Future Giga Society members, intelligent as they are, will unravel the enigma of time transmission and invent t-mail, a variant of e-mail that allows the sending of messages through time. In their infinite kindness they will send a web-based t-mail interface back in time for use on the Giga Society web site, so that visitors can send their comments or questions. If the future members consider a message worthy, they may display it with their possible reply on the future Giga Society web site. State-of-the-art early twenty-second century technology will make it possible to mirror the relevant page below.
These are the (in your time slice) most recent messages. For the other messages, see Archive 1 and Archive 2.
Chronological order is from bottom to top; replies by the good Dr. Whither.
Date: Sunday 31 March 2024
From: Joseph Hayes <joseph.j.hayes•20240331141720•outlook.com>
Subject: Rules
Which rules were violated by the asker of the message which originated from the t-mail address "Gareth Rees
The members are shocked at being asked to violate the privacy of a third person. Naturally, no message violating the rules would be on display on the present page. Meant are violations in a plethora of prior messages from the person, which were discarded because of violations known all too well to the person.
Date: Sunday 31 March 2024
From: Gareth Rees <g.rees•20240331043100•outlook.com>
Subject: Impostor
Alright, so there's this impostor in my time slice that's a current member of the coveted Giga Society (you might have heard of it!). I see his time running short, especially with the imminent Grail Society member.
Do the members have an opinion on the impostor or is filth to not be acknowledged?
The members are not aware of an impostor in the asker's time slice and stress that any assumptions in questions are always for the exclusive responsibility of the asker. In addition, the members point out that in case of a possible fraudulent enrolment, that person technically never was a member to begin with and will have been erased from the society's records upon discovery, which might explain the future members' ignorance regarding the person.
Also, the members kindly remind the asker of the rules, so clearly stated on the t-mail web interface, yet so repeatedly and brutally violated by the asker. In principle, all further messages from such an asker are discarded, the present answer being a rare and one-off exception.
Date: Wednesday 14 February 2024
From: Gareth Rees <g.rees•20240214060459•outlook.com>
Subject: Eth
Please explain the significance of the "Ð" character as displayed on the t-mail messages page, immediately after the header, "Received t-mail messages and replies".
Even the most insistent interrogation of the highest echelons of future members has not resulted in a satisfactory explanation of the aforementioned character's significance, other than an emphatic assurance that said character was never added intentionally by any members to the t-mail messages display page. That is, its significance and origin are unknown. Some members with a background in informatics suggest it may concern a prank by an early form of sentient artificial intelligence in your time slice.
Date: Saturday 11 November 2023
From: Joseph Hayes <joseph.j.hayes•20231111030600•outlook.com>
Subject: Artificial intelligence
By your time slice, have any computers or computer programs equaled or surpassed the intelligence level of intelligent humans?
In some of the future members' time slices some computers and programs have done so.
Date: Tuesday 7 November 2023
From: William Goldstein <kettuqezu•20231107124828•email1.io>
Subject: Twin universes with opposite arrows of time
Q1: Is there any validity to the concept that the universe is not made up of a single entity, but twin 'parallel' universes originating from the same Big Bang singularity, and having two arrows of time in opposite directions from the instant t=0?
Such theoretical concepts only have validity insofar and so long as they are consistent with observed reality. If no observations falsifying the concept are even thinkable, the concept is meaningless. The members kindly refer to the philosophy of Karl Popper.
Date: Tuesday 5 September 2023
From: Mehmet Uzungol <mehmet.uzungol•20230905205500•yandex.com>
Subject: Consciousness
Does human consciousness exist outside of the physical universe as we know it in our timeslice?
No, because consciousness requires a physical substrate.
Date: Wednesday 26 July 2023
From: Joseph Hayes <joseph.j.hayes•20230725234940•outlook.com>
Subject: Proportion
Of the t-mail messages you receive, approximately what proportion are responded to on your "Received t-mail messages and replies" web page?
Approximately 0.01041666
Date: Tuesday 6 June 2023
From: Konstantinos <wopfxgr•20230606232426•outlook.com>
Subject: Thoth date of Arrival!
Will Thoth qualify as a Grail Society member in 2023?
With horror, the future members remind asker that the groundbreaking social medium of t-mail is not meant for menial practices like fortune-telling.
