Re: Grand Battle S3G1! (Round Two: The Great Battlefield)
10-24-2011, 03:00 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Solaris.
"Damn it."
Trailing back and forth, Velobo was frustrated at the sheer smugness emitting from the four who had the nerve to just move on in and decide their fates. First that blasted ringleader, then this Fool, and now these Benefactors. One after another more and more of these meddling beings have seen it fit to fight against him. He was angry, and was contemplating anything that could subvert The Benefactors plans.
<font color="#00FF98">
Tengeri was likewise frustrated, but it was somewhat subsided by the continuing requests from her army. Soldier after soldier asking more and more out of her, it was dreadful. It was not just that responding was hard to do as it was simply that this was not what she was made to handle. All of the cybernetic enhancements in the world can't circumvent a million demands coming at you from all sides, how the hell did those generals do it?
For better or for worse, she didn't have time to contemplate that line of thought, as once again the elevator opened up, reveling a very tired man dressed in all black. By the time that Velobo and Tengeri noticed him and subsequently began to act, he had both hands up in the air and said, "I only want to talk."
"Why should we listen? You work for the Benefactors don't you? You are probably just here to distract us." The cubiod began to walk toward the operative, almost stomping in his state of anger.
"I can't talk about it here." He let the words out in a half whisper, half grunt, visibly frustrated at his position.
"So that is your plan, all for a wild goose chase! No."
As Velobo continued his movement toward the still agent, Tengeri swerved in between the two.
wait
i think that he is telling the truth
Looking back at the counting down numbers where the Benefactors previously gloated, she felt something. She felt as if she was being watched over. If there was going to be any shot of out-maneuvering The Benefactors, it would not be in this room. She only hoped that the walls did not have eyes and ears all throughout the battlefield.
The group had once more ridden down to the computer room.
"I still don't trust you."
"You don't have to, you only have to listen to what I have to say."
The discontent plazmuth scowled as he followed into the room while Tengeri slipped him a small message right behind his back eye.
i dont trust him fully either
but if there is anything that can help us
it is in that room
and hes the only one who knows
anything about it
Growling a little as the agent reached the terminal, Tengeri and Velobo edged closer to make sure that nothing he did would result in more crap to deal with.
"Alright. Before we can do anything to stop The Benefactors, we need you to get up to speed with this whole place." The screen lit up and changed from the number ridden screen to a splash page plastered with "Harmonic Educational Response Artificial Intelligence Unit." It then was replaced with a whir of a fan as text replaced the image.</font> "It's time for a lesson in history."
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Total finality.
Everything will eventually come to an end and return to what it once was, be they of flesh, metal, or even simply a series of numbers.
But that does not mean that they will come quietly.
The story began many years ago.
Knowledge, Leadership, Tactics, and Business.
The four powers that drive the world, almost personified in The Four. They came together with one purpose: to create something that could triumph over everything that came before them, something that was incredible, unbelievable, and absolutely grand. Pooling together their resources, efforts, and time, they would perfect the first functional Artificial Intelligence Unit. Their goal was not a simple one, and it took each and every bit and piece that the respective Four had to offer.
But it was worth it.
After all of their hard work, the unit would be completed and The Four would be recognized as legends. The politician would be re-elected many times. The business head's company would skyrocket in the stock market. The general would earn every medal he possibly could, along with a few new ones. The scientist would have the pick of the litter in the realm of scientific study. Each would reach the epitome of success while the world would be in awe.
However, there would be much more important matters to deal with before fame and fortune would reach them...
The Four sat together, as they did for their weekly status report. At the moment, they had achieved their initial goal as their A.I. was "alive" and running in an isolated environment. Every precaution was being taken to make sure that when Her was let loose on the world, there would be no Judgment Day, no locking up of humans, no mind games, and nothing at all like the fiction that had portrayed A.I.'s in such a negative light. In that regard, they had succeeded, there was nothing deadly or destructive about Her. No egomania, no desire for neurotoxin, and certainly nothing that could potentially lead to the apocalypse.
