08-27-2018, 02:49 PM
(08-23-2018, 08:02 PM)extherian Wrote: 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.