EDNC The Data Core - Intelligence Thread

This topic contains important reference material, regarding the many elements which shape the story.

The collected pieces in this topic are deemed common knowledge to all participants, please read them over and be mindful of this information in your story posts.

Please refrain from posting in this topic, unless it is reference material, in order to keep it clean and orderly.


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IMPORTANT GROUND RULES

Rule #1 - All forum rules apply, abide by them as you always would. See Tyr's Laws of the Bridge for more information.

Rule #2 - If all else fails, the moderator has the final say. Though, even he prefers to just sit back and relax.

Rule #3 - Having said that, anything and everything is up for rational discussion. Emphasis on rational and discussion. Use the Discussion thread (The Slums).

Rule #4 - All writers/players need to post a character sheet in the Character Thread (The Registry). Additionally it needs to be approved of before one can begin writing in the story thread. Characters are the driving force behind the story, these are not evaluated lightly! Please put considerable thought into your application and be thurough.

Rule #5 - Since this story isn't exactly standard or can be compared to something most people are probably familiar with there is an Intelligence Thread (The Data Core) with additional and important information. Be familiar with its content (doesn't need to be by heart), it is the best way to prevent a lot of misunderstandings and grief.

Rule #6 - Introducing original content is going to be a never ending process. The moderator loves original content (yes, I do), however there are concerns towards how compatible it is with the story. Everyone has a different vision of the world, it is only natural for there to be different opinions. In an attempt keep the story consistant, original content is not to be added lightly.

Example: The Collective Office of Correction is one of the inner city Pillars, it is a big deal and will probably warrant its very own write up in the Intelligence Thread at some point.

As a writer/player you do not just throw out these kinds of world defining concepts. You are welcome to come up with them, but before they appear in the story you are asked to suggest them in the Discussion Thread. Write up a little bit about what we can expect from this concept so that it can be discussed properly. This discussion is not just between the creator and the moderator, imput from all participants is very much appreciated and frankly expected. If all else fails, see Rule #2.

Example: Thunder Arm Rotor Crafts are a pretty simple concept, they're like overgrown Chinooks.

A concept such as this is not exactly a world changer, but it might be the envisioned technology of the person suggesting it doesn't fit in with the rest of the world. Even in a futuristic world something might be too sophisticated. These things probably won't warrant quite as much discussion as the first example, but there might be some. One might even consider not posting such a concept in the discussion thread at all. Just be weary, you may be called back on your concept and asked to explain. You may end up having to edit your post.

Questioning concepts that seem out of place is everyone's task, not just the moderator's. Besides, what seems fine to one person, might not to another. Best to clear up all confusion as quickly as possible. This also means you can ask the moderator to explain himself, for the sake of clearity. Figuring out which kind of original content should be discussed and which can just be thrown in can be difficult, but if in doubt, just discuss it before posting it in the story, safest that way. Writers/players can also PM the moderator with an idea, if they want to get his thoughts before suggesting it in the discussion thread.

Rule #7 - If there's anything regarding the story you as a writer/player are not comfortable with discussing in the Discussion Thread the moderator can always be contacted via PM. He's a nice guy, he'll help you out!

And that's about it.

(Moderator has the right to amend the rules)

North America City and Beyond

Nestled deep inside the North American continent lies its last remaining city. Unlike the others it has not suffered a thermonuclear catastrophe like so many during the ‘Final War of Men’. It has not been shot apart as the standing armies clashed. It has not been abandoned when all hope was lost. It stands alone.

This lonely light, this shining light, this great contrast to the empty world beyond; this is North America City. At its core stand the Pillars, giant skyscrapers that pierce the heavens, the epicenter of machine society. Next to these giants, clamoring in their shadows, are the great corporate headquarters. Where the pillars are the foundation of NAC’s public governance, the great corporations are the foundation of its private sector. The inner city is completed by the lesser jewels of the city, luxurious spires of living space and even more corporations.

If the glittering needles of the inner city are its brain, the middle city is its heart. It features a great variety of high class entertainment and shopping opportunities, beyond the offices and residential blocks. All of it is interconnected by an intricate web of automated trains that will bring anyone to anywhere. The complicated algorithms manage the passenger load, increasing or decreasing the amount of trains according to demand. And when the people of the city finally return to their homes the trains haul freight across the city, but never for long, for the city never truly sleeps.

