thisavrou | audio; march 7th

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audio; march 7th

[The recorded voice that addresses the crew through the MID is affable and slightly apologetic.]

Hello everyone. This is Alan Bradley speaking. I have a couple of questions for the crew, and I think I might as well use this opportunity to introduce myself to those I haven’t met yet: As I said, my name is Alan Bradley, and I’ve been assigned as one of the ship’s MID Technicians. I’m afraid I don’t have any particularly interesting abilities outside of computer programming, but that should be enough for me to do my job here. Some of you may have already met Sam Flynn, my godson from back home, as well as Tron and Rinzler, two, ah, programs that I’ve written. [Is that how he’s supposed to introduce them? It’s quite clear from the misgiving in his tone that he isn’t completely sure. He isn’t even certain he can correctly refer to them as two programs if you want to get technical, but explaining that would be far too involved for a simple introduction, so he’ll have to settle for the potential inaccuracy.] If you ever need to contact me, I’m always available at my personal inbox. [A slight chuckle.] I guess we all are since these things are strapped to our wrists.

Introductions aside, I was hoping someone could tell me who I should see about getting a new pair of glasses? Mine seem to have been lost as I was coming through the portal here. And seeing as my job on the ship will probably require spending most of my day staring at lines of code, I’d like to get a replacement sooner rather than later.

Speaking of my job here, I’m also looking for suggestions for programs people would like added to their MIDs, or improvements made to the interface. I’ll admit, the technology here is quite a bit more advanced than what I usually worked with back home, so anyone with more technological know-how is welcome to offer guidance: other programmers, engineers, AI… I’d be grateful for any advice.

Just leave a reply if you want to get in touch. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

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[A younger voice answers Alan's MID call.]

It's nice to meet you, Alan! I'm Asriel. I'm sorry, I wish I could tell you where you could find new glasses, but I'm not sure who you're supposed to talk to around here to get things like that.

[Any talk about programs and codes go right over Asriel's head. He's not really sure what any of it means, but he does recognize Rinzler's name.]

You know Rinzler? I met him a while ago. He's really cool!

[Guess who JUST got her MID and is super fucking salty about it? THIS GIRL.]

I don't know what you mean by program but if you're inventing things for these things I'd like a way to take it off, please.

Edited 2016-03-11 23:34 (UTC)

My chorebot keeps bumping into walls. Can you program it so the pathfinding is better? But without all the creepy AI stuff.

[not even remotely related to what alan said he'd be able to do, but riptide figures it's worth a shot.]

[Alan’s a little surprised when it’s a child’s voice that leaves a response, but perhaps he shouldn’t be -- he’s already heard at least one of his crewmates mention children on the ship, after all.]

Hello, Asriel. It’s nice to meet you too.

[He smiles at the child’s comment about Rinzler.] I’m glad to hear he’s making friends. How did you meet him? [Because from what Alan’s seen of the program, he doesn’t seem like the type to seek people out on his own.]

I’m afraid you’ll have to ask someone else; I’m not really an expert on the hardware side of things.

[He takes a moment to inspect his own MID regardless, looking for some sort of mechanism with which to take it off; he doesn’t find one.] A pair of pliers might be a good start, though...

hey man no offense but one of the programs you've written is a major dick
he's like the complete opposite of a people person

not sure if that was your intention when you were hard at work creating your abomination of nature but you know just an fyi if it wasn't and if it was well then congratulations you've succeeded

[Alan is momentarily startled when the face of what appears to be a very large, expressive robot appears on his screen.] Chorebot? [A little embarrassing to say, but that’s already a little exotic for Alan. Right now he’s picturing a Roomba.]

I can take a look at it, but I’ll have to see how it’s programmed before I make any promises. [Here’s to hoping everything is programmed in the same language used on the MID? And that the MID’s programming language is at least somewhat easy to work with itself.]

[To be fair, “the complete opposite of a people person” does not sound like that inaccurate of a description based on what Alan’s seen of the program. All the other descriptors the respondent has used sound… rather more extreme.]

I take it you two had some sort of disagreement.

Edited (wrong header) 2016-03-12 01:36 (UTC)

[90% of this post goes wayyy past J's head.]

