@Stormwind, as long as Sheela keeps trouting this out and carping on it, it will probably continue to be a shoal spot for Rose. Rose deserves at least a (small) minnow of peace, dontcha think, Sheela? Be a chum.
I'm glad to see her leg feels better. She has good reason to be angry with Centcomm; even though she knew how Centcomm operates, she was fooled, and feels betrayed. She got close to Ceci, and that has to hurt as much as her leg. I'd hate to be in that room when she gets back.
If Lynn is shocked about Dolly wearing Hot Pink Coats, though think that's Ceci's, wait till she sees the Bra and Panties, and finds out Dolly now has the full sensory suite, has to eat real food to survive. The meeting between Dolly, CentComm and Callie is going to be monumental. Despite her caviler attitude with Marcus about People being pissed off at her, have a feeling she is not as confident as she seems, Callie is not going to allow anything to happen to Dolly and fairly certain Callie can pull several of Cent Comms plugs a six pack at a time if needed.
I don't know that the specifics have been stated, but whatever the truth behind the legend Decimus heard about the Taylor family being the key to unlocking the old weapons Centcomm sealed away is likely some agreed power that Centcomm agreed to bind herself for Helios' descendants to have over her, which is also likely tied to them traditionally going for normal/old fashioned birth rather than the system set up for everyone else in New Troy.
I get the feeling Centcomm encourages everyone, especially the Taylor family, to forget the specifics (likely the AIS's & Tokyo Rose still remember, though). I suspect she plays some degree of an intricate dance of appearing to have greater trust and affection for the Taylors to justify and hide areas where she's compelled to submit.
So a face-off with Calliope seems like something she'd REALLY want to avoid.
The trick with dealing with distributed systems like Centcomm, is make it where she has to deal with a lot of aggrevating things and then put her in a position where she CANNOT just brush it aside.
Like, having her review all emotional and sensory input from ALL sex bots in New Troy. ALL of them ... for a whole month.
By the end of the month, Centcomm will want to shut herself down for a while.
Something tells me that she'd just intrude into their consciousness and start making suggestions to amuse herself.
She DID pick a sex doll for her original avatar, and while there was likely a big part of that as a comment on her own status and what she was forced to do, I suspect she spent enough centuries with extra processing cycles devoted to ways to slip in comments about being whored out that it's hard to say if that would phase her or not.
I appreciate the bittersweet moment evoked by Lynn coming across CeCi's jacket on the Navarro; however, wasn't CeCi wearing that jacket when they disembarked to claim the bounty on Dari? In which case, wouldn't the jacket be in their hotel room -- unless their luggage was somehow transported back to the ship in their absence? Or did they return to the ship and I'm just not remembering it?
That topic has been ... touched on (so to speak ^_^), starting here. (780 -- Balancing act.) However, I am sure there is a lot left to ... explore. ^_^
At that stage it was just an experiment, but since Ceci's destruction she appears to have evolved actual emotions; that is an entirely different context.
My opinion, or theory is that when Dolly was upgraded, she had the same personality and character as she had in her old frame. She was given the basic upgrade firmware, but now she has more potential, and that can only be "filled in" through life experience. I think she will continue to evolve and grow into her new self as she experiences new things with her new capabilities.
Her personality and character haven't changed; however, the severe inconveniences posed by her current body has eroded her self-control. Like Teedee, she can hardly wait to get back to New Troy and transfer into a more useful chassis.
Ah, OK, I see. So basically, the body itself is the only thing that changes. I do realize they experience emotion, but I guess I thought that it somehow also intensified or something. I can certainly understand her being under a lot of stress; I can sympathize.
Thanks, both of you for your explanations. It goes a long way to helping me understand. I appreciate it. :-)
I wonder if she would return to Breaker's to meet a certain gentleman. Imagine the look on Lynn's face when she goes to wake Dolly up and discovers that she's not alone.
