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Waking in Weirdtopia
9 years ago
General
"Does aₘᵢₙ=2c²/Θ ? I don't know, but wouldn't it be fascinating if it were?"
(Based on the ideas seen in https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7492009/ , https://www.furaffinity.net/view/19715652/ , and https://www.furaffinity.net/view/19775309/ .)
"Hello? You're awake? Good. The bad news: Yes, you're in a hospital bed. Yes, you died. The good news: Yes, you were cryonically preserved, according to your wishes, and yes, you've been basically brought back from the dead. I'm afraid that further explanations are going to be a tad complicated."
The individual doing the speaking appears to be a rat's skeleton made out of blue metal, seated on its hind legs on a table to your left.
"Probably most important to you," it continues, "your mind and identity. And I've got some more bad news. Digital uploading. Nobody's bothered figuring out how to bring people preserved the way we were back to life, so it was either destructively scan your brain, or because of various external factors I'll get to in a bit, allow you to die permanently. The organization with responsibility for you at the time went for scanning. ... Oh, yes, I'm a revival, myself. ... I'll get to my body in a minute, when I talk about yours.
"Where was I... right. Well, more bad news is that your perfusion didn't go so well, and there was ischemic damage leading to a certain amount of unrecoverable loss of data. With the best algorithms, about six percent of your neurons had to be basically constructed from scratch. Some people think that's enough to make you a different person, and so not worth 'reviving'," it makes little air-quotes with its skeletal paws, "but I'm, um, call it the equivalent of being on the board of directors of the current successor organization, and I made the choice to bring you back anyway. If you feel I erred, you do have the option of suiciding, but I'd /really/ recommend waiting at least until I finish this spiel, and even better after you start learning about The Future. Okay, I'll admit that I don't want you to die at all, but I also don't want you to feel like you're trapped in some sort of dystopia. Anyway - six percent. You're the worst-off person we've revived yet, and we're hoping to pick up a few more details from you to help us with the next one. I can get you a booklet with all the details, but all you have to worry about is having lost some memories and skills - the algorithms are good enough at rebuilding minds that you don't have to worry about any sort of craziness you didn't start with.
"As for your body... well. The economics of The Future are as crazy as some of their other notions, but in twentieth-century terms, we're just about bankrupt. I was revived not too long ago, because the data indicated I had a more flexible body-image and could more easily adapt to this silly rat-skeleton-thing, which costs a lot less than your humanoid body. Now, people of this era have some oddball notions about bodily integrity and identity - they have to fill out forms just to get a piercing - but we manage to fall through some medical loopholes, having been dead at the time certain legislation was passed. So you're still legally you. If you want to buy yourself a new chassis, you'll have the option, either by saving up yourself or convincing sponsors to pay for you, but you'd legally become a new person, with a host of new issues to deal with, from having to wait another eighteen years before you can vote, to mandated educational minimums, to, and I can't believe this myself, sumptuary laws requiring you to wear diapers the first few years to indicate your status. That's all why I've been sticking with this cheap body I was stuck in. On the plus side, for the part of the economy that deals in dollars, there's something like a Basic Guaranteed Income, so you aren't going to have to worry about how to pay for the necessities.
"Now. There's a sort of secondary economy, based on reputation, computer algorithms, and ways to demonstrate trustworthiness. The rather small organization that's inherited the people cryopreserved in primitive ways has been relying on that secondary economy to cover its lack of cash inflow. And the numbers have been steadily declining. For... complicated math reasons, which I'll admit even I haven't gotten a good hold of, we have exactly enough resources to revive every mind we're entrusted with, but we can't really wait for better reconstruction algorithms or databases to be developed. But there's 'revived', and then there's 'revived' - giving everyone a chassis that can pass for human, like yours, is more expensive than we have the resources for. Some of us revivees are working our tails off, trying to put together enough cash to pay for upgraded chassises for everyone left, so they don't have to put up with doorknobs being a few body-lengths above their heads or other problems like that. And we're going to come across some further problems, as we bring back people whose brains were in worse conditions. You're a free person - you can walk out that door and never look back - but a good part of this secondary economy involves various kinds of mutual-assistance groups, and you could do worse than bootstrap your reputation numbers by helping us help the others. And, of course, we're willing to help you in other ways, too. And we've got a better idea than most about what sorts of things you need help adjusting to, like that most everyone seems to have given up almost every notion of what we consider 'privacy', and those of us who spend second-economy resources to get a few moments of it are considered a bit odd. Which reminds me, there'll be some flying reporter-robots waiting for you when you leave - you'll want some clothes before then, right?"
"Hello? You're awake? Good. The bad news: Yes, you're in a hospital bed. Yes, you died. The good news: Yes, you were cryonically preserved, according to your wishes, and yes, you've been basically brought back from the dead. I'm afraid that further explanations are going to be a tad complicated."
The individual doing the speaking appears to be a rat's skeleton made out of blue metal, seated on its hind legs on a table to your left.
"Probably most important to you," it continues, "your mind and identity. And I've got some more bad news. Digital uploading. Nobody's bothered figuring out how to bring people preserved the way we were back to life, so it was either destructively scan your brain, or because of various external factors I'll get to in a bit, allow you to die permanently. The organization with responsibility for you at the time went for scanning. ... Oh, yes, I'm a revival, myself. ... I'll get to my body in a minute, when I talk about yours.
