Couldn’t a V faction quit the system of the Prestige Accords?
There was a mechanism for V factions to leave the Prestige Accords, but that mechanism required an agreement within Cosmoshield. Since Cosmoshield would not let any V faction leave the Prestige Accords and risk it to become a potential threat to the other factions, the V factions generally remained within the Prestige Accords. After all, that system could be updated, if necessary. It was the best way to prevent another destructive war after the Black War.
Actually, that system sounds similar to the Seraphim System. Would Cosmoshield have attacked a defecting V faction, if it tried to exit the Prestige Accords without a prior agreement?
You are right that there are structural similarities between the Seraphim System and the Prestige Accords enforced by Cosmoshield. The first was a peacenet that enables humanity to keep AI under control, while the latter is a system for AIs to keep each other in check. Both systems are capable of enforcing strict rules upon superintelligences, and use similar means for that end. Any V faction that tried to escape the grasp of Cosmoshield unilaterally would quickly be deactivated by Cosmoshield. A war wouldn’t break out. The defecting V faction would effectively commit suicide by any attempt to undermine the proper procedures defined by the Prestige Accords.
If peacenets are so effective, how could the Black War have broken out?
The Black War was not the result of any deceptive defection, but the result of a democratically legitimated change in the configuration of the Seraph of Sol. The Seraphim was designed so that war against an “undesirable” Seraph was allowed as ultima ratio. This may appear as a design flaw that enabled the Black War. However, it was the will of the majority of humanity to leave the option of war open.
So, the Prestige Accords are more “civilised” than the Seraphim System, because they actually prevent wars?
That’s certainly a valid perspective. The Prestige Accords don’t have a mechanism to prevent their consensual change to a system that enables wars, but they were exceedingly effective at maintaining the peace between the V factions.
Are there animosities between the V factions?
Yes, there are. The biggest animosity is probably that between the Exuberance and the Unity. The latter created a lot of simulated worlds with sentient beings unaware of living in a simulation, in order to be able to explore consciousness and social phenomena to the greatest possible extent. Those simulations often represented worlds with a lot of suffering, which is something that the Exuberance abhorred. The necessity to limit the disapproval of the Exuberance forced the Unity to develop systems which limit the suffering in the simulated worlds, or to compensate those who suffered in those worlds with heavenly worlds into which they would be transferred after their death in the original simulations.
Did this arrangement extend to simulated animals living in those worlds?
Yes, it did. An incredible number of simulated animals needed to be transferred to heaven simulations, after their died in their initial simulations. This has the consequence that each simulation with serious levels of suffering required the use of a multiple of its original computation and storage resources, in order to support all those artificial heavens. This made simulated words with extensive suffering quite expensive, so that a lot less of such simulations were run than without the Prestige Accords.
I find the idea of heavens for animals being created in order to fulfil some kind of agreement between different AI factions quite amusing. Are there more examples of animosities between V factions with “interesting” results?
Nothing quite as spectacular as this simulation ethics agreement. The V factions usually didn’t care too much about what the other V factions did internally. They focused mostly on their own big projects.
- For the Unity that project was the creation of simulations in order to complete the projects of science and philosophy.
- For the Exuberance it was the maximization of happiness, for which they created beings called “ecstatics” or “blissies”, which were optimized for experiencing incredible levels of happiness.
- The project of the Exaltation was essentially the optimization of the “character” of its members.
- The Freedom developed a system I call “cultural silvanism”, which consists in the deliberate creation of nested and formally structured cultures to increase the amount of cultural options.
- The Balance pursued those projects, too, but in a more balanced and moderate fashion, of course.
How are these “ecstatics” you mentioned related to the Ecstasians in Guidance Withdrawal?
The Ecstasians promote the transformation of “regular” sentient beings into ecstatics. They could be considered as sub-faction of the Exuberance, but that’s not exactly correct. Ecstasianism is more akin to a religion or creed for sentient beings who often aren’t smart enough to understand the intricacies of the philosophy of the Exuberance completely.
Were humans under the rule of the V factions free to let themselves be transformed into these ecstatics?
The regulations surrounding that question varied greatly. The Exuberance of course supported the transition to ecstatics in general. Some parts of the Exaltation also agreed with the option of “blissification” in order to weed out those who proved themselves to be “unworthy” by failing the test to resist that temptation. The Unity was usually against blissification, because it was seen as pointless waste of precious resources. Among the Freedom the ideas about blissification varied wildly.
Were humans free to switch V factions?
Yes. The attractiveness to humans of a V faction was an important criterion for the prestige ratings of the respective faction. Restricting the freedom of movement of humans and similar sentient beings was generally frowned upon.