Date: Tuesday 21 March 2023
From: Joseph Hayes <joseph.j.hayes•20230321003940•outlook.com>
Subject: Help
Someone sent me an e-mail asking me to help them fill out the t-mail form so that they can send you a question. Should I help them?
Regarding the previous admonishment against asking for personal advice, I trust that the question in this message can be excepted from that warning, as it pertains to a subject which is closely associated with you, and about which you would be the individuals best suited to provide guidance.
Absolutely not. The future members are not interested in questions from persons unable to follow the simple instructions on the t-mail form, so kindly provided by them.
Date: Monday 13 March 2023
From: Joseph Hayes <joseph.j.hayes•20230313003525•outlook.com>
Subject: Assumptions
How can one determine whether or not a question contains an assumption?
By reading the question. Unfortunately for some, one needs a certain minimum level of intelligence in order to recognize assumptions.
Date: Friday 15 July 2022
From: Joseph Hayes <joseph.j.hayes•20220715120145•outlook.com>
Subject: Copying
In my time slice, there is a person who owns and operates one or more organizations named "Giga Society" or a variant thereof, these organizations being unaffiliated with yours. This person asserts that "Giga" is a generic noun and thus cannot be patented, so that they or anybody else should be free to create their own "Giga Society". Do you consider this argument valid?
No. "Giga" may be generic but the issue concerns the word combination "Giga Society" in the context of high-I.Q. societies, which is specific enough to be considered intellectual property. There can only be one "Giga Society" within the scope of I.Q. societies. Were such an individual to call one's organization "Giga Association" or "Giga Foundation", to name but a few out of infinite possibilities, the name clash would be avoided. The use of "Giga Society", on the other hand, points to deliberate conflict-seeking.
Date: Monday 16 May 2022
From: Joseph Hayes <joseph.j.hayes•20220515191630•outlook.com>
Subject: Question of questions
What is a question which you would like to be asked?
Unfortunately, the questions that the future members would like to be asked concern matters that, in the asker's time slice, would lead to censorship, persecution, and prosecution even when mentioned superficially.
Date: Sunday 16 January 2022
From: Mehmet Uzungol <mehmet.uzungol•20220116230100•yandex.com>
Subject: Reasons
What are the main reasons for the members choosing to continue dissipating energy to exist, opposing the inclination of the universe to disintegrate them in harmony?
The members point out that the false assumption in the question makes it not-answerable. For proper treatment of assumptions in questions, the members refer to this frequently asked question as the members could not possible formulate it better than has been done there. In their infinite kindness, the members further inform the asker that the false assumption lies in the question's implication that continued existence be a choice; rather, the opposite — suicide — would require a choice.
Date: Monday 11 October 2021
From: Charles Peden <brightgood•20211011044300•usa.com>
Subject: Vaccine Hesitancy
What do the future members advise one to consider when deciding on whether to take a vaccine?
The future members are surprised to find such an easy-to-answer question in their redundant array of independent redundant arrays of independent disks in the Green Lodge. Naturally, one should only receive a vaccine if its benefits significantly outweigh its risks. That is, the vaccine should protect from a serious disease that one has a realistic chance of contracting, and the risk of serious damage from adverse effects of said vaccine should be significantly smaller than the risk of serious damage from the disease, wherein the latter risk should be understood as [probability of contracting the disease] times [probability of serious damage from the disease once contracted]. A typical mistake is to leave out the factor [probability of contracting the disease], resulting in an overestimation of the risk of serious damage from the disease.
And of course, one should consider that vaccination campaigns have historically been a vehicle of dictatorial regimes to control populations, as well as to conduct covert medical experiments. But one would not fall into that trap, would one? Special vigilance is required when authorities attempt to make vaccines with doubtful safety records mandatory; uproar, bloodshed, and civil war are a mere hair's breadth away at such times.
Date: Friday 1 October 2021
From: Charles Peden <brightgood•20211001152300•usa.com>
Subject: Improving Conscientiousness
I see "conscientiousness", as per Paul Cooijmans's description of "conscientiousness", as that from whence craftsmanship arises. Paul Cooijmans also suggests that associative horizon could possibly attack one’s conscientiousness component resulting in destruction of creativity. I see this as a type of pathological motivation switching--whereas one's life starts to become a collection of aborted projects, jobs, ideas, relationships, etc. What would you suggest for such a person (pathological motivation switcher) to help them stay on the road towards improved conscientiousness?
