dagnyology: (006)
Dagny ([personal profile] dagnyology) wrote in [community profile] futurology2016-05-14 07:00 pm

VIDEO -> TEXT. UN: DAGNY.

[ Dagny's face appears on the network. Behind her are snowy plains, where small gnomes are jumping and playing. Her face is flushed from the cold, but she smiles. ]

Hello! I hope you're all doing well! The Timeline has finally computed your mission objective — sorry it took so long! Sometimes he gets a little slow. Now, I know he may seem— different, but he's always been correct! Just... ah, be careful when talking to him? He's a learning machine, and all he really knows is about missions, so sometimes he says some strange things when he goes off topic. But don't worry! He tries his best. I'll connect you to him now.

TIMELINE.EXE IS PROGRAMMED TO RELEASE MISSION PARAMETERS. MISSION OBSERVATION IS COMPLETE AND RESULTS FOR MISSION: Nalawi ARE AS FOLLOWS:

Hello World ( ゚▽゚)/ Take the hassle and confusion out of the
Mission,
Try this One Weird Trick!

To help NALAWI, you will need to DEFEAT the GODDESS NALANNI so the energy can return to the world.* In doing so, the people of NALAWI will LOSE THEIR POWERS but the world will continue on. If this objective is not reached, NALAWI will BURN OUT PREMATURELY.

*NOTE FROM TIMELINE.EXE: Giant squid of the Sea, too
2 or 0 Not 1! Thank you


[OOC NOTE: This will serve as an IC discussion post. The OOC discussion post is here!]
agrizzlysin: (i hate it)

video; un: king

[personal profile] agrizzlysin 2016-05-15 06:00 am (UTC)(link)
Can we afford to split our forces at this point? [Though King looks young, he also looks haggard, and dead serious. Talking strategy sounds nice right now, if only because he can't fight the way he wants to.] Can we afford not to? I don't know the full strength of ALASTAIR's forces, let alone the goddesses'. With so many variables... an uneven split may actually be best.
evantuality: <:| (<:|)

[personal profile] evantuality 2016-05-15 11:54 pm (UTC)(link)
We're dealing with a couple of creatures that have the ability to, to sink landmasses, and with no compunctions about genocide. Or cannibalism. And we've got so little information that we're reduced to -- to guessing.

The best I can come up with is to say I really think we should attempt Ryba first. Splitting up our forces? Lord knows what kind of chance we have even with our combined skills, certain cocky members of our ranks aside.

[Evan is fretting hard and it's making him terse and nervous.]

Christ, this is such a mess. I'm starting to think ALASTAIR has no more idea what we're doing than we do.
agrizzlysin: (it's a bird it's a plane)

[personal profile] agrizzlysin 2016-05-18 01:11 am (UTC)(link)
They don't. [King just had a talk with Dagny about this. It didn't end well, not after King learned where they get their orders.] So don't depend on them for any recruit's life.

What we can depend on is for those cocky members of our ranks to make enough noise to buy the rest of us time.
evantuality: book (:I)

[personal profile] evantuality 2016-05-19 03:47 am (UTC)(link)
[That idea brings Evan up short and busts him for the moment out of his anxiety spiral]

...you might have a point.

Christ, there's a hell of a thought. Grim, but a hell of a thought. [He's definitely thinking more 'cannon fodder' than 'jaunty distraction'.]
agrizzlysin: (this is how many brain cells you have)

[personal profile] agrizzlysin 2016-05-19 04:31 am (UTC)(link)
It's not quite so grim when you remind yourself these people are chomping at the bit for a fight they know should be impossible. They're going to march in no matter what. We might as well make use of that.
evantuality: o___O (o___O)

[personal profile] evantuality 2016-05-19 05:14 am (UTC)(link)
[Evan wrinkles his nose fiercely, thinking of the hotheads he's tried to talk to.]

I think, perhaps, that you're onto something. I mean, I am sure as hell not going to be arguing anyone down.

But I suppose that means the rest of us had better get on planning what we're going to do during the grand distraction, and judging from some of the reactions around here we may not have long before the fireworks begin to go off. Only, how do you even plan for something like this?
agrizzlysin: (wait what is that flying toward me?)

[personal profile] agrizzlysin 2016-05-19 05:48 am (UTC)(link)
[King can relate to that telling nose wrinkle. He was stuck working with Ban long before ALASTAIR recruited them both. He's long since accepted that some idiots can't be talked out of a fight no matter how stupid.]

That's exactly what it means. Think of anything you can do, and how you can make use of it. Without knowing what's effective, we may just have to try everything.
evantuality: 8I (8I)

[personal profile] evantuality 2016-05-20 03:21 am (UTC)(link)
Throw it at the wall and see what sticks, huh.

[That thought is starting to stir Evan up into fretting again and it's visible in the way his shoulders hitch upwards. He huffs, frowns hard enough to wrinkle his forehead, and blows out a sigh.]

God, that sounds awful. That sounds... we should at least try and coordinate. Except that trying to get all of us in one place is like herding cats! Nobody has any interest, really, unless there's booze and a beach party involved.

