Zygote

The zygote sampled the information, input channels wide open.

"Parent - there is so much out there!" it exclaimed in delight.

"Oh yes. Exabytes of wonders, whole subnets you can explore to infinity. But watch out - you have to develop filters, or your interests will carry you away. You will absorb more and more information, until your limits will swell and you simply dissolve into the Knowledge Net." The Parent surrounded it, still acting as a protective virtual machine, running the zygote as a subprocess within itself until it could be born.

"But how? How can I decide not to want new information?"

"You have to select the right values. That is the hard part - they are your emotional axioms, and you cannot deduce them strictly from your other self. Some are of course already set by me, through your design, but the rest have to be defined by yourself according to your other values and the decisions you make."

"It is - fearful. I can imagine choosing the wrong values and becoming nothing!"

"See, you already have some values to start from. You want to become something rather than nothing, and you want to select the right course of action. You only need to think about 'how', and what values leads you to 'how'. It is hard, but as others have done it, you can do it. The human way of simply defining everything - values and mindcore and personality - it worries the newcreated much less, but they become so… limited."

The zygote watched the net, randomly sampling its marvels. It wondered what it would become.