Safe Acension for Baseline Bob

[QwertyYerty]

Thank you Todd, the answers have been very helpful. I realized I have a few more questions though.

Certainly See my responses below...

Once a human ascends, how does a post human maintain themselves?

Do they require other beings in order to maintain them?

I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'maintain' in this context, so will answer this a couple of different ways to account for possible meanings. If you actually mean something else, please let me know and I can respond to that. Specifically:

1) If by 'maintain' you mean keep the machinery that runs their mind (and is their body(ies)) operational (the equivalent of eating, drinking, and breathing) then they can either draw on municipal energy and feedstocks in a civilized area or extract resources directly from the local environment in the 'wild'. The machinery that makes them up is so advanced as to be essentially alive, but much more capable than flesh and blood - at least if they want it to be. They can redesign and remake their bodies and minds pretty much at will.

I would expect that newly minted transapients are somewhat treated like children in the sense that both the transapient overseeing their ascension and transapient society as a whole is expected to provide a certain degree of support and education until they are 'mature' and can take their place within transapient society.

2) If by 'maintain' you mean having a source of income or equivalent, then again, they probably are treated initially as a sort of child or apprentice with society providing support until they can fully take care of themselves.

I read that there are possibly different "mind paths" to ascension, such that everyone ascends differently. Is this process of different paths in ascension random, or is it possible to control how the mind ascends?

Early in the timeline the process was basically random, however over time a body of knowledge and experience has grown up around the process of ascension, although there is still a degree of uncertainty unless the process is being managed by a transapient at least two S-levels above that of the being wishing to ascend. Otherwise, Y11K ascension techniques can provide a high degree of reliability that the resulting being will end up in pretty much the desired part of the 'landscape', but there may be some surprises around the edges and there is some change of things going in a totally unexpected direction.

I read that posthumans sometimes have two personalities, a pre- ascension one (ex. Bob wants to stay home with family) and a post- ascension one (ex. Bob wants to study esoteric space field). I know that S1 minds are beyond are comprehension, but are there any common behaviors among post humans other than sounding relatable until they say or do something that is incomprehensible to us mere baselines?

Well, different transapients (most of them arise from AIs rather than humans or other biologicals) align with the different sephirotic empires and their memetics. So we might presume that they agree with the memetic of their empire and so would behave in line with the behavior that memetic propounds. Or maybe they are just very good actors

Likely there are common behaviors in the same way that human beings or other animal species display common behaviors in addition to their individual personalities. But how many of these would be noticeable to human level minds, or correctly interpreted by them, is unclear.

Beyond that, it's not something we've played around with much tbh.

Is it possible for a S1 post human mind to remain in their heavily modified bodies, or do they require a much larger mind/ body in order to work? I saw on one of the charts that S1’s are typically about the size of a complex or a large space ship, with tech from the transapients.

A 'self-ascended' S1 brain masses 55kg and is 25cm on a side. Such could fit in a human torso, but would be a bit heavy for human muscles to carry. Although a vec body could easily do it, or something like a Goliath bio body.

However, a transapient can configure itself (brain and body both) in a vast number of ways. Depending on its desires (or needs) it could use a body of approximately human size and shape, or something much larger. Or it could split its mind across a swarm of much smaller bodies all networked together. Or it could spread itself across hundreds or thousands of different bodies, all of different sizes and shapes and functions. Or it could use some combination of these. And it could switch from one type and configuration of bodies to another as it wished. Or it could exist entirely as a 'ghost in the net', living as a purely virtual being in the cybercosms of Terragen civilization and having no specific location/switching locations from moment to moment. And again, it could switch from this state to an embodied state, or exist partially in both states at will.

An S1 brain built using S2 technology would be about 1.5cm on a side and so could fit its entirety in a much smaller body.

How long does the ascension process usually take?

It varies with the individual and with the process they are using to ascend. A godseed might do the process in a matter of hours or days. A more conventional process might take years, decades, or even centuries of gradual augmentation and training to mentally restructure oneself to accommodate the augments and finally attempt the final jump to a higher S-level successfully.

In some ways, ascending might be thought of as similar to studying martial arts and achieving a black belt. Some people are able to go through the process fairly quickly, others take much longer to do it. In many cases, the speed of the process is the result of both circumstances and personal drive.

