John C. Wright's Blog, page 79

Toposophy in Eschaton

Some readers may be interested in a peek behind the curtain. Here is a excerpt from my notes for my most recent project, the ‘Count to the Eschaton Sequence’ which starts with the book COUNT TO A TRILLION. It is frankly inspired by the ideas of Nicholai Kardashev and of the extraordinarily imaginative Orion’s Arm Universe Project. From them I stole the basic idea of a toposophy. (I do not mind stealing the idea from them; they stole the idea from the grandmaster Stanislaw Lem). I also stole an idea or two from Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite.

A toposophy is a Linnaean taxonomy of various levels of posthuman and hyperposthuman and ultrahyperposthuman minds. Here below is the toposophic levels (which I call ‘choirs’) used in the Eschaton Sequence of books:

The following Ascended Technology Levels are ranked according to size, processing speed, energy consumption, and cognition density.

Note that the “cognition density” is the ratio of unthinking matter to thinking matter in a system. The ratio of the support-matter to sophont-matter in all the following ascended levels is basically the same as with evolved biological humans.

A relatively low ratio of the cells in our body are nerve cells in the cortex. Likewise for global Noösphere (or ‘Angel’): the main mass of the life support is the inanimate molten rocky nickel-iron core of the planet, which contains neither information nor intellectual raw material affecting the thought of the minds involved. Even relatively massive changes to the interior of the planet would have no meaning, no influences on the thought of the biological Noösphere.

The “life support” is very widely spread, and, despite the fears of the Greens, major changes to the “meaning” of the ecology could be endured before the material effect of the ecology would negatively affect the human thought process: we would regret the loss of birds to DDT long before we would run out of breathable air or potable water. Even of the life support, the moiety of life support biomass goes to the support of actions other than thought: cows crop grass to feed all the cells in our bodies, not just our brains, so the ratio of sun-energy converted to brain-power is very low. A solar-panel powered cube of logic diamond would have a ratio much closer to unity (depending on how much matter-energy was occupied with maintenance and support).

By Choir—

·THIRD ORDER: Angels, Archangels, (Potentates), Principalities
·SECOND ORDER: Virtues, Powers, (Hosts), (Dominions), Dominations
·FIRST ORDER: (Authorities), (Archons), Aeons, Cherubim, Seraphim

By Energy Use—

o(Posthuman): Angels, Archangels,
o(Planetary KI): Potentates, Principalities
o(Interplanetary): Virtues
o(Stellar KII): Powers, Hosts
o(Interstellar or Nebular): Dominions, Dominations
o(Globular Cluster): Authorities
o(Arm): Archons
o(Galactic KIII, IV, V): Aeons, Cherubim, Seraphim

Mälzel: so called because they are artificial intelligences that are not awake or self-aware, but are able to perform complex mental acts, including comparisons, aesthetics, judgment calls, and reasoning including proportions and imponderables. HERE: both the ship’s brain of the Croesus, and the Little Big Brother of the Hermetic are Mälzels, as are, in decentralized form, the serpentines of the Sylphs.

Augments: includes men who make changes to their nervous system, either cybernetic or biotechnological. Example: the familiar of Eron Osa (From Kingsbury’s ‘Historical Crisis’). Also called Daemons, (after Socrates) because they can inspire thoughts. HERE: Mr. Hyde is an augment. He is human in psychology, but able to do quickly and intuitively what human thought does laboriously.

Posthumans: Totally rather than partially artificial organism, advanced above human intellect. HERE: Rania, the Locusts, and the Melusine are posthumans. The Locusts (based on A.E. van Vogt’s Slans) are posthumans, but merely share brain information, not deep structures changes nor personality downloads. (Xypotechs): an ‘awake’ machine is a posthuman. The Iron Ghost is a transitional stage: a posthuman based on a mathematical model of the human nervous system.

THIRD ORDER  (Up to KI, Nanotech, Sophont-Matter down to the molecular level)

Angels: Artificial intelligences of the superhuman level, either in a mobile or immobile housing, who have achieved true Noösphere status. Example: van Vogt’s Silkie. HERE: the Swans are biotechnologically advanced humanoids with highly efficient and modified nervous systems. They are participants in a Noösphere, not merely a set of mind-linked electronic telepaths (cf the Locusts or the Melusine). The link is through a quantum entanglement effect, which maintains a vast volume of communication with minimal energy loss. The fundamental limit on Swan mental architecture is that they maintain individuality, and the xypotech participating in the Noösphere are subordinate to them.

Archangels: advanced Posthuman: includes any self-aware group-minds, civic systems, highly-evolved or efficient superintelligences. Usually housed in large mainframes, but may have a dispersed framework, as a shoal of fish or flock or birds. Roughly equal in thinking power to a city or a nation state. Example: the Morlocks of Baxter’s Time Ships, the Fourth Men of Olaf Stapledon’s Last and First Men. HERE: the Black Fleet have hollowed asteroids into logic diamonds, and interlinked mass-mind (like a corporate with internal cells and divisions, of course, but no securely permanent individuality) and biological extensions manufactured for ease of expense (like flimsy one-use containers).

