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 Joshua Collins♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Josh tilted his head in thought at the AI's suggestion, a flash of inspiration coming to him. Merely rewriting the history books was far too crude, no there was a much better way. Pulling up some consoles and calling on Devot for assistance, running some simulations and judging various impacts. No, what he had in mind was far more subtle and in turn all consuming than what had been suggested. After all, the network architecture of a human neural net was the basis for his invention of artificial neural networks used in AI, and using training methods to shape the AI's personality and cognition was a standard part of the process. There's no reason to believe such a process couldn't be back-ported to humans, especially since the symbiotes would make them extremely susceptible to manipulation on his part. So, rather than just rewriting various books or media, with Devot's assistance Josh started to develop a training program designed to work on the colonists, one that would be woven into all the media and information they had access too, one designed to complete their transformation into his utterly devoted servants. Using his knowledge of the process of shaping neural networks, he would set it up so it began subtly. Recasting history a bit to emphasize the chaotic nature of the old world, minor alterations to other media, subtle subliminals. Over time as it began to ensnare and transform the colonists it would increase in intensity, until by the time it reached a crescendo the colonists would happily be watching pure training data meant exclusively to mold their minds to his liking. Josh's gonna use his knowledge of human neural networks to design a method of indoctrinating the colonists based on the process of forming an AI's personality. Weaving into all the media and info they have access to, it's designed to be subtle at first but to increase in intensity over time as it works more and more on the colonists. Neural Network Pioneer[+2]
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May 14, 2021 04:07
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| # ? May 2, 2024 04:06 |
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Bjarki Steinnson - Exoplanetary Cartographer Status: Confused, angry, calm Bjarki turned around to face the rest of the people in the shuttle with him, when he spoke he was outwardly calmer than he felt inside. His survival experience on Earth had taught him the necessity of remaining calm even in the direst of peril. "Take a moment to breathe and relax. We're alive. I don't know what the hell went down on the ship or with the AI any more than you do but for the moment we're safe. Once you have settled a little make sure you are safe and cannot fall. The planet below us has 4 times Earth's gravity. That's 4gs. You're not going to be able to move for a while once we land until you adjust a little. Falling during the descent will be incredibly dangerous, possibly lethal. Make sure you are either strapped in on the floor or into a chair. I'm going to get some information before we land so you still have some time." poo poo. Bjarki had planned things out so carefully, this planet wasn't anything like the world they were supposed to be landing on. 4 loving whole G's. For an insane moment Bjarki hoped that whatever had been messing with the colonists to turn them into those monsters had given them stronger anatomies or they were going to be relying on robots most of their lives while they could barely crawl. Bjarki ran the comms system and tried to contact the other shuttle. "Shuttle 7, this is Shuttle 13, Bjarki Steinsson speaking. Are you and your crew safe? We should coordinate our landing sites, with limited resources and people we need to work together as much as we can if we hope to survive." While he waited for a reply, he sent out a broadcast down to the planet, both through basic radio bands and the more advanced digital comms channels. "Surface, this is Shuttle 13, Bjarki Steinsson speaking. We have evacuated the Vessel and are preparing our descent. Please report your status and nearby surface conditions if possible." Okay time to prepare plan C if neither surface group was viable and the other shuttle was a risk. Bjarki didn't have long but he was closer to an exoplanet than he had ever been (besides the Mars training), he could get accurate information quickly without having to process and validate three dozen different results to confirm the accuracy of what he was looking at. He knew atmospheric composition was not immediately dangerous for humans, and he knew the surface gravity. Next was identifying key climate concerns and finding a site that had the best conditions for them. They needed space to expand near land that was probably arable. In addition they needed somewhere that wasn't obviously prone to floods or storms that would be even deadlier than the raging and dying climate of Earth. There were so many factors to consider when planning the site of a new colony and he had minutes to prioritise a dozen out of thousands. This was a nightmare. Action: I want to identify a location with the minimal natural dangers and the best chance for growth and survival as I can within a few minutes survey from orbit. For this one I think all three of: Explorer [+2], Survivalist [+2] % Astrophysicist [+2] could apply. I'd like to talk to the other players if I can but I don't want to hold up stuff for it.
