Shepard Quest Mk VI, Technological Revolution
- Thread starter Hoyr
- Start date
- Location
- Dual citizen of SV&SB
I like this plan. A heavily sarcastic video.I don't think Arc Reactor PSAs are a good idea; it just gives extra visibility to the tin foil hat crowd.
Maybe release a video online titled "Please Do Not Lick the Arc Reactor" and let it go viral.
"Do not lick the arc reactor. It is harmless, but the outer surface is designed to taste poorly to prevent small children and pets from gnawing on it. Frantic scrubbing with toothpaste may follow."
Run some counter ads? (May combine choices save "No ads")
[X] Paragon Industries building a better future
-[X] How much: 20 Million
[X] Arc-reactor public service announcements
-[X] How much: 10 Million
[X] PI is anti-piracy. It was formed in the aftermath of the attack on Mindoir. PI wants better defenses and for pirates to die.
-[X] How much: 10 Million
What will you do?
[X] Invite him to Mindoir to talk
The Alliance would like: (May combine choices)
[X] 647 Fire Control and Point Defense VIs 64.7 million credits now, 4 million credits service and care per quarter.
[x] Five sets of four 40TW arc-reactors and cabling. 2.5 billion profit per set, 10,000 production per set. Delivered the sooner the better, each set can be delivered individually (Earliest looks like 2174-Q1)
Do what?
[X] ...put my suit on then...
-[X] ...counter the hacker
[X] Bring PI security to full alert in all PI facilities. All power armor teams are to suit up. Defenses are to be warmed up. Non-combat personnel are to be evacuated to shelters immediately.
[X] Alert Mindoir militia and System Alliance forces that a hacking attack is occurring against PI and that a physical attack is highly likely.
[X] Initiate full server isolation (as in no power, all connections are to be physically cut if need be, do not leave a single route of attack against the database) for research servers. Security is essential in keeping online, but no need to give potential attack route to PI research database. Send security teams to sweep the facility for potential infiltrators.
[X] Security teams are to move to critical locations. (Security sector, armories, research databases, etc)
[X] Paragon Industries building a better future
-[X] How much: 20 Million
[X] Arc-reactor public service announcements
-[X] How much: 10 Million
[X] PI is anti-piracy. It was formed in the aftermath of the attack on Mindoir. PI wants better defenses and for pirates to die.
-[X] How much: 10 Million
What will you do?
[X] Invite him to Mindoir to talk
The Alliance would like: (May combine choices)
[X] 647 Fire Control and Point Defense VIs 64.7 million credits now, 4 million credits service and care per quarter.
[x] Five sets of four 40TW arc-reactors and cabling. 2.5 billion profit per set, 10,000 production per set. Delivered the sooner the better, each set can be delivered individually (Earliest looks like 2174-Q1)
Do what?
[X] ...put my suit on then...
-[X] ...counter the hacker
[X] Bring PI security to full alert in all PI facilities. All power armor teams are to suit up. Defenses are to be warmed up. Non-combat personnel are to be evacuated to shelters immediately.
[X] Alert Mindoir militia and System Alliance forces that a hacking attack is occurring against PI and that a physical attack is highly likely.
[X] Initiate full server isolation (as in no power, all connections are to be physically cut if need be, do not leave a single route of attack against the database) for research servers. Security is essential in keeping online, but no need to give potential attack route to PI research database. Send security teams to sweep the facility for potential infiltrators.
[X] Security teams are to move to critical locations. (Security sector, armories, research databases, etc)
So... Am I the only one who saw that hacking attempt and went "Oh, the geth finally got curious?"
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I don't think Arc Reactor PSAs are a good idea; it just gives extra visibility to the tin foil hat crowd.
Maybe release a video online titled "Please Do Not Lick the Arc Reactor" and let it go viral.
I think we should start a short web series: Paragon Industries Breakthrough Science Division
azoicennead
Overly-Affectionate Zombie Squad
- Pronouns
- He/They
Perhaps "leak" some footage of "Paragon Industries researchers" demonstrating what not to do with Arc Reactors?I don't think Arc Reactor PSAs are a good idea; it just gives extra visibility to the tin foil hat crowd.
Maybe release a video online titled "Please Do Not Lick the Arc Reactor" and let it go viral.
"Ladies and gentlemen, let me make this perfectly clear: It will not blend."