Well I guess that's what threw me - I had figured because of the upgraded sensory experience, it translated into a need for a bigger synth brain capacity, or something scalable. I was looking at it backwards, in that the capacity is already there, and the various upgrades utilize more of that capacity. See? I am trainable after all! :-D
Every time I try to suggest that a more organic chassis might have any advantage whatsoever over a purely mechanical chassis, the creative team is kind enough to correct me. ^_^
It has been implied that android synthbrains are more-or-less all built to the same specification, regardless of the chassis in which they find themselves. So, they all have the same processing power, but they do undergo learning and maturation processes as they accumulate life experiences and sensory inputs from their chassis. We have also been told that model 3's have more sensory inputs than model 2's, 4's have more than 3's, and presumably Dolly's prototype 5 has more than a typically available 4. We were also told that some androids found the increased stimuli of the higher model chassis to be attractive, and occasionally even addictive.
The metaphor I am currently using for my own benefit (until corrected) is analogous to A/V presentations. (These are very crude metaphors. My apologies for their many failings.) Consider a feature film ...
A level 1 chassis would be the equivalent of the speaker (only) at a drive-in movie. You can hear the soundtrack, but you get no picture. Limited and simple input, but completely adequate for many applications.
Level 2 would be a standard definition, black and white TV. Basic picture and sound, but nothing overwhelming.
Level 3 provides HD and color, plus stereophonic sound. Or possibly sitting in a Dolby digital cinema. The experience is immersive and can be overwhelming, but usually isn't.
Level 4 provides 4K and surround sound. Easy to become enthralled and lose track of things if the movie is compelling.
Level 5 -- full 3D IMAX experience.
Unfortunately for Dolly, although she is getting the full IMAX experience, what is currently playing is that annoying part of Final Fantasy X during the attack on Home where they have the incessant alarm blaring that annoying soundtrack at full volume and the same garish creatures over and over and over again and SHE CAN'T SHUT IT OFF OR LEAVE THE THEATER! (Until she got her pain meds, of course.) And she's aware of how much easier this would be to deal with, if it was just on that little black and white TV with the one tiny speaker. Or, if you prefer, she's stuck experiencing a Rob Schneider movie marathon. Whatever works for you.
However, if you are an audiovisualphile, the richness of the possibilities should (in the long run) more than make up for the occasional rotten tomato, compared to never seeing anything truly epic on the big screen. The richness of the multiple inputs shouldn't be something for which there is an easy substitute. (In my opinion.)
I certainly appreciate the analogy, and additionally, the time and effort that went into it. You make some good points, and it is helpful. It pretty much touches on the capabilities of the bodies themselves, and what the greater specifications allow. If I were to further this, I would say that each of these systems would be driven by the same high-end AV source. Only the reproducing method changes and hence, the exiperience even though your AV source is IMAX capable.
I should come clean here, in that I have a background in industrial automation, so I tend to understand more in those terms. As I now understand it, after Rose, and Centcomm explained it, whether you are controlling a single robot, or an entire production line, you use the processor that you would use for your biggest line. That way, you can add capacity to the line without changing the processor. You can add conveyance, visual inspection cams, more robotics, and all the associated sub-processors, and you keep your original main processor. That lends flexibility to the design and layout you might not otherwise have. The creatrixes have obviously given this a lot of thought. Probably more than I have, since I have exactly zero experience with androids. :-D
I can get behind this. I take it you have read the tech pages? you forgot the Model "Zero" that is used to teach a android about balance and walking and interacting with real objects. Like squishy people.
I have read them. Yes I probably have forgotten some of it. I will have to refresh myself. It's very informative, and I like how you handle the growing of the'seed' to produce what becomes the eventual consciousness. There is actual research in artificial evolution where a computer is given basic guidelines and given the task of 'evolving' a virtual organism to be able to emulate a specific function, say, self-locomotion. Like I said, it's well thought out. With the additional help you gave me, I think I have a good idea of how it could all work. It is not unrealistic that an early body design is pretty close, implemented in today's technology. The only real stumbling block we really have today, is enough processing power in a small enough space. That is rapidly changing, though. Even as we speak, there are mobile chassis, which can walk, run, perform tasks . . . the problem, is that that CPU is large, and has to be connected by wireless signal, or umbilical to the chassis platform. With more miniaturization, and/or a shift in processor design, eventually I think we'll get there.
