[network] @featherydouche; not much hope for survival if the neon bible is right; night 182 [open]

[mrcreamsicles]

[It's in the evening, after lockdown when this goes up on the network. Instead of his usual text, Davesprite is posting in audio.]

Hey, guess who found something? I got to talking with Natasha the other night when we were all messed up with the eyes, and we got to thinking, you know who else had glowing eyes? Andromeda. Plus people saw her in the dreams, and Winter said she might have a backup at town hall... My point is I thought it was worth asking her about this, since she might know something, y'know? Turns out she did. Check it.

[Davesprite uploads an audio file of two women speaking.]

So, I can hear Winter first, but I'm not sure who the second is. I'm guessing Andromeda since it's her house, but I ain't exactly heard her voice. I know some people talked to her in the dreams before, so can one of you confirm?

Point of interest speaks for itself, though. Cult hates robots, lady number 2 thought she could fix it, and I'm pretty sure that didn't work considering the situation we're under. We know they both died, after all. But if you ask me, that only raises more questions about the prophet.

Go ahead and talk if you've got your own ideas. I've been reading up a lot, but I'm still a newbie next to most of y'all.

Comments

@SceptredIsle; voice

[keepscalm]

That's definitely Andromeda.

I have to wonder how she planned to fix it. Cultists aren't usually the type to be easily swayed from their beliefs.

[mrcreamsicles]

Sweet, thanks man.

And yeah, that's the question, isn't it? People get hella up in arms about religion even when it's the non-cult kind, sometimes, so now we got murderous cultists to worry about. And they've both been pretty cagey about what their purposes were, right? Classified fancy AI stuff, beyond the general thing.

[keepscalm]

Correct. Miller claimed they were both spies, but Winter is either unwilling or unable to say. And we haven't been able to communicate with Andromeda on that level since she appeared in the dreams. It's difficult to say what either of them were capable of prior to their deaths.

[mrcreamsicles]

Yeah, exactly. Robo-spies are pretty much bound by nature to be mysterious, right? More trustworthy than the regular kind since you can just program them not to say the classified stuff, especially if all we've got now is a weak AI backup version.

Makes me wonder how much this had to do with their deaths, too. Before I was thinking maybe the nuclear attack had something to do with it, if not directly then from whatever else came with it... But then, we don't really know when this cropped up, or why the city got attacked, do we?

[He speaks with the tone of someone thinking out loud.]

We don't even know what the prophet saw, or what her role was supposed to be, or why it was some little kid that got all that importance put on her. See, this is why I don't bother with religion.

[That, and it turns out his universe was a frog made by trolls, but that's off topic.]

@hotstud_xxx; text

[rubikscomplex]

it's obvious
look at the last exchange we had with winter
andromeda screwed with the nanomachines to adjust the way people were thinking

@SceptredIsle; text

[keepscalm]

Assuming she had either the security clearance or the knowledge necessary to forcibly take control of those systems, that's a possibility. Also assuming that she was able to tamper with them without damaging herself, since she would have been equally susceptible to an attack as any of the other technology in town. Plus, she likely had nanomachines of her own if she was a citizen of Norfinbury.

I'm not discounting the possibility, but I doubt it would have been such an easy task.

@featherydouche; text

[mrcreamsicles]

why would a robot ai have nanomachines
where would they even go

text

[rubikscomplex]

she was a top of the line robot assassin/diplomat
who helped the government bridge the gap between computers and humans
pretty sure she's got the clearance

and like tang down there said
it seems unlikely she'd have nanomachines inside her
she can already be programmed and didn't have a flesh body to maintain
wasted resources
plus she said they're for human systems last time

@Mnemosyne; text

[bookofnope]

Or the way they were acting. Remember Sung's video?

[mrcreamsicles]

No problem.

[He planned to anyway, but he definitely appreciates the thanks. He did a useful thing! Feels good.]

And nah, she didn't say anything. I just talked to her a while, asked her stuff—asked her weird not-ghost, I mean. She wasn't actually there, and I didn't see her eyes or anything show up. But once I finished talking, this SD card dropped outta somewhere I didn't see, and this is what was on it.

@itsybitsy; audio

[redrooms]

Good job, Davesprite.

[She definitely sounds proud.]

I wonder how "dead" we can consider Andromeda, considering the back up. If there is one, I imagine she would be able to shed considerable light on our situation.

[mrcreamsicles]

Thanks.

[He is so pleased. Writing a guide might be a terrible pain in the ass that may never actually get finished at this rate, but he contributed! With info pertinent to their situation! It's a great feeling, especially after all the shit they've been through lately.]

Yeah, that is a good question. It's like I was saying before, you know—people in the dreams saw her at the center. Whatever happened, though, I'm not counting on her to be the same as she used to be.

[redrooms]

Probably not. I'm sure Tony could explain the particulars of how an AI would change under these conditions, but I'm not that technically inclined.

@totheark; text

[0thingsonmymind]

winter was
h e r e

iwonder if be fore or af ter
back up

*The simple answer is that it was after she was backed up and thus can't remember any of this. But, then, that required trusting her not to hide things. And she'd hidden things before...
Still, he'd rather someone else try to get it from her.*

[mrcreamsicles]

no clue
well have to ask her when she gets on the network again
hopefully without a billion glitches shitting up the communications next time

[0thingsonmymind]

yes
ifwhen she re turns

@gardenGnostic; text

[eclecticbassist]

you know i never really trusted the admin or robert miller or anyone else who could mess with the nanomachines
but i felt sorry for winter
i didnt want to lose any memories a few months ago but i figured it was the only timely solution she could find
when she told us she was a soft ai she was so upset.......
she said she did not want to come back
not like this

[ Which is an uncomfortably familiar sentiment. ]

and like.... i never interacted with andromedas cyber ghost or whatever but she seemed nice
but "i can fix it" is pretty incriminating
that is exactly the kind of thing you say after youve already screwed up once

[mrcreamsicles]

i dont know what andromeda did or didnt do
and until winter shows up for another question and answer session or people find more off east none of us probably will
but i cant say im feeling too sympathetic about the cult after what just happened

i told andromeda that maybe we could help winter in the long run if she helped us
and she gave me this so
id say weve got ourselves a long term goal

[eclecticbassist]

yeah....
for all that the nanomachines can do to our perception i dont know how much i trust winters accounts
like, in general
i have a sinking suspicion that she would say this was all in our heads
at least andromeda(s cyber ghost??) responded when you asked her to

@LELRIC; text

[armoured]

[Al still isn't really wanting to face people, but he's trying his best to power through. If he can't be helpful, then he might as well not even exist.]

I've seen something like this before, a religion founded on lies that led to the destruction of a whole town.

[mrcreamsicles]

[When Davesprite sees Al's reply, he considers asking about him: how he's doing, if he's any better, where he's gone since the other day. Before it was too much for him to deal with Al's particular emotional response, and then he had this to look into. But in the end, he decides it would derail the point. Maybe later, he thinks.]

what happened then
if it was similar enough maybe it could be useful to know

[armoured]

[It's not a fun memory, he feels partially responsible, but he's not going to hold back something potentially useful. He's not going to mention a philosopher's stone, though.]

Remember I told you about equivalent exchange? A priest in Lior was using something to help him transmute past those boundaries and calling it miracles to convert the citizens to follow the Sun God, Lito. It worked, everyone followed him and his religion, they would do anything he asked.

When he was uncovered as a fraud, the town rioted and nearly destroyed itself in the process.