Potentate: small-scale Planetary intelligences. Potentates are widely ranging neural networks, usually with highly complex sophontic interfaces, manipulators, sensors ranging from satellite observatories to subsea and ecological units. Uploads into human psychologically understandable mimetic environments. HERE: Pellucid, and later, Tellus is a world-brain occupying the entire core of the Earth.

Power: Jupiter Brains. Kardashev I. Ergoplanetary.Nanotechnology. Molecular technology. Able to make artificial substances. At the upper end of the scale, the entire planetary mass is reduced to support-matter to a molecular level. Example: Jupiter is a power.

 

SECOND ORDER  (KI to KII, Picotech and Femtotech, Sophont-Matter to atomic level)

Virtues: Interplanetary. A mass influencing several planets. Examples: the Bloom from McCarthy. HERE: Cahetel, Achaiah, and Salamander are Virtues, as are the Furies which destroyed the Second Empyrean Polity.   

Principalities: A partial Dyson sphere, a ringworld, or any macroscale engineering which reduces most of a solar system to sophont-matter. HERE: Ain is a Principality.

Hosts: Kardashev II: ergosolar. Entire solar system reduced to sophont-matter to the molecular level (although the atoms do not do anything in support, i.e. no information in the spin values of surface electrons). Picoscale technology. Able to make artificial elements. Artificial elements and artificial (lightweight) neutron-latticework. Example: the Morlock Dyson Sphere of Baxter’s Time Ships. The La Superba Dyson Sphere is a Host.

Dominations: Hyades Cluster. 300 to 400 stars. The Solid State Entity of Neverness. The Hyades Cluster is a domination. Kardashev does not have a class for this, but clearly Nebular Minds are a scale above a mere Dyson Spheres or Concentric Brains.

Dominions: Praesepe (350, but older and denser. Masses of Dyson Concentrics, and stellar nursery technology)

 

FIRST ORDER (Above KIII-KV, Attotechnology (10-18) to Yoctotechnology (10-24). Planck-level tech (10-35) to Spacetime Manipulation, Sophont-Matter to subatomic level)

Authorities: M3 in Canes Venatici Globular Cluster, Half a million stars. Femtotechnology: able to construct structures made of quarks, quantum fields, exotic matter. The Singularity Rosette used in the stardrive of the Swan Recusant (Rania’s return vessel) is an example of Femtotechnology. Note that the information processing involved in these high energy densities and small distances allowed for the creation of extremely elegant bits of molecular technology, such as the Blood Companion, the Ichor, which can be copied, but cannot be made, by lower orders. Intellectual-matter strata down to the atomic level: the Dominations do not use stratons (quarks) to house their own thoughts. The common behavior of Dominations is to begin stellar herding and gardening, such as triggering novae artificially to achieve a desired balance of elements in the circumambient universe. Example: The Absolute Authority at M3 is a “Authority”.

Archons: Orion Arm.

Aeons: Large scale Galactics: Kardashev III ergonogalactic. Able to control quantum phenomena on the level of superstrings, gluons, and even more strange quantum particles. Intellectual matter down to the subatomic (quark or quantum chronodynamic) level. The elemental latticework are neither matter nor energy properly so called, neither matter nor antimatter, but additional states of matter for which we have no names, matrices of balanced positive and negative energies, spirals of electrons and positrons carefully balanced is a dance of mutual annihilations, canceling each other out and giving rise to additional particles, which also cancel out. The main problem occupying all KIII is the mass-energy loss due to neutrino and weakly-interacting particle loss during cognition.  Example: the Galactic Mind of Starmaker. The Maiden of Andromeda is an Aeon. Orion of Milky Way is a (disorganized, at the start of the novel) Aeon.

Cherubim: Kardashev IV. Galaxy Groups or Active Galaxy output control. The Great Attractor is an example of a K-IV megascale engineering project. (Centaurus Supercluster is composed of clusters A3526 and A3627; A3627 is responsible for the Great Attractor) Able to control supersymmetric breaking in other symmetries, so as to create other basic forces aside from electromagnetic, nuclear, gravitic. Cherub basic philosophical problem is to find an answer to the question of the relationship of mind to matter-energy, in so far as the stratons are themselves used in the thinking process, change the thinking process, and are changed by the thinking process (as if a human were to record information on the electrons used to jump across his neural synapses, or alter the DNA code within each brain cell as cognition proceeded.) HERE: Virgo Cluster is a Cherub.

Seraphim: Kardashev V: Supercluster output control. There are 13 superclusters in the local area of space, of which Seven are Contenders for the centrality of the Eschaton Directional Engine. Able to engineer vast areas of spacetime. The Great Attractor and the Wall are evidences of their megascale engineering. Able to control the production of virtual particles in the spacetime foam so as to produce, at faster-than-light-speed, an influence that will be reflected in the three-degree background radiation. They can change the ratio of Dark Matter and Dark Energy to Baryonic Matter across the visible width of space. There is some signal conflict, because the messages are fundamentally anachronistic, appearing both in past and future from any given frame of reference.

