08-18-2021, 07:01 PM
Welcome to the group 
Seems like there's been a lot of good discussion and feedback. I'll only add a couple of points, which overlap a bit with Dfleymmes. Both are on the subject of how much work an S2 can do.
The 5 billion figure. This figure is illustrative of how many human-equivalent manhours of work a typical S2 entity can perform in an hour, all else being equal. These are important caveats, there are many tasks than an S2 can do that would take an infinite amount of time for a human to do (i.e. deriving ultratech models of the universe). The comparison only works for tasks that humans can do and even then it's an average. It also assumes a typical S2, meaning one that hasn't modified itself specifically to be better at things like this, one that isn't close to ascending, or one that has made use of hive mind tech to become multiple. Lastly "all else being equal" means that in a live experiment the five billion humans and the S2 get the same tools. In reality S2 can build significantly better tools for themselves than modos, further increasing their productivity.
Automation/Sophont labour. Automation is really good in OA, so modos don't need to be employed or have a job. Likewise an S2 doesn't need to have modos aid it, it could easily make its own vots (virtual bots, sapient but not sentient intelligent programs). With some effort it could even make "hyper-vots", capable of performing S1 or even S2 level tasks autonomously. Having said this it is entirely possible for a culture to favour using their own labour in cases where there wouldn't be a noticeable drop in productivity compared to a vot. If one person really wanted to make and serve ice cream for the community, they might be assigned that role rather than the habitat growing an ice cream bush in that area. In a system led by a transap the transap might assign tasks that could be automated, but it assigns them to modos because there is some learning potential that it thinks will be beneficial for them.
Seems like there's been a lot of good discussion and feedback. I'll only add a couple of points, which overlap a bit with Dfleymmes. Both are on the subject of how much work an S2 can do.
The 5 billion figure. This figure is illustrative of how many human-equivalent manhours of work a typical S2 entity can perform in an hour, all else being equal. These are important caveats, there are many tasks than an S2 can do that would take an infinite amount of time for a human to do (i.e. deriving ultratech models of the universe). The comparison only works for tasks that humans can do and even then it's an average. It also assumes a typical S2, meaning one that hasn't modified itself specifically to be better at things like this, one that isn't close to ascending, or one that has made use of hive mind tech to become multiple. Lastly "all else being equal" means that in a live experiment the five billion humans and the S2 get the same tools. In reality S2 can build significantly better tools for themselves than modos, further increasing their productivity.
Automation/Sophont labour. Automation is really good in OA, so modos don't need to be employed or have a job. Likewise an S2 doesn't need to have modos aid it, it could easily make its own vots (virtual bots, sapient but not sentient intelligent programs). With some effort it could even make "hyper-vots", capable of performing S1 or even S2 level tasks autonomously. Having said this it is entirely possible for a culture to favour using their own labour in cases where there wouldn't be a noticeable drop in productivity compared to a vot. If one person really wanted to make and serve ice cream for the community, they might be assigned that role rather than the habitat growing an ice cream bush in that area. In a system led by a transap the transap might assign tasks that could be automated, but it assigns them to modos because there is some learning potential that it thinks will be beneficial for them.
OA Wish list:
- DNI
- Internal medical system
- A dormbot, because domestic chores suck!