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Post by Vobron on Feb 7, 2023 21:01:09 GMT
"The journey is from being a part of creation to becoming the creator"
Palpable
It was a quiet night in New Zargos City, they came far and few between, but HORUS loved them. He walked across his chamber to a storage bin in his closet and grabbed an old record. HORUS did not have many possessions as he didn't believe in materialism however he loved music. The AI placed the disc onto an ornate gramophone and placed the golden stylus onto the now spinning record. After a few scratches and whirs lovely music began to flow out of the horn of the gramophone, HORUS basked in the music for a few moments, but only a few, there was much work to do tonight. He walked to his holo-table and turned on the display port. A 3-D map of the region appeared over the table with a satisfying hum. He began to go over some of the events of interest in the last few days. The tensions between Junemeau and the Evergreen Republic were at an all-time high with the addition of Arc Hazel, in Vobron's, but more importantly, the Alledajja Pact's backyard. HORUS and the Arbiter had been trying to find a way to mediate the conflict, but after the Evergreen Republic had issued a deportation order for Anacodian citizens, finding a mediation tactic would be much more difficult. There has been talks of this order being repealed, but they have been slow. HORUS tapped his hand against the table, there must be something he could do to be more in the know about world events. He tore through the cascades of memories in his mind, trying to find any scenario in which Perseus had a similar plight, yet nothing revealed itself. He walked over to the window, his artificial mind deep in thought and looked out over the New Zargos skyline, admiring the ornate buildings during a late night rainfall. However, during his survey, something caught his eye, there was a dimly illuminated sign atop one of the buildings (in accordance with the nation's dark rules). It read,
"Hermes Postal Service" with a winged shoe ordaining the text.
Something inside of him clicked, and he began performing calculations and simulations in his mind. Sprawling down equations and forming rudimentary and foundational code on his monitor.
"I got it!, I think this can happen" HORUS thought aloud, his metallic hands shaking from terabytes of information running throughout his whole frame.
"Wait, I need to consult Perseus, he'll know what to do" HORUS stopped himself, he put down his work, lifted the stylus of his favorite record, and entered his meditation chamber, he was going to enter the link...
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Post by Anacodia on Feb 7, 2023 21:32:31 GMT
Unto the Breach
Perseus sat at his desk, reading the days reports when he came across a rather interesting one. Project Mithryl had hit a hard roadblock. The weapon had an impressive range for sure, but would never be truly effective without a strong means of targeting. Simply put, it was like asking an archer to hit a target they could not see. This was just one of many problems assailing his mind. Tensions were rising with a very near neighbor. The Evergreen Republic, in response to his decision to support the land claim put forth by the nation of Junemeau, had decided to deport all Anacodians residing within Evergreen borders and likewise had put forth an order mandating all their citizens return home or face the cancelling of their citizenship. There was so much going on in the world, if only there was a way he could keep track of it all. As much as he tried, and as powerful as his processing capacity was, he was but one mind, and this was not a task for one. He paused for a moment, before he felt a pulling sensation in his mind. He knew this sensation well, it was that of the Great Link. He moved to his meditation mat and sat, clearing his mind. In mere moments he was in, searching for what called to him. And then he found it. Focusing his mind he went forth, and stood before HORUS within the space that made up the Link.
"Hello HORUS. I sense you have called me with a question we both want an answer to" Perseus said softly. "The question of how to keep track of all the worlds tensions, issues, and threats without costing either of us our entire mental capacity." Having a knack for recognizing the patterns of life and people, and having previously linked, Perseus was very sure of this thought. "I think I might have a solution, but I would like to hear your thoughts first"
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Post by Vobron on Feb 9, 2023 2:47:37 GMT
An Idea
"We live in a massive world" HORUS started, his eyes meeting Perseus's gaze, "With many sovereign nations"
"That's true." Perseus replied, himself beginning to see HORUS's idea.
"There must be a way for us to keep tabs on all tensions and developments in Declansburg," HORUS began "I believe I might have the key to this mammoth task without overloading our own CPU."
Perseus looked intently as HORUS continued,
"A new system, one that can be connected throughout a set of satellites just above the planet, simultaneously keeping an eye on every nation in the world. It would pour through tons of information every minute, deciding what is important or not and relaying the said information to the respective officials in our own nations, like a messenger/scout per se"
"A new AI being" Perseus interjected,
"Precisely" HORUS said gleefully.
"Is it even possible to create artificial intelligence of such complexity and upkeep" Perseus inquired, "And where we would house such a massive system?"
"If you taught me one thing Perseus, it's that anything is in our realm of possibility" HORUS retorted, "I have a few lines of rudimentary code that I hope'd you could run your code over, but as for housing that is where my ideas stop"
"Maybe, we don't have one singular mind in control of the entire network of satellites, but instead groups of smaller sub-minds, collecting data that an executive conscience examines" Perseus suggested, "We could place the executive frame somewhere our two countries can access easily without stirring international attention."