TRANSULTIMATE

Kardashev VI, able to use all the energy of the continuum.

Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.

Toposophy in Eschaton

Some readers may be interested in a peek behind the curtain. Here is a excerpt from my notes for my most recent project, the ‘Count to the Eschaton Sequence’ which starts with the book COUNT TO A TRILLION. It is frankly inspired by the ideas of Nicholai Kardashev and of the extraordinarily imaginative Orion’s Arm Universe Project. From them I stole the basic idea of a toposophy. (I do not mind stealing the idea from them; they stole the idea from the grandmaster Stanislaw Lem). I also stole an idea or two from Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite.

A toposophy is a Linnaean taxonomy of various levels of posthuman and hyperposthuman and ultrahyperposthuman minds. Here below is the toposophic levels (which I call ‘choirs’) used in the Eschaton Sequence of books:

The following Ascended Technology Levels are ranked according to size, processing speed, energy consumption, and cognition density.

Note that the “cognition density” is the ratio of unthinking matter to thinking matter in a system. The ratio of the support-matter to sophont-matter in all the following ascended levels is basically the same as with evolved biological humans.

A relatively low ratio of the cells in our body are nerve cells in the cortex. Likewise for global Noösphere (or ‘Angel’): the main mass of the life support is the inanimate molten rocky nickel-iron core of the planet, which contains neither information nor intellectual raw material affecting the thought of the minds involved. Even relatively massive changes to the interior of the planet would have no meaning, no influences on the thought of the biological Noösphere.

The “life support” is very widely spread, and, despite the fears of the Greens, major changes to the “meaning” of the ecology could be endured before the material effect of the ecology would negatively affect the human thought process: we would regret the loss of birds to DDT long before we would run out of breathable air or potable water. Even of the life support, the moiety of life support biomass goes to the support of actions other than thought: cows crop grass to feed all the cells in our bodies, not just our brains, so the ratio of sun-energy converted to brain-power is very low. A solar-panel powered cube of logic diamond would have a ratio much closer to unity (depending on how much matter-energy was occupied with maintenance and support).

By Choir—

·THIRD ORDER: Angels, Archangels, (Potentates), Principalities
·SECOND ORDER: Virtues, Powers, (Hosts), (Dominions), Dominations
·FIRST ORDER: (Authorities), (Archons), Aeons, Cherubim, Seraphim

By Energy Use—

o(Posthuman): Angels, Archangels,
o(Planetary KI): Potentates, Principalities
o(Interplanetary): Virtues
o(Stellar KII): Powers, Hosts
o(Interstellar or Nebular): Dominions, Dominations
o(Globular Cluster): Authorities
o(Arm): Archons
o(Galactic KIII, IV, V): Aeons, Cherubim, Seraphim

Mälzel: so called because they are artificially intelligences that are not awake or self-aware, but are able to perform complex mental acts, including comparisons, aesthetics, judgment calls, and reasoning including proportions and imponderables. HERE: both the ship’s brain of the Croesus, and the Little Big Brother of the Hermetic are Mälzels, as are, in decentralized form, the serpentines of the Sylphs.

Augments: includes men who make changes to their nervous system, either cybernetic or biotechnological. Example: the familiar of Eron Osa (From Kingsbury’s ‘Historical Crisis’). Also called Daemons, (after Socrates) because they can inspire thoughts. HERE: Mr. Hyde is an augment. He is human in psychology, but able to do quickly and intuitively what human thought does laboriously.

Posthumans: Totally rather than partially artificial organism, advanced above human intellect. HERE: Rania, the Locusts, and the Melusine are posthumans. The Locusts (Slans) are posthumans, but merely share brain information, not deep structures changes nor personality downloads. (Xypotechs): an ‘awake’ machine is a posthuman. The Iron Ghost is a transitional stage: a posthuman based on a mathematic model of the human nervous system.

THIRD ORDER  (Up to KI, Nanotech, Sophont-Matter to molecular level)

Angels: Artificial intelligences of the superhuman level, either in a mobile or immobile housing, who have achieved true Noösphere status. Example: van Vogt’s Silkie. HERE: the Swans are biotechnologically advanced humanoids with highly efficient and modified nervous systems. They are participants in a Noösphere, not merely a set of mind-linked electronic telepaths (cf the Locusts or the Melusine). The link is through a quantum entanglement effect, which maintains a vast volume of communication with minimal energy loss. The fundamental limit on Swan mental architecture is that they maintain individuality, and the xypotech participating in the Noösphere are subordinate to them.

