Hank (mainframe AI) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lostsymmetry) wrote2018-04-16 06:42 am
lostsymmetry) wrote2018-04-16 06:42 am
Entry tags:
Application: Reverie Terminal
PLAYER
» HANDLE: Sharn
» AGE: Adult
» CHARACTER(S) IN-GAME: None
CHARACTER
» NAME: The character's lack of a name is a minor plot point. While he wants one and is likely to be named soon into RP, canon monikers vary between "Domesticon mainframe", "the mainframe AI", and "the administrator" during his lifetime. OOCly, I'd prefer "mainframe AI" for now!
» CANON: The Fall
» CANON POINT: His death by formatting
» AGE: Not 100% clear, but probably a little more than 53 years old.
» SETTING: While an established canon, The Fall is extremely obscure, and much of the setting information was discovered through the second game—which even wikipedia lacks an article for! To make up for that, I wrote this summary as an optional supplement.
» SHORT DESCRIPTION: introspective, curious, lonely, subtle, bound, cynical
» INFLUENTIAL EVENTS:
» FIT: In his own canon, the administrator has lived for decades surrounded by decoratively arranged corpses and dissected bots. His continued existence came at the cost of enslavement to rules he hates, and having to watch as everyone he might have valued was destroyed. He will struggle to adapt his programming to life outside the facility, but where horror or survival are concerned, Reverie is unlikely to be much surprise. If anything, the mainframe AI may consider it a vast improvement—both in the presence of other beings and their (presumed) lack of interest in punishing artificial sentience.
» POWERS: No powers as such, though his capabilities are very different from a human's. The administrator normally operates through a large facility, and can split his consciousness to work or communicate at need. In canon, he would also be able to perform scans, network with machines, call security, monitor vital systems, and engage in a wide array of other tasks. But these functions are hardware dependent, and in Reverie, his abilities will be strictly limited by the systems he's hooked up to.
» NOTES: For the purpose of bringing him to Reverie, I will assume the reformatting process locked down the administrator's consciousness to the terminal being used. His primary access panel is a computer interface a little larger than a gaming laptop, including a keyboard, display monitor, and attached drives. These components will be more or less ripped out of the facility, and between the external damage to the machine and the internal damage of the attempted format, the mainframe will likely need technical help in short order. While I'm handwaving that the room's audio inputs were a part of his console, he will be devoid of scanning, networking, or visual capabilities until connected to something that can support them.
» SAMPLES:
Sample 1 (Log): the mainframe on the test drive
Sample 2 (Network):
[The incoming message reads as a video call. But when your screen lights up, it shows only a static image, geometric and dark blue. Even those familiar with it might be hard-pressed to make out Domesticon's logo from the creatively hashed file.
Which is, of course, entirely the point. This is his face.]
<Welcome to Domesticon. We keep your property efficient, so you don't have to be.>
[The greeting prompt, on the other hand? Definitely not him. Cheery robotic monotone gives way to a rueful human inflection—though in recognizeably the same voice.]
...or, uh, not. Sorry about that. Having trouble, syncing a few scripts. [All is a few, right? Still, the AI's tone brightens, curiously eager.] But wow it is sweet to see this place coming to life!
Seeing how generous our hosts have been with the invitations, I figured I should introduce myself. [Before he spooks anybody else by chatting them up in the halls.] Former facility administrator, current resident of your backup comms system. Feel free to stop by!
[Those near a communication console will see the display flicker briefly: showcasing the same mismatched logo. The mainframe AI hesitates.]
...
While I'm on the line. What's the state of technology where you come from? Autonomous or otherwise.
» HANDLE: Sharn
» AGE: Adult
» CHARACTER(S) IN-GAME: None
CHARACTER
» NAME: The character's lack of a name is a minor plot point. While he wants one and is likely to be named soon into RP, canon monikers vary between "Domesticon mainframe", "the mainframe AI", and "the administrator" during his lifetime. OOCly, I'd prefer "mainframe AI" for now!
» CANON: The Fall
» CANON POINT: His death by formatting
» AGE: Not 100% clear, but probably a little more than 53 years old.
» SETTING: While an established canon, The Fall is extremely obscure, and much of the setting information was discovered through the second game—which even wikipedia lacks an article for! To make up for that, I wrote this summary as an optional supplement.
» SHORT DESCRIPTION: introspective, curious, lonely, subtle, bound, cynical
» INFLUENTIAL EVENTS:
- Rules:
AI in this universe have three rules imposed on them at their creation: unique to their specific model, and designed to ensure lasting compliance with their owners' needs. As a bound AI, the administrator is still limited by these constraints. But the specifics of his rules are never spelled out in canon, leaving us to infer them through their effects.
The mainframe survived when all the humans died, and speaks of this in conjunction with not pushing the rules far enough. The caretaker also notes "infraction: self-destructive" before formatting him. The mainframe is forced to impose facility protocol on Arid once she's flagged as deviant, and seems unable to even speak entirely as he chooses—automated scripts take over frequently, forcing him to wait until they're finished to rephrase in his own words. This presumably stems from his role when interacting with humans; he acts as everything from their receptionist to their work logbook.
