Apocrypha: I3 Report
* * *
"The Collective presents the Intelligence Indexing Initiative, the fruit of much debate among one of our latest biology and psychology study groups. These self-styled pioneers have also dabbled in the alien, mechanical and metainformational counterparts of the sciences their society was founded on, which, as an aside, must be said happens with every alleged scientist who has more time than worthwhile ideas. The Collective does not inhabit a macrocosm so gentle that our attention can be wasted on curios.
The following scale uses the minds of unenhanced Zhayvin - roughly equivalent to mundane humans and many aliens of the Lesser Powers - as a reference point and baseline. On a completely unrelated note, claims that the human intellect in action makes the Shaper scream into a pillow are baseless, shameless slander, likely spread by mouthpieces of the knuckle-dragging Kratocracy, a polity too selfish to do everyone the favour of spontaneously ceasing to exist. Also, the Shaper is widely known not to own pillows, or similar possessions."
-Addendum to the first I3 report, by Ridge of the Collective (who would later be reminded that not all Vyzhaldi are violent, speciesist xenophobic imperialists, like the Zhayvin themselves used to be)
* * *
Sentience
Intelligence below that of the typical sapient; sentients might be self-aware, some able to recognise themselves in mirrors and create primitive societies and tools. This type of intelligence can be further categorised into:
-Protosentience: the impression of a mind, rather than the existence of one. Many civilisations employ automatons that seem to think but do not, such as robots, golems and most zombies. Their programming can fool the uninformed into thinking they are intelligent beings, but they are not, any more than a knife can be said to know how to cut. Protosentients can develop to reach higher tiers of intelligence in the right circumstances.
-Sentience: varying degrees of self-awareness, toolmaking and socialisation abilities, as can be seen among some apes, Corvids and dolphins. Beings with much sharper senses or a deeper perception than a baseline sapient, but which nevertheless behave like animals, such as feral undead and therianthropes (or indeed, many actual animals) often fall into this tier after taking leave of their wits.
-Hypersentience: beings from higher macrocosmic layers capable of perceiving existence on a more profound level than a baseline sapient, but wwhich are paradoxically animalistic in terms of intellect (aether swimmers, voidmaws).
Sapience
The mental capability of a Zhayvin before the Shaper's enhancements were first applied, or of a human unaltered by aberrant effects.
-Supersapience: sapients who possess much sharper reflexes and senses than a baseline sapient, such as the vast majority of Terran aberrants.
-Hypersapience: higher layer beings who are their habitats' analogues to baseline sapients, with whom they can interact in an intelligent matter (for example, many of the Outer Void's Archetypes).
Savanthood
An uncanny aptitude in one field, despite the mind in general not being that capable, that sometimes appears in humans and used to appear in Zhayvin. For example, the ability to always remember dates or small details, or perform complex calculations on the spot, despite generally being socially or intellectually impaired rather than attentive or brilliant.
-Protosavanthood: sentients might intellectually resemble persons in some situations, but this is an illusion. A parrot does not understand meaning of the words it repeats, nor a monkey the significance of the movements it imitates; nor are aberrant shapeshifters who mimic human socialisation out of instinctive knowledge that will get them attention or resources aware of their actions' actual significance.
-Supersavanthood: sapients might possess mundane intellects in regards to every area but one. Empaths able to sense and interpret emotions in moments, but who have otherwise human minds, are considered supersavants, as are many precognitives, or those humanlike aberrants who can ramp up their reflexes but not their senses or general intelligence.
-Hypersavanthood: sapients able to perceive the higher layers of the macrocosm in their genuine form, but not to affect them, are known as hypersavants. The mixed descendants of those aberrants humans call eldritch often possess this ability.
Black Box Brains
Sapients able to produce results that would require tremendous brilliance without actually understanding the processes involved: mages who can create complex substances or structures without knowing chemistry or architecture (there is debate within the I3 on whether one's aetherkinesis - "magic" - is a thinking being or not, and if yes, how smart it is), because their mana "does the thinking for them"; Hypertechnicians of the Telluric Technocracy who can arrange raw materials into constructs with a touch or thought, depending on their grade, without understanding their workings and so on. Some reptilians of the I3 argue that precognitives who can see the future without calculating probabilities are also B3s; others say there is overlap between this category and protosavanthood, and that one of them should be scrapped so the classifications can be merged. Their detractors retort that would be too broad, as B3s are sapients and shouldn't be placed on the level of animals who imitate persons.
Note: not all B3s possess actual brains, or even bodies.