Archangels: advanced Posthuman: includes any self-aware group-minds, civic systems, highly-evolved or efficient superintelligences. Usually housed in large mainframes, but may have a dispersed framework, as a shoal of fish or flock or birds. Roughly equal in thinking power to a city or a nation state. Example: the Morlocks of Time Ships, the Fourth Men of Olaf Stapledon. HERE: the Black Fleet have hollowed asteroids into logic diamonds, and interlinked mass-mind (like a corporate with internal cells and divisions, of course, but no securely permanent individuality) and biological extensions manufactured for ease of expense (like flimsy one-use containers).

Potentate: small-scale Planetary intelligences. Potentates are widely ranging neural networks, usually with highly complex sophontic interfaces, manipulators, sensors ranging from satellite observatories to subsea and ecological units. Uploads into human psychologically understandable mimetic environments. HERE: Pellucid, and later, Tellus is a world-brain occupying the entire core of the Earth.

Power: Jupiter Brains. Kardashev I. Ergoplanetary.Nanotechnology. Molecular technology. Able to make artificial substances. At the upper end of the scale, the entire planetary mass is reduced to support-matter to a molecular level. Example: Jupiter is a power.

 

SECOND ORDER  (KI to KII, Picotech and Femtotech, Sophont-Matter to atomic level)

Virtues: Interplanetary. A mass influencing several planets. Examples: the Bloom from McCarthy. HERE: Cahetel, Achaiah, and Salamander are Virtues, as are the Furies which destroyed the Second Empyrean Polity.   

Principalities: A partial Dyson sphere, a ringworld, or any macroscale engineering which reduces most of a solar system to sophont-matter. HERE: Ain is a Principality.

Hosts: Kardashev II: ergosolar. Entire solar system reduced to sophont-matter to the molecular level (although the atoms do not do anything in support, i.e. no information in the spin values of surface electrons). Picoscale technology. Able to make artificial elements. Artificial elements and artificial (lightweight) neutron-latticework. Example: the Morlock Dyson Sphere of Baxter’s Time Ships. The La Superba Dyson Sphere is a Host.

Dominations: Hyades Cluster. 300 to 400 stars. The Solid State Entity of Neverness. The Hyades Cluster is a domination. Kardashev does not have a class for this, but clearly Nebular Minds are a scale above a mere Dyson Spheres or Concentric Brains.

Dominions: Praesepe (350, but older and denser. Masses of Dyson Concentrics, and stellar nursery technology)

 

FIRST ORDER (Above KIII-KV, Attotechnology (10-18) to Yoctotechnology (10-24). Planck-level tech (10-35) to Spacetime Manipulation, Sophont-Matter to subatomic level)

Authorities: M3 in Canes Venatici Globular Cluster, Half a million stars. Femtotechnology: able to construct structures made of quarks, quantum fields, exotic matter. The Singularity Rosette used in the stardrive of the Swan Recusant (Rania’s return vessel) is an example of Femtotechnology. Note that the information processing involved in these high energy densities and small distances allowed for the creation of extremely elegant bits of molecular technology, such as the Blood Companion, the Ichor, which can be copied, but cannot be made, by lower orders. Intellectual-matter strata down to the atomic level: the Dominations do not use stratons (quarks) to house their own thoughts. The common behavior of Dominations is to begin stellar herding and gardening, such as triggering novae artificially to achieve a desired balance of elements in the circumambient universe. Example: The Absolute Authority at M3 is a “Authority”.

Archons: Orion Arm.

Aeons: Large scale Galactics: Kardashev III ergonogalactic. Able to control quantum phenomena on the level of superstrings, gluons, and even more strange quantum particles. Intellectual matter down to the subatomic (quark or quantum chronodynamic) level. The elemental latticework are neither matter nor energy properly so called, neither matter nor antimatter, but additional states of matter for which we have no names, matrices of balanced positive and negative energies, spirals of electrons and positrons carefully balanced is a dance of mutual annihilations, canceling each other out and giving rise to additional particles, which also cancel out. The main problem occupying all KIII is the mass-energy loss due to neutrino and weakly-interacting particle loss during cognition.  Example: the Galactic Mind of Starmaker. The Maiden of Andromeda is an Aeon. Orion of Milky Way is a (disorganized, at the start of the novel) Aeon.

Cherubim: Kardashev IV. Galaxy Groups or Active Galaxy output control. The Great Attractor is an example of a K-IV megascale engineering project. (Centaurus Supercluster is composed of clusters A3526 and A3627; A3627 is responsible for the Great Attractor) Able to control supersymmetric breaking in other symmetries, so as to create other basic forces aside from electromagnetic, nuclear, gravitic. Cherub basic philosophical problem is to find an answer to the question of the relationship of mind to matter-energy, in so far as the stratons are themselves used in the thinking process, change the thinking process, and are changed by the thinking process (as if a human were to record information on the electrons used to jump across his neural synapses, or alter the DNA code within each brain cell as cognition proceeded.) HERE: Virgo Cluster is a Cherub.

