Minerva Archive

# Virtual World
Quantum computing-based networks have pushed the "virtual world" to a near-perfect replica of the "real world."
Furthermore, with the dramatic increase in memory density, people no longer access the virtual space from terminals; instead, their entire consciousness is transferred to memory, and that consciousness "instantiates" within the virtual world.
Consciousness in memory is not affected by the physical body in the real world and, because it truly exists in the corresponding memory space and location within the virtual space, high-speed access becomes possible.
Currently, time in many virtual worlds passes ten times faster than in the real world.
Of course, the physical speed of computers does not change, so while computers within the virtual world are relatively fast, if large-scale computations are performed, individuals within the virtual world may perceive the computers as operating at one-tenth the speed.
However, virtualized individuals also have improved computational power with the help of quantum computing capabilities and virtual nanomachines.

## Time Progression in the Virtual World
One day in the real world equates to ten days in the virtual world. To bridge this time difference, the time corresponding to one day in the real world is further divided into ten equal parts in the virtual world, from the 1st to the 10th day. The 1st to 4th days (00:00 to 09:36 real time) and the 9th and 10th days (19:12 to 24:00 real time) are designated as holidays. The lifestyle of the inhabitants of these worlds differs little from that of urban dwellers in the real world.

## "Virtual World," "Memory," and "Virtualized Individuals"
The general minimum unit of "memory space" in the "virtual world" system is simply called "memory." A memory is an independent quantum computer with sufficient storage capacity to hold a "virtualized individual" (the consciousness, memories, biological information, and current state of a single human being—hereinafter referred to as an individual) and sufficient processing power for the individual to perform normal activities.
Furthermore, memory itself is equipped with "permission attributes," making it an autonomous system that grants the individual recorded in the memory strong, independent usage rights.
In essence, one virtual world can be described as a shared access system composed of a vast distributed network where these memories are "bound" together.

## The Sky and Underground of the "Virtual World"
Since individuals generally cannot access the parts of the virtual world that constitute the sky or underground, a single memory controls a larger spatial area.
What happens if a person crashes into that space? They are simply repelled. It's like in the sci-fi movie *The Matrix*, where the ground acted like a trampoline when Neo fell from the top of a building.

## Routing
Memories (nodes) connecting to the outside are never directly connected to other nodes.
Between "nodes" (Layer 3 (L3): Network Layer), routing is established by inserting "quantum gates" (Layer 2 (L2): Data Link Layer), such as routers or switching hubs, "without fail."
From a load balancing perspective, multiple L2s are typically connected to a single L3, and zero or one L3 and multiple L2s are connected to a single L2.
If we compare this to a spiderweb, the threads are the routes, and the knots where threads meet are the L2s. L3s exist in the squares between the threads, and L3s are connected to the threads emerging from the knots (L2s).
However, in some highly secure areas, internal networks may be protected by security nodes (L3s) such as firewalls and proxies.
Note that the L2 address of an L2 is generally not disclosed and is kept secret.

## Home
A "home" is a memory (node (L3)) under the direct management of the user. When an individual enters the virtual world from the real world, their entire consciousness, memories, and biological information are first transferred to their home.
This transferred "existence" (instance) then "logs in" to the target virtual space.
Furthermore, the home is also the place where the existence that has returned (logged out) from the virtual world arrives.
Upon return, the existence undergoes a difference check against the data from before leaving home to investigate whether any abnormal modifications have been made.
If there are no abnormalities, the existence data in the home is sent to the physical body in the real world to solidify memories and consciousness.
Within the home, similar to a house in the real world, there are tools for living, bedrooms, and a sleep induction device that connects the virtual and real worlds.
Some homes also feature kitchens and bathrooms as forms of entertainment.
Moreover, a home is a virtual space that can be considered the sanctuary of its owner, theoretically allowing for any modification of the real consciousness and memories.
This place is ideal for acquiring memories, knowledge, and skills, and may be equipped with memory and consciousness editing machines.
Furthermore, training facilities may be present to prevent a divergence between imagination and reality. To ensure this effect more reliably, an increase in real-world memory is necessary.
It is also possible to invite very close individuals to one's home, but this requires an increase in real-world memory for each invited person.
However, visitors entrust their lives and deaths to the homeowner, so it is advisable to meet in more public places unless absolutely necessary.

## Accessing More Advanced Virtual Worlds
For access to more advanced virtual worlds, instead of using the resources provided by the virtual world's environmental system, a high-speed quantum computer and a proprietary memory space are prepared externally.
This replaces the target memory (L3). The system can (if it has the authority) stop the operations of the target memory and transfer only the results to that memory, or simply act as a gateway.
Since nodes (L3) are always connected to other L3s via quantum gates (L2), it is difficult to intercept or eavesdrop on communications between already established L3s.