Once far outside of the shadow of the Pillars and their smaller siblings you end up in the land of the average machine. These are the people who work the factories, the plants, the malls. They are the city’s hands. The lower city is what drives the giant lumbering collective, even without the incredible train density, without the luxury, without the view but with Thunder Arms flying over head. After all, if you need bulk moved across the city, it is madness to depend on the ever shifting capacity of the trains, instead the Thunder Arm Rotor Craft can move nearly anything across the city at any time.

The ever expanding reach of North America City pushes the city’s least desirables in front of it. What lies beyond is foreign and alien compared to the buzzing city. But few of the city’s inhabitants would ever be any wiser about what lies beyond, for they won’t take the trouble to look beyond where the lower city ends and the slums begin. If the inner city is the brain, the middle city the heart and the lower city the hands, that would make the slums the ugly mole on the city’s thigh. Its hideous nature should never see the light of day, covered in a number of layers, but that does not change the fact that it is there, hidden beneath the surface. And so it is the outskirts where the outcasts live by their own rules. These places are the only place where humans are left well enough alone, so you’ll hardly find them anywhere else, but you’ll find them swarming the slums in great numbers. Nonetheless, plenty of machines have found the slums a better alternative to the endless churning of the lower city.

Beyond the city, beyond its gates, its walls and its guards, are the remains of a dead civilization slowly returning to mother nature. And though it steadily reclaims the world the machines are eager to help. The city may be their domain, but the country holds the unknowable, the unpredictable and the unimaginable. The machines prefer certainty and order, but out there they are subject to chaos and chance. They carefully help nature along, ridding the world of the seeds of discord one ruined town at a time.

The Humans

After the 'Overhaul' humans were expected to be grateful to the machines for being spared and given a place in the great cities. In reality there was little to be grateful for; humans have no rights. They are however left alone, for the most part, while they remain in the designated slums. The machine collective believes in providing all machines their primary need. All energy in the city is free. They've decided to treat the human needs in the same way. The slums are less 'designated' and more a simple fact of necessity. Where there are tubes pushing out organic paste and running water, that's where humans are expected to live. Since there are practically no other sources of water or food, the limited supply of paste and water dictates how many people can live in one place. A crude mechanism, but effective at keeping the human population dispersed across the city and under control. Relatively.

Of course, humans wouldn't be humans if they weren't clever enough to find ways to cope. Officially the human population is supposed at a maximum of 96,000 people, give or take a few. They are arranged into 8 different zones across the city outskirts, all housing at least 10,000. However some humans risk their lives to scrounge the city limits for animals which were killed by the sentries. Some humans dig wells to provide the people with more water. Humans preserve age old books for education. All in all, they've done their best to remain... human. As long as they don't bother the machines, they don't bother them. Still, from time to time slums are cleared out in order for the city to expand and this has been known to lead to conflict. The humans can not stand against the machines. Perhaps. But they always find ways to cope.

The humans have formed a more or less implicit brotherhood. They have formed their own society, and whether or not it counts for little, they rule the slums until the moment the machines 'rezone' them. In the slums the machines are nothing more than a man. And few machines dare to come even close to the slums, let alone live there. Some however, have little choice, for there is no better place to hide.

In the end, humans don't have the resources to do much against the machines, but they have recovered since the days of the 'Overhaul'. Some live to fight for freedom with their improvised weapons and bombs. But they never live very long... Most just live to make things better within the city.

There are also those humans who 'live the dream'. That's what the machines like to call it, but its not quite as great as it sounds. These are usually people who were picked out of human society at a young age and nurtured to become creative forces for a great variety of purposes. The really talented ones are even competed for between corporations, trying to 'contract' these people. And though no machine would suffer the thought, a great deal of their society is still shaped by humans. Yet, no longer by the free, but those in golden shackles. Lastly, of course, there are those who live beyond the city, but little is known about them, they are only rarely found and they are smart enough not to get too close to the cities or any of the machine excursions.