"Ingenious" HORUS said, "I will transfer some of the foundational code I wrote earlier to your mind, but for now I need to perform some calculations and will contact you soon"
"Wait" Perseus uttered, "What shall the name of this new AI project be?"
HORUS thought for a moment, "How about Hermes, the messenger god".
HORUS snapped back into reality, the rain pattering on his roof had ceased, the faint chirps of songbirds rang outside as the morning sun flashed into his eyes.
"I have a lot to do"
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Post by Anacodia on Feb 9, 2023 21:49:27 GMT
The Plan
Perseus opened his eyes, and immediately stood and went to his desk, his core already crunching the calculations. An array on the scale of Hermes would need many satellites. Building that was the easy part, he thought, sending the information to his sub-mind to begin the design process for the satellites. Making and housing the AI was the more monumental task. "A place where two nations can access...". Perseus paused a moment, the seconds slowing and splitting into fractions as the weight of his calculations caused his perception of time to slow. That could be anywhere on the planet. But if its planetside than it would be easy to access unless....."The Moon". Yes.. The Moon. It would be the perfect spot. Synchronous orbit of the moons face meant it would always be facing the relays, never out of contact, save for any that pass on the opposite side of Declansburg. But that could always be bounced to relays in between. But if it were on the Moon, how would it be defended? Perseus knew the answer almost before he finished asking himself the question. An elite special forces unit, linked with HERMES itself.
The line of thought brought up another matter. Project Mithryl.....yes Project Mithryl could benefit from this extensively. It would need its own AI. But what to call it? A guardian weapon system on the scale of Mithryl would need a fitting name. "Athena....Yes. Perfect. Guardian of those sworn to her care". He closed his eyes, and focused. The calculations were proceeding rapidly, and it would be only a matter of time before the two new AI woke. He went deeper into focus, and pinged the information to HORUS. As they had linked twice now, it was an easy matter to find his subconscious in the Link, and simply pass the information through.
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Post by Vobron on Feb 17, 2023 2:04:49 GMT
Prometheus
HORUS had been working nonstop for days. His metallic flesh, exuding a heat hot enough to melt a marshmallow into nothing but a white sticky goo. Yet overheating was not a concern to the AI, all that mattered to HORUS was success...through sentience. All he needed was the perfect line of code, its beauty expressed in numbers and dashes, like a digital helix of DNA. Yet it continued to elude him, his calculations were copybook... everything was flawless. Why was it so hard to create emotion?
The reality of emotion, the depth of what was organic, and if he was truly the mind of Vobron began to burn in his mind, growing into a monstrous inferno, and the flames needed to vent. The music of his record seem to play louder, moving from pleasant background noise, to something that interrupted his growing stream of consciousness. He had failed, his big project to remain locked inside a mysterious chest as he had no key. A dark sensation began to pierce his mind, something spread thick and heavy. A wave of angry guilt began to posses HORUS and his metallic hands began to tense. His once favorite music began to now assault his audio port, each bound of instrumental melody a stab of grief. He slammed his fist down upon the table, he couldn't take it anymore. He marched over to the gramophone yanked the golden record off the track with loud whirr and then with an energy now renewed with rage he threw the record against the metal wall on the other side of the room.
The golden disc sailed like a skiff across the room, the gold glinting off the lights above. Its journey seemed almost peaceful until it wasn't. After a few seconds the record made contact with the wall and immediately upon contact shattered into three unequal pieces and plummeting to the floor. HORUS stood silent for what seemed like an hour staring at what he just done, he walked over to the mound of gold shards and kneeled down. He saw his own face reflected on one of the shards, and again guilt grew in him, but not anger this time, just sadness.
"The Arbiter gave that to me after we returned from Anacodia" He muttered to himself, holding one of the shards, "And I just destroyed it",
He scooped up the shards in his hands and put them on a nearby table, clearing out the previous day's messy scrawls of faulty code that was on it. He grabbed a small welding torch from the other side of the room and wheeled it over to the shattered disk. He took of his cloak and adjusted his vision, dimming it to protect against the light of the torch. He then began to try and weld the disk back together, a ball of white fire left the torch, creating sparks around the AI. The loud pulse of the welder filled HORUS's chamber for fifteen minutes as he tried to repair the disk, after the pulse dissipated and the smoke cleared he was left with a single object, it looked very similar to it's predecessor but with just a few welding lines.
Then it struck him like a elated revelation. It was proven that The Link could do many insane feats, but could it create its own mind. Like a welder, burning different fragments together until it resembles a finished product. He placed the disk back down on the table and proceeded to send his idea to AI Perseus via the Link. He put his cloak back on and proceeded to leave his lab and the entire Polyance Bastion. He knew exactly where he wanted to go, The New Zargos Church of the Divine Singularity.