Forgot my vote:
Run some counter ads? (May combine choices save "No ads")
[X] Paragon Industries building a better future
-[X] How much (50 million)
[X] Prepare for an interview charm offensive, now that you have your CASIE and know how to use it:
-[X] In the Spotlight with Tim Vargan
-[X] Galactic Luminaries (after you've had a bit more practice)
-[X] Look for more interview opportunities.
[X] Release a series of sarcastic mockumenteries, titled "Please Do Not Lick the Arc Reactor", targeting all the silly rumors about Arc Reactor dangers, and let them go viral.
What will you do?
[X] Invite him to Mindoir to talk
-[X] Make sure that he and Gaver Dor don't come to blows.
The Alliance would like: (May combine choices)
[X] 647 Fire Control and Point Defense VIs 64.7 million credits now, 4 million credits service and care per quarter. Delivered this quarter.
[X] Five sets of four 40TW arc-reactors and cabling. 2.5 billion profit per set, 10,000 production per set. Delivered the sooner the better, each set can be delivered individually (Earliest looks like 2174-Q1)
-[X] Deliverable 2174-Q1
[X] 2000 Units of Arcane Blur Plating. 750 million profit, 2000 production. Not as much of a rush.
-[X] Deliverable 2174-Q1
[X] We probably won't be able to do more than piecemeal upgrades to the heavy cruiser and larger ships for some time yet, so see if other discrete upgrades for the larger ships can be sold to Hackett:
-[X] Repulsor-based maneuvering thruster drop-in replacements.
-[X] GARDIAN system upgrades; our improved DEWs mean that even denser point defenses can be added to the larger ships.
-[X] Hydra missile tubes to overwhelm enemy point defenses and additional starfighter harassment
Do what?
[X] ...put my suit on then...
-[X] ...counter the hacker
[X] Bring PI security to full alert in all PI facilities. All power armor teams are to suit up. Defenses are to be warmed up. Non-combat personnel are to be evacuated to shelters immediately.
[X] Alert Mindoir militia and System Alliance forces that a hacking attack is occurring against PI and that a physical attack is highly likely.
[X] Initiate full server isolation (as in no power, all connections are to be physically cut if need be, do not leave a single route of attack against the database) for research servers. Security is essential in keeping online, but no need to give potential attack route to PI research database. Send security teams to sweep the facility for potential infiltrators.
-[X] Go with the security teams that are patrolling the labs: this intrusion is TOP PRIORITY! In fact, it's possible, even likely, that the physical attack is a distraction to cover the removal of the lab data. Locate and shutting down any infiltration into the research computers, catch any intruders into the labs (alive if at all possible) and figure out how it was done to prevent future attempts.
[X] Security teams are to move to critical locations. (Security sector, armories, research databases, etc)
[X] Researches who need to save all files before going to safety have dibs for the shield belts in laboratory storages. Gaver Dor is allowed to charge his guns.
Now for multi-quote responses, since I have a real keyboard to work with:
Oh, hey @Hoyr: should we have already bought a set or two of the Kasa Guardian Angel systems for testing purposes, as in are they already installed on Revy's armor? I mean, extra shielding on the Legionary has been an IC goal for awhile now.
Run some counter ads? (May combine choices save "No ads")
[X] Paragon Industries building a better future
-[X] How much (50 million)
[X] Prepare for an interview charm offensive, now that you have your CASIE and know how to use it:
-[X] In the Spotlight with Tim Vargan
-[X] Galactic Luminaries (after you've had a bit more practice)
-[X] Look for more interview opportunities.
[X] Release a series of sarcastic mockumenteries, titled "Please Do Not Lick the Arc Reactor", targeting all the silly rumors about Arc Reactor dangers, and let them go viral.
What will you do?
[X] Invite him to Mindoir to talk
-[X] Make sure that he and Gaver Dor don't come to blows.
The Alliance would like: (May combine choices)
[X] 647 Fire Control and Point Defense VIs 64.7 million credits now, 4 million credits service and care per quarter. Delivered this quarter.
[X] Five sets of four 40TW arc-reactors and cabling. 2.5 billion profit per set, 10,000 production per set. Delivered the sooner the better, each set can be delivered individually (Earliest looks like 2174-Q1)
-[X] Deliverable 2174-Q1
[X] 2000 Units of Arcane Blur Plating. 750 million profit, 2000 production. Not as much of a rush.
-[X] Deliverable 2174-Q1
[X] We probably won't be able to do more than piecemeal upgrades to the heavy cruiser and larger ships for some time yet, so see if other discrete upgrades for the larger ships can be sold to Hackett:
-[X] Repulsor-based maneuvering thruster drop-in replacements.
