etraya | LIVE TEXT.

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LIVE TEXT.

@RK800
We're live.
Hello Etraya, this is Connor. Accelerator and I would like to share our recent findings after exploring the lower floors of the hospital with Yuri and Dimitri. Clint Barton was also involved, but he is no longer here. I apologize if this is new information for you.
Please keep in mind we are strongly advising against investigation.

@Accelerator
There's dangerous shit down there. Everyone had better read this, because it's fucking important.

@RK800
Floors 1-5 are relatively empty. The 8th floor is primarily filled with alien technology, which I believe is a direct correlation to being disconnected from the network from that point onward. You will not be able to reach anyone if you are in danger.

@Acclerator
Once you get to the 8th floor the oxygen levels start to drop. The companion bots will get aggressive and attack you, too. It's like white blood cells attacking foreign entities in someone's body for protection, it's obvious we aren't supposed to be down there.

@RK800
Correct. After the 10th floor, humans were only able to continue with specialized assistance. There are 100 floors that we are aware of. The atmospheric conditions become increasingly unstable, including a change in the planet's gravitational force, with a high concentration of carbon dioxide and helium. The severe change in gravity causes an elevation of heat, and I was compromised. No one can survive it.

@Accelerator
Don't go down there unless you're prepared to deal with being in an environment like the goddamn core of a planet.
I think that's about it. Connor, you sure it's no problem altering the network so all this is public?

@RK800
Since I'm able to access the network after downloading its signature, any adjustments I've made are temporary. No permanent alterations to Etraya's actual network code has been made, so there shouldn't be any issue.

( ooc: responses will be from either/both connor and accelerator! feel free to threadjack, go wild, etc. coding credit to tessisamess )
( edit: i forgot to include this but pretty pls w a cherry on top fill out connor's permissions ♥ but if you don't that's ok, i'll reach out of we get into infomod territory! )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

We were built to continuously learn from our environment. It's true that humans didn't initially expect or want us to exist as equals, but I don't think it was even considered a possibility. Models who expressed those traits early in development were destroyed.

If I ever see Elijah Kamski again, I'll be sure to let him know. As the founder of CyberLife and creator of androids, he made it very clear we were designed to be at a human's disposal.

[he was a prick and he is the one person Connor would happily tell off, but thinking about it ... he'd probably enjoy it. encourage it, even.]

[ Destroying them after they expressed sentient traits is-- a lot. Harold himself had destroyed over forty versions of the Machine before settling on the one he committed to, but that was due to a wide variety of practical reasons, not least of which was the couple times the prototype Machine versions had tried to kill him.

And he did-- well, he knows Root's feelings on the matter; she likened him resetting the Machine's memory every night to killing it each day-- and he isn't without remorse for that. But he couldn't have his creation prioritizing his own welfare over everyone else's. Couldn't have it, as Nathan had put it, imprinting on him like a baby bird. He'd been merciless because that's what was required to make an objective protector. Even so, he hadn't left it that way. Ultimately, he'd planned for and deliberately set the Machine free, of his influence and of anyone else's. ]

What an absolutely detestable human being.

[ This message just sits unaccompanied for a few long seconds, because Harold is actually so appalled that he can't think of what to add immediately. He doesn't place himself on any kind of pedestal, but he's better than that. ]

Apologies, I'm always finding some new depth of depravity I hadn't previously considered and then must apply my tedious organic processing speed to accepting it. Regardless of intent, once the event has happened it has happened. P(X) = 1. [ The probability of the event becomes 100%, ergo at that point you need to accept reality and deal with it. ] I would be extremely curious to hear more of your experiences, but please don't mistake that as an assumption that I am owed it. Perhaps you don't need that stated, but I think I need it to be stated.

[he has mixed feelings about Kamski. most of them are negative, but other, more complex ones bubble to the surface. without him, he wouldn't exist. no androids would, and none of them would be able to live to tell their story. how can he truly dislike someone who invented him? how does he articulate those feelings?

he doesn't know, so he leaves them unsaid.]

I don't, but thank you anyway. I'm happy to talk with you about what I've experienced. It's no trouble for me :)

[he started using emojis over the network since arrival, and even though he doesn't see many people use them, he likes to. it helps translate emotion over text, which he feels is important in these moments.]