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May 14, 2021 08:02
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 "Chief" Howard Stanton ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Location: Corrin's Landing "Are you sure?" Chief asked the pair of men standing in front of him. He was holding a clear glass filled with a bubbling amber liquid and peering at it like it had offended him somehow. "Near as we can tell," said the first. "None of the instructional vids really went into a lot of detail," said the second, rubbing his gloved hands together. Most of the colonists had begun supplementing their issued coveralls and uniforms with synthleather additions like clothes or makeshit armor. Not that there was any great danger around, yet, but a lot of the vids in the VR center had to do with post-apocalyptic science fiction material and they felt they needed to look the part. "But that's about as close as we can come." "Is it supposed to have those bits floating around in it?" "We're still working on that part." "Well... let's try it." Chief tipped the glass into his mouth. A few moments later both of the construction workers-turned-brewers were wearing their first attempt at beer. "Oh that's just horrible! Tastes like what I imagine moose piss smells like! I mean still better than other things I've had so not a bad first try. Keep working at it." The two men wiped their dripping faces and tried not to looked too crestfallen. "Chief!" a colonist called out as they jogged over. "Chief we heard from Jasper! Come quick, you need to hear this!" The older man launched out of the chair and dashed to the comm center, which was the rather grandiose name for the tiny rockcrete hut that housed the colony's communications equipment. They had already cannibalized both shuttle's comm equipment to work with their own shortwave system which was making it easier to keep in contact with the few scouting teams that were out there. When he arrived he found nearly every colonist not out in the field standing around looking like someone had just kicked the world's largest puppy. "What happened?" "Just... listen to this." Chief listened to Jasper's final call. He could hear the sorrow in the actor's voice as he realized what was happened to him. After the recording was finished, Chief felt as though he had just been punched. He turned to say a few words when the comm unit crackled again. Bjarki posted:"Surface, this is Shuttle 13, Bjarki Steinsson speaking. We have evacuated the Vessel and are preparing our descent. Please report your status and nearby surface conditions if possible." He froze. Another shuttle? There were more survivors?! But how, Max was certain he had murdered nearly everyone except those that he, Jasper, and Joshua had escaped with. The obvious conclusion was Max was equally a moron as he had been insane and had missed some. Jasper would have to be mourned later, this couldn't be put off. "Shuttle 13, this is Chief Engineer Howard Stanton, representing the settlement of Corrin's Landing. We are reading you loud and clear, and I have to say it's drat good to hear another survivor. Conditions on the surface are harsh, but survivable. We have most of a landing pad constructed and are sending you the coordinates if you'd like to land... how the hell do you do that? Oh right right, got it. Ok now I've sent you the coords. Just to, ah, make sure but none of you are horribly mutated death machines, right?" No actions at the moment, unless trying to brew beer would be an action.
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May 14, 2021 20:08
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 Inès Aguilar-Roux - Shuttle in Orbit Inès stayed frozen as Jasper's message fizzed out, still leaning in, hands resting on the back of the pilot seat. What the hell was that about? Mummies, crystals, time-loss, death. It was a lot to take in. "Is there a way to play that again?" She asked the fishermen piloting the shuttle, finally straightening up. She had always hated the thought of driving and apparently the controls were remarkably similar to those found on fishing hover-trawlers. "Of course, uh let me- ah seems like we are getting another transmission right now." One of them answered as he poked tentatively at the comms panel. quote:"Shuttle 7, this is Shuttle 13, Bjarki Steinsson speaking. Are you and your crew safe? We should coordinate our landing sites, with limited resources and people we need to work together as much as we can if we hope to survive." Steinsson, that was the explorer, this was convenient. If she was completely honest with herself, she had no clue what to do. It seemed that the colonists had already split into two settlements and she now had to make a choice about where to settle the random gaggle of survivors in her shuttle. She scanned over the worried faces of the passengers sitting in the back, her eyes lingering for a second on a strikingly handsome comic book shop owner. Good genes on that one it seemed. Inès leaned back into the comms console, jostling one of the fishermen out of his chair, and thumbed the reply button. "Mr Steinsson? Uh Shuttle 13, this is shuttle 7, Inès speaking. We're all safe in here, a few cuts and bruises, nothing serious. I agree, best to pool our resources. We'll follow your lead." Stepping back she looked at the panels relaying video feeds from the outside of the shuttle, trying to spot shuttle 13. She could faintly see her reflection on the shiny screen. Immediately disgust welled up. Disgust at what she now was, at what they had done to her. Not now, not the time. With shaky hands she dug out a pill container from her pocket and swallowed one. The shaking subsided.