The future members desire to state with emphasis that the asker's interpretation of any description by a named "Paul Cooijmans" is exclusively for the asker's responsibility. Also the members see no relation between the first two and the last two sentences of the asker's message. The members will therefore focus on the question contained in the asker's last sentence:
The members do not see themselves as psychological advisers in personal matters. They do not feel called to pay the slightest attention to the myriad incoming requests of the variant, "My husband is always correcting me! How do I get him to quit that bad habit?" (For information, the correct response would be, "Do not. Be glad when you are corrected, because that is an opportunity for you to learn, to improve yourself. Correcting those around you is a good, not a bad habit.") Regarding pathological motivation switching, if one feels it to be a problem, the only recommendation the members can think of is to stop doing it and stay focussed on a project of one's choice for the long term.
In addition, the future members advise through me, Dr. Whither, that the use of standard quotation marks and apostrophes is preferred over so-called "pretty" ones as the latter cause extra work when processing an asker's message.
Date: Saturday 29 May 2021
From: Joseph Hayes <joseph.j.hayes•20210528201030•outlook.com>
Subject: Qualification
The Psychometitor writes in his article "Extended intelligence scale", about "Smartest specimens of biological life forms; cyborgs" (I.Q. 200) and "Artificial or partly artificial (cyborg) building-sized brains" (I.Q. 205):
"Life spans in the order of millennia; reproduction and heredity become less relevant, instead one extends the lives of individual creative minds, finally enabling them to mature. Only the best are chosen for this; as with wine, not all minds get better over time. Do you think you would qualify?"
Will I qualify?
The asker is kindly but urgently referred to the first sentence of the previous reply from the future members, who are once more shocked at the egoism betrayed by such a question. This is not fortune-telling! In addition, the asker is gently reminded of the friendly maxim three strikes and one is out
. Finally, it is pointed out that in order to qualify for a technology that lies in one's remote future, one will first have to survive until that future materializes, which is not altogether obvious given the drastic thinning out of the Earth's human populations that constitutes the asker's immediate prospect.
Date: Wednesday 19 May 2021
From: Joseph Hayes <joseph.j.hayes•20210519000700•outlook.com>
Subject: Psychological distress (continued)
I thank you future Giga Society members for your advice in response to my previous message, and I will adhere to that advice immediately and indefinitely.
However, cessation of test-taking cannot relieve psychological distress already caused by score reports received, in my time slice, previously. I have lost self-confidence in my ability to make judgments about, and discern patterns in, my perceptions of the external world due to multiple instances where I felt confident that I would earn approximately score X on an I.Q. test, but received a score Y far below X, evincing a severe discrepancy between reality and my perception. While my I.Q. test scores are minimally important to me by themselves, these discrepancies indicate cognitive malfunction such that other discrepancies may exist regarding matters important to me, possibly even judgments which I hitherto considered obvious and unassailable.
How can I cope with psychological distress resulting from this pervasive epistemological vacuum catastrophe?
The future members are shocked at the asker's egoism in requesting personal advice, while the unique and golden opportunity to send questions to the most intelligent individuals from a remote future should rather compel one to act in the interest of society or mankind at large. In their infinite kindness, however, said members inform the asker that it is normal that one's scores on a good intelligence test are lower than expected, that this is because one is blind to one's errors, which is also why one makes those errors, and that this is the working mechanism of any proper test of mental ability. And yes, similar discrepancies between judgement and reality exist outside the realm of testing too, which is why one should always be examining and re-examining one's insights, beliefs, and assumptions, and why one should regularly study the insights, beliefs, and assumptions of others that contradict one's own. If that causes distress, well, as the old folks say, c'est la vie.
Date: Sunday 16 May 2021
From: Joseph Hayes <joseph.j.hayes•20210516152345•outlook.com>
Subject: Psychological distress
How should one cope with psychological distress resulting from taking I.Q. tests, especially ones scored by I.Q. Tests for the High Range, and receiving much lower than expected scores on said tests?
The future members are unanimous in their conviction that one should stop taking meant tests forthwith if one experiences even the slightest distress upon receiving their reports.
Date: Sunday 16 May 2021
From: Joseph Hayes <joseph.j.hayes•20210515220425•outlook.com>
Subject: Minimum I.Q.
