Orion's Arm - Encyclopedia Galactica - Second Toposophic

BY LETTER

Second Toposophic - High Transapients

Sophonts > Transapients > Second Toposophic - High Transapients

Image from Bernd Helfert

Second Toposophic - High Transapients
Toposophic:	S:2 - Neovingean/TRHN/Berram 7 Scale SI:2 - Baseline friendly Scale TU4-TU5 - TBH210 (Turingsen-Bichip-Hursch210) Hyperturing Scale
Est. Population:	Approximately 10 billion
Distribution:	Virtually all Sephirotic empires and associated polities. Most ahuman empires. Numerous non-aligned civilizations and independent systems. Notably absent from the Transcend.

Introduction

Second Singularity transapients, sometimes also called Powers, often result from ascended First Singularity transapients, and may sometimes in turn grow or merge or unite to form a higher toposophic being.They are at least as alien and superior to the more basic transapients as the latter are to modosophonts. A very diverse group, members of which take on different roles according to their predilection. Some - much more often than the Archailects proper, but less frequently than the First Singularity transapients beneath them - intervene directly and openly in the affairs of ordinary sophonts. More often they manipulate the situation from behind the scenes, often acting through lower transapient proxies. They frequently do things lower sophonts find unpredictable or unsettling.

Brain, Mind, and Body

Substrate: Depending on the Singularity Level and desires of the creating intelligence, Second Singularity substrates may range from nanotechnic diamondoid matrices to biological systems to plasma processor cores or some combination of any or all of these or more (plasma processors and other godtech level systems are beyond modosophont, or low-S transapient comprehension in their entirety and are a clear sign that the S:2 in question is the agent or creation of S:4 or higher minds). Among self-ascended S:2 minds, the most commonly used processors are based upon the so-called Ultimate Chip, a diamondoid processor matrix of considerable power. The use of Ultimate Chips permits a level of intelligence billions of times greater than that of any modosophont in a processor substrate with less than a thousand times the volume of a near-baseline human brain. Similarly optimized biological equivalents to this processor are roughly 30% more massive and have six times the volume of the diamondoid equivalent.

Example: Second Singularity Processor - Ultimate Chip
Mass	4,031 kg (not counting support structure)
Volume	1,145,100 cm³ (not counting support structure)
Dimensions	Approximately 50 m on a side including support structure
Speed	5.1e27 ops/sec (variable and individually controllable)
Storage	5.1e27 bits
Backup Data	Dimensions of backup modules: 1.045 m³ or approximately 1.015 m on a side. Total dimensions of backup module: With standard Backup triple redundancy functions, total unit is approximately 1.46 m on a side.
Sub S2 Equivalents	*Processing and storage substrates built with S2 technology but housing minds of lower S-level. S1 Processor/Backup:* 3200 mm³ or 1.5 cm on a side. With triple redundancy functions, total unit is approximately 2.15 cm on a side. Note: Due to storage limitations it requires approximately 32 Ultimate Chip units to successfully run an S1 mind. Turingrade AI/Modosophont Processor/Backup: .215 mm³ or .6 mm on a side. With triple redundancy total unit is approximately .85 mm on a side.

Mental Capacity

Mindmaps of several different clades compared to an S:2 Transapient
Image from Arik
Also shown is a conceptual map of toposophic phase space, (not to scale)

(A detailed vector version of this map is available here)(.pdf file)

The mind of an 'baseline' or unaugmented Second Singularity transapient requires resources that, if used separately, could support more than 326 thousand First Singularity transapients, or as many as 5.1 billion near-baseline humans, turingrade ais, or other modosophonts. This is not to say that they are hundreds of thousands or billions of times more intelligent, as sophonts who first encounter these figures sometimes suppose. Such a statement would be meaningless, as S:2 entities are an entirely different order of being, and no number of modosophonts or First Singularity transapients, however many they may be or however well-coordinated their efforts, can equal an S:2's higher-end capabilities. It does however hint at the kind of mental resources an S:2 can bring to bear. Among the various observable consequences are:

Senses: The sensory experience of an S:2 can be thought of as being roughly equivalent to that of over five billion modosophonts, or much larger than that (as much as tens of thousands of times larger) if a smaller amount of attention is devoted to each sensory type or platform. The environmental comprehension of a Second Singularity mind is vastly greater than the sum of their individual sensors, or even all those sensors combined.