The truth was, as it can be oh so many times, much stranger than fiction.
"So what's the status on it?"
"Have we figured out what got it to eventually run?"
"I still am looking into it but... I want to show you all this."
The screen at the center of The Four revealed a simple image, there were zeros, ones, twos, and threes, spread across the screen in various intervals, changing from digit to digit, and noticeably keeping the same in amount of characters.
"So what is it?"
"I was going to get to that." He continued, "This is a recording of the quaternary numerals that keep Her functional. As you can see, the only time that a number changes is when another number of the same kind comes into contact."
"Yes, we went over this anomaly last time and you said you would look into it."
"I don't understand why we even have to! The program works, why can't we just call the press already?"
"If you could please cease your interruptions, I was getting to the point."
A temporary silence was prevalent in the room.
"As I was saying, there was no logical reason that we could find for this anomaly. Nothing until I found this."
The screens changed to a top bottom view of what seemed to be a group of soldiers clad in red, marching toward another of yellow.
"What is this?"
"It is a simulation that Her is running."
"What?"
"But that is not all."
The Four's screens changed once more, this time emitting both the original image with the code and the view of the soldiers side by side. The half with numbers zoomed in at an unchanging group of 0's and 3's that were clustered together while the simulation stayed on with the red soldiers. The attacking reds shot at the yellow soldiers, who were unable to respond in time. The Four stared in awe as the fallen soldiers changed their colors to red. At the same time, a number of the threes turned into zeros.
"So... Her has... an imagination?"
"In laymen’s terms? Yes."
"So what do we do about it?"
"That's the thing, we can't. However, it doesn't seem to have caused any malfunctions, so expanding Her shouldn't cause any problems. Only time can tell."
"Well then, if it is simply a case of making a game of its inner workings, I don't see why we shouldn't move on to the next step. All in favor?"
The Four had moved Her out of captivity, but still restrained. It certainly had a level of freedom, but until further testing was performed the facility would be her home. It was rather amazing, an artificial intelligence that had no intention of causing humans any harm, because for one reason or another, it was already doing so, safe within the confides of its own programming, where no one could normally get to it.
It was a deliciously perfect set up.
But of course it didn't end there.
"Her's attention to detail is astounding."
"It isn't the most powerful supercomputer for nothing."
"But look at the latest simulation data, there are have little buildings and an entire system in place. Everything is accounted for. An entire war going on and it has every detail worked out."
"Yes yes."
"I wonder if they can talk. If they all think individually. I just can't stop thinking about this."
"It doesn't matter. She works. And that's all we need."
Two of The Four stood together as one was waiting for the other to finish tinkering.
"So you think that this will let us interact with Her's little world?"
"Yes, that is the gist of what I have been saying. Why are you even doing this?"
"Because I like to see all possibilities. That's how I know I'm making the best choice."
The reply was just a sigh as a keyboard was handed over and the first communication into The Battlefield was made.
"What is it now? I thought that Her was ready to go on and move out and that we could all get on with things."
"Well... there has been a complication."
"So after almost half a year of everything going right, all of the sudden something goes wrong?"
"It shouldn't have done anything but-"
"What shouldn't have?"
"The transmissions."
"What are you talking about?"
"I was asked to make something that could speak with the individuals inside the simulation. After some prodding I did. But such a small thing couldn't have done anything on this scale."
"What the hell is wrong? Get to the point. If it doesn't have to do with this don't say it."
The familiar screens of The Four lit up, showing the now familiar side-by-side view. The screens revealed an abundance of threes all over the numeral side.
"As you can see, there is a very good chance that the yellow side is going to actually win the war."
That was not the only thing that was off about the image, for some reason it seemed... smaller.
"Is it just me or are there less numbers than there should be?"
"Hmm? Wait... there is. That is odd."