What's an AI?

i mean if you want to call him skulking around in vents and me innocently asking him what the fuck he's doing a disagreement then sure we had a "disagreement"

[ and this is church absolutely not touching on any of the finer points of their argument. yep, just a simple dispute over creepy skulking. ]

anyway i didn't want this to be a thing, i just wanted to let you know. [ though he is genuinely curious about one thing: ] btw why would you create a program capable of communication and then take away his ability to speak? that's sort of messed up.

“Artificial intelligence.” Like robots, androids, programs… [And most of those had sounded like science fiction until about a week ago.] A thinking being someone has created using technology.

[Rinzler's programmer is here? HaHA are you kidding him? But who were those other names...? Tron...?]

so you're the mind behind rinzler. i've always wondered about that... he's such an interesting guy after all.

not that chatty though. something about communication not being his function? huh. wonder why that is.

[because Alan seemed too... nice. The way Rinzler behaved, it seemed like someone had him on a very tight leash. The way this guy talks... There's no way he's the one holding the other end of that leash]

[Skulking around in vents, while not necessarily good behavior, is also not generally something Alan would consider as grounds for calling someone an “abomination of nature,” but maybe the commenter just has a penchant for exaggeration. Alan lets it slide without comment.

He’s not able to dismiss the next question as easily.] I… I didn’t take it away. [There’s a knee-jerk impulse there to just explain everything: that he hadn’t -- that he wouldn’t knowingly do something like that to a sentient being and that it had been another program that had silenced Rinzler. But the commenter is a stranger and even if he wasn’t, it wouldn’t be right to announce what had happened to the program on a public forum like this. So Alan provides a more general, ambiguous explanation instead.]

The programs were made to function in a closed system -- a computer or a server. Actually, I never programmed either of them to speak, since I didn’t expect them to need to. The fact that they’re functioning on the ship at all shows both of them are developing past their programming. [Which doesn’t really answer the question, but hopefully the commenter won’t actually notice that...]

Edited 2016-03-12 03:34 (UTC)

[This… doesn’t sound good. Alan is starting to wonder how many more times he’s going to have to make excuses for actions that weren’t even his own.]

It’s not his primary function, no. But he seems to be figuring it out regardless. [Maybe he’s not as expressive as Tron, but he can still make himself understood using what’s available to him. That’s impressive in and of itself.]

Rinzler. You are responsible for Rinzler.

[Peter couldn't look any less impressed if he tried.]

One question. What the hell were you thinking on that one?

[ good answer, alan! normally that'd be enough to sate church's curiosity. it wouldn't make sense to code complex functions like independent speech into an ai that was never intended to be sentient. either he's from a universe where ai sentience isn't possible, or it is possible and he always meant for rinzler to be a dumb ai.

or whatever it is that rinzler's supposed to be. church has no fucking idea anymore. what's even the point of him? rinzler called himself an enforcer, but an enforcer of what and why? ]

is that why he makes those fucked up sounds

[...And it continues.] I initially wrote him as a security program. [Which is a kind of dodge, but it’s not too far from the truth. He’s just not saying what happened after his initial writing.]

[...Alan doesn’t actually know the answer to that one.] I’m not sure. It’s possible. To be honest, I haven’t met enough programs outside of a screen to know for sure.

[ damnit, alan, this is your devilspawn, you should know these things!! ]

because seriously he sounds like someone shoved a motor inside him and then completely forgot it was in there
it's not a friendly sound

[Hey, it’s not his fault everyone in his life decided to stay radio silent about the existence of programs as sentient beings until like a week ago!]

I wouldn’t take it personally if I were you. It seems to be involuntary. [Rinzler made the rumbling sound in Alan’s presence after all, and the program’s intentions there had been far from confrontational.]

Security? For who? Security shouldn't be trying to stab someone after knowing them all of three seconds.

[Alan doesn’t even get to answer his question before he’s hit with that little revelation.] He tried to stab you?

In regards to your glasses I miiiight have a solution. It's going to take some finagling to get the prescription right, but I have a mini fabricator on me.

Oh my god, you too?

[ Forget the revelation about programs — at least for now — some of us enjoy being able to see. ]

I swear, we have every job on this ship but an optometrist.

He was in a vent! He gave me a good scare too, but then he came out and we got to talking. But I can't tell you what he was doing in there, it's a secret.

[Not a secret for any particular reason, just that Asriel's under the impression that Rinzler is a mysterious spy and shouldn't be giving away information.]

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