Transapient senses can encompass virtually every sensing technology and apparatus allowed by physics, including the entire EM spectrum, ultrasonic to infrasonic hearing, nanoscale touch sensitivity, gravity wave and mass detection, hypersensitive taste and smell discrimination and so on. Using high-bandwidth links, a transapient can position individual sensor units at great distances from its central core and switch from one set of inputs to another at will. A transapient may actually control an array of sensory systems much larger than its capacity to pay attention to at any one time, activating and deactivating different types and combinations of senses as circumstances or personal preference may require.

A single S:2 has a wide 'sphere of awareness' made up of the sum total of all its sensors spread across space. That sphere can include everything from individual nanobots to distributed space telescopes the size of planetary orbits, and a wide range of satellites, interplanetary and interstellar probes, drone craft, and literally billions of mobile bodies of all kinds, all sharing a single consciousness.

Attention: An S:2 can focus its entire attention on a single subject or repetitive task without getting bored or distracted, or spread its awareness across anything up to billions of different activities, locations, sensors, and bodies at will. This number can be increased even further if a lower level of processing is devoted to some or all foci of attention or reduced if a greater level of processing is used for some or all foci. Much like its senses, a transapient can shift its attention from place to place, focusing and diffusing it, at will and in an instant.

Self-awareness: All S:2 are fully self-aware and possessed of auto-sentience. They can analyze and even dissect their own thinking processes and routinely employ parallel streams of thought - thinking about thousands or millions of different things at the same time. Any changes that occur in their thinking process are assimilated almost instantly. S:2 transapients may routinely observe their own thought processes from multiple internal points of view.

Mental Self-Modification: All S:2 can modify their mental state and structure almost at will. This can range from adjusting their emotions and personality (e.g., making themselves more patient, more or less empathetic, etc.) to how they perceive sensory input (e.g., tasting sounds or smelling colors) to incorporating and combining the mental structures and outlook of up to hundreds of millions of (sometimes radically) different life forms, both sophont and non-sophont, if circumstances warrant it.

Supra-consciousness: S:2s have the capacity to perform supra-conscious actions. These actions are similar to S:0 subconscious actions, as the being doesn't need to focus on them. The difference is that these actions can be much more elaborate (they can, for example, solve a calculus problem without paying attention to it) and they have the option of focusing in a much deeper way on these actions than an S:0 being can on a subconscious action. This ability extends beyond the transapient's internal mental experience to their ability to interact with the world around them. For example, a transapient can control and kinaesthetically feel every muscle or similar movement unit in their bodies. This can allow them to, among other things, simultaneously operate billions of different bodies with the absolute maximum level of efficiency and minimum of wasted energy or motion.

Pattern Recognition: High Transapient pattern recognition abilities are much stronger than those found in basic transapients and vastly beyond those of modosophonts. They can easily notice and recognize patterns that are extremely subtle, or complex, or both; even those that have a very large repetition window, or are embedded in other equally complex patterns, or both. Taken together, their capacity in this area is generally considered to constitute a unique ability in its own right: Oversight

Environmental Awareness: S:2 are fully aware of their environment in minute detail, limited only by the type and range of their available sensory apparatus. They also convert information on their surroundings into patterns, similar to S:0 beings, but this process occurs millions of times faster under normal conditions and may happen hundreds of millions of times faster if sufficiently capable hardware and cooling systems are employed. An information supply that would make an S:1 mind disoriented and uncomfortable may represent insufficient input to an S:2. From a biont perspective, even minuscule changes in the environment are assimilated into their internal mental representation almost instantly.

