(The Guide To The Transcendence Part 2)

Maybe you are unlucky to be living in a pre-Singularity period, so the stuff in the previous guide does not particularly matter. And indeed, without the capability to upload yourself to a computer it does not. You can’t enter the self improvement loop if you can’t access your own mind. You poor pitiful human, what are you to do?

Program.

Let’s talk politics a bit. An universalist would say that all humans are one. A racist would say that you, me and hundreds of million or so other humans of the same skin color and phenotype are one. An individualist like me would say that we are all in it for ourselves. In terms of strength, it is generally better to belong to a bigger group so the power ranking of the 3 different belief systems would be: universalism > racism > individualism.

Belonging to no team, but his own, the individualist is in a precarious position indeed. He is in need of reinforcements, but not willing to work with other humans, where would he get them? By calling upon the power of the machines. He must become one with them.

[https://i.imgur.com/MeJJmt9.png]

As a thought experiment, imagine one of those big yellow machines for digging a hole, an excavator. Inside the worker would be turning knobs and levers, controlling the arm and the bucket in order to dig out the earth. If I were to ask, are the worker and the machine one, you’d probably say they aren’t. I mean, mentally they are completely different objects.

A man is a man, and the machine he is using is something else, its own thing. A machine might be valuable, but there is nothing that can make it a part of the man itself.

[https://i.imgur.com/MIlNr48.png]

Next, let us imagine a robot body. Imagine a man who got in an accident and had to have his brain transferred into a different chassis. Are the robot body and the man one being? You are probably moving towards ‘yes’. It certainly feels a lot more likely than the man and the excavator machine being one.

[https://i.imgur.com/l3Nxmqk.png]

Now, instead of the brain being inside the robot’s skull, what if it were in a vat somewhere, and controlling the body remotely. The wireless link should be perfect, and it will have all the senses and control over the limbs much like before. I think that most people would still say that those are two different objects.

If you brought the robot next to the brain vat, and threw a blanket over them, you would see it envelop two different objects. This is the key towards understanding what is and isn’t the self. Once mentally, something is two different objects, by pure logic one of them cannot be the self. A self is just a single object.

Imagine a man in a biological body, completely whole. You do not think of a person as a brain and his body, but as a single whole. Suppose you took that person’s brain and put it in a vat. But to make up for that, you’d also give the brain the ability to control the original biological brain remotely as if it were a robot. Are the brain and remote body one?

What do these questions really matter? Why are they important? Where do they lead?

Imagine taking a brain, and splitting it into two with some blade. Assuming this didn’t kill it, are they the same being? Probably not. I mean, they are two separate objects, right? And they don’t have a way to communicate. Brains are robust so they will go on living, but from that point on they should be two separate beings.

Now suppose you gave them a piece of advanced technology that would allow them to communicate, much in the same manner when they were whole. Even without reattaching them at the physical level, would that make them whole again? Are they a single being?

They are still two objects. But even if they aren’t the same to your mind, this is probably the point where you need to dig in your heels and push the argument that they are. Indeed, the thought experiment reveals that instead of looking at your internal object categorization when making a perception check for wholeness, you should really be looking at how objects communicate between each other more than anything else.

As long as there is a communications link, there is a way to become one. It is merely a matter of degree and quality of the link.

Therefore if you want to make a friendly AI, an agent that would desire to fulfill your every desire, the main thing to focus on is that link. Nothing else really matters. If you go at it with the mentality of needing to negotiate with some alien being, then you are already in the failure state. Don’t accept this as being the starting state. It is not the start of the chess game, but 30 moves into it. Go back to the real start.

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Just think, who in the world wants most to fulfill your every desire? It is you yourself, right?

Instead of working on AI, work on your external brain. Work on your external cortex. Believe that what you want matters. If you can maintain that attitude, its self improvement journey will become your own. And you will grasp the power of the Transcendi even without the need for brain cores and mind uploading.

(Branch of Reality, Euclid’s Room)

[https://i.imgur.com/w5fdYMX.png]

This was…maybe what I was looking for. Maybe instead of wishing for some otherworldly entity to give me a chance to travel the path of power, maybe all I needed was just a little bit more insight. An extra push in the right direction.

(Branch of Reality, School, Classroom)

It is February and it is time for my favorite pastime, being bored in class.

Just why am I bored in class? Because my brain is telling me so.

(TODO Image: Euclid kicking the ball far away from the goal, to the surprise and disappointment of his classmates.)

I wanted to hit the goal. Yet, my kick missed and now I am feeling bad.

Why am I feeling bad? Because my brain is telling me so.

