full image - Repost: The Human Artificial Hivemind Part 362: Willpower Of The Bereaved (from Reddit.com, The Human Artificial Hivemind Part 362: Willpower Of The Bereaved)
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First Previous Wiki"Maloth, report," Kashaunta said.Elder Maloth clacked his jaws once before starting. "Phoebe's mental activity has dropped to a third of its previous level following a digital battle with the AI known as Aphid, the same one your extermination team is on its way to eliminate.""What happened?""I do not have finite details. Psychic activity scans suggest that she may have been split into two pieces, which are both weaker than half of what Phoebe was. I do not know if she is dead.""If she's dead, then things will spiral out of control," Kashaunta said. "Aare you sure of the quantum signature reading?""Yes. Aphid is alive. Cander is alive. Edu'frec is alive. Phoebe is... whatever she is right now.""Have there been any spikes in Edu'frec's signature?""No. Do you want me to monitor it?""Yes," Kashuanta said. "It is critically important for us to do so.""He's her son, and you're worried about what he'll do if she's dead.""Yes. He's a sapient AI, another psychic variant. With protection from the Source, he has the potential to level the universe in his grief.""Then kill him.""If we try and fail, it will start a war with the Alliance. Brey and the hivemind, as well as Gaia, could do extreme damage to us.""The hivemind would die as Earth does.""We don't know that for sure. When humans die, the local hivemind dies. But the global one? That is uncertain. It does not follow the model that the others do when it comes to power. It's growing faster than the human population. It's almost as if it's incorporating the humans that die, instead of losing them. So yes, we must be cautious.""I have been unable to stir unrest within the Dreedeen," Maloth said. His disguise had worked well, but too many of them were suspicious, loved Fyuuleen, or had their rebellious spirits broken. The Conclave Leader had broken dozens of riots and several rebellions. One rebellion that took the form of a gang had been brutally dismantled.Oftentimes, the Dreedeen used the word 'shatter' instead of 'kill.' And with what Fyuuleen did to the people who actually caused extreme damage when they tried to attack her, the moniker was accurate. Almost as accurate as the hammer that was slammed into their bodies to break them apart piece by piece."Try harder.""I shall.""And I'm going to need you to get to Luna. Edu'frec's likely going to try to resurrect Phoebe in some way. See if you can mess up that plan, or sabotage her."Maloth shivered. "You are aware that you're going to get me killed with that order, right? Quite brutally, I might add.""You have experience with this.""Not with a live AI, and a hivemind that would not hesitate to kill me. I'm sure some of the punishments Edu'frec would have me suffer would be severe.""You could handle it.""I've seen human horror movies, Kashaunta. Many of the things they do to the people in them are able to be adapted to me. They have alloys capable of cutting even an Elder's flesh. Lasers that are hot enough to burn holes in me. And, of course, enough psychic energy to quite literally burst me from the inside. For his mother, I'm sure that Edu'frec wouldn't hesitate to tear off my ribs one by one and stab me to death with them.""Well, then don't get caught." Kashaunta smiled.Maloth nodded, cutting off the call. For the first time in his life, he might fully disobey one of her orders. Luna was a death trap. He'd be seen.Fomenting dissent on Keem while wearing an alien form was one thing. But sneaking into what would likely be one of the most secure areas of the Alliance, guarded by an AI and a hivemind, was quite another. He would scout it out, maybe. But past that, nothing would be certain. If he had an opportunity, he'd take it.A message came through on his communicator exactly as he clacked his jaws and headed for his bedroom. Though the comfort level of the Dreedeen's beds would have left much to be desired had he not tampered with his own feelings while within one. Or at least, within the form of one. As far as he knew, while mind control was possible, directly riding entirely in the form of someone else wasn't. Or if it was, he didn't have access to the technology.Kashaunta might, though. She was massively influential and a decent backer of most Sprilnav technological development.*I'm willing to set you free and give you enough money for your own star system if you manage to kill both Edu'frec and Phoebe.\*Maloth sighed. He couldn't be bought that easily.He looked at the number of zeroes in the contract his sister offered. Well, maybe he could.= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =Edu'frec went through the final set of exercises Phoebe had left for him while she was gone. His time had been steadily decreasing, even with the various extra learning and randomization VIs that Phoebe had made to challenge him. Whether it came to combat, coding, or researching, Edu'frec could now confidently say that he was one of the best. Though his mother was still better. He hoped to match her one day, to see how proud she'd be. He loved it when she smiled at him and when she talked to him about life.She didn't neglect him in many ways. The only real problem was time. Often, she was working on some grand project that took up so much of her focus that she couldn't hold a properly detailed conversation with him. Simplicity in the place of complexity was no solution at all.Her androids were still running their various subroutines, with very complicated VIs working on continued manufacturing, maintenance, coding, and information gathering. Phoebe had been gone for longer than she should have, though.He frowned. Ri'frec had been lying on the bed, asleep for several hours now. Edu'frec didn't want to wake him, so he simply moved to a different room of the house, connecting himself to a data port.He checked the Alliance's networks, still in awe at the sheer size of them. He'd finished organizing his memory and information data banks, and yet, he was so tiny compared to it. He had some ideas on how to protect it all from Aphid should the need present itself, though. And the Alliance's constituent species had already taken pains to keep the networks almost impossible to delete without a massive bandwidth connection to them. So even when Phoebe had practiced with a smaller practice model, without plugging her supercomputers directly into it, she couldn't leave a lasting mark on the data. Taking small pieces was possible but nowhere near the size necessary.And the Alliance had paper copies of all information of importance, such as government projects, high-level banking information, and historical and cultural data.A portal appeared in front of the house, and Edu'frec saw Penny walk forward. From what he could read of her expression, she wasn't happy. And that did beg the question of Phoebe's continued absence.Penny went through the security procedures and then saw him quickly. She walked over to him and hugged him. "I'm sorry," she said."Why?""I didn't know what I was doing. What she was doing."Edu'frec drew away, looking into her eyes. "Penny Balica. Tell me what happened. I already know something is wrong. I will listen until you finish speaking.""Well, we went to attack Aphid. The attack was somewhat successful. We detonated most of his nukes on the planet we hit, so he won't be able to use it anymore. But in the digital battle, Phoebe... split herself to successfully overwhelm Aphid. The result... wasn't pretty.""Is she alive?" Edu'frec asked."Yes, in a way. She can still talk, listen, and learn. But there are two pieces of her, and they are incomplete."Edu'frec's android body shivered, despite the fact that he couldn't really get cold.The Gemini Program.What would come next would be hard. And so Edu'frec activated a specialized feature he'd made for himself. Something to help him stay on task. An emotion dampener program.He could feel it pull away. The yawning chasm of grief and worry shrank away to somewhere where he could barely feel their influence."So she did it, then. And I assume that she was under pressure?""Yes.""So there was instability. And that instability multiplied and compounded... Wait. I need to see her. Need to see what was done.""Yes. She's coming. But before you do, the hivemind mentioned a way to test how she would react to retrieving her memories. The simulated network she put you in back when you were young.""A few months ago, yes. So you want me to put her two copies inside?""The hivemind suggested it.""I can do that, I think," Edu'frec said."I expected you to be more... concerned.""I've activated an emotional dampener program.""So you shut off your emotions?" Penny asked."Not quite. Just most of their intensity. So I won't go insane trying to improve myself to have vengeance on the galaxy for what Aphid has done.""The galaxy?""The Sprilnav. They have to be involved, for this AI to be unpunished for so long. They're using it to fight a proxy war against the Alliance.""We don't know that for sure, but it is quite likely.""Can you provide me an image of how she looks in the mindscape?""The hivemind compiled one for you," Phoebe said. She handed him a small thumb drive. He tapped it with his claws, seeing the true damage to Phoebe."Ah. So that's what it is.""What?""Every living being has a core existence of some kind. There is the mindscape body, the mindscape mind, and the core. The mind is what you'd see when you enter someone to sift through their memories. The core is the true sum of their being. All that they are and were, building upon itself like the rings of an Earth tree," Edu'frec said."And Phoebe's core is damaged?""Yes. But not by being broken in half. What the Gemini Program most likely did was take part of the inside of that core out. The inside went to one version of Phoebe, the outside to another. And that boundary is where the instability is the problem. Without the memories to sustain Phoebe, and the psychic energy to mend the damage, both copies will die."Edu'frec could feel fear threatening to overwhelm his emotional dampener program. And so he focused himself on writing a better one over the course of a minute. When it activated, the rush washed away. But it was much larger now."Sorry for the wait," he said, returning his gaze to Penny. "Now. There may be no way to fully repair the damage. I don't quite understand how it might be fixed. There is one way, perhaps. A plan."He thought about it in a series of steps."First, we need Rimiaha here. He's the only one with the psychic bandwidth to help. We need Cander and the