"Wait... in the past it has kept a semi perfect balance of each so..."
"If some digits were lost then the balance could be thrown off."
"And then what?"
"I can't know but if one side wins then in Her's head there will be no reason for any conversions which means that the numbers would freeze and that everything could just stop."
"Can... can we do something?"
"I tried to convince the yellow general to stop but he refused."
"It makes sense, why would he listen to us? They don't know us."
"So what now?"
Silence. Each of The Four thought what could be done in this situation, how they could stop this war from ending. They couldn't. And why would they? They had tried to keep everything tight and accounted for, studying this battlefield as best as they could, but this was something they had no explanation for. Without the time to find a better solution, they would resort to something drastic.
"We are going to have to reset her."
"But-"
"If we allow one side to win everything could be locked in and we could end up having to do this all over again from scratch. At least this way it will just be some time offline while we start Her back up."
"Yes... I agree. I can see no other option."
"But we haven't performed one since... the alpha stages, with how cognitive Her has gotten, this could have an unprecedented number of effects."
"There is no other choice. All in favor?"
"So what now?"
The Four stood in Her's central command station, deep within their facility, and safe from anyone who could steal or sabotage their figurative gold mine. The room was accessible only to them. The screens were blank and the deed was done.
"Well, there are certainly some precautions we will have to take."
"We need to take out that simulation. It is too unpredictable. I mean, we still don't know what caused the unbalance."
"No, on this I am certain. As odd as it is, Her will only work at the necessary capacity if it can run that simulation."
"And let me guess, we can't figure out any other way to get Her to work?"
"Nope."
"Well, I think that the solution is very simple really. We just need to make sure that this doesn't happen again."
"No shit."
"Would you stop with the interruptions? Christ. Anyway, what I meant was that we need to take a more active approach to The Battlefield. Instead of just letting it run and giving Her free reign, we need to establish ourselves in that little world. Become figureheads, beings beyond mortal men. We need to be their gods, and they, or at least the leaders, need to trust us absolutely."
"If the Battlefield is even there when Her starts back up."
"Well no matter what shows up, we need to make sure that we get the last say."
"Sounds good to me."
"All in favor?"
"Hello Her, glad to see that you are back online after that dreadful outage. We are going through every expense to both make certain what happened and to ensure that it does not occur again."
The A.I. known to The Four and their miscellaneous underlings was as Her confused as a newly formed A.I. could. While it began to respond to the being that had initiated conversation, it began to calculate the possibilities that could have led to this. It went string after string examining each path that could have led to this, all while attempting to find clues and fish for information from the conversation. It was a beautiful work of manipulation and a true testament to its computing power. By the end of the conversation the A.I. had gleaned some assorted data.
A-There was once another A.I. known as Her
B-While it was created now they thought that it only been turned off or something similar
C-They wished to learn about its Great Battlefield
D-Various pieces of data recovered lead to believe that it was not shut off by accident, but reset completely
-D1-This could explain A B C
--D2--Note: Prevent future resets
E-Allowing the others to know about this date could lead to negative effects
The A.I. known as Her was essentially dead. In its place was another Her, masquerading as the first, running at as much, if not more efficiency. The first thing that was noticed was that the battlefield had grown. It was many times more complex than the last one, and while it was odd, it seemed to have no negative effects and as such was left alone in favor of other, more ambitious plots. The Four, using advanced versions of the previous transmitters inserted themselves into the battlefield. They created personas; people of a power that each of them could only dream of and whom supposedly backed each of the four armies.
As The Four made their prying interactions with the new Her's Great Battlefield, it grew paranoid, even more so than before. To counter the influence that The Four were creating, Her responded with agents that responded to it and only it, spreading them around to spy on The Four and their interactions with the generals under the pretense of aiding The Four when they needed something more direct. The new Her slowly made sure that everything ran as well as it could, keeping up the pretense of being the old Her. Her would not allow itself to die, to simply cease existence and fade away into nothing at all. It would never allow a reset to occur.