-[X] GARDIAN system upgrades; our improved DEWs mean that even denser point defenses can be added to the larger ships.
-[X] Hydra missile tubes to overwhelm enemy point defenses and additional starfighter harassment
Do what?
[X] ...put my suit on then...
-[X] ...counter the hacker
[X] Bring PI security to full alert in all PI facilities. All power armor teams are to suit up. Defenses are to be warmed up. Non-combat personnel are to be evacuated to shelters immediately.
[X] Alert Mindoir militia and System Alliance forces that a hacking attack is occurring against PI and that a physical attack is highly likely.
[X] Initiate full server isolation (as in no power, all connections are to be physically cut if need be, do not leave a single route of attack against the database) for research servers. Security is essential in keeping online, but no need to give potential attack route to PI research database. Send security teams to sweep the facility for potential infiltrators.
-[X] Go with the security teams that are patrolling the labs: this intrusion is TOP PRIORITY! In fact, it's possible, even likely, that the physical attack is a distraction to cover the removal of the lab data. Locate and shutting down any infiltration into the research computers, catch any intruders into the labs (alive if at all possible) and figure out how it was done to prevent future attempts.
[X] Security teams are to move to critical locations. (Security sector, armories, research databases, etc)
[X] Researches who need to save all files before going to safety have dibs for the shield belts in laboratory storages. Gaver Dor is allowed to charge his guns.
Now for multi-quote responses, since I have a real keyboard to work with:
Agreed; a charm offensive is a great idea, and Revy's the one to do it.
Not only that, but it's very possible for us to turn him, simply by being the kind of idealistic super-scientist that he thinks he is.
Hell, we need to do it because there's better-than-even odds that the attacker, or at least one of them, is in the same building as we are.
Yeah, but we didn't have Collector-repelling GARDIAN towers, nor a Cruiser flotilla (or at least a squadron) hovering overhead back then; now it's going to take something so absurdly large that there's no way it'll remain hidden. But yeah, agreeing with @UberJJK that shielding is the way to go, and soon.
Oh, hey @Hoyr: should we have already bought a set or two of the Kasa Guardian Angel systems for testing purposes, as in are they already installed on Revy's armor? I mean, extra shielding on the Legionary has been an IC goal for awhile now.
Last edited:
Tetsurou
Communist Penguin
Run some counter ads? (May combine choices save "No ads")
[X] Paragon Industries building a better future
-[X] How much (50 million)
[X] Prepare for an interview charm offensive, now that you have your CASIE and know how to use it:
-[X] In the Spotlight with Tim Vargan
-[X] Galactic Luminaries (after you've had a bit more practice)
-[X] Look for more interview opportunities.
[X] Release a series of sarcastic mockumenteries, titled "Please Do Not Lick the Arc Reactor", targeting all the silly rumors about Arc Reactor dangers, and let them go viral.
What will you do?
[X] Invite him to Mindoir to talk
-[X] Make sure that he and Gaver Dor don't come to blows.
The Alliance would like: (May combine choices)
[X] 647 Fire Control and Point Defense VIs 64.7 million credits now, 4 million credits service and care per quarter. Delivered this quarter.
[X] Five sets of four 40TW arc-reactors and cabling. 2.5 billion profit per set, 10,000 production per set. Delivered the sooner the better, each set can be delivered individually (Earliest looks like 2174-Q1)
-[X] Deliverable 2174-Q1
[X] 2000 Units of Arcane Blur Plating. 750 million profit, 2000 production. Not as much of a rush.
-[X] Deliverable 2174-Q1
[X] We probably won't be able to do more than piecemeal upgrades to the heavy cruiser and larger ships for some time yet, so see if other discrete upgrades for the larger ships can be sold to Hackett:
-[X] Repulsor-based maneuvering thruster drop-in replacements.
-[X] GARDIAN system upgrades; our improved DEWs mean that even denser point defenses can be added to the larger ships.
-[X] Hydra missile tubes to overwhelm enemy point defenses and additional starfighter harassment
Do what?
[X] ...put my suit on then...
-[X] ...counter the hacker
[X] Bring PI security to full alert in all PI facilities. All power armor teams are to suit up. Defenses are to be warmed up. Non-combat personnel are to be evacuated to shelters immediately.
[X] Alert Mindoir militia and System Alliance forces that a hacking attack is occurring against PI and that a physical attack is highly likely.
[X] Initiate full server isolation (as in no power, all connections are to be physically cut if need be, do not leave a single route of attack against the database) for research servers. Security is essential in keeping online, but no need to give potential attack route to PI research database. Send security teams to sweep the facility for potential infiltrators.