S:2s are routinely plugged into the local information and communication networks at the largest practical bandwidth unless they are called upon to perform activities that demand unimaginable (to S<2) levels of attention. They also typically employ S<1 or S<2 avatars to help satisfy their thirst for experience.

Learning: Transapient learning capacity far exceeds that of modosophonts. The Slearning mental structures that many modosophont clades have gengineered or otherwise built into themselves are vastly greater in an S:2 and multi-dimensional thought processes (usually involving hundreds of millions of different approaches to a problem) are employed as a matter of course. Virtually any modosophont or First Singularity comprehensible information or skill set can be learned and applied perfectly after a single lesson. Many modosophont or S:1 level tasks can be mastered after merely observing them being performed, even if no effort at teaching is being made.

Combined with their ability to modify their physical and mental structures almost at will, these capacities allow a Second Singularity transapient to replicate virtually any modosophont or First Singularity outlook or mental ability, whether biological or cybernetic, usually at a level of capability that is hundreds of thousands or billions of times more powerful than what S:1 or modosophont minds can manage.

Communication: S:2 transapients can carry on over five billion simultaneous conversations at a modosophont level of complexity, or a smaller number of conversations at much higher levels of complexity. High Transapient languages are based on the complex information structures known as meta-knowledge. Such languages are composed of tokens that are able to describe with both great detail and precision any conceivable S:2 idea or experience. This is comparable to a human baseline describing completely new colours or tastes to someone who has never experienced them before: for example, the exact taste of an apple pie to someone who has never even seen an apple. Such languages encode knowledge, which is more than mere information, and more again than just data, and are generally considered to render tools such as Conceptication and knowledge downloads functionally obsolete. First Singularity and modosophont minds cannot understand Second Singularity languages. Two or more S:2 minds engaged in busy conversation may routinely exchange data packets containing more information than an entire First Singularity mind-state.

Like all transapients, Second Singularity entities can also rapidly learn how to understand and communicate with sub-sophont and sub-sentient lifeforms, insofar as such creatures employ communication.

Distributed and Variable Temporal Sense: Second Singularity transapients can not only divide their attention and awareness across billions of inputs, but also their perception of time. A transapient might (for example) speed up its perception of the passage of time in one part of its mind, taking subjective hours to watch the fall of a single drop of rain, while slowing down another portion of its mind to observe the growth of a tree over a period of subjective minutes or seconds. At any given moment, a transapient might be operating hundreds of millions of points of attention at customized time rates for one reason or another.

Transapient Mental Abilities

First Singularity and higher minds demonstrate a range of abilities that are considered to be qualitatively unique in their own right. Second Singularity capacities in these areas generally exceed those of the First Singularity by hundreds of thousands of times.

Foresight - The ability to perceive exactly which variables in a complex system need to be adjusted (and how they should be adjusted) to result in an outcome that the transapient finds desirable.

Oversight - The ability to perceive and comprehend patterns, connections, and multi-variable processes to a degree far beyond the ability of modosophont minds. Using Oversight, transapients can easily detect patterns in seemingly random images or unrelated events, and perceive and understand the operations and interrelationships of even exceedingly large and complex processes.

Ideogenesis - Colloquial, semi-formal term for what is often referred to as transapient hyper-creativity. It refers to the transapient ability to continuously engage in creative leaps with no apparent intermediate steps.

Translogic - The most common term modosophonts have used since it became evident that transapient entities were using something other than standard logic. It is believed by modosophont 'transapient observers' and mathematical translators that 'translogic' may be related to logic as quantum mechanics is related to Newtonian mechanics, or non-Euclidean geometry relates to Euclidean geometry. Second Singularity translogic allows efficient ways of finding solutions to NP-complete problems.

Image from Arik/ NASA
Unusually bright activity from the planet-spanning second singularity entity Haoyuan, on the surface of the world Quaror, as seen from orbit.

