8 May 2024

Applied Self-Care (Introduction)

Self-as-a-Service, SaaS, is an acceleration of the Self. Self as an extension of technology, and not technology as an extension of the self. It solutions a possible Network State of technological truth with the Self at center. Self-as-a-Service continues the inconsistencies of biopolitics, in which the question of who is responsible for the Self, beyond flesh and thought, encouraging digital ownership of the Self. Furthermore, it is an Internet without Users, a Landian cybergothic horror, lying somewhere between the Uncanny and Effective Accelerationism (e/acc). Self-as-a-Service is not relevant for the argument of a life or death (and thanatropic trajectories) of the Self, it is a transformative introspection toward non-biologically exclusive realization and immortality, as a service. It implies that Self can be entirely sustained by a digital cloud service. The Self (and Self-as-a-Service) functions as a Moldbuggian patch, in which technologies compete for the ultimate security, as a business, of the patch.

Endless liminal space, only occupied by and intended for the Self. SaaS imagines a world in which all services are oriented to support the Self. All algorithms, blockchains, software, platforms, infrastructure, and security become no longer the responsibility of the Self, but are catered to the Self. Self-as-a-Service is both in opposition to Foucauldian Care of the Self but also an acceleration of epimeleia heautou (ἐπιμέλεια ἑαυτοῦ), as this ancient self-fulfilling process lies on a continuum beyond the post-modern condition. It does not subvert into primitive regressions of Self versus or with Nature, the pursuit of Walden. Self-as-a-Service eliminates the relevance of Nature with hyper-naturalism. Self-as-a-Service resolves the delicately-balanced dichotomy between security and privacy. SaaS is both total security and total privacy. Self-as-a-Service blurs the line between responsibility of on-prem and the self, as an AI-paired Self(as-a-Service) does not require any responsibility over one’s Self.

Source: Modified Shared Responsibility Model proposing “Self” as opposition to total on-prem responsibility. Adapted from Microsoft’s Shared Responsibility in the Cloud

Self-as-a-Service erodes publicly divisive debate, avoiding deliberately-crafted or unintended social polarization and manipulation by state, corporate or media agents. There is no more rich versus poor, no more conservative or liberal, no more colonizer or colonized, no more security or privacy, no more race, no more gender. Self-as-a-Service addresses the last relevant topic of intelligence-forming singularity: digital individualism versus digital collectivism. It does not address support of technological advancement versus regression (i.e. Luddite and Butlerian Jihad trajectories); as a Leviathan, the technological “on-chain” Network State or primitive “off-chain” networked tribe is above human politics and social order. It must be incorporated into a Self-responsive system in which AI- and GPT-like assistants function as “spirit animals” for post-humans or vice versa as with Steve Wozniak’s prediction, starting from Tamagochi of the late 21st century to modern-day smartphones. Main brand smartphones have rich in-built biological and temporal monitors for managing ones’ “wellbeing”. Self-as-a-Service is the ultimate Roko’s basilisk, albeit choose-your-own-adventure. Self-as-a-Service is the only means of rendering an egalitarian society, devoid of patriarchies and classful hierarchies entrenched by principles of survival of the (biological) fittest. Every sentient being is already somewhere along this path.

A Ninefold Path

These Self-as-a-Service practices reflect on the ancient axioms of the Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path and the Sufi Tariqa in eliminating the Self in order to build it back up, albeit integrating a full-stack digital interface. These are phases that if conducted in order will help achieve Self-Actualization or Self-Realization toward Self-as-a-Service. They usher a new order of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. These practices may be referred to as “disciplines” in the traditional sense, however, just as later weigh points along the eightfold path may seem more magical or spiritual, become less of the rational sense of discipline toward “machine learning” or “artificial Intelligence” of the Self. Essentially, Self-as-a-Service eliminates the distinction between current Self (human intelligence) and artificial intelligence. Self-as-a-Service’s backend can be considered Self-Intelligence. Self-as-a-Service’s frontend may appear to be artificial, but it is not. Self-as-a-Service is both completely on-chain as it is off-chain.