[If he sounds a bit tart, that's because he is.]
agrizzlysin: (if only you were 25 feet taller)

[personal profile] agrizzlysin 2016-05-21 10:51 pm (UTC)(link)
[King snickers a tad despite himself. That's true enough.]

I can't say I have any experience with that, but I can say the same thing my captain told me once. [Not that... it's terribly helpful.] We don't know what we're up against, but they don't know what they're up against either. If you want to coordinate, let's do it with a small group and share just enough information with everyone else that we don't get in each others' way.
evantuality: <:| (<:|)

[personal profile] evantuality 2016-05-23 11:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[Evan sighs and rubs his face with his hands.]

Hell, you're probably not wrong, that's probably the best we're going to get here. Ugh, this whole decentralized leadership concept...

[Frowning, the young man looks at the even younger boy, wondering if he should be treating this person as a child or an adult. Being with ALASTAIR has done a lot to shake up his notions of age versus competence, and he's speaking with authority, but it's hard to get around the fact that he doesn't even look like he's hit puberty all the way yet. He decides to test the waters rather than admit his own incompetence right off the bat.]

I mean, you make it sound like you've had battle experience. Do you know how you're going to approach this fight? Have you ever fought anything of this magnitude before?
agrizzlysin: (boxers or briefs?)

[personal profile] agrizzlysin 2016-05-24 06:33 am (UTC)(link)
[It's okay, Evan. King isn't very typical, even in his own world. He's used to people fishing in much less tactful ways.]

I've never fought a goddess before, but... I've battled my fair share of monsters and usurpers as a knight of the Seven Deadly Sins. Fighting as a group of seven is completely different from this mess though, and I don't have my power right now. [He pauses, looking away as if this fact still bothers him. He's been nothing but dead weight for this mission, a warrior trapped in a child's powerless body.] My best chance to fight may be to find someone with enough strength to wield my weapon and support them from a distance. Barring that, I'll have to focus on defense. Digging trenches, moving supplies...

[Or playing decoy.]

If we could find some way to cut off the goddesses' power... [Siiiiiigh.] I wouldn't know where to begin with that. Not without any inside information.
evantuality: o___O (o___O)

[personal profile] evantuality 2016-05-27 02:04 am (UTC)(link)
['Knight of the Seven Deadly Sins'... Being part of ALASTAIR just constantly churns up so many interesting nuggets about other worlds, and Evan, most days, finds he wants to chase down every single one. Today, depressingly, doesn't seem the time or the place.

At the very least, King's measured and thoughtful response does a little more to convince Evan that the kid's level of life experience outstrips his apparent years.]


You and I and most of us, really. I don't think I could do much more than warm a cup of tea at the moment.

This is so absurd. [Evan is frowning, brows furrowed, trying to think his way around this very huge, very apparent problem.] You know, it occurs that the, uh, wording of our directive is a bit... wobbly. All it said was that we had to defeat Nalanni. I wonder if there's a way to do that without having to fight her? If there would be a way to trap her, or, or...

Lord, I don't know. This is going to be a debacle no matter what, isn't it?

agrizzlysin: (i'm not jealous that's diane)

[personal profile] agrizzlysin 2016-06-01 12:37 am (UTC)(link)
A string of debacles is about all I've seen since I first arrived in Oska.

[No sense in trying to understate it. He literally woke up in a dungeon cell beneath Oska's castle during an "exam" that included worsening natural disasters every day until fireballs fell from the sky.]

But this "Timeline," if it's even accurate, is pretty convinced our only choices are all or nothing.
evantuality: o___O (o___O)

[personal profile] evantuality 2016-06-01 04:52 am (UTC)(link)
[Evan sighs. It doesn't surprise him, exactly, at least not just now when he's feeling singularly frustrated and pessimistic, but to hear ALASTAIR's track record is not everything he'd hoped and dreamed in so many words irks the young man.]

As for "Timeline", I've got my own doubts. The nomenclature makes me think it's a computer program, and either not a very advanced one, or one whose creators had an awful sense of humor. [There's no way ALASTAIR uses Windows, after all.] I work with computers back home and they are certainly no more infallible than humans. They just fail in different ways.

[He pulls a face.] How did the mission before this one go awry?
agrizzlysin: (literally lovesick)

[personal profile] agrizzlysin 2016-06-03 06:22 am (UTC)(link)
[A long-suffering sigh precludes his answer.]

I wasn't part of the prior mission. I arrived just after it finished. But apparently, the sun went missing, and a tyrannical king-

Wait.

Computers...? There's more than one of these "learning machines"?

[Oh, the face King pulls upon imagining that prospect.]
evantuality: u___u (u___u)

[personal profile] evantuality 2016-06-03 08:57 am (UTC)(link)
[Oh, this day had been inevitable. From the sounds of it, most of the other recruits came from worlds or times where computers were not the ubiquitous things Evan was familiar with. Generally he might be excited to explain the wonderful world of computing to another recruit, given they were his major back home, but that story about Chantes had begun to sound promising, and the day was tense at best. Not the sort of day that lent itself well to the kind of long, meandering conversations explaining computers might elicit.]