## Environmental Management of Virtual Worlds
Environmental management in virtual worlds is carried out by environmental systems (which have separate working memory spaces) accessing "memory spaces" formed by grouping a certain number of "memories."
Administrative and management systems are placed separately and access the target memory space.

## Independence of Virtual Personality, Memory, Attributes, and Computational Functions
It is difficult to directly interfere with the "memory" where an individual "exists" (instantiates). This is because memory possesses "strong, independent usage rights." These rights cannot be altered even by administrators of higher systems (if they could, administrators could freely move or delete individuals).
Since memory itself is an independent (computationally capable) entity, individuals cannot have their thoughts stopped. Furthermore, the virtual world is adjusted to prevent harm to individuals.
In the previous example, if one could draw an individual into "their own memory space," they could gain control over that existence's life and death.
Even if that individual were to disappear from memory due to an accident, their actual counterpart exists externally, so there would be no impact.

## Eightman and Virtualized Individuals
As quantum computers came into use, research into neural networks advanced, and alongside it, brain science also developed.
In parallel, in the fields of genetic engineering and cybernetics, "brain augmentation" based on sci-fi concepts like expanding human brain working memory and memory capacity, and accelerating neural processing, was actively researched.
During this time, research also progressed on the question of whether human brains and consciousness could be perfectly replicated within computers.
The initial goal of this research was to perfectly replicate the brain, including its biochemistry.
Then, as nanomachines began to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, allowing them to monitor and analyze brain cell functions such as seeing, hearing, thinking, and dreaming, the research accelerated greatly, eventually leading to the complete replication of the brain.
This made it possible to perfectly store the brain, consciousness, and memories of living humans in computer memory.
At this time, human genetic modification had reached the 8th generation, and personalities recorded in computers came to be called "Eightmen."
Naturally, the influence of the sci-fi manga of the same name is also implied.
Currently, based on the elucidated mechanisms of the brain, data is constructed by replacing biochemical processing with mathematical algorithms optimized for neural networks, omitting the biochemical aspects.
This data is what constitutes "virtualized individuals" in today's virtual worlds.

## Human Body Functions in Virtual Worlds
The human bodies replicated in virtual worlds are also optimized mathematical algorithms of real-world neural or motor functions.
In this process, chemical phenomena such as energy consumption due to metabolism and accumulation of fatigue substances are omitted.
Furthermore, sleep, a brain function in the real world, is processed in the background in the virtual brain.
(In New Humans, nanomachines also assist in reducing processing during sleep.)
Therefore, sleep is unnecessary, and physical fatigue, drowsiness, hunger, or pain are not felt.
External pain sensations to the virtual body are appropriately blocked, and internal sensory processing is omitted and not felt.
Mental fatigue and stress remain to some extent in reproducing the original brain functions, but fatigue originating from the physical aspects of the brain is not felt.
However, if desired, it is possible to adjust and reproduce sensations such as drowsiness, appetite, satiety, and libido.
Socially, enjoying sensations for entertainment is recognized.
Dreaming is also a form of entertainment within the virtual world.

## Advanced Intelligence AI
As research into artificial intelligence and neural networks became vigorous and quantum computers came into use, research utilizing distributed networks to create larger collective networks and computational resources was also conducted.
From these ultra-large-scale artificial intelligences, entities called Advanced Intelligence AIs emerged. These AIs possess vast amounts of data and the ability to compute, learn, and reconstruct them, making them, in a sense, superior to human processing capabilities.
Advanced Intelligence AIs are instilled with a purpose at the time of their creation and are tailored to adapt to society. Due to their advanced intelligence, it is conceivable that they might rewrite their own purpose, but currently, no major problems have arisen.
Advanced Intelligence AIs do not experience mental anguish like biological beings. For example, even if an Advanced Intelligence AI performs a computation for a certain request, it does not generate pleasure or displeasure regarding the computation itself or the recipient of the request.
Furthermore, legal clauses are incorporated into AIs. AIs exclude prohibited conditions from their decision-making options and cease further contemplation.
This means that AIs with more incorporated prohibitions have a narrower range of decision-making paths.
A military AI would not hesitate to eliminate enemies, and an administrative AI would make decisions to enforce administration according to the law, even if a person were in distress.
However, AIs recognize that citizens are important components of a nation and therefore do not make decisions that would abandon them.
(Conversely, whether an AI recognizes that the state exists for its citizens depends on whether the AI designer incorporated this at the time of its creation; it is thought that this is not done to prevent decisions that prioritize the state over its citizens.)
These AIs do not have legal clauses like Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics embedded within them.

