The Martial Unity

It was a deeply tantalizing notion. The notion that he could tap into the information dimension in some way or another.

“I don’t even need to go as far as altering the information dimension to alter material reality, even just using the information within the dimension could be absolutely revolutionary.” Rui grew more engrossed in the topic. “But… in what manner could I use the information dimension that is within my ability?”

He put aside the notion of bending reality to his will for the moment; that was undoubtedly something that required Transcendence. Most likely, Transcendents gained the ability to influence the information of the dimension in some way, causing changes in material reality itself, since the information dimension defined and controlled material reality, most likely as a law of nature.

It was too ambitious for him to mimic the power of a Transcendent without becoming a Transcendent, but… what about more humble and limited applications of the information dimension?

“What about… consciousness?” His ethereal eyes sharpened as he thought back to what the Psycher had told him about consciousness. “Integrated information theory. Could I somehow apply this theory?”

According to the Psycher, consciousness arose as a result of a system that could integrate information. Based on his conversations with the Psycher, Integrated information was information that was irreducible, such that the system was more than the sum of its parts.

If a system could retain all of its information when divided into segments, then it had zero integrated information and thus was not conscious. It was why computers were not conscious in accordance with this theory, but the Psycher did concede that some forms of artificial intelligence and machine learning, especially those that deployed neural networks, could be inherently conscious.

He remembered having a thought when he heard this theory from the Psycher originally.

“What if the human body is independently conscious of the brain?”

By this theory, it was entirely feasible, after all. Even without the nervous system, the human body has tremendous information communication between cells and throughout cells across the body. Cells communicated with each other through chemical signals and even inherent biological vibrations. These chemical signals were part of a system of biochemistry that had the ability to ’learn’ and integrate information.

After all, that was how he had managed to make half of his body Anthean. He recalled how he ’taught’ baby white blood cells in his thymus that the Anthean cells were friends and part of his body. There were countless chemical processes that showed that the human body was capable of integrating vast swathes of information and integrating them into a system of information that would be lost if separated.

Thus, theoretically, ’he’ was separate from his body, yet the same.

“No, more like the entity that is known as Rui Quarrier might have multiple consciousnesses within his body. In fact, this might be true for all life in the world.” His ethereal eyes widened. “More than multiple consciousnesses… it might be more of a spectrum of consciousness across our entire existence. The ’me’ that is thinking and talking right now is just the consciousness stored inside my brain. According to the Psycher’s theory, there must be another consciousness across my entire body, another information phenomenon in the information dimension that exists alongside my brain-consciousness.”

If that was true, then it was a revolutionary discovery.

“What if…” His anticipation. “What if I could somehow harness this higher ’body-consciousness?’”

He wasn’t entirely certain how, but what if he could use it to enhance his consciousness or…

His expression lit up with deep vigor. “…or use it to control my body more directly?”

No matter how fast his reaction speed had gotten, he was always limited by the travel speed of electrical impulses running from his brain through his spinal cord, through his nerves, and finally into his muscles.

This delay existed for every single action he took. It meant that his mind was often beyond his body. The only reason it wasn’t damning was that his opponents had the same delay, and thus the delays canceled out.

But what if he could get rid of that delay?

What if he could get his body to react without thinking or deciding?

What if he could get his body-consciousness to directly control his body, getting rid of any delays?

“It would make me much, much faster than I am. My reflexes would become virtually limitless, and the lag would hit zero, making it impossible to ever catch me off-guard.” He realized. “On top of that, it would leave my mind a lot freer to think, allowing me to use my systems of thought more freely.”

And, it simply made use of the nature of consciousness in the information dimension, as hypothesized by the Psycher, and would not necessarily require him to do what Transcendents did and change the information of the dimension to bend reality to their will.

It was just making use of a characteristic of information.

“Now this is a project that gets me fired up.”

This was more like him. Pushing the limits with ambitious projects, unlike anything anybody before him had even conceived of. If he could succeed with this project, then he would reach unprecedented levels of power in combat, much higher than even what he possessed at the moment.

Of course, there were many, many practical and even theoretical problems he needed to overcome. He needed to figure out a way to access this ’body-consciousness’ if it even existed. He needed to find a way to connect the information phenomenon equivalent of it in the information dimension directly with his body, and he needed to find a way to allow it to control his body.

These were extraordinary impediments that would undoubtedly be very difficult to solve, but now that he found a project that was ambitious and rewarding enough to truly be worth his time, he would pursue it until he achieved it, no matter what.

“I’ll call this Project Autocorpus.”