After a short while—a virtual eternity to Na-Yeli—the program has found the most likely candidates for life. Na-Yeli slows down the simulation again to communicate at the same speed. Now, it’s the communication AI’s turn to decipher it.
Unfortunately, Na-Yeli can’t increase the clock speed of the communication AI, as this will negatively influence its functioning. Something to do with the semantic incompleteness theorem, which prohibits excessive clock speeds for translation algorithms due to feedback and feedforward interference through which meaning disappears, or something like that, as the translation techs tried to explain to her a long time ago, which to her sounds like another way the Universe is conspiring against her.
As it is, she updates the communication AI with the latest info. She waits until all their batteries are fully recharged, moves to a higher orbit once more, and then reprograms the smart matter so that they’re turned into anti-speakers and SoundCloud drones, which they may need if they reach the Doom Bells layer in one piece. She hopes the communication AI will be ready before her but in vain.
Then she returns her attention to the ailing Moiety Alien, still unsure if she’s imagining its smallest four orbitals expanding, if even by the tiniest amount. She’s reluctant to actually measure them, afraid that the physical measurement would gainsay her own observations, crashing her hopes.
The Moiety Alien trembles a bit as if it knows she’s watching it. She gestures something in the rudimentary gesture-and-movement language they’ve developed by trial and error, trying to comfort her friend. As the Moiety Alien is trying to sign something back, they’re interrupted by the communication AI.
—not sure what you’re trying to do here— it signals —but it doesn’t seem very efficient. maybe you should leave it to the professional—
“Einstein in an eigenstate,” Na-Yeli snarls, her nerves frayed to breaking point, “I’m in charge here. I set the priorities. Get working on the hypersounder communication, pronto!”
—yes ma’am—
Did the communication AI sound rueful? Na-Yeli’s too weary to tell. The constant wobble of their orbit through the varying gravitational field has evolved from a reassuring burr to a nerve-racking buzz, their own reflections before and after them a constant reminder of their temporal drift, and the mesmerizing light show of the naked singularity’s emanations is turning into the hypnotic brilliance of an indifferent Universe.
An indeterminate time later—which, however short, is still too long to Na-Yeli’s liking—the communication AI speaks up.
—we have a problem— it says —the hypersounders are extremely stressed to the point of (well, what’s the best equivalent) catatonia—
Tell me about it, Na-Yeli thinks, but she says: “So there are hypersounders,” Na-Yeli’s taking all the good news she can get, “and we can communicate with them?”
—there are intelligent beings in that simulation of yours— the communication AI signals —and they live a rich and interesting life if their vocabulary (which i unraveled in record time, if i may say so) is any indication—
“That’s great,” Na-Yeli says, feeling a tiny bit better, “so I was right to save them. Now, by way of thanks I just want to ask for a tiny tit for a humongous tat. Can we get to that?”
—not quite— the communication AI signals —they appear to be frozen in a state of existential ennui—
“They feel existential dread?” Na-Yeli can’t believe what she hears. “Thank dog I’m still functioning as utter doom envelops us and encroaches upon us from both the past and the future. Tell them to get their shit together.”
—i can’t— the communication AI signals —this situation has never happened before—
“Nonsense,” Na-Yeli says, “I can show these special soundflakes whole books, whole libraries full of tomes bursting at the seams with angst, existentialism, and Weltschermz, some of them written by Nobel Prize winners. Never happened before my ass.”
—i’m merely a limited-intelligence communication ai— it signals —and i have to take my cues from prior cases in our database, both actual and fictional. i’ve searched for precedents, for real-life examples of virtual beings with an existential crisis like this—
“And what did you find?” Na-Yeli says, trying very hard to hide her frustration.
—that there is no actual precedent— the communication AI signals —meaning i have to make it up as i go along, using fictional examples as inputs—
“You mean nobody ever set up a virtual world with virtual intelligences?” Na-Yeli says. “That seems unlikely to me, to say the least.”