-[X] Go with the security teams that are patrolling the labs: this intrusion is TOP PRIORITY! In fact, it's possible, even likely, that the physical attack is a distraction to cover the removal of the lab data. Locate and shutting down any infiltration into the research computers, catch any intruders into the labs (alive if at all possible) and figure out how it was done to prevent future attempts.
[X] Security teams are to move to critical locations. (Security sector, armories, research databases, etc)
[X] Researches who need to save all files before going to safety have dibs for the shield belts in laboratory storages. Gaver Dor is allowed to charge his guns.
[X] Paragon Industries building a better future
-[X] How much (50 million)
[X] Prepare for an interview charm offensive, now that you have your CASIE and know how to use it:
-[X] In the Spotlight with Tim Vargan
-[X] Galactic Luminaries (after you've had a bit more practice)
-[X] Look for more interview opportunities.
[X] Release a series of sarcastic mockumenteries, titled "Please Do Not Lick the Arc Reactor", targeting all the silly rumors about Arc Reactor dangers, and let them go viral.
What will you do?
[X] Invite him to Mindoir to talk
-[X] Make sure that he and Gaver Dor don't come to blows.
The Alliance would like: (May combine choices)
[X] 647 Fire Control and Point Defense VIs 64.7 million credits now, 4 million credits service and care per quarter. Delivered this quarter.
[X] Five sets of four 40TW arc-reactors and cabling. 2.5 billion profit per set, 10,000 production per set. Delivered the sooner the better, each set can be delivered individually (Earliest looks like 2174-Q1)
-[X] Deliverable 2174-Q1
[X] 2000 Units of Arcane Blur Plating. 750 million profit, 2000 production. Not as much of a rush.
-[X] Deliverable 2174-Q1
[X] We probably won't be able to do more than piecemeal upgrades to the heavy cruiser and larger ships for some time yet, so see if other discrete upgrades for the larger ships can be sold to Hackett:
-[X] Repulsor-based maneuvering thruster drop-in replacements.
-[X] GARDIAN system upgrades; our improved DEWs mean that even denser point defenses can be added to the larger ships.
-[X] Hydra missile tubes to overwhelm enemy point defenses and additional starfighter harassment
Do what?
[X] ...put my suit on then...
-[X] ...counter the hacker
[X] Bring PI security to full alert in all PI facilities. All power armor teams are to suit up. Defenses are to be warmed up. Non-combat personnel are to be evacuated to shelters immediately.
[X] Alert Mindoir militia and System Alliance forces that a hacking attack is occurring against PI and that a physical attack is highly likely.
[X] Initiate full server isolation (as in no power, all connections are to be physically cut if need be, do not leave a single route of attack against the database) for research servers. Security is essential in keeping online, but no need to give potential attack route to PI research database. Send security teams to sweep the facility for potential infiltrators.
-[X] Go with the security teams that are patrolling the labs: this intrusion is TOP PRIORITY! In fact, it's possible, even likely, that the physical attack is a distraction to cover the removal of the lab data. Locate and shutting down any infiltration into the research computers, catch any intruders into the labs (alive if at all possible) and figure out how it was done to prevent future attempts.
[X] Security teams are to move to critical locations. (Security sector, armories, research databases, etc)
[X] Researches who need to save all files before going to safety have dibs for the shield belts in laboratory storages. Gaver Dor is allowed to charge his guns.
That makes sense. For the most part I think players have been aware of this and you free to either ask me or for more complicated stuff put in an investigation i the votes.
I consider this an impossibility as a general objective. People even of the same species have different axiomatic assumptions about the universe. And they can even be completely contradictory. Now it maybe possible that one could develop an ethical calculus for a given set of axioms. Problem is figuring out what those axioms are and which ones are good.
To some degree even if you never see it this is actually a relevant in universe plot point.
Probably be depended on species /culture but building better system is an option.
Well assuming that the people in the organization value ownership (very common in human cultures at least), the the best method is to say that they have something and then take it away if they don't do something.
Joking aside, this is a possible idea I'd think.
According to our studies we should put robots in charge of everything. Humans (and other races) are too broken and poorly designed.
Or in other words this sound really hard. I cannot imagine a consistent system where money (or some social value item) do not eventually take over as the means for determining leadership/power. At least with humans, barring magic or something. Be hard to write about.
Asari. Enough said.
Aka what all the ad companies are researching IRL.
Aka what they should teach in school right now damn it!
Makes sense.