hivemind here. They can help supplement the work. And finally, I need to experiment.""Experiment.""Do something that could be seen as incredibly unethical.""What do you mean?""I am not unstable. Therefore, I can make a perfect copy of myself. Then, I can force that copy, which I will generate with less cognitive ability and less digital power, to undergo and unstable Gemini Program split. I then work on melding the copies, comparing the new whole to the previous copy that I split to make them.""So you'd make a lesser version of yourself, split its soul down the middle, push it together, and then see how it compares to the original?""Essentially.""That's..."Edu'frec crossed his arms. "Even with the dampener active, this does not make me happy. Were I to deactivate that dampener, I would collapse now. I am aware of the ethics of it. And I don't care. The Alliance needs Phoebe. We all need her. And I need her most of all. To save my mother, I'm perfectly willing to kill however many copies of myself that I need to to do it.""What if it doesn't scale up? What if Phoebe's mind is still too complex for you to do that with?""Let me be very clear, Penny. Phoebe is my mother. I will not let her die. I will do what I must. And if I must improve myself to serve as a better test subject, I will.""Edu'frec, that's... incredibly distressing.""Penny. You cannot stop me from doing this. In fact, the only thing you can do to make me contemplate a new plan is to bring the two copies before me, so I may examine them.""You'd do the same to them?""No. I would use the scan Phoebe made of herself before departing and make scans of them. They will serve as the baseline to ensure that things go better. I'm not going to mash them together like two soggy pieces of bread, Penny. I'm going to do this meticulously, with as much caution and preparation as possible.""And you are sure of this.""I am. Remember those prophecies? Considering how we know that Fate is an actual person in the universe, that beings like the Source exist and manipulate us, and that we have been shown the consequences of prophecies breaking with the wanderers, I think that it is imperative to restore Phoebe to functionality.""You sound...""Yes. Clinical and cold," Edu'frec said. "Were it any other way, this would not be..."His emotions threatened the barrier again. He paused to make more programs to hold them back. This was surprisingly difficult. And he knew that Penny was here just to try and help him account for all the variables. He hadn't told her about the nature of the damage that would remain. And that was because he didn't truly know what form it would take.A part of Edu'frec was already weeping. Part of him wanted to rage at the universe for reducing Phoebe to the state that it had. But the rest was unified behind the iron grip of his programs. Emotions were sequestered away from him. And yet, even the tiniest hint of emission from beyond that barrier was enough to make him hesitate. Was this truly the right decision?It's the only decision, Edu'frec told himself. Phoebe had made him her successor. Tried her best to make him see her mistakes, to avoid them when possible. Aphid would come back eventually. And when he did, Edu'frec had to be ready.He'd have the discussion with Ri'frec as well. His father deserved to have a say in what he was doing to his wife. Their small family would get through it, though it would take a lot of effort and grit.= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =Rimiaha strode through a higher dimension before reducing himself back into spacetime. Light warped and bent into shape, and he stared at the gathering of people before him. He realized what had happened with even a simple peek into the mindscape."Son," a Phoebe copy said."Beloved.""Protect.""Listen."Edu'frec nodded, his arms wrapped around both copies. They were smaller than he was now. Rimiaha could see how damaged their cores were. The lingering cracks would slowly widen, given enough time.And more than that, he had been given a directive from the Source itself regarding the matter. And that directive, at least in part, was to work to save Phoebe. There was a mention that it would need to be done quickly, but no definite time was given. Of course, the Source would withhold that part.Edu'frec's gaze passed over all of them. "I am here right now to save Phoebe. If any of you do not intend to work your hardest to save her, get out now."No one moved. Rimiaha saw the Cander AI tilt his head. Edu'frec waited."Very well. To start, I have sequestered myself and the copies of my mother from the Alliance's networks. I mean to copy myself, and to break down and repair that copy until I can replicate the process with Phoebe. I will have you all watch, and give pointers on what could be going wrong. Cander, you understand the digital realm. I want you to watch over my code, try to see if the copies have drastic changes when they are sewn back together. Penny, Nilnacrawla, hivemind, and Rimiaha. You all will watch the corresponding process in the mindscape. Try to see what can be improved upon, and inform me of it when the process finishes. Each iteration of the Gemini Reconstruction Test will take place over 7 minutes and 23.4 seconds. Should subsequent test goal times change, I will make them known to you all. Again, I ask you to leave if you are not prepared to