Wonderful post, Joseph! OK, plagiarism is sincere praise, and besides I can't resist... :-)
Street
You are standing on a city street at night. There are signs of activity
coming from the surrounding buildings and nearby avenues. In front of you
is a bar.
> who am i
You are a neophiliac transhumanist - for the moment. That might change.
> score
You have 0 points out of a possible Aleph Null. You better get started, the universe is not getting any younger.
> inventory
You are carrying:
a heavy backpack
reserve batteries
a bottle of nutrient supplements
a disk with your PGP key
You are wearing:
a cryonics bracelet
a wearable computer
a business suit
> examine backpack
The backpack is filled with texbooks on neurochemistry, game theory, philosophy, cosmology and the care of small arms. There are also the complete works of Eric Drexler, Hans Moravec and Marvin Minsky, as well as a thick bundle of printouts from the net. You are supposed to have read and understood them all.
> examine nutrient supplements
It is a small bottle containing big pills, marked "OmegaMax Nutrients - for brain, body, account and lifespan".
> eat supplements
You eat the pills. You suddenly feel much stronger, happier, more efficient and much younger. You now also have a slight radioactive aura.
> score
You have 1 points out of a possible Aleph Null. You better get started, the universe is not getting any younger.
> examine bar
Bars are required settings in a certain class of jokes. This bar is called, simply, "The Transhumanist". It is nestled between The Hackers' /pub and a shoe store. It looks like a nice place.
> enter bar
The Transhumanist
This is a fairly busy establishment with various groups of people talking
quietly, shouting, thinking, dashing about, tinkering, and occasionally
banging their heads against the walls. There are tables in the rear (to
the north) and numerous bookshelves throughout. The main bar is along the
east wall.
The bartender looks up as you enter. His prosthetic arm whines as he uses leftover martini toothpicks and olives to construct a tinkertoy buckyball.
There are exits to the north, south, and west. There are stairs leading up and down.
There is an existentialist here.
> examine buckyball
You are far from the bar, but your wearable runs a magnificiation routine. Your remembrance agent drags up a reference to a bartender with a robot arm in a B-grade sf movie, as well as a list of websites about fullerenes and toothpick sex.
> examine bookshelves
They are filled with texbooks on neurochemistry, game theory, philosophy, cosmology and the care of small arms. There are also the complete works of Eric Drexler, Hans Moravec and Marvin Minsky, as well a binders with printouts from the net. You are supposed to have read and understood them all.
> approach bar
At the Bar
There is a fantastic crystalline array of bottles behind the bar. Most of
them have labels with long names that you remember seeing in the
high-school biochemistry book that you carry in your backpack.
The bartender looks at you a little strangely. He asks: "What'll it be today?"
> say "the usual"
The bartender looks confused. "There is no usual here"
The bartender serves you an energy drink and debits digital cash from your wearable.
> inventory
You are carrying:
a heavy backpack
reserve batteries
a disk with your PGP key
a glass of extropical punch
You are wearing:
a cryonics bracelet
a wearable computer
a business suit
> examine punch
It is extropical punch, a drink containing lots of exotic fruits, nutrient supplements and some water. The main ingredient is caffeine.
The existentialist leaves.
> north
Tables
You are standing in the middle of a group of tables. Around you
several people are arguing about religion, neuroscience, oppression,
education, epistemology and how they fit together.
> join discussion
You can't, they are incomprehensible.
A postmodernist attempts to deconstruct transhumanism and is ejected.
> drink punch
You drink the extropical punch and suddenly feel much brighter and talkative.
> join discussion
You point out that the existence of complex systems and a physics of information suggests the existence of a generalized set of laws of thermodynamics symmetric in energy and entropy, and that this implies that a) God is only possible at absolute zero, b) that every man, woman and child have a right to think rationally and c) that the Singularity will occur on Wednesday. The others listen in stunned silence.
You feel slightly odd.
> systems check
Your wearable has 89% power.
You feel very odd.
> north
You can't go that way. Yet.
You suddenly keel over due to the drug interaction between the nutrient supplements and extropical punch.
Around you the transhumanists debate what to do. Someone suggests calling an ambulance, but another berates him for implying that government-sponsored medicine has any validity. Several people are accessing medline abstracts or telneting to university libraries to get a diagnose. Someone tries his experimental medical expert system on you; it claims you have a case of scurvy.
You feel your life ebbing away.
> show bracelet
The transhumanists are suddenly galvanized into action. "We have a suspension alert!" They carry you downstairs.
Basement Lab
A big lab filled with computers, chemistry equipment and cages with
mice, fruit flies and nematodes. On the east wall there is a big
diagram labelled "Critical path analysis for Omega Point v. 2.0". In
the middle of the room there is a cannister of liquid nitrogen.
There are stairs leading up.
Everything goes black as your heart gives out from all the caffine.
***You are dead.*** Your score is 2 out of a possible Aleph Null.
Ruined Lab
You stand in the ruins of a building. It must have been some kind of
lab, as there is piles of broken glassware and equipment on the
floor. There are several cryonic storage cannisters.
There are stairs leading up.
> who am i
Good question. It depends a bit on your definition of identity.
> examine cannisters
All cannisters except one is open; one of the open cannisters is still cold. The unopened cannister is marked Walt Disney.
> open cannister
It is empty.
> go up
Ruins
You stand in the ruins of an old city. Around you eerie dark buildings
look down on you, and the wind whistles through empty windows. To the
West a huge pyramid towers above the ruins.
There is a pile of books here.
> examine books
"Hypereconomy for Dummies", "The 10^7 Habits of Highly Effective Entities", "Nanotechnology: the Early Years", "Enlightenment on Steroids", "Environmental Hazards of Megascale Engineering" and many others.
> read books
You can't understand them.
> score
Your score is 6 out of a possible Aleph Null. What have you been doing?
> west
Fence
You stand at an electric fence at the foot of the pyramid. Inside is
what looks like a minefield. To the north, east and west there are
only ruins.
There is a sign here.
> examine pyramid
It is an immense pyramid made of a shiny opalescent material. It is at least a kilometre high and wide, and towers around the surrounding city. Enormous satelite dishes are placed in regular intervals on the facade. There is no obvious way in.
> examine sign
It is old and pitted, but you can read:
SINGULARITY RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Founded 1999
Lead.
Follow.
You suddenly feel very afraid.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y