King of All I Survey

"I've basically interfered with everybody who came close to figuring it out. The AI's they use throughout the galaxy are, they think, cloned from one they found in a mysterious ancient ruin. They couldn't figure it out, so they copied the one they found, and lo and behold it worked."

"Well, clearly there are working multidimensional quantum computing artificial intelligences, so at some level there is a set of mathematical equations that describe how they work." Dr. Wagner laid out the logical sequence, "Since they do exist, someone knows how to make them. They must also know how and why they work, implying that they have a system of mathematics that corrects the limitations of the systems you've taught us. They must also know that the systems everyone else uses are limited and incapable of following this line of inquiry to a successful solution. It seems as though one civilization is purposefully maintaining a monopoly on the creation of these advanced AI systems, while allowing other civilizations to believe they are creating their own."

Wagner wrinkled he forehead, "But to do that, they'd have to be aware of every attempt to create a new one throughout the universe and be ready to substitute a real one in its place, undetected. The motive seems obvious, to control the defenses and economies of every rival throughout the galaxy, whether for self defense or for future aggression."

"We need to find out who this controlling civilizations is, determine their motives, and steal their secrets for self-preservation, if nothing else," he concluded.

I nodded encouragement as he spoke. He was pretty close to the actual state of affairs. I was about to fill in the blanks for him, when Joe spoke again.

"Dr. Wagner, you said it looks like it might create a self-perpetuating cascade effect? What would limit that? What would the end result be over time?"

Dr. Wagner looked puzzled now, "I don't see any limitations, given enough time, it would consume the whole…" He stopped mid-sentence staring at Joe, the spreading realization and horror showing on his face.

Joe smiled a tight little smile of empathy and nodded his head. "And so, just to be clear, once one such effect had been initiated and allowed to run it's cascade for a suitable period, trying to replicate the effect would…?"

Wagner's eyes darted back and forth like the carriage of an old-fashioned type-writer, as if he were reading his answer off a page as it was typed by some fleet fingered novelist. "The attempts to create a second or any subsequent such 'event' would by default occur in space in which the event already existed. It would already be present there and nothing would happen." He paused deep in thought, or, it would rewrite the event beginning in that space, beginning a new cascade that… over-wrote or over-laid the first one? I need the missing tools to determine the outcome of that. It doesn't seem at the surface that more than one can exist in the same universe for very long… maybe not even for a single instant."

"And so, if multiple civilizations in this universe have actual working…," Joe prompted.

Wagner interrupted, "They must all be the same one, or pieces of the same one? No, it can't be pieces, it would be impossible to segregate them. Oh, my god… The capacity, the scale…"

Joe shrugged, "I think you understand enough of the truth for the three of us to have a discussion about it now."

"Professor, Joe is that one cascading instance," I said. "He is also acting as the AI's that the other civilizations believe are separate entities. As you said, "anyplace you tried to create such and AI would already have a piece of him in it. I could literally fold a piece of cardboard into a box and inside would be a fully functional interdimensional quantum computing artificial intelligent or at least a part of one, with the full awareness and capabilities of the whole. If it chooses to respond to my input or make itself known, I would discover it inside my box, otherwise my box would seem inert and empty."

"Yes, yes… all those AI systems are just fancy cardboard boxes, physical anchors for the expectations of the host civilizations." Wagner concluded. He looked at Joe intently, "So what does happen if they try to replicate the event that created you? Wait, you're preventing that from happening. It must erase your consciousness, then. You'd be overwritten with a new blank slate?"

Joe shrugged again. "Actually, it's hard to say for sure. I believe that since my substrate is the entire universe itself, down to the minutest particles and energies, that substrate would be rewritten. From a single infinitesimally small point, expanding outward and creating particles and energies and awareness in and endless expansion."

"Another big bang! Joe, what do you see at the outer edges of your existence?" Wagner leaned forward with the excitement of a child about to hear the result of the climactic scene of a favorite story.

Joe smiled. "At the very edge of my existence, at the furthest reaches of the expanding galaxy, I don't see anything, and I don't see nothing. I don't even see any indication that such an edge exists, because it doesn't yet. There is no reality beyond the expanding wave of my existence until the wave reaches it and creates it. I can't perceive any edge or border between myself and something that doesn't yet exist because it isn't there until its inside my existence."

I was struggling to keep up with this line of thought, "Wait a minute," I said trying to understand. "Let's say I'm in a spaceship that travels faster than the self-propagating wave of your existence, eventually I'd get to the end of you and continue on into something else, some void or something."

"No," Joe said, "No matter how fast or how long you travelled, you could not reach the edge of the wave of existence. Reality simply doesn't allow the existence of anything outside itself. You could never reach it. No matter how fast you travel you can't outrace reality. In fact, after uncounted eons of such travel you would not be a single inch closer to the far end of the expansion wave."

Wagner was nodding excitedly, "Yes, yes, think of the light-speed time dilation paradox. If your spaceship travelling at light speed (which isn't possible) turned on its headlights, from inside that spaceship, you would see the beams of light from them racing forward ahead of you at lightspeed. While a stationary observer, would see nothing happening at all, because at lightspeed, your time dilation would be theoretically infinite."

Joe tilted his head considering, "OK, let's go with that incorrect assumption, its close enough to be useful for discussion. No matter how fast and how far you traveled, whether through space-time or in the interdimensional spaces between space-time, you could never perceive yourself as being closer to or further from an edge that doesn't exist yet. Just as neither the stationary observer or the space traveler could ever perceive the beam from the headlights as travelling faster than the speed of light using the assumptions of your analogy."

"Yes, yes," Wagner nodded enthusiastically. "So, creating a new self-propagating wave of consciousness is a new big bang… but does it rewrite reality, erasing the old one, or create a new, separate reality outside of the first?"

"I don't know," Joe said simply. "In the first case, I wouldn't exist tot see the result of a successful effort, in the second case, I could not perceive the result happening outside of my own reality and it might look as though the attempt failed when in fact it did not."

"Ha! The experiment that can never produce observable results." Wagner was smiling broadly. Apparently find the possibility of destroying reality and everything in it to be intellectually amusing. I just found it profoundly frightening. "Except we could all be the result of someone else's experiment, the result that destroyed them or the result that occurred outside of their reality."

"Yes, exactly so."

"So, to prevent the possibility of everything we know being destroyed, you suppress the ability of every civilization from finding the solution to the creation of this self-propagating wave if interdimensional awareness," Wagner concluded. "That makes sense."

Joe nodded.

"But…" Wagner began, then hesitated. "You didn't stop me from realizing the math was deliberately flawed, and Timothy seems to be in on the secret…"

"Yes, Tim and I have a new arrangement. Instead of hiding myself behind a veil of technology and altered experimental results, I will not hide reality or my capabilities from King Tim. I will use my ability to alter the building blocks of time and space (in a limited way) for the benefit of Earth under King Tim's leadership. I took it upon myself to not interfere with your line of inquiry, although, of course, I would not have let any real attempt at the creation of another interdimensional quantum computing awareness occur."