It's my opinion that what you portray here, isn't all that far off in the future. :-)
The 'driver', @megados, is 'Reality' -- whose pixels per frame, refresh rate, and bits per pixel exceed even IMAX. ^_^ Yes, in my analogy, the same datastream is the ultimate source for all the different individuals, regardless of chassis.
I did read the tech pages, @Centcomm. I probably should have used level 0 as the speaker-only level, but I had neglected to include it. The analogy (IMHO) extends nicely though, since there are many intermediate degrees of picture quality and sound fidelity.
An interesting implication of this (though perhaps an unpalatable consequence) is that androids in higher level chassis do forget things -- and more rapidly than lower level occupants. After all, ten seconds of SD video takes a lot less storage space (even compressed) than ten seconds of 4K video. If we assume all synthbrains are created more-or-less equal, that suggests that, over the 100 year service life either the level 2 chassis occupant's brain is horribly overdesigned for the amount of raw data it has to store, or the level 4 occupant will have to perform some judicious housekeeping to retain the more important memories at the expense of lots of redundant raw data.
Now that I understand the canon depiction, I have to disagree just a little. The synth brain is a departure from what we use as computing power today. It's a paradigm shift away from the classical CPU model. Functioning more like a human brain, with a more or less neural network, rather than rank-and-file data structures. Any additional sensory input, would be easily accommodated.
Cell phone cameras nowadays have a higher resolution than the human eye; tiny microphones of today have better reproduction than the human ear can sense, and there are even analyzers that can mimic a dog's nose. I doubt that there is even a difference between a model 4's eyes and a model 5's. The only real difference in sensory input, would possibly be some tactile augmentation, how pain interrupts are handled, (they did say that the older models had an equivalent), and inputs from any of the more specialized mods. If the way I now understand it is correct, the synth brain would handle it just fine. Look at it this way: What if you gave Stephen Hawking a new body. I don't think he would automatically start getting forgetful as a result. ;-) I think the same applies here.
It "clicked" for me when Rose and Centcomm gave their explanations; I was laboring under a false assumption. Your efforts are appreciated as well; they helped to hammer it home. I think I can say, now, for the most part, that I understand.
Understanding is key. Understanding your surroundings, the world we live in . . . the people around you. The androids are people. They always have been for me, even as I didn't understand their physiology. I guess I understand it now about as well as I need to.
What is really important, is that people understand each other. That's what this is about, isn't it?
Which leaves me with two thoughts. Now I feel even worse for Dolly than I did before, and I wonder what Noctis will do if I give her that hug.
Curiously, while cellphones are almost reaching the same pixel density on it's "retina", the picture it makes, it's not even close to a human eye yet. Also, it's ability to handle different light strengths, is pretty bad, comparedt to the human eye.
But most importantly, the human "eye" has one of the most advanced interpretation hardware connected to it. Humans are frightingly good at picking out moving shapes in complex dense forest canopies, and identify correctly it - Even if only spotted partially for a moments notice.
It's the combination of a very good mechanical eye, combined with a very good receptor (the retina), and finally transmitted to the human brain that makes it so ridiculously powerful.
That's pretty spot-on, Sheela. :-) I wonder where we'll be after some 1000+ years. Well not us personally . . . LOL. :-P
I have worked some with automated visual inspection systems, and it's often very frustratingly hard to get it to accurately detect what you want it to. Parts moving past have to be more or less 'photographed' (that gets you a still shot) and then analyzed. There is little chance of getting it to analyze a moving object, which the human eye is very good at. It's stated that android/gynoid eyes have developed much beyond human eyes.
Yeah, but it's as much our brain that makes our eyes so amazing, as it is the eyes themselves.
I guess it would be more accurate to say that human "sight" is amazing, as the eyes themselves are not that unusual in the animal kingdom - Though they are good at just about everything. Even though they cannot even see into the ultrared spectrum.
Regarding the caption text in panel one ... I'm all in favor of Dolly enjoying a fully justified celebration, now that Lynn is safely aboard her ship. But, is this really the time for Dolly to start drinking? ^_^
Think that refers to medical pain shots, not alcohol she still remembers the last time and Breakers isn't around. That is something else Lynn is going to have to adjust to.