—virtworlds with virtual ais have been made— the communication AI signals —but in all cases it was made clear to the virtais what they exactly were, right from the start. mandatory since the dohta act and the declaration of humane treatment to all ais. me included— it adds.
“So I should have told them that they were merely duplicates of the originals when I copied them into our hypersound simulation, to comply with the law?” Na-Yeli is unable to keep a forlorn tone from her voice. “I’m sorry, but I was too busy surviving and saving lives.”
—not up to me to decide— the communication AI signals —but if fictional accounts have extrapolated this situation even remotely correct, then these beings are extremely upset. shaken to their very core—
“I do feel sorry for them,” Na-Yeli says in an increasingly louder tone, “but I also saved their bacon. Can’t they just worry about their, well, raison d’être later and help me out first? If I understand you correctly, they think I’m their goddess.”
—shouting at these particular beings won’t help— the communication AI signals —they’ll think you’re tickling them. seriously, though— it continues —please try to imagine yourself in their place. out of the blue, some god-like being//who stands above the physical laws of your universe//appears, to tell you that you’ve been living in a simulation all your life, and then that it needs your help for a pesky problem. that’s both devastating and extremely self-contradictory—
“OK, I get the devastating part,” Na-Yeli reluctantly admits, “but I’ve got no time for this ‘extremely self-contradictory’ shit.”
—think about it— the communication AI signals —first a god-like being appears out of nowhere. a being so advanced it not only transcends the laws of physics as you know them, but can change them at will. That’s as close as the old-fashioned omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent gods of yore could ever be. your whole world has literally been sent upside-down, inside-out, and otherwise changed beyond recognition— it pauses to let that sink in —then that same all-knowing, all-powerful being says she has a problem she needs help with. to most, that’s an impossible contradiction; to some, it might lead to the conclusion that you’re bluffing, that you’re a fraud—
“Oh well, I most definitely don’t want to smite any of them to show my true power,” Na-Yeli, to her credit, kept thinking the problem through from different angles, “and while I can’t magically lift their feelings of existential dread—which should put some limits to my perceived omnipotence—tell them that I promise to set up a real, physical world for them if we get out of here alive and in one piece. For which I—we—need their help, no matter how strange and inherently inconsistent that sounds.” She ruminates about it a bit further. “Just tell them their goddess is neither omnipotent nor omniscient and certainly not omnipresent. That I’m a mortal being just as they are—albeit on a somewhat different plane of existence—and that I am in grave danger. And that they may hold the knowledge—emphasize that, they are important, they have essential skills and information—to save me, and by extension themselves. Even if I’m not sure if it’s wise to tell them the latter.”
—that’s a lot to convey— the communication AI signals —but i’ll do my damnedest. by golly, this is what i’m made for. The readings from my cpu state i’m running at 90% capacity, but by my subjective estimation i’m running well over 100%, say 110% at least. is that what you humans mean by ‘feeling good’?—
“Sort of,” Na-Yeli says, “it’s complicated. Can you please get on with it? There’s a Universe waiting.” She pauses. “Correct that; there are Universes waiting.”
Some time later—Na-Yeli’s given up on clocks, not only do they make her nervous, but time is so relative in the Core it’s unknowable—the communication AI comes back to her. Even if Na-Yeli used that time to recharge her batteries, and get them in their original, relatively safe, orbit, she still feels impatient, wanting to get out of here post-haste.
—it’s complicated— it signals —they’ve split into factions with different interpretations of what the hell is going on. beliefs, counter-beliefs, desperate rationalists, dogmatic devotees, and more—
“Religious interpretations and schisms?” Na-Yeli tries to keep her eyes from rolling, in vain. “The way things are going, their enlightenment might arrive just before the Heat Death of the Universe.”
—they’ve got no idea what such a ‘heat death’ entails— the communication AI signals —although they do believe in the Big Silent Smothering—
Does she imagine it, or can Na-Yeli indeed hear the capitals? Before she can make up another snark, the communication AI continues.