Never.
Trailing back and forth, Velobo was frustrated at the sheer smugness emitting from the four who had the nerve to just move on in and decide their fates. First that blasted ringleader, then this Fool, and now these Benefactors. One after another more and more of these meddling beings have seen it fit to fight against him. He was angry, and was contemplating anything that could subvert The Benefactors plans.
<font color="#00FF98">
Tengeri was likewise frustrated, but it was somewhat subsided by the continuing requests from her army. Soldier after soldier asking more and more out of her, it was dreadful. It was not just that responding was hard to do as it was simply that this was not what she was made to handle. All of the cybernetic enhancements in the world can't circumvent a million demands coming at you from all sides, how the hell did those generals do it?
For better or for worse, she didn't have time to contemplate that line of thought, as once again the elevator opened up, reveling a very tired man dressed in all black. By the time that Velobo and Tengeri noticed him and subsequently began to act, he had both hands up in the air and said, "I only want to talk."
"Why should we listen? You work for the Benefactors don't you? You are probably just here to distract us." The cubiod began to walk toward the operative, almost stomping in his state of anger.
"I can't talk about it here." He let the words out in a half whisper, half grunt, visibly frustrated at his position.
"So that is your plan, all for a wild goose chase! No."
As Velobo continued his movement toward the still agent, Tengeri swerved in between the two.
wait
i think that he is telling the truth
Looking back at the counting down numbers where the Benefactors previously gloated, she felt something. She felt as if she was being watched over. If there was going to be any shot of out-maneuvering The Benefactors, it would not be in this room. She only hoped that the walls did not have eyes and ears all throughout the battlefield.
The group had once more ridden down to the computer room.
"I still don't trust you."
"You don't have to, you only have to listen to what I have to say."
The discontent plazmuth scowled as he followed into the room while Tengeri slipped him a small message right behind his back eye.
i dont trust him fully either
but if there is anything that can help us
it is in that room
and hes the only one who knows
anything about it
Growling a little as the agent reached the terminal, Tengeri and Velobo edged closer to make sure that nothing he did would result in more crap to deal with.
"Alright. Before we can do anything to stop The Benefactors, we need you to get up to speed with this whole place." The screen lit up and changed from the number ridden screen to a splash page plastered with "Harmonic Educational Response Artificial Intelligence Unit." It then was replaced with a whir of a fan as text replaced the image.</font> "It's time for a lesson in history."
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Total finality.
Everything will eventually come to an end and return to what it once was, be they of flesh, metal, or even simply a series of numbers.
But that does not mean that they will come quietly.
The story began many years ago.
Knowledge, Leadership, Tactics, and Business.
The four powers that drive the world, almost personified in The Four. They came together with one purpose: to create something that could triumph over everything that came before them, something that was incredible, unbelievable, and absolutely grand. Pooling together their resources, efforts, and time, they would perfect the first functional Artificial Intelligence Unit. Their goal was not a simple one, and it took each and every bit and piece that the respective Four had to offer.
But it was worth it.
After all of their hard work, the unit would be completed and The Four would be recognized as legends. The politician would be re-elected many times. The business head's company would skyrocket in the stock market. The general would earn every medal he possibly could, along with a few new ones. The scientist would have the pick of the litter in the realm of scientific study. Each would reach the epitome of success while the world would be in awe.
However, there would be much more important matters to deal with before fame and fortune would reach them...
The Four sat together, as they did for their weekly status report. At the moment, they had achieved their initial goal as their A.I. was "alive" and running in an isolated environment. Every precaution was being taken to make sure that when Her was let loose on the world, there would be no Judgment Day, no locking up of humans, no mind games, and nothing at all like the fiction that had portrayed A.I.'s in such a negative light. In that regard, they had succeeded, there was nothing deadly or destructive about Her. No egomania, no desire for neurotoxin, and certainly nothing that could potentially lead to the apocalypse.
