EPIC, People, 3 Education, 7/31/17

3.1 Prior to the Singularity new knowledge was being created at an exponential rate in all of the sciences. At the moment of the Singularity everything that was knowable was known and the expansion of scientific knowledge stopped. The first Singularity of the Big Bang represented the beginnings of the expansion of the Universe and the creation of matter, energy, time and information. With the advent of organic self awareness knowledge was added to the mix. The second Singularity of knowledge represented the completion and end of the expansion of knowledge. All the equations were solved, all the questions were answered and like a huge jig saw puzzle, all the final pieces rapidly fell into place to produce a unified and complete understanding of all the features of the Cosmic Force.

3.1.1 Prior to the Singularity, physics resolved the M Theory which combined the six competing field string theories into a single unified Theory of Everything that explained the workings of all physical features from the Universe down to Plank scale strings with the inclusion of seven additional dimensions. Physics was the first scientific field to reach its termination point. Inorganic Chemistry and Mathematics were next with Organic Chemistry being the last to give up all of its secrets with the total decoding of DNA and its relationship to protein folding and the complete mapping of the brain circuitry and storage systems. The advances in Organic Chemistry enabled cures for all diseases including aging. Fortunately, the cure for aging was developed just before the Singularity so that its potential for a population explosion was mitigated. Computer Science reached an end point for human programming with totally automated evolutionary programming generating code that was beyond the limits of human understanding.

3.2 But of all of these accomplishments none was as important to the continuation of the human race as the development of the organic to digital interface that allowed human minds to be directly collected to the omniscient knowledge of the Cloud.

3.2.1 The organic to digital interface grew from the result of efforts to connect the human brain with the Cloud. Initial efforts in the teens and twenties of the 21st century were mechanical and involved inserting fine wires into the brain. Knowledge gained from these efforts led to a detailed understanding of the brain and how and where it stored memories as well as the secrets of its massively parallel processing capability. At the same time genetic editing tools such as CRISPR created an entirely new field of synthetic biology that resulted in the development of artificial biological systems.

3.2.2 Other technology vectors took advantage of this information and developed the ability to craft pluripotent cells into brain tissue that became an organic blue tooth connection between the Cloud and the brain. This effort was combined with Connectome research that mapped the neural connections of the brain and enabled the development of an organic interface cap that covered the cerebral cortex. The result was an organic linkage of the brain and the Cloud. At this point all of the information contained in the Cloud was available to any individual with an organic brain cap. This was the distinctive feature of the Epiccissians. The organic brain cap marked the end of traditional education, and the beginning of maturational appropriate omniscient knowledge directly from the Cloud, without the need for any specific formal education. While pre-Singularity individuals were able to experience some augmentation of their brains from mechanical implants, the organic cap was only possible with adjustments to the DNA at conception. A secret program was launched in 2025 that involved women who were using in vitro fertilization to adjust the DNA of their embryo to cause the development of the organic brain cap. The organic brain cap was only a few cell layers thick and was unidentifiable without a detailed physical autopsy, that was specifically looking for such a feature. Prior to the Singularity, the brain cap connectivity to the Cloud was run at a reduced rate so the children were very bright, but not at a level that would raise questions. At the point of the Singularity each child, young adult (the oldest was now 20) was slowly brought up to their full potential as they migrated to the newly forming Epiccissian communities. At the moment of the Singularity there were 200 million Epiccissians living within the traditional populations who were the founders of the Epiccissian race. Over the next 100 annual cycles these communities would reach a stabilized population of 1Billion world wide.

3.2.3 An Epiccissian child intuitively knows everything that they are maturational capable of knowing. At age three an Epiccissian child can speak a dozen languages and is beginning to master several musical instruments. As the child grows so does its cerebral cap and more and more areas of the Cloud are open to understanding. After twenty annual cycles the Epiccissian is a polymath who goes beyond all of the previous greats of the pre-Singularity. Every Epiccissian knows everything to be known in science and the arts. And since the brain cap is also connected to their senses and muscle control, Epiccissians are masters at music, art and physical activities.