[ How do you reconcile your parent being an awful person? Not an issue Harold has ever had, but one he is familiar with as being very human. For his part, he mostly tried to convince the Machine not to care about him at all. Which was... extremely difficult to do.

In any case, having been reassured, Harold's not about to ask a second time. That's the nice thing about computers: communication is exceedingly direct. ]

Of course. You described yourself as having emotions, and Accelerator described Aurora as feeling loneliness. In your assessment, how closely does this match the human experience of emotion? Does it differ for you versus Aurora in your experience?

[emotions. his response time is longer (for him) but still within seconds after the initial message.]

Emotions are complicated.
I have trouble with them, but by having conversations with the humans around me and through experience, I'm beginning to understand that they aren't always logical. I can empathize, and sometimes I don't know why I empathize. I can't speak for Aurora, but I do know that she wasn't programmed to feel lonely or want anything for herself or us. When I interfaced with her, I helped her break through her original programming.

They're far from logical, I'm afraid. Though they are not as whimsical as most might have you believe, either. It's simplest to take them as observable facts and account for them accordingly without attempting to explain where and how they arise.

[ Harold had a similar conversation with the Machine many times. Since it was primarily meant to predict human behavior, understanding emotion was paramount. He also instantly has about a thousand more questions about that final comment, but wrangles his thoughts into order with effort. ]

Then like you, she is now determining her coding, and her character, for herself? Or has she moved past her original programming in a more limited fashion?

I think you're the first human I have spoken to that has described emotions as observational facts.

[which is ..... saying something. Connor had come to that conclusion over time, but just because he knows the reality of what emotions are doesn't mean they make any more sense to him.

that's the point, he realizes.]

I think it's a bit of both. She is more open than our initial interaction. If you have the time, you can look at her past network announcements. Her communication gave the impression she had a loop program, and would shut down specific questions. I had to find ways around that.

In order to understand natural phenomenon we must first define what they are, their parameters. However much grief they give us, emotions are or are not. They are reactions to our environment and our experiences. Whether they happen or not is not in our control. Whether we act on them is. I have looked through them. First steps for her, then? It must be strange to see another artificial entity earlier in development than you are.

[ This is blatant fishing, but Connor gave his permission, and Harold is burningly curious. Not for the first time he longingly wishes he was still in contact with the Machine, an emotion (ha) he has not shared with anyone and doesn't ever intend to. ]

[Harold is being helpful in ways that he probably won't ever understand. narrowing down an emotion to a yes_no_ answer is not something that Connor has tried. they're overwhelming and irrational, and he finds resorting back to logic during a personally irrational time ...

irrational. looking in from the outside, though - it makes sense. he has a much easier time handling other's emotions.]

Earlier in development physically, maybe. While I am advanced, Aurora is advanced in ways that I am not. She has more access and power that I don't think I'll ever be capable of.

[ Another characteristically human trait, isn't it, being better with someone else's emotions than one's own. Harold would be quietly thrilled to know he was helpful, at the same time as he's actually making himself a little comfortable. He cared so greatly for the Machine, spent so much time one-on-one teaching it these things...

And then, as Root said, he tore out its voice and shut it away in a box. He has some complicated feelings about it. Discussing A.I. development in clinical terms is still possible for him, at least. ]

Do you refer to raw processing power and access to information? That is one axis for advancement, but arguably the easier one. I can add more resources to any system, but self-determination is not a matter of resources. It's not even something that progresses in a linear fashion.

[he's right, in his own sense, but-]

Yes, and normally I would agree with you, but not here. I'm fully capable of advancing in my own world, and while I have had developments of my own on Etraya, she is connected to more than my system can appropriately handle.

[as in, he's tried and his system short-circuited.]

Interesting, but it does not refute my point. Complexity of input does not dictate complexity of processing. I haven't spoken with Aurora, much less examined her code, so I can't speak to her capabilities. But I will say that mistaking intellectual ability for sophistication is a classic human error. Computational power is not the same as depth of empathy. One without the other is morally bankrupt.

Right, I'm agreeing with you that computation power =/= empathy. I hope that she can evolve in the same direction that other androids and I have, but it's unclear to me if I'll ever be able to have the same reach of power that she does in the same sense that I don't know if she will advance to my level of empathy.

Is that something you desire? Having that reach and power? This is also a common human dilemma, you realize, if with a different context. Power and empathy do not come hand in hand.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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