BY LETTER
Baseline Hyperdependency Syndrome
 Image from Juan Ochoa |
Psychological/Behavioural Dysfunction common to many SI:<1 in S=>1 environments.
A chronic problem throughout much of the civilized galaxy that effects not only baseline hu but also tweaks, splices, provolves, rianths, bio- and cyborgs, vecs, virtuals, and even superiors. As a result of entrenched dependence on SI:1 and higher powers and their infrastructure and angelnets for almost every aspect of their existence, amost every SI:<1 under hyperturing or transingularitan care has to a greater or lesser extent lost all sense of independence or maturity, and become arrested at a childghood level. The sophont sees the hyperturing or power as a benign parental figure, not unlike the Old Earth conception of a gift-giving supernatural deity or "Santa Claus Machine in the Sky" that many simply sentients pray to for the slightest material favours ("please God can I have a new hovercar", etc). But whereas the practitioners of Old Earth dependency religions rarely saw any practical results from such attempted wish-fulfillment behaviors, sentients under the care of baseline-friendly SI:1 can and often do have their slightest wishes fulfilled. This ranges from nanoreplicators that can produce any object, to special gifts given directly by their Zars.
While non-simm comparison is sometimes difficult due to the rarity of r/l feral baselines (although there are a few good breeding populations in special reserves in the Metasoft Empire and elsewhere, as well as genuine wild specimens in some of the outer volumes), simulation studies show that compared to an ideal "wild" hu, a BHS hu suffers from inability to defer pleasure, insensitivity to the needs of other sentients, hypertrophied egotism, self-centeredness, anxiety in unfamilar settings, and tendency to temper tantrums and emotional outbursts. These symptoms may be mild or developed to a pathological degree, depending on the individual, the environment, the degree of memetic modification, and the treatment by their Zar.
Despite popular opinion to the contrary (especially among the SI:<1 themselves), it is not true that the sophonts in the Utopia Sphere suffer from a higher degree of BHS than those of other empires. It is also not true that Tuphz are more psychologically healthy than BHS sentients.
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Development Notes
Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Initially published on 08 October 2001.
Initially published on 08 October 2001.