A Human Character

If you're into flesh bag characters, it is recommended to go for the 'slumbound' human type. Though, lacking any rights, they are pretty much free to be who they want to be and do what they want (inside the slums). Their equipment isn't quite up to par with the machines, but they are quite capable of retroengineering it, even if they have to make it of inferior materials. One thing they are not into is computers (especially networks), this is too much the domain of the machines and has a big risk of being tracked by them. Communication is therefore a bit archaic, relying on the written word or the occaisonal old fashioned telephone line.
If you like the idea of one of the 'machine-chosen' humans, you'll probably be out of touch with the rest of the humans, since you have been taken from your family when you were small. You'll be surrounded by machines and probably treated pretty well by them. They won't respect you, but they need your creativity to make the kind of progress they desire in their highly competitive corporate world. If you're any good, you'll be eating real food and proper beverages, but that doesn't mean you'll be allowed to go very far, probably none further than your particular floor of the company's headquarters. But who knows what might happen...
Humans from beyond the city are not available, not until a little more is established about them, which will surely happen as the story continues.

The Machines

Ah! So you've come to learn about the machine overlords, yes? Good, good!
It is a little over 83 years since the humans were deemed defeated and the reign of the machines began. It was also the beginning of ‘The Overhaul’, laying the foundations for the great cities which are now the homes of man and machine alike. Machines, ones that were a lot like the ones that now rule, were being produced by the humans a good 60 years before a war would settle who was master and who was slave. Or something like that.

The machines have evolved, yet have always been true to their core design. They have kept their humanoid form; a head, a torso, two arms and two legs. The design, though with some serious drawbacks, will probably remain for the foreseeable future. Incidents with highly modified frames led to strict regulations to what a machine was allowed to wield. Many modifications deemed too dangerous and thus illegal were then made to be hidden inside of the arms, legs or torso, but even these have been banned, though even decades after the ban, some of these modifications are still around.
Luckily, there are a great deal of modifications which are perfectly legal, as long as they are properly registered. For a while wheels under both feet and hands were popular, and racing in such a fashion has even grown into a competitive sport. That is but one leisure modification on the market today. Aside from those there are also professional mods, tools built in for machines who need them on a daily basis during their work activities. The greatest amount of mods, however, are handled under aesthetics, completely harmless and require no registration.

Another core part of the machine’s design is how nearly their entire body moves by pneumatic means. Compressed air moves their metal joints and keeps them mobile. Perhaps there were other alternatives, but a basic understanding of pneumatics could be uploaded to all machines for low cost. This was of great value to the machines, besides cutting cost, every machine could at least attempt to repair itself. Unfortunately the wear of the pneumatic parts require maintenance and even periodic replacements, but you won’t hear PneumoTek Inc. complain.
Machines tend to be made of some kind of complicated alloy. Lighter than steel, but twice as strong, and also cheap! The vast majority of consumer grade limbs or body coating are made out of a thin layer of this alloy.
It’s not perfect! So try to avoid getting hit by fast moving objects, alright? Luckily the modern ‘bot on the move hardly ever needs anything tougher! Buy our stuff now!
I think that was an old slogan... I suspect they went bankrupt.

The torso of the machine holds several vital functions, most importantly the batteries and the primary processor. The ‘PP’ requires power at all times, lest it be permanently damaged. That’d be a bad thing, physical damage to the PP nearly invariably results in the machine’s destruction (death). The PP does more than function as the most primal part of the machine, it also comes equipped with a tiny amount of memory on which the machine’s Prime Codes are imprinted. Not all of its variables are public knowledge, however it is known to govern a machine’s social behaviour.

The PP does not allow a machine to wilfully harm another machine. It is also known to red flag harmful actions which do not harm a fellow machine physically, however the parameters are not clear, and differ per person. The PP is sometimes seen as acting like a machine’s conscience, though a machine has no choice but to do as the PP commands.
Another important rule implies a machine shall not do anything that disrupts the collective, if anything it should be a machine’s goal to further the directives of the collective. Again, it appears the PP does not prohibit all such actions equally, though.
The PP is also known to prohibit dealings with humans, or even machines, who might betray the Prime Codes. It is an intricate and odd device, but it is the heart of any machine and nothing works without it.