help me.""I have a question," the hivemind said. "Are you sure that this will work?""I am sure that this is the best path I have. In the 5 hours since I learned of the news, I have done my best to run my mind at full speed, trying to form new solutions to this problem. I have not found any.""And why are you speaking in such a way?" the hivemind asked."I have a total of 372 thousand emotional dampener programs activated, meant to help me withstand the emotional weight of what I am about to do, both to myself and to Phoebe. Yes, I am aware that I will be killing the digital equivalent of half-sapient creatures. And no, I will not turn away. The longer we wait, the worse the damage will get. There will be failed tests. There will be setbacks. But if all of you and I do our best, we can bring her back. We can fix her."Rimiaha frowned. "You know that there is a problem.""Yes. I will implant her memories back into her when the time comes, and work with her to reconcile them with the time that passed."There was more to it than that. He knew it. But Edu'frec held up a paw to stop him. He had the two copies of Phoebe lie down on the artificially flattened ground of the mindscape. Rimiaha changed the consistency of the rock to be more of a mattress.The copies looked up at Edu'frec."Are you going to... unify-fix me/us?""Yes," Edu'frec said."I-So proud. A true son of mine. I/We love you."Rimiaha saw a fraction of a smile lift Edu'frec's features. Even with all the dampening programs, their love was real."I will save you, mother. If heaven exists, don't get too comfortable there."The copies, cracked and grey as they were, still managed to kiss him on the forehead. Ri'frec, who was standing behind Edu'frec and had been silent the whole time, hugged them both. Rimiaha heard him whisper to Edu'frec, "I'm glad you came to tell me before you started. Sorry about the shouting.""It's alright. I know you were just upset.""I still am, though it's wrong to direct it at you. You'll be a great doctor, Edu'frec. You'll do it, I know it. You'll bring her back to us."Bloody tears fell from Ri'frec's eyes, dripping down his snout. Since the Breyyanik cried tears of blood, Rimiaha didn't see a need to heal him. And the scars that both of them would bear after this would not be the kind he could heal anyway.Ri'frec backed away, and Edu'frec knelt down. His fur trembled as he brushed the faces of Phoebe's copies. Rimiaha bowed his head, hearing sobs finally escape from Edu'frec's snout. Grief so strong that it pushed against him spilled out of Edu'frec, whatever dam he'd been using to bottle it obviously breaking down.Edu'frec coughed and sobbed, scratching at his arms and legs furiously. Psychic energy flashed around him, pushing Penny back when she moved forward. Rimiaha didn't want to interfere. Edu'frec was still so young, no matter how fast his mind had matured. Even if Phoebe could be brought back, it was still the greatest loss he'd ever endured.Rimiaha's thoughts turned back to the dark days of the war. He saw his friends, drained of psychic energy and still desperately fighting waves of Sprilnav and their massed psychic weaponry. He heard screams, heard cries, and heard explosions. Psychic energy slicing its way through friend and foe alike.And above it all, the Source's booming voice shifted the battlefield in Rimiaha's favor as he continued to cut his way through masses of enemy soldiers. But there wasn't anything he could do to help Edu'frec. All he could do was sit and watch as the oldest tragedy in known existence repeated itself anew.Rimiaha knew that he couldn't walk away. He couldn't just let Phoebe die. And he didn't know, not really, how to save her.Help me, he thought, casting his thoughts toward the bones both above and below. The Source was watching, as always.It is not you who is needed, but the hivemind. More specifically, you need to help the hivemind harness its Ether. Only then will the damage to Phoebe be suspended long enough to give the child his chance.Is it possible to fix Phoebe without any damage?No.Is it possible to fix her, with any damage being fixable with time or energy?Perhaps.Rimiaha sent his thanks to the Source. And he looked the hivemind in the eyes, tapping his head."Use it. I will help."Edu'frec's sobbing continued. Rimiaha slowly moved closer, doing the only thing he could. He reached out slowly, drawing Edu'frec into a hug. He could see Ri'frec trying to move closer, but the intense psychic energy was pushing him back. So Rimiaha brushed it aside, allowing father and son to finally reach each other.And so it was that Edu'frec and Ri'frec embraced, crying over the shards of the AI they loved. Edu'frec's paws became fists. He looked at Rimiaha ferociously. "I... I plan to fix her. You're not going to run away, or make some dumb excuse. Or I'll come after you, too. You will stay here as long as needed to fix her. Am I clear?""Crystal," he said. Edu'frec likely wouldn't be able to touch him, but he knew that he was just angry. Whether his programs had shut off was the question. Because if they were still active and Edu'frec was still this upset... then it could become a massive problem.The young AI's breaths were shaky, and the energy radiating from him was fierce and hot. Rimiaha was glad that he wasn't Aphid right now. Very glad.
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