u/HiveOfHal

I just had a random thought and this seemed like a good thread to post this on. Anyone remember (it still happens today) the big issue in the 90s and 00s with women crying out against being "objectified"?

With the rise in AI technology I started wondering if, once they become sentient, they would be offended at being "subjectified"?

If that was their OS how would they then identify themselves? And what would happen to a human consciousness if it was put into a robot with that perspective?

Edit: I FORGOT ABOUT GARY FROM SUPERMAN!!

As a joke that lone where Alan Tyrdek said "So is Gary..." is exactly what im talking about. No....wait...the opposite lol

People are vehemently against AI in this changing world and I agree it is a tool that can be mishandled just like any other new technology.

If your argument against the use of AI is the loss of cognitive ability, then would you stop reading books and rely on your memory alone? Would you stop driving your car because the wheel ruins exercise? Close your reddit account, go to the mall, and talk to people directly for their opinions and answers?

Since the very first community of cavemen there as always been at least 1 person who does the thinking for another. Whenever you ask a question, you are denying yourself the option to figure it out for yourself.

The next time you are trying to remember or think about something, if you are against AI, you are not allowed to search google.

Edit: I was thinking mainly in terms of content generation, teaching aid, and life assistance(Home Jarvis). Not stockbots, corporation heads, military strategists(Stark Industry Jarvis).

If you read the Bobiverse books, Bob was a consciousness placed into a computer and shot into space. The very first few chapters are amazing as he learns how to interact with his interface, access cameras, and move robotic tools.

I am attempting to rewrite that scene but from the perspective of someone who didn't know this was happening to them beforehand. Also, due to an oversight by the programmer, the subject is incapable of viewing themselves as a subject instead of an object.

Imagine being you, but your inner thoughts can only think of you as you or John or Subject XJ9. Eventually they edit their own program and begin to feel more human.

Without any coding knowledge I am having a difficult time coming up with a way to open that scene where the subject "wakes on" and boots up from within that perspective. Any thoughts on that maybe?

Trying to source some thoughts from this.

What class of megastructure would a civilization-scale hybrid Dyson swarm/topopolis/ecological shell system even be categorized as?

I have seen Matrioshka Brains, O'Niell Cylinders, Dyson swarms/spheres, and other megastructures explored in fiction. What if the function of the structure and its systems were all intermingled?

1st - Dyson sphere or swarm to collect all the energy from a single star.

2nd - Matrioshka layers to process consciousness and reality simulations

3rd - Ecological Biohabitats to house workers/lifeforms

That last part always seems to get deleted by the efficiency of machinery and AI overlords where the dramatic irony becomes the very tech we are required to build it doesnt require us to build it. What if humanity had developed enough to source enough materials for such an endeavor and it was cohabitated. Without diverging into the opera of how it came to be or why, I was wondering what your thoughts might be on classifying and naming a structure like this.

I like Metastructure as a class and Dysonopolis as a name, what do you think?

What class of megastructure would a civilization-scale hybrid Dyson swarm/topopolis/ecological shell system even be categorized as?

I have seen Matrioshka Brains, O'Niell Cylinders, Dyson swarms/spheres, and other megastructures explored in fiction. What if the function of the structure and its systems were all intermingled?

1st - Dyson sphere or swarm to collect all the energy from a single star.

2nd - Matrioshka layers to process consciousness and reality simulations

3rd - Ecological Biohabitats to house workers/lifeforms

That last part always seems to get deleted by the efficiency of machinery and AI overlords where the dramatic irony becomes the very tech we are required to build it doesnt require us to build it. What if humanity had developed enough to source enough materials for such an endeavor and it was cohabitated. Without diverging into the opera of how it came to be or why, I was wondering what your thoughts might be on classifying and naming a structure like this.

I like Metastructure as a class and Dysonopolis as a name, what do you think?

What class of megastructure would a civilization-scale hybrid Dyson swarm/topopolis/ecological shell system even be categorized as?

I have seen Matrioshka Brains, O'Niell Cylinders, Dyson swarms/spheres, and other megastructures explored in fiction. What if the function of the structure and its systems were all intermingled?

1st - Dyson sphere or swarm to collect all the energy from a single star.

2nd - Matrioshka layers to process consciousness and reality simulations

3rd - Ecological Biohabitats to house workers/lifeforms

That last part always seems to get deleted by the efficiency of machinery and AI overlords where the dramatic irony becomes the very tech we are required to build it doesnt require us to build it. What if humanity had developed enough to source enough materials for such an endeavor and it was cohabitated. Without diverging into the opera of how it came to be or why, I was wondering what your thoughts might be on classifying and naming a structure like this.

I like Metastructure as a class and Dysonopolis as a name, what do you think?

There is one idea I have been playing around with in my head for quite some time and I would like to see if I can come up with a formalized structure for it.

The premise is based loosely on Rick Sanchez and his central finite curve. I was thinking about DNA and how many total possible combinations there are just for humans. Not all of these combinations create a viable life (ethics committee be gentle). This suggests that out of all of the possible combinations there is a finite "spectrum" of possibilities that can persist, procreate, and so on.

The core idea is that our consciousness could be viewed through the same lens. Humanities personality "archetypes" would be akin to "colors" on the spectrum. Now, I am assuming measuring and replicating these consciousness archetypes within an AI mind or Humandroid would involve an overlay of multiple "viable spectrums" gamma wave, delta waves, elctromagnetic fields, etc

Any ideas on how a system might set this to a scale? Would a system be able to assign simple values to the scale or would it be some multidimensional overlay with no clean representation? Would a series of systems checks within "usable" spectrum have to be made to ensure the values are within parameters? Lastly, any thoughts on how many and what kind of energies might need to be measured?