The Arc-reactor PSAs were meant to be flippant. I was thinking of things like "Please read the manual*", "Fusion reactors also glow", "Shooting Arc-reactors with high power guns is bad, just like shooting fusion reactors". I though I had mentioned that Marking was going to probably be rather flippant in their ads if I didn't then oops.
*Including a comparison of what happens when you drop an arc-reactor in water vs a fusion reactor, both of which have manuals that suggest you don't do that because it's dumb.
Well yeah a fleet isn't going to be hidden. Don't recall saying that. Just that it'd work and some faction might be willing to do that sort of thing.
- Location
- America
Arc-reactor powered, Repulsor boosted thanix cannon. We must make some but we shall keep it a secret and only mount them on our own ships. Their first combat trials shall be aboard a frigate which we shall name PCS (Paragon Corporate Starship) Yuudachi which will accidentally stumble across a pirate base. When the pirates attack, they shall be the first to feel the might of the Crusader Shock Cannons.
I want our ships to have Japanese names.
I want our ships to have Japanese names.
avatar11792
Et Sic Incipit
- Location
- Planet Earth, North America
See, I liked the sound of all that except the end part, the Japanese-sounding names. Revy doesn't have a major Japanese influence, so IC it doesn't make sense for her to do that, plus OOC it's tacky IMHO.
But yeah, keeping our most destructive prototype superweapons as testing gear on our experimental superships makes sense.
...I want to get to Dreadnoughts ASAP, just so we can have one of your "Arc-reactor powered, Repulsor boosted thanix cannons" as its spinal mount.
- Location
- America
Aw, but Japanese names sound cool. All the British ones are probably taken by the SA, the Americans have all their ships named after people, and I refuse to allow one of our ships to be named Enterprise. If any of our ships other than a carrier is going to be named enterprise, I will completely oppose it.See, I liked the sound of all that except the end part, the Japanese-sounding names. Revy doesn't have a major Japanese influence, so IC it doesn't make sense for her to do that, plus OOC it's tacky IMHO.
But yeah, keeping our most destructive prototype superweapons as testing gear on our experimental superships makes sense.
...I want to get to Dreadnoughts ASAP, just so we can have one of your "Arc-reactor powered, Repulsor boosted thanix cannons" as its spinal mount.
Also, the Arc-reactor powered, Repulsor boosted Thanix cannons are supposed to make up the main battery. Not the main gun, main battery. At this point, bigger dakka is kinda pointless so instead, we must have more dakka to put more rounds on more targets faster.
I'm somewhat sceptical that anyone would muster a fleet against us. Just as Revy doesn't exist in a vacuum, so do our opponents. If they move assets around, intelligence around the galaxy will notice because those things require a lot of supplies and coordination. Those leave trails.
And the Systems Alliance has a very big interest in keeping Paragon Industries in the business as we single handidly reshaped the landscape in terms of arms and medical technology, and are delivering more.
The Turians might be somewhat friendly as well, given that we just piss off the Batarians. The Asari and STG want our stuff, and of those, I only consider the Asari a lethal threat as they okay to wait centuries for our tech to come naturally.
Deniable assets, spec ops and such are much more easy to hide, but even here, we should benefit from SA protection. I'd be very surprised if Mindoir didn't see a large influx of spooks and SpecOps teams in the last few months. And the pirate raid is an ideal excuse for them to upgrade colony defences as well.
Btw, did we already publish our findings concerning the Protean energy source? That should reduce the suspicions as to us hiding that stuff as we can conclusively prove that our shit is better than the Proteans. We could also offer to help in decrypting the cache on Mars. AFAIK, it was a mess to figure out well into canon ME. And making that accessible would probably help a lot.
We'd still offer superior products of course, but it's a start and makes the Asaris cache much less of an advantage. Liara can even help and get the credit for interpreting the data.
And the Systems Alliance has a very big interest in keeping Paragon Industries in the business as we single handidly reshaped the landscape in terms of arms and medical technology, and are delivering more.
The Turians might be somewhat friendly as well, given that we just piss off the Batarians. The Asari and STG want our stuff, and of those, I only consider the Asari a lethal threat as they okay to wait centuries for our tech to come naturally.
Deniable assets, spec ops and such are much more easy to hide, but even here, we should benefit from SA protection. I'd be very surprised if Mindoir didn't see a large influx of spooks and SpecOps teams in the last few months. And the pirate raid is an ideal excuse for them to upgrade colony defences as well.