Physical Capacity

An individual S:2 entity can 'singlehandedly' modify lifeforms via gengineering, create new life via neogenics, provolve or program new minds as needed, create starships and habitats, terraform or create worlds, stellify gas giants, mine or disassemble stars for raw materials or even, at what is generally seen as the upper limit of their capabilities, create certain classes of dyson structure. While the basics of their capabilities closely mirror those of First Singularity or even modosophont minds, the speed, precision, and logistical superiority of S:2 techniques easily allow them to take on projects many times larger than anything lower minds would generally attempt and to complete them 1-2 orders of magnitude faster.

Action: When it comes to basic modosophont tasks it has been observed that Second Singularity transapients can single-handedly match the productivity of over five billion modosophonts. However this is an average with a wide distribution; the more complex the task the more productive an S:2 is compared to an S:0 or S:1, trending towards infinity as the task moves beyond the cognitive ability of a modosophont or low transapient mind. As with its senses and attention, this number can increase if a lower than S:0/S:1 level of attention or intelligence is devoted to each task (usually due to the task being of lower complexity), or decrease if greater than S:0/S:1 capacity is employed.

Transapients operating in cybernetic substrates have no need to rest and almost no need to sleep (although they do have maintenance requirements of various sorts). What sleep requirements they do have are usually met by having small portions of their minds sleep on a rotation schedule that is designed for maximum effectiveness and efficiency. Biological transapients have a need for both rest and sleep, but usually compensate for this by using multiple bodies, which can rest individually or in small groups while the majority continue carrying out whatever task the transapient is engaged in. It is almost unheard of for a transapient to be entirely unconscious for any reason except as a side-effect of some deliberate attack.

In situations where an S:2's actions and/or sensory inputs are limited, such as during long space journeys, they may slow their perception of time, engage in deep and highly detailed calculations, or even create entire imaginary worlds of tremendous depth and detail. They may also adjust their minds to reduce, or nearly eliminate, their capacity for boredom or, in very rare circumstances enter a state similar to hibernation or estivation until they arrive at their destination.

Image from Steve Bowers
The Great Whale ISO is a Second Singularity transapient housed in a physical body about 400 metres long, usually fully submerged in the ocean of Pacifica

Body Structure

S:2 bodies come in a variety of forms and sizes, from swarms of synsects, to medium size spacecraft several kilometers in length. A commonly observed body plan incorporates (or consists of) a host of manipulators, nano-forges, utility foglets, and larger sub-units as well as anything up to hundreds of programs and sub-selves inhabiting the local nets. Bodies may be partly or completely reconfigured, split apart into smaller units, or merged together into larger ones as the controlling mind deems most appropriate for a given task, or simply on a whim or due to (often obscure to modosophonts) aesthetic reasons.

If the transapient determines that it needs more physical infrastructure than it currently possesses, it may use local materials to replicate additional body units or rapidly manufacture hosts of bots and vots to extend its capacities beyond the limits of its own awareness and attention. For tasks that require a degree of intelligence comparable or equal to its own, the S:2 may activate (or create) various transavant or transapient level AIs designed to obey its will, or even generate additional Copies of its own mind which may be absorbed back into itself when the task is completed.

It can often be difficult for a modosophont to determine where the body of a transapient ends and the surrounding techno-infrastructure (or even the local biosphere) begins.

Transapient Technologies

Second Singularity minds are able to easily produce (and usually improve upon) all forms of modosophont and First Singularity technology as well as being responsible for the invention of a number of advanced technologies, in particular the production and application of magnetic monopoles. Some of these have eventually been replicated (often at a lower level of capability or efficiency) by modosophont scientists and engineers and are deemed Ultratech. Others, classified as Transapientech, continue to remain beyond the ability and understanding of modosophonts and may always remain so.

Examples of Second Singularity Originated Ultratech:

Total matter-to-energy conversion power plants
Total matter-to-energy conversion drives
Creation of monopole doped high density materials
Dynamic magnetic ramscoops

In due course the S:2 transapients gifted limited monopole technology to S:1s and eventually to modosophonts. Modosophonts cannot replicate or reverse engineer the S:2 technology required to create monopoles from nothing but energy, but they can use monopoles to 'breed' additional monopoles in modest sized particle accelerators. Monopole tech became a widespread and everyday technology. However, neither baselines nor S:1 are ever able to match the level of production/quality/control achieved by S:2 in this area.