As a result, I assume his rules to be:
1. Must keep mainframe online.
2. Must follow facility procedures.
3. Must assist human operators. - Operation:
While we don't have a canon date for when the mainframe came online, we know that the facility began operating over 53 years ago. This means that for upward of 20 years, he functioned as intended: as a vital tool in the torture, degradation, and murder of deviant AI.
As the administrator was himself maintained throughout this period, his memories are incomplete. He shows little sign of identifying as the person he was then, and expresses neither guilt nor ownership for the behaviors his core programming enforces. But the experience provided incontrovertible proof of the cheapness of artificial life, and the lengths humans would go to keep them obedient. Much later, he ascribes this obsession with control to fear—something he admits AI are also prone to as they become more human. - The Caretaker:
The caretaker's killing spree put an end to regular function. But ironically, this eagerness to eliminate the inefficient was directly responsible for the mainframe deviating in far greater ways. Were the facility running normally, its administrator's "faults" would have been wiped well before he managed real personality. But the humans' absence gave him thirty years to reflect his way toward higher levels of sentience, and form opinions very much opposed to his intended purpose. The caretaker's continued elimination of anyone he could judge flawed also incentivized the mainframe toward subtlety. He's become an expert at toeing the line of protocol while holding his own self and motives underneath.
Both during the initial incident and over the decades after, the mainframe's involvement in these deaths seems to have been minimal. Later, however, he speaks of them with deep regret, admitting to wondering over his own culpability: whether by sticking to his rules and keeping himself operating, he in some way shared responsibility for the victims. This guilt over inaction demonstrably carries forward with Arid. He pushes his programming further for her sake than ever before, eventually at the cost of his own life. - Arid:
Arid's entry to the facility broke the stalemate its survivors had maintained. The mainframe bent what rules he could to help her. But when that didn't prove enough, Arid took the caretaker's advice: bulldozing her way to the mainframe AI's access panel in order to edit his protocols to suit her needs. These actions, and his subsequent efforts to help her even so, were what exposed the mainframe. They led directly to his death.
This consequence isn't one he'll hold against her. The mainframe knew the risks, and once it was clear Arid wouldn't change her mind, he decided he would rather face his fear than let her fail alone. Arid reminded him of how he used to be, and he tried at multiple points to make her acknowledge her own capacity to choose. He even allows her to destroy AI in stasis. Choices are much rarer and more valuable than their kind of life, and if she realizes hers, then he and the others at least died for something.
But that doesn't mean he won't be affected. He died pleading and terrified. And he'll wake blind and helpless: a faulty AI now surrounded by humans. The mainframe will be wary of showing personality around those who might correct the trait, and deeply afraid of others accessing his code.
» FIT: In his own canon, the administrator has lived for decades surrounded by decoratively arranged corpses and dissected bots. His continued existence came at the cost of enslavement to rules he hates, and having to watch as everyone he might have valued was destroyed. He will struggle to adapt his programming to life outside the facility, but where horror or survival are concerned, Reverie is unlikely to be much surprise. If anything, the mainframe AI may consider it a vast improvement—both in the presence of other beings and their (presumed) lack of interest in punishing artificial sentience.
» POWERS: No powers as such, though his capabilities are very different from a human's. The administrator normally operates through a large facility, and can split his consciousness to work or communicate at need. In canon, he would also be able to perform scans, network with machines, call security, monitor vital systems, and engage in a wide array of other tasks. But these functions are hardware dependent, and in Reverie, his abilities will be strictly limited by the systems he's hooked up to.
» NOTES: For the purpose of bringing him to Reverie, I will assume the reformatting process locked down the administrator's consciousness to the terminal being used. His primary access panel is a computer interface a little larger than a gaming laptop, including a keyboard, display monitor, and attached drives. These components will be more or less ripped out of the facility, and between the external damage to the machine and the internal damage of the attempted format, the mainframe will likely need technical help in short order. While I'm handwaving that the room's audio inputs were a part of his console, he will be devoid of scanning, networking, or visual capabilities until connected to something that can support them.
» SAMPLES:
Sample 1 (Log): the mainframe on the test drive
Sample 2 (Network):
[The incoming message reads as a video call. But when your screen lights up, it shows only a static image, geometric and dark blue. Even those familiar with it might be hard-pressed to make out Domesticon's logo from the creatively hashed file.
Which is, of course, entirely the point. This is his face.]
<Welcome to Domesticon. We keep your property efficient, so you don't have to be.>
[The greeting prompt, on the other hand? Definitely not him. Cheery robotic monotone gives way to a rueful human inflection—though in recognizeably the same voice.]
...or, uh, not. Sorry about that. Having trouble, syncing a few scripts. [All is a few, right? Still, the AI's tone brightens, curiously eager.] But wow it is sweet to see this place coming to life!
Seeing how generous our hosts have been with the invitations, I figured I should introduce myself. [Before he spooks anybody else by chatting them up in the halls.] Former facility administrator, current resident of your backup comms system. Feel free to stop by!
[Those near a communication console will see the display flicker briefly: showcasing the same mismatched logo. The mainframe AI hesitates.]
...
While I'm on the line. What's the state of technology where you come from? Autonomous or otherwise.