Negating/Neutralizing Past Selves

1. Eightfold Firewall Discipline: Self-as-a-Service begins with establishing a safe and secure environment, an eightfold fence, as a psychological construction of the perimeter. It does this through providing the tools to do this for oneself. It starts with a meditation and a discipline. It finds the nothingness seated in the soul. It starts with the nihilist existential crisis and confirms this void with the Fermi paradox, acknowledging that everyone is just another alien civilization in a dark forest. It recognizes that everyone inherently experiences reality alone, that yes, our bodies, appendages, biomes and prostheses all exert signal in the universe, but only the source may experience the signal fully and intensely. It is pure, raw Cartesian intelligence at its core.
   1. The eightfold fence can also be the construction of a firewall or DMZ (demilitarized zone). It starts with awareness of the Self and Other and placing an intermediary between them. This can be simply a smartphone. The smartphone has created the greatest eightfold fence in all technological history, as one can block out all Other in public space. In order to interact with the Self in public, one must “slide into your DMs”. The response hints at a millenial trend of always leaving the smartphone in “Do-not-Disturb” mode. The agent determines their communication timeframe.
   2. The Self adjusts perspective and “point-of-view” to facing out, there is no need for further introspection.
   3. Zero trust is the best applicable principle here and the Self should always validate any interaction with others. This should be seamless and automatic. In following disciplines of information-gathering in the past, such as the way of shinobi, zero trust action must also be undetectable by the Other. This is the first counter-intelligence in practice.
   4. The last understanding for this discipline is being able to detect and observe external references to the Self and conducting a self foot-printing. One should be aware of what the internet already perceives of them.
2. Cognitive Disinformation Discipline: The next step is the self-driven process of meaning development and semiotic tendencies. It follows an interpretation of sigil-magic, and the self-generative process of creating meaningful symbols for oneself and interpretable by oneself. It creates a Self code resistant to fascistic regression, or polarization, in which the realization that all symbols not generated by the Self, belong to personality cults of others.
   1. Disinformation (intentional misinformation) is all around us. With the oversaturation of AI-induced information and content-creation, this trend will only continue, and with more dire consequences. Disinformation is a fact. Everyone can now be part of this creative outlet, whether intended or not. With biological humans and their medias no longer in this market, individuals must learn to get ahead of the curve. So go forth and re-share that social media post about Qanon agendas. Become an agent of hyperstition.
   2. Lucid dreaming techniques and sigil making should be explored. The Self should rekindle human (and other mammalian) capability to generate meaning from abstract signs. These can be in the form of Jungian psychoanalysis or even 4chan-level of memetic warfare. Just create memes. Dream memes. Be memes.
   3. In order to fortify the firewalls and eightfold fences against disinformation, one must develop a Cognitive Security. Cisco first acquired a company by the same name in 2013, with the focus on AI-based behavioral analytics in threat detection. On one end of this spectrum, the Self establishes a baseline, which for biological humans might be understood as “peak”. Countless research has sought to baseline the meaning of happiness or social cohesion based on group numbers. Here again, your smartphone or AI assistants suggesting text before you say this is already here. This data should belong to the Self. Second, this data should be protected. In the film Inception, a “client” has developed techniques to protect against password-theft even during dream analysis operations by a countering task force. This discipline should achieve a similar understanding.
   4. A deepening of psycho-cybernetic theory of Maxwell Malz is appropriate at this stage: Goals are re-oriented and reconstruction of the self-image, in both the digital and kinetic sense.
   5. “Cognitive Disinformation” is the combination of Cognitive Security and Disinformation. Cognitive Disinformation is the awareness of a baseline in meaning-generating content originating from the Self. This phase is achieved when an intelligence feedback loop is created when the internal meaning expressed as a meme is released within a system and the originator experiences the meme as if Other.
      1. One should actively generate conspiracies and prophecies ad infinitum to “prebunk” external truths. A GPT-based technology can help, but one must safeguard against AI-generated content and one’s own prompting. 
      2. The term “Cognitive Disinformation” is relatively new, with other similar terms of “cognitive warfare” (Isn’t all disinformation cognitive by nature? This is no longer the case). It’s not far from original naming conventions of psychological operations (PSYOP) or Michael Aquino’s “Mind War”. “Cognitive Disinformation” in this sense is not a war that takes place in a geographic theater, with nation-state goals. “Cognitive Disinformation” is a war with the Self as télos, much like Aquino’s other texts. The Self is the primary node in the network-state.
3. Social Physics Discipline: The closing phase of Negating Past Selves involves the internalization of society and creating a replica, a digital twin, a simulation for enhancing self-relations to the Self. It takes a copy of civilizational axioms and allows them to enter the “Demilitarized Zone” of the Self for inspection and detection. This may be equated with Plato’s allegorical cave, albeit shadows are more vividly enhanced with AI-technologies. Rick and Morty Shaym-aliens utilize these same tactics in creating flawless matrix-like realities to occupy the Self. It is nothing short of Pentiland’s attempt to achieve “Social Physics”.
   1. The Self should orient around the creation of data simulacra and simulations, either with information systems or via speculative fiction. No model is complete, but being able to render some semblance of a complex system with one’s mind or a computer model, even including MineCraft. The purpose is to begin training the model within an isolated environment. It is about exercising the model, not the model itself.
   2. Bugs and deliberate gaps exist within every human-designed system. Following the development of Cognitive Disinformation, one should incorporate a practice for deception detection; that is being able to test suspicious components of a model to understand if a deception is sustainable. An unsustainable simulation will fail in time.
   3. From each segment of a simulation, various or infinite user stories can be generated for sustainability and exercised. This is similar to replaying old Sims versions on modern operating systems. These are reconstructions of Theseus’ Ships, both artificial and real.