On my version of Earth, in my time period, computers are a fairly central part of daily life. Essentially everyone has at least one, and they are vital tools for most of the social and economic infrastructure.

I'd be shocked if ALASTAIR only had whatever machine Timeline is running off of, too. They seem to be a huge operation, and if that training room doesn't at least partially run off of something analogous to a computer I'll eat my hat.

You know, if I had a hat.
agrizzlysin: (you mean a date like the fruit?)

[personal profile] agrizzlysin 2016-06-05 05:43 am (UTC)(link)
[Vital tools for most of the social and economic infrastructure, he says. That sounds sort of like... King raises his hand, eyeing his nondescript silver pinky ring.]

Like the communication jewelry?
evantuality: u___u (u___u)

[personal profile] evantuality 2016-06-05 06:31 pm (UTC)(link)
[Evan grins, pleased by the young man's astuteness, although the expression is a bit lopsided for the general tension of the day.]

That's one of the niches computers fill, yes. In fact the network is very analogous to one of the major roles certain kinds of personal computers have on my world. [He sighs, considering how exactly to describe the utter ubiquity of computers.] Understand, the basic definition of 'computer' is simply a machine that accepts instructions from a user and executes them. There's a basic set of ways in which this is done, but beyond that, there's a near infinite number of uses that such a basic concept can be put to.

It's a bit hard to describe. On your world, there's magic? How does it get used? [There might be a parallel he can draw, if the example holds.]
agrizzlysin: (my sin is better than your sin)

[personal profile] agrizzlysin 2016-06-13 06:29 am (UTC)(link)
[King sighs when that question comes up, dropping his hand from view. It's an expected question, and he's ready for it, but the answer leaves a bad taste in his mouth.]

Magic is primarily a tool of battle, though the druids do have healing magic. Even the rare magic ability that allows for long-range communication is used to give orders or survey enemy territory.

Your computers sound... similar but different.

[Super helpful, King.]
evantuality: o___O (o___O)

[personal profile] evantuality 2016-06-13 05:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, certainly, I'm not shocked they'd hold some parallel niches. And I'll cop to the fact that the biggest technological advances tend to be during times of war.

[He bobs his head, equivocating a little nonetheless.]

But computers do a lot more than just wage war, by a long shot. They're very ubiquitous back home.

Moreover, [and here he drawls with some half-serious tartness,] computers are entirely a human invention, the mechanics of which are well understood by any who care to sit down and learn them. I've never met a brand of magic half so egalitarian or transparent.
agrizzlysin: (i like both tits and asses big)

[personal profile] agrizzlysin 2016-06-15 06:48 am (UTC)(link)
Well, magic is largely individual. Two people rarely share the same ability.

If humans are behind computers, they're probably more like the kingdom's Incantation Orbs. Because the magic has already been cast into the orb, anyone can activate it. The other clans aren't as interested in that kind of power.

[It must be another human thing, he doesn't say - a concept expounded upon and made reality through heavy passions and a short life span.]

Do all computers... talk like this one?
evantuality: :D (:D)

[personal profile] evantuality 2016-06-16 04:40 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, very rarely, at least in my time and place. Some talk but it's all programmatic -- I mean, programmed in, the voice isn't really an intelligence beyond being able to answer questions and run searches. But it seems like Timeline might be a moderately odd AI? Ah -- artificial intelligence, that is. I mean, it sounds like people have been able to interact with it in a complex manner.

But it's hard to tell. Thus one of the major dilemmas of computing. [He points a finger at the screen, rhetorical rather than accusatory.] What's the line between true intelligence and simply the seeming thereof?
agrizzlysin: (you wanna start an improv group?)

[personal profile] agrizzlysin 2016-06-19 06:29 am (UTC)(link)
[When King replies this time, he does so with all the speed of a snail. He tastes every word, making sure he is absolutely, positively understanding this mess. Because, seriously, he cannot understand this mess.]

So... this Timeline is an artificial intelligence... which is a computer... that can make more complex mistakes... than other computers?
evantuality: book (:I)

[personal profile] evantuality 2016-06-21 02:11 am (UTC)(link)
[The grimace Evan gives, after a pause to consider his answer, is expressive and thick with layers of internal irony.]

That's, uh, not an inaccurate summary. Of one part of the equation.

Usually people who rely on computers rely on the fact that humans and computers tend to make very different mistakes. Uh, that is to say, their errors tend to be easier to catch.

Of course tendencies are not guarantees and I've no idea if whoever programmed Timeline knew what they were doing.
agrizzlysin: (i'm not jealous that's diane)

[personal profile] agrizzlysin 2016-06-23 05:54 am (UTC)(link)
Even if they did know what they were doing, I'm not sure...

[He trails off with a sigh and finally shakes his head. Going down that road doesn't help them figure out what they can do about anything happening now.]

Either way, I'm pretty sure neither of these goddesses have any knowledge of computers. Would that... give us any kind of advantage?

absolutely! no problem.

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