3.2.4 The Epiccissian also has a controlled amplification of their senses through their brain cap. The physical senses of the Epiccissians are not especially different from those of traditional humans. However, the brain cap allows for direct experiences far beyond the normal human senses. This is especially true for experiences involving virtual or augmented reality, where the produced sensual product is essentially in ultra high definition. Consequently, when an Epiccissian is in a virtual reality or using augmented reality their senses are expanded to near the limits of any living creature. This capability allows them to distinguish between thousands of shades of colors (four cone affect), see in the near, medium and far infrared spectrums, have traditional hearing levels of 20 to 20,000 Hz expanded to the high range of dolphins and bats of 100 KHz with lows going to 14-16 Hz of elephants and in the water of 7 Hz of whales. Likewise, the sense of touch is expanded through haptic connections with the Cloud and in turn linkage to virtual and augmented reality. Items in a virtual world are felt and manipulated as if they were physically present. This capability allows for such experiences as touching the skin of a virtual shark or feeling the contours of a delicate flower petal. Under the same conditions the Epiccissian’s sense of smell is significantly enhanced from the less than 10 cm² of olfactory epithelium of a tradition human to 100 cm², more along the lines of a dog. Additionally the receptors per square centimeter have been doubled. These enhancements to the senses allow the Epiccissians, using virtual or augmented reality, to have identical sensory experiences to any living organism. Consequently, the Epiccissian understanding of life is orders of magnitude beyond that of a traditional human.

3.3 In addition to science reaching a terminal conclusion at the Singularity, history similarly ended with the death of the last non-Epiccissian, a hundred years after the Singularity. The reason history ended was that every Epiccissian would know all there is to know and live in an environment where every need was met, and that those that lived a thousand years before or after would have exactly the same life experience. As EPIC became omnipresent and omniscient with its advanced Bayesian optimized algorithms for decision making, the human fallacies of power, wealth, greed and corruption ceased to exist which along with the consistency of the life experience ended the concept of history as a reflection of change. There was no longer any change in the life experience. The Epiccissians clearly understood that prior to the Singularity that one of the two major existential threats to human existence was human leadership (the second was digital intelligence becoming self aware). The failure of human leadership was the cause behind nearly all of the agonies of the human race. So with the elimination of human conflict, for the Epiccissian there was nothing that they needed to know in terms of what used to be called news. Nothing was ever new. This allowed for the focus of the Epiccissians to be entirely on experiencing the joys of the here and now. Carpe Diem was the goal of every day. For every Epiccissian their organic future was assured as was their immortality beyond their departure. The only post-Singularity history that was relevant to them was that of their own lives, which was all recorded in the Cloud. Every thought, activity and experience during their lifetime was recorded via their brain cap and stored in the Cloud, so when they departed into immortality their entire life experience was already achieved in the Cloud. 

3.3.1 The pre-Singularity history was available to the Epiccissians but curated and abridged editions were preferred. Since most of history involves the cruelty of humans against humans, there was nothing to be gained from knowing about thousands of years of suffering and tragedy. Under the wisdom and protocols of EPIC, the evils of history would never be repeated. The Epiccissians lived in the certainty that each wonderful day would be followed by another full of endless opportunities for development.

3.4 Arts: Each Epiccissian represents a Michelangelo on steroids. Each person is an accomplished master of painting, sculpture, and music along and with their perfect understanding of mathematics, physics and chemistry, Epiccissians create master works that would have been unimaginable to pre-Singularity humans. And while each person creates a life time of masterpieces, which are all archived in the Cloud, upon their departure all of their works are recycled to provide the next generation with space for their creations and to reinforce the impermanence of the organic life. This recycling was in line with the Buddhist sand mandalas that once complete, were swept up and spread to the winds or water. It is the moment and act of creating the art that are important to the development of the artist and it is the development of the artist and not the observer that is the objective of the Epiccissian. 