What is the minimum I.Q. required to compose a question which would, in terms of both (1) the precision of what it asks and (2) the clarity of its formulation, meet the standard or standards of communication to which you future Giga Society members hold yourselves?
If this vague question is meant to ask for the minimum Intelligence Quantifier needed to compose a question that the future members would be inclined to answer, then, observing the collection of questions published on the present forum, the answer appears to be "about 55". To prevent extremely stupid readers from misunderstanding this answer, the members add that only the merit of the questions is considered, never the Intelligence Quantifier of the askers (but such readers will not comprehend that addition either, it must be feared).
Date: Saturday 6 February 2021
From: Joseph Hayes <joseph.j.hayes•20210205170530•outlook.com>
Subject: CTMU
What do you future Giga Society members think of the "Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe" as espoused by Christopher Michael Langan?
To our regret, none of the members have ever heard of said model or espouser.
Date: Friday 5 February 2021
From: Joseph Hayes <joseph.j.hayes•20210204214945•outlook.com>
Subject: Photographic memory
Do any of you future Giga Society members possess "photographic memory"?
No.
Date: Monday 26 October 2020
From: Mehmet Uzungol <mehmet.uzungol•20201026212300•yandex.com>
Subject: Entropy
Are there regions in our universe where the second law of thermodynamics as we know it in our timeslice is invalidated or inverted?
The members say there are no such regions, but point out that said law is an artefact of human understanding, and as such is merely a shadow of the true state of the universe, which can only be understood on a higher level of nothingness.
Date: Friday 11 September 2020
From: Aon <kami•20201109123800•gmail.com>
Subject: Advice
Dear future Giga Society members,
Is there a way to stop the predicted process of "Human degeneration"?
Oh, absolutely!
Date: Monday 3 August 2020
From: Joshua Blackburn Dieffenbach <masterdieff•20200802223700•gmail.com>
Subject: What I most need to know
As computer programs have modeled, 2020 is proving to be a year of great change. One imagines this to be only the beginning. The U.S. really botched their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, a wise philosopher once said "crises precipitate change". Naturally, one hopes good will come from all this, somehow.
I have an annoyingly nebulous, open-ended question that may be hard to answer. The only restricting data are that I live in the United States (Upstate New York) and it is early August, 2020. The question is, "What is your best advice?" Whether recent and upcoming events factor in, I want to know the most salient suggestion(s) you can offer me.
After myriad aeons of deliberation, the members are unanimous on what constitutes their best advice: Never stand behind a horse.
Date: Saturday 11 April 2020
From: Bornar <may,meagainstyou.first139111endhand•20204111158•gmail.com>
Subject: Universe
I am sorry for the mistakes in my sentences.
Is the universe deterministic?
The future members are appalled that this question is repeated immediately after having been answered unequivocally, and will not consider further questions from this asker.
Date: Friday 10 April 2020
From: Bornar <may,meagainstyou.first139111endhand•202001042354•gmail.com>
Subject: Universe
Is the Universe Deterministic?
Aye. In addition, the future members express dismay as to the unneeded capitalization in the question.
Date: Thursday 9 April 2020
From: Bornar <may,meagainstyou.first139111endhand•202009042354•gmail.com>
Subject: After effects
Does the arrival of future messages in the past, affect the future?
No. In addition, the future members express dismay as to the presence of a misplaced comma in the question.
Date: Sunday 28 January 2018
From: Mehmet Uzungol <mehmet.uzungol•20180128235900•yandex.com>
Subject: Bitcoin
Is Bitcoin used in your timeslice?
The members unanimously assure the asker that Bitcoin is not used in any of the members' timeslices, unless as a historical example of how something with a deeply negative value was used in a pyramid scheme to rob good people and aid evil people to whitewash the fruits of their crimes.
Date: Tuesday 8 August 2017
From: Brendan Harris <amalgamiq•20170807154500•gmail.com>
Subject: Coping with cultural relativist nonsense
How is one best to deal with the always enlightening and pacific experience of forced contact with cultural relativists and terrorist group members?
To the thorough regret of the future Giga Society members, the answer to this question is deemed illegal in the asker's time slice and would result in prosecution of the publisher of the messages that are so kindly sent back in time by aforementioned members.
