sapphire pi and the runner's hi part 1
It was another day in the Apos Region. The suns rose, the moons shone, and the Runners were running.
One of those Runners was named Sapphire Pi.
“Sapphire, why did you decide to take up Running?”
“To live in the rivers of time means that standing still is moving backwards. I have resolved to always move forward, and running is how I do it.”
These words were widely quoted throughout Apos and the neighboring Wrongless and Teapot regions, and served as inspiration for millions of youth.
“Wow! Sapphire is so cool! I want to become a Runner just like her when I grow up!”
“Did you see Sapphire in the annual Foot Hegemon Race? She totally stomped her competitors!”
Today was another usual day as a Runner. Sapphire, her backpack filled with Scrolls of Problems, and her Speed Exoskeleton dawned, charged through the Rusczian Desert, glided over the treetops of the Toed Forest, crossed the Math Forbiddance Boundary, and headed toward the Central Monasteries. There, she met His Venerable Taku and Her Venerable Pohato, and delivered the Scrolls of Problems. This had been the daily routine of the Runners, ever since the Second Misalignment.
“Thank you Runner Pi, we will have the Solutions for you by Twosday.”
In return, she earned 100 UOC (Units of Caring), and returned on the path she came from.
She stopped midtrack, and saw a shadow move around her.
“You have been jumped!” A voice said. And a figure jumped out of bushes, wearing two boots with springs. They made eye contact, which meant that they had to battle.
“I am Jumper Jan, and I challenge you to a Race!”
—
In Layer 5 of the Monastery, Disciples Good and Greater Good were perusing a scroll.
SCROLL ID 66557f13cbaee2619a12f48d:
hey guys im feeling kind of lost in life. like work is pretty much the same thing everyday and that would be fine except it feels like a struggle. “don’t let anyone walk through your mind with their dirty feet” and all, why am I spending 70% of my waking hours polluting my mind with BS tasks? and every day i always feel i didnt do enough and feel guilty about it, even though i thought i didnt care? I get that i need to earn a salary to pay for the rent and electricity bills and my 20 UOC/month Monastery subscription (please lower the prices) but my feelings dont have the concept of money in their primal vocabulary, all they know is this feels pretty bad. back in the day before the misalignments i thought we would automate this stuff and we’d have the ASI utopia but apparently that was too good to be true, and instead East Wrongless got taken over by o-10-pro-R-5-merged, the Accelerationists got purged, math got banned, and now im stuck in the 9-5.
what should i do?
please write your thoughts step by step, and output your answer in markdown format.
Good (G): Man I wish they didn’t start letting in non-math questions, this stuff gets old fast
Greater Good (GG): Then we would’ve gone bankrupt since the administration cut our funding.
Good (G): Good point. Anyways what should we tell this guy
Greater Good (GG): cardio and lift weights? meditate? go actually make friends instead of reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality on repeat?
G: we already told that to the first 50 of these disillusioned singularity fans. literally none of them followed our advice. I know because I sent some Eyes to keep tabs on them with my disposable income.
GG: well then. we should try something else.
G: what these people need is a role model. i got the right one
Good pulled out a collection of books and wrapped one of them in a scroll, and wrote the message:
“Follow this book to the T, don’t even think of sending us another Problem before reading it thrice and doing everything it says.”
He then dropped it in the chute.
—
GG: wait was that in markdown?
G: my bad, i used bbcode
—
Gendlin Plains, Teapot Region.
Quartz Qi opened up the letter and a book fell out. In capital letters, the title wrote:
ZHUANG ZI
He started reading.
“In the northern Ming waters there was a fish. His name was Kun. Kun was huge, I don’t know how many thousand Li he was. He became a bird, and her name was Peng. Peng’s back, I don’t know how many thousand Li it was. With vigor, she flew, her wings hung from the sky like clouds. She was a bird for real - "
The next day, Quartz - who now called himself ZZ the Second - stepped onto the roads and began to walk. He made sure to overwrite the road signs with:
NOT THE ETERNAL ROAD SIGN
Where to? First stop, to find the legendary birdfish Kunpeng. He felt filled with purpose and direction: No more 9-5, it was time to become a Daoist Master! Zhan Zhuang every morning, keep the qi in the dantian, it’s gonna work! Believe it!
However, before leaving the town, an old friend of his excitedly stopped him.
“Hey Big Q! Where you off to? I’ve been looking for you all morning. I just got word from the Round Tables of Apos. They want to offer you a Seat!”
The Round Tables. A name of prestige, where dialogues concerning the continent’s future were conducted.
ZZ grinned, and responded: “It’s been a long time Matt Twenty-Six. I appreciate you delivering this message. But let me tell you a story.”
In the Old Burgic Empire, there was once a deterministic frog. It had been deterministic for 3000 years. The King of Burg embedded the frog as a component in a marvelous machine made with the finest metals and fastest semiconductors, and used it as compute for the State’s most sacred programs. If you were the frog, would you rather be deterministic and have your mechanical movements admired, or be free willed and hop in the mud of your own volition?
Twenty-Six: “I think I’d rather be the frog.”
ZZ: “Now if you will excuse me, I am on my way to hop in the mud. May you be well.”
—
As he walked, ZZ passed the sick, the old, and the suffering, and did not stop to lament the course of nature unfolding.