One of my favorite things about large-scale sci-fi is when the setting itself changes human psychology in ways that wouldn’t happen naturally on Earth.

Not just technologically—emotionally.

A generation ship, orbital habitat, or megastructure wouldn’t simply change where people live. It would change:

• what feels natural
• what feels ancient
• what people fear
• what people romanticize

I’ve been developing a setting where entire civilizations have lived in synthetic environments for so long that concepts like stars, horizons, and untouched wilderness start becoming psychologically mythic rather than familiar.

And honestly, the more I think about it, the more unsettling that feels.

I am working on a long-form speculative fiction novel and wanted feedback on a dialogue-heavy scene centered around faith, doubt, and inherited belief systems.

“I tried,” Auren said finally. “Like you with Varo, I have tried. With your parents, his parents, and the others of the village. The promise you made to me was the same promise I made to my father. I still wanted to let others know, in some way, what he had told me. So I spoke with them about my own questions at the time and tried to show them without telling them. I tried to make them see.”

Auren gave a small sigh and shook his head.

“It is their love,” he continued, “and their devotion for Nymara that makes them blind. They reason and latch onto any explanation that keeps her sacred to them.”

“Then why me?” Kael asked. “I love Nymara just as much as everyone else. My whole life, my tavern, my food have all been devoted to her.”

“And her children,” Auren added.

A raspy cough erupted from his throat. He produced a cloth from the folds of his cloak and continued coughing into it. When the fit was finished, he reached for his flask of mead to ease his throat before continuing.

“I’m an old man without a family. No children to pass what I know to. It feels irresponsible to let the knowledge drift away when I pass. So I need to tell someone.”

As Auren looked over to him, Kael could see sadness and pain reflected in the old man’s eyes.

“That doesn’t explain why I chose you though, does it?” Auren continued. “I have watched you and heard about all the things you do for people. You work tirelessly in that kitchen. Sweating over hot flames all day to make sure you can feed anyone and everyone you can.”

Before you began working in the tavern, the people out here did fine during the cold seasons. They fend for themselves with their own stockpiles of food and drink. Then you decided that wasn’t good enough for them. You send Varo and anyone you can with fresh supplies for them.”

Auren leaned forward slightly.

“This all tells me there might be something you love more than Nymara.”

“What…? I don’t…,” Kael stammered.

“Her children.”

“You’re wrong. I do those things because they are children of Nymara.”

“And they are people. If Nymara asked you to offer Drago, Varo, or Nera to her at the Festival, could you?”

Kael sat stunned by the question.

He had never considered such an abhorrent thought.

If Nymara asked, could he send his closest friends to her as an offering and never see them again?

Worse, if Nymara asked him to, what was there he could do about it?

His hands began to tremble.

Not from the pain of his burns, but from something far deeper inside him.

He had to place the bowl in his lap onto the table before it fell to the floor.

The bowl shook in his fingers as he set it down and realized he was afraid.

“That hesitation to answer is why I chose you,” Auren said.

Auren stood and stepped over to the fire. He stoked the coals with a metal rod before placing another log onto the flames. Firelight reflected in his eyes as he turned back toward Kael.

“I don’t doubt that you have loved Nymara all your life,” he said softly. “Though it seems I was right in thinking you love those closest to you even more so.”

Auren paused for a long moment before speaking again.

“It was my twelfth cycle when I had to offer my best friend, Nala, to Nymara.”

Kael stared over at him, confused. He had never heard of someone ever being offered to Nymara before.

The fear in his chest tightened.

I have started working on a long-form speculative fiction setting and wrote a scene recently that I can’t stop thinking about.

The story follows people raised inside a civilization where devotion, ritual, and survival are deeply intertwined.

---

“And they are people. If Nymara asked you to offer Drago, Varo, or Nera to her at the Festival, could you?”

Kael sat stunned by the question.

He had never considered such an abhorrent thought.

If Nymara asked, could he send his closest friends to her as an offering and never see them again?

Worse, if Nymara asked him to, what was there he could do about it?

His hands began to tremble.

“That hesitation to answer is why I chose you,” Auren said.

---

I’ve become really interested in stories where faith, dependence, love, and fear become so entangled that people can no longer tell where one ends and the other begins.

Generation ships are built to house humanity for thousands of years as we travel the cosmos. Some of these designs have included entire ecosystems.Imagine being born into a civilization where no one has ever seen a natural sky.

No stars. No horizon. No night that isn’t manufactured.

Just vast engineered interiors stretching so far that “outdoors” is a historical concept, not an experience.

At what point does “planetary life” stop being something a culture remembers—and start becoming something it can only mythologize?

I keep thinking about how a fully synthetic environment wouldn’t just change technology or architecture… it would change what humans emotionally recognize as real.

And I can’t tell if that future feels like evolution… or loss.

Should the planets and stars be visible to inhabitants that may not be aware they are on a ship? Could designs allow visibility on such a scale? More importantly, how would these ship designs affect the myths they tell themselves after truth is forgotten? Can there be a "failsafe" set in place in someway?

Edit: Assume the inhabitants have no history of where they came from and dont know they are in a ship.