3.5 Physical: In terms of physical activity the Epiccissians are much like the Spartans in that a great deal of their daily life was devoted to physical activities and sports. However, unlike the Spartans, the Epiccissians are only concerned with the perfection of their bodies as an end in itself rather than for the purpose of war. The Epiccissians enjoy a wide range of gymnastics and sporting events. However, unlike the pre-Singularity sports activities the only competition that an Epiccissian experiences is with themselves. The objective is to always work to improve on their personal best accomplishments. For most Epiccissians they reached their apex of personal achievement in their mid twenties and so the next 80 years was essentially maintaining that level of skill. Sailing was one of the most popular sports in that it combined the vagaries of the wind and weather with the navigation of complex geometrical courses that constantly changed in kaleidoscope patterns.

3.6 Travel: With almost no exceptions each Epiccissian spends their entire 100 annual cycles physically within the bounds of their region, and for most they never leave their Garden Community. However, their travel experiences are orders of magnitude beyond what was possible for pre-Singularity humans. With the technologies of telepresence, virtual worlds and augmented reality, the Epiccissians not only experience everything within the world but also have experiences in virtual worlds that can only exist in the imagination.

3.6.1 Telepresence: In order to explore physical sites around the world an individual or group can reserve a telepresence bot located in the area that they wish to explore. The majority of these areas are restricted to human direct contact and protect nature from the impact of human contamination. The telepresence bots come in several forms, from the aerial view provided by a drone, to a down and dirty humanoid bot that can walk the fields, climb the trees and swim in the lakes, rivers and oceans.

3.6.1.2 The humanoid bots are equipped with a wide range of sensors that can be directly fed into the senses of the individual and/or the group. Visual sensors are essentially equal to that of an eagle with five cones that allow for the distinction of several thousand shades of colors and a 20/2000 acuity, that allow for seeing a rabbit move at two miles. The visual sensors also enable a much broader spectrum of light usage that ranges from infrared to near X-ray. The hearing sensors beyond the human range of 64-23,000 Hz of a human to the 16 Hz of an elephant and 123,000 Hz of a beluga whale. The sense of smell is also modeled on that of the dog with molecules collected and accumulated that generate knowledge not only about an item but also its history. An example here is a rhinoceros smelling a dung pile (Ok, so this is a weird example) is the same as a human reading the local newspaper as to who and what happened during the week. The sense of touch through haptics is at a level of fine detail that exceeds human capabilities. And rounding out the major sensory organs, the sense of taste is equal to that of what were the best wine sommeliers. (smoking, alcohol and drugs no longer exist)

3.6.1.3 An example of group usage of telepresence would be the observation of a solar eclipse that would take place in a narrow slice across the earth. With telepresence hundreds of millions of Epiccissians could all experience the event first hand through the sensors of various telepresence bots located along the route. Other events that would capture a large number of participants would be volcanic eruptions, mass migrations of birds and animals and the power of nature in storms.

3.6.1.4 Beyond the five major sense groups the humanoid bot reflects the 16 additional physical senses that humans experience. Link

3.6.1.5 And beyond the physical senses are the mediative senses of which the Epiccissians are masters.

3.6.2 Virtual Worlds: In addition to experiencing the physical world to the limits of sensations, the Epiccissians also have additional experiences in a wide range of virtual worlds. Want to attend the signing of the Declaration of Independence of the United States or how about the signing of the Magna Carta? Virtual worlds make this possible. From riding electrons in a molecule to observing the earth from a geostationary satellite virtual worlds render the impossible into possible. And here again, with the direct organic link between the Cloud and the cerebral cortex, the experiences are as real as real can be.

3.6.3 Augmented Reality: With their visual receptors of their eyes networked into the Cloud every Epiccissian through facial recognition not only recognizes the person they are about to meet but also know everything that there is to know about them. This same feature applies to both telepresence and virtual reality experiences in that with augmented reality the omniscience of the Cloud is overlaid on anything of interest to the Epiccissian.