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May 15, 2021 10:37
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Joshua Collins♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Slightly annoyed to be interrupted from his work, Joshua nevertheless responds to the transmission from orbit. He hadn't expected there to be other survivors. "Shuttle, this site is a secondary settlement, intended to ensure a single major weather, seismic, or other event can't wipe out the entire project."
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May 17, 2021 01:28
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Bjarki Steinnson - Exoplanetary Cartographer Status: Planning Bjarki had no idea who was speaking the second settlement, the voice sounded familiar but he had so many things tumbling through his head that he couldn't put a name or face to it. At least it didn't seem like an intruder or some kind of monster. He'd take what small mercies he could and deal with the rest later. Deadmeat5150 posted:"Shuttle 13, this is Chief Engineer Howard Stanton, representing the settlement of Corrin's Landing. We are reading you loud and clear, and I have to say it's drat good to hear another survivor. Conditions on the surface are harsh, but survivable. We have most of a landing pad constructed and are sending you the coordinates if you'd like to land... how the hell do you do that? Oh right right, got it. Ok now I've sent you the coords. Just to, ah, make sure but none of you are horribly mutated death machines, right?" "Shuttle 13 here; That's a negative Chief Stanton. No monsters or death machines on board this shuttle. We will plot our descent momentarily. Please be prepared to receive possible injuries, none of us are prepared for a 4g environment. There's another shuttle up here with us, I'll direct Inés to get in touch with you to organise their landing. Please advise if the situation changes. Over." Once finished Bjarki connected back to Inés and shuttle 7. Fathis Munk posted:"Mr Steinsson? Uh Shuttle 13, this is shuttle 7, Inès speaking. We're all safe in here, a few cuts and bruises, nothing serious. I agree, best to pool our resources. We'll follow your lead." "Shuttle 7, this is shuttle 13. The larger settlement is able to receive us. The chief engineer seems to be in charge, so we should be able to rely on their infrastructure to be able to safely land there. We're about to prepare for our descent, you can follow our lead. Oh in case you hadn't had a chance to look at the world below, it is going to have a surface gravity of 4gs. Any injuries during descent have a high risk of permanent or lethal complications. Make sure you're prepared before you break atmosphere." Still following the action in my previous post to search for an ideal site (if the chief's location doesn't fit). If I need to land in a separate action I'll do that following this one.
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May 17, 2021 05:39
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"Chief" Howard Stanton ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Location: Corrin's Landing HiKaizer posted:
"13, there should be room for both of you on the pad, but it's going to be a tight squeeze. We've got a grav field set up around the living and working spaces that will alleviate most of the 4g pressure from your people. It won't be easy, but they'll get used to it. In fact, with your shuttles power sources we'll be able to expand the field significantly, which will be great since we're basically doubling the population here! Seriously though, it's drat good to hear your voice." If it's not an action to create beer, then my action will be to construct the landing field itself. All nice rockcrete and able to withstand a shuttle coming and going. +4 Engineer +2 Mass Fabricator
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May 20, 2021 22:07
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The world named: ? Lights from the descending shuttles sent creatures running, large and small. Sonic booms echoing. Four large sets of eyes opened on an armored head and a roar challenged the sound from the heavens. Thunderous footfalls miles away. Closer now. "Chief" Howard Stanton ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Location: Corrin's Landing The pad was soon easily expanded. The settlement had room after all. Now there would be more materials. TWO MORE SHIPS with those precious power sources, more processing power, more sensor power to be had. And more importantly, more shields to ward off 4G. That is, if those from those ships wished to become part of Corrin's Landing? The brewhaus was made from some of the leftover science stuff and science stations from the original shuttle. In a few weeks time, there could be some good stuff made. Now if only someone had oak to make barrels... The fabber bots doing the thing with the pad, people enthusiastically doing the brewin! Bjarki Steinnson - Exoplanetary Cartographer ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Location: Shuttle 13 @ Corrin's Landing The ship landed without incident. And Shuttle 7 soon landed right next to yours. As the doors opened, the clean air washed over something you've never smelled or tasted before. Clean air, clean water. An unpolluted world. The sounds of nature. A sound like distant thunder rumbles once, and is gone. No oceans here but tens of thousands of lakes across the planet. Some large like inland seas on old earth. You wonder what wonders of nature could be here. Welcome to earf-2! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Inès Aguilar-Roux - Shuttle 7 @ Corrin's Landing Your shuttle lands next to #13 on the pad. The hum of lights and clean walkways. People laughing, children playing. They're happy here you notice. Productive and working together. James you learned was "comic-book guy's" name. His poneytail and eyes roved over the settlement. "I feel like flash gordon here. Look at this world, this alien world he said in awe." James was an idea kind of guy. Not much in ability or execution, but he gave people ideas. The drugs in your system complimented what CAL had given you on the ship. CAL had given you 3 doses of meds when you "pooped". To even you out. As you looked around you could see how vibrant it all was. Welcome to earf 2.0+ Joshua Collins♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Location: The Black Pyramid, Site #2 Devot ran the sims until you got just what you needed. It was complex and complicated. The AI would do what it felt you wanted as much as it could. Because that is what you made it to do. If there were any flaws in its work, it did not find any. Nor did you. Running the first test on a cloned colonist with symbiote was a success. When you were satisfied with the first indoctrination (which was not overtly noticeable to a human eye but definitely changed the subject's brain readouts) the subject was recycled into biomass. This all took time of course. Beta Program 1.0 created. I am Communist fucked around with this message at 14:47 on Jun 4, 2021 |
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Jun 3, 2021 23:17
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Joshua Collins♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Location: The Black Pyramid, Site #2 Joshua looked over the results, and once he was satisfied set the indoctrination program into motion. It would be relatively simple for Devot to weave it into all of the colony's media. With the extra programming embedded, now would be an excellent time to encourage everyone to watch some of the programs on farming and other basic survival skills. It would be a double benefit of hopefully providing the colonists some useful skills while also ensuring high levels of exposure to the program. It may take some time, but when all was said and done, the colonists here would all unquestioningly accept him as a superior being, one it was only right they worship and obey unquestioningly. Setting the Indoctrination program into motion, using skill training videos as an excuse to get them to learn some basic survival skills and get lots of exposure.
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Jun 5, 2021 05:41
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"Chief" Howard Stanton ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Location: Corrin's Landing The grizzled and upkempt looking Chief Engineer drank slowly from the ice cold glass mug. The golden, frothy liquid inside was barely more acceptable than moose piss, back when there were moose obviously, but it was the first batch of real beer to come from the brewery. After downing half, he smacked his lips and looked at the other two people at the table. "Bjarki and Ines, am I getting those right? Anyway, it's up to you whether or not you want to stay in Corrin's Landing, but I do have to point out that we have the only gravity manipulator around. Now I don't know about you or the others you brought with you, but Corrin and adapted to 4Gs pretty drat quickly, but everyone else has had a hell of time. Now I've been assured that whatever modifications that were made to us by those EarthCom assholes, may muscle jesus crush their bones, means that when we finally get around to producing the next generation of humans, they will be more adapted than they are now." Chief drained the rest of his mug. "I doubt I need to tell you that pooling resources together would be for the best, but that's just my opinion really. We already have a good spot here with food, wood, and fresh water. We also have electricity not dependant on the shuttles, and working radios. Our bots also aren't breaking down despite being designed only for Earth gravity since we set up the repair depot over there. There's some basic industry already but I've got plans for bigger and better automation. Clean automation. I don't know about you two but I'm old enough to remember a lot about how we screwed things up the first time around. Well I'm not doing that here. We know more than our ancestors and there's no guarantee we'll find either coal or oil on this planet at all so everything right now is solar and hydro, at least until somebody figures out fusion again." He picked up the fresh mug that had been dropped off and enjoyed a leisurely drink. "Just some things to think about, alright? If you do decide to leave, that sucks. It really does. Especially because I have to admit I don't trust Josh, the guy in charge of... wherever it is he went. He's acted cagey ever since we left the ship. Well whatever you decide. Cheers." No action for now, letting the other respond.
