described in the paper takes place across the entire quantum computing aspect of the W-brain (probably involving billions or trillions of qubits or more) making it even faster or more efficient than it would otherwise be.
Does that make sense?
(03-10-2023, 01:17 PM)TheDefender221 Wrote: Next, just asking for context:
The reason that "Singularity Levels" exist is to have a method of describing differing scale of mental ability to people, by separating the entire space of possibilities into 'tiers' with large gulfs in-between, allowing us to grapple with the similarities, differences, abilities, and perspectives of these superintelligences", correct? Or, at least, partially correct?
I would say this is partially correct, within the context of the OA setting.
To use your phrasing above, the 'entire space of possibilities' when it comes to minds in the setting - including minds both human, near-human, and radically alien - is studied by the fictional science of 'toposophy' and is termed the 'toposophic landscape'. The landscape can be pictured as an 'infinite'(?) landscape of plains, peaks, and valleys, each representing different types of minds or mental traits, some more capable, some less, some leading toward greater capability, some acting as 'attractors' that can trap a being in a useless loop of stagnation, others leading to very strange and inhuman places. The landscape is not just a uniform surface, but is also divided up into a number of 'plateaus', each above the others below it and each supporting its own complex nigh-infinite 'landscape' of surface features/mental structures/aspects of mind. Each plateau represents a Singularity level.
The simplified 'Singularity Level' terminology and description is a vast simplification of the actual complexity of the toposophic landscape and is largely a layperson friendly way of describing something that (in setting) uses complex mathematics and specialized grammar and jargon to describe what is really happening when being discussed by professionals when (to use your phrasing) they need to 'grapple with the similarities, differences, abilities, and perspective of these superintelligences' - or even just other human level intelligences that are not the least bit human (whether anymore or after some thousands of years of self-modification).
In the setting, we postulate that brains/minds work such that as the complexity and scale of a brain/mind increases the 'overhead' also increases until a given brain/mind tops out at some level of capability. Attempting to increase intelligence/mental capacity is possible to a limited degree, but rapidly starts to become harder and harder in terms of complexity and managing all the complexity efficiently until finally the mind in question bogs down and effectively 'grinds to a halt' (with various negative effects).
However (again in the setting), if one combines just the right hardware with just the right way of thinking (which can be learned with sufficient training and practice), the result is an abrupt 'jump' or 'phase change' to a new way of thinking that is both quantitatively and qualitatively different and superior to what the mind was like before. So much so that the resulting mind is largely incomprehensible to the beings of its previous state - leading to the term Singularity being used. This 'jump' avoids the bogging down effect mentioned above, but still does not result in unlimited expansion of intelligence and mental capacity - instead it follows more of an S-curve of rapid acceleration that eventually levels out at a new and higher level (Singularity-level or S-level). Each S-level possesses all the abilities and capacities of all the levels below it, as well as one or more new ways of thinking or perceiving or existing that are functionally incomprehensible to the lower levels that lack it (an example of this in humans might be self-awareness or time binding - could an animal lacking one or both of these truly comprehend or imagine them? In OA we presume they could not and human level minds can't comprehend whatever new mental traits that the transapients and archai experience (and lower transapients can't comprehend the experience of higher ones, all the way up to the S6).
Finally, there is an actual element of uncertainty and danger when a mind 'jumps' (or ascends or transcends, to use the OA terminology) to a higher S-level. Subtle variations in the subject's mental outlook or structure and result in the new resulting entity being radically different from the being that started the process. Or can result in a failed ascension, brain damage, psychological damage, or insanity - sometimes in a being that is also of a higher S-level and possessed of all the abilities that come with it - while being what we in RL would consider a sociopath or worse. For this reason, relatively very few people choose to attempt ascension in any given year and the overall transapient population is comparatively very small. And the level of effort required and the risks increase with each higher S-level.
Taking a big step back and coming at this from an editorial direction - the Singularity Levels are OA's version of Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought in his book A Fire Upon the Deep. Rather than being manifestations of physics, they are manifestations of something fundamental in the way minds work (in the OA setting). As a plot device they are a convenient way of keeping a human comprehensible civilization around long enough to write interesting things about rather than having everyone ascend en masse and civilization functionally ceasing to exist as far as us human readers are concerned.
Also, the founding members of OA wanted Vinge's concept of the Singularity to exist in the setting, but decided that there wasn't any particularly strong reason to think that the Singularity needed to be a singular one-time event. So they postulated multiple Singularities and after some evolution of the concept, we currently have the 6 described. Note that some real life writings have talked in terms of the idea that Singularities have already happened in human history such as the invention of language or agriculture or perhaps the evolution of self-awareness of the like.
(03-10-2023, 01:17 PM)TheDefender221 Wrote: There isn't, like, some sort of actual scientific principle at play which states that "No, sapience/sophonce/intelligence is not a continuous scale. These are the singularity levels, and there are 7, and they must exist, like this, at this scope with this scale, and there is nothing in between these gulfs."
No, there is currently no such real life (RL) scientific principle in play that says that minds work as we describe them in OA. That said, we in real life don't really fully understand how minds work so who knows what could shake out before we've actually fully learned how they do?
Hope this helps and once again - Welcome to OA!
Todd
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