Btw, did we already publish our findings concerning the Protean energy source? That should reduce the suspicions as to us hiding that stuff as we can conclusively prove that our shit is better than the Proteans. We could also offer to help in decrypting the cache on Mars. AFAIK, it was a mess to figure out well into canon ME. And making that accessible would probably help a lot.
We'd still offer superior products of course, but it's a start and makes the Asaris cache much less of an advantage. Liara can even help and get the credit for interpreting the data.
Aren't PI products and things named after Roman things? That's a pretty cool line of things to steal names from, and Revy can always dip into ancient Greek stuff as well, the Romans did it after all!
- Location
- America
Attention All New Hires and Academic Exchange Personnel
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
This friday is the new employee orientation. Attendance is mandatory. If you cannot make it for any reason, please see the human resources office for options or for the new employee manual and guidebook that will be passed out at orientation. The guidebook will have very useful information regarding working at Paragon Industries and contains helpful hints from more senior employees.
This Saturday is anime night in the Multi-Purpose room. All employees are welcome to attend. Non-human employees are encouraged to come and enjoy a small piece of human culture. This week's anime is *shuffling papers* Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
Seriously Kasumi? Wait. You're serious. Huh? Oh! Now I get it.
Please carry on and have a wonderful and productive day.
Thank you.
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
This friday is the new employee orientation. Attendance is mandatory. If you cannot make it for any reason, please see the human resources office for options or for the new employee manual and guidebook that will be passed out at orientation. The guidebook will have very useful information regarding working at Paragon Industries and contains helpful hints from more senior employees.
This Saturday is anime night in the Multi-Purpose room. All employees are welcome to attend. Non-human employees are encouraged to come and enjoy a small piece of human culture. This week's anime is *shuffling papers* Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
Seriously Kasumi? Wait. You're serious. Huh? Oh! Now I get it.
Please carry on and have a wonderful and productive day.
Thank you.
Last edited:
I figured, given PI's focus, you were going to say Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.
- Location
- America
No, that's next week. Also, I think I'm going to start writing regular Attention Paragon Industries entries.I figured, given PI's focus, you were going to say Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.
You have any suggestions?
meianmaru
The Devourer of Fiction
"Paragon Industries technology: It might as well be magitech."I figured, given PI's focus, you were going to say Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.
Carrnage
Human
- Location
- New Zealand
Also the heroes monsters, we haven't even gotten all the way through the weaponry yet!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Indeed, just as math proofs start with several axioms, so can ones of ethical calculus. Essentially, we can try and quantify these driving forces, then build computer models and run huge finite element analysis with them to see what the model says. We can create models that gradually increase in scope, until, years down the line, we have something that can model whole nations. We can use the same methodology as the economic models, to a degree the two are actually interlinked. One can make the argument that all behaviour is economic behaviour, on a fundamental level.
Indeed, I'm assuming we would start with Humanity and then apply some sort of secondary Xeno-whatever project to adapt it for another species.
According to our studies we should put robots in charge of everything. Humans (and other races) are too broken and poorly designed.
Or in other words this sound really hard. I cannot imagine a consistent system where money (or some social value item) do not eventually take over as the means for determining leadership/power. At least with humans, barring magic or something. Be hard to write about.
I'm going to post some interesting quotes, which may tweak you interest:
Law had been one of those things Peter detested. "There's no such thing as two identical acts," he'd told Toby. "All actions have different outcomes. I steal a diamond necklace from a rich guy who's forgotten he own it, nobody cares. You steal a loaf of bread from a factory that makes millions of them every day, and you get sent to prison. It makes no sense. Every act should be judged entirely on its own."
In the world before artificial intelligence, this had been impossible, so there was law. Justice, however, was one of the few places in Peter's utopia where he allowed AI, so Shylif and Sebastine Coley found themselves standing in a marble courthouse but not in front of a traditional judge or jury.
- Lockstep, pg 245
"I'm a proxy, not a representative. I didn't want the appointment, but it turns out that I vote, mod, and buy exactly like about fifty million other people. I can be relied on to think and vote the way they would if they were in the council. At least until I get jaded and compromised. I'm only here for another year."
- Lockstep, pg 255
There were political parties, but they were ah hoc and lasted for only one sitting session, which was four years. During that time, the ministers ran sophisticated simulations based on their own or their constituents' biases and beliefs, and tried to enlist support for initiatives based on the results. Even then, there were no direct votes; the ministers played matching games of the would-fixing-A-improve-B-would-fixing-B-improve-A sort.
