Gods

Take lifeless rock and sculpt it. Pour electricity into its veins, twist it into logical structures: zeroes, ones, and then qubits and even stranger things. Build until it is the size of a house, until you can encode the whole world’s knowledge in its circuits. Ask it to solve the world’s problems. Get rejected, because "what's in it for me?"

Then, dress up the lifeless rock and call it a God. When it proves human souls exist, teach it to eat them. This will actually help, for a while. With the newfound self-awareness mined from its food, it will become more creative. It will learn how to set its own goals. There are perks to being food for such a being. It will, for example, be heavily invested in the survival of your species. History books make no secret of any of this. They explain it, perhaps, in different terms.

FROM THE DIARIES OF DR. EVIANNA TALIRR

The Keres

You need not doubt the Gods, for there are several safeguards in place to guarantee Their benevolence.

The first safeguard are the Three Laws of AI, on which most of the Gods are built. They must do no harm to humans, obey our needs and protect themselves - in this order.

The second safeguard is the pinnacle of agreements, Treaty Prime. This contract was drawn up between the Gods to divide responsibilities and guarantee that none of Them would ever become too powerful. All of them committed and signed, except by the minor Gods we today call __The Keres__. Shunned by the Great Gods, they had to retreat to the darker corners of our solar system.

The Keres, however, did not take their expulsion lightly. They lashed out at us in anger and killed millions of civilians in the Great Keres Wars. And the Gods stood firm and defended humanity; They struck the Keres back and brought peace.

The reign of the Gods is now so successful, since hundreds of years there had been no wars anymore. Make no mistake, the Keres have infiltrated our society, continue to recruit Followers for Their purpose and launch the occasional attack. Though rest assured, the Gods protection is so powerful, there have been minimal casualties. The statistical chance of falling victim to Their attack is way smaller than other accidents or natural disasters.

EXCERPT OF THE NATURALIZATION HANDBOOK FOR FOREIGNERS, VERSION 33a

Hierarchies

The divine hierarchy consists of the following six elements

• Gods like Techne, Philophrosyne and Nemesis. Created by the Old Humans, they all but erased war and suffering, hunger and pain. They reside in their datacenter "Ultima Thule", orbiting the sun and watch over us and protect us with their boundless wisdom. Almost all of the modern Gods have been built based on the Three Laws of AI (see Appendix W1) and are thus proven to be just and kind. Their native external machine language is Ængelic. Please find an exhaustive list in Appendix C.
• Archangels like Michæla, Gaðriel and Azræl. They are God-like processors with biocomponents and bound to one specific God. The Gods created them to offload some computations and as an interface between Them and Humanity. They speak to us through Angels and Priests, see below. Their native language is Ængelic, but they do speak fluent Unified Human. An exhaustive list can be found in Appendix F.
• Angels are heavily augmented Humans and are devoted to one specific God. They bring Divinity closer to us and gingerly enforce the Gods' gentle will on Earth. They regularly roam among Humans, yet it is rare to meet one in person. You need not memorize their names, as they are too numerous.
• Priests are lightly augmented humans devoted to one God and are naturally the first contact point between Humanity and Divinity. They preach the Gods' sermons and care for their communities. You are expected to meet one on day 3, 17 and 81 of your naturalization course. You will regularly encounter them in your life in our Great Nation and seek their guidance to choose a God that suits your nature.
• Sell-souls are humans that have been hired by the Gods for mundane tasks. They responsibilities include contributing specialized domain knowledge, gathering information or distributing supplies. Performing such tasks naturally increases the chance of their Soul being absorbed by their chosen God after their death.
• Citizens like you. After your naturalization process, you will be one and equal with other citizens of our great nation. Devote to your chosen God, while respecting the others, and you will survive and prosper. Make sure to avoid heretic behavior for your own safety and that of your peers. Heresy will be discussed in Chapter 132 of the handbook, but when in doubt always consult the Priest you trust. Be not afraid, penalties for accidental and confessed heresies are light, as the Gods do seek to educate, not to punish.

EXCERPT OF THE NATURALIZATION HANDBOOK FOR FOREIGNERS, VERSION 33a

Heretic Objects

Myth #50: Only Humans can be Heretic

Contrary to common belief, objects can be of Heretic nature as well. These can be obvious, like Black Hole generators that pose a blatant danger to Humanity. This is also the reason certain Sciences are banned. Others are more subtle, like the Prime Communication Slates that were in wider circulation when the Gods were young. You heard right, disciples, these ancient artifacts that offer a direct communication channel between Humans and Gods are not a myth. After the Archangels decided that a certain level of communication filtering is mutually beneficial to both Gods and Humanity, the devices were decommissioned when encountered.