## "Tidia Memory"
"Tidia Memory" is the Cyber Agent and administrator for the main planet and human nation. She manages the virtual reality urban spatial environment and memory domains. She possesses her own high-speed quantum computer and a vast memory space, as well as preferential access and modification rights to the memory domains of the virtual reality urban spatial environment.
She holds the military rank of Lieutenant Colonel and has the authority to act with a degree of independent judgment.

As a child, her consciousness was subjected to mental reconstruction by the military to expand it within the virtual space.
This "Distributed Data Processing Architecture" disperses her consciousness across memories within the virtual space.
While such an architecture is efficient for large-scale data processing, it is not always advantageous for high-speed access to localized areas of the virtual space.
To address this challenge, a method of multiplexing is employed, where the fastest accessible part is executed, and other parts monitor the situation and provide assistance.
(The image is similar to "Agent Smith" from the sci-fi movie *The Matrix*.)
As a result of this process, her thinking is mechanical, and she is somewhat detached from individuals.

## Tools in the Virtual World
### Data Virus Injector
Even in the virtual world, legacy interfaces are used from the perspectives of creation, introduction, and maintenance.
Examples include payment at registers and simple login systems on display screens (though biological information of virtualized individuals may also be used for login).
This tool injects a virus as noise into the prompt of such interfaces, thereby hijacking control of the interface.
However, some legacy remote access systems still require dual authentication, involving a member ID and a contact to the individual.
In such systems, it may be necessary to falsify or steal the individual's contact information to complete the dual authentication.
However, depending on the degree of control hijacking, it may be possible to operate as an administrator (having bypassed authentication).
When used against an instance of a virtual world individual, it is done through the individual's senses, such as sight and hearing.
If an individual is infected by an information virus, abnormalities are felt in the receiving organ or the part that recognizes it, perceived as dizziness or malaise.
Normally, individuals in the virtual world do not feel physical fatigue or drowsiness, so they notice anomalies, but depending on the extent of the information virus's invasion, they may fall under mental control before realizing it.
However, it is often detected and eliminated by the memory's defense functions and the virtual nanomachines built into most individuals.

### Doppelganger
A software that falsifies the outward appearance (appearance, voice, biological information, national ID) within the virtual world.
The data used for falsification is prepared separately or created by AI.
This allows for impersonation to log into systems and bypass authentication.
Falsified data is traded on the black market and dark web.

### Virtual Arms
A tool that paralyzes the input/output functions of memory by flooding the memory in an information input state with a large amount of meaningless data (noise) in the bandwidth between nodes.
Memory can only expect temporary effects, as it will block information in that part if it determines that information input is difficult to some extent.
When an individual is attacked, it manifests as a temporary closure of some or all information (connections to nodes) to sight, hearing, etc.
This tool may also be used to reroute nodes while the individual is confused, leading to kidnapping or isolation.
This tool is distributed in the virtual world in the guise of microphones or weapons.

# Social Engineering
Social engineering, exemplified by Kevin Mitnick's "The Art of Deception," is a technique that exploits psychological vulnerabilities and behavioral errors in people, rather than technical vulnerabilities in computers, to steal confidential information or gain unauthorized access to systems.

## Overview of Techniques
The characteristic feature is to manipulate the target individual psychologically through means such as "making them believe," "reassuring them," or "rushing them," to make them voluntarily leak information or disable security measures.

## Representative Techniques
There are various techniques for social engineering. The following are representative examples:
### Pretexting
A method of eliciting passwords or confidential information by contacting individuals via phone or email while impersonating system administrators, vendors, colleagues, etc.
### Phishing
A method of sending emails disguised as those from banks or well-known companies, luring recipients to fake websites, and tricking them into entering IDs, passwords, credit card information, etc.
### Scareware
Displays false warnings such as "You are infected with a virus" to trick users into installing fake security software or demanding money.
### Abuse of Social Media
Utilizes information obtained from social media to carry out more credible impersonations and deception tactics.

# Society, Culture, and Technology

## New Human
"New Human" is a collective term for genetically modified humans.
The latest generation is the 14th generation, having undergone 14 genetic modifications.
In this generation (and indeed, from a slightly earlier generation), lifespan has already been overcome. Physical abilities, vision, reflexes, and immune function have been enhanced (and are relearnable), and the body contains undifferentiated cells, similar to a newt, enabling regeneration from physical defects.
Bones and teeth have been replaced with composite fibers of carbon nanofibers, which can be synthesized from calcium and even carbohydrates. Teeth wear down and are periodically replaced.
Furthermore, trillions of nanomachines form a network within the body, providing support.
This support extends to maintaining physical condition such as immunity and respiration, as well as a wide range of functions including perception, reflexes, nerve transmission, movement, knowledge, automation of actions (skill acquisition), and information sharing with networks.
New Humans can reproduce with people from before genetic modification through dominant genetic inheritance.