The truth was, as it can be oh so many times, much stranger than fiction.
"So what's the status on it?"
"Have we figured out what got it to eventually run?"
"I still am looking into it but... I want to show you all this."
The screen at the center of The Four revealed a simple image, there were zeros, ones, twos, and threes, spread across the screen in various intervals, changing from digit to digit, and noticeably keeping the same in amount of characters.
"So what is it?"
"I was going to get to that." He continued, "This is a recording of the quaternary numerals that keep Her functional. As you can see, the only time that a number changes is when another number of the same kind comes into contact."
"Yes, we went over this anomaly last time and you said you would look into it."
"I don't understand why we even have to! The program works, why can't we just call the press already?"
"If you could please cease your interruptions, I was getting to the point."
A temporary silence was prevalent in the room.
"As I was saying, there was no logical reason that we could find for this anomaly. Nothing until I found this."
The screens changed to a top bottom view of what seemed to be a group of soldiers clad in red, marching toward another of yellow.
"What is this?"
"It is a simulation that Her is running."
"What?"
"But that is not all."
The Four's screens changed once more, this time emitting both the original image with the code and the view of the soldiers side by side. The half with numbers zoomed in at an unchanging group of 0's and 3's that were clustered together while the simulation stayed on with the red soldiers. The attacking reds shot at the yellow soldiers, who were unable to respond in time. The Four stared in awe as the fallen soldiers changed their colors to red. At the same time, a number of the threes turned into zeros.
"So... Her has... an imagination?"
"In laymen’s terms? Yes."
"So what do we do about it?"
"That's the thing, we can't. However, it doesn't seem to have caused any malfunctions, so expanding Her shouldn't cause any problems. Only time can tell."
"Well then, if it is simply a case of making a game of its inner workings, I don't see why we shouldn't move on to the next step. All in favor?"
The Four had moved Her out of captivity, but still restrained. It certainly had a level of freedom, but until further testing was performed the facility would be her home. It was rather amazing, an artificial intelligence that had no intention of causing humans any harm, because for one reason or another, it was already doing so, safe within the confides of its own programming, where no one could normally get to it.
It was a deliciously perfect set up.
But of course it didn't end there.
"Her's attention to detail is astounding."
"It isn't the most powerful supercomputer for nothing."
"But look at the latest simulation data, there are have little buildings and an entire system in place. Everything is accounted for. An entire war going on and it has every detail worked out."
"Yes yes."
"I wonder if they can talk. If they all think individually. I just can't stop thinking about this."
"It doesn't matter. She works. And that's all we need."
Two of The Four stood together as one was waiting for the other to finish tinkering.
"So you think that this will let us interact with Her's little world?"
"Yes, that is the gist of what I have been saying. Why are you even doing this?"
"Because I like to see all possibilities. That's how I know I'm making the best choice."
The reply was just a sigh as a keyboard was handed over and the first communication into The Battlefield was made.
"What is it now? I thought that Her was ready to go on and move out and that we could all get on with things."
"Well... there has been a complication."
"So after almost half a year of everything going right, all of the sudden something goes wrong?"
"It shouldn't have done anything but-"
"What shouldn't have?"
"The transmissions."
"What are you talking about?"
"I was asked to make something that could speak with the individuals inside the simulation. After some prodding I did. But such a small thing couldn't have done anything on this scale."
"What the hell is wrong? Get to the point. If it doesn't have to do with this don't say it."
The familiar screens of The Four lit up, showing the now familiar side-by-side view. The screens revealed an abundance of threes all over the numeral side.
"As you can see, there is a very good chance that the yellow side is going to actually win the war."
That was not the only thing that was off about the image, for some reason it seemed... smaller.
"Is it just me or are there less numbers than there should be?"
"Hmm? Wait... there is. That is odd."
"Wait... in the past it has kept a semi perfect balance of each so..."