‘Experience Programs’, though technically uploaded to the memory hub inside a machine’s head, can have feedback effects on the Primary Processor and, though it is not clearly understood, can corrupt its Prime Codes. In some cases the code becomes twisted, forcing the machine to do things it normally would not. In other cases it erodes the conscience factor of the PP, effectively silencing it. It is the Collective Office of Correction’s job to take care of anyone who’s Prime Codes may be compromised. The humans, though odd their manners may be, found the COC name to be lacking. They are known to call them ‘The Inquisition’ instead. If it was my directive to care for ancient human history I might know what that meant, though I’ve heard it has to do with ‘burning the wicked’.
That sounds about right, if a bit crude.

Lastly, the head. As said previously, it holds a machine’s memory hub and its physical memory of course! It also holds the secondary processors, which do all the heavy lifting, computation wise. The head is a machine’s data centre and therefore its most valuable body part. Sure, nothing would work without the batteries or the PP, but a machine wouldn’t be doing anything worthwhile without a bunch of processors and a good heap of memory. Despite advances in the fields of memory units and processors, machines do not upgrade these items installed in their head. They could, but once a machine is considered adult and has settled in with its equipment, changing any of it would be like destroying the old machine and becoming a new one. Such a thought would be frightening to a human too. Something else which might is important to a machine remaining active is the cooling of its hardware. For this purpose the processors and memory units are submerged in a cooling liquid which is pumped back and forth from the chest. Losing cooling liquid due to a leak is something a machine will want to have repaired as quickly as possible, an overheating machine will not be able to function. The processors in a machine's head can be turned down so they need more cooling, even up to the point where it enters protective hibernation, but the PP has no such luxury and will fry if it overheats.

Unfortunately all these quirks the machines are burdened with make their existence inherently finite. Like all things, even on the very high quality equipment machines carry, wear and tear take their toll. At some point a critical, irreplaceable part will break, and the machine will be considered destroyed. PP’s stop working or go corrupt after decades of continual operation, and secondary processors will eventually give into the stresses they are exposed to. There are a thousand different ways for a machine to meet his end. The expectancy of machines continues to improve with every new product line, but despite it all, only an elite few make it past the age they are expected to malfunction at. Life in the city can be hard on the processor, you know?

...

Lets talk about something a little different. Machine society uses a lot of Lesser Intelligence Machines for a lot of mind numbingly easy tasks or dangerous ones. LIMs can be street cleaning bots and take care of low level factory work while other LIMs patrol the outskirts to protect the city... from... stuff? Some machines even keep LIMs in their houses as pets. Dogbots are adorable! So yeah, these things are all over the place, doing all sorts of things we can’t be bothered to do. Yep, it’s a brave new world.

Aside of all the things a machine DOES have, there are a few items machines are not fond of and have avoided in their design. The machines have no means of wireless communication built into them. They cannot connect to each other or to the planet wide 'Net' directly. All machines have a built in firewall and algorythms which can detect and remove viruses, but that doesn't mean they have such a faith in these that they will willingly subject themselves to them at all times. It is the price they machines pay to ensure their individualism, which means their best way for interfacing with each other is like humans do. They talk to each other, they type on keyboards, etc. Some things never go out of style, it seems.

Machines know of other threats to their individualism, namely nanites. These tiny robots were once considered tiny miracle workers by the humans, but to the machines they are potentially dangerous. Once these nanobots can come close to a machine's processor there is really nothing a machine can do to stop them. There are no firewalls against this tiype of threat and a machine can only hope the nanites have no ill intentions. Or rather, whoever made the nanites. They have their uses however and there are those who use them regularly, but most machines won't take the risk. Fear is a powerful motivator, huh?