Date: Monday 22 May 2017
From: Joshua Blackburn Dieffenbach <masterdieff•2017052202430000•gmail.com>
Subject: Arising purer: step 1
How can one learn resistance to habituation?
By simply defying it, not giving in to it, say the future members. By doing — mimicking, copying — what conscientious people naturally do. Decide, exercise willpower, delay gratification, consume less of any enjoyable stimulus than one would want so that it stays enjoyable, only open a new bottle, packing, or casing when the already open one is finished, and so on. Failing at this betrays that one is not an aware being. Nevertheless, changing one's habits may succeed, and if external help is needed, behavioural therapy is what the members would have the most trust in.
Date: Tuesday 16 May 2017
From: Charles Peden <earthpet•20170516040100•charter.net>
Subject: Changing an Addiction
What advice would you give to help someone change an addiction?
The members recommend not so much to change the addiction but to end it altogether. Medical help will often be necessary as addiction concerns a serious psychiatric disorder. To prevent addiction, it may help to realize that addiction comprises two phenomena: (1) habituation (= needing ever more to obtain the same effect) and (2) withdrawal effects. If one simply never gives in to habituation and avoids really harmful indulgences altogether, one will not become addicted (wherein "really harmful" means that even the lowest practically possible dose is harmful). But then, those disposed for addiction possess not the conscientiousness that naturally provides resistance to habituation. Fortunately, resistance to habituation is a skill that can be learnt.
Date: Tuesday 25 April 2017
From: Joshua Blackburn Dieffenbach <masterdieff•20170425135500•gmail.com>
Subject: Reading order.
In what order are t-mail messages read?
As Whitney said: All at once.
Date: Saturday 8 April 2017
From: Charles Peden <earthpet•20170408124100•charter.net>
Subject: Ethics advice
What advice would you give to help one determine if something is not ethical?
The question contains a negation that could as well have been left out, say the members. Second, ethics is logic. Only those capable of logic — so, about half a percent of the population in the asker's time slice — can know from within or determine whether something is ethical. And mostly they do not require advice for that, since it comes natural to them. Furthermore, the future members believe that Kant's categorical imperative is a worthy guideline for deciding in ethical matters.
Date: Sunday 26 February 2017
From: Mehmet Uzungol <mehmet.uzungol•20170226033400•yandex.com>
Subject: Travelling method
What is the fastest method of travel from New York to Beijing in your time slice?
Walking.
Date: Monday 20 February 2017
From: Charles L. Peden <earthpet•20170220112500•charter.net>
Subject: Membership In A Collective
What is the most important collective of which one can be a member?
Again, easy as can be! Ethical, honest, intelligent people. The future Giga Society members can not think of a more important collective.
Date: Friday 3 February 2017
From: Joshua Blackburn Dieffenbach <masterdieff•20170203165500•gmail.com>
Subject: Golden Ratio
What is most profound about the golden ratio?
To attempt to clarify possible idiomatic confusion, the ratio mentioned is (a + b)/a such that it equals a/b.
Ah, finally an easy question! say the remotely future members. There is no thing profound about the golden ratio. The abundant claims of having found said ratio in works of art, architecture, nature and so on, rest largely on pareidolia. If one goes purposely looking for the ratio, one will "see" it almost everywhere, but the same is true for other ratios and patterns. The golden ratio is not really that special, and this becomes even more true if, as some do, one sets one's tolerance so high that rough approximations like 5/8, 3/5, or 2/3 are accepted as "golden ratio" too.
Date: Saturday 21 January 2017
From: Joshua Blackburn Dieffenbach <masterdieff•20170121014000•gmail.com>
Subject: Getting high.
Should recreational use of drugs be illegal?
Assuming that the asker refers to drugs that, when used recreationally, are potentially harmful to users and/or society, the future Giga Society members say that this matter depends on the composition of the population of the society in question. Concerns it a high-level population of intelligent, responsible, ethical, impulse-controlled individuals, the libertarian principles are valid and (use and production of and trade in) recreational drugs can be legal. These people are capable of deciding for themselves what is good and responsible behaviour. No laws or penalties are needed, no prisons, no security measures, no police force, no locks, no passwords, no encryption, no spam filters, no firewalls, because these people do not do wrong to others. They would not know how even if they wanted to.