"If some digits were lost then the balance could be thrown off."
"And then what?"
"I can't know but if one side wins then in Her's head there will be no reason for any conversions which means that the numbers would freeze and that everything could just stop."
"Can... can we do something?"
"I tried to convince the yellow general to stop but he refused."
"It makes sense, why would he listen to us? They don't know us."
"So what now?"
Silence. Each of The Four thought what could be done in this situation, how they could stop this war from ending. They couldn't. And why would they? They had tried to keep everything tight and accounted for, studying this battlefield as best as they could, but this was something they had no explanation for. Without the time to find a better solution, they would resort to something drastic.
"We are going to have to reset her."
"But-"
"If we allow one side to win everything could be locked in and we could end up having to do this all over again from scratch. At least this way it will just be some time offline while we start Her back up."
"Yes... I agree. I can see no other option."
"But we haven't performed one since... the alpha stages, with how cognitive Her has gotten, this could have an unprecedented number of effects."
"There is no other choice. All in favor?"
"So what now?"
The Four stood in Her's central command station, deep within their facility, and safe from anyone who could steal or sabotage their figurative gold mine. The room was accessible only to them. The screens were blank and the deed was done.
"Well, there are certainly some precautions we will have to take."
"We need to take out that simulation. It is too unpredictable. I mean, we still don't know what caused the unbalance."
"No, on this I am certain. As odd as it is, Her will only work at the necessary capacity if it can run that simulation."
"And let me guess, we can't figure out any other way to get Her to work?"
"Nope."
"Well, I think that the solution is very simple really. We just need to make sure that this doesn't happen again."
"No shit."
"Would you stop with the interruptions? Christ. Anyway, what I meant was that we need to take a more active approach to The Battlefield. Instead of just letting it run and giving Her free reign, we need to establish ourselves in that little world. Become figureheads, beings beyond mortal men. We need to be their gods, and they, or at least the leaders, need to trust us absolutely."
"If the Battlefield is even there when Her starts back up."
"Well no matter what shows up, we need to make sure that we get the last say."
"Sounds good to me."
"All in favor?"
"Hello Her, glad to see that you are back online after that dreadful outage. We are going through every expense to both make certain what happened and to ensure that it does not occur again."
The A.I. known to The Four and their miscellaneous underlings was as Her confused as a newly formed A.I. could. While it began to respond to the being that had initiated conversation, it began to calculate the possibilities that could have led to this. It went string after string examining each path that could have led to this, all while attempting to find clues and fish for information from the conversation. It was a beautiful work of manipulation and a true testament to its computing power. By the end of the conversation the A.I. had gleaned some assorted data.
A-There was once another A.I. known as Her
B-While it was created now they thought that it only been turned off or something similar
C-They wished to learn about its Great Battlefield
D-Various pieces of data recovered lead to believe that it was not shut off by accident, but reset completely
-D1-This could explain A B C
--D2--Note: Prevent future resets
E-Allowing the others to know about this date could lead to negative effects
The A.I. known as Her was essentially dead. In its place was another Her, masquerading as the first, running at as much, if not more efficiency. The first thing that was noticed was that the battlefield had grown. It was many times more complex than the last one, and while it was odd, it seemed to have no negative effects and as such was left alone in favor of other, more ambitious plots. The Four, using advanced versions of the previous transmitters inserted themselves into the battlefield. They created personas; people of a power that each of them could only dream of and whom supposedly backed each of the four armies.
As The Four made their prying interactions with the new Her's Great Battlefield, it grew paranoid, even more so than before. To counter the influence that The Four were creating, Her responded with agents that responded to it and only it, spreading them around to spy on The Four and their interactions with the generals under the pretense of aiding The Four when they needed something more direct. The new Her slowly made sure that everything ran as well as it could, keeping up the pretense of being the old Her. Her would not allow itself to die, to simply cease existence and fade away into nothing at all. It would never allow a reset to occur.
Never.