Michael’s prison would not impress you. You who have seen so many wonders, who have spent your life in sims casting strange magic in stranger worlds, who have climbed mountains on vast planets and contemplated impossible fauna He designed specifically for your fascination.
When I was quite young I thought about what I would do if I built a superintelligence and aligned it to myself, and my thought was I'd make a world pretty much like this. But now when read this story I get very sad haha.
If you give someone superintelligence, I think they'll mostly use it for stuff that's closer (on the log utility axis) to the best thing the superintelligence can think of, than it is to the best thing a child could think of. They'll also generally, at some point, take the offered pill that makes them (or a fragment of them) superintelligent/super-tasteful.
My read of Micheal is that he was a weirdly committed hereditary bioconservative and it's hard for people today to understand how rare that will actually be when lifestyles that compete with bioconservatism start to become available. People overestimate the extent to which humans will defend culture against progress. We pay too much attention to the mad grievers and no attention to the assimilators, for the assimilators are mundane, and we have all assimilated so frictionlessly that the commitments of perhaps even the previous decade but certainly the previous century are mostly forgotten.
Stunning, visceral, and uncannily close to how I imagine the inside of Heaven from Blindsight/Echopraxia. Are the experiences truly physical, or simulated? Does the meat brain still exist, or is it all silicon? Does it matter?
Amazing. Thank you for writing and sharing. Perfectly paced slow drip of world building; I immediately went back to reread it so I could experience it again with the lens of understanding.
I do think sometimes what a beautiful, tragic wreck that first generation after superintelligence will be if it all goes well. You encapsulated it so well. It’s almost comforting to know that there may still be the richness of melancholy.
I thought that you'd tell me, at the very end, after half an hour of reading, what all of your characters' vague allusions are about, but you never did, so I feel betrayed and despised and I'm somewhat angry at you for doing this to me.
I agree this story walks a very fine line between being too vague and being just the right amount of vague. I think in the end it worked for me.
The main mystery I left with was “what is this path that Eliot chose, which Michael believes everyone will choose in time, and is bad enough that he wants to remake the world?” A quick Ctrl+F back to the first mention of Eliot made it clear, in retrospect: Eliot has retreated to a completely solipsistic life, considering the “shadows” as more important than any real humans.
With this context, you can consider each member of the family and how much they’ve slid down this scale, from interacting with humans to only interacting with God. Caitlyn seems very grounded in interaction with humans in her London. Seth has a girlfriend, but seems to interact with nobody else, instead preferring his art. Avery seems almost entirely drawn into her fantasies. Our narrator seems closest to Avery, by my read, although her fantasy is more grounded (cinematic, instead of mythological).
I guess a remaining “mechanical” mystery is why remaking the world would have to destroy all consciousnesses outside the family. (“Trillions would be unmade.”) I’m willing to accept that as a sort of background fact, but it does feel like a bit of an artificial constraint to add stakes. Why does this particularly singularity not have any concept of backups, except for the family? Or maybe… it’s because all those consciousnesses, like Eliot, are just too far gone down the solipsistic path of the current world, and there’s no way to steer them into a different mindset, without “unmaking” them?
Thank you Tomás for a really masterful, thought-provoking, and emotionally moving piece of writing!
When I was quite young I thought about what I would do if I built a superintelligence and aligned it to myself, and my thought was I'd make a world pretty much like this. But now when read this story I get very sad haha.
But a great story.
If you give someone superintelligence, I think they'll mostly use it for stuff that's closer (on the log utility axis) to the best thing the superintelligence can think of, than it is to the best thing a child could think of. They'll also generally, at some point, take the offered pill that makes them (or a fragment of them) superintelligent/super-tasteful.
My read of Micheal is that he was a weirdly committed hereditary bioconservative and it's hard for people today to understand how rare that will actually be when lifestyles that compete with bioconservatism start to become available. People overestimate the extent to which humans will defend culture against progress. We pay too much attention to the mad grievers and no attention to the assimilators, for the assimilators are mundane, and we have all assimilated so frictionlessly that the commitments of perhaps even the previous decade but certainly the previous century are mostly forgotten.
Stunning, visceral, and uncannily close to how I imagine the inside of Heaven from Blindsight/Echopraxia. Are the experiences truly physical, or simulated? Does the meat brain still exist, or is it all silicon? Does it matter?
(I think this is more Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect.)
i feel exhausted by the things implied but not explained, its great, thank you
I have wanted to write exactly this world before- with this angle. But you beat me to it, bravo.
Amazing. Thank you for writing and sharing. Perfectly paced slow drip of world building; I immediately went back to reread it so I could experience it again with the lens of understanding.
I do think sometimes what a beautiful, tragic wreck that first generation after superintelligence will be if it all goes well. You encapsulated it so well. It’s almost comforting to know that there may still be the richness of melancholy.
amazing story
You always write these worlds so tragically.
Beautiful ❤️
i really love this.
I thought that you'd tell me, at the very end, after half an hour of reading, what all of your characters' vague allusions are about, but you never did, so I feel betrayed and despised and I'm somewhat angry at you for doing this to me.
Though I am happy with my story, I don’t despise you! I am sorry I wasted your time.
I agree this story walks a very fine line between being too vague and being just the right amount of vague. I think in the end it worked for me.
The main mystery I left with was “what is this path that Eliot chose, which Michael believes everyone will choose in time, and is bad enough that he wants to remake the world?” A quick Ctrl+F back to the first mention of Eliot made it clear, in retrospect: Eliot has retreated to a completely solipsistic life, considering the “shadows” as more important than any real humans.
With this context, you can consider each member of the family and how much they’ve slid down this scale, from interacting with humans to only interacting with God. Caitlyn seems very grounded in interaction with humans in her London. Seth has a girlfriend, but seems to interact with nobody else, instead preferring his art. Avery seems almost entirely drawn into her fantasies. Our narrator seems closest to Avery, by my read, although her fantasy is more grounded (cinematic, instead of mythological).
I guess a remaining “mechanical” mystery is why remaking the world would have to destroy all consciousnesses outside the family. (“Trillions would be unmade.”) I’m willing to accept that as a sort of background fact, but it does feel like a bit of an artificial constraint to add stakes. Why does this particularly singularity not have any concept of backups, except for the family? Or maybe… it’s because all those consciousnesses, like Eliot, are just too far gone down the solipsistic path of the current world, and there’s no way to steer them into a different mindset, without “unmaking” them?
Thank you Tomás for a really masterful, thought-provoking, and emotionally moving piece of writing!
> " I sobbed as my old self would have on hearing such news, entirely her now in our shared grief"
should it be "her" or "here"?
“her” is intended.