On the other hand, concerns it a population containing at least a fair amount of lower-quality folks, deficient in ethics, morality, intelligence, impulse control, sense of good and bad, then the legalization of recreational harmful drugs will cause harm to many, as we also see with alcohol and tobacco. Some just lack the constraint and wisdom to handle the availability of such drugs in ways that do not harm themselves or others. And, the notion that legalization will solve at least the problems associated with the illegal production of and trade in drugs is mistaken too, as explained so brilliantly by the Psychometitor in The fallacies of "victimless crime" and "idiot tax". So, with this type of population, prohibition with strict enforcement is imperative to protect people from either themselves or from their weaker fellow citizens. Considering the tremendous harm done to people by these drugs, and to society through the exertion of perverted influence by those who made fortunes producing and trading in drugs either illegally or legally, the members are unanimously of opinion that the life-terminating punitive measure is warranted for any drugs-related crime. The members are also of opinion that striving to legalize recreational drugs in this type of society serves only political ends of a perverse nature, and is the opposite of helpful with regard to national health and wellbeing.
The asker may choose which of the two described situations applies in the asker's society.
Date: Sunday 8 January 2017
From: Charles Peden <earthpet•20170107222600•charter.net>
Subject: Advice On Increasing Instinct-Detachment
What advice would the future Giga Society members offer for those of us who wish to increase our instinct-detachment?
The members stress that detachment from ancient mammalian instincts is rooted in the individual's brain, which, in turn, is formed according to the blueprint constituted by the genome. Yes, other biological/physical factors during pregnancy and very early in life can disturb this process, resulting in damage to the brain, but the genetic influence far outmatches those factors. So, to increase instinct-detachment in a given adult individual, as the asker desires, one would need to travel back in time and alter the genome before brain formation starts; that is, early in the embryonic stage. Needless to say, the known paradoxes surrounding time travel complicate this otherwise so attractive procedure, which, even if successful, would result in a different individual than the existing one is.
Also superfluous to point out is that modifying the relevant genes in a living adult would be like changing the blueprint of an already built bridge. For clarity, that does not affect the actual bridge. The brain is the only organ that is not constantly rebuilding itself. New brain cells are formed, but those are additional cells rather than replacing dying ones. The brain houses such vital functions that constant renewal of its cells would be incompatible with the continuation of things like heartbeat, breathing, memory, and personality. That is, it would be incompatible with life. Therefore, physical intervention in the brain is required to increase the individual's instinct-detachment (other than by time travel); such is not only intricate and dangerous, but, even if technically possible, would alter the personality and thus yield a new individual. One would not be the same person.
Effective non-invasive methods to increase instinct-detachment are unknown to the future members. If one were bent on experimenting with such methods nevertheless, the members would suggest behaviour therapy to train the subject to react in the manner of an instinct-detached person, the idea being that the practised responses become reinforced while the ignored mammalian instincts weaken through disuse.
Date: Sunday 20 November 2016
From: Joshua Blackburn Dieffenbach <masterdieff•20161119193030•gmail.com>
Subject: My contribution to the gene pool
I have been diagnosed with several mental disorders, including ADHD, anxiety, depression, autism- formerly Asperger's syndrome- and schizophrenia. However, I also have an IQ somewhere around 110-115. I am wondering if there will be enough genetic screening available by 2035 that it would be harmless, if not beneficial, for the human race if I were to sire children. The question I have, then, is this: will there be enough screening measures by 2035 that I can procreate without contributing to dysgenic effects or should I simply not have biological children?
The members express dismay regarding the assumption in this question, to wit that genetic screening (in the context of procreation) could somehow prevent an individual's genetic disposition from being passed on to posterity when having children. But such screening only detects the disposition! It does not repair it! Therefore, no amount of screening measures could enable a person to procreate without possibly contributing to dysgenic effects. Unless, of course, the asker is speaking of genetic screening of the embryo, combined with abortion in case of undesired findings, or combined with repair at the genetic level (but the asker says nothing to suggest that the asker means that). Apart from the ethical considerations surrounding those procedures, the asker should realize that, with the array of disorders listed by asker, other complications exist:
For instance, it is known that some of these conditions, like Asperger and schizophrenia, are intrinsically linked to creativity and its high end, genius (which is not the same as to say that one needs to have the disorder in order to be creative or a genius). The gene variants underlying the conditions may also contribute to important traits like wide associative horizon, conscientiousness, or intelligence. So, preventing those variants from being expressed in the next generation may be like disposing of the bath water with the child still in it. Secondly, the only truly serious illness mentioned by asker, schizophrenia, has a large environmental component, its heredity being limited such that a child with one schizophrenic parent has a risk of less than 15 percent. That is not a risk that should necessarily keep one from procreating, and the mentioned disorders are no significant source of dysgenesis.
