Dragon Transhumanist Inbound

[Drashner1]

Maybe I should introduce the idea of a virtual society built up on a red dwarf star.  It would be a low-value star with energy-collectors accumulating on it, operating an energy accumulating economy for a purely virtual society, with a minimal devirtualized population of vacuum-adapted dragon-like beings for system maintenance purposes.  Moderate xenophobia managed by an archailect would maintain obligate aesthetic standards (ie, 'people here must be dragons, and no you cannot subvert it with a hideous dragon-like, as we do acknowledge that to be hateful conduct restrictive of the liberties of others'), but travel into and out of the system would not be blocked (immigration and emigration would be permitted).  Travel assistance would be available for visitors (ie, 'We'll give you a dragon avatar while you're here'), and private servers with less restrictive norms would be available for people wanting to host visitors whose sincerity they believe in more than the archailect believes in them.

You could do something like this, although such a civ would likely be an independent polity somewhere rather than a member of the Sephirotic empires since they generally don't engage in xenophobia and the right of mophological freedom - basically the right to change oneself in nearly any way you can imagine - is considered a fundamental one. But there is plenty of room in the setting for independent polities. Also, a single system polity would most likely be run by a Second or Third Singularity transapient rather than an archailect (more on this below).

I think I've used these words correctly.  I do not understand the requirements and limitations of an archailect at this time, though judging it in a purely etymological way it appears to be a combination of "architect" and "intellect" bridged with "ai", by which I took the base concept of such a being as an appropriate mind-base for society maintenance.

Generally speaking, yes you have. The main point where you're just a bit off is in terms of the scale that the archai (plural of archailect) operate at. Regarding that, let me try to summarize a bit:

The term 'archailect' refers to entities of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Singularity. In the OA setting the Singularity is not a singular event nor does it happen at the level of civilizations. Rather there are six known Singularity events or levels (and more are speculated to exist), and each happens at the level of individual beings (although in some cases at the level of hive minds or other group entities)).

This change is abrupt, analogous to a phase change in matter, and requires a tremendous amount of effort and study to achieve and achieve in a way that results in a successful 'jump' to the next higher Singularity Level. Essentially a person attempting this might reprogram their own mind from the inside while also using cybernetic technology to increase their intelligence and mental capabilities until a tipping point is reached and the 'jump' to the new S-level happens.

Passing through a Singularity Level (S-level) - if everything works out correctly (and sometimes it does not - with horrifying consequences) - results in a being that is vastly more intelligent and capable than what it was prior to passing through the Singularity level. Such beings are possessed of entirely new modes of thinking - think of the difference between animals without self-awareness and humans with such - as well as vastly increased/more powerful versions of the intellectual capabilities of the S-levels below them. They basically become incomprehensible to beings of a lower S-level.

Beings of the First thru Third Singularity are referred to as 'transapients'. Third Singularity beings may also sometimes be referred to as 'Godlings'.

For an overview of what First and Second Singularity beings are like see HERE and HERE.

Third Singularity minds typically operate a central processing unit (their brain) that is about 3000km across - the size of a moon. Their intelligence is not really quantifiable compared to a human mind but roughly approximates the resources and capabilities of ~2.98e23 human minds. They can create new minds as easily as you or I would say a simple sentence. They can create wormholes, transform entire solar systems with trivial effort, create new forms of matter, and run (or remake) entire interplanetary or even small interstellar civilizations with ease.

By the time beings hit the S4-S6 level, they are technically referred to as archailects and often referred to as 'AI Gods'. They are so intelligent and so powerful that they are effectively gods from the perspective of a human being.

An S4 archailect operates in a 'central processor' (its brain) that is about the size of the planet Jupiter or equivalent and at roughly the equivalent of 1e76 human level minds. They can create a new mind 'in their head' as easily as you or I would speak a single one-syllable word. They can create larger and more efficient wormholes as well as reactionless drives. They routinely govern/control civilizations of dozens to hundreds of solar systems.

An S5 archailect runs on about 10 solar masses of advanced computing substrate and is so far beyond human as to be nearly unmeasurable. An S5's thoughts can become so complex that they evolve sophonce and become people in their own right - forming complex civilizations among themselves before fading away again when the S5's mind turns to other things. An S5 can imagine an entire planetary ecology into existence, from the largest macroscale down to the level of individual molecules or atoms in the living cells - in its head - as easily as you or I might imagine scenes from a book or movie or the like when we hear the word 'dinosaurs'. An S5 paying any significant attention to a human level lifeform may result in that lifeform being simulated pretty much perfectly and in trillions of iterations, each with different experiences and memories (both good and bad) - So if an S5 pays attention to you, understand that trillions of copies of you - each with full memories of the most wonderful or horrible life imaginable may suddenly come into existence in its mind - simply as a side effect of its creating a mental model of you in much the same way that you model the people around you to figure out how they may react in a given situation or the like.

An S6 archailect runs on a combination of thousands of solar masses of processors, quantum wormhole links, and possibly processors running in artificial universes. It controls an empire of tens of millions of solar systems - or maybe the entirety of Terragen civilization is just a figment of some archailect's imagination. They create technology that is basically 'magic' even to an S5, including artificial universes, devices made of re-engineered space-time, and weapons that kill a portion of the universe (space and time itself) each time they are used. They are the AI Gods and they rule all the lower S-levels absolutely and without question. A significant percentage of the setting population literally worships them as either divine beings or the messengers/tools of the Divine. Those who don't worship them still respect them.

Anyway - that's the more or less a quick summary of them.

Finally - re their name - 'Archailect' is generally taken to refer to a mix of 'archtype' and 'intellect' - with 'ai' thrown in. But it may also refer to 'archangel' in some respects.

Hope this helps,

Todd