"Where was I... right. Well, more bad news is that your perfusion didn't go so well, and there was ischemic damage leading to a certain amount of unrecoverable loss of data. With the best algorithms, about six percent of your neurons had to be basically constructed from scratch. Some people think that's enough to make you a different person, and so not worth 'reviving'," it makes little air-quotes with its skeletal paws, "but I'm, um, call it the equivalent of being on the board of directors of the current successor organization, and I made the choice to bring you back anyway. If you feel I erred, you do have the option of suiciding, but I'd /really/ recommend waiting at least until I finish this spiel, and even better after you start learning about The Future. Okay, I'll admit that I don't want you to die at all, but I also don't want you to feel like you're trapped in some sort of dystopia. Anyway - six percent. You're the worst-off person we've revived yet, and we're hoping to pick up a few more details from you to help us with the next one. I can get you a booklet with all the details, but all you have to worry about is having lost some memories and skills - the algorithms are good enough at rebuilding minds that you don't have to worry about any sort of craziness you didn't start with.
"As for your body... well. The economics of The Future are as crazy as some of their other notions, but in twentieth-century terms, we're just about bankrupt. I was revived not too long ago, because the data indicated I had a more flexible body-image and could more easily adapt to this silly rat-skeleton-thing, which costs a lot less than your humanoid body. Now, people of this era have some oddball notions about bodily integrity and identity - they have to fill out forms just to get a piercing - but we manage to fall through some medical loopholes, having been dead at the time certain legislation was passed. So you're still legally you. If you want to buy yourself a new chassis, you'll have the option, either by saving up yourself or convincing sponsors to pay for you, but you'd legally become a new person, with a host of new issues to deal with, from having to wait another eighteen years before you can vote, to mandated educational minimums, to, and I can't believe this myself, sumptuary laws requiring you to wear diapers the first few years to indicate your status. That's all why I've been sticking with this cheap body I was stuck in. On the plus side, for the part of the economy that deals in dollars, there's something like a Basic Guaranteed Income, so you aren't going to have to worry about how to pay for the necessities.
"Now. There's a sort of secondary economy, based on reputation, computer algorithms, and ways to demonstrate trustworthiness. The rather small organization that's inherited the people cryopreserved in primitive ways has been relying on that secondary economy to cover its lack of cash inflow. And the numbers have been steadily declining. For... complicated math reasons, which I'll admit even I haven't gotten a good hold of, we have exactly enough resources to revive every mind we're entrusted with, but we can't really wait for better reconstruction algorithms or databases to be developed. But there's 'revived', and then there's 'revived' - giving everyone a chassis that can pass for human, like yours, is more expensive than we have the resources for. Some of us revivees are working our tails off, trying to put together enough cash to pay for upgraded chassises for everyone left, so they don't have to put up with doorknobs being a few body-lengths above their heads or other problems like that. And we're going to come across some further problems, as we bring back people whose brains were in worse conditions. You're a free person - you can walk out that door and never look back - but a good part of this secondary economy involves various kinds of mutual-assistance groups, and you could do worse than bootstrap your reputation numbers by helping us help the others. And, of course, we're willing to help you in other ways, too. And we've got a better idea than most about what sorts of things you need help adjusting to, like that most everyone seems to have given up almost every notion of what we consider 'privacy', and those of us who spend second-economy resources to get a few moments of it are considered a bit odd. Which reminds me, there'll be some flying reporter-robots waiting for you when you leave - you'll want some clothes before then, right?"
i really don't care how much of me isn't the me i was. the me i was is always more interested in exploring new places and things, possibly even contributing creatively to them, which is basically all i have to contribute to anything.
you were saying something about a guaranteed minimum income, well that's fine with me. no reason everything couldn't be run by volunteers and hobbyists either.
body identity? i never considered my body anything to do with my identity. only the matter of biological polarity of reproductive activity. a circumstance i had been raised to respect, but not consider anything other then a circumstance, not an identity.
i'm all for being helpful on general principals, but i do prefer to spend most of my time alone, exploring, creating, or even asleep. i'd love to be one of those volunteer hobbyists i mentioned, creating, maintaining, operating, designing, building, alternative infrastructure. or even architecture, energy systems and shelter.
but if i don't have to be tied down, and there are places i can just live and make things, that's fine with me.
i don't like making commitments because its embarrassing when i fail to keep them, and i know i'm not infallible at doing so, and i also feel that making them even to some degree jinxes being able to keep them.
i really don't give a rat, no offense intended, about passing for human. i can't imagine why anyone would have thought i would have. standing on two legs, yes, dexterous hands to make things, even highly detailed tiny things, with, yes, and a big brain to figure out how to make the kinds of things i can image, yes, those three were and remain important to me. but that's where any desire on my part to resemble "human" begins and ends.
the concept of money could, i suppose, still be useful, but it wouldn't have to be necessary.
oh and by alternative infrastructure i meant mostly alternative transportation infrastructure.
if people like making things nice, instead of tearing up things that are, other then food and shelter, that's all the 'economy' there needs to be.