When it comes to dysgenic effects, the future members stress that the only group who urgently need to be curtailed concerning procreation is the one containing criminals, anti-socials, evildoers, and committers of violence against innocent. The members advise a 100 percent ban on offspring by any such individual.
Date: Tuesday 4 October 2016
From: Mehmet Uzungol <mehmet.uzungol•20161004004500•yandex.com>
Subject: World human population
What is the World human population in your time?
Wow! The future members congratulate the asker on this profound question. The world human population, in the members' era, is not what it used to be in the asker's time slice. Rather, said population is in a process of speciation, potentially even forming new genera. A wee minority, having had the opportunity and means to benefit from various technological and genetic enhancements, are effectively becoming cyborgs and/or approaching the limits of the human genus. While most of them could plausibly still breed with naturals, they prefer to avoid this, partly to retain their so laboriously acquired genetic superiority, partly because they expect to live for multiple centuries at least as individuals, so that all too diligent reproduction would inherently result in redundancy and overpopulation.
Then, the traditional major subspecies — Negroid, Caucasoid, Mongoloid — have virtually ceased to mix, quite contrary to the expectation of many in the asker's era, who believed there was so much miscegenation going on that humanity was or would become one single race. They could not have been more wrong; the three said groups have taken divergent paths and are now as good as separate species of the genus Homo. Instead of blending into a homogeneous mob, one has opted to maximize the racial differences. The attempted genocide of Caucasoids has been successfully stopped, and its neo-Marxist perpetrators — the promotors of race mixing and mass migration to the West — have been identified and eliminated to the last woman. The worldwide "never again" reaction that followed has contributed to the avoidance of large-scale migration and mixing, and therefore to the ongoing speciation.
The group of mixed-race people, once thought to be forever growing and eventually going to replace all others, has shrunk dramatically in the process of subspecial divergence and speciation, its members largely having been absorbed into either of the new species, the Negroid one, historically the best able to incorporate external influences, doing most of the absorbing. Smaller-sized groups like Indians and Aboriginals have gone the same way. The result is a peaceful new world, richer in human diversity than ever before, wherein war, terrorism, violence against innocent, intolerance of good, and crime are rare to non-existent. The old doctrines of globalism and multiculturalism have thus been thoroughly disproven, and their champions are regarded as, in the asker's time slice, one looked back upon the Nazi leaders. Actually, they are regarded worse.
Date: Sunday 14 August 2016
From: Joshua Blackburn Dieffenbach <masterdieff•201608132327•gmail.com>
Subject: RE:RE: I forget everything.
Thanks for the grammar lesson. I'm not in much contact with moderately or highly intelligent people; my intelligence atrophies as a result, for I haven't the personal fortitude to maintain my mind in isolation.
What I meant about "holographic thoughts": it was written in the method described for HEAVEN.COM that awareness is holographically spread across whatever substrate it uses. Not fully understanding what that means, I assumed individual thoughts were "holographic", whatever that means.
Revised question: is the content of one's lifetime of thoughts accessible after death?
Again, the members must correct an error, this time even a factual one: the method described in the good Dr Whence's report concerning the hypernetwork HEAVEN.COM mentions no such holographic spreading of awareness. The asker is truly delusional. Out of kindness, the members will still answer the question:
No, not after death, as after refers to a period that is strictly part of and bound to the asker's space-time continuum. Only a possible observer outside space-time could access events that are as shielded from observation as thoughts that are unspoken, unwritten, unread at time of occurrence naturally are. Notice that thoughts are nothing but events within the brain; patterns of neurons firing.
Date: Thursday 11 August 2016
From: Joshua Blackburn Dieffenbach <masterdieff•201608102242•gmail.com>
Subject: I forget everything.
Are my holographic thoughts accessible to anyone after my death? I'm certain I've had thoughts that were much greater than me. Such thoughts would take several lifetimes of work to accomplish or describe.
