[ExI] Talk like an uploader! =P

[Alan Grimes]

The idea for this post has been rattling around in my head for several
weeks now. Actually, I've spent the bulk of that time either playing
video games or drafting the introduction. If I actually said everything
that I wanted to say in the intro, I'd never get to the actual meme. I
could cover the design and structure of the meme but then it should be
fairly obvious to the astute. Memes are dangerous things especially when
you don't know whether they'll act as penecillin or the plague. This one
might do both but in different hosts. Before I begin there is one more
thing that needs to be made absolutely clear. The views expressed below
are intended only to parallel the writings of the Big Weenie (Kurzweil),
Sandberg, and most especially Anissimov. I'm not nearly the physicist
Sandberg is so I'm going to fudge things just to give it the same Aura
of Absolute Authority(tm). I catagoricaly do not endorse the following
as a political manifesto.

I will definitely not be playing my usual character in any ensuing
discussions.

mu

Human history can be understood as a discreet series of integrations
facilitated by technology. Families became tribes, tribes became
villages, villages became city-states, city-states became nations. Then
a phase-change occurred, the mode of integration stopped being mere
physical proximitity involving cities and sky-scrapers, it became
informational, based on telecommunications. Telegraphs became
telephones. Telephones became the internet. Now everyone is expected to
carry it around in their pocket.

The next stage of human evolution will be organic. The telecommunication
devices will be implanted in the body, opening new channels of
communication. This will begin a third major chain of evolutionary
steps. The next stage after that will begin when we realize that as
automation progresses, our bodies will become increasingly redundant. We
will begin living in pods that maintain our bodies while allowing us to
enjoy the gigabit bandwidths a land-line allows full-time. This next
impetus for change will come from the costs inherent in maintaining
separate systems. The next change in the social order will come when we
abandon our individual dwellings and store our pods in huge communal
facilities. The economies of scale will probably plateau at this stage
for a while.

The problem of maintaining individual pods will remain until the problem
of merging bodies together is solved. This will permit the ultimate
phase of integration. By fusing our bodies together we can achieve even
greater economies of scale. Do to safety considerations of being too
close to our impermanent sun, we will be forced to limit the level of
integration to a few hundred tons worth so that it will be possible to
launch us into space using rockets and then complete the integration
while in orbit.

The resulting being will be a tightly networked community of minds
sharing a common dreamscape and linked to powerful computronium-based AI
engines that will provide the necessary logistical support.

Over the long term, the AI systems will mine out the solar system and
maintain an appropriate balance between living and machine mater. As new
planets are discovered, new people will be spawned off to go and
experience it and then be returned to the collective after they have
matured.

The only questions that remain are the technical issues of how to
accomplish this.

The primary concern is heat. Heat will be the ultimate limiting factor
of how dense the collective can be. In all probability, a fractal
pattern will be used to increase the surface area available for
radiating away heat.

Energy is a lesser concern but can be mitigated because you only need to
really support the brain and the base metabolism, there would be no need
for any kind of physical exertion much less kitchen appliances or fast
cars.

The primary biological need is a constant source of ATP. The
metabolization of fat and sugar molecules for energy involving the
consumption of oxygen and the production of uric acid is far too
inefficient. The collective's tissues will be converted to absorb
microwave energy using nano-devices which will supply the necessary ATP.
The balance of other nutrients will be maintained through a common blood
stream and a combination of mechanical and organic organs to re-process
toxic substances.

Immune system compatibility issues will be solved by replacing the
immune system with a nano-based system.

The merging itself will be quite pleasant. It will be mediated by a
dense swarm of nano-fog that will envelop part or all of the bodies to
be merged and accomplish the merging while managing the sensory
stimulation to be either numbed or pleasurable. As the collective grows,
it will be able to completely envelop new members or smaller collectives.

The process will involve upgrading individual cells and then
re-organizing them into new tissues and structures.

Brains, obviously, will be preserved as much as possible except where
necessary to adapt to the new physical form. Specifically, the autonomic
functions will be re-designed to meet the new set of needs.

Life in the collective will be nearly careless except that you will have
some perception of your part of the collective and some of your
neighbors. This will be a minimal but essential role in maintaining the
safety of the entire collective.

If your body isn't strong enough to undergo the process or you feel that
it is deficient, it can be upgraded before you begin the merging process.

Evolution past this stage is less clear because it depends much on how a
great many technical questions are resolved. I would tend to think it
would feature a continuation of the blurring of the distinction between
individuals and between what is deemed living and what is deemed machine.

mu

Okay, there I've done it. I took a completely new, and potentially
dangerous meme, loaded it into a gun which I know works, and pulled the
trigger. I can't say it's everything that I had hoped it would be then
there is not much else I can say in the emotional state I'm in right now.


-- 
IMPEACH OBAMA NOW.
Presidents cannot be allowed to start wars.
Powers are not rights.