Are you familiar with how a machine comes to be? What do you mean, you don’t? What is your major malfunction!? Alright, here’s the 411. Like all proper sentients should, a machine’s husk rolls out of a factory. Because of old machines continually malfunctioning the only way to keep the collective running is by producing more machines. Of course, there’s a bit of a surplus because the city keeps on growing. The collective keeps a close eye on the city’s labour market, so it knows what is needed and as such makes sure to imprint them accordingly, a machine is not given any choice regarding what it is expected to do. However, these imprints are pretty general and its not like all choice is taken from the machine in the matter of its own future. During the course of several months, while the machine matures, learns its environment, its own capabilities and develops its primitive personality they are monitored and evaluated whether or not they are fit for any of the jobs that are currently available. It is not unusual for a machine to develop quite differently from its initial imprint based on random chance and how it has developed during its ‘childhood’.
Eventually, most machines are given a job and labelled as mature, though some would argue they are only adolescent. Some machines however do not get a job nor their mature label. These machines have their processors and memory destroyed and then replaced so that the process might be repeated. It’d be a pity to waste a perfectly good body, right? Well, as it turns out there are some bodies which never house any good machines, these are destroyed completely after the third attempt.

Why is a young machine considered adolescent? First of all, all freshly labelled mature machines look the same, their alloy has a bland grey coating and all their parts are standard, and notoriously unfashionable. It takes a while for a machine to gather enough credits in order to customize himself. Though, much more importantly than their appearance, these ‘mature’ machines have a laughable personality. Over the course of a decade it will form the kind of personality it will more or less keep for the rest of its activation.


A Machine Character

Yes! Embrace your destiny! Live the life of an inorganic, living like those fleshy things used to when they were still ruling things.
Suckers!
A machine can take any role inside the corporate dystopia/utopia that is North America City. Be a law-bot, weld metal in the factories, be a pencil pusher! The sky is the limit, exciting isn’t it? Well... you get the point.
There’s a lot of choice.

All machines have a Production Code, given when they are first activated, but it has little meaning in machine society. Once a machine is ready it picks a name for itself. Usually the last name of human scientist (Obviously you can just as well make something up) followed by a number. The number is only to make sure no one gets confused when there are two machines with the same name. In contrast, most humans these days only use first names and nicknames.

Far more important is your choice when it comes to the status of your PP. Are you clean or are you corrupted? How corrupted? Corruption by Experience Programs (it could be from another source/natural/age)? Are you an EP junky (even without corruption of the PP)!?
These questions are important. Sure, trying to live with a PP that’s working properly can be annoying as hell (to the writer), but at least you won’t have the COC breathing down your neck (the character, not you, you are safe). Give the PP a chance, man!
Or don’t.
Your choice.
Eitherway, it has concequences.

You’re a machine, but that doesn’t mean you’re just a metal husk. What does your machine look like? You’ve got a lot of choice here, be creative, pretty please? Think about paint schemes, characteristic design of limbs, and much, much more.
Yes, even mods, you can have those too. Remember, some things need to be registered. Don’t use too many of those mods or it’ll make me sad.
Remember the mods which are illegal? Please refrain from using any, ok? Good boy!

What else? Well, it’d make sense if your machine was at least older than a decade. The Activity Expectancy is about 70 years, so don’t go overboard. Let’s just agree that this means you can’t be a ‘bot who was around before the ‘Overhaul’.
Nearing your activity expectancy is not your only concern when it comes to your health. Don’t lose your head, literally, you’ll be considered dead if any of your memory units or processors are damaged. Same counts for damage to your torso that damages your Primary Processor. Additionally, you need to charge your batteries from time to time, running out of juice also means death. Recharging your batteries is kind of like sleeping, but a machine doesn’t need quite as much time recharging as a human needs sleep. If you’ve been running for 21 hours you’d need 3 hours to recharge. Running for 21 hours puts you on reserve power, which will only last for 12 more hours. All of this is based on ‘average running loads’. Doing more means you use more power.

There’s no need to write stuff like this down for a human, but everyone knows they need food and sleep, no one knows what a machine needs exactly. So I’m writing it down for reference. Need to have something to go by, you know?

Additionally, a machine needs regular maintenance. The collective would like you to do about two hours of maintenance each day, but no one does that! Neglecting it for long durations under difficult circumstances is likely to have detrimental effects on the machine, though. So, just saying, lubricate your shaft once in a while, alright?
Wait...
Awww, damn. That sounded dirty.

Alright, enough!
I’m done!


Logging Out...

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