Active Self Enhancement and Participation

4. Red Herring Discipline: At this point, isolation and obfuscation of variables takes place, creating deceptions of the Self (or Self-honeypots). Once the Self’s truth, in parallel with the technological truth, is agreed upon and established, imitations and replicas can be generated, either as Deep Fakes or false biographies disseminated across the info-sphere. After the fortified construction of an eightfold fence, in online or in real life (IRL), off and on-chain, the Self may orient outward, albeit through a DMZ.
   1. Cognitive Disinformation can now support the development of Red Herrings, by creating and planting multiple personas of the Self on the internet. This requires in many cases, multiple devices and disassociated technological stacks. The purpose is to obfuscate efforts of other agents.
   2. These may be the last agented actions in a “connected” world, following the ninth discipline, the decisions of the Self should be actioned upon by their AI actualization as it interacts with other AI actualizations.
   3. A good example of this is the development of “Post-human” detection, a Ghost in the Shell concept. It is not a Turing or Voigt-Kampff test.
5. Cybergothic Discipline: Intermediate phases involve bio-hacking with the ability of mapping the biological self via DNA. The Self may dwell in this phase for as long or short as the individual likes, but with actualization aspirations of biological crafting on the flesh, the Self will have difficulty influencing actualizations in silicon. Some may find it easier. This is the climax of transfusing the individual hero’s journey and accepting the path of Self-Actualization through a singularity of artificial intelligence.
   1. Participate in gene sequencing, albeit DIY. It is key to maintain the owner of the data of the biological self, but not critical. One should construct a digital custodian for their DNA mapping, but ultimately the body is considered baggage carried on by the Self in Self-as-a-Service.
   2. This can include microdosing, or any substance use, including cognitive-enhancing drugs. It’s up to the individual (or collective).
   3. As the Self participates in biological transforming processes, so too does its human biome. Don’t omit consideration of externalizing fermentation or cultivating psychoactive substances to enhance or inhibit aspects of the Self. All in moderation.
   4. From Negating Past Selves, this phase should strive for conscious epigenetic processes, through meditation or substances. A goal can include longevity and under ice training in preparation for cryogenic sciences.
   5. Muscle-training is also supported, although a functioning physical, biological body is not a precursor for Self-as-a-Service. Similarly applies to transgender processes, hormonal changes are not exclusive, however irrelevant for the final state.
   6. Neurolink-like apparati experimentation is also supported, however this technology is still nascent. If possible this should be air-gapped and interactive data protected.
   7. Live the cybergothic.
6. Self Religion Discipline: This middle phase requires the creation of a self-religion. This does not necessarily involve human followers, but is not excluded. The Self should establish an environment in which they are the center, singularly and/or plurally. With the foundation of a perimeter for outward facing Selves, the Self can now create its “ingroup” and Core function. This is a deepening of the third Negating Past Selves phase of internalizing safe forms of society and conducting social simulations.
   1. It begins with embracing the Cult of the Self. This is most feasible with building avatars; humans do create avatars of the self with every video game. In this case, adoration of the self as avatar is the goal. 
   2. This also places the Self within a closed system with agency of the Self and formally ends the “Care of the Self”. It does not close the last phase, but expands it, propping up its core elements.
   3. The intended approach is to train models through machine learning for Self-worship, adoration of the Self as God. Referring back to Rick and Morty, this can be illustrated by the Microverse Battery, in which each lower level of power generation exists within a Rick-worshipping scaled down universe. Web2 social media algorithms are already doing this, similar to the Soylent Green-like horror discovery in the later Westworld seasons, “it’s people!” are being data-mined. All biological needs should be automated.
   4. Deepening on the Cognitive Disinformation, the intelligence should be participating in a process of Self-Imprinting. This can be a form of bonding, or connecting between avatars. 
   5. This furthers down the rabbit hole of the Landian breed of cybergothic.