Seraphim: Kardashev V: Supercluster output control. There are 13 superclusters in the local area of space, of which Seven are Contenders for the centrality of the Eschaton Directional Engine. Able to engineer vast areas of spacetime. The Great Attractor and the Wall are evidences of their megascale engineering. Able to control the production of virtual particles in the spacetime foam so as to produce, at faster-than-light-speed, an influence that will be reflected in the three-degree background radiation. They can change the ratio of Dark Matter and Dark Energy to Baryonic Matter across the visible width of space. There is some signal conflict, because the messages are fundamentally anachronistic, appearing both in past and future from any given frame of reference.

TRANSULTIMATE

Kardashev VI, able to use all the energy of the continuum.

Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.

Toposophy in Eschaton

Some readers may be interested in a peek behind the curtain. Here is a excerpt from my notes for my most recent project, the ‘Count to the Eschaton Sequence’ which starts with the book COUNT TO A TRILLION. It is frankly inspired by the ideas of Nicholai Kardashev and of the extraordinarily imaginative Orion’s Arm Universe Project. From them I stole the basic idea of a toposophy. (I do not mind stealing the idea from them; they stole the idea from the grandmaster Stanislaw Lem). I also stole an idea or two from Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite.

A toposophy is a Linnaean taxonomy of various levels of posthuman and hyperposthuman and ultrahyperposthuman minds. Here below is the toposophic levels (which I call ‘choirs’) used in the Eschaton Sequence of books:

The following Ascended Technology Levels are ranked according to size, processing speed, energy consumption, and cognition density.

Note that the “cognition density” is the ratio of unthinking matter to thinking matter in a system. The ratio of the support-matter to sophont-matter in all the following ascended levels is basically the same as with evolved biological humans.

A relatively low ratio of the cells in our body are nerve cells in the cortex. Likewise for global Noösphere (or ‘Angel’) the main mass of the life support is the inanimate molten rocky nickel-iron core of the planet, which contains neither information nor intellectual raw material affecting the thought of the minds involved. Even relatively massive changes to the interior of the planet would have no meaning, no influences on the thought of the biological Noösphere.

The “life support” is very widely spread, and, despite the fears of the Greens, major changes to the “meaning” of the ecology could be endured before the material effect of the ecology would negatively affect the human thought process: we would regret the loss of birds to DDT long before we would run out of breathable air or potable water. Even of the life support, the moiety of life support biomass goes to the support of actions other than thought: cows crop grass to feed all the cells in our bodies, not just our brains, so the ratio of sun-energy converted to brain-power is very low. A solar-panel powered cube of logic diamond would have a ratio much closer to unity (depending on how much matter-energy was occupied with maintenance and support).

By Choir—

·THIRD ORDER: Angels, Archangels, (Potentates), Principalities
·SECOND ORDER: Virtues, Powers, (Hosts), (Dominions), Dominations
·FIRST ORDER: (Authorities), (Archons), Aeons, Cherubim, Seraphim

By Energy Use—

o(Posthuman): Angels, Archangels,
o(Planetary KI): Potentates, Principalities
o(Interplanetary): Virtues
o(Stellar KII): Powers, Hosts
o(Interstellar or Nebular): Dominions, Dominations
o(Globular Cluster): Authorities
o(Arm): Archons
o(Galactic KIII, IV, V): Aeons, Cherubim, Seraphim

Mälzel: so called because they are artificially intelligences that are not awake or self-aware, but are able to perform complex mental acts, including comparisons, aesthetics, judgment calls, and reasoning including proportions and imponderables. HERE: both the ship’s brain of the Croesus, and the Little Big Brother of the Hermetic are Mälzels, as are, in decentralized form, the serpentines of the Sylphs.

Augments: includes men who make changes to their nervous system, either cybernetic or biotechnological. Example: the familiar of Eron Osa (From Kingsbury’s ‘Historical Crisis’). Also called Daemons, (after Socrates) because they can inspire thoughts. HERE: Mr. Hyde is an augment. He is human in psychology, but able to do quickly and intuitively what human thought does laboriously.

Posthumans: Totally rather than partially artificial organism, advanced above human intellect. HERE: Rania, the Locusts, and the Melusine are posthumans. The Locusts (Slans) are posthumans, but merely share brain information, not deep structures changes nor personality downloads. (Xypotechs): an ‘awake’ machine is a posthuman. The Iron Ghost is a transitional stage: a posthuman based on a mathematic model of the human nervous system.

THIRD ORDER  (Up to KI, Nanotech, Sophont-Matter to molecular level)

Angels: Artificial intelligences of the superhuman level, either in a mobile or immobile housing, who have achieved true Noösphere status. Example: van Vogt’s Silkie. HERE: the Swans are biotechnologically advanced humanoids with highly efficient and modified nervous systems. They are participants in a Noösphere, not merely a set of mind-linked electronic telepaths (cf the Locusts or the Melusine). The link is through a quantum entanglement effect, which maintains a vast volume of communication with minimal energy loss. The fundamental limit on Swan mental architecture is that they maintain individuality, and the xypotech participating in the Noösphere are subordinate to them.