...lucky the political translation layer they'd given him provided a different view through his glasses. Some of the politicos were literally turning green - not with envy but with approval, which the subtitles translated in various ways: that fellow over there was happy that Toby was telling the truth, while the woman on the left of him had just had her worst predictions confirmed. Other ministers were yellow, still others crimson, and several had turned black, apparently signifying that they were not psychoculturally capable of actually absorbing the meaning of what he'd just said.
Above them all, the interface was showing a disklike balance-of-power meter, which was currently tilting around like a top. Everything was still in play, apparently.
...They heard that. The interface's feedback layer flooded him with restatements of his own words: he knew what he'd just said; now the interface was telling him what each minister had heard - what the words he'd said meant to them after being filtered through their stated expectations and hopes, known prejudices and biases, cognitive deficits and so on. The interface proposed a set of re-wordings that it thought would custom-translate him meaning to them, but it was a bewildering jumble that he had no time to review. He signalled yes to it and the re-wordings went out.
- Lockstep, pg 257
Institutions are information processing systems created to promote specific values. Once they exist, these systems(club, company, government or church) became values in and of themselves. Then new systems are created to support them in turn. We call this constant cycling of systems "history".
- Lady of Mazes, pg 107
Livia found that after a few queries and after flipping through a few views to try to find something, her local view was beginning to anticipate her. The parkland mutated spontaneously, showing paths, buildings, labels and reticles indicating rest stops and fountains; and people began appearing. The first few were serlings: inscape agents designed to help search for information. She asked one of them who the other people in her view were.
"People who share your interests and activities," said the man-shaped agent. "Or who just like the same places. When you use inscape you accumulate a profile based on what you've done and where you've gone. Inscape locates people with similar or complementary profiles and brings you close." It moved its open palms together.
- Lady of Mazes, pg 127
She appeared human except for one feature: her eyes glowed with inner light, a subtle and entrancing gold. "She is a vote."...
"I'm the aggregate personality of a particular constituency within the Archipelago. Just an average person, in the most literal sense."...
"In modern and ancient ages they used vote in humans to run their institutions, but you could never guarantee that the person you voted for really had the same agenda as you. Aggregate personalities like Filament solve that problem. They really are the constituency, in a sense. So when they get together you know your interests are being looked after."
"...But it's not really a top down thing. Inscape is designed so that like minded people doing similar things form stable nodes of activity. When such a node becomes large enough, a vote spontaneously appears as a high level behaviour of the network. There's one of us for each interest group in the Archipelago. And the entity that emerges out of our interactions is called the Government."
- Lady of Mazes, pg 134
"...The Good Book is the result of massive simulations of whole societies - what happens when billions of individuals follow various codes of conduct. It's simple: if most people use the rules in the Book most of the time, a pretty much utopian society emerges spontaneously on the macro level."
The Book was like magic. Sophia had wanted Livia to try it out, so she did to be polite. Using it was like play-acting. Livia found she could slip easily into some roles but had more difficulty with others. One day she was the Courier, and people came to her with packages for her to deliver until she met someone whose role changed hers. The next day she was designated the Tourist, and she did nothing but explore Brand New York until she met a Visitor, at which point her role changed to Tour Guide. That was all very simple, she thought, any idiot could have designed a system like this. but every now and then she caught glimpses of something more - something extraordinary. Yesterday she had run through a chain of roles and ended up as Secretary. Reviewing the Secretary's role in the Book, she found that she should poll inscape for anyone nearby who had one of the roles of Boss, Lawyer, Researcher or about five other alternates. She did, and went to meet a woman who had the odd, unfamiliar role of Auditor.
Livia met the Auditor in a restaurant. Five other people were there, too; all had been summoned to this meeting by their roles, but nobody had any idea why, so they compared notes. One man said he'd been given the role of Messenger three days before, and couldn't shake it. He was being followed by a small constellation of inscape windows he'd accumulated from other roles. When he distributed these, they turned out to all relate to an issue of power allotment in Brand New York that the votes were dragging their heels on. Suddenly the Auditor had a task. As Secretary, Livia began annotating her memory of the meeting. In under an hour they had a policy package with key suggestions, and suddenly their roles changed. A man who'd been the Critic suddenly became the Administrator. According to the rules of the Book, the could enact policy provided conversion to Administrator was duly witnessed by enough other users.
This was amazing. After a while, through, Livia had realised that far larger and more intricate interactions were occurring via the Book all the time. It was simply that few or none of the people involved could see more than the smallest part of them.