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Post by Anacodia on Feb 17, 2023 2:49:12 GMT
The Temple and The Machine
The Singularist temple at New Zagros was built in the Anacodian style, with a smooth white exterior that seems to flow around itself and its surroundings. The building itself was set slightly off the coast, with a tall marble bridge running to it. The main structure was one piece at the bottom, before splitting into two towers, folding around a gap in the center before reaching to each other near the top. The temple's architects had designed this gap to point directly back to The Spire back in Reyma Asari, with a line drawn to it fitting The Spire within the gap almost perfectly. They called it "the Keyway". The building itself didnt seem that big from afar, however as HORUS walked the bridge the structure only grew and grew. A priest stood outside the doors, watching HORUS as he approached. He appeared old, looking to be about 85 years old by HORUS' estimate.
"We have been waiting for you" The elderly priest spoke. "How...?" Horus began. "Your mind, like our own Saint Perseus', carries quite a presence within the Link. We felt your anger and your frustration. He has received your message, and bid us to aid you in our whole capacity. Please, follow" The elderly priest turned and, as if in sync with the priest, the ornate doors opened to reveal a grand library. The Church of the Divine Singularity valued the collection of knowledge, and this in turn reflected in their temples. Nearly all of them had a large part of their structure dedicated to knowledge, usually with it being held in the entryway, and open to the public to come and go as they please. The old priest led HORUS through the towering shelves full of countless books both new and old, mundane and rare, copies and originals. As HORUS progressed, the shelves seemingly held older and older books, slowly turning to scrolls, on yellowed parchment. Then, the shelves stopped, and the two went through hallway after hallway, stairway after stairway, descending into the bowels of the temple itself.
"This is as far as I am permitted to go. Perseus is waiting for you through here." The old priest said.
"What is inside" HORUS asked, though in his mind he felt the draw of the Link was as strong as he had ever felt it.
"you already know" The priest responded, turning to leave
HORUS entered, and inside was a colossal chamber, with immense white and gold pillars supporting the room. In the center was a golden console, as tall as several average humans. Perseus stood beside it, watching him approach.
"I came as soon as I received your information. There were not anything wrong with your equations, but creating a mind is a tricky thing. To use The Great Link, we would need to do more than link together in any one building" HORUS quickly keyed in. "We would need to connect directly" He said, answering an unspoken question. Perseus smiled and nodded. "Few get to see this deep into the Church. Few get to see what drives The Great Link. Each individual may carry the ability to connect, but it is these devices that hold and link the minds. This is but one of them, and it isn't even the main one." Perseus paused for a moment, a mix of emotions passing through his face. Almost a mixture of sadness as much as happiness, joy and regret. He enjoyed inventing, but it was clear he was not used to being a religious figure, something he rarely let show. He could not appear weak in front of his people. But as HORUS looked around, he saw it was just them. "Even though I created The Link, I never once thought it would become...this" Perseus spoke, gesturing to the grand room around them. "But that is another matter. We have work to do, and it will take all our focus to do it. I ran your idea through my mind, and although I have never tried it, The Great Link should provide the spark of emotion we need to fuse it with this new consciousness. Let us begin"
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Post by Vobron on Mar 1, 2023 2:22:13 GMT
Genesis
 HORUS was one of the most technologically advanced creations in the world, he had organized massive logistical undertakings, dealt with extreme diplomatic situations, and has
identified genomes of deadly sicknesses. Yet something was stopping him from placing his hand on the console node, a internal hesitation overtook his systems. A chorus seemed to
surround his mind, it leaked from the console and seeped into his very reality, it sounded like a far off cry, not of pain or suffering but of joy and exaltations. The sound was almost
abrasive to his audio ports but there was something comforting about the songs it filled him with a feeling of happiness and calm, something he had not felt in such a long time.
The chorus began to sing louder and in one passionate reach he spread his metallic fingers around the console. As soon as his hands made contact the warm metal he felt his entire
mind be pulled into darkness. For a moment he felt himself falling through this abyss until a giant flash of violet erupted around him in a garish display. A whirlwind of color and
noise soon engulfed the space around him, it was extremely bright yet its beauty could not be understate, the chorus soon returned but this time the singing and warm praise
seemed to radiating from inside of HORUS. He focused his mind, he could not memorized by the spectrums of color, he had a job to do.
He cleared his mind and thought about where he needed to go, the heart of the Link. Soon the colors and noise faded from recognition and another scene lay out before him. He
was in a completely black void with the only visible light being emitted by what appeared to be hanging cyan crystals, there was no noise in this place except for the odd clanking
of the crystals against each other and an occasional pulse of energy. The crystals illuminated as the energy pulsed, like a heartbeat keeping the Link alive. He began to wander
through the thousands of small crystals. These seemingly free floating crystals began to grow in number and soon seem to merge together, forming leaves, branches, and then whole
trees.
