I just want to mention that the thing about a human trying to self-modify their brain in the manner described and with all the dangers listed could make an interesting science fiction story. I couldn’t possibly write it myself and am not even sure what the best method of telling it would be- probably it would at least partially include something like journal entries or just narration from inside the protagonists’ head, to illustrate what exactly was going on.
Especially if the human knew the dangers perfectly well, but had some reason they had to try anyway, and also a good reason to think it might work- presumably this would require it to be an attempt at some modification other than “runaway intelligence” (and also a context where a modified self would have very little chance of thereafter achieving runaway superintelligence); if things went wrong they might spend the rest of their life doing very weird things, or die for one reason or another, or at the very worst go on a killing spree and kill a couple dozen people before being caught, but wouldn’t convert the entire world into smiley faces.
That way they would be a sympathetic viewpoint character taking perfectly reasonable actions, and the reader/viewer watches as their sanity teeters on the edge and is genuinely left wondering whether they’ll last long enough to accomplish their goal.
I just want to mention that the thing about a human trying to self-modify their brain in the manner described and with all the dangers listed could make an interesting science fiction story. I couldn’t possibly write it myself and am not even sure what the best method of telling it would be- probably it would at least partially include something like journal entries or just narration from inside the protagonists’ head, to illustrate what exactly was going on.
Especially if the human knew the dangers perfectly well, but had some reason they had to try anyway, and also a good reason to think it might work- presumably this would require it to be an attempt at some modification other than “runaway intelligence” (and also a context where a modified self would have very little chance of thereafter achieving runaway superintelligence); if things went wrong they might spend the rest of their life doing very weird things, or die for one reason or another, or at the very worst go on a killing spree and kill a couple dozen people before being caught, but wouldn’t convert the entire world into smiley faces. That way they would be a sympathetic viewpoint character taking perfectly reasonable actions, and the reader/viewer watches as their sanity teeters on the edge and is genuinely left wondering whether they’ll last long enough to accomplish their goal.