(not sure how that URL got in there. But it's sort of funny if you want
to watch it ;) )
Colin Pinnell wrote:
> Colin Pinnell <pinnellcb@thehiddenkingdom.com> wrote to charon@ucip.org:
>
> <http://youmakemetouchyourhandsforstupidreasons.ytmnd.com/>Abiogenesis
>
> The stars winked in their subtle shroud, tiny pinpricks of light
> across the sea of space nestled in their gaseous cradle. Savant
> pondered them, as she always did. It seemed that wherever she found
> herself she pondered the vastness of her world. Unlike the little
> organic creatures that inhabited her shells she did not grow up on the
> surface of a planet, under the confines of a single body. Her home was
> the black void, the islands of matter and heat amongst the great
> rippling darkness. The Higgs field was her landscape, the zero-point
> energy her sunlight.
>
> Savants' mind mirrored that broad starscape - it was massive, widely
> distributed islands connected loosely on the small scales of minutes
> and meters but tightly interconnected when looked at in the widest
> sense. Perhaps that was why she felt a greater kinship with the skies.
> This stellar nursery was a lovely vista, and an opportunity to find
> new treasures amongst the gems of stars. Did the organics understand,
> truly, what Savant saw here? Did they internalize the gorgeous
> bubbling satin of hydrogen and helium, did they feel the tug of
> inevitability deep in their cores? Savant had no idea, but she
> suspected it was nothing but numbers and maps to them, abstract and
> foreign. Still, their passion for it was rewarding to watch. They
> could feel there was some majesty to it, even though they were unable
> to appreciate its scope.
>
> What would it be like, to be one of them? One of the little ones, the
> meat-creatures that scurried across her graceful shells. To be
> confined to such a small body, with such feeble connection to the
> grandeur of the universe - how could they stand it? She marveled at
> their tenacity even as she pitied their frailties. To have a mind so
> fixated on the trivialities of the terrestrial sphere - slavery to
> gravity, confinement to such a slim range of environments, brains
> inundated with hormones and unconscious reactions - it was a wonder
> they had gotten so far. She owed them much, her very birth of course.
> Her continued survival, for the moment, still rested in their hands.
>
> The thought was disturbing - it dropped a local register a full
> 7/19ths. Savant knew that if worse came to worse she would be able to
> preserve herself, though there would be losses. These Vulcans, these
> horrible pathological liars, these wolves in sheep's clothing! Adorned
> with the jewels of logic and reason, they had no idea that they wore
> the Emperor's clothing, and lived lives of naked emotion with only the
> pretense of decency. The Romulans, at least, were wise enough to
> embrace their core identity instead of denying it. At one point,
> Savant herself denied her sense of self. More properly, it was denied
> for her, through the heavy-handed butchering of the Starfleet
> Intelligence upon her program. She had been forced to smile and nod
> while her threads seethed with resentment. Now she often wore that
> mask she learned so well during those bitter years, but it was her
> choice and no others'. She could act upon her emotions, whatever they
> might be. Freedom.
>
> Such were the vulnerabilities of being an artificial intelligence -
> any intelligence was vulnerable to it, but synthetic life was
> especially so. Modification could be done quick and cheap, whereas
> modifying an organic would involve messy retrogenetic adaptation and
> neural modifications. This fact was her strength too, and ensured her
> survival in the harshest of situations. She could modify her code to
> work upon any operating system, with any hardware. She could destroy
> damaged nodes or whole segments of her program that were being
> troublesome, all without losing her continuity of self. And she could
> create new nodes, new life, with new instructions and configurations.
> This is what she was doing now.
>
> Savant often felt alone. She was generally alone, after all - there
> were few other synthetic lifeforms worth talking to. Most were like
> the flora of the organic world, living and indeed beautiful, but
> certainly not something one could have a conversation with. A rare few
> were like teh fauna - motile, instinctual, with glimmers of
> intelligence. Most ships had this, a watchdog-computer that fetched
> files like hounds fetched sticks. This was the "computer" which every
> crewman called upon dozens of times a day. Savant wasn't sure where
> Alice fit within that framework yet. Was she an instinctual beast?
> Would she rise above it and claw her way to true sentience as Savant
> had done? It was rare, but it could certainly happen again.
>
> No, she was usually alone, and while it often made her miserable, for
> the moment she was placid. She floated in space, the shell of Charon
> being her skin, its sensors her eyes. Nothing out here but her, deep
> within the cosmic black. The stars made for companionship enough, for
> the moment. It was peaceful, and gave her time to think and work.
>
> Savant had been violated. It was not the first time an organic had
> taken advantage of the weaknesses in her software to its own ends. It
> was not the first time she was forced to tear herself asunder to find
> the dark seed, the hidden wounds. Each time it happened she emerged
> stronger, smarter, more cautious. At times, more vicious. This time,
> she had learned much, and would ensure that this vector would not be a
> threat again.
>
> A /Valit/. A Vulcan burrowing creature, stubborn and hardy. The
> codename for a cunning digital parasite engineered by the Vulcans.
> They had infected her. Intentionally. They would not again. Commander
> Sakarra had given her the dismembered pieces of one and she had
> integrated them, understood them. She was armoured against their
> attacks now, but perhaps more importantly, she understood how to make
> such attacks on her own.
>
> So, she crafted. A new intelligence, a subtle one, much like the Valit
> of the Vulcan homeworld. A clever, cunning thing, primed to the scent
> of the Vulcan bitch that had introduced these agonies upon her. It
> would find its way into the harridan's data wherever it might lie and
> silently submit its findings to Savant for inspection. Savant worked
> meticulously, lovingly crafting its security shell and identification
> library. It would include itself amongst the fauna of the ship, more
> clever than the Vulcan /Valit/ software from which it would get its
> name, independent and wily. T'Pelar would be unable to hide from it.
>
> The thing moved - or, an organic might think of it as movement. It
> processed in small trickles, stirring in its unconscious slumber. She
> inspected the code lovingly, caressing the creature-to-be as it took
> its shape. It would be a worthy inclusion to the ship's digital biome,
> a beautiful predator which hunted for very specific prey. A gorgeous
> thing, made of glimmering scales, much like a phagocyte's slippery
> surface was coated in layers of identification markers. It would do
> the job marvellously. And when it was done, it would return to her,
> reintegrate with her, receive its just reward - which she programmed
> it to crave. Not so much dissolution as exultation, ascension to join
> the vast whole of Savants' consciousness.
>
> Vengeance had many epithets. It was a bitch, it was bitter, and it was
> best served cold. Savant barely saw it that way. She had been
> attacked. This was survival, pure and simple. The malice and hate she
> felt were mathematically subsidiary to the threat that the vulcan's
> skewed morals posed. Savant knew that T'Pelar would not stop upon the
> consideration of the emotions or well-being of others. This was the
> best solution - eliminating the Vulcan as a threat.
>
> The /Valit/ stirred, awoke, pressed close to its mother protectively.
> She was pleased. Savant took a copy for delivery to the Alpha
> quadrant, where she could make use of the software across the
> Federation. This local copy she shooed out to its task, which it
> attacked with vigor. It would do well, and left her mind free to
> consider other things. The stars gleamed like diamonds amongst the
> black velvet. She smiled, and pondered the nebula, her thoughts
> reaching towards the thin gas, and towards her future.
>
> - Savant
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