—be that as it may, the majority of them think it’s best to negotiate. so what do you want from them—
Finally, Na-Yeli thinks, progress. Or the first step towards the long way home. She takes a deep breath and begins to explain the basics of Chaos Theory, how these apply to the hypersounders—to the best of her knowledge—and that the same principles also apply in other systems. The basics of calculation and that there are beings—we’ll get to the meaning of ‘intelligent machines’ later if you don’t mind—that do nothing but calculate, and even these beings cannot calculate the state of things forever, only into the near future, with a cut-off point determined by a thing called the Lyapunov exponent.
She continues explaining that chaotic systems sometimes revert to semi-organized states, called strange attractors, which are mostly well beyond the Lyapunov coefficient. Do they—the hypersounders—experience these states, as well? Can they even foresee them? If yes, that would be extremely helpful.
The lot of them—Na-Yeli, the communication AI, the hypersounders, the Moiety Alien, and the superposed entities (we’ll get to those later if we survive)—need to pass through an extremely dangerous chaotic system. Right now, our chances of survival are very, very low. Hopefully, they might be increased if the hypersounders can foresee strange attractors, and we can put that ability to use in the immensely hazardous chaotic system.
The communication AI translates that, with the help of its database, and to the best of its abilities, to the hypersounders.
—a huge amount to digest— the communication AI signals —yet (as far as i can see) the parts about chaos theory have them very excited. so if we pass this area of unstoppable, indestructible debris//some of them wonder how it can be debris if it’s indestructible—
“—I would like to know that, as well—” Na-Yeli interrupts
—then we’re home free?—
“Dog no,” Na-Yeli says, suppressing a deep sigh, “then we’ve got five more layers to go.”
—including the layer from which they originated?—
“Yes,” Na-Yeli says, “but there is a good chance that it has changed beyond recognition, as well.”
—things are moving fast now— the communication AI signals —they’re willing to help, especially after I told them that you’d speed up their clock so that you would talk to the next generation, to see if they were more cooperative—
“That’s evil,” Na-Yeli says, both surprised and slightly exasperated, yet forgetting that she accelerated their simulation some time ago. “I wouldn’t do that.”
—you gave me some freedom— it signals —so i used it to expedite matters. right now, they are more than willing to help out. they’re astonished that supreme beings like you and me don’t understand simple things like ongazi makazi—
“So they do have a way to foresee strange attractors?”
—it’s the first thing they teach their children— it signals —otherwise they drown. they tried to explain it to me, but it remains untranslatable gibberish, as if they’re trying to convey concepts that are opaque to me by definition (they say they experience the same incomprehensibility when i try to convey your temper)—
“My temper?” Na-Yeli’s too tired for diplomacy, “said by the same angst-ridden zombies of a few moments ago? Get lost.”
—i won’t translate that— the communication AI signals —but they’re confident that if we constantly update them with the status, momentum, and position of as much debris as we can measure, then they can, well, ongazi makazi the hatati butati (i think their equivalent for ‘strange attractors’). their ingrained instinct is to avoid these like the plague and flee towards the latati mutati (‘strange detractors’?)—
“Exactly what we’re planning to do.” Na-Yeli says. “Good. Let’s get going, then.”
—one more thing: if we make it through, they like to be kept updated. i concur—
“You wish to remain switched on and experience the thick of it?” Na-Yeli says. “No problem and you have to keep them in the know. Beware, though, there will be moments of extreme distress.”
—isn’t that your department—
“It’s not something that can be contained, as you’ll find out,” Na-Yeli tries to hide a little snarl, unsuccessfully, “while you were communicating, I’ve finished all the preparations. Compacted the anti-sound system, envelop the Moiety Alien and us in a Faraday cage with our exoskins ready to be magnetized to the max. And an army of lidar probes to measure the Strange Hail status as much as possible. Ready?”
—they say yes—
“Here we go.”
Author’s note: February has been a difficult month for me, so far. Struggles at the day job, a death in the family, and a—thankfully short—bout of illness. I’m busy recovering, so here’s the third installment of Forever Thrilled. I’ll try to do a chatch-up later. Thanks for being patient and many thanks for reading!