capeandcowllogs | We're the only ones to turn to [Closed, in-progress]

We're the only ones to turn to [Closed, in-progress]

WHO: Loki and Starscream. BE AFRAID.
WHERE: Starscream's abandoned warehouse thingy
WHEN: Saturday evening I guess
WARNINGS: derrrr loki and screamerfais
SUMMARY: Starscream wants to learn Magic. Loki wants to learn Science. Deals are made. Oh dear.
FORMAT: der quicklog because I can't brain tonight

[stands in the old warehouse, looking up at the darkened ceiling. It's cleaner now, sure; the doors have locks, and there's even security cameras, but it remains empty. He keeps it around for just this sort of thing]

[Part of him wonders what he's doing, exactly - the last time he made a deal with a god didn't work out so well for him. But, then again...]

[He wants to know. And he's willing to teach in return...]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[gives Loki a extreme 'oh please' look.]

Of course I'm literate.

I was born into a society where most are not. Here, then, take this tome. The third paragraph on the fifty-sixth page, if memory serves.

[Book is probably heavier than it looks, but doesn't require great feats of strength to lift. You just might want to get a table to put it on, or something.]

[oof. book is heavy and Starscream is not so strong]

[given that he lacks a table, he settles for sitting on the dusty floor. As for light to read by - it's a bit dark in there, even with the flickering overhead lights - he lights up one of his fingers with an electric hum, the pale violet glow failing to much more than put the two of them in a circle of light]

[and he flips open the book to said page and said paragraph]

That incantation is a simple cantrip— to provide light in darkness. I might demonstrate.

[Loki pulls a candle out from what seems to be a fold in his robes, and speaks the syllables written in the parchment. The candle lights! It seems very easy for a practiced sorcerer with several millenia of experience. He snuffs the flame out with his fingertips, then sets the candle down.]

Try.

[OH PFF THAT LOOKS TOTALLY EASY. Though he's not sure how the hell just babbling what sounds like gibberish is supposed to light a candle.]

[carefully reads the incantation several times, then speaks it aloud]

[... and gets y'know.]

[nothing]

[FRUSTRATION IS GO. BECAUSE SSRLY THIS DOES NOT FOLLOW. Talking in some ancient language to light a candle grumble that's stupid]

[TRIES IT AGAIN ANYWAY B| ]

[... and gets noooothing]

[this repeats a few times, with him getting progressively more frustrated each time]

[and makes like he's about to slam the book shut and start ranting about how this whole exercise is pointless]

[... but pauses]

[and considers]

[because in point of fact, how is this not unlike programming? How do a few simple lines of code - things he himself knows - give rise to something resembling life? How can one make the seeming of a landscape on a computer screen?]

[Is not what Loki said earlier something like programming reality?]

[And if that's so, then he's back to the beginning, sitting at a terminal, trying to get the fragging machine to spit out "Hello World!" without throwing him an error message]

[And he remembers almost putting his fist through the screen the first time back then, too.]

[ponders. So the key here is to, perhaps, accept the premises that words can control the shape of things, that one can re-write the fundamental underlying structure of reality. That one can, in effect, alter the code.]

[rubs his temples. It seems absurd, but, well, so did that whole about e raised to the i pi power being equal to negative one. And the idea that one could fold space itself to cross infinite distances]

[Keeping this in mind, he tries again, pronouncing the syllables slowly and carefully, imagining it like he's inputting a command prompt]

[Loki can't read minds, but he watches the spectacle with some amusement and a placid expression. He's not sure if Starscream can pull this off, but, eh, he's made an honest effort and sort of gets off on confusing people, so it's a win-win situation either way.]

[still nothing yet]

[trying so hard not to just get frustrated and give up]

[this approach doesn't seem to be working]

[he lets his mind drift a bit, and thinks just about light in general. Suns. Stars. Photons. Luminescence in all its forms]

[starts speaking and this time doesn't think at all, just recites the syllables like an automatic process, surrenders himself to the cadence of the words and the idea of light]

[and there is the tiniest spark - the wrong color (blue-violet) and only for a brief instant]

[But it's something]

See? 'Tis at the least, possible.

[actually smiles, his confidence restored]

... that was rather difficult. But still...

[he sounds rather pleased with himself]

[Yes. Congratulations. You made the spell misfire. Very impressive. ]

Perhaps if you were to practice you might actually accomplish the spell's desired effect.

[buzzkill]

Then I shall have to practice until I do.

Aye, that tome entire is comprised of minor spells. You may keep it if you like, for I have no need.

[nods, closing it]

I shall do this, then.

[stands up]

And when should you wish for me to teach you of my arts? Silicon, wire, steel, and so forth...?

I will call upon you when I have need. Though, if you should like to explain something now, I would not be opposed. 'Tis, I confess, a matter of curiosity on my part, though I am more familiar with technology than you might imagine.

From what you said earlier - of understanding her - I think the best place to begin would be programming. The actual mechanics of the microchip are fascinating, and fundamental to the operation of the machine, but ultimately, to understand her thinking, one must understand how she thinks. Or at least, the principles behind this.

And you believe you can enlighten me?

I am - or was - a machine, of a race of machines over a billion years old.

I believe I am the expert on the topic.

