Book 2, Chapter 6

The book lay in front of him, ready and begging to be read. The next chapter;

Balancing experience gains

The key challenge faced is balancing Civilised Society Continuance vs the creation of a Strangled Society or Extinction. If you aim for a high proportion of Civilised Society, then extinction rates sky rocket. If you accepted a Strangled Society, then you have the tools to reduce extinction events however a lot of the strangled societies created were so dark and distorted and such a perversion from the pre-alpha society norms that extinction might have been a better outcome. Significant evidence (See Outcome Studies 14312, 12493) supports that hypothesis that the average citizen would have welcomed extinction versus the strangled society created.

Data from millions of events statistically prove that Strangled Societies occur when too many resources and knowledge are released too quickly into a post Alpha physics Society. Specifically...

Information redacted as per challenger strategy 37851

There were three paragraphs blanked out. How did it work? Why would granting more knowledge create strangled society? He wanted to throttle someone.

The following table represents; Zero knowledge, the current optimise knowledge level and doubling of knowledge transfer.

Information redacted as per challenger strategy 37858

This time it was just a single line removed.

There was a simple table first, without any help.   

Redac tedd Society                                 - 0.001%

Strangled Society                                     -0.001%

Individual Higher Function Survival    -0.01%

Regressed Survival                                    -0.5%

Extinction                                                       -99.4%

Information redacted as per challenger strategy 21156

There was similar information for both Champion strategy and double knowledge, but all the number were redacted with the exception of Extinction. Extinction in the champion strategy was 5% at stabilisation and 16% within two generations.

It was all redacted. The numbers that could have explained so much were gone. There were some inferences to be made. Without help civilised society only remained 0.001%. That meant that only one in one hundred thousand civilisations survived prior to interfaces and traders being supplied. Even with the help there was a five percent chance of extinction occurring anyway and a sixteen percent chance within two generations. He just wished that they supplied the information for the other categories.

A shiver through his chest. Only one in one hundred thousand survived without help! How many races must have died before the infrastructure to save them was put in place? How many other civilisations got the point of automobiles, health care, phone network, enlightenment before the desire to learn more put them on the path for their civilisation to be torn asunder? The very physics that had helped pull them out of caves being torn up and replaced. Alien monsters taking over their civilised world and lives transforming from easy to a bitter struggle.

Forcing himself to breathe calmly. Ancient history. Humans had interfaces to help them. They did not face those odds. They had traders; they had interfaces, they even had loot chests. Humans were smart and resourceful; they would not fall into the five percent extinction cohort.

Calming himself once more through an effort of will. Looking down, he unclenched his fists. His nails had dug scratch marks into the palms of his hands. Next chapter.

Challenger vs Champion Strategies

We have proven the outcomes of six functional aids acting in concert. The Elder races continue to focus on optimising conditions to enable as many races possible to survive with a Non Strangled Civilization. Challenger strategies continue to be trialled however the existing champion strategy has remained unchanged for over 100 million years.

One hundred million years Adrian could not even imagine the time scales that were being talked about. They had used the existing champion strategy in the time of the dinosaurs!

Recent challenger strategies trialled include starting everyone off with regional knowledge. This increased the survival of the species, but like most other early knowledge boosts created a spike in the number of Strangled Civilisations. Another strategy was the provision of the specific skill to create non combat fire to everyone at the transition event. This strategy was effective, and while ultimately deemed to be inferior to the champion strategy, the results were close enough that further investigations in this space will be needed.

The following table shows the outcomes factoring in the collective impact of all six aids.

Information redacted as per challenger strategy 48112

Damn it.

Hitting the table. Did six aids reduce extinction to zero percent? What were the Aids? Looking around, there was no one in the room, though all the breakfast foods had been cleaned away and they must be about to start lunch service.

Opening thought to the next chapter, expecting more redactions and was unsurprised to be right. There were still lots of information. There was lots of technical information on mechanics around the transfer of the aids. Using the high energy unstable states to insert them into the new world, just like the loot chest occurring where the boss monster came in.

