15 - Bright lights, fast cars, disease

[no_fastolfe]

Why is it always Earth?

Why is it always so crowded?

[Filtered to friends]
Who knows this place? What is expected besides rampant capitalism and hordes of people-- this I have noticed already.

Comments

[no_fastolfe]

There are surely more efficient ways than this.

[hourglass_twin]

And since when did the Barge ever seem particularly efficient?

[no_fastolfe]

The admiral has never proved half-hearted in the cause of discomfiting us.

[hourglass_twin]

Hm. And perhaps it is only for our discomfort that we're forced to come here, and nothing more.

[no_fastolfe]

It was your hypothesis, after all.

[hourglass_twin]

And when I cannot support my hypothesis, I consider other possibilities.

[no_fastolfe]

Then, sir, 'why always Earth?' I await other possible motivations besides inconvenience.

[hourglass_twin]

Perhaps Earth is the loudest, most overcrowded, and most obnoxious planet out of all there were to be found. And the majority of the residents of the Barge are from there, and so could blend in more easily.

[no_fastolfe]

That I think very likely. But I am not an Earther and reserve the right to dislike the place.

[hourglass_twin]

Nor am I. I am from Krynn, myself.

[no_fastolfe]

And I from Aurora; colonized by humans from Earth, yes, but more than twenty centuries ago now. Aurora is verdant, the climate controlled, the population kept to the hundreds of thousands. We never have such crowds or population centers as Earthers seem to delight in.

[Lemonface]

[hourglass_twin]

Krynn has crowds and marketplaces, but the noise is natural, and there are no cars or other such mechanisms that blare the way these do. And towns are surrounded by trees.

[no_fastolfe]

[There is a very, very faint wistful look.] On Aurora the architecture is designed in accordance with the landscape; integrated into it. The world can seem at times uninhabited, if you walk at the right hour through the most populous institution on the planet; you may never see another human or robot at less than a hundred meter's distance.

[hourglass_twin]

That sounds pleasant.

...robot? Like the sort of thing T-X is?

[no_fastolfe]

An Ascenion robot is as dissimilar from the T-X as a warm incandescent light from a wildfire. Both sources of light and heat, but in their behavior and their purpose, light-years removed!

The are artificial intelligences and so is she, but there the resemblance ends.

[hourglass_twin]

...what are incandescent lights?

But I understand your statement. They are not as...unpredictable as she.

Private

[no_fastolfe]

A light produced by running an electrical current through a wire suspended in a vacuum. Less efficient than the fluorescent lights that characterize the barge, they produce more heat, but they also have a golden tone pleasantly similar to sunlight.

The robots of my world and timeline are designed as aids and companions to humanity-- their very base design prevents them from being able to harm a human. I have known them since my birth as servants, as guardians, as caretakers, and... friends. Beings I understand and can trust. The T-X is the antithesis to every principle of engineering I have learned, and... simply... wrong, viewed through the lens of my upbringing.

Private

[hourglass_twin]

I thought the lights on the Barge were simply magic.

Perhaps the robots in your world will one day grow weary of being servants. While normally I would not think a machine could grow weary of anything, I also wouldn't think a machine could be a friend, so if it can do one, it can certainly do the other. Besides, though T-X took a strange interest in my eyes and seemed overly certain that I needed a medical exam, is she not a warden?

Private

[no_fastolfe]

They have the color characteristic to fluorescent lights. I would be surprised if they were not.

But it is true; the more advanced robots become, the more likely that they will develop a need for more input-- to not simply be obedient, but to explore and impose their own judgment. I have seen such a thing already.

But the basic nature of the Ascenion robot is to co-exist with humanit, not to destroy it.

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[hourglass_twin]

I wouldn't know. I've never seen fluorescent lights.

But if they could explore and impose their own judgement, could they not deviate from their basic nature?

Private

[no_fastolfe]

Can we deviate from breathing, simply because we wish to? Would we wish to?

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[hourglass_twin]

We'd suffocate and die. I doubt they'd die from harming a human, not directly, anyway.

\Private

[no_fastolfe]

...at the state of robotics as they stand, yes, a robot will go into irreversable mental freeze-out by harming a human. It is the primary of the three laws of robotics.

\Private

[hourglass_twin]

But if they are self aware, there's always the chance they will find a way to work around this.

Private

[no_fastolfe]

It is... certainly possible. [She's being cagey about something.]

But they were designed to be symbiotic with us, not in competition. Even as they advance they will not compete with us for resources or property; their priorities are different. We are complementary beings.