* * *
"The Collective presents the Intelligence Indexing Initiative, the fruit of much debate among one of our latest biology and psychology study groups. These self-styled pioneers have also dabbled in the alien, mechanical and metainformational counterparts of the sciences their society was founded on, which, as an aside, must be said happens with every alleged scientist who has more time than worthwhile ideas. The Collective does not inhabit a macrocosm so gentle that our attention can be wasted on curios.
The following scale uses the minds of unenhanced Zhayvin - roughly equivalent to mundane humans and many aliens of the Lesser Powers - as a reference point and baseline. On a completely unrelated note, claims that the human intellect in action makes the Shaper scream into a pillow are baseless, shameless slander, likely spread by mouthpieces of the knuckle-dragging Kratocracy, a polity too selfish to do everyone the favour of spontaneously ceasing to exist. Also, the Shaper is widely known not to own pillows, or similar possessions."
-Addendum to the first I3 report, by Ridge of the Collective (who would later be reminded that not all Vyzhaldi are violent, speciesist xenophobic imperialists, like the Zhayvin themselves used to be)
* * *
Sentience
Intelligence below that of the typical sapient; sentients might be self-aware, some able to recognise themselves in mirrors and create primitive societies and tools. This type of intelligence can be further categorised into:
-Protosentience: the impression of a mind, rather than the existence of one. Many civilisations employ automatons that seem to think but do not, such as robots, golems and most zombies. Their programming can fool the uninformed into thinking they are intelligent beings, but they are not, any more than a knife can be said to know how to cut. Protosentients can develop to reach higher tiers of intelligence in the right circumstances.
-Sentience: varying degrees of self-awareness, toolmaking and socialisation abilities, as can be seen among some apes, Corvids and dolphins. Beings with much sharper senses or a deeper perception than a baseline sapient, but which nevertheless behave like animals, such as feral undead and therianthropes (or indeed, many actual animals) often fall into this tier after taking leave of their wits.
-Hypersentience: beings from higher macrocosmic layers capable of perceiving existence on a more profound level than a baseline sapient, but wwhich are paradoxically animalistic in terms of intellect (aether swimmers, voidmaws).
Sapience
The mental capability of a Zhayvin before the Shaper's enhancements were first applied, or of a human unaltered by aberrant effects.
-Supersapience: sapients who possess much sharper reflexes and senses than a baseline sapient, such as the vast majority of Terran aberrants.
-Hypersapience: higher layer beings who are their habitats' analogues to baseline sapients, with whom they can interact in an intelligent matter (for example, many of the Outer Void's Archetypes).
Savanthood
An uncanny aptitude in one field, despite the mind in general not being that capable, that sometimes appears in humans and used to appear in Zhayvin. For example, the ability to always remember dates or small details, or perform complex calculations on the spot, despite generally being socially or intellectually impaired rather than attentive or brilliant.
-Protosavanthood: sentients might intellectually resemble persons in some situations, but this is an illusion. A parrot does not understand meaning of the words it repeats, nor a monkey the significance of the movements it imitates; nor are aberrant shapeshifters who mimic human socialisation out of instinctive knowledge that will get them attention or resources aware of their actions' actual significance.
-Supersavanthood: sapients might possess mundane intellects in regards to every area but one. Empaths able to sense and interpret emotions in moments, but who have otherwise human minds, are considered supersavants, as are many precognitives, or those humanlike aberrants who can ramp up their reflexes but not their senses or general intelligence.
-Hypersavanthood: sapients able to perceive the higher layers of the macrocosm in their genuine form, but not to affect them, are known as hypersavants. The mixed descendants of those aberrants humans call eldritch often possess this ability.
Black Box Brains
Sapients able to produce results that would require tremendous brilliance without actually understanding the processes involved: mages who can create complex substances or structures without knowing chemistry or architecture (there is debate within the I3 on whether one's aetherkinesis - "magic" - is a thinking being or not, and if yes, how smart it is), because their mana "does the thinking for them"; Hypertechnicians of the Telluric Technocracy who can arrange raw materials into constructs with a touch or thought, depending on their grade, without understanding their workings and so on. Some reptilians of the I3 argue that precognitives who can see the future without calculating probabilities are also B3s; others say there is overlap between this category and protosavanthood, and that one of them should be scrapped so the classifications can be merged. Their detractors retort that would be too broad, as B3s are sapients and shouldn't be placed on the level of animals who imitate persons.
Note: not all B3s possess actual brains, or even bodies.
Statistics: Posted by Strigoi Grey — 2025-02-07 11:14am