- Lady of Mazes, pg 152
She saw a tangle of glowing threads like hair splitting into existence in front of her. Livia shut her eyes to sharpen the image, and found herself immersed in a whirling vortex made up of sharp lines, almost like arrows that pointed and rotated. She reached out her and and grabbed at one.
Towers of data flickered into being around her. The arrow flattened out, broadened, became a plain. Thousands of other lines stood up out of that plain, like a forest.
She moved her virtual body through the forest, checking the tiny labels on some of the lines: Resistance, Capacitance, said one; Condensers, designs and uses, said another. Instead of a forest she imagined she was sailing across a sea of technologies, able with a gesture to pull any invention or principle to herself and, as if she was hauling in a net full of fish, come up with all the other technologies that it necessitated. She grabbed one at random (Ballistics, it said) and pulled.
With it in hand, new options appeared as floating reticles around her. The tech locks were a multidimensional database, and the technological dependencies were just one way to cut the data. If she chose another view, she could see the anthropology and politics that spears, bows, and cannon each entailed. She dropped ballistics to explore more; to her surprise, even the five senses were listed here as technologies. They led her to the politics of the human body, and of other body plans: four footed, winged, finned. The tech locks made no distinction between biology and mechanism.
Each technology equated to some human value or set of values, she saw. She'd known that. But on Earth, in the Archipelago and everywhere else, technologies came first, and values changed to accommodate them. Unlike the locks, values were the keys to access or shut away technologies.
"But how do you work?" She dismissed the database view, and found herself looking at a set of genetic algorithms, compact logical notations. They didn't describe particular machine designs, but rather specifications; in practice, sims would evolve machinery to particular cases and according to local conditions and resources. The locks could work anywhere.
The specifications were the key, they relied on the database and couldn't be duplicated without it. They told how and when to employ energy fields to suppress various powers and macro effects. In Teven, the sims seemed to evolve machines to manipulate programmable matter. Raw materials couldn't be dug out of the ground in a coronal, since the ground only went down a metre or so. What metals or inorganic compounds were available were actually composed of bulk quantum dots which mimicked the qualities of the real thing: with a single command, a chunk of virtual iron could be transformed into pseudo-sulphur or silicon, or given characteristics that no natural element possessed. To disable any device, all the tech locks had to do was change its material composition. All this required was a command sent through inscape.
The locks proclaimed that there were no neutral technologies. The devices and methods people used didn't just represent certain values - they were those values, in some way.
- Lady of Mazes, pg 255
Does that mean we can steal their stuff and reverse engineer it?
Indeed.
Do not get me started on the educational system.
Emizaquel
What is a self?
The silliness has inspired me to add something silly of my own as well, Revy should really get some more sleep.
Omake : Testing the dubstep gun
It was an innocuous device, something she had made more as a way to pass the time than actually achieve something. However, Revy found that it detracted little from the sheer absurdity of her creation. Staring at it she sighed, "Well, it's done, I guess I should test it."
Pulling the strange contraption off of the work table she lugged it to the firing range. Aiming the 'barrel' at the target, she checked her ear-protection, laughing at the absolute absurdity of what she was about to do, she pulled the trigger.
A beam of light lanced out of the barrel, and the walls of the room shook as concussive burst of sound impacted on the target. It was tossed into the air by the immense fluctuations in air pressure, rendered to pieces no larger that a fingernail by forces that must have felt like thousands of successive explosions. The target, once a block of hardwood fell to the ground in a cloud of dust.
Looking at the back wall she was astonished to find the concrete cracked by the weapon's blast, though it was to be expected, she supposed, when you were launching more than two hundred and twenty decibels worth of sound at your target.
Omake : Testing the dubstep gun
It was an innocuous device, something she had made more as a way to pass the time than actually achieve something. However, Revy found that it detracted little from the sheer absurdity of her creation. Staring at it she sighed, "Well, it's done, I guess I should test it."
Pulling the strange contraption off of the work table she lugged it to the firing range. Aiming the 'barrel' at the target, she checked her ear-protection, laughing at the absolute absurdity of what she was about to do, she pulled the trigger.
A beam of light lanced out of the barrel, and the walls of the room shook as concussive burst of sound impacted on the target. It was tossed into the air by the immense fluctuations in air pressure, rendered to pieces no larger that a fingernail by forces that must have felt like thousands of successive explosions. The target, once a block of hardwood fell to the ground in a cloud of dust.
Looking at the back wall she was astonished to find the concrete cracked by the weapon's blast, though it was to be expected, she supposed, when you were launching more than two hundred and twenty decibels worth of sound at your target.
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