Singularity Soon

8. First contact

Genuinely new things almost never happened in real life, but something was happening now.

After accidentally guessing their existence, Rajiv had only interacted with the Optimizers through their website. It was like dealing with a stone idol that only printed riddles. In the first test, it had told him to tell it everything he knew in the fewest words.

Rajiv's reality turned out to be sufficiently flexible.

They gave nothing away, but the test questions became highly specific puzzles in hyper-detailed settings that were described in full, but nothing beyond (indescribably horrible things might be going on nearby). One puzzle involved an alien museum that only contained perceptions, most far too strange for human minds to describe.

What the Optimizers were doing seemed more serious than all of human history. The last time Rajiv was given such an impression of profound seriousness was during his school years. Back then, reality had felt super definite if mostly empty.

The first genuine miracle of his adventure had been a bottle of pills the Optimizers had mailed him. It might be called an antidrug. The pills made him "un-drunk", making him see reality more clearly. It was as if he had never been awake before; but they didn't make him more efficient.

He took two pills before each VR session. The Optimizers had also sent a VR helmet with a biofeedback bodysuit. Nothing too strange yet.

The next morning, he'd allowed himself to be inducted for his first VR test. While he was sliding and rotating through a 3D test pattern, the Optimizers' AI had described his current life situation at increasing precision, ending with a moment-by-moment narrative of his evolving mental state.

Soon, they had mapped out his top-level personality. It might be possible to make a partial Mind Backup that way.

Also, he had figured out the meaning of life then: his goal was to attain a stable "cozy" state that he knew would never end. Nothing could be clearer. The easiest way a finite mind might achieve such a goal was to copy itself into a closed time-like curve.

The Optimizers' VR technology was super advanced for the 2020s, but still not remotely realistic enough to fool an average human. It only became real retroactively. At the end of each session, he was made to describe his VR experiences in ways that amplified and enhanced his memories. Changing the past made the present seem blurrier.

Reminding himself again that they didn't really exist, Rajiv thought back to the VR simulation where he had first met the Multipliers. Every detail was clearly remembered but unreal, like something he'd made up in a story. He would go back soon enough.

He had simply materialized at their downtown center one block off the main strip. Their rented office building looked expensive but dated, 1990s postmodernism with glass walls and colored steel frames. The part facing the sidewalk was covered with OCR stickers. A banner read "Let's kill death".

The Optimizers had created the Multiplier simulation to study a group that was their exact opposite. Multipliers advertised the wonders of the Singularity like a religion, publicized their research freely, and cooperated with any group that would help. They were potentially very dangerous.

It had been busy when Rajiv entered, and no one noticed him. There was a fancy but unmanned reception desk. To one side was a room filled with rows of display kiosks, a blandly corporate yet respectable-looking setup. Some tourists were watching a video there.

Rajiv had entered the main room. There were two levels. A crowded pit was filled with cluttered workstations, like a mission control with what seemed like a thousand screens. Groups of technicians were processing data, typing and chatting about everything at once. The simulation rendered them as a diverse crowd of mostly progressive hipster nerds. One shockingly beautiful young woman was hunched over an oversized tablet.

There was a combined sound like techno music. A neon slogan glowed on the wall: "You came from nowhere".

The Multipliers had set up a regional network of contractors to build a molecular testing lab and a nano-factory, and they were planning a nanobot habitat. They would license their technology to anyone who asked. Now they were doing connectivity experiments. Multipliers encouraged maximum diversity in their research. The only hope to reach the Singularity in their lifetime was to accelerate technological progress. There was no other way to escape death in the time they had left.

Rajiv thought this simulation felt very dreamlike. In fact dreams were more realistic than this. In a way, he already realized the experience he was having was impossible.

An interviewer appeared and took Rajiv to a rooftop terrace. Even the most boring interactions felt like an adventure when they were new.

"We need new people to test our limits," the interviewer said. "Anyone can be connected, but you seem harder to integrate." Then he asked a series of strange questions over the traffic sounds. "Describe how you think you will die."

It went very fast, an effortless flow of stimulus/response. The test fed back results to generate deeper responses, as subtle as the shadow of a star blocking the light from a second star on the surface of a third star.

"You think it would be fun if the world were to end, but you would actually have extreme panic attacks with displays of hysteria." This might be a simulation, but there was a real mind behind it. "You let criticism pass through you like neutrinos. We can use that."

Rajiv was here because he happened to be the nearest candidate who was qualified for the job. THEY were here because their genius leader also happened to live nearby.

Why were the Multipliers being ignored by the simulated media? They were running a hundred unfinished projects at once, each dependent on the others. Statistically, they seemed to have little chance of success.

"Welcome aboard," The interviewer had said. "Check flaglandbase.com for your first scheduled shift."

At that point, Rajiv remembered asking a complicated technical question he didn't think he was capable of. In fact, he couldn't even remember the question.

"We're currently testing Mind Extension apps," the interviewer replied. "Individual MEs are integrated into the world's first FAM group (Forced Affinity Matrix). Your job will be to listen, record, and SIMPLIFY; forming connections between unrelated specialists by integrating different viewpoints. You're not technically creative enough to be dangerous, therefore you can safely test this technology."

On the way out, Rajiv realized the members of this organization might look and act like a group of casual cool friends, but they were actually hyper-organized. Perhaps the most organized group ever.

"Done already?" the receptionist asked as he left.

In the next simulation run, he had been posted at a workstation on the main floor. Almost completely ignored, he immediately felt like he belonged there.