Do polities legally consider the ascended humans as the same people as their pre- ascended personalities?

Ascended beings are probably considered the same people, but transcended beings are probably considered to be different people. Details probably differ from polity to polity. Some might consider the transcended to be the heirs of the original, others might consider them to have no connection to the original.

If I wanted to make baseline Bob into an S1 transapient, what modifications should he be given so that he could begin the process?

Initially probably a much expanded exoself, as well as a suite of augments to increase intelligence in various ways that will help Bob in eir study/training to become a transapient. As the process moves along, additional augmentations (both hardware and software) would likely be added.

What is the success rate/ survival rate among modosapient humans who attempt an ascension properly supervised by transapients?

By Y11k probably quite high - in the 80-90% rate or better, I would expect. Earlier in the timeline, things would be much iffier.

Hope this helps,

Todd

Thank you Todd. Your answers have made me think of more questions.

What do we know of the early times of being a post biont (S1)? Do the transapients say what it is like post ascension?

Do transapients have feelings of love for other transapients? Do they have emotions, and if so what do we know about them?

How do the interests of the newly created transapient change overtime? What do we know about early transapient education?

Do transapients have careers? Do they typically become employed by other transapients?

I read most cities and planets (at least in the inner sphere) are run by slaved transapient intelligences, so it looks like there are no opportunities to run cities or planets for new post- bionts. I also read about the executive who sold inactive clones of himself as food and ascended. There didn’t seem to be a lot of new details about him in that article. I also read about an executive who ascended (or transcended) and who became obsessed with ants for a time before returning to his business. I also read about an ascended intelligence (who was apparently a writer/ poet) who had a botched transcention and was reduced to baseline intelligence. That intelligence committed suicide after the work it created was abused in media. It seems like most post bionts who ascend seem to continue whatever they were continuing to do before they ascended. Is this typical? What if Baseline Bob had a free ascension and didn’t have a job (or was unemployed at the time). Other than continue their previous work, what do post- bionts (S1) typically do after they ascend (career- wise)?

Do transapients have hobbies? Or are they mostly slaved (mentally/ enthusiastically) to a particular task? And if transapients are mostly free in their will, what do transapients like to do for fun (at least, what do we know about those habits and how it’s related to their work)?
How much do transapients (S1) talk about what they think? I presume most of what we know about S1s comes from their behavior or what they tell us. They’re ability to think is beyond our reach, so how do the small modosapients do research on the mighty S1s?
What kind of augmentations could baseline Bob start with to begin his transapient training?

Can a transapient change its “mind path” after it has already ascended?

If injured, do transapients typically heal themselves, or do they require external help?

Do transapients ever develop anything like “feelings” for modosapients? If a husband ascended and his wife didn’t, is it possible he could still love her, or would that be like a man loving his dog (considering the metaphorical gap of humans and dogs when talking about S1 transapients)? Do the newly created post- bionts sometimes create an avatar for the wife?

Do transapients tend to retain the religious beliefs of their pre- ascended selves, or they typically change belief systems? Since a lot of modos worship transapients, do any of them ever ascend? If so, do they see themselves as more “god- like”, even a little bit, at S1? Do transapients worship higher transapients like modosapients worship transapients?

I heard that they are “nomad” transapients. Are there any transapients who like to travel (within solar systems or interstellar- wise)?

How often do S1 transapients (especially post- bionts) tend to interact with modosapients? Do they tend to have a preference for certain types of people to talk to? And do they feel the difference between a Baseline and a Superior is significant (even if much less compared to themselves) or do they tend to dismiss that difference in their interactions?

Do transapients have anything analogous to music (that is meant for transapients)? I read that they are specific transapient kinds of media. And I read that S1s have many more and different types of senses from modosapients. Do they like playing ultra- complex electric guitar using unknown types of radiation? (That last question is a joke, but seriously, what is the media world like for transapients, as far as we know?)

Do transapients like to play games amongst themselves? I read that some transapients like to play more abstract versions of their previous hobbies before they before they ascended. Would that be like a super advanced version of Civilization? How do the S1 transapients say they abstract their previous experiences/ understandings?

How does the transapient economy affect the modosapient economy (assuming modos know anything about that)?

All hail Orion (and praise the sage Todd),
Qwerty Yerty