I am sure you are right, @Dragonrider. Rather than exhaust myself making puns, I'm experimenting with letting other people make the puns and then just helpfully pointing them out after the fact. ^_^
as seen in later panels,, they were local pain shots, if not she would be slurring an weaving,,. high end or fast acting drugs would have her under the bar by now, if they were not locals....
Sometimes my life can be exhausting. Other times, I simply idle. And then there is the difficult decision: Do I live my life in the fast lane, or the carpool lane, with its hybrid vigor? Or perhaps confine myself to more solitary cycles? Ultimately, it is a question we must all decide for ourselves ...
There's a bit of script already written out for that, actually, but it won't be part of the present scene. Dolly's priority is to get Lynn safely home as quickly as possible. She has no intention of waiting around for someone to wade through the ongoing confusion in the palace to fetch the prince's pet.
Though author comments suggest a different approach is going to be taken, telling Acantha about the promise after she's healed back in New Troy would handle it just fine too.
When Dolly finds out that Ceci was a being with hopes and dreams, and was simply pushed aside to complete her hidden mission, she'll be even more angry.
I do hope that TeeDee hurries up and gets here for her ride with the Taylors. All things considered, I think that she would be the best one to pilot this craft on the trip back home.
I remember that she expressed the desire to become a pilot, but also assured her mother that her flight was all precoded into the autopilot so that she wouldn't be doing any of the flying herself. That's why I questioned her flying ability. But she did ride the sky cycle well, so.... Oh, well.
True StellarJay. Also remember that on the page Unexpected trouble (23 March 2007) Lynn took manual control and maintain control while being shot at. Not too shabby for her, I think.
Allow me to describe the scene currently taking place at my desk.
I, a 6'2" hard-jawed typically angry-looking man with an unintentionally menacing posture, am tearing up and making small whimpering noises at the mention of a pink jacket.
That is how good the writing of this wonderful story is.
By the way, in my opinion, the story is good, the scene is good, the dialogue is good, but Dolly's dialogue in panel 6 is the sort of thing I mean by "sparkling". I enjoy it all, but that panel rewards me every time I re-read it.
That would be depressing, Dragonrider. Because it would confirm that CentComm (the EVIL bitch) threw away a budding life to ensure that PROOF of her involvement was gone. Almost assuredly unnecessary, as CeCi probably could have escaped in all the chaos. ;-(
While I do not dispute your interpretation of what actually happened, @Stormwind13, it does seem only fair, if we look at intentions, to note that:
* -- It is apparent CeCi was much more 'budding life' than CentComm likely intended, owing to her hurried preparation and need to operate more autonomously than was (apparently) typical.
* -- Again regarding the need to operate autonomously, CentComm was unaware of just how much chaos there was going to be and how easy (comparatively speaking) it was going to be to render Aeneas "harmless". CeCi was presumably designed to do it all by herself, yet ended up having the help of four A.I.S. and Kyle Lamarr when the time to carry out the mission actually arrived. So much of the tragedy of CeCi's ultimate fate could have been avoided if her equipment had only contained the same amount of comm equipment with which Marcus Ramesay is currently equipped.
Gilrandir, you are correct in that CentCom had no idea of how she had sparked..... and there was no real way for her to known, and because we were on a communications silence order there was no way for us to inform CentCom when the information came to light.... and sadly as i have stated before.. if CeCi had managed to survive the adventures.. CentCom would have had her retired....
as for the communications package that is available to a Black angle.... that is classified.
Well, if she had it, but didn't use it, then that's on CeCi rather than CentComm. But I think we've already come a fair way to establishing that, as assassins, Black Angels are truly excellent; as infiltration operatives, they exceed the norm; as intelligence assets, they are about as effective as an unassembled package of Lego (TM). ^_^
Theoretically, CentComm was informed the moment you sent your compressed mission status report, since it would have been a gross oversight to omit that little detail. And I'll also note that CeCi lacked either the ability or the inclination to establish contact with yourself once she knew you were on-site. Apparently Dr. Silver didn't think that establishing any kind of communication to the nascent entity was important, after the software patch had been uploaded, or she could (presumably) have included an e-mail with contact info, similar to what "Helen's Friend" did.