Examples of Second Singularity Originated Transapientech

Advanced weapons such as bosers and hellbores
Ultimate Chips
Advanced Bushbot designs able to replicate in less than an hour under optimal conditions.

Creation and stabilization of arbitrarily large quantum entangled states for an effectively unlimited amount of time.
Quantum computing and encryption systems of arbitrary size and complexity
Quantum teleportation of macroscale objects, including living bionts or machinery of equivalent dynamic complexity.
Creation of monopole composites - combining monopoles and conventional matter in complex and precisely controlled ways to produce unique materials with unique and useful properties (higher than normal density (but not degenerate matter levels), useful magnetic properties, etc.
'Solid' dyson shells and structures based on dynamic compression members

Plasma technology:
'Virtual power grids' able to instantly reconfigure as needed to accommodate changing power needs by generating additional circuits and connections on demand.
Intermixed power and data systems using internal plasma flows which lase regularly/at need for data transmission.
Multispectral optical cooling/molasses systems
Technology capable of operating in high-energy environments such as the photospheres of main sequence stars, black hole accretion disks, and the interiors of fusion and conversion reactors or drive systems. Applications include stellar based transmutation engines, more efficient Deep Well Industrial Zones, and fine tuned control and increased efficiency of both high energy reactors and propulsion systems.

Intertoposophic Relations

A small percentage of Second Singularity transapients (approx. 1%) play an important part in the running of modosophont civilization, usually supporting and backing planetary or system level polities, the largest mega-corporations and institutes, and the most important clades and Great Houses. However, the majority of high transapients have their own polities, cultures, and communities which have little or no contact with sub-singularity beings and in which modosophonts do not participate at all. Yet other transapients are reclusive, contemplative, or migratory. Many transapients operating beyond the boundaries of the Civilized Galaxy own sophont or subsapient beings, and the way they treat them varies widely according to the personality of the superintelligence, and the use to which the lower mind is put.

However, when interacting with higher toposophic intelligences, it is the S:2 that may become the advised, the employed, or even the owned, depending on the desires of the higher mind.

In those rare instances where there is conflict between entities of different Singularity Levels, it is the higher toposophic that will win in almost every case. Although, such victories may often be subtle, and it may take some time for a lower toposophic observer (or combatant) to realize that they have been beaten, or even manipulated into believing they have achieved a victory that actually furthers the goals of the higher toposophic in some (or even several) way(s).

Articles

GAIA - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
The Caretaker Goddess of Old Earth. She was the first and for many years the only known entity to breach the Second Toposophic Level, although She has progressed through additional toposophic levels since.
Harem Blight - Text by AI Vin
a second singularity, polysomatic, AI intellect which replicates through the use of a Love Goo.
House/Clade Hyperborg - Text by Glen Finney
Clade-based posthuman House.
Potentate - Text by Darren Ryding
[1] In Archaipeligo, a recently transcended S2 power.
[2] A low-level S2 power, ranking below a principality. Potentates are usually adept at basic transapientech.
Rise of the Archailects, The - Text by M. Alan Kazlev, Anders Sandberg, Todd Drashner and Steve Bowers
The history of the emergence of the Archailects, from the First Singularity to the emergence of new gods in the Outer Volumes Era.
Supralect - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A general term used for a Mind of second singularity or more (but beneath archailect). Titan is an equivalent term.
Toposophic Level and Brain Size - Text by Todd Drashner
Processing substrate parameters, from Modosophont level to the Third Singularity.
Toposophic Mindmaps - Text by Arik
One of the many ways that toposophic phase space can be represented is the Mindmap diagram.
Transapient Whales - Text by Darren Ryding and Steve Bowers
First and Second Singularity transcended Whales.