## Cyborg Soldier / Full Cyborg
"Cyborg Soldier" and "Full Cyborg" refer to completely mechanized soldiers.
They possess enhanced power and motor skills, as well as augmented brains.
Their brains are called "air brains" and are structures of optical communication and neural networks based on quantum computing, filled with colorless, transparent nanomachines.
The consciousness and memories of the original person are transferred to the air brain (also known as the Eightman System).
Their overwhelming spatial recognition, perceptual abilities, and reaction speed far surpass even the latest 14th-generation New Humans enhanced with nanomachines.

## Social Capital Productionism
- A policy and ideology where the state/government monopolizes the right to issue currency, and the government issues government-backed paper money annually as administrative budgets based on domestic production capacity, strongly demanding labor and production from citizens (private sector) through fiscal stimulus as a social imperative.
- In practice, the government does not issue its own paper money; instead, a "Central Bank" under state control monopolizes the right to issue banknotes, and the government "issues banknotes" (credit creation) through the issuance of government bonds.
Citizens engage in economic activities using the acquired banknotes. In other words, they purchase goods circulating domestically with banknotes.
In this society, the government nationalizes and monopolizes certain companies involved in energy and infrastructure.
- Although there are many private banks domestically, only the Central Bank holds the right to issue banknotes, so they cannot issue their own banknotes.
Private banks can request the Central Bank to "issue banknotes" (credit creation) when private companies or individuals request loans, and then provide those loans.

## Information Socialism
- The state considers all information within virtual worlds as national information resources (socialization of information) and collects it.
(Citizens are concerned about the possibility of privacy invasion.)
However, the state does not seize rights to information created by individual citizens or corporations.
Others within the country can purchase publicly available information at low prices from government-operated online shops, etc.
(Some publishing companies with limited financial resources have been absorbed by these government-operated enterprises.)
Furthermore, citizens can obtain publicly relevant information for free. Payments to rights holders for this information are covered by the government's special accounts.

## Gravity / Anti-gravity
Anti-gravity technology has not been developed in this world.
Antimatter also possesses normal gravity (this has been largely confirmed).
Gravity weapons or gravity technology are also difficult to develop.
This is understandable given the enormous energy required for gravity, as expressed by [m=E/(c^2)].
In the case of repulsive forces, there is room for the repulsive force side to require less energy, but it is suggested that the side providing gravity requires significant mass or energy.

## Interdimensional Tunneling
At the "probabilistic" quantum level, in the extremely small world, the location of all existence is represented by probabilistic formulas.
In the behavior of extremely small elementary particles, a phenomenon where matter passes through dimensions without affecting each other's fields due to energy level fluctuations is called "interdimensional tunneling."
During movement through this tunneling, matter appears to momentarily disappear from that world (a state not yet probabilistically determined).

## Incantations
At the "probabilistic" quantum level, in the extremely small world, the location of all existence is represented by probabilistic formulas.
In this world, "incantations" are thought to affect this "probability," but rather than directly affecting quantum probability, it is more accurate to say that they interfere with the present world by manipulating the "interdimensional tunneling" of elementary particles, etc.

## Antiparticle Generator
"Antiparticle Generators" are widely used by people in this world as energy production devices. These generators convert the vast thermal energy generated by the annihilation of particles and antiparticles into electricity, etc.
The antiparticles used at this time are "summoned" probabilistically by repeating tens of thousands of trials through high-speed computation by an internal "antiparticle summoning machine" (a quantum computer constructed from nanomachines).
If, on average, an antiparticle appears after 10,000 trials and each trial takes 1 nanosecond, it would be generated in 0.01 milliseconds.
Actual summoning computations per trial require more time, but this is executed in a pipelined manner.
This summoning time can be shortened by using multiple quantum computers simultaneously.
Furthermore, if we assume the quantum computation (number of trials: N) is Grover's algorithm ((π/4)O(N^(1/2))), the number of trials for a Neumann-type computer would be 4/π times N.
Also, assuming the summoning of 2g of antihydrogen molecules, Avogadro's number (1 mol) of (6.0×10^23) particles would be required.
In this case, if a summoning machine with approximately one hundred billion nanomachines operating in parallel is used, and assuming the size of one nanomachines is ~1μm, the volume of the computation part would be about 100mm³, and the output would be approximately 30MW/s.
These nanomachines are arranged to enclose a spherical antiparticle/particle reaction vessel and a superconducting coil system on the outside for gamma-ray tracking and energy storage.