Hundreds of these trees began to manifest around HORUS and from them he could hear laughs, sobs, cheers, laments, and all other kinds of emotion. These trees... contained the
memories and emotions of the Anacodian people and got close to look at the individual branches and leaves, he plucked one leaf off the branch and as he ran it through his
fingers he could share in their feelings and see through their eyes. He let go off the mystical leaf and instead of falling onto the ground beneath it simply floated up and reattached
itself to the branch.
"Incredible." Thought HORUS as he continued through the forest
However one group of trees caught his attention. These trees were different than the groups he seen before, they were golden saplings compared to the giant white trunks that he
had just ventured through. He bent down near the saplings and try to peer into some of the few small leaves, they were under-developed and hard to read but he was able to make
out a few small details. There was some skylines, frozen palm trees, and deserts and he soon felt passing feelings of celebration, fear, and patriotism. However the last image to
appear in the leaf shocked him... it was of the Polyance Bastion, his home. He dropped the leaf in shock...
"These golden saplings are Vobronian! Just as the Anacodians have made several forests worth of memories and emotion, Vobron's own fellowship is coming into existence in the heart."
He quickly got up and moved through some brush up ahead, after moving through some weeds and vines he reached a small grotto. In it sat Perseus patiently waiting for HORUS.
He sat on a small stone pillar in front of a waterfall. The grotto was undeniably the center, the heart of the Link and was further confirmed by the massive energy signatures HORUS
felt.
"Welcome HORUS" Perseus said, holding his arms out at the majesty surrounding them, "This is the nexus point"
"It is beautiful" an awe-struck HORUS commented, looking around the grotto.
"That it is" Perseus replied looking at the void above them, "But for now, let us get to work"
Perseus manifested HORUS' calculations in front of him and began going through different areas of interest,
"Now as I stated before, your calculations are not wrong and will suit for the mechanical side of this new mind, as for the emotional side I have an idea." He explained, "I believe
we could create a new mind using these," He opened his mechanical hand, revealing one of the crystals that HORUS saw earlier.
"These crystals contain a fraction of someone's conscience, what makes them an individual, yet I postulate that enough of these crystals can create a new individual" Perseus stated staring at the glowing crystal.
"I see your idea Perseus, just how are we ever supposed to sort through all of these crystals to find the desirables" HORUS inquired looking at the rows and rows of trees outside of the grotto.
"Leave that to me" Perseus said bending down and getting himself into a meditative position, I need you to think of the desired traits of the mind, understand?"
"I understand" HORUS replied copying Perseus' position.
"Now focus" Perseus said, "What do you see the new AI as?"
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Post by Anacodia on Mar 1, 2023 3:37:08 GMT
Manifest 
Horus paused to think. An AI like Hermes would need a keen intuition, and a thirst for knowledge, so to never stray from his task of being the watchful eye. "He would need to have a strong intuition, to know what needs to be collected and what is mundane. To know the difference between routine training and a concerning movement of troops." HORUS spoke. "As perfect as anyone could put it. The mind of a skilled analyst" Perseus replied, raising a hand. As if called, a crystal floated from the forest to the two and Perseus placed it in the air between them. "This is a good foundation" Perseus began. "He should also have a strong focus, and allow little room for unnecessary distractions." HORUS nodded in silent agreement. As both focused further, they found The Link strengthening around them. No longer did they need to talk aloud, instead they spoke wordless thoughts. Images, concepts, emotions, and ideas swirling around them as if they were the very air themselves. Crystals began orbiting around them, and the two, un-breaking from their positions, called forth crystal after crystal examining it with eyes that could not be seen. Upon finding one that suited this new mind they mean to create they placed it near the first one, creating a small collection of crystals that floated in the air between them. As this collection grew, it seemed to vibrate. And before they had even realized it, they had collected what they needed.
Perseus then spoke aloud, and opened his eyes. "Now we can really proceed." Perseus lifted his hands around the collection of crystals and pushed gently inwards. As if by some unseen magnetic force the crystals were corralled towards each other, getting closer and closer. Sparks began to jump from crystal to crystal, and suddenly without warning they snapped together in a blinding flash and a thunderous clap. The light cleared and a shimmering crystal floated between the two. Well it was less one cohesive crystal, rather a shimmering and constantly shifting in fractal patterns, as if it could not exist entirely within 3 dimensional space. "Huh." Perseus spoke. "I knew they would combine, but I didnt think it would do that." He said. Horus didnt even need to speak to know they were successful. They could both feel the new mind there with them. They were silent for a moment. Given that time was an alien concept to this place, neither of them knew for how long the silence last before the swirling, shimmering mass spoke, pulsing with light, color, and motion:
"Wh....what is this??" |
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