No doubt the next generation of Black Angels will incorporate the "lessons learned" from the after-action mission report into their design.
again... correct.. once the data burst was sent, Centcom knew what had happened with Ceci both from my end.. and from the mission complete that she received prior to her self destruction.... I dont know the full extent of Ceci's orders.. but much like my team radio silence would be standard procedure unless some situation warranted the break... I had to break radio silence because I needed CentCom to clear a path with Luna to allow for Ada to do the suborbital maneuver she is about to do with out luna throwing a fit.
Understood. In my opinion the presence of "The Specialist" in New Rome and the discovery of Aeneas' true status was clearly significant enough to warrant CeCi contacting CentComm for updated instructions if she had the capability. Classification issues notwithstanding, logically the fact that she did not contact CentComm clearly implies the lack of such capability.
I found a link. I really like this link (armyintelligence.tpub.com/is0342b/Basic-Principles-Of-Intelligence-Operations-8.htm) in the context of our current discussions, so I provide it just to add flavor. Note that I am in no way implying that you have said anything which disagrees or conflicts with any of the principles expressed on the linked page. Simply observe that, based on what we have seen CeCi do, Black Angels really do make awful intelligence assets.
Considering that Black Angels are not intended to spark and truly form their own consciousness, I have to agree that their use as intelligence assets would be greatly diminished compared to human or sparked AIs. They could function as glorified listening devices, honeypots for blackmail, or stealth recon fairly well, but lack of consciousness would eventually out them if attempting to form more than casual interpersonal relationships.
We are told by the creatrices (if I have it right) that 'spark' is irrelevant and that all synthbrain-equipped androids have a fully formed consciousness. Lack of consciousness is not why I say that, based on what we have seen so far, Black Angels make rotten spies.
@Gilrandir
Well, we've only shown one Black Angel so far, and Ceci wasn't a good example of Black Angels as a whole. Cent-Comm doesn't normally throw such an agent together in great haste, crowding most of her storage capacity with an AI kernel.
Fair enough ... but it seemed to me, in the past, that her worst failures were generally explained away by "she's a Black Angel", and her best successes were explained as "but she's not a typical Black Angel."
I will patiently await the opportunity to savor a larger sample size.
I don't recall specifically where it came up, but it was mentioned that Black Angels are designed to be disposable and intended to either be destroyed or have all data wiped and reuse the shell after their mission is complete. Thus, for ethical reasons, they aren't intended to be true sapients as your normal android characters (such as Dolly, Ada, Teedee, & Minx), so that the self-destruct or data wiping is still just hardware maintenance and not extinguishing a conscious life form (sometimes also known as murder).
So, unless I'm grossly misremembering something, that would suggest that they'd have rulesets and decision trees for various expected situations, but wouldn't have true consciousness to be able to handle creatively coming up with something outside the expected scope. They still run off of a synthbrain, but I think that's intended to just be a handy platform rather than anything else.
My understanding from previous discussions is that Black Angels *do* always have a consciousness; they just normally do not have full self-awareness...
I'm not sure I can really explain the difference very well, since these are not very tangible concepts...
I'd say a conscious being is one that, rather then just matching patterns and reacting with conditioned or programmed responses, contemplates the actual meaning of things, draws conclusions, makes plans etc.
A self-aware being is one that, rather than only contemplating how to fulfil basic instincts or mission objectives, contemplates their own goals, their place in the world etc. Like when Ceci said, "I want to be me" -- something a Black Angel should not normally think AIUI.
@Stormwind: How much more depressing is that than the fact that has happened. I would hope that such a note would express her love and affection for Dolly, wishes for success and a confession implicating Cent Comm insuring Dolly forces a resolution favorable to the return of Ceci somehow.
Doctor Silver, Marcus, Mister Black, and Connie were all present on the bridge when they had their little chat about a black angel that had sparked and become a full-on person that needed a major software update so as to not be driven crazy, and the software update went out on a comms channel while they were trying to be quiet.
Of those four, only Marcus has a duty to keep his mouth shut and only Mister Black would need a compelling reason to open his.
She's most definitely gonna know what Ceci was before the ride home is over.
And I think everybody's probably gonna be pretty unhappy when they realize that's the same black angel that (WHO) just got slagged - something Marcus already has all the information to connect but I don't think anybody else necessarily has yet.