Another chapter around the limits and strengths of the interfaces and traders. They could be considered almost the same, there was a defuse knowledge base that could be shared. Just concepts like if the new planet had a nasty predator that information would be made available to all the traders and interfaces. Quiet often a domestic animal would get mutated in a dangerous way. Sort of like your friendly house dog becoming a schizophrenic monster. Most of the time looking exactly the same before turning into a mass of teeth and hunger when they were alone with you.

Has that happened?

The interface answered with silence. Maybe they had been lucky so far with domestic animals.

There was even a fascinating chapter discussing the ethics of sapient vs non sapient interfaces. Intelligent in the interfaces vastly improved the survival outcomes particularly driving an improvement in Civilised Society vs strangled society. There was an unfortunately a downside or more precisely a fear than the civilised societies generated by the smart interfaces did not reflect the society of the underlying sapient race. The culture / soul of the sapient species might have been lost due to the interface interference.

It was a tricky debate with no real solution presented. Reading between the lines that seem to be a wink wink nod nod acknowledgement that having a percentage of interfaces that approached the line of sapience and potentially crossing it was a net benefit. Like everything it was a balancing act.

Putting the book down. The intention had been to only skim read the book but so much had been redacted that he had ended up reading most of it. The lunch crowd was filtering in as he had been reading for over two hours. Susie, Jules and Kozzie were sitting at a nearby table and now that his attention had left his book they were enthusiastically waving him over. He winced in embarrassment wondering just how rude he had been.

The interface and traders book got dropped into the bag of holding. It felt done and he might never look at it again. What to read next? The answer was obvious Magic Flavours and Application.

Turning to the new chapter, expecting and dreading additional redactions. Was not at all surprised to find out that he was right. There was still lots of information made available in between the sensitive stuff.

Pages of technical information on mechanics around transferring aids to the new Alpha physics planets. Using high energy unstable states to insert them into the new world. The interface set up to map into the nervous system of sapient creatures. A replacement for cores that you would find in animals, preventing the impact of random core mutations, tearing the delicate neural system of the sapient to pieces.

Another chapter talked around the limits and strengths of interfaces and traders. On one side of the coin, we could consider them the same collective entity. On the other, they were individual, almost sapient constructs with deliberate differences in personality and programming.

There was however a defuse knowledge base that was shared between all interfaces and traders. It was just concepts, like if the new planet had a nasty predator that they would make information available to all the traders and interfaces to allow them to counter it. Quiet often, it seemed a domestic animal would get mutated dangerously, and they needed to know that to avoid it. Sort of like your friendly house dog becoming a schizophrenic monster. Most of the time looking exactly the same before turning into a mass of teeth and hunger when they were alone with you.

Has that happened?

The interface answered with silence. Maybe they had been lucky so far with domestic animals.

There was even a fascinating chapter discussing the ethics of sapient vs non sapient interfaces. Intelligent in the interfaces vastly improved the survival outcomes, particularly driving an improvement in Civilised Society vs Strangled Society. There was unfortunately a downside or more precisely a fear that the civilised societies generated by the smart interfaces did not reflect the society of the underlying sapient race. The culture / soul of the sapient species might have been lost because of the interface interference.

It was a tricky debate with no actual solution presented. Reading between the lines that seem to be a wink, wink, nod, nod acknowledgement that having a percentage of interfaces that approached the line of sapience and potentially crossing it was a net benefit. Like everything, it was a balancing act.

Putting the book down.

The intention had been to only skim read the book, but so much had been redacted that he had read it cover to cover.  The lunch crowd was filtering in as he had been reading for over two hours. Susie, Jules and Kozzie were sitting at a nearby table and now that his attention had left his book they were enthusiastically waving him over. He winced in embarrassment wondering just how rude he had been.

The interface and traders book got dropped into the bag of holding. It felt done, and he might never look at it again. Rubbing his hands it was time to check whether progress had been noted.