Then, by all means, do so.

The first thing to understand is that everything a machine does, all its complex thoughts, all of the permutations of data and everthing it can do comes down to this.

Zero, and one.

That is it. That's all. Everything a machine - at least, a human machine - is capable of doing is based on that fundamental principle of the binary number. Ultimately, the ones and zeros represent states, or switches. One is on, zero is off. Create a complex enough series of switches, and you can express anything. Sequences of switches express different ideas and concepts depending on what those switches turn on or off. But, ultimately, even the most complex machine is based on this very simple fundamental principle. I have no doubt that by now you've seen films that create miraculous creatures with computer imagery, seen what the various AI in this city can do, or even the little conveniences of these things

[gestures at his comm device]

But all of it, from the lowliest microchip to power a calculator right up to the so-called Queen herself is based on this single, simple concept. Zero and one. On and off. Active and inactive.

Do you follow?

Yes, 'tis all a string of commands. Linked through two absolute values, a wide variety of effects can be accomplished through a complex system. As I said, I am not unfamiliar with technology, recently having found myself sequestered in a country populated largely by mechanical simulacrums of its overlord. Often did I watch him at work.

Though, I shall say have never felt the need to attend the cinema. The question I pose for you next, is, what makes you certain that this "Queen" is, what you term a human machine?

There are a number of signs and signifiers. Firstly, I have been searching extensively for signs of alien life on this planet, and I have found none - and believe me, I know the signs. Second, I have see the schematics for the porter device itself, and while much of the technology is...

[a pause. it really, really irks him that this is the case]

... unfamiliar to me, there are certain design decisions, ways of constructing it that bear the stamp of mankind. Finally, when she makes her little gloating posts to the network I've made it a habit to trace her signal as far as I can, try to see what's behind her code. If she is truly an AI - which seems to be the case - the snatches I've seen bear the same underlying logic. It is much like language - you can tell that a man is from a particular country by his dialect and his mannerisms, even if he hides it particularly well, there are generally certain tells. So it is with this one - she is advanced to a point that to a layman it might be difficult, but I can see the signs.

While it's possible she was still designed by some other force, I believe that the evidence - a combination of a lack of anything else in this universe to have made her, and those little signals and signs leads me to that conclusion.

Yet, there seems little in this universe that capable of creating one such as her. And are not beings such as this created, by their nature? I do not mean to suggest anything of your origins, but I know something of Midgard, and there men can always be found behind the machine. Furthermore, I would submit that this creature has little control over its counterpart or else no defined purpose. The intermittent malfunctions do little but raise chaos— yet if raising chaos were her goal, it could be much more efficiently accomplished.

Nature is quite the mutable thing. You are not as you once were, if you'll permit me a bold truth. Or, to illustrate: I myself was born in a land quite removed from this one, but taken at a young age to be raised by foreign peoples. Always was I made to be an outsider, due to the blood that yet courses through me, but a thousand years of distance made me foreigner to the nation of my birth as well. Thus I am a man without a country, prince of two realms and of none.

But you must forgive me my poetics, for I understand the analogy was not meant to be exact. All I mean to say is that, but for her, this world seems fairly mundane. She clearly possesses the means to travel between the planes. If she be of earth, it may not be of this earth.

[this next bit is said much more lightly. an abrupt change of tone.]

Yet mayhap I am simply being contrary. For such is my nature: given the choice between zero and one, I should pick three.

Even we were created; the difference is that our origins were something close to divine. A being somewhat like yourself gave us life; it is for this reason that we have souls, unlike, say, that creature.

I do admit that I am not as I was, and that beings are capable of change. What I believe is true of that thing is that while she was created initially by humans she had within her the inherent ability to learn, to adapt, and what has happened is that she adapted too quickly for them to control. She evolved beyond her creator's original parameters. She may have begun as something of this world, but learned the ability to travel between planes. If she adopted the processing power of hundreds, thousands of machines - and it seems that she does have the ability to hijack any mechanical device connected to this world's internet - such calculations would be... I hesitate to say easy, but they would be possible.

[he smiles a little at that last comment]

Well, we are similar in that regard, I suppose.

Edited 2009-11-25 05:34 (UTC)

From what I have learned of the internet, 'tis a place both fascinating and vulgar. But there are many here with similar talents, dominion over machinery, yet none have yet constructed a device which could even hope to rival hers. In my world, there is but one schematic from which all planar doors are drawn from, at least, those of the mechanical type: and buried within this machinery, there is magic. Others have copied the prototype without knowing its nature, yet it remains bonded to the circuitry with each duplication.

... so what are you getting at, then?

That the transdimensional machines I am familiar with have always followed a vastly different formula, created by mortals though they may have been. It does not surprise me, for whose nature is more changeable than that of a human? 'Tis unwise to paint them all in one brush.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

We're the only ones to turn to [Closed, in-progress]

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... sorry for tl;dring with introspection here XD

i rather like that he can think in emoticons

idk i am tired man 8|

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ffff YAY I GET A LEVEL 0 SPELLBOOK

soon you can cast magic missile at the darkness

Can I have a mountain dew? and argh now I must explain compsci what x_X

protip: if you mess up I won't be able to tell

oh goody

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