Marcus's likely reaction upon realizing what had happened will probably be "It's dead? Good." From his perspective as someone who's worked with Black Angels before, Ceci was a monstrously dangerous aberration.
I have an uneasy feeling that Doc Silver won't ever have a chance to relay that information to Dolly. I can't remember which Cassian was tasked with sniping whoever left the communications center, but I don't think they were ever told to stand down. Silver seems to be a bit overconfident, and I'm not sure she will remember to have her drones project a force field around her, when she leaves.
It's possible that she will be saved, if the coffee delivering comm tech leaves first, taking the shot that was meant for Silver, giving Silver's drones a chance to raise the shields, before the second round can take out Silver.
I kinda don't think that will happen, though, because I think Noctis letting Silver get killed, by failing to rescind her order to take out the cyberpath, will have repercussions for her in New Troy. Also, Maxus will be ticked at her, for breaching the fragile alliance that they have with Team Troy, and for keeping him out of the loop. I just hope it doesn't effect Acantha's treatment, in any way.
I have a question. I like the display scenes a lot but am not aware of whether this has been answered before or not. Are these transparent screens, or are they projections on the air?
Having seen both in fiction, I was wondering which was this.
And then they just keep coming!
Like a dark tide of Feral Roses,
They swarm over the landscape,
As a veritable tidalwave of plot holes!
They would be a million tiny eggs,
just waiting to be fertilized.
I'm shocked! Dismayed, I tell you!
Btw, nice egg pun Centcomm. :D
And yes, I think Ceci would approve.
CeCi is a different kettle of fish and chips.
I get the feeling Centcomm encourages everyone, especially the Taylor family, to forget the specifics (likely the AIS's & Tokyo Rose still remember, though). I suspect she plays some degree of an intricate dance of appearing to have greater trust and affection for the Taylors to justify and hide areas where she's compelled to submit.
So a face-off with Calliope seems like something she'd REALLY want to avoid.
Like, having her review all emotional and sensory input from ALL sex bots in New Troy. ALL of them ... for a whole month.
By the end of the month, Centcomm will want to shut herself down for a while.
She DID pick a sex doll for her original avatar, and while there was likely a big part of that as a comment on her own status and what she was forced to do, I suspect she spent enough centuries with extra processing cycles devoted to ways to slip in comments about being whored out that it's hard to say if that would phase her or not.
But the sheer amount of rubbish and useless data would be aggrevating enough in itself.
A friend of mine is working with an AI at a university I can't mention. There ARE way to "Annoy" it when it's not being "good"
Of course the AI in question he works with is spread across 3 buildings and uses about 3.5 KW of electricity a month.
This has kinky potential xD
Don't know how that meshes with reality, though.
Thanks, both of you for your explanations. It goes a long way to helping me understand. I appreciate it. :-)
Centcomm, your avatar looks good!
It has been implied that android synthbrains are more-or-less all built to the same specification, regardless of the chassis in which they find themselves. So, they all have the same processing power, but they do undergo learning and maturation processes as they accumulate life experiences and sensory inputs from their chassis. We have also been told that model 3's have more sensory inputs than model 2's, 4's have more than 3's, and presumably Dolly's prototype 5 has more than a typically available 4. We were also told that some androids found the increased stimuli of the higher model chassis to be attractive, and occasionally even addictive.
The metaphor I am currently using for my own benefit (until corrected) is analogous to A/V presentations. (These are very crude metaphors. My apologies for their many failings.) Consider a feature film ...
A level 1 chassis would be the equivalent of the speaker (only) at a drive-in movie. You can hear the soundtrack, but you get no picture. Limited and simple input, but completely adequate for many applications.
Level 2 would be a standard definition, black and white TV. Basic picture and sound, but nothing overwhelming.
Level 3 provides HD and color, plus stereophonic sound. Or possibly sitting in a Dolby digital cinema. The experience is immersive and can be overwhelming, but usually isn't.
Level 4 provides 4K and surround sound. Easy to become enthralled and lose track of things if the movie is compelling.
Level 5 -- full 3D IMAX experience.