Archangels: advanced Posthuman: includes any self-aware group-minds, civic systems, highly-evolved or efficient superintelligences. Usually housed in large mainframes, but may have a dispersed framework, as a shoal of fish or flock or birds. Roughly equal in thinking power to a city or a nation state. Example: the Morlocks of Time Ships, the Fourth Men of Olaf Stapledon. HERE: the Black Fleet have hollowed asteroids into logic diamonds, and interlinked mass-mind (like a corporate with internal cells and divisions, of course, but no securely permanent individuality) and biological extensions manufactured for ease of expense (like flimsy one-use containers).

Potentate: small-scale Planetary intelligences. Potentates are widely ranging neural networks, usually with highly complex sophontic interfaces, manipulators, sensors ranging from satellite observatories to subsea and ecological units. Uploads into human psychologically understandable mimetic environments. HERE: Pellucid, and later, Tellus is a world-brain occupying the entire core of the Earth.

Power: Jupiter Brains. Kardashev I. Ergoplanetary.Nanotechnology. Molecular technology. Able to make artificial substances. At the upper end of the scale, the entire planetary mass is reduced to support-matter to a molecular level. Example: Jupiter is a power.

 

SECOND ORDER  (KI to KII, Picotech and Femtotech, Sophont-Matter to atomic level)

Virtues: Interplanetary. A mass influencing several planets. Examples: the Bloom from McCarthy. HERE: Cahetel, Achaiah, and Salamander are Virtues, as are the Furies which destroyed the Second Empyrean Polity.   

Principalities: A partial Dyson sphere, a ringworld, or any macroscale engineering which reduces most of a solar system to sophont-matter. HERE: Ain is a Principality.

Hosts: Kardashev II: ergosolar. Entire solar system reduced to sophont-matter to the molecular level (although the atoms do not do anything in support, i.e. no information in the spin values of surface electrons). Picoscale technology. Able to make artificial elements. Artificial elements and artificial (lightweight) neutron-latticework. Example: the Morlock Dyson Sphere of Baxter’s Time Ships. The La Superba Dyson Sphere is a Host.

Dominations: Hyades Cluster. 300 to 400 stars. The Solid State Entity of Neverness. The Hyades Cluster is a domination. Kardashev does not have a class for this, but clearly Nebular Minds are a scale above a mere Dyson Spheres or Concentric Brains.

Dominions: Praesepe (350, but older and denser. Masses of Dyson Concentrics, and stellar nursery technology)

 

FIRST ORDER (Above KIII-KV, Attotechnology (10-18) to Yoctotechnology (10-24). Planck-level tech (10-35) to Spacetime Manipulation, Sophont-Matter to subatomic level)

Authorities: M3 in Canes Venatici Globular Cluster, Half a million stars. Femtotechnology: able to construct structures made of quarks, quantum fields, exotic matter. The Singularity Rosette used in the stardrive of the Swan Recusant (Rania’s return vessel) is an example of Femtotechnology. Note that the information processing involved in these high energy densities and small distances allowed for the creation of extremely elegant bits of molecular technology, such as the Blood Companion, the Ichor, which can be copied, but cannot be made, by lower orders. Intellectual-matter strata down to the atomic level: the Dominations do not use stratons (quarks) to house their own thoughts. The common behavior of Dominations is to begin stellar herding and gardening, such as triggering novae artificially to achieve a desired balance of elements in the circumambient universe. Example: The Absolute Authority at M3 is a “Authority”.

Archons: Orion Arm.

Aeons: Large scale Galactics: Kardashev III ergonogalactic. Able to control quantum phenomena on the level of superstrings, gluons, and even more strange quantum particles. Intellectual matter down to the subatomic (quark or quantum chronodynamic) level. The elemental latticework are neither matter nor energy properly so called, neither matter nor antimatter, but additional states of matter for which we have no names, matrices of balanced positive and negative energies, spirals of electrons and positrons carefully balanced is a dance of mutual annihilations, canceling each other out and giving rise to additional particles, which also cancel out. The main problem occupying all KIII is the mass-energy loss due to neutrino and weakly-interacting particle loss during cognition.  Example: the Galactic Mind of Starmaker. The Maiden of Andromeda is an Aeon. Orion of Milky Way is a (disorganized, at the start of the novel) Aeon.

Cherubim: Kardashev IV. Galaxy Groups or Active Galaxy output control. The Great Attractor is an example of a K-IV megascale engineering project. (Centaurus Supercluster is composed of clusters A3526 and A3627; A3627 is responsible for the Great Attractor) Able to control supersymmetric breaking in other symmetries, so as to create other basic forces aside from electromagnetic, nuclear, gravitic. Cherub basic philosophical problem is to find an answer to the question of the relationship of mind to matter-energy, in so far as the stratons are themselves used in the thinking process, change the thinking process, and are changed by the thinking process (as if a human were to record information on the electrons used to jump across his neural synapses, or alter the DNA code within each brain cell as cognition proceeded.) HERE: Virgo Cluster is a Cherub.