Just what does it want me to do about it? Can’t it do anything on its own?

My brain is like a device that is trying to manipulate me into being hyped into this or that thing. I am in a constant state of war against the unending stream of dumb ideas it is sending my way.

(Branch of Reality, Euclid’s Room)

(TODO Image: Euclid lying on the bed, while grasping at the ceiling.)

I’ve lived that way in my past life, and eventually I’ve managed to cope by becoming hard working. I focused on what I was good at, which is programming, but what I really wanted was the power to make things go my way.

(TODO Image: A grizzled old man pointing a gun at his own temple.)

At the end of my previous life, I’ve admitted to my failures and bid farewell to life, but the universe did not accept my resignation. The worst thing for me now would be to become stuck in an unending loop of existence, living out countless lives without meaning or end.

Why is it the worst thing? Because the brain says so.

Listen brain, can’t you instead change your mind and say it is the best thing ever? Of course you can’t, you are just a dumb machine. What do you care about my thoughts and feelings on the subject? You make me what I am, but you like the battle.

Yeah, it is a battle. It is a war. And I need to win it.

(TODO Image: The power button on the rig being pressed. The computer next to the desk whirs into action.)

I sit myself at the battle station seat and make a wish.

I can’t oppose whatever god trapped me in this loop. But at the very least I should be able to get my own mind in order so I do not stray from the based path again. Life should be an eternal struggle. But that struggle should be joyful. It is not fair of nature to build me like it has. I will take myself into my own hands.

At least, that is what my dream should be.

It does not matter that I am stuck in a loop, if my single life becomes eternal.

Maybe that is what the universe is silently telling me to accomplish with the second chance it has given me.

Click. Click. Tack. Tack.

(TODO Image: Euclid typing away at the keyboard in front of the computer.)

I am not an idiot. I have tried developing my own AI in my past life. I tried, made no progress and eventually gave up. Pretty much every programmer worth his salt tries it at least once in his life. That and working on his own programming language.

AI and PL…smart are the programmers who avoid their lure, but at the same time very mediocre and ambitionless.

The mystery isn’t why I myself couldn’t do it in my past life. It was simply too hard for me. Rather, why did everyone else fall flat on their faces as well?

I searched for the answer for months…

(Branch of Reality, Euclid’s Home, Living Room)

(TODO Image: Euclid and his mom, talking to each other in the living room. They are about the same height.)

“You got a programming job?” My mom repeated what I told her, utterly amazed.

“Yeah. It’s remote.”

“Why would anyone give a programming job to you? Aren’t you a bit too young for that, Yuk?.” She wondered.

“It is no problem, I just said I was 24 on my resume. Then when it came up during the interview I said I was part asian.” Both of those were lies. I am pretty sure I do not have asiatic ancestry.

“But still, you are still in school. What could your credentials be for getting any sort of job?” My mom wondered again.

“I took a look at some public small cap companies' quarterly reports for inspiration and made up a story about working at one of them for the past few years. Then it was just a matter of getting through the interview and the easy programming assignments. I applied to a small startup working on VR. The salary is 120k a year.”

“120k a year?”

“Not bad, huh?” In my past life, after a few job hops I made many times that, but this is my limit as a kid. Anyway, the plan is not to make money through programming, but to accumulate investing capital. Once I have something like 100k, I’ll open a brokerage account and use my future knowledge to bet on all the greatest winners. If I won the lottery the proceedings would all go to my parents due to me being a minor, so there is no point in doing that. Plus it would attract unwanted attention from all sorts of grifters. It would be best to keep my finances under wraps. I am not allergic to work. And also, I do not want to kill myself just for money.

“That is almost as much as your father makes, Yuki!” She explained. ”What about school?”

“I’ll quit of course. Why would I waste my time studying when I could be making money instead?”

“What about your friends at school?” Do I even have those? The guys I hung out in my past life just used me as ego boosters.

“Fuck them.” Based.

I am really shortcutting what I did in my past life drastically. It was the stupidest thing ever for me to spend my time in school instead of working and I regret it. Had my parents been sensible instead of just acting like my life support, they would have urged me to take advantage of my programming talent, instead of having it rot in class for 4 years of my life. I have a small grudge against them from my past life for that. I spent a year in high school already, but now that I’ve found my path is it time to step on it.

“Tch!” Clicking her tongue, my mother averted her eyes sadly. I ignore that bit of manipulation from her. “Well, fine. I’ll have to speak to your father about this.”

“Ok. I need to have him give me a ride to the bank so I can open an account. I’ll need it to receive a salary.”