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Jun 10, 2021 03:52
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♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Inès Aguilar-Roux - Corrin's Landing Inès took a sip from the cold brew. It wasn't very good, but it had been offered jovially, with generosity and it seemed wrong not to join in. It was strange here. All things considered it didn't feel all that different from back home, as long as you stayed in the gravity manipulator's field. The air was cleaner and the accommodations more... rustic, but still it was easy to forget that they were now lost on some other planet, somewhere in the universe. So inconceivably far away from humanity's cradle, and yet people were already getting used to it. How splendidly adaptable evolution had made us! The faint smile this thought brought to her lips immediately vanished as Howard uttered Josh's name. "So Dr. Collins survived?" She asked, face dour. What a shame. With Chief prattling on about the opportunity for a new start, a clean start away from the mistakes of the past, Inès had hoped for a moment that the scourge of bionics and genemodding would be left behind. That she and the others would be the last victims of this barbaric practice. A brief shiver of revulsion overcame her. "Well maybe we should be thankful he left. In any case I agree that we should stick together. The people in my shuttle, there aren't enough of them and we don't have the knowledge to make it on our own. Besides, I can do more good here than I will ever be able to do on my own." Inès looked pensive for a moment. "Do you know if there is any kind of wildlife on this planet? I would like to run some tests, but we have too few people to consider even willing human test subjects. I expect us to need every available hand in the next decade." Action: After chatting Inès will repurpose her ship into a laboratory, settling it east of the living quarters, with a small dispensary in front to treat diseases/wounds and hand out sweet sweet meds. Her plan right now is trying to design a mutagen that might speed up evolution in humans to help cut down on the number of generations needed to adapt to this planet. Until we get more test subjects this is theoretical work, using Biochemistry Wunderkind +4 to come up with something that increases mutation rate with as little lethality as possible.
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Jun 12, 2021 10:39
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Bjarki Steinnson - Exoplanetary Cartographer ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Location: Corrin's Landing Bjarki nodded as he carefully took in the chiefs words and thought on them. Personally he had not had much reason to interact with Dr. Collins as their roles in the mission had been entirely separate. Bjarki had not had a lot of opportunity for socialising outside of his work, but he knew of the major actors in it even if he didn't know them personally. "If you have a gravity controller to offset the effects of the increased gravity here, then it makes logical sense for us to remain here. Besides I believe that my fellow passengers of shuttle 13 would be better suited to working together with people than us trying to strike off on our own." All of them had done the survival training required to do so if they had to, but each of the colonists with Bjarki had skills that either needed a community or would best work to support one. "With such a small population...any additional settlements would endanger humanity's chances as a whole." They would already be relying on genetic modifications to avoid the issues of inbreeding and to produce a wide and stable enough genetic pool. That would already take several generations given much less than even a minimum viable population they had. Plus the experience would likely have an impact for many of them. Bjarki liked to consider himself a hardy person, but you couldn't just power through trauma like they had just experience without long term or even permanent complications. "We can go over itinerary later, but I am sure that the climate controller on shuttle 13 will be of immense help in keeping the colony safe and allowing us to rebuild." With the critical things seemingly out of the way, Bjarki turned to Inès again. "As for your idea, I believe I may be able to assist you with that. Among the possessions I was able to grab in our escape, was a tranquiliser rifle and appropriate darts for it. While I might not be the foremost expert in the field, I made quite a hobby out of outdoor survival and exploring on foot from my youth. Hopefully some of that knowledge will be useful in capturing some indigenous lifeforms for humane experiments. The stress on the word was very slight, but there was no reason to abandon their ethics and morals just because they were on a new world. As long as they could survive at least. Right now I plan to contribute to Chief's primary settlement on the planet, especially as he has infrastructure built in place already which can help people cope and adapt to the new planet. Action: Bjarki would like to contribute to Inès goal by assisting in capturing some animals with Survavlist [+2] & Explorer [+2]
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Jun 16, 2021 08:19
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"Chief" Howard Stanton ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Location: Corrin's Landing "Honestly, we havent seen much crawling around except us. It's got some people a little spooked. Even with the gravity, with the kind of planet you got here it should be teeming with life beyond the plants we see. It's like a huge empty world was just waiting for someone to come along. And then there's the weirdness Jasper found before..." Chief stopped to take a breath. Corrin's death had already rippled through colony and most people were dealing with it in their own way. "Anyway, let's get your shuttles hooked into the network amd see about setting up whatever prefabs you brought with you. Are those yurts?" Action: Using Engineer to get the shuttles permanently hooked into the network and get the gravity field expanded to the new housing, as well as getting the new houses set up with water and electricity. Also constructing a build with a tall watchtower and a hot-air signal balloon. the build will be for expeditions with Bjarki and the tower is duel purpose early warning system/lookout. Want to get the hydroponics people to get started with whatever they need as hydroponicsis going to be extremely important to augment farming. Deadmeat5150 fucked around with this message at 09:12 on Jun 16, 2021 |
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Jun 16, 2021 09:09
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