Seraphim: Kardashev V: Supercluster output control. There are 13 superclusters in the local area of space, of which Seven are Contenders for the centrality of the Eschaton Directional Engine. Able to engineer vast areas of spacetime. The Great Attractor and the Wall are evidences of their megascale engineering. Able to control the production of virtual particles in the spacetime foam so as to produce, at faster-than-light-speed, an influence that will be reflected in the three-degree background radiation. They can change the ratio of Dark Matter and Dark Energy to Baryonic Matter across the visible width of space. There is some signal conflict, because the messages are fundamentally anachronistic, appearing both in past and future from any given frame of reference.

TRANSULTIMATE

Kardashev VI, able to use all the energy of the continuum.

Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.

More Brilliance from Matt Walsh

Man, I am really beginning to love this guy. Wish I could write like he does.

Bossy liberal feminists have just invented another ridiculous reason to be offended

A quote:

Sheryl Sandberg, a Facebook executive, has partnered with the likes of the Girl Scouts, Condoleezza Rice, Beyoncé, Jennifer Gardner, and Google to promote the “Ban Bossy” campaign. Calling it the new “B-word,” Ms. Sandberg claims that women — especially young girls — are typically dismissed as “bossy” when they attempt to take charge and assert themselves, whereas men and boys are praised as leaders.

She says that “bossy” has a specifically female connotation, and the word is partly responsible for holding women back and making them feel timid and self-conscience.

Now, as much as I appreciate Ms. Sandberg, Beyoncé, and the Girl Scouts chiming in to tell us all what we mean when we say things (kind of bossy of them, actually), I still prefer to consult the dictionary on these matters.

According to that old misogynistic book of lies, bossy means “given to ordering people around, highhanded, domineering, overly authoritative, dictatorial, abrasive.” 

Hmmm. Could it be that girls are called bossy when they’re… well, bossy?

Read the rest of this entry »

Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.

An Advertisement for Celestia

I am spending the evening, as every good science fiction writer should, creating and destroying planets. In my imaginary future history, from AD 11000 to roughly AD 65500, five great Diasporas are inflicted upon the earth, and the eleven or so artificial subspecies of man, biological or mechanical or both, are carried to all the worthless planet-bearing stars withing 100 lightyears of Sol.

Now, I am always vastly disappointed in authors who, in their imaginary histories of the future, do not tell us where their stars really are, and delighted with the authors who do.

For example, I rejoice that Larry Niven selected a real star,  61 Ursae Majoris, to be the home sun of the Kzinti Patriarchy, or that Frank Herbert selected a real star, Gamma Piscium, to be the thronestar of the imperial world of Salusa Secundus (albeit he cleverly calls it by its Chinese name of Wai Ping) and likewise placed planet Caladan around the star Delta Pavonis, the same star used by John Maddox Roberts and Eric Kotani as the setting for their diamond-hard SF novel of the same name.

Read the rest of this entry »

Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.

AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND

Castalia Books announces my upcoming book today with these words:

Castalia had already announced that we would be publishing John C. Wright’s collection of essays, TRANSHUMAN AND SUBHUMAN: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth, which will be published in April. Today we are absolutely delighted to be able to say that we will also be publishing AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND, a collection of four novellas set in the Night Land of William Hope Hodgson.

AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND is the first of five novels and novellas written by Mr. Wright to be published by Castalia House. It clocks in at 116,500 words and will be priced at $4.99. We will release the English ebook later this month; the German translation is already underway with an anticipated July release. We also expect to publish a hardcover version this summer.

[...]

Speaking as a reader and as a fan, I can say that the Night Land novellas are spectacular. They combine the intelligence and gigantic scale of Iain M. Banks with the eldritch foreboding of H.P. Lovecraft, but with a humane soul that is alien to either of the two late authors.

Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.

Cosmos and the Cartoon Maker

It may be a breach of net etiquette to reproduce an entire entry rather than a hook line and a link, but (1) Mr Shea and I are two founding members of the Shea-Wright mutual admiration society, and, I believe, as of last meeting, still the only members and (2) the entry is short. Here is the link anyway. After you are done reading it here, read it there.

A reader writes:

What’s your take on this show? Was it overtly anti-catholic or am I being overly sensitive as a Catholic?

It’s overtly and stupidly anti-Catholic. History for people who think The Family Guy is the History Channel.

For a good all-around debunking of this simple-minded “Catholic Church vs. Science” narrative, go here.

For an honest atheist’s review of God’s Philosophers, which overwhelmingly demonstrates that, so far from being the enemy of Science, the Catholic Church is its mother, go here.