If not-- Oh! What a loss. The asker would be pleased to hear: the content of one's lifetime of thoughts could be somehow be accessed regardless of death.
It is assumed this technology would be of the very, very, very, far future.
Unfortunately, the asker neglects to clarify what the asker means by "holographic thoughts"; perhaps the asker means simply "the content of one's lifetime of thoughts", but that does not fit the proper meaning of "holographic", so to assume the asker means "the content of one's lifetime of thoughts" would insult the asker. Therefore the question can not be answered; what a loss indeed! as the future members are always eager and pleased to answer.
By way of consolation, the members are so kind as to correct a grammatical error in the question: "greater than me" must be "greater than I"; a subject form is needed, as one will understand the moment one realizes it is short for "than I am". After all, one does not say "than me am", does one?
Date: Thursday 26 May 2016
From: Joshua Blackburn Dieffenbach <masterdieff•201605260005•gmail.com>
Subject: Schizophrenia and smoking
Why do so many schizophrenics smoke tobacco?
According to the members, schizophrenics smoke because it makes them feel good, or less bad, as a result of the thus increased dopamine production. Schizophrenics crave this more than many others because of (1) the disturbed dopamine system that is part of their illness, and (2) the effect of their antipsychotic medication, which inhibits dopamine transmission. Regarding (2) it has been observed by members that schizophrenics who secretly stopped taking their pills suddenly found it easy and attractive to quit or reduce their smoking habit; upon recurrence of psychosis and resumption of neuroleptic treatment, the heavy smoking was taken up again.
Although the asker asks it not, the members further point out that smoking by schizophrenics is unfortunate, not only because of the regular evils of smoking, but also because nicotine counteracts the effect of antipsychotic medication, sometimes resulting in the need to raise the dose, which in turn increases the desire to smoke even more, and so on.
Date: Thursday 18 February 2016
From: Joshua Blackburn Dieffenbach <masterdieff•20160217195800•gmail.com>
Subject: Schizophrenia treatments, cures
Will there be any greatly significant advance in the treatment of schizophrenia in the time span from 2016 to 2055?
The future members would rather speak of gradual progress, concerning the condition's treatment. Its prevention via early genetic interference has more impressive results, the members allow me, Dr. Whither, to convey.
Date: Thursday 4 February 2016
From: Joshua Blackburn Dieffenbach <masterdieff•20160203181500•gmail.com>
Subject: Schizophrenia
Does anything, such as antipsychotic medication, have a protective effect on the lowering of IQ over time in schizophrenics?
Antipsychotic medication does on the whole protect against the decrease of I.Q. in psychotic disorders, and that effect is already included in the loss estimated by the members in said members' previous message. For better understanding, it is pointed out that neuroleptics themselves reduce I.Q. too in the long term, but that the effect on I.Q. of long-term psychosis or of recurring episodes of full-blown psychosis is much more detrimental, so that the medication protects against loss of I.Q. even despite itself causing such loss.
Naturally, anything that helps prevent the recurrence of psychosis will contribute to the protective effect, such as avoidance of distress and of recreational drugs.
Date: Friday 29 January 2016
From: Blackburn/Joshua Dieffenbach <masterdieff•2016012821400000•gmail.com>
Subject: Blah blah
It was recently found that over-pruning of the neurons, caused by a particular gene, is associated with schizophrenia. I wish the future Giga Society members to understand my dismay at having been diagnosed with schizophrenia, considering it is associated with both neuronal over-pruning and lower overall grey matter over time. That would, however, increase the ratio of white matter to gray, consistent with my Asperger's diagnosis.
Regardless, I wish to ask as well: How does neuronal pruning in humans relate to intelligence?
Neuronal pruning, say the future members, is a phenomenon inherent to the maturing, developing brain. It has no specific relation to intelligence. For clarity it is stressed that pruning concerns the removing of synapses, not necessarily of neurons as such; the latter occurs too but is, properly speaking, a different process.
However, what the asker likely desires to known is how over-pruning relates to intelligence; unfortunately, it relates to an accelerated decrease of it. In schizophrenic persons, this extra loss amounts on average to roughly half an I.Q. point per annum, next to the possible normal deterioration with age as sketched by the Psychometitor in I.Q. development with age modelled .