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middleofsomewhere2021-05-15 04:59 pm
voidtreckermods) wrote in middleofsomewhere2021-05-15 04:59 pm
What their Eyes See: Optional Ongoing
By day eight the Voidtreckers have made a good deal of progress in all their tasks but there is still a lot to do to help the people of the city.
It is around mid morning when there is a message on their comms. For those that want to help it is easy to either find Anan herself or ask for netpoints and scanners to be brought to them by Chiff.
Illusions have gotten worse, uncertainty and fear are rising across all tiers and the situation is becoming more chaotic by the day. Indeed especially on the first and second tiers it seems that the voidtreckers themselves are being targeted, with creatures stalking them and attacks on their minds to make them believe that what they are seeing is real.
Same inside the Spectura system, the vines seem to almost be on the offensive against the voidtreckers though things are getting better outside the game system as more of the vicitms are freed and wake up.
Almost opposite to the situation on the lowest tier, which is getting more chaotic by the day. Anger is bubbling over, people are frightened and in a place like this the only real way to express that fear is through anger.
There has been a lot of progress but there is still a lot of work to do, especially as many of the voidtreckers have started to realise, this all seems a little too familiar.
It is around mid morning when there is a message on their comms. For those that want to help it is easy to either find Anan herself or ask for netpoints and scanners to be brought to them by Chiff.
Illusions have gotten worse, uncertainty and fear are rising across all tiers and the situation is becoming more chaotic by the day. Indeed especially on the first and second tiers it seems that the voidtreckers themselves are being targeted, with creatures stalking them and attacks on their minds to make them believe that what they are seeing is real.
Same inside the Spectura system, the vines seem to almost be on the offensive against the voidtreckers though things are getting better outside the game system as more of the vicitms are freed and wake up.
Almost opposite to the situation on the lowest tier, which is getting more chaotic by the day. Anger is bubbling over, people are frightened and in a place like this the only real way to express that fear is through anger.
There has been a lot of progress but there is still a lot of work to do, especially as many of the voidtreckers have started to realise, this all seems a little too familiar.
no subject
It's said specifically to Devero, Ghost looking at him in the not-quite-eye-contact way he sometimes has. "And you can take this with an entire bag of salt if you feel like it, but..."
He sighs. Time to put at least a couple of his cards on the table. "I'm a sort of passive telepath, which some of you knew already. I can sense the presence of other minds, and the train does have something going on, even if it's weirdly muted and difficult to sense. In my opinion, she's not an AI just executing routines, but at least aware enough to make some decisions."
He shrugs, directing his attention more generally to the crowd in the room. "And if it's ever in doubt, I think it's better to err on the side of at least treating the train like a person. I'd rather have been nice to an AI than an asshole to a person."
no subject
"Obviously it-- she--" He shakes his head a little, flustered over pronouns. "--Obviously the train is aware enough to make decisions. It wouldn't be an AI otherwise. But--"
He holds a hand out in front of him, palm up, and the round camera that's been hovering unobtrusively in a corner of the room glides down to it. It unfolds from a drone to a little critter like a turtle coming out of its shell and alights on his palm. "Sir Beepers is sentient and makes decisions, but I wouldn't call it sapient or assume that there's anything but a line of code behind its actions, no matter how novel they seem. --Not that my companion drone's remotely as sophisticated as what's piloting the train."
He tosses the drone gently into the air and Beepers re-engages its lifters, tucking in its hindlimbs and taking up a position directly over Devero's shoulder. "Regardless of whether or not the train's sapient," he continues, "of course we should treat it with the respect due a sentient being. And if it is being constrained by coding parameters, then we'd be best served figuring those out, and how to work within them."
no subject
"I know we don't got a choice but to stay, an' even if it don't make us fight, it makes us shut down an' keeps us on a short leash. Someone's decided to do that. No matter the intention all that don't sit easy.
"I am inclined to treat it like some mind is operatin' here whether it's puppetin' or it's programmed. An' from what we know, if the train is thinkin' or if somethin's runnin' it, they're a desperate criminal on the run."
That criminality could be a desperate act of self-preservation. It's just speaking from his own experiences.
no subject
It was a legitimate question, Senku was a little bit perplexed and he sighed slowly.
“I just want there to be an opportunity to opt out of this trip or opt in as it were. Consent. I don’t care if the train goes on living a long and happy life for as long as she can. I’m not entirely unsympathetic to her plight and the destruction of anyone goes against everything my allies and I stand for, but the fact is I am not enjoying my time being abducted. I have things to do.” He was just getting exhausted, honestly, with the whole conversation.
“Ultimately, in the end, if you’re content with how things are, that’s alright. The best I can ask is that you not impede my investigation in that case.” Senku pressed his lips together as though mildly frustrated. It was a tiny hint that he normally didn’t indulge in.
no subject
But he can see how people that don't have any sort of other home to go to would be real worried where the train would go, and impress that they couldn't lose it. Hell, it's not like he has one. But he cares more about the kids that have nowhere.
"My concern is how somethin' fearin' for its life'll react. But yeah, thank ya for passin' all that on." He's got his own investigating to do, he supposes, but more along the lines of the stuff he's good at. Going to have to look into some ships.
no subject
Senku sighed a little bit.
"When we were given our three questions apiece, there didn't seem to be any restrictions to what the train couldn't answer. There was always an answer, even if we didn't like it." He couldn't think if anyone else in the room had been there when that happened.
"Some answers were canned answers, like you'd get if you call customer service or something. Those are the answers that led to frustration of those on board. Some of the things we discovered were impactful to those who got those answers. The train apologized by brining us to a carnival. A lot of people were not happy about that at the time, because the answers were difficult to hear."
Again, he would let them draw their own conclusions. "That was in Imagination. Prior to that, as far as I know there was no contact and there hasn't been since. I can't say the train never listens, clearly that inbox is monitored to a point. Tidus got his request for food this month. The double carriages have been asked for for a few months already. It had been awhile since we had a vote. It was also Imagination when we got the spa. Prior to that, the train gifted other cars on a monthly basis, roughly. Some requests, like the library carriage being empty or requesting non-fiction programming in the cinema have been either limitations or restrictions."
no subject
Drumming the fingertips of one hand against the opposite bicep, he muses, "Fearing for its life? Or-- fearing for its crew? We know the train's already lost a crew once, and we know that that has had a profound effect on its behavior. This is why we need to know how sapient the train is. Does it have an autonomous mind? It is-- she-- a person? Is she doing what she's doing because she's upset and desperate to have us onboard? Or is it attempting to fulfill operating parameters in the absence of a trained crew and running into issues because it's programming isn't sophisticated enough to handle what it's dealing with right now?
"Was the train giving us canned answers during the Q-and-A because it was choosing to withhold information? Or was it giving us canned answers because those are the only answers it has to give when its interactions are limited by its programming?"
He nods at Yondu, circling back to what the Centaurian's just said. "If it gives us another chance to talk to it, can we reason with it? Or would our efforts be better served figuring out what makes it tick so we can operate within those parameters?"