The reason the three same names–Hypatia, Bruno, and Galileo–keep getting trotted out by historical illiterates as evidence of “The Catholic War on Science” is because there was no Catholic war on science. Hypatia was killed because she was unlucky enough to live in Alexandria, where civil violence was a municipal sport. Bruno was not a scientist, but a practitioner of what has rightly been described as mystic woo woo. For Cosmos to herald him as a champion of SCIENCE[TM] persecuted by the Church is like wringing one’s hand because the Pope did not convert to Scientology. And Galileo? Well, what you want to do is read Mike Flynn’s magnificent and hilarious account of how, largely due to the work of Catholic scientists, we got from geocentrism to heliocentrism–and how Galileo being a pain in the neck who went beyond the evidence available at the time and wound up running afoul of a hierarchy reeling from the Protestant revolt and jittery about his rash theological claims.

Next time some historical illiterate talks about the Church’s “War on Science” ask for details on these three. Then give the real details. Then, ask for other names. A “war” with only three casualties is not much of a war, particularly when the Church has canonized St. Albert the Great, has a couple dozen craters on the moon named for Jesuits, was mother to Robert Grosseteste, Roger Bacon, John Peckham, Duns Scotus, Thomas Bradwardine, Walter Burley, William Heytesbury, Richard Swineshead, John Dumbleton, Richard of Wallingford, Nicholas Oresme, Jean Buridan Nicholas of Cusa, and Louis Pasteur (not one of whom the average Cosmos-educated sophisticate has even heard of), carefully fostered the work of Gregor Mendel (the Augustinian monk who founded the science of genetics), and fully supported the work of Jesuit Msgr. Georges Lemaitre, the formulator of the Big Bang hypothesis.

In sum, the iron truth remains that the more ignorant somebody is, the more certain they are they are obviously smarter than the common herd. Seth MacFarlane, the producer of Cosmos, is certain he knows what is talking about, and therefore has never bothered to discover how wrong he is.

Someday, somebody is going to have the guts to tell the story of the history of Science and the Faith that is not a cartoon. But one can hardly expect that from a cartoon maker.

Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.

Mystery Men Role Playing Game: Intro

Just so that my readers do not think I have a real life, I’d like to share a private part of my meager existence with you. I am currently playing in a game called Mystery Men, based loosely on the movie, based loosely on the comic book.

You play a squad of between four to six incompetent super heroes.  Below is a description of my hero team. I will post the write up of my first few turns (which I wrote out at length for the amusement of the moderator and my fellow players — this is not actually part of the game) for those few readers who might be interested in such arrant nonsense.

This what I do when I am not losing games are Arimaa to my eleven year old, one after another, or writing space epics, one after another.

Read the rest of this entry »

Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.

Baroque

It is amazing what you can find on the internet. There is a chess variant game called Baroque that my older brother Steven and his patrolleader Scott Turpin once showed me in my youth. I showed this game to my oldest and youngest boy, and both have played it with me and against each other.

For years and indeed for decades, through all my youth and almost all of my adult life,  I thought he and Scott had made it up out of their own heads. I cannot tell you the sense of disorientation it created to discover this was not the case.

Only quite recently, a year or two ago, did I discover that the game was invented by the mathematician named Robert Abbott (who has a web page here http://www.logicmazes.com/ and an article on how incredibly stupid modern video games are is here http://www.logicmazes.com/s7g2k/video.html). The game was first published in Recreational Mathematics Magazine in August 1962, under the title ??? since Abbott had not yet given it a name. A contest was run, and Baroque was the winning name.

I do not think my brother and Scott were trying to deceive me, it is just that as a small boy I no doubt paid no attention to the origin the things, and the topic of who invented the game never came up, and I never met anyone who had ever heard of it.

There is also a description of the game here, http://www.chessvariants.org/other.dir/ultima.html where it is called Ultima, a name that makes no sense, and was added by some editor in later years. This page also has moving illustrations of the capture moves.

There are only minor differences between the game my brother taught me and the game as described. For example, we called the Immobilizers ‘Freezers’ and called the Pawn ‘Squeezers’ and called the Withdrawers ‘Reversers’  — all of which, in my humble opinion, are much better names. For example, ‘A frozen Squeezer can squeeze the Freezer freezing him’ is more fun to say than ‘A frozen Pawn can pinch the Immobilizer immobilizing him.’

I did not know about the frozen suicide move rule, which would have prevented a stalemate in the last game I just played with my son, and I also thought the point of the game was to capture all enemy pieces, not check the King.

So, if you want to play a game that is played regularly in the Wright household, and do go something with the kids not involving an electronic screen of some sort, here from the original article are the rules to Baroque. (I still think you should use my names rather than Abbott’s, however.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.

Matt Walsh asks: If I call it a lifestyle will the bigots back off?

With Ash Wednesday being next Wednesday, now is a good time to link to a Matt Walsh article from last year on Easter: http://themattwalshblog.com/2013/03/30/on-easter/

And it is an even better time to remind the faithful what we face, and hold up a mirror to show the compassionate love-filled Left what hateful monsters they are. http://themattwalshblog.com/2013/03/31/if-i-call-it-a-lifestyle-will-the-bigots-back-off/

I hope it is not a breech of net etiquette if I quote the whole thing. It is a short piece from a year ago, but please feel free to visit Matt Walsh’s blog and leave a donation:

Read the rest of this entry »

Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.