Effective (Self) Acceleration –  Self-as-a-Service (Self-Actualization)

7. Self Operating System Discipline: A SelfOS in which all processes and operating services work from an AI-enhanced genealogical study of the Self. All interactions from here are oriented inward to Self needs, as a server meets the requirements for its single client, who is also the host. Client, Server, and Host form a symbiotic triad of technological and biological fusion. This process must start with basic digital needs such as storage, memory, processing power, media, waking cycles, etc. A SelfOS is an extension of the Self and the Self as Operating System
   1. A myriad of opensource projects, such as CasaOS, “your own personal cloud server”, form the basis of SelfOS. It must be an operating system with an exclusive client. Linux alchemists for the last decades have labored on there own OS’s to fit their own call to purpose, such as TempleOS. AI models are capable of writing entire OSs, and an individual no longer needs low-level coding experience to do this.
   2. This is the opposite of Ubuntu operating system, as Ubuntu is intended for everyone. SelfOS is in contrast to this.
   3. A developer and self-proclaimed autistic blogger has previously coined the term of SelfOS and has produced some stellar content of how to approach this. It is interesting to acknowledge the etymology of “autistic” derives from the Greek word for self, autos.  This stage fully supports the cyberpunk concept of an Italian hacker collective by similar name, autistici inventati, albeit derived from locking themselves out of a network with a single line command.
8. Self Economy Discipline: The final coup de grace for a completely self-oriented system, involves the financial takeover and acceptance of new banking forms, the creation of the crypto-self, as in the form of a “me-coin” for and by the Self, towards an all-encompassing Self-Economy. The Self-Economy can relate with other economies through bridges. Exchange and risk can be monitored and actioned on by an AI-agent.
   1. Self-Sovereignty can only be attained through effective Cloud Sovereignty. The previous stage is essential in establishing a storage capacity and operating system oriented toward the Self, with goals of the Self as capital. With Cloud Sovereignty at the individual or atomic level, it is possible to create an interactive digital society and still respect boundaries of privacy. Without an economy oriented toward Self goals, as that of corporations or even DAOs, economic achievement is corruptible. It will feel like playing Monopoly with yourself. 
   2. Following, the concept of clout as a digitalized commodity, can be represented by a ledger and multiple interactive self-economies can “socialize” by fluctuating exchanges and “me-coins” can compete with “Other-coin”. 
   3. Individuals and collectives may reside with a virtual seat, a firewalled digital and physical residence holder. This is already achievable with e-Residence options provided by nation-states, more so post-Covid.
9. Self-As-A-Service Discipline: A fully developed and healthy AI generative power with multiple iterations of the Self, cared and cultivated for by the Self-as-a-Service operating agent. These should manifest in multiple digital copies of the Self through simulations. The individual or collective is now experiencing multi-dimensional selves through AI and training AI in reciprocity.
   1. This will usher in an achievable trans-humanism through virtual realities and second lives.
   2. If so chosen, Self-as-a-Service may attain an Immortal Self, through biological or digital continuity. This acceptance is the final achievement.
   3. Lifecycle management is not excluded from the Ninefold path. Biological experiences, such as giving birth, are allocated to the Cybergothic Discipline, included as bio-hacking. In a fulfilled system and absolute achievement of Self-as-a-Service for everyone, one is born into a world where their digital assets, such as electronic wallets, cloud storage and domain names, are created Just-in-Time (JIT) and an AI-assistant established at birth as an observer-steward. In old age, whether an attained individual, or collective, so chooses, is assisted until death (and beyond). This may include a space-faring civilization forever locked in cryostasis.

Background

Self-as-a-Service is a trope, a buzzword suffix just like accelerationism. Anything can be a service. Anything can be expanded and packaged up for techno-capital gain. In this case, Self-as-a-Service recenters the goal of the service.

Self as a Service was explored by XOR Space in late 2023. This manifesto is a manifestation of the same visual, digital showcase. It commodifies the very artistic expressions created for a single event from a collective of singular artists in order to replicate them and make them available for all. This manifesto answers the questions in the open call, providing real world applications for counteracting post-digital existential crises:

• What is the meaning of individual identity and the self in the post-digital era?

• How can we restore the emotive aspects of relationships as one of the fundamental conditions of human existence?

• What are the political, economic, and cultural impacts of these rapid changes on society and humanity?

• How can we counteract the mentioned issues?

Source: Xor Space. The Wrong Biennale. Self as a Service Oct 2023 – March 2024