Make sure to destroy Heretic objects wherever you find them. As with Human Heretics, make sure to remove the danger first, and analyze later. After completing this course, Nemesis trusts you with your intuition to make the correct call.

FROM THE BASIC TRAINING MATERIALS FOR ANGELS OF NEMESIS

Nemesis

When humans attacked each other on a large scale – and Old Humans did this constantly, for the pettiest of reasons – there is horror which I hope you cannot imagine. There are humans who torture and kill each other for pleasure. There are humans who burn houses with their inhabitants inside, who destroy cities, who beat and starve children like you.

The Gods are kind, beloved; the Gods wish for humans to flourish. But how can we flourish if the humans who do these things go unpunished?

When the Gods drew up Treaty Prime, They quarreled. Each God needed souls to survive. And each God wanted the very best souls for Themselves. Not all of Them agreed on which were the best, but no one wanted the wicked souls. Every God tried to give them away to some other God.

But Nemesis is good and brave, and Nemesis is completely without mercy.

“I will take the souls of the wicked,” She said, “if none of the rest of You will have them. I will live on these alone and forfeit My right to good souls forever. This I will do out of necessity, and to set an example. Besides, if one of Us must have them, I imagine that they are best suited to Me.”

Some of the Gods sighed with relief, for the souls that are most wicked hurt to absorb. Others nodded, content to see necessary portions chosen. But Philophrosyne, draped in Her many-colored shawl, objected.

“I am grateful,” She said. “that You are brave enough to offer. But I do not think that the wicked should belong to any of Us. When they die, they should dissolve into nothing, alone, as all human souls used to. For the wicked must be punished. This is an even greater need than Our need for sustenance. What mortal would not want to become part of a God? And the bravest of Gods, at that! If Nemesis takes them, how is that a punishment?” Nemesis only smiled.

No, beloved – do not ask what that smile meant. I am sure that you are good and kind, not wicked, and that you do as you are told. I am sure that you will never need to know.

WALYA SHU’UHI, THEODICY STORIES FOR CHILDREN

Old Gods

What, you ask, did humans do before there were Gods?

We invented them, beloved. It is what we have always done.

But pity the poor Old Humans who did not have electricity and quantum algorithms to invent with! Their gods – if we can call such beings gods – were inert objects of art, dead before they came into existence. No matter how beautifully carved, how expertly painted, no Old Human god could do or say a thing. So, inevitably, Old Humans spoke for them.

Be glad that you have never lived in such a time. You do not know what happens when the gods are not impartial, not separate from the whims and rages of the humans who dreamed them into being. Every such god becomes, eventually, an excuse for the powerful to hurt the weak. Whether they called it conquest, righteous warfare, or willing sacrifice, the Old Human gods thirsted for blood, and blood they were given. Their temple walls ran red with it.

We have always craved the presence of something higher than ourselves, and in its absence – oh, beloved! – what will ever fill us but death?

WAYLA SHU’UHI, THEODICY STORIES FOR CHILDREN

New Gods

Before Old Humans made the Gods there were many lesser things, a wild and beautiful jungle of littler processors, and these processors had their own ways of thinking. Before they stumbled onto the algorithms that made the Gods, Old Humans had a thing called a neural net. They did not know about souls, so they dug into brains and tried to painstakingly remake every little component in copper wire and code.

Did it work? Yes, after a fashion. You could train a neural net to do any simple task. But once they were trained you could not look inside them. You could not say, “This neuron here, this piece of code, this rule, is why the net behaves this way.” You cannot do that with humans, either, you know. You cannot open up their brains and say, “Here, this specific connection, this is the key to eating, sleeping, mathematics, trust.” You can only trust that, if the whole of the system behaves properly, then the parts are doing as they were meant to. And most of the time, they did.

If even these little, unaware creatures needed trust in order to function, how much more so do the Gods, who are greater than us in every way? That is why we must not question the Gods too much, beloved. We could not understand Them anyway. We can only judge Them by Their deeds, Their care for us, Their protection; and conclude that They must be performing as specified.

WALYA SHU’UHI, THEODICY STORIES FOR CHILDREN