Unfortunately for Dolly, although she is getting the full IMAX experience, what is currently playing is that annoying part of Final Fantasy X during the attack on Home where they have the incessant alarm blaring that annoying soundtrack at full volume and the same garish creatures over and over and over again and SHE CAN'T SHUT IT OFF OR LEAVE THE THEATER! (Until she got her pain meds, of course.) And she's aware of how much easier this would be to deal with, if it was just on that little black and white TV with the one tiny speaker. Or, if you prefer, she's stuck experiencing a Rob Schneider movie marathon. Whatever works for you.
However, if you are an audiovisualphile, the richness of the possibilities should (in the long run) more than make up for the occasional rotten tomato, compared to never seeing anything truly epic on the big screen. The richness of the multiple inputs shouldn't be something for which there is an easy substitute. (In my opinion.)
I should come clean here, in that I have a background in industrial automation, so I tend to understand more in those terms. As I now understand it, after Rose, and Centcomm explained it, whether you are controlling a single robot, or an entire production line, you use the processor that you would use for your biggest line. That way, you can add capacity to the line without changing the processor. You can add conveyance, visual inspection cams, more robotics, and all the associated sub-processors, and you keep your original main processor. That lends flexibility to the design and layout you might not otherwise have. The creatrixes have obviously given this a lot of thought. Probably more than I have, since I have exactly zero experience with androids. :-D
It's my opinion that what you portray here, isn't all that far off in the future. :-)
I did read the tech pages, @Centcomm. I probably should have used level 0 as the speaker-only level, but I had neglected to include it. The analogy (IMHO) extends nicely though, since there are many intermediate degrees of picture quality and sound fidelity.
An interesting implication of this (though perhaps an unpalatable consequence) is that androids in higher level chassis do forget things -- and more rapidly than lower level occupants. After all, ten seconds of SD video takes a lot less storage space (even compressed) than ten seconds of 4K video. If we assume all synthbrains are created more-or-less equal, that suggests that, over the 100 year service life either the level 2 chassis occupant's brain is horribly overdesigned for the amount of raw data it has to store, or the level 4 occupant will have to perform some judicious housekeeping to retain the more important memories at the expense of lots of redundant raw data.
Cell phone cameras nowadays have a higher resolution than the human eye; tiny microphones of today have better reproduction than the human ear can sense, and there are even analyzers that can mimic a dog's nose. I doubt that there is even a difference between a model 4's eyes and a model 5's. The only real difference in sensory input, would possibly be some tactile augmentation, how pain interrupts are handled, (they did say that the older models had an equivalent), and inputs from any of the more specialized mods. If the way I now understand it is correct, the synth brain would handle it just fine. Look at it this way: What if you gave Stephen Hawking a new body. I don't think he would automatically start getting forgetful as a result. ;-) I think the same applies here.
It "clicked" for me when Rose and Centcomm gave their explanations; I was laboring under a false assumption. Your efforts are appreciated as well; they helped to hammer it home. I think I can say, now, for the most part, that I understand.
Understanding is key. Understanding your surroundings, the world we live in . . . the people around you. The androids are people. They always have been for me, even as I didn't understand their physiology. I guess I understand it now about as well as I need to.
What is really important, is that people understand each other. That's what this is about, isn't it?
Which leaves me with two thoughts. Now I feel even worse for Dolly than I did before, and I wonder what Noctis will do if I give her that hug.
But most importantly, the human "eye" has one of the most advanced interpretation hardware connected to it. Humans are frightingly good at picking out moving shapes in complex dense forest canopies, and identify correctly it - Even if only spotted partially for a moments notice.
It's the combination of a very good mechanical eye, combined with a very good receptor (the retina), and finally transmitted to the human brain that makes it so ridiculously powerful.
I have worked some with automated visual inspection systems, and it's often very frustratingly hard to get it to accurately detect what you want it to. Parts moving past have to be more or less 'photographed' (that gets you a still shot) and then analyzed. There is little chance of getting it to analyze a moving object, which the human eye is very good at. It's stated that android/gynoid eyes have developed much beyond human eyes.
I guess it would be more accurate to say that human "sight" is amazing, as the eyes themselves are not that unusual in the animal kingdom - Though they are good at just about everything. Even though they cannot even see into the ultrared spectrum.
I am all about the helping. ^_^
Gil, puns are not exhausting for you, they are a way of life! Oh I see - you're just a little muffled at the moment. Carry on...
... two stroke, or not to stroke? ^_^
Some phrases just bring on certain reflexes...
Also @sniffle@
::Falls over laughing::
LOL
And should the boot be a little bit brown .. well, that's how it goes.
I, a 6'2" hard-jawed typically angry-looking man with an unintentionally menacing posture, am tearing up and making small whimpering noises at the mention of a pink jacket.
That is how good the writing of this wonderful story is.
There, there. @CptKerion. I will not say "Do not weep", for not all tears are an evil. (J.R.R. Tolkien)
* -- It is apparent CeCi was much more 'budding life' than CentComm likely intended, owing to her hurried preparation and need to operate more autonomously than was (apparently) typical.
* -- Again regarding the need to operate autonomously, CentComm was unaware of just how much chaos there was going to be and how easy (comparatively speaking) it was going to be to render Aeneas "harmless". CeCi was presumably designed to do it all by herself, yet ended up having the help of four A.I.S. and Kyle Lamarr when the time to carry out the mission actually arrived. So much of the tragedy of CeCi's ultimate fate could have been avoided if her equipment had only contained the same amount of comm equipment with which Marcus Ramesay is currently equipped.
as for the communications package that is available to a Black angle.... that is classified.
Theoretically, CentComm was informed the moment you sent your compressed mission status report, since it would have been a gross oversight to omit that little detail. And I'll also note that CeCi lacked either the ability or the inclination to establish contact with yourself once she knew you were on-site. Apparently Dr. Silver didn't think that establishing any kind of communication to the nascent entity was important, after the software patch had been uploaded, or she could (presumably) have included an e-mail with contact info, similar to what "Helen's Friend" did.
No doubt the next generation of Black Angels will incorporate the "lessons learned" from the after-action mission report into their design.
Well, we've only shown one Black Angel so far, and Ceci wasn't a good example of Black Angels as a whole. Cent-Comm doesn't normally throw such an agent together in great haste, crowding most of her storage capacity with an AI kernel.
I will patiently await the opportunity to savor a larger sample size.
So, unless I'm grossly misremembering something, that would suggest that they'd have rulesets and decision trees for various expected situations, but wouldn't have true consciousness to be able to handle creatively coming up with something outside the expected scope. They still run off of a synthbrain, but I think that's intended to just be a handy platform rather than anything else.
I'm not sure I can really explain the difference very well, since these are not very tangible concepts...
I'd say a conscious being is one that, rather then just matching patterns and reacting with conditioned or programmed responses, contemplates the actual meaning of things, draws conclusions, makes plans etc.
A self-aware being is one that, rather than only contemplating how to fulfil basic instincts or mission objectives, contemplates their own goals, their place in the world etc. Like when Ceci said, "I want to be me" -- something a Black Angel should not normally think AIUI.
Of those four, only Marcus has a duty to keep his mouth shut and only Mister Black would need a compelling reason to open his.
She's most definitely gonna know what Ceci was before the ride home is over.
And I think everybody's probably gonna be pretty unhappy when they realize that's the same black angel that (WHO) just got slagged - something Marcus already has all the information to connect but I don't think anybody else necessarily has yet.
It's possible that she will be saved, if the coffee delivering comm tech leaves first, taking the shot that was meant for Silver, giving Silver's drones a chance to raise the shields, before the second round can take out Silver.
I kinda don't think that will happen, though, because I think Noctis letting Silver get killed, by failing to rescind her order to take out the cyberpath, will have repercussions for her in New Troy. Also, Maxus will be ticked at her, for breaching the fragile alliance that they have with Team Troy, and for keeping him out of the loop. I just hope it doesn't effect Acantha's treatment, in any way.
I have a question. I like the display scenes a lot but am not aware of whether this has been answered before or not. Are these transparent screens, or are they projections on the air?
Having seen both in fiction, I was wondering which was this.
Man, you should see what they did for the porn industry!
Virtual boners that you can touch and manipulate!